Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In phase one of this two-part study, time diary data recording the activities of 61 industrial sales representatives at a Fortune 500 company during a three-week period were used to analyze relationships between sales revenue and customer-related and company-related work activities. A follow-up study focused on the relationship between sales performance and time spent on face-to-face, e-mail, and phone communication. The analysis demonstrated associations between opportunity development activities and annual sales revenue during phase one. More strikingly, during phase two, time devoted to customer contact by e-mail and telephone were correlated with annual sales revenue while face-to-face communication was not.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Filibustering may require physical effort and political risk. Senate
majorities, if provoked, can reduce or eliminate the right to
filibuster. Thus I propose a revised "option" version of Keith
Krehbiel's pivot model in which legislative rights are costly and
endogenous. I test this model and find that 1) legislation often passes
the Senate without enough support to shut off a filibuster, suggesting
that obstruction has been deterred. 2) Even when obstruction costs are
low, the threat of institutional change may deter filibusters on issues
like Supreme Court nominations or debt limit increases. 3) the option
model helps explain why the size of voting coalitions increased
dramatically during the 20th century. I suggest this change is due to
historical evolution of transaction costs: filibustering has gotten
easier while reform threats have become more costly. By one measure of
workload, the median coalition size has grown about 24 percent since 1900 due
to changing transaction costs.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In light of stagnating wages and rising cost of living, we examine one middle-class coping strategy: a new ‘shadow economy’ (garage sales and secondhand and thrift stores). While part of the mainstream economy, these outlets have three important differences. They are tax-exempt, inexpensive, and more focused on interpersonal interaction than economic concerns (Herrmann 1984). This allows the middle class to meet housing and medical needs while maintaining their way of life. Using data collected from Utah Valley, Utah (n=595), we explore the relationship between social class and consumption/donation patterns. We find that what one shops for depends largely on social class. Those at the top of the continuum purchase trinkets and antiques at these outlets, while those on the bottom buy clothes and other essentials. Those in the middle tend to buy electronics and appliances at these stores, enabling them to maintain the middle-class appearance. As housing and medical costs continue to soar in the years ahead, these types of stores may play a pivotal role in class mobility and reproduction.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In the era of consumer capitalism, is there any such thing as music that is produced outside of the culture industry? The distinction between mass culture and local or independently made culture is central to musician’s evaluations of their craft and to sociologist’s analyses of music making. This paper questions the salience of this distinction. It is an ethnographic project on the music scene of a small college town that has lofty aims as the self-proclaimed “center of the musical universe.” Its thriving local scene is generated in large part by the financial and social capital of a group of local rock musicians and entrepreneurs who have gained national fame in the music industry. These men have invested their capital back into the local economy, tying their businesses to the city’s experiments in new urbanism. At the same time, other music businesses and organizations form to resist the monopoly these men have on the scene. I argue that the tension between local monopoly and local resistance generates important resources for rock musicians and young college alumni entering into culture industry professions. Yet at the same time, those who play other genres such as metal, hip-hop and Latin music are sidelined within the local economy. As cultural resources are becoming synonymous with economic resources, access to making local culture is a new indicator of existing social inequalities in urban spaces.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Understanding new media communication is becoming increasingly important in sales promotion, due to the accelerating popularity of new media and their contribution to the globalization of business. This article aims to investigate the impact of new media on the discourse structure of online sales promotion letters from the perspective of language as social interaction. It is argued that an integrated theoretical approach of social discourse analysis and genre analysis is needed to explore how meaning is created in text, context, and interface of new media communication. It is believed that the impact will stand out more prominently by comparing online sales promotion letters with printed ones. A corpus of 40 sales promotion letters (20 online letters and 20 printed letters) randomly selected from a database of 7,210 sales promotion letters collected from 36 categories of informants in Hong Kong over a six-month period was formed for detailed analysis. Similarities and differences were found in discourse structure and organization of the two sets of letters. It was shown that given a similarity in communicative purposes of these letters, there was still room for creativity in discourse strategies due to a difference in medium. It was found, for example, that the online sales promotion letters were more user-driven and action-oriented. New media are playing an important role in the overall interactional or social strategy of credibility enhancement and persuasion in the context of sales promotion.