Using ad hoc measures for response styles: a cautionary note

This research note addresses the challenge of how to optimally measure acquiescence response style (ARS) and extreme response style (ERS). This is of crucial importance in assessing results from studies that have tried to identify antecedents of response styles (such as age, education level, national culture). Using survey data from the Netherlands, a comparison is made between the traditional method and a more recently proposed method of measuring ARS and ERS (i.e., the convergent validity across both methods is assessed). The traditional method is based on an ad hoc set of related items. The alternative method uses a set of randomly sampled items to optimize heterogeneity and representativeness of the items. It is found that the traditional method may lead to response style measures that are suboptimal for estimating levels of ARS and ERS as well as relations of ARS and ERS with other variables (like hypothesized antecedents). Recommendations on how to measure response styles are provided.     

Testing the impact of predefined and self-defined end anchors on the linearity of the category rating scale

In this research the impact of two types of end anchors on the linearity of the category rating scale is studied. Two functional measurement experiments were carried out, each requiring a different kind of judgement, i.e., job satisfaction ratings and attractiveness ratings. One group of participants rated the stimuli using a category rating scale with fixed anchors, while another group was presented with a self-anchoring category rating scale. The results indicate that researchers can be confident in the ability of both category rating scales to provide linear data. This implies that the different end anchors do not impact on the linearity of the category rating scale.     

Daily diaries in time use surveys. A solution to overcome measurement problems in single-activity events with long characteristic rhythms

Daily diaries are a widely used measurement tool in studies on the use of social time. However, while their high level of accuracy is supported by a lot of research, scholars often voice doubts regarding the validity of the estimates obtained if the characteristic rhythm of the events in question is not completed within a 24-h period. This study attempts to explain why, although these statistics are not wrong, they need to be understood correctly before proceeding with research based on them. To overcome the problem we will propose a solution for new surveys where use of diaries of this type is scheduled. Although this solution is not without limitations, they are much less restrictive than those imposed by traditional daily diaries.     

Toward a Theory of Reinstatement: Seven Motivations for Reinstatement as Relationship Repair

There is a long, interdisciplinary tradition of examining why organizations remove privileges from members as a part of disciplinary action. In contrast, little is known about why organizations return privileges after disciplinary action has occurred. Nonetheless, such reinstatement is ubiquitous in organizations. This paper provides a starting point for a theory of reinstatement by using the emerging theoretical domain of relationship repair. Treating reinstatement as relationship repair highlights the importance of causal attribution, social equilibrium, relationship structure, and power as means of relationship repair. The paper uses these four bases of relationship repair to develop a series of specific motivations for why managers might reinstate privileges.     

Innovation and productivity in knowledge intensive business services

This paper studies empirically the relationship between the sources of knowledge, innovation and productivity in Knowledge Intensive Business Services using French micro data and sheds some new light on the production of knowledge and on effects of innovative output on firm productivity. Both an innovation function and a production function augmented with dummy endogenous innovation are estimated. Three estimators which control for endogeneity of the dummy innovation are employed: the first is a maximum likelihood estimator of the equations’ system while the other two are built in the instrumental variables framework. These estimators give useful complementary information because of the usual efficiency-robustness tradeoff comparing system-equations and single-equation estimators. We find that innovation is frequent in Knowledge Intensive Business Services and has a strong and positive effect on productivity. As in manufacturing, the main determinant of innovation is formal knowledge resulting from R&D or from acquisitions of equipment, patents or licenses.     

The role of the informal sector in investment in Sub-Saharan Africa

For a long time economic researchers condemned the existence of a huge informal sector in economies, viewing it as a deterrent to investment, growth and development. This view is however being confronted with intense criticism particularly in developing countries where formal unemployment is rapidly growing and poverty widely spreading, which in turn is leading to an expanding informal sector. Thus alternative schools of thought that view the informal sector as a source of livelihood to the unemployed and poor have subsequently been developed. However, not much empirical work has been carried out to validate any of these theoretical claims, particularly in African economies. This paper attempts to fill this gap. The findings of the study indicate that there is a positive relationship between informal sector activities and investment. These results suggest a review of the standard thinking towards the role of the informal sector in development.     

Environmental degradation,self-protection choices and coordination failures in a North–South evolutionary model

Environmental degradation may lead agents to increase their work effort to replace the consumption of depleted free access environmental goods with that of private substitute goods. The rise in the activity level that follows may further deplete the environment, which in turn increases the production and consumption of substitute goods. Using a North–South evolutionary model, we show that the existence of a coordination failure among interacting heterogeneous agents may lead the economy towards Pareto-dominated attracting stationary states where individuals work and produce “too much” (i.e. more than socially optimal). Finally, we analyse possible welfare effects of transferring the environmental impact of Northern production to the South and show that such a policy may decrease welfare in both hemispheres.     

Price discovery in the Indian gold futures market

This paper examines the price discovery process of the nascent gold futures contracts in the Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX) over the period 2003 to 2007. The study employs vector error correction models (VECMs) to show that futures prices of both standard and mini contracts lead spot price. We find that mini contracts contribute to over 30% of price discovery in gold futures trade even though they account for only 2% of trading value on the MCX. Our finding reveals that trades initiated in mini contracts are much more informative than what the size of their market share of volume suggests.