Breaking up is hard to do: the resilience of the rock group as an organizational form for creating music

Though there is a long tradition of band members quitting the group or taking a hiatus, the rock group as an organization to produce music continues to be both popular and economically viable. The research question addressed in this paper is whether or not it is a good idea to quit or take a hiatus from the group. We begin with a discussion of the framework for understanding why groups are formed and why they may be difficult to keep together. We then discuss differences between groups in the decade of the 1960s versus today. We argue that there is something unique about the output of the group even with the changes in the structure of contracts, compensation, and consumer focus on the artist that explain the resilience of the rock band as an organizational form within which to create music. We compare the charting success of bands that have members leave the group with the charting success of the members who left the group. We identified the groups in five representative years: 1965, 1975, 1985, 1995, and 2005. We then analyzed the entire Billboard Hot 100 charting careers of those groups and the artists who quit those groups. Our main finding is that when charting success is divided equally among members, going solo pays off—there is a clear economic rationale because solo acts have greater average charting success than the original bands they started in. The other ensuing side projects: duos, collaborations, and other groups are not as lucrative as the original bands. These findings are valid for members of charting groups from each of the 5 years examined. Despite the difficulties in keeping a rock band together, there are fewer band breakups today and remaining with the group generally results in a longer and more productive charting career. Thus, the rock group remains an important organization for producing contemporary music. However, there remains a compelling incentive to go solo. Superstars may benefit from solo projects, but for the average, non-superstar group member, in many circumstances it is better for the band to stay together if the income is divided equally.     

The impacts of fundraising periods and geographic distance on financing music production via crowdfunding in Brazil

We conduct an analysis of 1835 pledges to 10 music production projects hosted on the largest Brazilian crowdfunding platform, namely the Catarse Web site, and we assess the relation between the fundraising accumulation period, the donor–entrepreneur distance and the propensity of donors to back projects. Our results suggest a significantly negative association between distance and the value of capital pledged to projects, which is consistent with the notion that the entrepreneur’s network of close contacts might play a central role in funding. Furthermore, our results contradict the idea that crowdfunding reduces the inhibiting effect of donor–entrepreneur distance. In addition, the results show that a long project exposure is associated with higher values of pledges. These results suggest practical implications for the study of crowdfunding as a financing platform. This study contributes to the literature on the use of crowdfunding as an alternative funding source in a major emerging market.     

Does the long tail really favor small publishers?

A growing body of literature is devoted to testing the reality of the “long-tail” phenomenon. This literature is mostly, if not exclusively, focused on the impact of Internet on the distribution of sales by product. However, the long tail also raises the issue of a possible change in the usual market structure of cultural industries: an oligopoly with a competitive fringe. To our knowledge, no paper addresses the following question: If the long-tail effect does exist, is it of more benefit to small or dominant publishers? The aim of this paper was to address this issue in the context of the French publishing industry. Our main findings are as follows: (1) the market concentration of the French book industry is lower online than offline and (2) the difference in concentration between the two channels of distribution tended to widen over the period 2004–2010. Strategies adopted by leading publishers on the Web do not allow them to maintain the market share obtained with bricks-and-mortar retailers. Furthermore, we show that the market share lost by dominant firms is captured by small publishers online and by medium-sized publishers in conventional stores.     

Strategic Capacity and Organisational Capabilities: A Challenge for Universities

Are universities able to operate as strategic actors? An organisational sociology based approach supported by a comparative field research project identifies three types of social, cultural and cognitive processes that play a decisive role in building and implementing local capabilities required to mobilise a strategic capacity. The paper identifies how much these processes are present in the four ideal-types of universities defined by crossing their reputation and their metrics-based performance. Such a meso deterministic perspective suggests that universities may position themselves as proactive actors or principals, and not just as agents of national reforms and political demands. Nevertheless, their ability to do it varies according to their type. The paper also explores the implications of such findings for institutional leadership and steering policymakers.     

Unsustainable Growth,Hyper-Competition,and Worth in Life Science Research: Narrowing Evaluative Repertoires in Doctoral and Postdoctoral Scientists’ Work and Lives

There is a crisis of valuation practices in the current academic life sciences, triggered by unsustainable growth and “hyper-competition.” Quantitative metrics in evaluating researchers are seen as replacing deeper considerations of the quality and novelty of work, as well as substantive care for the societal implications of research. Junior researchers are frequently mentioned as those most strongly affected by these dynamics. However, their own perceptions of these issues are much less frequently considered. This paper aims at contributing to a better understanding of the interplay between how research is valued and how young researchers learn to live, work and produce knowledge within academia. We thus analyze how PhD students and postdocs in the Austrian life sciences ascribe worth to people, objects and practices as they talk about their own present and future lives in research. We draw on literature from the field of valuation studies and its interest in how actors refer to different forms of valuation to account for their actions. We explore how young researchers are socialized into different valuation practices in different stages of their growing into science. Introducing the concept of “regimes of valuation” we show that PhD students relate to a wider evaluative repertoire while postdocs base their decisions on one dominant regime of valuing research. In conclusion, we discuss the implications of these findings for the epistemic and social development of the life sciences, and for other scientific fields.     

高一学生数学学习心理调查与思考

初中毕业进入高中后,相当多的高一学生不适应高中数学教学,对学习缺乏信心,出现了两极分化。我们从高一学生数学学习心理方面进行调查研究并提出相应的对策,以供参考。     

基金视角下的学科知识流动网络构建与分析

[目的/意义] 在学科交叉融合的背景和趋势下,科研人员的跨学科研究行为促进了知识在不同学科之间的共享与流动。以基金领域为视角,研究学科知识流动,以期为基金管理工作提出建议。[方法/过程] 提出基于基金代码共现的学科知识流动强度测量方法,并利用社会网络分析方法,对193517个国家自然科学基金项目数据构建学科知识流动网络,探究网络的演变过程以及不同学科层次内知识流动路径。[结果/结论] 通过以上分析,得到如下结论:学科知识流动网络是无标度网络,随着时间的推移,网络的规模和结构都发生显著的变化,网络中重要节点呈非稳态;不同学部之间,存在若干条较为重要的知识流动路径;在某一个学部内,具有较广影响力的一类学科往往更容易构成知识流动链条。     

基于网络问答社区的话题识别与分析——以知乎“老年人”话题为例

[目的/意义]针对目前基于网络的话题识别与分析方法的局限性,提出针对网络问答社区的话题识别与分析方法,为此类网站的话题识别与分析提供参考。[方法/过程]以改进的中文分词技术为基础,构建网络问答社区的话题识别指标,通过线性加权方式计算权重,结合关键词提取方法确定话题关键词,对话题关注焦点进行提取,对分布情况进行测度。依据所提出的改进方法,以知乎网站为数据来源,从话题关键词、关键词分布以及热点子话题3个角度对"老年人"话题焦点进行识别与分析。[结果/结论]研究表明,该方法具有科学性和可行性,不仅拓展了社会问题的分析数据源,也为"积极开展应对人口老龄化行动"提供了决策依据。     

关怀理论:教师专业成长中不可忽视的内容

诺丁斯的关怀理论是20世纪80年代中期提出,并随着90年代初兴起的“学会关心”这一国际教育思潮而备受关注。它为教师的专业成长提出了一种新的研究视角:彰显教师的非理性精神来挑战传统理性;以学习关怀为出发点而建构学校教育和教师成长的新内容;在关怀实践中提升教师专业成长的责任感与动力。