The ability to transfer best practices internally is critical to a firtn's ability to build competitive advantage through the appropriation of rents from scarce internal knowledge. Just as a firm's distinctive competencies tnight be dificult for other firms to imitate, its best prczctices could be dfficult to imitate internnlly. Yet, little systematic attention has been pcrid to such internal stickiness. The author analyzes itlterrzal stickiness of knowledge transfer crnd tests the resulting model using canonical correlation analysis of a data set consisting of 271 observations of 122 best-practice transfers in eight companies. Contrary to corzverztiorzrzl wisdom that blames primarily motivational factors, the study findings show the major barriers to internal knowledge transfer to be knowledge-related factors such as the recipient's lack oj absorptive capacity, causal anzbiguity, and an arciuous relationship between the source and the recipient. The identification and transfer of best practices cally are hindered less by confidentiality and legal is emerging as one of the most important and obstacles than external transfers, they could be widespread practical management issues of the faster and initially less complicated, all other latter half of the 1990s. Armed with meaningful, things being equal. For those reasons, in an era detailed performance data, firms that use fact- when continuous organizational learning and based management methods such as TQM, bench- relentless performance improvement are needed to marking, and process reengineering can regularly remain competitive, companies must increasingly compare the performance of their units along resort to the internal transfer of capabilitie~.~ operational dimensions. Sparse but unequivocal Yet, experience shows that transferring capaevidence suggests that such comparisons often bilities within a firm is far from easy. General reveal surprising performance differences between Motors had great difficulty in transferring manuunits, indicating a need to improve knowledge facturing practices between divisions (Kerwin and utilization within the firm (e.g., Chew, Bresnahan, Woodruff, 1992: 74) and IBM had limited suc

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/smj.4250171105

Exploring internal stickiness: Impediments to the transfer of best practice within the firm

Although the measurement of drinking is necessary for assessing and evaluating the treatment of alcohol problems, this key dependent variable has not always been reported in outcome studies.1, 2, 3 Today, the issue is not whether to measure drinking, but how to measure drinking. Concerns about how best to measure drinking patterns and problems date back to at least 1926, when Pearl stressed the importance of separating steady daily drinkers from occasional heavy drinkers.4

Timeline Follow-Back A Technique for Assessing Self-Reported Alcohol Consumption

Originally published in Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books, 1994, Vol 39(2), 225. Reviews the book, The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion by John Zaller (1992). The author's commendable effort to specify a model of mass opinion formation offers readers an introduction to the prevailing vi

The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion.

We present a theory of the basis of support for a social movement. Three types of support (citizenship actions, policy support and acceptance, and personal-sphere behaviors that accord with movement principles) are empirically distinct from each other and from committed activism. Drawing on theoretical work on values and norm-activation processes, we propose a value-belief-norm (VBN) theory of movement support. Individuals who accept a movement’s basic values, believe that valued objects are threatened, and believe that their actions can help restore those values experience an obligation (personal norm) for pro-movement action that creates a predisposition to provide support; the particular type of support that results is dependent on the individual’s capabilities and constraints. Data from a national survey of 420 respondents suggest that the VBN theory, when compared with other prevalent theories, offers the best available account of support for the environmental movement.

/pdf/a-value-belief-norm-theory-of-support-for-social-movements-4eiyn3aly8.pdf

A Value-Belief-Norm Theory of Support for Social Movements: The Case of Environmentalism

The use of LISREL in validating marketing constructs.

The Rand report achieved coast to coast media coverage and generated a lot of heat simply because it was found that, out there in the real world, some people labelled \"alcoholic\" actually achieve a controlled drinking goal. This, of course, is not a new discovery. More than 100 research reports have reached a similar conclusion since 1962, when D. L. Davis published his famous paper in the Quarterly Journal of Studies of Alcohol. The authors of the Rand report must have been amazed to find that their very sober, data-based report was attacked unmercifully by an army of angry crusaders, mostly people associated with the U.S. National Council on Alcoholism.

Alcoholism and Treatment

: Alcoholism has traditionally been viewed as a persistent and chronic disorder. Recent years, however, have seen a growing belief that the disorder can be completely transformed into stable, long-term improvement after intervention. Yet we know relatively little about the course of alcoholism over the long run. Although research has documented substantial rates of remission after treatment, the stability of such remission is very much an unanswered question. The purpose of this study is to extend knowledge about the remission process by examining the history of a sample of treated alcoholics over a period of 4 years. We find it is common for alcoholics to reach a state of remission, but that state is generally intermittent rather than stable. The study is based on a random sample of 922 males who made contact in 1973 with any one of eight Alcoholism Treatment Centers (ATCs} funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism The same cohort was interviewed in previous follow ups at 6 months and 18 months, and has been the subject of other research, including an earlier Rand study. At 4 years, information was obtained from 85 percent of the target sample. In addition to extensive interviews, the 4-year follow up data base included psychological tests, self reported psychiatric and medical information, measures of blood alcohol concentration, validation interviews with subject collaterals, and officially recorded causes of death for deceased subjects. Although all subjects had some contact with a treatment facility, the study was not an experimental evaluation of competing treatment methods. Rather, the principal objective was to trace the natural sequence of events, including treatment, in the course of alcoholism.

/pdf/the-course-of-alcoholism-four-years-after-treatment-13hvf19hp2.pdf

The course of alcoholism : four years after treatment

Theta Reliability and Factor Scaling

/pdf/alcoholism-and-treatment-4hoo7h4lk2.pdf

Alcoholism and treatment

THIS STUDY is an attempt to explore the empirical basis of three personality types frequently discussed in the psychiatric litera ture—oral, obsessive, and hysterical. More specifically, the trait patterns which histori cally have been said to characterize each of the three personality types will be reex amined by means of factor analysis, and a self-rating form will be offered as a measure of these personality types. * In order to understand the significance, the limitations, and the theoretical framework of this research, we shall first describe the content out of which it emerged, including a preliminary experiment which partially failed. Our interest in personality arose from our observations of the relationship between personality and symptom formation in de pressed women. 19 We noted, for instance, that depressed women with hysterical per sonalities differed from depressed women with obsessional personalities in their pre hospital adjustment, in their patterns o depressive symptomatology, in

David J. Armor

Papers

Alcoholism and Treatment

The course of alcoholism : four years after treatment

Theta Reliability and Factor Scaling

Alcoholism and treatment

Oral, Obsessive, and Hysterical Personality Patterns: An Investigation of Psychoanalytic Concepts by Means of Factor Analysis