Impact of unemployment on happiness in the United States

This study considers the level of demonstrated happiness and unhappiness, the latter measured by the conditional probability of committing suicide within groups that are facing a higher unemployment rate and those that are not. Using individual-level US data from 1989 to 2004, our findings indicate that individuals have lower rates of suicide or are ‘happy’ when they live in a state that has lower unemployment rate.     

Characteristics of suicide hotspots on the Belgian railway network

In 2004, railway suicide accounted for 5.3% of all suicides in Belgium. In 2008, Infrabel (Manager of the Belgian Railway Infrastructure) introduced a railway suicide prevention programme, including identification of suicide hotspots, i.e., areas of the railway network with an elevated incidence of suicide. The study presents an analysis of 43 suicide hotspots based on Infrabel data collected during field visits and semi-structured interviews conducted in mental health facilities in the vicinity of the hotspots. Three major characteristics of the hotspots were accessibility, anonymity, and vicinity of a mental health institution. The interviews identified several risk and protective factors for railway suicide, including the training of staff, introduction of a suicide prevention policy, and the role of the media. In conclusion, a comprehensive railway suicide prevention programme should continuously safeguard and monitor hotspots, and should be embedded in a comprehensive suicide prevention programme in the community.     

People on the verge of death: evidence from impacts of celebrity suicides

We attempt to identify the population who are vulnerable to emotional shocks by exploiting an unprecedented series of celebrity suicides in South Korea during the last decade, including one of the most famous actresses, as well as a former president. Our conservative estimates show that for 5 out of 11 celebrity suicides observed, 1 celebrity suicide on average yielded to more than 10 excessive suicides per day over a time frame of at least 2 weeks. The results indicate that a significant number of people are very much mentally unstable to end their life by emotional shocks that should be irrelevant to their economic status.     

论加缪的荒诞观

荒诞是加缪哲学的起始概念和核心概念.加缪把荒诞定义为一种理性与非理性、永恒与有限之间的对立和断裂.加缪从荒诞这一基本信念出发,反对消极厌世的自杀,反对脱离现实的飞跃,而主张直面荒诞的反抗,提供了在荒诞中生存的艺术.加缪的反抗是形而上的、精神性的.它是在环境不可改变的前提下的自我态度转向,是遭遇人类终极困境的思想者的最终取向.     

透视大学生自杀现象浅析高校加强生命观教育的途径

大学生自杀现象在高校中不断呈现上升趋势。社会压力、感情受挫、经济困境、学业考试不理想等生活事件是导致大学生自杀的诱因。这一现象应引起高校和高校思想政治教育者的高度重视。高校应重塑生命观教育的价值,将生命观教育引入课堂;思想教育日常工作要显现"人文关怀";要通过用生命感染生命的榜样力量,使学生更加深刻的认识生命的意义和价值,从而树立自强不息,珍惜生命、热爱生活的勇气与信心,在面对困境乃至死亡时能够有更多绝路逢生的精神动力。     

Development of new technology-based services

In an environment where customers can hardly describe new technology-based services (TBSs) of the future and technological engineers are unlikely to understand how a new technology can work for new services, a guideline to generate ideas for TBS can be utilized to achieve successful service innovation. Thus, this paper aims to develop an ideation framework for TBS. Two methods – the technology tree and the function analysis systems technique – are employed to identify core utilities expected from a new technology. Then a new method, the service encounter value matrix, which is based on morphology analysis and is used for generating potential service ideas, is suggested. Finally, these ideas are evaluated, and only those that are of a high priority according to customers’ expectations of future society are selected. In this study, the framework is applied to telecommunication technology, which is timely and useful for designing future services.     

大学生自杀引发的思考

大学生自杀事件的频频发生,引起了巨大的社会震撼,发人深思。生命教育缺失,学习就业压力大、抑郁症、环境适应不良、失恋以及其他情况引发的心理疾患,是导致大学生自杀的主要因素。高校及社会相关部门应对大学生进行正面的积极的、乐观进取的生命价值观的培养教育,使其懂得爱惜生命,勇于面对挫折。要积极排遣大学生的消极情绪,鼓励大学生积极参加社会实践,引导大学生健康成长。     

Innovation Bridgers: The new talent imperative

As operating environments grow more dynamic the need for talent who can successfully identify promising opportunities, validate to distinguish highest potential, and win adoption for their ideas increases. Bridgers embody these skills and use them to uncover valuable new advantages. This article describes the key Bridger competences and how organizations benefit from them.     

Ambidextrous Idea Generation—Antecedents and Outcomes*

Ambidexterity, defined as the capability to develop both incremental and radical innovations, is an important driver of firm success. Idea generation is an essential starting point for both types of innovation. Therefore, this study investigates whether ambidextrous idea generation, defined as the capability to actively generate both incremental and radical ideas, affects new product development (NPD) success. Analyses on the Comparative Performance Assessment Study (CPAS) data, which includes data from 453 companies distributed over 24 countries, demonstrate that ambidextrous idea generation does indeed affect NPD program success. Consequently, this study also investigates which antecedents foster ambidextrous idea generation. The innovation paradox concept predicts that achieving ambidexterity requires overcoming paradoxical antecedents. Therefore, we tested whether combinations of financial and breakthrough orientations (the paradox of strategic emphasis), a formal innovation process and an innovation culture (the paradox of innovation drivers), tight and loose customer coupling (the paradox of customer orientation), and internal development and external collaboration (the paradox of openness) affects ambidextrous idea generation. The results show that only customer orientation and openness have the expected inverted u‐shaped effect. These finding are in line with construal level theory, which predicts that the organizational characteristics that influence idea‐generation activity must be at the same construal level to have the desired effect. The contribution of this study is twofold. First, the analyses indicate that ambidextrous idea generation has significant repercussions for the entire NPD program. Second, the results show that resolving innovation paradoxes only has an effect if the construal level of the paradox and the activity match. This finding indicates an important boundary condition for the innovation paradox concept.     

Dark Side or Bright Light: Destructive and Constructive Deviant Content in Consumer Ideation Contests

Firms use ideation contests to generate ideas from consumers. This type of collaboration provides access to new knowledge and reveals latent consumer needs. But it also is risky, as firms give up control to an unknown crowd. Some contestants use ideation contests to post content that is unintended and unwanted by contest hosts, a behavior that represents deviant co‐creation. Drawing on literature from sociology and consumer research, deviance is defined as a relative, norm‐violating behavior that has the potential to activate others. We report the results from a netnography study to define the phenomenon of deviant co‐creation in ideation contests. Based on these findings, we provide a theoretical foundation for deviant co‐creation and conceptualize and empirically illustrate various patterns of deviant content, ranging from destructive to constructive. The study reveals that deviant content in ideation contests includes illegitimate as well as legitimate content. Legitimate content includes five themes: humorous, provocative, unique, violation from technical, and social norms. Deviant content usually bewilders evaluators and draws their attention to the content. Destructive deviant content may trigger visible and malicious protests or result in mocking and ridicule on the contest platform and other social media, thereby exposing the contest host to reputational risks. Constructive deviant content can lead to positive discussions in comment sections and other social media outlets, as well as foster further development of an initial idea, thereby contributing to the firm's innovation potential. This article provides managers a deeper understanding of deviant content raising awareness for the dark side risks as well as indicating how to leverage it to achieve constructive co‐creation.