DePaul University

About: DePaul University is a education organization based out in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Context (language use). The organization has 5658 authors who have published 11562 publications receiving 295257 citations.

Environmental uncertainty and organizational technology policy

Abstract: Reports a study of 54 organizations, 30 of which were nonservice firms. The purpose of the study was to evaluate various aspects of environmental uncertainty and their impacts on innovativeness (new products and processes). In a recursive, causal path model of the nonservice sample of firms, it was found significantly (p<;0.05) that the impact of a global measure of perceived environmental uncertainty on firm innovativeness is mediated by an aggressive technology policy and, in turn, the presence of a special equipment evaluation group in the organization, for major process innovations only. For minor process innovations, this global perceived uncertainty promoted adoption directly, as expected, with no mediated effects. In addition, it was found that specific causes of perceived uncertainty (competition, customers, and government regulation) have little or no influence on adoption of major process innovation and act to impede adoption of minor process innovations.

Environmental factors and the effectiveness of workforce diversity training

Abstract: This study examined the effects of a diversity training workshop on self-perceptions of behaviour and importance of related management practices among ninety-nine middle managers in a large corporation. It also examined relationships between environmental variables and training criterion variables. It was hypothesised that the workshop would positively affect perceptions of behaviour and ratings of importance and that the work and social environments would influence the training outcomes. Analyses were conducted to determine if the environmental variables had direct or indirect effects on the training criterion variables. The study found that those who attended the workshop did rate management practices related to diversity as more important and did perceive themselves as engaging in such practices more than did a control group. The social environment variable indirectly affected post-test importance ratings of diversity-related management practices and self-perceptions of behaviour through its effect on initial levels of those variables, but the work environment measure was not related to the criterion variables. [This article is followed by an invited reaction by Ruby L. Beale (p. 125-127)].

Risk and Return in the U.S. Housing Market: A Cross-Sectional Asset-Pricing Approach

Abstract: ∗∗∗ ∗∗∗ This article carries out an asset-pricing analysis of the U.S. metropolitan housing market. We use ZIP code‐level housing data to study the cross-sectional role of volatility, price level, stock market risk and idiosyncratic volatility in explaining housing returns. While the related literature tends to focus on the dynamic role of volatility and housing returns within submarkets over time, our risk‐return analysis is cross-sectional and covers the national U.S. metropolitan housing market. The study provides a number of important findings on the asset-pricing features of the U.S. housing market. Specifically, we find (i) a positive relation between housing returns and volatility, with returns rising by 2.48% annually for a 10% rise in volatility, (ii) a positive but diminishing price effect on returns and (iii) that stock market risk is priced directionally in the housing market. Our results on the return-volatility-price relation are robust to (i) metropolitan statistical area clustering effects and (ii) differences in socioeconomic characteristics among submarkets related to income, employment rate, managerial employment, owner-occupied housing, gross rent and population density.

Nietzsche and the aesthetics of rhetoric

Abstract: This essay addresses the debate over rhetoric's epistemic status in terms of Nietzsche's critique of epistemology. Asserting that no discursive effort can escape its own rhetoricity and that all discourse is based on aesthetic impulses, the essay suggests that Nietzsche's aestheticism provides an alternative to the aforementioned debate. Taking this alternative seriously, the essay focuses on the differences between two rhetorics: the epistemic and the aesthetic.

Success Factors for Offshore Information System Development

Abstract: This paper investigates key factors affecting the success of small to medium organizations providing offshore software development, usually to companies in the United States. Five success factor groups (people factors, technical infrastructure, client interface, business infrastructure, and regulatory interface) with a total of 31 critical success factors were identified through a literature review. The critical success factors were assessed for importance by surveying individuals in organizations that outsource system development or that provide system development services. The survey found that the critical success factors of workers’ skills, client knowledge, trust in the client-outsourcer relationship, telecommunications, and intellectual property protection are the most critical to the success of offshore software development outsourcers. Somewhat surprising was that cost was not the most critical success factor. The paper concludes with a discussion on the implications of these findings to o...