Using Complex Surveys to Estimate the L1‐Median of a Functional Variable: Application to Electricity Load Curves

Mean profiles are widely used as indicators of the electricity consumption habits of customers. Currently, in Électricité De France (EDF), class load profiles are estimated using point‐wise mean profiles. Unfortunately, it is well known that the mean is highly sensitive to the presence of outliers, such as one or more consumers with unusually high‐levels of consumption. In this paper, we propose an alternative to the mean profile: the L ₁ ‐ median profile which is more robust. When dealing with large data sets of functional data (load curves for example), survey sampling approaches are useful for estimating the median profile avoiding storing the whole data. We propose here several sampling strategies and estimators to estimate the median trajectory. A comparison between them is illustrated by means of a test population. We develop a stratification based on the linearized variable which substantially improves the accuracy of the estimator compared to simple random sampling without replacement. We suggest also an improved estimator that takes into account auxiliary information. Some potential areas for future research are also highlighted.     

On the Use of Auxiliary and Paradata for Dealing With Non‐sampling Errors in Household Surveys

In this paper, we consider the use of auxiliary and paradata for dealing with non‐response and measurement errors in household surveys. Three over‐arching purposes are distinguished: response enhancement, statistical adjustment, and bias exploration. Attention is given to the varying focus at the different phases of statistical production from collection, processing to analysis, and how to select and utilize the useful auxiliary and paradata. Administrative register data provide the richest source of relevant auxiliary information, in addition to data collected in previous surveys and censuses. Due to their importance in effective dealings with non‐sampling errors, one should make every effort to increase their availability in the statistical system and, at the same time, to develop efficient statistical methods that capitalize on the combined data sources.     

A Cross‐National Study of Fairness in Asia: How Perceptions of a Lack‐of‐Group Bias and Transparency in the Performance Evaluation System Relate to Job Satisfaction

This study explored how managers’ fairness perceptions of performance evaluation systems differ across countries and relate to their job satisfaction. Lack‐of‐group bias and transparency were the constructs used to assess fairness perceptions. The data sample consisted of 903 Asian managers from the subsidiaries of a leading multinational corporation (MNC) strategically expanding its retail markets in Japan, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Thailand. Results showed that the fairness perceptions of lack‐of‐group bias and transparency concerning the common performance evaluation system varied within these Asian countries. Furthermore, those fairness perceptions were significantly related to job satisfaction among Asian managers overall, as well as in each of the five geographical subgroups with the exception of Hong Kong, where the perception of a lack‐of‐group bias was only marginally related to job satisfaction. These findings offer theoretical implications regarding organizational justice, cross‐national management, and performance evaluation, as well as practical implications for leveraging organizational justice perceptions of performance evaluation systems for the effectiveness of MNCs. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Revenge Exacerbates the Effects of Interpersonal Problems on Mentors’ Emotional Exhaustion and Work‐Family Conflict: A Self‐Defeating Perspective

Drawing on conservation of resources theory, this study examined the link between negative mentoring experiences (i.e., interpersonal problems) perceived by mentors and their work‐family conflict (WFC) by focusing on the mediating role of emotional exhaustion and the moderating role of revenge. The results of a field survey of 187 mentors in China supported all of our hypotheses, indicating that interpersonal problems perceived by mentors were positively related to their WFC. This relationship was also found to be mediated by the mentors’ emotional exhaustion. In addition, revenge against protégés was found to moderate the main effect of interpersonal problems on emotional exhaustion and the indirect effect of interpersonal problems on WFC. Specifically, revenge exacerbated the positive relationship between interpersonal problems and emotional exhaustion. Further, emotional exhaustion mediated the indirect effect of interpersonal problems on WFC when the level of revenge was high, but not when it was low. The findings of this study provide insightful theoretical contributions and managerial implications that indicate new directions for research related to mentoring and work‐family relationships. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Growing Followers: Exploring the Effects of Leader Humility on Follower Self‐Expansion,Self‐Efficacy,and Performance

Although the effectiveness of leader humility has been well documented, our understanding of how leader humility influences followers psychologically is limited. Surpassing a mere leader‐centric understanding of the leader influence process by more fully understanding how leadership behavior shapes followers psychologically has been identified as a critical need by leadership scholars. Drawing on self‐expansion theory, we argue that leader humility triggers followers’ self‐expansion and that this psychological change enhances followers’ self‐efficacy, which in turn contributes to followers’ task performance. We also argue that the relationship between leader humility and followers’ self‐expansion is strengthened when leaders and followers are similar in age and gender. Using a time‐lagged research design with responses from 256 leader–follower dyads, we found support for our proposed model. We discuss the theoretical implications for our findings and suggest areas for future research.     

讨论法在《动物法律法规》课程教学中的意义及模式探讨

讨论课是提高《动物法律法规》教学效果的重要方式之一,它不仅能提高学生学习兴趣,巩固和加深所学知识,而且能培养和提高学生的多种能力,并促进教学相长。真正意义上的讨论模式需通过"教师-学生1-学生2-学生3……教师"这样的方式展开。为取得良好教学效果,讨论课上需要教师提出真正抓住学生心思的发问,并要求教师对学生的回答采取宽容的态度。     

Strategic Choices at Entry and Relative Survival Advantage of Cooperatives versus Corporations in the US Bio‐Ethanol Industry, 1978‐2015

The sustainability of cooperatives versus corporations is hotly contested. We propose that strategic choices at entry can help to explain the endurance of these two governance modes. We hypothesize that cooperatives have a survival advantage if their major drawback – high coordination costs – is curbed by high levels of member engagement at founding. Our analysis of survival rates in the US bio‐ethanol industry shows that cooperatives outlive corporations (1) if investment size at founding is large (strong financial engagement), (2) if they enter de novo instead of de alio (strong product‐market engagement) and (3) if the cooperative venture has been carefully planned from the start (greenfield entry) instead of built upon the acquisition of an existing plant (strong venture‐building engagement). These findings caution against the view that a particular mode of governance is superior or inferior to another in all circumstances.     

Exercise as a Means of Reducing Perceptions of Work‐Family Conflict: A Test of the Roles of Self‐Efficacy and Psychological Strain

Prior research suggests that exercise has positive benefits for individuals and the organizations they work for. Using the literature related to social cognitive theory and exercise, the present study hypothesizes and tests the effects of exercise on two directions of work‐family conflict: work interference with family (WIF) and family interference with work (FIW). Using a sample of 476 working adults, we found that exercise was both positively related to self‐efficacy for managing work‐family conflict and negatively related to reported psychological strain, which in turn were related to reductions in work‐family conflict. Model fit for the data support our contention that exercise indirectly influences work‐family conflict via its direct impact on increased self‐efficacy and reduced psychological strain. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Motivating Employees to Work Beyond Retirement: A Multi‐Level Study of the Role of I‐Deals and Unit Climate

The present study investigates what role I‐deals (i.e. the idiosyncratic deals made between employees and their organization) play in the motivation of employees to continue working after retirement. We hypothesized two types of I‐deals (i.e. development and flexibility I‐deals) to be positively related to motivation to continue working. More specifically, we drew from continuity and personality theory to argue that the motivation to continue working is enhanced by I‐deals, because they fulfil people's needs for personalized work arrangements. Moreover, drawing from activity and disengagement theory it was hypothesized that two types of unit climate (i.e. accommodative and development climates) would moderate these relationships. Specifically, it was predicted that I‐deals would be positively related to motivation to continue working under conditions of low accommodative or high development climate. Results of a multi‐level study among 1083 employees in 24 units largely supported the above expectations; flexibility I‐deals related positively to motivation to continue working, and unit climate moderated the relation between development I‐deals and motivation to continue working.     

The Border as a Resource in the Global Urban Space: A Contribution to the Cross‐Border Metropolis Hypothesis

In a globalized urban world, cross‐border metropolises represent a spatial configuration emblematic of the interplay between the space of flows and the space of places. The multiplicity of contexts and processes at work can complicate the identification of what constitutes the singularity of the concept. In order to contribute to these reflections the present article hypothesizes that the specificity of cross‐border metropolises does not fundamentally stem from the form they take or the nature of the cross‐border integration at work, but rather from the particular role played by national borders in their formation. Opening up borders offers new opportunities for border cities and urban border regions to reinforce their positions at the heart of global economic networks, and to affirm their autonomy as cross‐border regional entities. Without minimizing the possible obstructive effects of borders, it is helpful to recognize that they might also represent a resource in the composition of cross‐border metropolitan regions.     

Effects of Industry‐ and Region‐Specific Acquisition Experience on Value Creation in Cross‐Border Acquisitions: The Moderating Role of Cultural Similarity

Based on a sample of 222 cross‐border acquisitions by US firms in the service sector, our study examines the effects of acquiring firms' prior cross‐border acquisition experience in the same industry and geographic region as the acquired firm on shareholder value creation. Using the BHAR (buy‐and‐hold abnormal returns) methodology, we find that higher levels of industry‐specific and region‐specific acquisition experience translate into greater shareholder value creation for acquiring firms in subsequent acquisitions. In addition, our results indicate that the effects of industry‐specific acquisition experience on acquisition performance are contingent on the level of cultural similarity between the acquiring and acquired firm countries, with the benefits of prior experience being greater in acquisitions undertaken in culturally similar countries. We also find that the moderating effects of cultural similarity on the relationship between industry‐specific acquisition experience and value creation are contingent on the level of prior region‐specific acquisition experience possessed by the acquiring firm.     

Addressing the Stress of Work and Elder Caregiving of the Graying Workforce: The Moderating Effects of Financial Strain on the Relationship Between Work‐Caregiving Conflict and Psychological Well‐Being

Human resource policies and practices must consider the issues associated with an aging workforce, and, more specifically, the stress experienced by those involved in caring for elders. This study examined such stress by studying the relationship between work–elder caregiving conflict and well‐being, as well as the role of perceived financial need in moderating that relationship. The sample included 583 women who worked full‐time and had significant elder caregiving responsibilities. The analysis showed that work interfering with caregiving (WIC) was significantly associated with both positive and negative affect, but caregiving interfering with work (CIW) was not significantly associated with either. Perceived financial need decreased older women's psychological well‐being and moderated the relationship between work–elder caregiving conflict and psychological well‐being such that the negative effect of WIC was stronger for older women with higher perceived financial need, while CIW decreased the well‐being of older women with lower perceived financial need but not for those with higher need. The results stress the importance of considering elder care as a source of work‐family conflict when managing the aging workforce as well as suggest a way to attenuate the negative effect of work‐family conflict by managing the perception of financial resources and needs of the employees. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Pollution Prevention and Service Stewardship Strategies in the Third‐Party Logistics Industry: Effects on Firm Differentiation and the Moderating Role of Environmental Communication

A growing number of firms are considering the incorporation of environmental thinking into their business strategies, hoping to improve their competitiveness. In this paper, we analyze the effects of pollution prevention and service stewardship capabilities on firm differentiation advantage in the third‐party logistics industry. Since prior research claims that complementary assets play an important role in fully understanding the environmental‐management‐competitiveness link, we furthermore examine the moderating role of environmental communication on the pollution‐prevention‐differentiation and the service‐stewardship‐differentiation linkages. We theoretically base our research in natural‐resource‐based thinking. Drawing on survey data, we apply multivariate regression and moderation analysis. The results highlight that pollution prevention and service stewardship capabilities can help third‐party logistics providers to achieve a differentiation advantage. Also, the results show that environmental communication moderates the effect of pollution prevention on differentiation advantage and can hence be considered a valuable complementary asset. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Conditional altruism: Effects of HRM practices on the willingness of host‐country nationals to help expatriates

The assistance of host‐country nationals (HCNs) both within the workplace and in the external environment plays a significant role in expatriate adjustment and work performance on international assignments. Extant research exploring antecedents of HCNs' attitudes and behaviors toward expatriates focuses on personal and intrapersonal factors but overlooks organizational contextual effects. In this study, we propose and test a model that HCNs' willingness to help expatriates is influenced by HRM practices in international subsidiaries of multinational enterprises (MNEs). Results of analyzing data collected from Chinese subsidiaries of South Korean MNEs showed that high‐commitment HRM practices directly and indirectly influence HCNs' willingness to help expatriates through the mediation of perceived organizational support (POS). Socially responsible HRM indirectly influences the criterion variable through the mediation of organizational identification. Moreover, POS and organizational identification sequentially mediate the effect of high‐commitment HRM on HCNs' willingness to help expatriates. These findings shed some light on organizational antecedents that go beyond personal and intrapersonal factors of HCN attitudes and behavior toward expatriates.     

Shifts in the Demand and Supply of Skills in the OECD: A Single‐Index Model with a Continuous Distribution of Skills*

This paper proposes a one‐dimensional index for the gap between the demand and supply of skills; this index can be estimated based on the labour market performance of groups defined with characteristics (e.g. education) that are only imperfectly correlated with labour market skills. Using data from five European countries and the US, we find that the relative demand for skills has increased more than the relative supply in the US and UK during the 1980s but not in other European countries. However, the gap between relative demand and supply increased in Italy and the Netherlands from the early 1990s.     

政府科技资助对企业自身科技投入的效应分析

政府的科技支出会对企业自筹科技经费产生杠杆效应或挤出效应,即促进还是挤出企业自身的科技投入。本文基于我国制造业的数据进行了实证研究．研究发现我国政府对企业的直接资助和对行业研发机构的资助都会促进企业自身科技投入,同时政府的直接资助强度和行业的产权结构会对这种杠杆效应产生不同的影响。     

Sustainable development of small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises in the European Union: A taxonomy of circular economy practices

This paper focuses on the implementation of circular economy (CE) practices in small‐ and medium‐sized firms in all 28 European Union (EU) countries. The analyses take into account the hierarchical nature of the collected data as firms are nested within EU countries, that is, the heterogeneity between different types of firms and countries according to practices and attitudes towards CE. The multilevel latent class model identifies groups of firms and groups of EU countries that are homogeneous in terms of CE, that is, how the homogeneous groups of small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) are distributed across the groups of EU countries. These results, together with the fact that firms with similar CE attitudes and practices have different demographic and business profiles across groups of countries, shed further light on the topic of green behavior in the EU with implications for businesses' environmental policies. Moreover, indications emerge that European policies favoring the implementation of CE practices should be targeted at least for subgroups of European countries, considering the different composition by typology of SMEs operating in their territories and that, at the same time, policies should be defined within each group of countries to account for the specific features of each of the four classes of SMEs.     

The Effects of Negative Incidents in Sustainability Reporting on Investors’ Judgments–an Experimental Study of Third‐party Versus Self‐disclosure in the Realm of Sustainable Development

This study examines how the disclosure of negative sustainability‐related incidents affects the investment‐related judgments of decision‐makers. Participants in a sequential 2 × 2 between‐subjects experiment first received a company's financial information before viewing additional sustainability information (by the company and by a non‐governmental organization (NGO); with and without negative disclosure). Results indicate that self‐reporting of negative incidents does not affect decision‐makers’ stock price estimates and investment decisions compared with judgments based on financial information only. However, third‐party disclosure of these incidents by a NGO has a negative affect on these investment‐related judgments. Furthermore, the magnitude of the NGO reporting effect depends on whether the company itself simultaneously reports these incidents. Thus, disclosing negative incidents in sustainability reporting could lose some of its apparent stigma. Instead of avoiding negative reporting altogether, managers might use it as a risk mitigation tool in their reporting strategy. The results also emphasize the power of the often‐mentioned ‘watchdog’ function of NGOs acting as stakeholder advocates. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment