Who Are You to Me? Relational Distance to Victims and Perpetrators Affects Advising to Report Rape

The victim’s decision to report a crime is generally dependent on the advice received from a confidant. The effects of a confidant’s relationship to victims and perpetrators on the advice given to report rape were investigated. Indian participants ( N = 418) read one of the seven scenarios of acquaintance rape as a confidant; the scenarios depicted different relationships between the victim and perpetrator (family vs. friend vs. stranger). Confidants closer to victims were more likely to advise reporting, whereas confidants closer to the perpetrator were less likely to advise reporting. Rape myth acceptance and victim blaming negatively predicted reporting to agencies.

Explicating dimensions of family marginalization and types of marginalized family members

Marginalized family members feel different from and are often disapproved of or excluded by multiple family members. These feelings arise from interactions that create relational distance. Although being marginalized from one’s family typically is a chronically stressful process, the ways in which marginalization is accomplished likely varies across individuals, families, and/or time. Guided by social identification and confirmation theories, we sought to identify specific types of marginalized family members based on three dimensions of marginalization: difference, disapproval, and exclusion. Cluster analysis of survey reports ( N = 315) revealed that marginalized family members can be grouped into three types: dissenting, questioning, and diverging. Content analysis of open-ended survey responses was used to name and further distinguish the types of marginalized family members. The types vary in perceived levels of family confirmation, family identification, and self-esteem. Theoretical implications for elaborating aspects of SIT and confirmation theory and understanding family distancing are discussed along with avenues for future research.

Working at a remove: continuous, collective, and configurative approaches to qualitative secondary analysis

In this paper, we define and operationalise three modes of research engagement using qualitative secondary analysis (QSA). We characterise these forms of engagement as continuous, collective and configurative. Continuous QSA involves modes of engagement that centre on asking new questions of existing datasets to (re)apprehend empirical evidence, and develop continuous (or contiguous) samples in ways that principally leverage epistemic distance. Collective QSA characteristically involves generating dialogue between members of different research teams to establish comparisons and linkages across studies, and formulate new analytic directions harnessing relational distance. Configurative QSA refers to how existing data are brought into conversation with broader sources of theory and evidence, typically in ways which exploit greater temporal distance. In relation to each mode of engagement we discuss how processes of both (re)contextualisation and (re)connection offer opportunities for new analytical engagement through different combinations and degrees of proximity to, and distance from, the formative contexts of data production.

The Effects of Intragroup Guanxi Interaction on Customers’ Intentions to Complain

This study examined the impacts of intragroup guanxi interaction on customers’ complaint behavior following service failure on a group tour. Based on the guanxi literature and social support theory, two dimensions of intragroup guanxi interaction were identified, and their effects on customers’ intentions to complain were examined. The moderating effects of group size and relational distance were also assessed. Three experimental studies were conducted to test the proposed hypotheses. Findings revealed that instrumental guanxi interaction and emotional guanxi interaction among tour group members both positively influenced travelers’ intentions to complain, and the impact of emotional guanxi interaction was greater than that of instrumental guanxi interaction. Moreover, the effects of intragroup guanxi interaction on group customers’ intentions to complain were stronger for larger groups and for groups with closer relational distance. This study contributes to the literature on group service failure and customers’ complaint behavior from an Eastern cultural perspective.

Social facilitation or social loafing – threshold effect of group size on customer's complaint intention

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the threshold effect of group size on customer's complaining intention under group service failures.Design/methodology/approachBased on two main laboratory experiments, through two 10×2 scenario simulation experiments, the authors examine the role of group size in customer's complaining intention.FindingsResults show that: (1) the relationship between group size and customer's complaining intention follows an inverted “U” type trend; (2) evaluation apprehension mediates the relationship between group size and customer's complaining intention; (3) relational distance can change threshold values and (4) relational distance moderates the relationship between group size and customer's complaining intention.Practical implicationsManagers should judge the threshold of group size through experience so as to have a preliminary understanding of customer evaluation concerns and complaint intention. In the face of service failure groups smaller than the threshold range, managers should divided the group into several small groups. For service failure groups larger than the threshold range, the opinion leaders in the group should be given more attention, so as to control the whole group.Social implicationsThis paper is helpful to deeply understand the key role of group size in the process of customer complaints, and also provides decision-making basis for service enterprises to deal with group customer complaints.Originality/valueThere has been little research about the threshold effect of group size on customer's complaining intention. The previous studies on customer's complaining intention focus on its influences on group size, and draw a single common conclusion that the customer's intention to complain will increase with the growing number of groups increases. However, few studies are explored on the threshold of group size. Therefore, this paper will focus on the threshold effect of group size on customer's complaining intention to fill the gap.

Global PPPs and the Choice of Law Challenge

Positing the public-private partnership as an important optional legal structure in the delivery of infrastructural services in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), this exploratory article discusses the crucial, but formidable, problems of risks in management or governance. It considers whether traditional common law conflict of laws as applied in Singapore courts can contribute principles that recognize shared expectations and commitment or foster solidarity, mutuality, and trust—values regarded as essential to their effective resolution. Arguing that traditional conflicts distinctions between State and non-State law as well as between public and private law are unhelpful in this respect, it concludes that modern critical developments contain promising prospects for developing such principles. These principles will predicate a role for foreign State substantive public policies and, if there is relevant ‘relational distance’, implement them in BRI choice-of-law disputes, thereby reconciling private efficiency and public accountability beyond borders.

Couple Conflict and Music Utilisation

It is believed that conflict exists on a spectrum, which holds interest for many relationship researchers. However, it is not well understood how music is utilised within couples when they engage in conflict, considering music has been known to assist in reducing physiological, emotional, and social regulation. The proposed study explored how music was utilised in times of conflict for couples through a grounded theory approach. The main themes that emerged were: variability of choice, knowledge of partner's habits, communication, similarity of style, relational distance, repair attempt, music utilisation as relational engagement, emotional regulation, and hopeful togetherness. These themes are presented in a theoretical model of how couples utilise music to regulate social, emotional, and biological domains of their relationship.