Showing papers by "DePaul University published in 1979"

The Adoption Time Period for Some Transportation Innovations

Abstract: Six transportation firms one in each mode participated in an exploratory study to investigate factors that influence the time lag in decision making over the adoption and implementation stages for innovation. For a sample of 32 innovations, the single best predictor of the amount of time required to progress from one stage of the decision-making process to the next was the cost of the innovation R2 = 0.23, p < 0.01, and a total of four valid predictors cost, complexity, of the innovation, organizational risk-taking climate, and union reaction account for about 42% of the variance R2 in the innovation and adoption time period. A recursive, multi-stage path model was constructed and in general it was found that secondary innovation attributes act as intervening variables for the influence of climate, union reaction, and government regulation and intervention on the innovation and adoption time period. The results of the study suggest that the key leverage point at the firm level for influencing the adoption time period is the risk-taking climate of an organization. If an organization climate exists or can be created which is characterized as supporting calculated risks, then, significantly, the following impacts are likely to occur: 1 the relative advantage necessary for consideration and adoption will be lower than for more conservative firms, but this lower required relative advantage will also stimulate RDE 2 innovations considered for adoption are likely to have fewer concrete performance criteria; and 3 innovations are likely to be viewed as less complex but more time will be required to reduce this complexity through learning. The results of the study also suggest that individuals with high risk-taking propensity will not be a sufficient single condition to change or alter the risk-taking climate of an organization. The conversion from a conservative climate to one supporting calculated risk is obviously not an easy matter nor is it likely to happen in a short period of time. It is likely to be the product of a group or team-building effort, recognizing the value of diversity in organization membership. Individuals seem to stimulate the innovation process most when a recent manpower flow is involved; that is, the crossing of an organizational boundary by a key organizational member coming to the organization or department of the transportation firm. Influencing the risk-taking climate of an organization alone will not have an impact on the perceived compatibility of the innovations considered for adoption nor the relative ease of testing or trying innovations on a limited basis, even though these two innovation attributes vary significantly and directly. One possible explanation for this result is that during the trial period, the innovation is modified to make it more compatible with organization constraints. Based on the results of this study, with a limited sample of transportation innovations, some mechanism other than organization climate will have to be sought to achieve a fit between innovation, organization and environment. The significant findings of this study do not immediately suggest this approach. Concerning innovation policy and government intervention and action which influences the adoption process, several implications from these data are apparent. First, government action has the least pervasive influence in a model of adoption time period, which suggests that the influence of government actions might be on other aspects of the adoption process: for example, the type of innovations that are considered, the agenda for decision making and an organizational mechanism which builds slowly over time to cope with government in a classically regulated industry. Second, there is some evidence, albeit weak, that government action can have a long-range impact on the adoption process by drawing attention to particular innovations or reordering decision-making or spending priorities or perhaps by increasing the consistency of agency treatments of firms.

Innovation among suppliers to automobile manufacturers: an exploratory study of barriers and facilitators1

Abstract: This paper reports on an exploratory study of the barriers and facilitators that affect technological innovation by suppliers to the automotive industry and the adoption of such innovations by the industry. The specific focus in the study was on key decision and action points in the life of specific innovations or potential innovations (ideas for new products) which may affect their successful development and marketing. The major source of data for this study was in the form of brief cases obtained from interviews of managers and technical personnel in suppliers to the automotive industry. These cases related to specific projects engaged in or ideas proposed by the responding firms or others in their sector of the industry which were aimed at the introduction of new or improved products, components, systems, materials, designs, etc., to the automotive industry. The information and data for this study were collected by means of structured interviews with 15 managers in 13 first level supplier firms to the automotive industry. A total of 32 innovations were investigated and a corresponding number of 32 cases and additional information on barriers and facilitators were generated for these 32 innovations. In general it was found that the most important barriers and facilitators to innovating were federal laws and regulations. Overall, the two types of decisions that are made in the automotive supplier's environment which appear consistently throughout these cases are (1) the automotive customer's decision to accept, encourage development of, or adopt innovations, and (2) the government's decision to mandate changes in safety, environment or energy-relatedregulations or legislation. The policy implications of the results of this study are discussed as they relate to an evolving model of the effects of potential federal intervention in the R&D/innovation process.

Prevention and Treatment of Smoking in School Age Children

Abstract: Considerable erosion of gains have often been found during follow-up periods for behavioral treatment programs directed towards adult smokers. Focusing more attention on preventing smoking among youngsters currently not smoking or reducing smoking among those just beginning the habit might produce more favorable results. The present study used role playing, an economical and easy to administer technique with children. Two ninth grade treatment classes engaged in seven weekly role playing sketches, depicting everyday encounters with smoking. A fifteen minute discussion followed each role play. At program end, rates of smoking decreased for E children and increased for Cs. Gains in the E group were maintained at a three-month follow-up period.

Teaching Peer-Tutoring Behaviors in First- and Third-Grade Classrooms.

Abstract: Peer tutoring programs represent an innovative approach for optimally utilizing resources existing within classrooms. While most tutoring programs have been aimed at helping tutees or tutors with academic difficulties, the present study involved all children in two classrooms in a peer tutoring project. A multiple baseline design indicated that prompting was effective in establishing tutoring behaviors among the children. By program end, all children were using corrective feedback, re-presenting questions, and employing contingent praise. Positive findings also were shown in academic, behavioral, and consumer satisfaction indices. In addition, 50% of children reported using peer-tutoring skills outside of the formal program.

Test anxiety and academic achievement in high school students.

Abstract: When invesr~gat~ng the effects of anxiety on learning and achievement. several studies ( 3 ) have indicated that high anxiety is associated with relatively low academic performance. Also, higher test anxiety has been found for children in \"inferior\" or lowerstream classes than for children in \"superior\" or higher-stream classes ( 2 ) . However, none of these studies have specifically dealt with only debilitating anxiety. This study then examined the differing levels of debilitacing anxiety found among students in classes of different achievement levels. It was also of interest to note differences in anxiety between males and females. Students in accelerated (high stream) classes were expected to show less test-taking anxiety than those students in low achieving (low stream) classes. To assess test-taking anxiety, 94 high school seniors, all between the ages of 16 and 19, were administered a revised version of the Debilitating Anxiety Scale ( I ) , which was designed to measure the effects of anxiety in an academic test situation. Of these students, 27 males and 22 females were enrolled in accelerated classes and considered to be high achievers, while 29 males and 16 females were enrolled in classes for low achievers. The mean scores for males and females in accelerated classes were 20.66 ( S D = 6.20) and 25.45 ( S D = 6.51), respectively, and for males and females in low achieving classes, 26.89 ( S D = 8.19) and 30.56 ( S D = 7.84). respectively. These data were analyzed in an unweighted means 2 X 2 factorial design (4, pp. 402-403). As predicted, students in accelerated classes showed significantly lower test-taking anxiery than did the low achieving students ( F = 13.74, d f = 1/90, fi < .01). The females in general exhibited higher levels than did the males ( P = 7.65, d f = 1/90, P < .01) . However, no interaction of sex by achievement level was found. This small study not only serves to validate the effectiveness of the Debilitating Anxiety Scale in measuring anxiety in a high school academic test situation, it also suggests the possible worth of efforts to decrease test anxiety, which may improve the scholastic performance of students, especially those in low achieving classes.

Evolution of the productive segment and transportation innovations

Abstract: An evolutionary model of the development of the process segment of a firm is reviewed and the degree to which this model is appropriate for description of the innovation process in transportation firms is evaluated. In a sample of thirty-four transportation innovations it was found that: (1) transportation firms in stage I of the evolution of the productive segment are more likely to adopt service innovations, while firms in stage III are more likely to adopt innovations designed to improve the process (p < .05); (2) no statistically significant results were found to support the hypothesis that stage I transportation firms originate more innovations than stage III firms, although the results were in the predicted direction (.10 < p < .15); (3) stage I transportation firms are more likely to adopt or consider for adoption lower-cost innovations than stage III firms (p < .05), which is contrary to the hypothesized direction of this relationship. It was also found that transportation firms tend to originate new service innovations but adopt new process innovations (p < .05), regardless of stage of development. It was concluded that it would be premature to eliminate the model as a candidate for further empirical testing. Problems and possible revision of the model are discussed.

The Professionalization of Prizefighting: Pittsburgh at the Turn of the Century

Abstract: In the last twenty-five years the decline of boxing as a popular sport has been remarkable. During a time when commercialized sport has expanded at an unprecedented pace, the fortunes of the prize ring have shrunk dramatically. Championship matches, especially in the heavyweight class, stillgenerate some public interest, but this has been due more to the personality of former champion Muhammed Alithan to a general growth of public interest in the sport. Incomparison with the activities of professional and college football and basketball, and in competition with professional baseball for the entertainment dollar, the prize ring isnow the poor relation of the commercial sports family. This situation has not always been the case. At one time interest in the prize ring dominated the American sports scene. Legendary figures, such as heavyweights Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis, and Rocky Marciano, middleweights Sugar Ray Robinson, Rocky Graziano, and Tony Zale, and featherweights Sandy Sadler and Willie Pep, were men who earned thousands of dollars and widespread fame for their exploits inside and outside the twenty-four-foot-square ring. Boxers were frequently identified with their regions and cities. Dempsey was the \"Manassa Mauler,\" Marciano the \"Brockton Bomber,\" and the Graziano-Zale matches were classics in the history of the American prize ring — the tough Italian ex-convict from New York's Lower East Side brawling with the hard-fisted Polish kid from the steel mills of Gary, Indiana. The decline in such local identification and in the popularity of boxing seemed to coincide. In its heyday, boxing provided the spectator a chance to claim for his state, city,

Acquisitonal processes underlying illicit alcohol abuse in underage children: an observational learning model.

Abstract: This study examined 25 boys and 35 girls in an elementary school and found illicit alcohol use occurred in 1 out of 5. Moreover, the frequency of weekly alcohol consumption among both the students'...

Participatory planning: the p.c.i.'s new approach to municipal government

Abstract: The thesis of this paper is that the Italian Communists are attempting to implement a top-initiated response to increasing societal demands for government services and the crisis of confidence in local politics in blending together technocratic-efficiency elements in the management of public affairs along with sustained grassroots participation. We will attempt to analyze this response by looking at the structural aspects of the urban problem, national legislation on neighborhood government passed in 1976, and an evaluation of the Bologna experiment with urban decentralization. The purpose will be to assess the impact that the PCI's new approach has had on citizen participation in local government as well as part successes at the local and national level.

Transitions and the relaxation spectrograph: Poly(oxymethylene)

Abstract: In place of directly assaying the relative rebound height of a ball from a polymeric sample, the passage time of the ball between fixed points is used in a much more precise version of the poor man's relaxation spectrograph. Poly(oxymethylene) has a sharp transition at — 74.8°C which progressively becomes broader and moves to — 39.0°C as the polymer is pretreated at 70°C and exposed to 330 nm light for times up to 1038 ksec. A second transition, broad and shallow, is seen in the range 104 to 124°C and is unaffected by the pretreatment. This is attended by a slight decrease in density, proportional to the time held at 70°C, at the rate of −3.54 × 10−9 g/cm3 sec.