Measuring Fair Employment Practices: The Search for a "Figure of Merit"

Quantitative measures of equal employment opportunity in the bureaucracy are of quite recent vintage, even though data have been collected on minority employment since the early 1960s. Such measures as have been developed are useful in the sense that they are simple and easy to comprehend. Concentrating as they do on integration alone, however, they do not capture a sufficiently wide variety of personnel practices to truly assess equal employment opportunity. This paper presents a new measure which retains the basic simplicity required of a figure of merit but expands the dimensions of former measures to include an index of the occupational distribution of minorities within an organization. The measure presented implies a policy goal of income parity for minority groups within the bureaucracy and assesses progress toward that goal. It is argued that a worthy figure of merit can promote cost-effective implementation of public policy with regard to fair employment within the civil service.     

Licensing and technology dependence in the Andean group

This paper explores the extent to which licensing promotes technology transfer and future technological self-reliance in 47 metalworking and 43 chemical firms located in Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. The analysis proceeds in three steps. First, a set of factors which, it has been suggested, influence the choice of licensing as opposed to other means of acquiring technology were examined. Second, the relationship between licensing and future ‘technology dependency’ was explored statistically. Finally, an effort was made to explain these findings in terms of a ‘technological dependence syndrome’ in which opportunities for ‘learning by doing’ are consistently missed.     

The desire for unique consumer products: A new individual differences scale

In this article we examine individual differences in the desire for unique consumer products. We identify several of the antecedents and consequences of this variable and argue that a new scale to measure it is needed. Then we report the results of our efforts to develop and validate such a scale. The 8-item scale that emerged from these efforts is shown to be unidimensional, to have a factor structure that generalizes across student and nonstudent samples, and to have acceptable internal and test–retest reliabilities. The scale's validity is attested to by its theoretically intelligible relationships with other personality measures and by its ability to differentiate between the patrons of an artistic theater and a second-run theater. Finally, we discuss the potential uses of the scale in both basic and applied marketing research. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

2015 will See Great Opportunities in Segment Market of Tablet PCs

【正】According to the latest Quarterly Report on the Chinese Tablet PC Market(Nov,2014)released by IDC,the Chinese tablet PC market will have a product delivery o...     

Consumer perceptions of risks of chemical and microbiological contaminants associated with food chains: a cross-national study

The development and implementation of effective systems to identify vulnerabilities in food chains to chemical and microbiological contaminants must take account of consumer priorities and preferences. The present investigation attempted to understand consumer perceptions associated with chemical and microbiological contaminants in four specific food chains (drinking water, farmed salmon, chicken and milk powder). To this end, ten focus group discussions were held in five different countries (Poland, Ireland, the Netherlands, France and Brazil). Consumers expressed higher concerns about chemical, as compared with microbial, contaminants. Chemical contaminants were more strongly associated with the potential for severe consequences, long-term effects and lack of personal control. Traceability was considered by consumers as a useful tool that offers the potential to improve consumer confidence in food safety.     

EQUIVALENCE SCALE SENSITIVITY OF POVERTY STATISTICS FOR THE MEMBER STATES OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY

Using microdata from Household Budget Surveys of the Member States of the European Community, this paper examines the sensitivity of poverty statistics with respect to the choice of the equivalence scale. The results show that the ranking of the countries with respect to the overall poverty incidence is hardly affected when different equivalence scales are used. However, the composition of the poor population shows considerable changes when e.g. subjective equivalence scales are used instead of the OECD equivalence scale. The poverty incidence among specific household groups, such as single elderly and households with children, is particularly sensitive to the choice of the equivalence scale.