Social Scientific Explanations?

Generally valid scientific explanations of observable social phenomena are still hardly available. By applying philosophical insights generated by Quine and derived from semiotics to social research methodology three kinds of context dependencies accompanying theory formation within social science are identified. The third context dependency is mostly not attended in theory formation about social phenomena thereby producing a ``connotation fallacy', which leaves almost all social theories undetermined and fallible. These context dependencies should be taken into account in the research design and be tested for using statistical criteria comprising a new methodology presented in this article.     

Does Institutional Change Spread Across Countries? Explaining Spatial Patterns in Human Rights

If a country improves its human rights record, will neighbouring countries benefit? Beneficial spillovers could justify intervention by the UN or one of the many other organisations that internationally fight human rights violations. We document that countries’ human rights performances often resemble the human rights situation of their neighbours. However, exploiting time variation in a spatial panel, we find that much of that resemblance is simply determined by the shared geographical location. Changes in neighbouring countries have little influence on local human rights, suggesting that contemporaneous spillovers and interactions are limited.     

Learning patterns in early stage R&D projects: empirical evidence from the fibre raw material technology project in the Netherlands

Past research has reported that learning processes in early stage R&D are either chaotic, or absent. We challenge this finding by elaborating Van de Ven et al.’s trial‐and‐error learning model and explore an alternative conceptualization. We explored the combinations of positive and negative outcomes and action course continuation and modification. We use data gathered in an R&D setting of a 4‐years pre‐competitive knowledge generation project in the Dutch paper and board industry. Whereas the Van de Ven and Polley (1992) approach applied on our data also would lead us to conclude that ‘no learning’ would happen, our decomposed model identified three distinct learning patterns: (1) a virtuous pattern of positive outcomes resulting in continuations of action courses; (2) a vacuous pattern of negative outcomes resulting in modifications of action courses; and (3) a verification pattern of positive outcomes resulting in modifications of action courses. We observed the virtuous and verification patterns during the first 2 years and virtuous and vacuous learning in the second 2 years. These results might be useful for R&D managers since they provide insight into how an early stage R&D project can develop and where managers might intervene and adjust action courses.     

Ethnicity,acculturation, and the importance of product attributes

This investigation examined the relationship between subcultural group membership and the importance of various product attributes in purchase decisions. Subcultural group membership was defined on the basis of Hispanic ethnicity and level of assessed acculturation. The results indicate that cost considerations such as price and the availability of credit best distinguish these groups. This is particularly meaningful, given that these results persist even when income level is statistically controlled. The second major purpose of the investigation was to test the appropriateness of the traditional progressive learning model of acculturation within the specific buyer behavioral context of product attribute importance. The findings clearly indicate support for this model.     

Subcultural influences on family decisionmaking

This investigation assessed Mexican-American and Anglo wives' perceptions of family decisionmaking roles for the purchase of eight different goods and services. This comparison was used to explore the impact ethnic subculture plays in consumer behavior. The findings indicate that ethnicity significantly affects wives' perceptions of family decisionmaking roles for expensive items, and that this is not just due to common associations with other variables. This is an under researched area in which cross-national differences and basic socioeconomic disparities are often inaccurately attributed to culture.     

Consistent estimation of correlations between observed interval variables with skewed distributions

Departures from multinormality due to skewness in observed distributions may result in inconsistent estimates of product-moment correlations between interval variables. Therefore, the robustness of the product-moment correlation estimator against skewness in the distributions of sample data on interval variables has been investigated. This estimator is robust against skewness of maximally about 1 in absolute value. If the observed distributions have larger skewnesses, the sample data on interval variables may be redistributed over normally distributed discrete variables with 10 categories each. The estimated polychoric correlations between these discrete variables represent consistent estimates of the product-moment correlations between the original interval variables in the population.     

Why not fully spend a conditional block grant?

This paper studies a conditional block grant that Dutch municipalities receive for welfare-to-work programs. Many municipalities do not fully use this grant, although programs are beneficial for them. We argue that municipalities incur expenses to use the grant. If these costs are substantial, then it is optimal not to fully use the grant. Based on municipality-specific data on grants and actual expenditures, we estimate that municipalities have to add about 90 cents from their own resources to spend 1 euro of the grant. As a result, the conditional block grant is de facto a closed-ended matching grant.     

Simulation-based costing for early phase life cycle cost analysis: Example application to an environmental remediation project

Simulation-based costing (SBC) has been slow to be adopted by the traditional cost estimating community. This can be attributed to many factors, including complexity, how to gather data and develop probabilistic inputs, cost of SBC software, and a lack of understanding of the benefits of developing cost versus risk profiles. This article presents an overview of how SBC can be effectively utilized for early phase life cycle cost (LCC) estimation. A formal process for conducting LCC incorporating SBC is presented not only to provide a structured approach but to also convey to stakeholders how such a study is conducted. This article also presents a case study where total ownership cost versus risk profiles were developed using this proposed process in order to support budgetary and planning considerations for a large environmental remediation project. This research argues that SBC is needed during the concept exploration phase because this is when budgets are often fixed and expectations set.