Empirical Cases (empirical + case)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Terms modified by Empirical Cases

  • empirical case study

  • Selected Abstracts


    Economic Crime as Hiding Behavior

    AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS AND SOCIOLOGY, Issue 3 2009
    Oskar Engdahl
    The article introduces "hiding behavior" as a concept for understanding why people conceal economic problems and solve them by committing crimes. This concept's theoretical purport, empirical applicability, and relevance for the research area are considered through an analysis of an empirical case. An explanatory model is then developed, focusing on the concrete social relations in which hiding behavior originates and in which it remains embedded. From case studies we see how hiding behavior is situated in social relations characterized by a specific form of uncertainty arising from engulfment and isolation. In these relations money plays a central role, providing a medium for action-coordination essential in the incidence of economic crime. Finally, the explanatory power of the proposed conceptual model is discussed, with several possible refinements suggested for it. [source]


    ,Green alliances' of business and NGOs.

    CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2002
    New styles of self-regulation or, dead-end roads'?
    In recent years, so-called greenalliances between NGOs and business have become popular phenomena, both in practice as well as in academic literature. This is striking, as it concerns collaborative partnerships of agencies whose relationships were quite antagonistic in the past. The question then is how stable and effective these alliances can be, amongst others, in contributing to,or even substituting,environmental policy-making and regulation. To answer this question, the history and (potential) effectiveness of green alliances are analysed from a political modernization and policy arrangement perspective. With that, this paper has a strong theoretical focus. The intention is not to analyse empirical cases thoroughly, but to theorize about the history, strengths and weaknesses of green alliances. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment [source]


    CI Implementation: An Empirical Test of the CI Maturity Model

    CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2006
    Frances Jørgensen
    There are a number of tools available for organizations wishing to measure and subsequently develop Continuous Improvement (CI). In this article, we review and evaluate a well-accepted CI development model, namely the CI Maturity Model (Bessant and Caffyn, 1997), against data collected from the 2nd Continuous Improvement Network Survey and a number of empirical cases described in the literature. While the CI Maturity Model suggests that CI maturation ought to be a linear process, the findings in this article suggest that there are feasible alternatives for companies to develop CI capability. [source]


    The determinants of environmental innovation: the impacts of environmental policies on the Nordic pulp, paper and packaging industries

    ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND GOVERNANCE, Issue 2 2007
    Paula Kivimaa
    Abstract Innovations may have positive societal effects such as improved environmental performance, and they are often portrayed as solutions to environmental problems. However, the mechanisms through which innovations develop and the ways in which public incentives support improved environmental performance of innovations are complex. This paper uses empirical cases to examine how environmental policies, market factors and technological push affect process and product innovations in the Nordic pulp, paper and packaging industries. The results show that environmental improvements in technologies and products are simultaneously driven by all three of these factors. Environmental innovations are often developed in anticipation of future policy or as side-effects of existing policies. However, while environmental policy directly influences process innovations, its connection to product innovations is less clear. The study points towards the importance of gradually tightening and predictable environmental policies that are flexible enough to allow the exploration of new technological developments. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source]


    THE EVOLUTION OF PREMATING ISOLATION: LOCAL ADAPTATION AND NATURAL AND SEXUAL SELECTION AGAINST HYBRIDS

    EVOLUTION, Issue 5 2004
    Maria R. Servedio
    Abstract Although reinforcement is ostensibly driven by selection against hybrids, there are often other components in empirical cases and theoretical models of reinforcement that may contribute to premating isolation. One of these components is local adaptation of a trait used in mate choice. I use several different comparisons to assess the roles that local adaptation and selection against hybrids may play in reinforcement models. Both numerical simulations of exact recursion equations and analytical weak selection approximations are employed. I find that selection against hybrids may play a small role in driving preference evolution in a reinforcement model where the mating cue is separate from loci causing hybrid incompatibilities. When females have preferences directly for purebreds of their own population, however, selection against hybrids can play a large role in premating isolation evolution. I present some situations in which this type of selection is likely to exist. This work also illustrates shortfalls of using a weak selection approach to address questions about reinforcement. [source]


    A Surface-Based Approach to Measuring Spatial Segregation

    GEOGRAPHICAL ANALYSIS, Issue 2 2007
    David O'Sullivan
    Quantitative indices of residential segregation have been with us for half a century, but suffer significant limitations. While useful for comparison among regions, summary indices fail to reveal spatial aspects of segregation. Such measures generally consider only the population mix within zones, not between them. Zone boundaries are treated as impenetrable barriers to interaction between population subgroups, so that measurement of segregation is constrained by the zoning system, which bears no necessary relation to interaction among population subgroups. A segregation measurement approach less constrained by the chosen zoning system, which enables visualization of segregation levels at the local scale and accounts for the spatial dimension of segregation, is required. We propose a kernel density estimation approach to model spatial aspects of segregation. This provides an explicitly geographical framework for modeling and visualizing local spatial segregation. The density estimation approach lends itself to development of an index of spatial segregation with the advantage of functional compatibility with the most widely used index of segregation (the dissimilarity index D). We provide a short review of the literature on measuring segregation, briefly describe the kernel density estimation method, and illustrate how the method can be used for measuring segregation. Examples using a simulated landscape and two empirical cases in Washington, DC and Philadelphia, PA are presented. [source]


    ORGANIZATIONAL AND OCCUPATIONAL COMMITMENT: KNOWLEDGE WORKERS IN LARGE CORPORATIONS*

    JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, Issue 6 2002
    TAM YEUK-MUI MAY
    Previous discussion of knowledge work and workers tends to overlook the importance of contextual knowledge in shaping the organizational form of knowledge workers who are employees in large corporations. This paper proposes a model to understand the way knowledge base and organizational form are related to the work commitment, effort and job satisfaction of knowledge workers. The model is derived from (1) a critical examination of the market model of knowledge work organization, and (2) the results of empirical research conducted in two large corporations. We argue that contextual knowledge is important in the relationships between the corporation and knowledge workers. A dualistic model and an enclave organizational form are suggested to examine the relationships between the commitment, work effort and job satisfaction of knowledge workers. We noted from our empirical cases that enclave-like work teams enhanced the expertise and job autonomy of knowledge workers vis-à-vis management. These work teams together with the performance-based pay system, however, led to unmet job expectations including limited employee influence over decision-making and careers, and communication gaps with senior management. Under these circumstances, and in contrast to the impact of occupational commitment, organizational commitment did not contribute to work effort. The study highlights the importance of management's strategy in shaping the organizational form of knowledge work. The paper concludes by noting general implications of our study for the management of expertise and for further research. [source]


    A case study of the modified Hirsch index hm accounting for multiple coauthors

    JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 6 2009
    Michael Schreiber
    J.E. Hirsch (2005) introduced the h -index to quantify an individual's scientific research output by the largest number h of a scientist's papers, that received at least h citations. This so-called Hirsch index can be easily modified to take multiple coauthorship into account by counting the papers fractionally according to (the inverse of) the number of authors. I have worked out 26 empirical cases of physicists to illustrate the effect of this modification. Although the correlation between the original and the modified Hirsch index is relatively strong, the arrangement of the datasets is significantly different depending on whether they are put into order according to the values of either the original or the modified index. [source]


    A Method for Measuring the Motion of Culture

    AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, Issue 1 2010
    Greg Urban
    ABSTRACT, Beginning with Edward Tylor's (1889) definition of culture as socially "acquired," I focus in this article on motion as social acquisition and transmission through "artifacts",both durable (like ceramic pots) and fleeting (like sounds). Motion can be detected by comparison of the artifacts to which people are exposed with those they in turn produce. I examine rates of interaction with artifacts and changes in rates as evidence of the operation of "forces" such as interest and metaculture. I develop a set of axioms or laws of motion, growing out of fine-grained research on naturally occurring discourse, and endeavor to demonstrate their utility through application to three empirical cases. Although I deal with relatively small-scale artifacts, I conclude this article with the suggestion that its methods may prove useful in the broader study of cultural phenomena. [source]


    Culture and Rights after Culture and Rights

    AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, Issue 1 2006
    JANE K. COWAN
    Building on a critical, theoretical approach outlined in Culture and Rights: Anthropological Perspectives (Cowan et al. 2001a), I posit rights processes as complex and contradictory: Both enabling and constraining, they produce new subjectivities and social relations and entail unintended consequences. To encourage interdisciplinary engagement on these themes, I explore selected texts that consider the relationship between culture and rights, addressing two literatures: (1) debates on culture, rights, and recognition in the context of multiculturalism among political philosophers and (2) an emerging literature by anthropologists, feminists, critical legal scholars, and engaged practitioners analyzing empirical cases. Although political philosophers elucidate ethical implications and clarify political projects, an outmoded arsenal of theoretical concepts of "culture,""society," and "the individual" has hampered their debates. When accounts are both theoretically informed and empirically grounded, contradictions, ambiguities, and impasses of culture and rights are more fully explored and the liberal model of rights and multiculturalism is more open to interrogation. [source]


    Stand and Deliver: Private Property and the Politics of Global Dispossession

    POLITICAL STUDIES, Issue 1 2006
    Stefan Andreasson
    Property rights necessarily generate violent, and oftentimes lethal, processes of dispossession. While liberal theorists from Locke to Hayek consider property rights as an essential and emancipatory component of human freedom, they fail to consider societal power asymmetries impeding the ability of property rights to protect the interests of the weak and marginalised. If property rights produce freedom and prosperity, they do so very selectively. More obvious is the ongoing historical process of already propertied classes making ,clever usurpation into an irrevocable right' by extending private property regimes along two key dimensions , type and space. Examining various uses of private property over time reveals processes whereby relatively basic notions of private property, enforced by a Weberian state at the local level in the early era of industrialisation, are extended to encompass new and sophisticated forms of property that are enforced globally via international institutions. Two contemporary empirical cases of using property rights are examined in this paper: land reform in Southern Africa (specifically Zimbabwe) and intellectual property rights. In this context of ongoing dispossession, further privatisation and commodification can only exacerbate contemporary problems of marginalisation and dispossession. [source]