Attitudes toward outdoor recreation development: An application of social exchange theory

A research project was undertaken within a multi‐county region in southeastern Ohio to ascertain the attitudes of local residents toward future outdoor recreation development within the area. A systematic random sample of 1493 respondents was drawn from a five‐county region to test a theoretical perspective developed from selected components of social exchange theory. The findings demonstrated that the respondents held very favorable attitudes toward outdoor recreation development. Multivariate analysis of the data revealed that the theoretical model was basically supported. The findings are discussed from both applied and theoretical perspectives.     

Small enterprises as complex adaptive systems: a methodological question?

Complexity science constitutes an emerging post-positivist interdisciplinary field of investigation of dynamical systems in the natural and physical worlds. The central concept of complexity is that interactions between parts of open systems create novel, unpredictable patterns, and that while the history of the system is relevant in understanding its dynamic, the isolation of individual parts of the system (analysis) does not reveal the casual mechanisms in the system. It is suggested that complexity science can inform our methodologies for investigating the social sciences. The paper explores whether complexity science offers ways of theory building that can take account of pluralistic or interdisciplinary research in enterprise dynamics. The authors offer a model of six theorized ontological layers, derived from the canon of research literature within a small enterprise domain, with boundaries at each end. It is suggested that dynamical concepts of agency (adaption, evolution, fitness, interdependence) coupled with the theory of evolutionary autopoietic structures generate a plausible field for the study of enterprise dynamics. A focus on ontological and experimental adequacy is necessary to develop theory within this framework. An appropriate methodology involves iterations between experimental forms of scientific analysis and the grounding of emergent or evolving theories.     

‘Never let a good crisis go to waste’: moral entrepreneurship,or the fine art of recycling evil into good

Moral entrepreneurship is the fine art of recycling evil into good by taking advantage of situations given or constructed as crises. It should be seen as the ultimate generalisation of the entrepreneurial spirit, whose peculiar excesses have always sat uneasily with homo oeconomicus as the constrained utility maximiser, an image that itself has come to be universalised. A task of this essay is to reconcile the two images in terms of what by the end I call ‘superutilitarianism’, which draws on the lore of both superheroes and utilitarianism. After briefly surveying the careers of three exemplars of the moral entrepreneur (Robert McNamara, George Soros and Jeffrey Sachs), I explore the motives of moral entrepreneurs in terms of their standing debt to society for having already caused unnecessary harm but which also now equips him with the skill set needed to do significant good. Such a mindset involves imagining oneself a vehicle of divine will, which would be a scary proposition had it not been long presumed by Christians touched by Calvin. In conclusion, I argue that moral entrepreneurship looks most palatable – and perhaps even attractive – if the world is ‘reversible’, in the sense that every crisis, however clumsily handled by the moral entrepreneur, causes people to distinguish more clearly the necessary from contingent features of their existence. This leads them to reconceptualise past damages as new opportunities to assert what really matters; hence, a ‘superutilitarian’ ethic that treats all suffering as less cost than investment in a greater sense of the good.     

Modeling the act of measurement in the social sciences

Motivated by time-series experimental designs, we develop a model of the act of measurement in the social sciences. Meaningful measurements are represented by operators that obey a non-commutative algebra. Thus, the order in which information is extracted matters. In addition, responses to questions about an attribute depend on whether information about another attribute has previously been extracted. Measurement “forces” the subject to obtain one value of the attribute, the one measured by the observer. An uncertainty principle imposes a fundamental limit on the ability to extract detailed information about two distinct attributes within a short period of time.     

The secularization of science and a new deal for science policy

The secularization of science, by analogy with the separation of Church and state, would divest all science funding from the state, except where it bears directly on matters of public policy. I argue for an intensification of this tendency, which is already occurring across the Euro-American world. I then explore the policy implications in some detail, including historical precedents in New Deal attitudes toward the role of science in public policy. I begin by reviewing the secularization of Christendom, which turns out to be intimately tied with the social ascendency of the natural sciences. I then explore more recent conditions that contribute to the secularization of science itself, during which I claim that the Cold War's scaling up of state support for scientific research should be regarded as a historical aberration that we are currently getting over. However, I still reserve a very strong role for the state in the public distribution of already existing knowledge, the primary vehicle for which will remain the university.     

Price Dynamics in U.S. Grain and Freight Markets

This paper studies the spatial price linkages in U.S. grain and transportation markets using cointegration analysis and algorithms of inductive causation on directed acyclic graphs. Transport costs and prices from alternative transportation modes are considered to provide a relatively comprehensive view of the interaction between grain and freight markets over time. Dynamic relationship among corn prices in selected U.S. markets and freight rates, extending from January 1990 to December 2002, are explored. Results suggest the Mississippi Gulf (lower Mississippi River port area) is the most dominant corn market among evaluated export and domestic markets. Also, grain barge rates on the upper Mississippi/Illinois Rivers influence domestic corn markets in contemporaneous time. In the longer‐run, significant dynamic relationships among prices in domestic and export corn markets and freight rates are observed; perturbations in transportation rates affect the variation in corn prices considerably. Le présent article examine les relations d'arbitrage spatial entre les prix pour les marchés des céréales et du transport aux États‐Unis à l'aide d'une analyse de cointégration et d'algorithmes utilisant la notion de causalité inductive sur des graphiques acycliques orientés. Les coûts et les prix de divers modes de transport sont examinés afin de fournir un tableau assez complet de l'interaction entre le marché des céréales et le marché du fret au fil du temps. Nous avons exploré la relation dynamique entre les prix du maïs sur des marchés états‐uniens sélectionnés et les taux de fret, entre janvier 1990 et décembre 2002. Les résultats indiquent que le golfe du Mississippi (zone portuaire du Mississippi inférieur) est le marché de maïs le plus important parmi les marchés intérieurs et extérieurs évalués. Les frais de transport des céréales par barge sur le cours supérieur du Mississippi et la rivière Illinois influencent les marchés intérieurs du maïs à l'heure actuelle. À long terme, des liens dynamiques importants entre les prix sur les marchés du maïs intérieur et extérieurs et les frais de transport sont observés. Des changements de frais de transport affectent considérablement la variation des prix du maïs.     

Can Nature Drive Economic Growth?

The conditions that lead to successful economic development are diverse and place sensitive. Recent research supports the notion that there is a correlation between the presence of natural amenities and rural economic development. This case explores the situation of a rural county that is faced with constrained development options as a result of a significant federal footprint on the county's land area. The actions of the federal agencies managing the resources impact the economic vitality of the region. Two issues currently under review challenge the county to think critically about its potential for using nature as an economic development tool.     

Do New Product Development Managers in Large or High-Market-Share Firms Perceive Marketing-R&D Interface Principles Differently?

In the quest for successful innovation, the importance of the R&Dlmarketing interface is virtually unquestioned. For many organizations, however, effective integration of technical and marketing functions is difficult, if not impossible. Despite seemingly widespread understanding of fundamental new product principles, some companies still manage to gain a larger share of the market than their competitors. This raises the question of whether managers in more successful companies have special insights into R&D'/'marketing interface principles that give them an edge over their competitors. To gain a better understanding of managers' perceptions of new product principles defined in the academic literature, Ted Haggblom, Roger J. Calantone, and C. Anthony Di Benedetto conducted a survey of 687 nonacademic members of the Product Development and Management Association. The basis for the survey was a set of 78 product management principles compiled from a search of more than 500 books and articles from various disciplines. From this survey, 14 of the 78 principles were selected as relevant to the study reported in this article. The principles discussed in this article involve such issues as resistance to change, short-term orientation, communication and trust between marketing and technical people, the effect of centralized decision-making on innovation, the importance of open communication flows, senior management's role in the R&D I marketing interface, and the necessity of a product champion. The primary quesstion addressed in this study is whether managers from successful companies perceive these principles differently from managers of less successful firms. The study provides partial support for the proposition that managers' perceptions of these new product principles depend on their company's success. In other words, the survey results suggest that managers in companies with higher market shares tend to agree more strongly with these principles than their counterparts in less successful firms. The study also explores the relationship between firm size and agreement with these principles of new product success. Specifically, the study assesses whether the perceptions of managers from smaller, more entrepreneurial companies differ from those of managers in larger companies. Although managers from small and large firms may view these principles from different perspectives, there were no statistically significant differences in the perceptions of managers from small and large firms.     

Managing Operational Flexibility in Investment Decisions: The Case of Intel

Significant attention has been paid to how real options analysis can help in valuing operating flexibility when making major capital investment decisions. But there has been far less study of how to manage such flexibility, particularly in cases where a decision to defer, contract, or expand any one investment program affects a range of other programs, including those outside the firm. Such interrelated investments are increasingly common in a "connected" economy where products and technologies are designed across firms and industries.
Based on a field study at Intel, this paper describes and analyzes one set of practices for coordinating such diverse systems of investments. It shows how information about interrelated investments is communicated within and between companies so that coherent changes can be made at the level of an overall system. The authors argue that studies of investment appraisal need to move beyond the predominant focus on valuation to encompass the wider organizational processes by which operational flexibility is exercised in the modern economy.