Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Constructions Of Citizenship Among Multinational Corporations, Gail L. Markle

Faculty and Research Publications

Using social contract theory as a foundation I examined the ways in which four multinational corporations use disclosures of corporate social responsibility to present themselves as good corporate citizens. Several factors influence a corporation’s use of CSR: size of the corporation, public visibility, personal commitment of high ranking executives, location of manufacturing operations, and types of stakeholders. There is a significant difference in the responsibilities and obligations Proctor & Gamble, Kimberly-Clark, and Colgate-Palmolive ascribe to themselves as corporate citizens compared to those of SC Johnson. I attribute this difference to one of stakeholder accountability, specifically public shareholders. The three publicly …

Student Performance In A Quantitative Methods Course Under Online And Face-To-Face Delivery, P. Verhoeven, Victor Wakeling

Faculty and Research Publications

In a study conducted at a large public university, the authors assessed, for an upper-division quantitative methods business core course, the impact of delivery method (online versus face-to-face) on the success rate (percentage of enrolled students earning a grade of A, B, or C in the course). The success rate of the 161 online students was 55.3%, significantly lower (p = .000) than that (72.6%) of the 212 face-to-face students. Both students with a strong (A or B) grade in the lower-division statistics prerequisite and students with a weak (C or D) grade in the prerequisite had a significantly lower …

The Impact Of Prolonged Nomination Contests On Presidential Candidate Evaluations And General Election Vote Choice: The Case Of 2008, Jeff Dewitt, Richard N. Engstrom

Faculty and Research Publications

The fact that political parties hold competitive nomination contests that require voters to choose among multiple candidates leaves open the possibility that the contest itself could damage the prospects of an eventual nominee. In this study, we employ the American National Election Study panel survey data from the 2008 U.S. presidential election to assess the impact of the Democratic Party nomination process on candidate evaluations and general election vote preference. We find evidence that Barack Obama had greater difficulty uniting his party than his Republican counterpart due to the fact that Clinton voters were slow to coalesce around Obama. These …

Pop Culture, Politics, And America's Favorite Animated Family: Partisan Bias In The Simpsons?, Kenneth Michael White, Mirya Holman

Faculty and Research Publications

An essay is presented on the impact of the political content of the television program "The Simpsons" on the politics, pop culture and viewers in the U.S. It offers an overview of the creation of the show and explores the different aspects of the show, particularly the debate over its so-called partisan bias. It also discusses the criticism from Republicans including former President George H. W. Bush that the show favors the left.

The Impact Of Prolonged Nomination Contests On Presidential Candidate Evaluations And General Election Vote Choice: The Case Of 2008, Jeff R. Dewitt, Richard N. Engstrom

Faculty and Research Publications

The fact that political parties hold competitive nomination contests that require voters to choose among multiple candidates leaves open the possibility that the contest itself could damage the prospects of an eventual nominee. In this study, we employ the American National Election Study panel survey data from the 2008 U.S. presidential election to assess the impact of the Democratic Party nomination process on candidate evaluations and general election vote preference. We find evidence that Barack Obama had greater difficulty uniting his party than his Republican counterpart due to the fact that Clinton voters were slow to coalesce around Obama. These …

Intangible Investments And The Pricing Of Corporate Sga Expenses, Rongbing Huang, Gim S. Seow, Joe S. Shangguan

Faculty and Research Publications

This study examined whether the market fully prices the reported Selling, General, and Administrative (SGA) expenses when this item includes an intangible investment component. For a sample of intangible investment-intensive firms, we showed that their SGA expenses benefit future operating performances. Evidence suggests some degree of market inefficiency in the pricing of SGA expenses and the intangible investment component. Furthermore, the financial analysts do not appear to appreciate fully the future benefits of the component in their earnings forecasts. Finally, the pertinent disclosures in firms’ annual reports are so inadequate as to attenuate the market mispricing, suggesting a significant room …

The Structure Of Client Language And Drinking Outcomes In Project Match, Tim Martin, Paulette J. Christopher, Jon M. Houck, Theresa B. Moyers

Faculty and Research Publications

Client language during Motivational Interviewing interventions is an important predictor of drinking outcomes, but there are inconsistencies in the literature regarding what aspects of client language are most predictive. We characterized the structure of client language by factor analyzing frequency counts of several categories of client speech. The results provide limited support for a model proposed by Miller et al. (2006) and Amrhein et al. (2003) but with some important differences. While Amrhein et al. (2003) found that only increasing strength in client commitment language predicted behavior change, the current study revealed that client language preparatory to commitment predicted drinking …

Are Benevolent Dictators Altruistic In Groups? A Within-Subject Design, Lucy F. Ackert, Ann B. Gillette, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Mark Rider

Faculty and Research Publications

We use a within-subject experimental design to investigate whether systematic relationships exist across distinct features of individual preferences: altruism in a two-person context, risk aversion in monetary outcomes, and social preferences in a group context. We find that altruism is related to demographic variables, including years of education, gender, and age. Perhaps most importantly, self allocation in a two-person dictator game is related to social preferences in a group context. Participants who are more generous in a dictator game are more likely to vote against their self-interest in a group tax redistribution game which we interpret to be an expression …

Why The Master? Human Capital Development For Practicing U.S. Cycling Coaches, Daniel Larson, Joel Maxcy

Faculty and Research Publications

The economic structure of the industry of cycling coaches has yet to be the subject of any apparent published inquiry. This study describes the basic characteristics of practicing cycling coaches and presents economic models of the determinants of commercial success for individual coaches. Data were collected through an independent survey of current and former U.S.A. Cycling (USAC) coaches in 2010 (N = 386). Results of ordinary least squares and negative-binomial regression models suggest that coaching and competitive experience are associated with larger clienteles, but formal human capital investments do not generally add to a coach's ability to garner more clients. …

Addiction And Sociality: Perspectives From Methamphetamine Users In Suburban Usa, Paul Boshears, Miriam W. Boeri, Liam Harbry

Faculty and Research Publications

This article contributes to a growing body of literature that emphasizes the social nature of drug use, abuse and addiction. Current discourses of addiction tend to focus on the individual while limiting attention on the social environment and the role of sociality. We seek to contribute a more intuitive, insiders'' perspective of the drug trajectory and a broader conceptualization of addiction. Drawing from our qualitative study on 100 current and former methamphetamine users in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia (USA), we examined the trajectories of methamphetamine use to provide greater insight on what influences drug initiation, progression, cessation and relapse …

Suburban Poverty: Barriers To Services And Injury Prevention Among Marginalized Women Who Use Methamphetamine, Miriam W. Boeri, Benjamin Tyndall, Denise R. Woodall

Faculty and Research Publications

Objective: This paper aims to identify the needed healthcare and social services barriers for women living in suburban communities who are using or have used methamphetamine. Drug users are vulnerable to injury, violence and transmission of infectious diseases, and having access to healthcare has been shown to positively influence prevention and intervention among this population. Yet little is known regarding the social context of suburban drug users, their risks behaviors, and their access to healthcare.

Methods: The data collection involved participant observation in the field, face-to-face interviews and focus groups. Audio-recorded in-depth life histories, drug use histories, and resource needs …

Quasi-Maximum Likelihood Estimation Of Discretely Observed Diffusions, Xiao Huang

Faculty and Research Publications

This paper introduces a quasi-maximum likelihood estimator for discretely observed diffusions when a closed-form transition density is unavailable. Higher-order Wagner-Platen strong approximation is used to derive the first two conditional moments and a normal density function is used in estimation. Simulation study shows that the proposed estimator has high numerical precision and good numerical robustness. This method is applicable to a large class of diffusions.

Comment On Hoerger: Early Pilots Of Medicare Auctions Brings No Solace To Auction Experts, Peter Cramton, Brett E. Katzman

Faculty and Research Publications

Peter Cramton and Brett Katzman stick to their guns: Medicare auctions remain fatally flawed and must be fixed. They argue that contrary to Hoerger's comment, no comfort can be drawn from the fact that the market was able to withstand price reductions in early pilots.

Is There A Link Between Money Illusion And Homeowners' Expectations Of Housing Prices?, Lucy F. Ackert, Bryan K. Church, Narayanan Jayaraman

Faculty and Research Publications

Money illusion is a behavioral bias in which a person thinks in terms of nominal rather than real values. This article reports homeowners' responses to a survey designed to measure the extent of money illusion as well as homeowners' expectations regarding home valuations. Our survey respondents suffer from money illusion, yet they have reasonable expectations of home prices. Our analysis did not identify any unique individual characteristic that correlates with homeowners' choices and suggests that the relationship between money illusion and mispricing is subtle and multifaceted.

Cacao Use And The San Lorenzo Olmec, Terry G. Powis, Ann Cyphers, Nilesh W. Gaikwad, Louis Grivetti, Kong Cheong

Faculty and Research Publications

Mesoamerican peoples had a long history of cacao use—spanning more than 34 centuries—as confirmed by previous identification of cacao residues on archaeological pottery from Paso de la Amada on the Pacific Coast and the Olmec site of El Manatí on the Gulf Coast. Until now, comparable evidence from San Lorenzo, the premier Olmec capital, was lacking. The present study of theobromine residues confirms the continuous presence and use of cacao products at San Lorenzo between 1800 and 1000 BCE, and documents assorted vessels forms used in its preparation and consumption. One elite context reveals cacao use as part of a …

Self-Verification As A Mediator Of Mothers’ Self-Fulfilling Effects On Adolescents' Educational Attainment, Kyle C. Scherr, Stephanie Madon, Max Guyll, Jennifer Willard, Richard Spoth

Faculty and Research Publications

This research examined whether self-verification acts as a general mediational process of self-fulfilling prophecies. The authors tested this hypothesis by examining whether self-verification processes mediated self-fulfilling prophecy effects within a different context and with a different belief and a different outcome than has been used in prior research. Results of longitudinal data obtained from mothers and their adolescents (N = 332) indicated that mothers’ beliefs about their adolescents’ educational outcomes had a significant indirect effect on adolescents’ academic attainment through adolescents’ educational aspirations. This effect, observed over a 6-year span, provided evidence that mothers’ self-fulfilling effects occurred, in part, …

Drug Use Trajectory Patterns Among Older Drug Users, Miriam W. Boeri, Thor Whalen, Benjamin Tyndall, Ellen Ballard

Faculty and Research Publications

To better understand patterns of drug use trajectories over time, it is essential to have standard measures of change. Our goal here is to introduce measures we developed to quantify change in drug use behaviors. A secondary goal is to provide effective visualizations of these trajectories for applied use. We analyzed data from a sample of 92 older drug users (ages 45 to 65) to identify transition patterns in drug use trajectories across the life course. Data were collected for every year since birth using a mixed methods design. The community-drawn sample of active and former users were 40% female, …

Housing And Human Services: Intergenerational Policy Considerations, Tony Carrizales, Andrew I.E. Ewoh

Faculty and Research Publications

The Journal of Public Management and Social Policy begins its seventeenth volume by examining various issues that not only impact people today, but have policy implications for future generations. Intergenerational social policy is a critical discussion for academic and practitioners to continually have and we hope this particular issue of JPMSP furthers those discussions. Some underscoring themes found in this issue's articles include housing and human services. Overall, the issue brings together five general articles in the first issue of this seventeenth volume of JPMSP.

Counting The Impossible: Sampling And Modeling To Achieve A Large State Homeless Count, Jennifer L. Priestley, Jane Massey

Faculty and Research Publications

Objective: Using inferential statistics, we develop estimates of the homeless population of a geographically large and economically diverse state -- Georgia.

Methods: Multiple independent data sources (2000 U.S. Census, the 2006 Georgia County Guide, Georgia Chamber of Commerce) were used to develop Clusters of the 150 Georgia Counties. These clusters were used as "strata" to then execute traified sampling. Homeless counts were conducted within the sample counties, allowing for multiple regression models to be developed to generate predictions of homeless persons by county.

Results: In response to a mandate from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, the State …

Pursuing "Peace" In Israel/Palestine, Maia Hallward

Faculty and Research Publications

Nine years after the outbreak of the second intifada (uprising) in September 2000 and sixteen years after the signing of the Oslo Accords in September 1993, Israelis and Palestinians seem as far as ever from a final status agreement. Diplomatic efforts by the George W. Bush administration - notably the Performance-Based Road Map to Peace and the 2007 Annapolis Conference - avoided the core conflict issues, and delayed such negotiations by emphasizing "provisional" borders. Not only do such tactics allow more time for consolidating "facts on the ground" that can prejudice final status negotiations, but the lack of a political …

Satisfaction With Local Conditions And The Intention To Move, Richard N. Engstrom, Nathan Dunkel

Faculty and Research Publications

The recent economic downturn has presented many challenges to local communities and policy- makers. Foreclosed properties, job losses, and other challenges that local residents face can threaten the economic viability of local communities. Another consequence of the economic downturn is decreased government budgets, forcing policymakers to make decisions about how to allocate scarce resources effectively. When making decisions about local and regional policy, it would be useful to know how local characteristics contribute to the decisions residents make about whether to remain in a local community or to relocate. Exhibits 1 through 4 present maps created to investigate the relationship …

Exploring Touch As A Positive Workplace Behavior, Bryan Fuller, Marcia J. Simmering, Laura E. Marler, Susie S. Cox, Rebecca J. Bennett, Robin A. Cheramie

Faculty and Research Publications

Whereas most research has focused on the negative aspects of touch in the workplace (i.e. sexual harassment), this study focuses upon the positive use of touch. In an effort to explain individual differences in the use of workplace touch, three sequential studies are used to introduce the concepts of workplace touch self-efficacy and workplace touch initiation anxiety. In Study 1 we develop scales to assess the constructs. Study 2 provides an initial examination of the construct validity of the measures developed in Study 1. Results of Study 3 indicate that supervisor reports of touch self-efficacy and physiological touch anxiety are …

2011 Libqual Survey, Horace W. Sturgis Library

Library Reports and Surveys

2011 LibQUAL Survey for the Horace W. Sturgis Library.

The Declaration Of Independence And Immigration In The United States Of America, Kenneth M. White

Faculty and Research Publications

The United States has always been a nation of immigrants, and immigration policy has always been controversial. The history of immigration in the United States is contrasted in this article with a normative standard of naturalization (immigration policy) based on the Declaration of Independence. The current immigration debate fits within a historical pattern that pits an unrestricted right of immigration (the left) against exclusive, provincial politics (the right). Both sides are simultaneously correct and incorrect. A moderate policy on immigration is possible if the debate in the United States gets an infusion of what Thomas Paine called "common sense."

A Model For The Intervention Of A Financial Crisis, J. Barrow

Faculty and Research Publications

This paper builds a model for intervention and/or mitigation of a financial crisis by first identifying those conditions precedent to a systemic based financial crisis, and then outlying a process to integrate firm specific and systematic risk into a comprehensive strategic model. A simple application of the model was able to identify significant outliers. For example, using 2006 to 2010 data, Capital One Financial Corporation was identified for intervention from as early as 2006. This corporation received $3.56 billion of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act Federal bailout funds.

Decision-Making Under Uncertainty: Using Case Studies For Teaching Strategy In Complex Environments, Volker C. Franke

Faculty and Research Publications

Decision-makers today respond to a security environment characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. Decisions cut across a wide range of social, political and cultural domestic and global issues and demand cognitive flexibility, adaptability and the ability to make decisions “on the fly.” While the U.S. military excels in preparing its soldiers and officers for the operational demands and tactical requirements of a wide array of increasingly complex contingency missions, a number of observers have pointed to the need for teaching strategy more effectively as part of professional military education. The purpose of this article is to analyze some of …

Head-Of-State And Foreign Official Immunity In The United States After Samantar: A Suggested Approach, Christopher Totten

Faculty and Research Publications

This Article consists of four parts. Part I addresses the US approach to immunity for current and former foreign heads of state as well as the related issue of foreign official immunity. Part I includes a discussion of the 2010 US Supreme Court case of Samantar, which addresses foreign official immunity. Part II explores head-of-state and official immunity under international law, including a discussion of Democratic Republic of the Congo v. Belgium decided by the International Court of Justice ("ICJ"), the Charles Taylor immunity decision of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, the ongoing case by the ICC against Sudanese …

Are There Ethical Implications Of Karma?, Thomas Pynn

Faculty and Research Publications

Though Americans have been exposed to Asian philosophical traditions since the nineteenth century – with much recent help from the Beat writers of the 1950s and 1960s – too little attention has been paid to the texts and ideas of these traditions and to their implementation in daily life. This is especially true with regard to Buddhist ideas of ethics and karma. Compounding the problem is the commercial exploitation of Asian philosophical terms like Dharma, karma, tantra and reincarnation, which tends to impede deeper understanding of these important concepts. In America, ethics are once more on the lips of many …