Corporate social responsibility and public procurement: How supplying government affects managerial orientations

How does government drive the corporate social responsibility of firms that supply it with goods and services? This paper reviews relevant theory and practice to describe ways in which public procurement shapes corporate social responsibility, and it builds upon theory to develop testable propositions to describe these influences. Using the case of U.S. defense procurement, statistical analysis indicates a significant relationship between the extent to which firms engage in defense procurement and the corporate social responsibility orientations of their managers. The findings have application both for social responsibility theory and for public procurement policy and practice.     

Partnership Dissolution in the UK – the Role of Economic Circumstances

Estimates based on couples with dependent children in the first eight years of the British Household Panel Study (1991-98) indicate that changes in a couple's economic circumstances affect the probability that a partnership dissolves. In particular, unexpected improvements in finances substantially reduce the dissolution risk, which strongly supports the importance of new information in decisions concerning partnership dissolution. Measures of a couple's own expectations concerning their financial situation over the coming year have been used in conjunction with realised changes to gauge the impact of unexpected changes. The study also finds that the risk of partnership dissolution increases with the number of children.     

The use of surveys among wine growers in vineyards of the middle-Loire Valley (France), in relation to terroir studies

Studies of terroir have been increasingly developed during the last two decades, in different vineyards all around the world. The indigenous knowledge and the know-how of wine growers is an important part of the French terroir concept which must be taken into account in terroir studies. In the middle-Loire Valley (France) results of terroir studies were made readily accessible to all the wine growers through cartographic atlases, including maps of terroir units and their components as well as advisory maps. In this paper, the authors use different kinds of surveys among wine growers for the knowledge of terroir and show the interest of this approach.     

Panel design effects on response rates and response quality

To understand changes in individuals' opinions and attitudes, it would be best to collect data through panels. Such panels, however, often cause irritation among respondents, resulting in low response rates and low response quality. We address whether this problem can be alleviated by designing a panel survey in an alternative way. For this purpose, we perform two field studies where we measure the effects of several panel design characteristics on response rates and response quality. These characteristics include the number of waves and the time between subsequent waves, which may be either fixed or random. Our findings suggest that response rates and response quality can be improved significantly by surveying at random time intervals. It is then crucial that panel members are not informed about the dates they will be surveyed, because in this case, respondents are less likely to develop expectations as to when they will be surveyed again. The methodology we put forward can be used to improve the efficiency of a panel study by carefully calibrating the studies' panel design parameters.     

Technical Professionals in Cross-functional Teams: Their Quality of Work Life

The idea that R&;D professionals typically spend a considerable amount of their time working as members of teams makes sense. After all, plenty of research indicates that the use of cross-functional teams improves the effectiveness of product development efforts. However, the increasing use of cross-functional teams raises an important question for researchers and R&;D practitioners: Does the use of cross-functional teams improve the quality of work life for technical professionals?Rene Cordero, George F. Farris, and Nancy DiTomaso address this question in study of 1,714 R&;D professionals working on projects. They suggest that being a member of a cross-functional team may be more demanding than working as a member of a functional project group. On the other hand, they expect that working on a cross-functional project team may be more rewarding than working in a functional project group. Their study tests these hypotheses by examining the relationships between measures of the extent to which respondents work on cross-functional teams and five measures each of the participants’ job demands and positive job outcomes.The study identifies positive relationships between working on cross-functional teams and the five positive job outcomes studied: job growth, job security, membership in successful teams, earning money, and job satisfaction. The study finds less consistent and weaker relationships between working on cross-functional teams and the five job demands studied. Specifically, the study identifies positive relationships between working on cross-functional teams and the following job demands: effort, job involvement, and considering a lot of difference of opinion. The results of this study do not find a conclusive relationship between cross-functional team membership and time pressure. And contrary to expectations, the study finds a negative relationship between working on cross-functional teams and job stress.Comparing the responses of participants who work on project teams with those who do not, the results of the study indicate that respondents who work on project teams face greater job demands than positive job outcomes. However, working on cross-functional teams seems to increase positive job outcomes more than job demands. In other words, working on cross-functional teams appears to increase the quality of work life for the technical professionals in this study.     

Milieugestaltung: Unterwegs in vergangener Zeit

Zusammenfassung  Umweltanforderungen an Umweltkompetenz anpassen — Neben einer altersangepassten Architektur und Funktionalit?t sind es oft kleine Dinge, die die Atmosph?re eines Pflegeheims ausmachen. Im thüringischen Ilfeld sorgte die Neugestaltung eines Wohnbereiches für demenziell erkrankte Bewohner nicht nur für ein heimeliges Umfeld, sie tr?gt auch in hohem Ma?e dazu bei, die Umweltkompetenz der Bewohner zu verbessern.     

哈佛法学院外部董事“阴暗面”

随着本世纪初一系列公司丑闻的发生,公司治理改革开始聚焦于董事会外部董事的表现。美国证券交易所上市标准明确要求董事会中外部董事应占多数。很多国家也对董事会外部董事的比例,以及提名委员会、薪酬制定委员会和审计委员会中外部董事的比例做了明文规定。     

The economics of standardized patient education materials with veteran patients

With an increasing number of veterans seeking care, it becomes imperative that the resources within the system are used efficiently and effectively and in a manner that maintains access, safety, and quality of care. Veterans who are able to manage their own care may utilize provider services less frequently, thereby increasing access for others who require more care. The objective of this quality improvement study was to determine the effectiveness of providing a standardized self-management textbook of health information with the intent that it would decrease demand on primary care providers' time for minor health care issues. This initial quality improvement study clearly demonstrated the potential of the return on investment and the subsequent potential for increased access for veteran patients, appropriate use of limited resources, and improved patient outcomes. It also clearly demonstrated the value of interaction with the veterans to educate them about their care and the increased satisfaction individualized attention to their needs creates. That finding alone has a greater value than just economics.     

EXPERIENCING the World at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo

From July until November in 2010,which totals up to almost four months,I was employed as astudent ambassadorat the United States Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo.My job responsibilities consisted mostly of introducing the various parts of the Pavilion to Chinese guests(in Chinese of course).Naturally this gave me a lot of time to interact with them and talk to them about their views on the Expo,other countries including the US,and their very own native China.When not working,I would explore the other ...