Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper explores business associations in the information and communication industries in five OECD countries in a complex systems perspective. It seeks to understand, how such associational orderes are structures and how these associations participate in political processes. The analysis is based on a unique data set of the cooperative and competitive relations, thus applying social network analysis to interest groups research.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: An online experiment tested for differences in the extramusical concepts that German listeners associate with hearing a few seconds of country, hip-hop, punk, or German folksy music. Country, hip-hop and punk are examples of international or “out-group” genres for German listeners, while German folksy music serves as an example of domestic “in-group” music. Results revealed significant differences between the genres in seven out of eight concepts measured: urban vs. rural culture, age, trustworthiness, expertise, attractiveness, friendliness, and political ideology. There was no significant difference in the eighth concept: ethnicity. Some differences between the genre stimuli were noted in mood valence, mood intensity, and listeners’ music identity/preference. Controlling for identity with the stimulus reduced the genre differences in trustworthiness to marginal significance. It also lowered the effect size for several other concepts, but they still remained statistically significant. In-group vs. out-group theory at a cultural level is proposed as an explanation for the differences in cognitive schemas for these genres.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Many have studied voluntary associations' influence on social networks, but authors disagree about their effects on network diversity. In this study of economically engaged individuals in the Research Triangle Park of North Carolina, we examine individuals' sets of voluntary association memberships and network connections within them to study the conditions under which voluntary associations increase or reduce members' network diversity and density. We find that voluntary associations can be ways for individuals to meet disparate people in that meeting alters through memberships reduces network density. We find that co-memberships with alters influence the density and occupational diversity of respondents' business discussion networks in the expected directions. We believe that studying multiple memberships' effects on social networks provides a better understanding of how voluntary associations shape individuals' networks and future research should continue this approach. Diverse and low-density social networks may maximize the resources available to people and thus benefit individuals running or starting a business.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Much research suggests that one's own delinquency is highly correlated with that of his or her friends. Yet while most research measures friends' behavior using respondent perceptions of that behavior and a limited literature instead measures friends' behavior using self-reports from friends themselves, no research has directly compared the ability of both measures to predict respondent delinquency. The present research does so using a convenience sample of approximately 300 college students. Each respondent was asked to bring a friend to the data collection site. Once there, the respondent was asked to fill out an anonymous survey rating his or her own delinquency as well as his or her perception of his or her friend's delinquency. The friend in question was then asked to fill out a self-report survey concerning his or her actual involvement in delinquency. Competing structural equation models were then estimated to examine whether respondent perceptions of peer delinquency were better, equal, or worse predictors of respondent delinquency than were peer self-reports of their actual delinquency. Preliminary results suggest that respondent perceptions of peer involvement in delinquency may be biased and that this bias may tend to overstate the relationship between personal and peer delinquency.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper provides an historical prospective on an educational leader who modeled social justice leadership to remedy educational inequities by nurturing the growth of teacher associations and contributing to the training and professional development of new and veteran teachers. It focuses on one African American educator, H. Council Trenholm, who believed in the importance of teacher associations not only for professional growth and well-being but also as political tools to secure greater support, and perhaps equity, for Black educators, schools and students in a racially segregated society.