A Content Analysis of Compatible Fit among Message Elements in Philanthropy Ads

This research examined philanthropy ad messages in terms of four key elements: philanthropy goal, beneficiary, expected fundraising impact, and how the suggested donation is appraised. A content analysis was carried out to systematically study ad messages from nonprofit organizations on the Philanthropy 400 list. Specifically, the frequency of appearance of each type of message elements was analyzed in terms of four theoretical concepts: regulatory focus (promotion vs. prevention goal), egoism/altruism (self vs. others as beneficiary), temporal orientation (present vs. future fundraising impact), and efficacy appraisal (self- vs. response-efficacy in how a donation is appraised). Since past research further suggests that persuasion may be enhanced when message elements are well matched in terms of “compatible fits,” this study further analyzed how the four message elements were combined in usage. The findings of this research show that while most nonprofit organizations actively utilized all four types of elements in their messages, the current practice did not follow the guidelines as would be suggested by compatible fits literature. In this respect, more research is needed to understand the discrepancy and provide better guidelines for future communication strategies in the nonprofit sector.     

The Validity of Laboratory Research in Social and Behavioral Science

The validity of artificial situations is often questioned, and particularly so the possibility of transfer of findings to the real world. Such questions, or doubts, may stem from a rigid distinction between real and artificial situations or from too strict a notion of representation. This article will argue that `the real world' does not provide unambiguous criteria for representation and that, moreover, many experiments and simulation games do not have to represent `the real world' in any direct way. Both issues are usually treated under the heading of external validity, which means compliance to conventions that dominated thinking about validity over decades. These conventions need to be reconsidered. Quality standards for research must not be rigid, nor should be applied in a way that ignores the characteristics of a particular research project. Fixed notions about validity may prevent a researcher from adapting validation procedures to the circumstances at hand. The article takes issue with a conception of external validity as surface resemblance between artificial and real situations, advocates an active, non-routine approach to validity questions, and encourages individual researchers to develop a line of reasoning on these questions instead of adhering to standards that may not suit their particular research.     

Theological visions in economics and religion

Professional economists and religious thinkers have generally not communicated effectively over the past two centuries, largely because the two groups tend to think about social systems from the perspective of incompatible “theological visions.” A theological vision is an encompassing set of presuppositions about how the social world functions and (implicitly) how it ought to function. The dominant theological vision among economists asserts that economic systems, while the product of purposive actions by individuals, are not the product of any design. Religious thinkers reflecting on economic systems tend to assume, by contrast, that whatever results from economic interactions has been willed by some individuals or groups. The modal economist assigns the economic system a kind of autonomy, which the religious thinker will be inclined to regard as almost idolatrous. Dialogue capable of bridging this gap will require the kind of close attention to other people's arguments that is rare outside of very small discussion groups.     

Cross hedging with stochastic correlation

This paper is concerned with the study of quadratic hedging of contingent claims with basis risk. We extend existing results by allowing the correlation between the hedging instrument and the underlying of the contingent claim to be random itself. We assume that the correlation process ρ evolves according to a stochastic differential equation with values between the boundaries −1 and 1. We keep the correlation dynamics general and derive an integrability condition on the correlation process that allows to describe and compute the quadratic hedge by means of a simple hedging formula that can be directly implemented. Furthermore, we show that the conditions on ρ are fulfilled by a large class of dynamics. The theory is exemplified by various explicitly given correlation dynamics.