Partnership Programs in U.S. Schools: Their Development and Relationship to Family Involvement Outcomes

This study examined data from over 300 U.S. schools on their efforts to develop high quality programs of school, family, and community partnerships. Analyses show that elementary schools, schools with greater support from parents, teachers, and the community; and schools that evaluated progress reported higher quality partnership programs over time. Higher quality programs were associated with wider implementation of parent-child interactive homework, higher levels of parent volunteering, and more parents on school decision-making committees. Results identify factors that could help schools develop quality partnership programs and suggest that these programs translate into higher levels of family involvement in students’ learning.     

Professional networks, scientific collaboration, and publication productivity in resource-constrained research institutions in a developing country

We test the hypothesis that scientific collaboration is associated with increased publication productivity. We differentiate our approach from other studies by (a) incorporating professional networks in the productivity model, (b) casting productivity and collaboration as distinct phenomena, and (c) examining these phenomena in the context of resource-constrained research institutions in a developing country. We use survey data and employ negative binomial regression models. Results indicate that publication productivity is significantly linked to professional network factors, but there is no evidence of any association with scientific collaboration. We observe that most scientists collaborate in research projects despite coordination difficulties, and without any measurable impact on their productivity. Our interviews reveal that a possible answer to this puzzle appears to be rooted in a practice that views collaborative research projects not mainly as a means to producing knowledge and gaining recognition, but for acquiring professional opportunities and extrinsic rewards. Our findings suggest a new way of modeling publication productivity, with implications for science and innovation policy in both the developed and the developing world.     

Stress in elite sport performers: a comparative study of competitive and organizational stressors

The purpose of this study was to compare the content and quantity of competitive and organizational stressors in elite athletes. Ten international performers were interviewed about sources of stress. Content analysis of the data involved categorizing the demands associated primarily and directly with competitive performance (#CS = 21) under the post hoc dimension "performance issues", and the demands associated primarily and directly with the sport organization (#OS = 72) under one of the following four post hoc dimensions: "environmental issues", "personal issues", "leadership issues" and "team issues". Frequency analysis revealed that the participants mentioned the competitive stressors (sigma = 95) less than the organizational stressors (sigma = 215). Further analysis within these categories showed that the mean number of participants citing individual competitive stressors (M = 4.52) was greater than the mean number of participants citing individual organizational stressors (M = 2.99). The findings indicate that elite athletes experience and recall more demands associated primarily and directly with the sport organization than with competitive performance. Furthermore, this population appears more likely to mention similar competitive stressors but varied organizational stressors, probably because the former are inherent and endemic to elite sport, whereas the latter are essentially extraneous and widely distributed.     

How do foreign firms patent in emerging economies with weak appropriability regimes? Archetypes and motives

Foreign firms patent in emerging economies with weak appropriability regimes at an increasing rate. This phenomenon constitutes a paradox since in such a setting foreign firms should have weak incentives to patent. In an attempt to resolve this paradox, we conducted an inductive analysis of 11 foreign firms that patent in such a setting, using the case of China as our empirical context. We identify four archetypes of foreign firms and three key antecedents the interaction of which determines which archetype a firm can be subsumed under.Our study complements the developed-economy focus of the extant appropriation literature by adding an international perspective. We extend previous econometric studies by identifying salient factors on the firm level that determine the extent to which a foreign firm patents in emerging economies with a weak appropriability regime, highlighting that the extent of a firm's motivation to maintain its freedom to operate can supersede imitability concerns. We also comment on the practical implications of these contributions for managers of foreign firms. Highlighting a structural conflict of interest between foreign firms from developed economies and the development goals of an emerging economy, we point to the generalizability of our results to a wide range of other emerging economies worldwide.