Empirical Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Ziel dieses Artikels ist es zum einen, mit dem Begriff der diskursiven Exklusion eine Konzeptualisierung von Exklusion zu unterbreiten, welche den theoretischen Anforderungen an einen soziologisch-analytischen Begriff gewachsen ist und zum anderen, methodische Hinweise zur Erforschung von Exklusionsprozessen zu bieten. Ich werde hierzu die drei emergenten Forschungsperspektiven der Diskursanalyse "nach dem Strukturalismus", der Dispositivanalyse, und der wissenssoziologischen Diskursanalyse vorstellen und jeweils danach fragen, welches Analysepotenzial von ihnen ausgeht, um soziale Exklusion soziologisch zu fassen. Dabei wird sich zeigen, dass jede dieser Perspektiven bestimmte Aspekte in den Vordergrund ruckt, dabei aber wiederum andere vernachlassigt. Am Ende des Artikels werden Moglichkeiten einer Kombination der Ansatze diskutiert. URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1302199

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- Discourse Analysis, Critical Discourse Studies, Methodology, Discourse

Der vorliegende Beitrag befasst sich mit der Minderheitenpolitik in Estland unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Kultur. Dabei wird der Nationale Aktionsplan ausgewertet und der Einfluss der Kulturpolitik auf die Inklusion ethnischer Minderheiten untersucht. Die Studie legt einen Schwerpunkt auf die Bereiche Bildung, Medien und Partizipation. Die Studie kommt zu dem Ergebnis, dass ethnische Minderheiten in weiten Bereichen unterrepräsentiert sind, und gibt Handlungsoptionen zur Verbesserung der Situation. (ICD

- by Tarmo Tuisk
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- Cultural Policy, Inclusion, Culture, Cultural Identity

Objective: Sleepiness and fatigue are conceptually distinct but pervasively confounded in research, measurement instruments, clinical settings, and everyday spoken language. The purpose of the present study was to construct two scales that represent unconfounded measures of sleepiness and fatigue, using widely used questionnaires. Method: Four questionnaires purporting to measure sleepiness [Stanford Sleepiness Scale (SSS); Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS)] or fatigue [Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS); Chalder Fatigue Scale (CFS)] were administered, as well as a battery measuring sleep, psychological, and health functioning variables, to three samples: 19 individuals with chronic fatigue syndrome, 14 with narcolepsy, and 11 normal control subjects. Results: Analyses revealed two distinct sets of items (six sleepiness and three fatigue items) that were combined into two scales. These newly formed scales are only minimally correlated and represent separate constructs that have reasonably distinctive patterns of association. Findings were replicated and validated in a sample of 128 older individuals complaining of daytime sleepiness and/or fatigue. Conclusions: We conclude that (a) it is possible to derive empirically distinct sleepiness and fatigue scales from existing, commonly used self-report instruments, (b) the Empirical Sleepiness Scale is limited to the experience of daytime sleep tendency, while (c) the Empirical Fatigue Scale is associated more broadly with insomnia, psychological maladjustment, and poorer perceived health function. The important clinical implication of the new Empirical Sleepiness and Fatigue Scales is in the ability to identify bsleepiness which is not fatigue,Q a construct closely related to primary sleep disorders, such as sleep apnea/hypopnea syndrome, for which there is both available and effective treatment. D

- by Catherine Fichten
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- Psychometrics, Fatigue, Test Validation, Narcolepsy

When predicting potential jury verdicts, trial attorneys often seek second opinions from other attorneys. But how much weight do they give to these opinions, and how optimally do they use them? In a four‐round estimation task developed by Liberman et al. (under review), pairs of law students and pairs of experienced trial attorneys estimated actual jury verdicts. When participants were

- by Varda Liberman
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- Law, Empirical, Group Size, Empirical legal studies

In dem Beitrag werden die Möglichkeiten und Erkenntnisgewinne einer transdisziplinären Verschränkung der analytischen Kategorien "Raum" und "Diskurs", insbesondere für die kulturwissenschaftliche Stadt- und Öffentlichkeitsforschung, ausgelotet. Ausgangspunkt dafür ist eine gemeinsame Forschungserfahrung der Autorinnen, die interdisziplinäre Ethnografie politischer Raumaneignungen in Mexiko-Stadt, bei der sich die jeweiligen Spezialisierungen (ethnografische Raumforschung bei WILDNER, semiotische Diskursanalyse bei HUFFSCHMID) kreuzten. Diese "Kreuzung" wird hier zunächst in ihren konzeptionellen Prämissen nachvollzogen und anschließend nach Lerneffekten für die analytische Praxis befragt. Ausgangspunkt dafür ist die Annahme der gegenseitigen Durchdrungenheit von Räumlichkeit und Diskursivität: kein Raum (im Sinne von LEFEBVRE) kann ohne seine diskursive Konfiguration gedacht werden, Diskurs (im Sinne FOUCAULTs) wiederum ereignet sich nicht im "luft...

- by Anne Huffschmid
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- Discourse Analysis, Cultural Studies, Ethnography, Discourse

This paper reports our implementation of a handheld wireless environment to support Jigsaw cooperative learning activities in a college setting. A quasi-experimental research design was conducted to investigate the effects of using handhelds, as well as issues associated with the use of handheld technology. Two intact classes of fourth-year students from a five-year junior nursing college participated in the experiment. Our findings showed that handheld tools enhanced both students' attitudes and performance in learning, and promoted better interactions among students and instructors. We also found that the handheld technology was not sophisticated enough to support cooperative learning goals without full support from a technology specialist.

- by Cheng-Chih Wu
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- Cognitive Science, Nursing, Research Design, Telecommunications
- by Julio Bermudez
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- Religion, Psychology, Aesthetics, Statistics

Building on conceptual model of ethical decision making, we derive and empirically test a model that links an organization's formal ethical infrastructure to individuals' moral awareness of ethical situations, moral judgment, and moral intention. We contribute to the literature by shedding light on the importance of a multifaceted formal ethical infrastructure-consisting of formal communication, recurrent communication, formal surveillance, and formal sanctions-as a crucial antecedent of moral awareness. In so doing, we discern how these four elements of a formal ethical infrastructure combine to collectively influence moral awareness based on a second-order factor structure using structural equation modeling. We test our model based on survey data from 805 respondents with significant work experience across three separate ethical scenarios. Our results across the three scenarios provide overall support for our model. We found that a second-order factor structure for the formal ethical infrastructure explains the variance among the four infrastructure elements and that a multifaceted formal ethical infrastructure significantly increases moral awareness. Our results further suggest a strong positive effect of moral awareness on moral judgment, which in turn was found to have a positive impact on moral intention. These results were substantiated when taking several individual and contextual control variables into account, such as gender, age, religiosity, work satisfaction, and a de facto ethical climate. Implications for theory, practice, and supply management are discussed.

- by Daniel Rottig and +1
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- Marketing, Business Ethics, Decision Sciences, Procurement

The e ective deployment of technology within an organizational context is of integral concern to ÿelds associated with the management sciences. While there has been signiÿcant study of technology e ectiveness, it is often piecemeal as diverse models are hypothesized and empirically tested. This paper attempts to examine the models purporting to study the fundamental question of e ective use of technology. Models examining the technology-performance relationship are summarized and meta-analyzed in an attempt to provide a more integrated perspective of technology and the factors that interact with it to enhance performance at the individual, process, or organizational level. The models are evaluated on their common dimensions, and insights for further research are identiÿed. A research plan, along with a research model, is proposed with the hope of facilitating future work in this area of imminent and growing importance.

- by Varun Grover
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- Marketing, Technology, Management Science, OMEGA

We suggest that diversity and changes in the visual design of web pages exhibit trend-like characteristics. We begin with a survey of the fashion and trends literature to clarify these terms and to relate them to the domain of web design. Based on freely available online archival data we assembled a website design trend library that includes 42 trends encompassing the period from the mid-1990s to the year 2010. The trends were classified into three general groups, from oldest to most recent: Faded, Past-Peak, and Current. A second study tested hypotheses that stemmed from the premise that web design trends exist. Data from 262 designers and non-designers indicate that designers are more accurate than non-designers in evaluating the up-to-dateness of web design trends, and that people tend to like trends that they perceive as up-to-date. We discuss research and practical implications of these findings for the design process of websites and for interactive systems in general, for the role of designers in this process, and for the education of IS students. is the co-founder and Chief Fashion Officer at the startup company Bazaart (www.bazaart.me), working on a personal fashion catalog for tablets. Formerly Gili was a fashion editor and journalist at an online magazine, a UX professional, and a software developer and team leader. This research was part of her Masters' thesis on fashion and trends in Web Design, conducted within the Human Factors Engineering department, Industrial Engineering Faculty of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Gili lives in Tel-Aviv, Israel and loves fashion, styling and how they mix with UX.

- by Noam Tractinsky
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- Adoption, Visual Design, Empirical

C o m p u t e r science is the study of the p h e n o m e n a s u r r o u n d i n g computers. The founders of this society understood this very well when they called themselves the Association for C o m p u t i n g Machinery. The m a c h i n e --n o t just the hardware, but the p r o g r a m m e d , living m a c h i n e --i s the organism we study. This is the tenth T u r i n g Lecture. The nine persons who preceded us on this platform have presented nine different views of c o m p u t e r science. F o r our organism, the machine, can be studied at m a n y levels and from m a n y sides. We are deeply h o n o r e d to appear here today and to present yet another view, the one that has permeated the scientific work for which we have been

- by Rupesh Parab
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- Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Heuristics, Cognition

A statistical analysis of 120 survey responses from sexual harassment victims suggests that White women and Women of Color may differ in their uses of internal complaint procedures. Specifically, White women in the study informed their supervisors and human resources representatives of their sexual harassment experiences at statistically greater rates than Women of Color in the study. The racial disparity is particularly worrisome in light of recent Supreme Court decisions tying employer liability to the use of internal complaints procedures. If the survey respondents track the general population of Women of Color who are disinclined to use internal complaints procedures, then Women of Color will be more limited by the Supreme Court jurisprudence than White women.

- by Tanya Hernandez
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- Empirical

Von 28 Dozenten und Dozentinnen eines Lehrerausbildungskollegs wurden personliche Narrative zur Arbeitsplatzsituation erhoben als Zugang zum Verstehen von deren individuellen und professionellen Welten. In die Untersuchung einbezogen wurden Erzahlungen uber lokale Themen, Charakteristika und Sprachstile. Die Narrative wurden interpretiert unter Hinzuziehung des strukturellen Ansatzes von LEVI-STRAUSS, des sozial-konstruktionistischen Modells von GERGEN und GERGEN und der Aristotelischen Dramaturgielehre und Asthetik. Die Analyse zeigt, dass die Dozenten und Dozentinnen nicht uber eine einheitliche Terminologie oder uber ein gemeinsames Konzept hinsichtlich ihrer Arbeitswelt und der eigenen Rolle in dieser Welt verfugten. Bezuge zur Identitat der Befragten fanden sich in deren expliziten und impliziten Strategien zur Sicherung von Akzeptanz und zum eigenen Beitrag in dem beruflichen Handlungsfeld. Wir nehmen deshalb an, dass fur die befragten Dozentinnen und Dozenten Zugehorigkeit un...

- by Merav Asaf
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- Education, Teacher Education, Narrative, Narratology
- by Reuven Glick
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- Economics, International Trade, Time Series, International

numbers, but many people give little consideration to the order in which they present the data. This article illustrates the strengths and weaknesses of four criteria for organizing data -empirical, theoretical, alphabetical and a... more

- by Janet L Miller
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- Data Analysis, Teaching, Numbers, Organization
- by Alda Mari
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- Empirical
- by Chetan Dave
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- Measure Theory, Statistical Computing, Time Series, Theory

In today's competitive world, productivity-as a core source of production -is the most important target of the organization. Experimental studies in developed industrial countries prove that productivity improvements resulted from development of management systems play a more important role in production than physical increases in labor and capital factors. This paper, while focusing on productivity from a CRM perspective, employs a European Organizational Excellence Model framework to identify factors affecting productivity and the role of CRM systems. We perform an empirical study for a case study of home appliance manufacturing and using a questionnaire computed present status and compared with desired status of CRM components such as customer leadership, strategy, skill and motivation of labor work, effective use of information technology and process management.

- by Saeed Mirzamohammadi
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- Management, Technology, Manufacturing, Production
- by Kevin Clermont
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- Empirical, Empirical Method

Purpose -This paper examines the long-term relationship between saving and investment as a criterion for assessing international capital mobility for the case of Saudi Arabia, the largest economy among the Middle Eastern and Arab nations. Design/methodology/approach -The approach is modeled on Feldstein and Horioka covering the period 1963-2007 for Saudi Arabia. We use the bounds testing approach and the Gregory and Hansen cointegration methods to test for the long-run relationship between saving and investment. Additionally, before testing for this relationship, we conduct unit root tests, including the additive outlier model developed by Perron with an endogenously determined structural break. Findings -The study finds no evidence of a long-run relationship between saving and investment and therefore concludes that capital is highly mobile in Saudi Arabia. This finding is plausible given the economic and financial reforms which have occurred in Saudi Arabia along with increased capital inflows into the country in the last few decades. Originality/value -Of the limited studies so far on developing countries, none has considered the capital mobility issue for an oil-dependent country.

- by Dr. Reetu Verma
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- Saudi Arabia, Applied Economics, Analysis, Developing Country
- by Natalia Gajdamaschko
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- Management, Languages, Mathematics, Communication

Although there has been a rapid expansion in research on police interrogations and false confessions, little is known about the beliefs of potential jurors as to these issues. In collaboration with a trial research firm, we recruited 461 jury-eligible men and women who matched the demographic characteristics of jury pools in several states. Surrogate jurors responded to questions and statements in five areas: likely rates of false confessions for different crimes, the ability to discern true from false confessions, beliefs about false confessions, beliefs about permissible interrogation tactics, and beliefs about expert testimony on police interrogations. Results indicated that jurors believed that police interrogators are better than ordinary people at identifying lies and that this ability improves with experience. Jurors believed that they would be able to differentiate a true confession from a false confession by watching a videotape, but were less confident about making such a differentiation from an audio recording. A large majority of the sample reported that it would be helpful to hear expert testimony about interrogation techniques and reasons why a defendant might falsely confess to a crime. There were no significant gender differences. Compared to whites, nonwhite jurors had significantly less confidence in the abilities of the police and gave significantly higher estimates of false confession rates. Results are discussed in light of prior research and implications for jury decision making and expert testimony.

- by Mark Costanzo
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- Law, Decision Making, Gender Difference, Empirical
- by Holbrook Mahn
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- Management, Languages, Mathematics, Communication
- by AGWANDA CHRISTOPHER
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- Religion, Jurisprudence, Environmental Law, Climate Change

There have been extensive studies on vibration based condition monitoring, prognosis of rotating element bearings; and reviews of the methods on how to identify bearing fault and predict the final failure reported widely in literature. The investigated bearings commonly discussed in the literatures were run in moderate and high rotating speed, and damages were artificially introduced e.g. with artificial crack or seeded defect. This paper deals with very low rotational-speed slewing bearing (1-4.5 rpm) without artificial fault. Two real vibration data were utilized, namely data collected from lab slewing bearing subject to accelerated life test and from a sheet metal company. Empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) were applied in both lab slewing bearing data and real case data. Outer race fault (BPFO) and rolling element fault (BSF) frequencies of slewing bearing can be identified. However, these fault frequencies could not be identified using fast Fourier transform (FFT).

- by Buyung Kosasih
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- Mechanical Engineering, Applied Mathematics, Decomposition, Ensemble
- by Robert Brauneis
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- Statistics, Empirical, Empirical Study, Brand Names
- by Lyle Gichuki
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- Financial Economics, Corporate Governance, Performance, Empirical

Creativity is the buzzword in this era of stiff competition which lends an edge to individuals as well as organizations over others. Human personality is another area which is extensively studied to explore its various facets and managerial implications are drawn from them. The present study is an empirical study which aims at determining the impact of the extraversion-introversion dimension of human personality on an individual’s level of creativity. The study was conducted on one hundred adults in the Allahabad region of Uttar Pradesh; primary data was collected using questionnaires, hypotheses were formulated and tested using correlation analysis. Result of the tests indicated that there is no association between extraversion-introversion dimension of human personality on an individual’s level of creativity. Several significant Managerial implications are drawn from the results obtained. INTRODUCTION Extraversion–introversion dimension forms the core of human personality theories. It was Carl Jung who popularized the terms introversion and extraversion. Extraversion is «the act, state, or habit of being predominantly concerned with and obtaining gratification from what is outside the self»1 while Introversion is “the state of or tendency toward being wholly or predominantly concerned with and interested in one’s own mental life”2 Extraversion and introversion are part of a single continuum. Thus, a person who is high on extraversion is low on Introversion and vice – versa. “Creativity is constructed as a learned ability that enables us to define new relationships between concepts or events, which seemed apparently unconnected before, and which results in a new entity of knowledge” (European Commission 1998). Researchers have identified many types of creativity, for the purpose of present study we have taken into consideration the creativity from individual perspective. The present study is an empirical study which aims at determining the impact of the extraversion-introversion dimension of human personality on an individual’s level of creativity, and relevant managerial implications are drawn from it. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES The objectives of the study were: 1. To gain a deep insight into the extraversion-introversion dimension of individual’s personality. 2. To delve into the concept of creativity. 3. To determine the impact of extraversion-introversion dimension of personality on individual level of creativity. REVIEW OF LITERATURE Work on the field of creativity is based upon the foundations laid by researchers such as J. P. Guilford and E. Paul Torrance. Creativity has been linked with many variables but literatures linking personality, demographic variables and intelligence to creativity are huge.According to Torrance (1988) creative potential exists among all people, and can be improved through learning while research by Aguilar-Alonso, A (1996) concludes that creative abilities are linked to personality dimensions such as extraversion. Jung et al (2011) found that context plays an important role in determining the creativity exhibited by individuals. Researches on creativity and intelligence also exhibit contradictions, Getzels and Jackson (1962) said that creativity and intelligence were independent traits while Hasan and Butcher (1996) found creativity and intelligence, were highly correlated. Many researches have been conducted which link extraversion-introversion dimension of personality to other variables, one such study is of Taylor (1998) who found that introverts preferred computer mediated discussions over to face-to-face ones, while extraverts preferred the face-to-face environment. Researchers such as Argyle and Lu (1990) have found a positive correlation between extraversion and happiness. It was also found that extraverts respond more to positive affect than to negative affect, Larsen and Ketelaar (1991). An extensive review of such relevant literature has been done and research gaps are identified. RESEARCH GAP From the review of relevant literature following gap has been identifiedMany studies on various aspects of personality and its association with creativity have already been studied but studies on introversion-extroversion dimension of personality and its relation to creativity is negligible. Those studies which exist have contradictory findings. According to Torrance (1988) creative potential exists among all people, and can be improved through learning while research by Aguilar-Alonso, A (1996) concludes that different forms of creative behaviour are related to distinct characteristics of personality. RESEARCH HYPOTHESES From the review of relevant literature and identification of research gap, following null hypotheses have been formulatedH1: Extraversion has no correlation with individual level of creativity. H2: Introversion has no correlation with individual level of creativity RESEARCH METHODOLOGY This study is an Empirical research based upon Descriptive research design.…

- by Shaista Fatima
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- Psychology, Creativity, Introversion, Empirical

We are very grateful to Olivier Bonami and Lucie Gournay for helpful comments on previous drafts of this work. highlights two problems in the Speech Act Theory that was developed by pragmaticians in the sixties-seventies. The former pertains to the semantic content of utterances: utterances, whatever their clause type, viz. declarative, interrogative, imperative or exclamative, uniformly convey propositions. The latter pertains to the illocutionary potential of utterances: each clause type is associated with a different illocutionary force (assertion, question, directive and exclamation). 2 This is the core 1 Our terminology is based on Huddleston . From a syntactic point of view, we distinguish open interrogatives (e.g. Who arrived?) from closed interrogatives (e.g. Has he arrived?) (other labels: whinterrogatives vs polar interrogatives); from a semantic point of view, we distinguish variable questions from polar questions.

- by Jean-marie Marandin
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- Speech acts, Empirical, Assignment Problem
- by Dalina Kallulli
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- Empirical

This study extends the body of literature concerning service switching, complaint handling, dependence and commitment by investigating why dissatisfied B2B customers do not switch service providers. Specifically, it develops and tests a social exchange-based model examining how dissatisfied, but behaviourally loyal, customers act in terms of their repurchase intentions. A conceptual model, specifying a set of hypothesised relationships between dimensions of switching costs, interpersonal relationships, dimensions of complaint handling, satisfaction with complaint handling, attractiveness of alternatives, dependence, calculative commitment and repurchase intentions, was examined using AMOS 17.0 on a sample of 376 business directors/managers from responding organisations. The results show that satisfaction with complaint handling, benefit-loss costs, dependence and calculative commitment significantly increase customers' repurchase intentions. The findings also indicate that dependence, interpersonal relationships and specific types of switching costs influence customers' calculative commitment, and the latter influences intentions to repurchase services. The study builds on the Investment Model by including justice components, and examines the effects of different types of antecedents on calculative commitment that have previously not been examined.

- by Venkata Yanamandram
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- Business, Services, Multidisciplinary, Interpersonal Relationship

Visual GUI testing (VGT) is an emerging technique that provides software companies with the capability to automate previously time-consuming, tedious, and fault prone manual system and acceptance tests. Previous work on VGT has shown that the technique is industrially applicable, but has not addressed the real-world applicability of the technique when used by practitioners on industrial grade systems. This paper presents a case study performed during an industrial project with the goal to transition from manual to automated system testing using VGT. Results of the study show that the VGT transition was successful and that VGT could be applied in the industrial context when performed by practitioners but that there were several problems that first had to be solved, e.g. testing of a distributed system, tool volatility. These problems and solutions have been presented together with qualitative, and quantitative, data about the benefits of the technique compared to manual testing, e.g. greatly improved execution speed, feasible transition and maintenance costs, improved bug finding ability. The study thereby provides valuable, and previously missing, contributions about VGT to both practitioners and researchers.

- by Emil Alegroth
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- Interviews, Automation, Empirical, Image recognition

This paper investigates co-production in a B2B Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) service contract where the firm is tasked to deliver outcomes of MRO service rather than activities directly related to maintenance and repair. Our qualitative
findings show that the promise of outcomes has extended the boundary of the firm to include the customer system within its responsibility, resulting in the allowance of customer variety into the firm’s system as the consumption of the service is contextual
and varied. The ability to deliver the service in such an environment requires the firm’s operations process design to be extended beyond supply chain management for material/equipment transformation, but to include information and people transformation as well. Through a quantitative study and Partial Least Squares analysis, the paper shows that outcome-based contract performance is dependent on the co-production
alignments of behaviors and information but not material/equipment, with the alignments partially driven by the co-production inputs of complementary competencies and congruence of expectations.

- by Irene C L Ng
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- Services, PLS (Partial Least Squares) Methods, B2B, Empirical

Truth is neither presence nor absence, Jew or Greek, being or non-being, self or other but the difference and differance between these two extremes, Derrida emphasizes the importance of iterability or repetition of both extremes as essentially the same, truth is thus quasi-transcendental or the interval between transcendental and empirical which enables both. The concept is marked by its signature, or its breaking away from the origin, to signify a different kind of writing in order to communicate – which is the logic of the graft, intervening in order to signify anew, and renovate meaning and experience, to mark a double writing, and effect a displacement of the traditional hierarchy of meaning and a reversal.

- by Chung Chin-Yi
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- Sociology, Philosophy, Metaphysics, Deconstruction

This research attempts to fill two recently identified gaps in Supply Chain Risk Management (SCRM) research, specifically the lack of a common framework and limited empirical research. This research first attempts to determine if ISO 31000:2009 provides a foundation to advance SCRM research by standardizing the SCRM research framework, terms, and risk treatment categories. Secondly, it attempts to determine if ISO 31000:2009 is a useful framework for managers to link SCRM to enterprise risk management (ERM) when executing SCRM. Currently, there is no research that explicitly links SCRM to the ISO 31000:2009 ERM standard. In this study, longitudinal survey data were analyzed, and follow-up discussions with managers were used to achieve the research purpose. It was determined that current SCRM research frameworks have similarities with each other, but they also diverge to some extent. The ISO 31000:2009 framework encompasses existing SCRM frameworks, but it is more exhaustive than that, which includes the need for developing a strategic context for risk management and for ongoing performance monitoring. It is suggested that ISO 31000:2009 provides a foundation for extending and advancing future SCRM research. It was also found that firms increasingly recognize the importance of systematic SCRM, but SCRM integration and skills are lacking. Topics for future research are proposed, including for example using ISO 31000:2009 as a research foundation, potential outsourcing of SCRM, appropriate organizational structure for SCRM, deployment of IT, and SCRM return on investment.

- by Sime Curkovic
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- Supply Chain Risk Management, Empirical

Diversity on the jury promotes the perceived fairness of the jury system. Analyzing the jury selection and composition in 277 civil jury trials, we examine how the jury selection process and jury size, two contested features of the jury system, affect diversity. We show that while peremptory challenges were systematically related to juror race/ethnicity, the opposing challenges cancelled each other out, producing no overall effect on the makeup of the jury. In contrast, jury size had a substantial effect on minority representation. We conclude that diversity is most effectively promoted by restoring the 12-member jury.

- by FacComm Search
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- Law, Empirical, Empirical legal studies

The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.

- by Joyce Sadka
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- Law, Dispute Resolution, Arbitration, ICT

S everal studies have examined how the ISO 9001 quality management systems standard predicts changes in organizational outcomes such as profits. This is the first large-scale study to explore how employee outcomes such as employment, earnings, and health and safety change when employers adopt ISO 9001. We analyzed a matched sample of nearly 1,000 companies in California. ISO 9001 adopters subsequently had far lower organizational death rates than a matched control group of nonadopters. Among surviving employers, ISO adopters had higher growth rates for sales, employment, payroll, and average annual earnings. Injury rates declined slightly for ISO 9001 adopters, although total injury costs did not. These results have implications for organizational theory, managers, and public policy.

- by Tanya Hernandez
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- Empirical

in response to increased research being performed in developing countries, many research ethics committees (RECs) have been established, but the quality of their ethics review systems remains unknown. Evaluating the performance of an REC remains a challenging task. Absent an accreditation process, a selfassessment mechanism would provide RECs a way to review their policies and processes against recognized international standards. We describe a self-assessment tool that was developed and reviewed by REC members and researchers from the Middle East. This tool reflects pragmatic aspects of human subjects protection, is based on international standards, is straightforward in its completion, and its items are relevant to the administrative processes that exist in many RECs in the developing world.

- by Suad Sulaiman
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- Applied Ethics, Educational Measurement, Developing Countries, Middle East

This paper studies the empirical link between international tourism and trade. We apply dynamic heterogeneous panel data techniques to analyse both long-term and short-term relationship for the case study of OECD countries. This link is studied by estimating the cointegration vector and analysing the short and long-run causality between variables. The analysis recognises that inbound tourism can promote international trade and also that international flow of goods requires and may encourage tourist arrivals and departures. The statistical significance of this relationship supports the presence of business opportunities due to the potential complementary relationship between tourism and trade. The results suggest a short-run relationship between tourism and trade, and that these variables are cointegrated.

- by Rodriguez IP
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- Economics, International Trade, Empirical Economics, Panel Data
- by Nathan Rosenberg
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- Economic History, Solid State Physics, Technology, Industrial Economics

The results of an empirical survey of information systems (IS) managers indicated that 41% understood the basic philosophy of Total Quality Management (TQM) fairly well. Furthermore, the IS managers typically indicated they thought most of the concepts/tools commonly associated with TQM would be useful to both the organization and the IS function. IS managers currently involved in implementing TQM reported their IS function had achieved the following benefits: improved customer satisfaction, enhanced quality of products and services delivered to the customer, and increased flexibility in meeting customer demands. It was also reported, however, that these benefits typically were not achieved until three-to-five years after TQM initiation.

- by Thomas Scannell and +1
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- Supply Chain Risk Management, Empirical

Treasury bills rate is a preeminent default-risk free rate asset in Ghana's money market whose existence can affect the purchasing power of other assets in the security market. Bank of Ghana sells its Bills to mop up excess liquidity and buys Bank of Ghana Bills to inject liquidity into the system. This paper empirically models the monthly Treasury bill rate of two short term Treasury bills (91 day and 182 day) from the year 1998 to 2012 from the BoG using ARIMA models. From the results, it was realized that ARIMA 3, 1, 1 model is appropriate for modelling the 91-day Treasury bill rate with a log likelihood value of -328.58, and least AIC value of 667.17, AICc value of 667.52 and BIC value of 683.05. Also, ARIMA 1, 1, 0 best models the 182-day Treasury bill rates with a log likelihood value of -356.50, and AIC value of 717.00, AICc value of 717.06 and least BIC value of 723.35. An ARCH-LM test and Ljung-Box test on the residuals of the models revealed that the residuals are free from heteroscedasticity and serial correlation respectively.

- by Pari Ida
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- Finance, Financial Economics, Statistics, Banking
- by Tim Menzies
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- Information Systems, Data Mining, Software Quality, Computer Software

Founded in 1963 by two prominent Austrians living in exile-the sociologist Paul F. Lazarsfeld and the economist Oskar Morgenstern-with the financial support from the Ford Foundation, the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, and the City of Vienna, the Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS) is the first institution for postgraduate education and research in economics and the social sciences in Austria. The Sociological Series presents research done at the Department of Sociology and aims to share "work in progress" in a timely way before formal publication. As usual, authors bear full responsibility for the content of their contributions. Das Institut für Höhere Studien (IHS) wurde im Jahr 1963 von zwei prominenten Exilösterreicherndem Soziologen Paul F. Lazarsfeld und dem Ökonomen Oskar Morgenstern-mit Hilfe der Ford-Stiftung, des Österreichischen Bundesministeriums für Unterricht und der Stadt Wien gegründet und ist somit die erste nachuniversitäre Lehr-und Forschungsstätte für die Sozial-und Wirtschaftswissenschaften in Österreich. Die Reihe Soziologie bietet Einblick in die Forschungsarbeit der Abteilung für Soziologie und verfolgt das Ziel, abteilungsinterne Diskussionsbeiträge einer breiteren fachinternen Öffentlichkeit zugänglich zu machen. Die inhaltliche Verantwortung für die veröffentlichten Beiträge liegt bei den Autoren und Autorinnen.

- by Claire Wallace
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- Economics, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Europe

Abstract—Technical debt has recently become a major concern in the software industry. While it has been shown that technical debt has an adverse effect on the quality of a software system, there has been little work to explore this relationship. Further, with the growing number of approaches to estimate the technical debt principal of a software system, there is a dearth of work to empirically validate the relationship between technical debt scores produced by practical tools against established theoretical quality models. We conducted a case study across 10 releases of 10 open source systems in order to evaluate three proposed methods of technical debt principal estimation. The evaluation compares each technique against an external quality model. We found that only one estimation technique had a strong correlation to the quality attributes reusability and understandability. In a multiple linear regression analysis we also found that a different estimation technique had a significan...

- by Isaac Griffith
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- Model, Empirical, Technical Debt

What role should the realities of the legislative drafting process play in the theories and doctrines of statutory interpretation and administrative law? The ongoing debates frequently turn on empirical assumptions about how Congress

- by abbe gluck
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- Sociology, Politics, Interpretation, Administrative Law

The views expressed in this Working Paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the IMF or IMF policy. Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to further debate. This paper provides the first comprehensive empirical analysis of agricultural trade using a gravity model. The data set covers bilateral trade in agricultural goods for 152 countries over the periods 1990-93 and 1999-2002. The estimations support claims that protectionism and distortive subsidies to agriculture remain widespread in more developed nations, which are shown to import less and export more agricultural products than expected given other economic, political, and geographic determinants of trade. However, some developing regions that are often thought to be the main victims of industrial-country protectionism are also found to be relatively closed to agricultural trade. JEL Classification Numbers: F13, F14, F15

- by Claudio Paiva
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- Human Geography, International Trade, Agriculture, Agricultural trade