Informal Networks and Resistance to Organizational Change: The Introduction of Quality Standards in a Transport Company

In this paper we investigate the association between resistance to the introduction of ISO quality standards in a transport company and three effects of the informal advice and trust networks in the organization. The analysis includes four prevailing explanations from the literature on organizational resistance: job satisfaction, perceived legitimacy, unit grouping and decision making authority. The network effects we propose are: (a) a contagion effect, which predicts that members with the same opinion tend to have close or equal trust and advice relations; (b) a prominence effect, which predicts that prominent actors in the trust network show less resistance than other members—and that prominent members of the advice network show more resistance than less prominent actors; (c) a role equivalence effect, which predicts that members with the same patterns of combined trust/advice relations show the same resistance. The paper presents the operationalization and measurement of the variables and the results of three analyses to test the effects. Contagion of resistance appears to be very significant in the trust network. Resistance gradually erodes in the trust network when moving from management to employees. Members who are trusted in the transport company are significantly less resistant to the introduction of the quality standards than members who are not especially trusted. This network effect is controlled for the significant effects of job satisfaction and perceived legitimacy. The role equivalence structure of the combined trust/advice network does not explain the resistance. We conclude that informal networks have important effects on resistance to the proposed changes in the transport company. The case study shows how network analysis can be used to empirically test for effects of social relations in organizations.     

奖惩机制下闭环供应链非正规渠道社会效应研究

针对闭环供应链非正规渠道在促进资源回收再利用的同时又对环境造成二次污染的情况,给出资源回收当量指标以综合考量渠道资源回收和再造污染效应,利用数学优化和数值仿真方法对比分析存在政府奖惩机制下非正规渠道的经济效应和资源回收效应,获得了非正规渠道积极社会效应的通用定理以及不同再造回收率和奖惩强度下非正规渠道社会效应的特点,给出了政府治理非正规渠道的参考建议和分析方法。     

Networks, Fields and Organizations: Micro-Dynamics, Scale and Cohesive Embeddings

Social action is situated in fields that are simultaneously composed of interpersonal ties and relations among organizations, which are both usefully characterized as social networks. We introduce a novel approach to distinguishing different network macro-structures in terms of cohesive subsets and their overlaps. We develop a vocabulary that relates different forms of network cohesion to field properties as opposed to organizational constraints on ties and structures. We illustrate differences in probabilistic attachment processes in network evolution that link on the one hand to organizational constraints versus field properties and to cohesive network topologies on the other. This allows us to identify a set of important new micro-macro linkages between local behavior in networks and global network properties. The analytic strategy thus puts in place a methodology for Predictive Social Cohesion theory to be developed and tested in the context of informal and formal organizations and organizational fields. We also show how organizations and fields combine at different scales of cohesive depth and cohesive breadth. Operational measures and results are illustrated for three organizational examples, and analysis of these cases suggests that different structures of cohesive subsets and overlaps may be predictive in organizational contexts and similarly for the larger fields in which they are embedded. Useful predictions may also be based on feedback from level of cohesion in the larger field back to organizations, conditioned on the level of multiconnectivity to the field.     

Gossip in Organizations

Three hypotheses about the effects of different informal social network structures on gossip behavior are developed and tested. Gossip is defined as a conversation about a third person who is not participating in the conversation. Having analyzed the costs and benefits of gossip, we prefer the coalition hypothesis.~It states that gossip will flourish in social networks that have a relatively large number of coalition triads, that is ego and alter having a good relationship amongst themselves and both having a bad relationship with tertius, the object of gossip. Two rivalling hypotheses are developed. The constraint hypothesis predicts that the inclination towards gossip is greater, the larger the number of structural holes in the personal network of the gossipmonger.~The closure hypothesis predicts that more gossip will be found in networks with a large number of closed triads, that is where both gossipmonger and listener have a good relationship with the absent third person. The hypotheses are tested using a newly developed instrument to measure gossip behavior and network data from six work organizations and six school classes. The data support the coalition hypothesis and do not support the two rivalling hypotheses.     

制度落差与中国跨国企业海外进入模式关系研究

本文分析了制度落差与中国企业海外市场进入模式之间的关系,着重对比了制度顺差与制度逆差情况下,制度差异对企业海外进入模式决策的影响。研究发现,在正式制度顺差的情况下,东道国与母国间正式制度差异越大,企业越倾向于选择以合资形式建立子公司;在正式制度逆差情况下,东道国与母国间正式制度差异越大,企业越倾向于选择以全资形式建立子公司。同时发现,正式制度落差并不影响非正式制度对进入模式的影响方向,即随着母国与东道国非正式制度差异的增大,企业更倾向于以全资形式建立子公司。     

Structural Learning: Attraction and Conformity in Task-Oriented Groups

This study extends previous research that showed how informal social sanctions can backfire when members prefer friendship over enforcement of group norms. We use a type of neural network to model the coordination of informal social control in a small group of adaptive agents confronted with a social dilemma. This model incorporates two mechanisms of social influence, informal sanctions and imitation. Both mechanisms vary with the strength of the social tie between source and target. Previous research focused on the effects of social sanctions. Here, we demonstrate a curvilinear effect of imitation on compliance with prosocial norms. Moderate doses of imitation reduce the coordination complexity of self-organized collective action and help the network achieve satisfactory levels of cooperation. High doses, however, undermine the agent-based learning required to find cooperative solutions. Increasing group size also diminishes compliance due to increased complexity, with larger groups requiring more imitation to overcome the coordination problem.     

Some weak and strong laws of large numbers for D[0,1]-valued random variables

Pointwise Weak Law of Large Numbers and Weak Law of Large Numbers in the norm topology of D[0,l] are shown to be equivalent under uniform convex tightness and uniform integrability conditions for weighted sums of a sequence of random elements in D[0,1]. Uniform convex tightness and uniform integrability conditions are jointly characterized. Marcinkiewicz–Zygmund–Kolmogorov's and Brunk– Chung's Strong Laws of Large Numbers are derived in the setting of D[0,l]-space under uniform convex tightness and uniform integrability conditions. Equivalence of pointwise convergence, convergence in the Skorokhod topology and convergence in the norm topology f o r sequences in D[0,l] is studied     

汽车产业模块化对不连续创新影响的实证分析

为探讨产业模块化与不连续创新之间的相互作用关系,分别构建了产业模块化指数与不连续创新指数的测度指标,基于全球汽车产业1972~2011年的专利数据,主要利用格兰杰因果检验方法就产业模块化对不连续创新的影响及其因果方向进行了实证分析。结果表明,产业模块化对不连续创新存在显著正向影响且长期影响较为显著。     

财政政策视角下非正规经济对就业影响的静态模型分析

非正规经济在我国呈急剧膨胀之势,而其对就业产生了重要的影响.本文从财政政策的角度,对非正规经济是如何通过政府的财政收支对就业产生影响进行了经济学分析,并得出结论:非正规经济会导致对失业率的高估.因此本文提出建议:非正规经济应在政策上予以引导和管理,使其在就业中发挥其应有的积极作用.     

Global existence and temporal decay of large solutions for the Poisson–Nernst–Planck equations in low regularity spaces

We are concerned with the global existence and decay rates of large solutions for the Poisson–Nernst–Planck equations. Based on careful observation of algebraic structure of the equations and using the weighted Chemin–Lerner-type norm, we obtain the global existence and optimal decay rates of large solutions without requiring the summation of initial densities of a negatively and positively charged species that is small enough. Moreover, the large solution is obtained for initial densities belonging to the low regularity Besov spaces with different regularity and integral indices, which indicates more specific coupling relations between the difference and the summation of negatively and positively charged densities.     

Flexible working arrangements in context: An empirical investigation through self-organizing maps

This is one of the first studies to utilize Kohonen’s self-organizing maps on flexible work arrangements (FWAs), employee turnover and absenteeism within different national contexts and an array of organizational factors. While the majority of FWAs did not reduce significantly employee turnover or absenteeism, country and industry were significant contextual variables in FWA use: we deciphered six main country regions, where service and manufacturing organizations were important to FWA preferences. We found a curvilinear relationship between turnover and shift-work among manufacturing firms regardless of country: turnover decreases at low levels and increases at high levels of shift-work. We also found strong positive relationships between weekend work and turnover among manufacturing firms regardless of country and firms in the region comprising of Germany, Austria, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Czech Republic and Belgium. Finally, we found consistently high concentration of organizations with low absenteeism throughout certain industries and countries: noteworthy are service organizations in the Netherlands and manufacturing organizations in Australia. The results demonstrate the contextuality of FWA use across countries and industries, and the usefulness of SOMs for research within human resource management.     

Optimal workforce size and allocation for urban retail chains

An area supervisor managing an area chain of local urban retail stores faces the problem of determining the number of employees and allocating them to retail stores (workforce size and its allocation). We propose a model to maximize the overall expected profit rate of a coordinated area chain where employee absenteeism is uncertain. Retail stores operate as a Markovian loss queueing system. An efficient algorithm is proposed to optimize both workforce size and its allocation. We also provide insights for retail chain managers by comparing the optimal overall expected profit rates and the optimal workforce sizes of a coordinated area chain with those of its uncoordinated counterpart.     

A thermo-mechanical energetic cohesive zone model accounting for Kapitza interfaces

The objective of this contribution is to study computational aspects of modeling thermo-mechanical solids containing mechanically energetic, geometrically non-coherent Kapitza interfaces under cyclic loading. The interface is termed energetic in the sense that it possesses its own energy, entropy, constitutive relations and dissipation. To date, classical thermo-mechanical cohesive zone models do not account for elastic interfaces. Therefore we propose a novel interface model that couples the classical cohesive zone formulation to the interface elasticity theory under the Kapitza assumption within a thermo-mechanical framework. In other words, such an interface model allows for discontinuities in geometry, temperature and normal stress fields, while not permitting a jump in the normal heat flux across the interface. The equations governing a fully non-linear transient problem are given. In particular, a comparison is made between the results of the classical thermo-mechanical cohesive zone model and our novel (cohesive + energetic Kapitza) interface formulation. (© 2016 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

投资者情绪和市场利率对证券市场指数收益影响特点的动态刻画

本文基于2006年10月到2015年6月市场层面的投资者情绪和上证综指收益率,刻画了投资者情绪和市场利率对证券市场指数收益率的影响。首先,本文通过误差修正模型研究了短期层面投资者情绪对证券市场收益的影响特点,补充了以往在长期层面和整体收益水平上投资者情绪对市场收益影响的研究。由于市场层面的投资者情绪会受到宏观政策影响,之后本文将市场利率作为政策因素,通过分位数回归分析了不同市场收益水平下,市场利率和剔除了宏观政策因素的投资者情绪对市场收益的影响。研究结果表明:投资者情绪和证券市场收益之间的关系在短期层面上更为显著;当我国的证券市场环境处于“牛市”时,市场利率和投资者情绪均会对证券市场指数收益产生显著的影响,且随着市场收益水平的逐步上升,市场利率的反向作用和投资者情绪的正向作用均会逐渐加强。     

考虑消费者忠诚的雇员激励契约设计

在信息不对称条件下,企业雇主如何在员工行为无法被观测到的情况下达到最优绩效成为企业上层需要解决的重要问题。在此背景下,区别于既有文献,本文根据服务型企业以消费者为中心的特点,将消费者忠实度纳入委托——代理模型,通过设计企业激励契约机制,探讨了企业雇佣员工的最佳方式。结果表明:(1)长期稳定工作的员工会选择提成工资制,这类员工倾向于将努力水平用于提高消费者忠诚度,其选择的结果能为企业带来利润;(2)短期非稳定工作的员工选择固定工资制,这类员工的零付出将给企业造成亏损,且损失额即为短期非稳定员工的固定工资额;(3)选择提成工资制的员工将给服务型企业带来正效益,而选择固定工资制的员工给企业带来固定工资的损失额。本文从企业雇佣员工方式的角度,为企业更偏向于为直接面对消费者创造业绩的服务型员工采取提成工资制,而为没有直接面对消费者的非服务型员工采用固定工资制提供了一种解释,有助于把握企业管理的着力点,进而增强企业绩效提升对经济发展的推动性作用。     

On a certain seqence of positive linear operators and tow optimization inequalities

In this Paper the approximation of continuous functions by positive linear operators of Bernstein type is investigated. The consideered operators are constructed using a system of rational functions with prescribed matrix of real poles. A certain general problem of S Bernstein concerning a scheme of construction of a sequence of positive linear operators is discussed. The answer on the Bernstein's hypothesis is given. The optimal limiting relations for the norm of the second central moment of our sequence of operators are established.     

企业研发组织沟通网络实证及优化策略研究

鉴于企业研发组织内部沟通网络对研发组织中高效、低成本地实现技术信息共享的重要性,本文首先介绍了结构洞的测度方法,并对中间中心性方法进行改进;其次分析了某企业研发组织沟通网络的结构洞情况,指出非正式沟通网络和专业沟通网络的相关性;然后通过比较改进的中心度算法、传统的中心度算法与限制度指标的相似性,验证了该算法的有效性;最后提出一种削弱沟通网络中“核心人物”垄断地位的“搭桥”策略。结果发现:改进的中心度算法适用于带权值沟通网络结构洞的测定,验证了该算法加权方法的有效性,并给出通过非正式组织促进技术信息共享的对策     

中国农村正规金融与非正规金融对农民收入增长关系的比较研究

利用1995-2012年农民人均纯收入、农村正规金融融资额和非正规金融融资额的时间序列数据,分别构建农民收入与农村正规金融和非正规金融相关联的A1和A2系统,实证分析了我国农村正规金融和非正规金融对农民收入增长的影响情况.研究结果表明,农村正规金融和非正规金融同农民人均纯收入存在长期稳定的正向关系,在促进农民增收的效率上,农村非正规金融大于正规金融.但是农村正规金融和非正规金融不是农民收入的格兰杰原因,相反农民收入是农村正规金融和非正规金融的格兰杰原因.     

Hilbert投影距离与Banach空间的范数

In this paper, we establish some relations between the Hilbert＇s projective metric and the norm on a Banach space and show that the metric and the norm induce equivalent convergences at certain set. As applications, we utilize the main results to discuss the eigenvalue problems for a class of positive homogeneous operators of degree a and the positive solutions for a class of nonlinear algebraic system.     

Auto-tuning unit norm frames

Finite unit norm tight frames provide Parseval-like decompositions of vectors in terms of redundant components of equal weight. They are known to be robust against additive noise and erasures, and as such, have great potential as encoding schemes. Unfortunately, up to this point, these frames have proven notoriously difficult to construct. Indeed, though the set of all unit norm tight frames, modulo rotations, is known to contain manifolds of nontrivial dimension, we have but a small finite number of known constructions of such frames. In this paper, we present a new iterative algorithm—gradient descent of the frame potential—for increasing the degree of tightness of any finite unit norm frame. The algorithm itself is easy to implement, and it preserves certain group structures present in the initial frame. In the special case where the number of frame elements is relatively prime to the dimension of the underlying space, we show that this algorithm converges to a unit norm tight frame at a linear rate, provided the initial unit norm frame is already sufficiently close to being tight. By slightly modifying this approach, we get a similar, but weaker, result in the non-relatively-prime case, providing an explicit answer to the Paulsen problem: “How close is a frame which is almost tight and almost unit norm to some unit norm tight frame?”