Actuarial Science Summer Program for Women and Minorities

Drake University offered a 5‐day program focusing on the recruitment of women and minorities into actuarial science studies. A few universities offer actuarial science summer camps targeting high school students. Participants in this camp, however, came exclusively from community colleges. In this article, we provide an overview of the camp's activities, structure, and outcomes. We present a longitudinal analysis of student feedback, reflecting results from one survey administered before the camp began and another distributed very near the camp's end. Our results indicate the camp succeeded on many counts.     

On high-order differentiability of the policy function

Summary This note presents some results concerning high-order differentiability of the policy function. It is shown that simple examples of cubic return functions may yield optimal policies which under standard conditions are not differentiable to high order. The loss of differentiability, however, is not robust to small perturbations of the model. For instance, monotone policy functions are almost always high-order differentiable.     

Much Ado About Nothing: the Mixed Models Controversy Revisited

We consider a well-known controversy that stems from the use of two mixed models for the analysis of balanced experimental data with a fixed and a random factor. It essentially originates in the different statistics developed from such models for testing that the variance parameter associated to the random factor is null. The corresponding hypotheses are interpreted as that of null random factor main effects in the presence of interaction. The controversy is further complicated by different opinions regarding the appropriateness of such hypothesis. Assuming that this is a sensible option, we show that the standard test statistics obtained under both models are really directed at different hypotheses and conclude that the problem lies in the definition of the main effects and interactions. We use expected values as in the fixed effects case to resolve the controversy showing that under the most commonly used model, the test usually associated to the inexistence of the random factor main effects addresses a different hypothesis. We discuss the choice of models, and some further problems that occur in the presence of unbalanced data.     

Understanding Price Stickiness: Firm‐level Evidence on Price Adjustment Lags and Their Asymmetries

We study the speed of price reactions to positive and negative demand and cost shocks. Our findings suggest that price adjustment lags vary in line with the predictions of optimal price setting models. Moreover, we find that the firms' reactions are asymmetric, and that these asymmetries cannot be fully explained by any single theoretical model of asymmetric price adjustment. Overall, these results suggest that the reaction to monetary policy shocks may depend on which firms or sectors are particularly affected by them and, therefore, that richer models are needed to fully understand the effects of monetary policy.     

Advertising Spending,Mood and Level of Product Information on Quality Perception

The aim of this article is to investigate the influence of advertising spending and mood on consumers' perceived quality, considering scenarios with slight and severe information asymmetry as regards a product's attributes. An experimental study conducted with 385 subjects demonstrated that mood moderates the impact of advertising spending on consumers' perceived quality, specifically when these expenses are at and above the market average. Moreover, the impact of mood on perceived quality was moderated by the level of product information. These results have several theoretical and managerial implications, and may help companies to invest their advertising resources more efficiently. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The central role of human resource management in the search for sustainable organizations

The aim of this article is to present the main contributions of human resource management to develop sustainable organizations. The relationship between human resources and organizational sustainability, which is based on economical, social and environmental performance, involves some important aspects concerning management such as innovation, cultural diversity and the environment. The integration of items from the triple bottom line approach leads to developing a model based on a strategic and central posture of human resource management. Based on this model, propositions and recommendations for future research on this theme are presented.     

Family-supportive organizations and supervisors: how do they influence employee outcomes and for whom?

In the present study, we examine a model which seeks to specify the process through which work-family supportive organizations and supervisors influence important organizational outcomes, including commitment and performance. Findings indicated that family-supportive organization perceptions are best conceptualized as influencing family-supportive supervisor behaviors, which in turn influence subordinate self-efficacy, subordinate affective commitment to the organization and subordinate perceptions of supervisor work effort. Subordinate self-efficacy and affective commitment were also both found to independently mediate the relationship between family-supportive supervisor behaviors and self-rated performance. Interestingly, the model functioned similarly for employees with and without dependent care responsibilities, indicating that work-family policies and support are important for all employees, regardless of their familial status. Theoretical and practical implications, limitations and future research directions are discussed.     

A systematic literature review of university technology transfer from a quadruple helix perspective: toward a research agenda

Within recent years, there has been a rapid expansion of the University's role in economic development. This has resulted in University Technology Transfer (UTT) taking place within an increasingly complex network of regional stakeholders. This complexity has resulted in quadruple helix models where the triple helix model of academia, industry and regional government now includes societal based innovation users as a fourth helix. Despite this development, extant research is fragmented and lacks coherent frameworks and conceptualisations which fully depict the dynamic and evolving nature of UTT. Accordingly, this article reviews Mode 2 UTT from a quadruple helix perspective to identify key themes to develop a research agenda which reflects progression from a triple into a quadruple helix ecosystem.