Investigating Differentiated Production Systems: The U.S. Machine Tool Industry

This article is intended to conceptually tighten an understanding of firm-level production systems. It should be read as part of a broader effort to conceptualize and analyze the social and spatial organization of innovation and production in a way that integrates the local, regional, national, and global dimensions within and across sectors of production. In the first section, we introduce models for analyzing (1) product and production strategies and (2) the social and technical organization of the enterprise. Taken together, they conceptually ground a typology of Differentiated Production Systems, which we present as a way of conceptualizing and analyzing the social organization of innovation and production at the level of the firm. The second section of the article introduces the machine-tool study and analyzes key variables associated with technological and organizational innovation in the respondent firms. In the third section, we present a set of case studies to demonstrate the applicability of the models we have introduced. We conclude with a brief interpretation of the U.S. machine tool sector drawn from our framework and a preliminary appraisal of the potential significance of our conceptualization.

Download Full-text

The Authenticity Paradox: Why the Returns to Authenticity on Audience Appeal Decrease in Popularity and Iconicity

Journal of Management ◽

10.1177/0149206320950414 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 014920632095041

Author(s):

J. Cameron Verhaal ◽

Stanislav D. Dobrev

Keyword(s):

Social Construction ◽

Boundary Conditions ◽

Competitive Advantage ◽

Social Dynamics ◽

Economic Value ◽

Firm Level ◽

Craft Beer ◽

Audience Appeal ◽

The Social ◽

The U.S

A great deal of research has argued for authenticity as a key firm-level attribute and source of competitive advantage. But we know very little about the boundary conditions related to organizational authenticity. In order to address this, we develop a theory of the social construction of authenticity, how it affects the appeal of a producer’s offerings, and how the market success of these offerings affects the returns to authenticity. We propose that there are two mechanisms, in addition to authenticity, that can drive audience appeal: popularity and iconicity. But increases in both popularity and iconicity also challenge some of the underlying tenets of what the audience considers authentic, namely, intrinsic motivation and the pursuit of social, rather than economic, value. The authenticity paradox, then, is that even as the appeal of authentic offerings increases, their popularity and iconicity diminish the returns to authenticity. We find support for these ideas in the context of the U.S. market for craft beer and discuss the implications of our theory for authenticity research and for the broader market and social dynamics in craft industries.

Download Full-text

Assessing Trends and Decomposing Change in Nonresponse Bias: The Case of Bias in Cohort Distributions

Sociological Methods & Research ◽

10.1177/0049124117701479 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 48 (1) ◽

pp. 92-115 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Tobias Gummer

Keyword(s):

Social Sciences ◽

Nonresponse Bias ◽

Social Surveys ◽

The Social ◽

National Comparison ◽

Key Variables ◽

Cohort Change ◽

The U.S ◽

Tools And Methods ◽

Cross National

Survey research is still confronted by a trend of increasing nonresponse rates. In this context, several methodological advances have been made to stimulate participation and avoid bias. Yet, despite the growing number of tools and methods to deal with nonresponse, little is known about whether nonresponse biases show similar trends as nonresponse rates and what mechanisms (if any) drive changes in bias. Our article focuses on biases in cohort distributions in the U.S. and German general social surveys from 1980 to 2012 as one of the key variables in the social sciences. To supplement our cross-national comparison of these trends, we decompose changes into within-cohort change (WCC) and between-cohort change. We find that biases in cohort distributions have remained relatively stable and at a relatively low level in both countries. Furthermore, WCC (i.e., survey climate) accounts for the major part of the change in nonresponse bias.

Download Full-text

The Social Construction of a Perfect Market: The Strawberry Auction at Fontaines-en-Sologne

Voprosy Ekonomiki ◽

10.32609/0042-8736-2010-8-73-89 ◽

2010 ◽

pp. 73-89

Author(s):

M.-F. Garcia

Keyword(s):

Economic Theory ◽

Social Construction ◽

Empirical Study ◽

Spatial Organization ◽

Frame Of Reference ◽

Social Conditions ◽

Invisible Hand ◽

The Social ◽

Per Se

The article examines social conditions and mechanisms of the emergence in 1982 of a «Dutch» strawberry auction in Fontaines-en-Sologne, France. Empirical study of this case shows that perfect market does not arise per se due to an «invisible hand». It is a social construction, which could only be put into effect by a hard struggle between stakeholders and large investments of different forms of capital. Ordinary practices of the market dont differ from the predictions of economic theory, which is explained by the fact that economic theory served as a frame of reference for the designers of the auction. Technological and spatial organization as well as principal rules of trade was elaborated in line with economic views of perfect market resulting in the correspondence between theory and reality.

Download Full-text

Institutional actors: Children’s emerging beliefs about the causal structure of social roles

10.31234/osf.io/x7n6e ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Alexander Noyes ◽

Frank Keil ◽

Yarrow Dunham

Keyword(s):

Soccer Player ◽

Social Roles ◽

Social Role ◽

Causal Structure ◽

Executive Orders ◽

The Social ◽

The World ◽

Children's Beliefs ◽

Institutional Actors ◽

The U.S

Institutions make new forms of acting possible: Signing executive orders, scoring goals, and officiating weddings are only possible because of the U.S. government, the rules of soccer, and the institution of marriage. Thus, when an individual occupies a particular social role (President, soccer player, and officiator) they acquire new ways of acting on the world. The present studies investigated children’s beliefs about institutional actions, and in particular whether children understand that individuals can only perform institutional actions when their community recognizes them as occupying the appropriate social role. Two studies (Study 1, N = 120 children, 4-11; Study 2, N = 90 children, 4-9) compared institutional actions to standard actions that do not depend on institutional recognition. In both studies, 4- to 5-year-old children believed all actions were possible regardless of whether an individual was recognized as occupying the social role. In contrast, 8- to 9-year-old children robustly distinguished between institutional and standard actions; they understood that institutional actions depend on collective recognition by a community.

Download Full-text

A Panel Evaluation of the Changes in the General Public’s Social-Media-Following of United States’ Public Health Departments during COVID-19 Pandemic

Journal of Primary Care & Community Health ◽

10.1177/2150132721995450 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

pp. 215013272199545

Author(s):

Areej Khokhar ◽

Aaron Spaulding ◽

Zuhair Niazi ◽

Sikander Ailawadhi ◽

Rami Manochakian ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Social Media ◽

State Level ◽

The State ◽

Public Health Department ◽

Health Departments ◽

The Public ◽

Public Health Departments ◽

The Social ◽

The U.S

Importance: Social media is widely used by various segments of society. Its role as a tool of communication by the Public Health Departments in the U.S. remains unknown. Objective: To determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on social media following of the Public Health Departments of the 50 States of the U.S. Design, Setting, and Participants: Data were collected by visiting the Public Health Department web page for each social media platform. State-level demographics were collected from the U.S. Census Bureau. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention was utilized to collect information regarding the Governance of each State’s Public Health Department. Health rankings were collected from “America’s Health Rankings” 2019 Annual report from the United Health Foundation. The U.S. News and World Report Education Rankings were utilized to provide information regarding the public education of each State. Exposure: Data were pulled on 3 separate dates: first on March 5th (baseline and pre-national emergency declaration (NED) for COVID-19), March 18th (week following NED), and March 25th (2 weeks after NED). In addition, a variable identifying the total change across platforms was also created. All data were collected at the State level. Main Outcome: Overall, the social media following of the state Public Health Departments was very low. There was a significant increase in the public interest in following the Public Health Departments during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: With the declaration of National Emergency, there was a 150% increase in overall public following of the State Public Health Departments in the U.S. The increase was most noted in the Midwest and South regions of the U.S. The overall following in the pandemic “hotspots,” such as New York, California, and Florida, was significantly lower. Interesting correlations were noted between various demographic variables, health, and education ranking of the States and the social media following of their Health Departments. Conclusion and Relevance: Social media following of Public Health Departments across all States of the U.S. was very low. Though, the social media following significantly increased during the early course of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it still remains low. Significant opportunity exists for Public Health Departments to improve social media use to engage the public better.

Download Full-text

Using Payroll Tax Variation to Unpack the Black Box of Firm-Level Production

Journal of the European Economic Association ◽

10.1093/jeea/jvab010 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Youssef Benzarti ◽

Jarkko Harju

Keyword(s):

Black Box ◽

Total Output ◽

Tax Rates ◽

Firm Level ◽

Payroll Tax ◽

Payroll Taxes ◽

Input Factor ◽

Experimental Variation ◽

Quasi Experimental ◽

Level Production

Abstract This paper uses quasi-experimental variation in payroll tax rates in Finland to investigate how firms use their input factors. We find that higher payroll tax rates lead to large employment responses and have no effects on employee-level earnings. As payroll taxes increase, firms substitute away from low-skilled, routine and manual workers. Higher firm-level payroll tax rates also slightly decrease the total output of firms. Our results imply that firm-level production and input factor choices are clearly affected by payroll taxes.

Download Full-text

Historicizing the comparative survey of freedom: tracing the social trajectory of an influential indicator

Science in Context ◽

10.1017/s0269889720000216 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 33 (2) ◽

pp. 121-144

Author(s):

Emily Zerndt

Keyword(s):

American Foreign Policy ◽

Policy Decision ◽

Political Scientist ◽

Social Scientists ◽

The Social ◽

Retrospective Account ◽

Comparative Survey ◽

Policy Decision Making ◽

The U.S ◽

Freedom House

ArgumentThe Comparative Survey of Freedom, first published by Freedom House in 1973, is now the most widely used indicator of democracy by both academics and the U.S. government alike. However, literature examining the Survey’s origins is virtually nonexistent. In this article, I use archival records to challenge Freedom House’s retrospective account of the indicator’s creation. Rather than the outcome of a scientific methodology by multiple social scientists, the Survey was produced by a single political scientist, Raymond Gastil, according to his own hunches and impressions. How, then, did this indicator rise to such prominence? I argue that the Survey’s notoriety can be attributed to its early promotion in both political science and American foreign policy decision-making, as well as the fact that it fit the dominant scientific and political paradigms of the time.

Download Full-text

Overview of PROMISE

Career Development and Transition for Exceptional Individuals ◽

10.1177/2165143420980458 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 216514342098045

Author(s):

David E. Emenheiser ◽

Corinne Weidenthal ◽

Selete Avoke ◽

Marlene Simon-Burroughs

Keyword(s):

Career Development ◽

Social Security ◽

Human Services ◽

Technical Assistance ◽

Department Of Education ◽

Social Security Administration ◽

Special Issue ◽

Health And Human Services ◽

The Social ◽

The U.S

Promoting the Readiness of Minors in Supplemental Security Income (PROMISE), a study of 13,444 randomly assigned youth and their families, includes six model demonstration projects and a technical assistance center funded through the U.S. Department of Education and a national evaluation of the model demonstration projects funded through the Social Security Administration. The Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services and the Executive Office of the President partnered with the Department of Education and Social Security Administration to develop and monitor the PROMISE initiative. This article provides an overview of PROMISE as the introduction to this special issue of Career Development and Transition for Exceptional Individuals.

Download Full-text

Introduction: Moral and Market disordering in the time of Covid-19

Cultural Dynamics ◽

10.1177/09213740211014304 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 33 (3) ◽

pp. 145-161

Author(s):

Michaeline A Crichlow ◽

Dirk Philipsen

Keyword(s):

Economic System ◽

High Growth ◽

Special Issue ◽

Relational Approach ◽

Market Values ◽

The Social ◽

The World ◽

World Economic ◽

Triadic Relationship ◽

The U.S

This special issue composed of essays that brainstorm the triadic relationship between Covid-19, Race and the Markets, addresses the fundamentals of a world economic system that embeds market values within social and cultural lifeways. It penetrates deep into the insecurities and inequalities that have endured for several centuries, through liberalism for sure, and compounded ineluctably into these contemporary times. Market fundamentalism is thoroughly complicit with biopolitical sovereignty-its racializing socioeconomic projects, cheapens life given its obsessive focus on high growth, by any means necessary. If such precarity seemed normal even opaque to those privileged enough to reap the largess of capitalism and its political correlates, the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic with its infliction of sickness and death has exposed the social and economic dehiscence undergirding wealth in the U.S. especially, and the world at large. The essays remind us of these fissures, offering ways to unthink this devastating spiral of growth, and embrace an unadulterated care centered system; one that offers a more open and relational approach to life with the planet. Care, then becomes the pursuit of a re-existence without domination, and the general toxicity that has accompanied a regimen of high growth. The contributors to this volume, join the growing global appeal to turn back from this disaster, and rethink how we relate to ourselves, to our neighbors here and abroad, and to the non-humans in order to dwell harmoniously within socionature.

Download Full-text