A method for identifying the most influential articles in an academic discipline

This paper develops a methodology, based on citation counts, for classifying journal articles as highly-cited, pre-classic, classic and super-classic. In order to establish the benchmark measures necessary for such classification, a citation analysis was done of all main articles produced in the American Economic Review from 1965 through 1985. Using the established benchmarks, 127 articles published during the review period met the minimum criteria for at least highly-cited status. In addition, a subset of 17 articles were designated as either classic or super-classic. An additional 11 articles were on a yearly citation pace to become classics and were classified as pre-classic. A few of the characteristics of these papers are noted. Evidence from other studies is presented to support the methodology developed here.The authors are grateful to Tim Perri, Fred Wallace and David Laband for helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper.     

'You don't know what you've got till it's gone': re-contextualising the origins, development and impact of the call centre

This paper locates the emergence of call centres within the broader political economy. We demonstrate how British Gas responded to privatisation, restrictive regulation and the need to deliver shareholder value by radically changing work organisation. Using documentary evidence and oral testimonies, we show how the call centre was pivotal to tightening control over the labour process, to intensifying work and transforming the experience of work.     

Development planning and appropriate technology: A dilemma and a proposal

This paper examines the present system of project paper preparation and project planning used by the U.S. Agency for International Development and many donor agencies. Three approaches for meeting the evident weaknesses of the system — a holistic approach to the planning problem, an operant-conditioning approach to implementation, and a ‘process’ approach to planning and implementation — are presented and critiqued. On the basis of the critique, an approach which is grounded in a search for an approximately appropriate technology which ‘twiddles the technical knobs’ — is supported; and a proposal for an appropriate technology evaluation system which would analyze alternative technologies, deliver information to the field level, supply needed information on technologies and implementation, constrain donor planners, reduce lag time, incorporate evaluations into future planning, and reduce dependence upon planners is presented.     

Linking resources to strategic marketing plans

The objective of the planning process is to allocate resources towards strategies. The thought process described here is intended to help planners assess plans in terms of business area, strategy, finance, and risk. The process begins with the collection of information about business areas and product life cycles. From this information each business area assesses its competitive position and selects one or more strategies that are appropriate. Each strategy can serve as a framework for developing specific action plans and for specifying associated program expenditures and risks.     

Tails of animal attraction: Incorporating the feline into the family

Increased urbanization and female employment have led to the cat overtaking the dog as the companion animal of preference. However, this article looks beyond lifestyle changes as reasons for the popularity of the cat. The article explores the emotional consumer-socialization process involving the incorporation of the cat into the family. Subjective personal introspection (SPI) and supporting vignettes of female humans in their families (all of which were high-involvement owners) explore the hows and whys of feline incorporation. The study identifies several categories of incorporation. The findings suggest that this complex process involves many factors — namely, consumer socialization, intergenerational influence, brand loyalty, commitment, near-instant loyalty, immediacy, distress, anthropomorphism, and nostalgia. These factors underpin the intimacy and care the human-feline relationship expresses. The ability for humans and cats to bond in a way that fosters emotional intimacy can be considered one of the purest forms of relationships.     

PUBLIC GOODS AND THE DISSOLUTION OF STATES

We present a simple model of the dissolution of states. We combine elements of the literature on the break‐up and integration of states based on models in the fiscal federalism tradition, with elements of the literature that explains the determination of a state's political institutions as a means to credibly promise redistributions in the face of costly, perhaps violent, redistributive conflict. We are able to characterize when the equilibrium involves the dissolution of a country, and when it involves continued unity. We are also able to explore some aspects of the linkages between political institutions and the determination of national boundaries.     

Technologically Reflective Individuals as Enablers of Social Innovation*

This paper identifies technologically reflective individuals and demonstrates their ability to develop innovations that benefit society. Technological reflectiveness (TR) is the tendency to think about the societal impact of an innovation, and those who display this capability in public are individuals who participate in online idea competitions focused on technical solutions for social problems (such as General Electric's eco‐challenge, the James Dyson Award, and the BOSCH Technology Horizon Award). However, technologically reflective individuals also reflect in private settings (e.g., when reading news updates), thus requiring a scale to identify them. This paper describes the systematic development of an easy‐to‐administer multi‐item scale to measure an individual's level of TR. Applying the TR scale in an empirical study on a health monitoring system confirmed that individuals' degree of TR relates positively to their ability to generate (1) more new product features and uses, (2) features with higher levels of societal impact, and (3) features that are more elaborated. This scale allows firms seeking to implement co‐creation in their new product development (NPD) process and sustainable solutions to identify such individuals. Thus, this paper indicates that companies wishing to introduce new technological products with a positive societal impact may profit from involving technologically reflective individuals in the NPD process.