Search results

The purpose of this paper is to look at the role played by home economists in providing information to consumers about household products. The work of home economist and educator Martha Van Rensselaer is reviewed, specifically her time as editor of the homemaking department of women's magazine Delineator from 1921‐1926.

The paper used qualitative analysis of the content of the homemaking department under Van Rensselaer as well as quantitative analysis of the advertising during those years. Documents from several manuscript collections were used as well.

Content analysis showed a shift over the years from 1921‐1926 from broader social themes to greater emphasis on specific homemaking tasks. Ads were regularly placed next to related editorial content, but under Van Rensselaer no brand names were mentioned editorially.

Since this research focused on one magazine, comparison with homemaking departments in other women's journals at this time would provide useful context.

The specific example provided illuminates the evolving relationship between advertisers, home economists, media and consumers.

Outlines the work in interactive education of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. States that the $4 million grant from the National Science Foundation will launch a major project, MathLinks, an electronic library of hypertext documents that link topics in mathematics, science and engineering.

Once alternative attachment concepts for a specific application have been generated, an evaluation tool needs to be used to select the “best” attachment concept based on given design objectives. Part 6 of this series presents a quantitative evaluation tool to select the optimal attachment concept based on structural performance, ease of manufacture, or ease of assembly as primary design objectives. Ways to consider secondary objectives in the evaluation process to handle design problems with multiple objectives are also presented.

To inform librarians about the benefits, costs, and technologies involved in implementing a content management system.

A discussion of how XML is used to separate content from presentation, how this technology is used in a home‐grown freeware application, and the results of converting a static website into a database driven one through the use of this application.

Demonstrates that converting to a dynamic, application driven web site results in a more flexible, efficient, and consistent web presence.

Every library is unique and what worked well at Rensselaer might not work as well elsewhere. Luwak is currently only available to organizations at Rensselaer.

A useful primer on how a conversion like this happens and on the sort of features that can make a database driven web application run smoothly.

This paper provides a unique account of one libraries' experience in making the sort of transition that will become increasingly important for all library web sites.

How does university-firm collaboration affect the performance of both universities and firms? The purpose of this paper is to evaluate university-firm collaborations aimed at expanding the treatment effects of collaboration ambition on university academic performance as well as collaboration ambition focused on the firm’s production of innovation and financial performance for the top 110 US universities and the top 200 US R&D performing firms.

“Two studies, based on the three archival data sets (National Bureau of Economic Research-Rensselaer Scientific Papers Database and the Harvard Dataverse Network (DVN) US Patent Citations database and Compustat database), are undertaken in the top 110 US universities and the top 200 US R&D performing firms.” The study introduces a theoretical model that explicitly addresses collaboration diversity, number of collaborations, knowledge stock and the endogeneity problem that is generated by self-selection of collaboration ambition in university and firm’s performance.

The results suggest that the effects of adopting proactive collaboration decision on academic performance are insignificant in the firm subsample. However, more interestingly, the authors find supporting evidence of the negative impact of collaboration on university groups. The authors also find that collaboration diversity, knowledge stock and collaboration ambition lead to stronger firm performance but the number of collaborations is smaller on firm performance. Furthermore, the authors find that collaboration ambition moderates the positive effect of the number of collaborations on firm performance.

University-firm collaboration is a multifaceted relationship, suggesting that the empirical analysis can be interpreted through the university and the firm view to enhance the understanding of the collaboration for performance creation. This study articulates the positive role of collaboration diversity, knowledge stock and collaboration ambition and the negative role of the number of collaborations on university-firm collaboration in terms of university and firm performance. Moreover, proactive collaboration ambition has the positive effect of a higher number of collaborations on firm performance. The authors conclude that policy should refrain from overly focusing on collaboration diversity, number of collaborations, knowledge stock and collaboration ambition, and the authors consider the interactions between the number of collaborations and collaboration ambition on university-firm collaboration when discussing their effects on mutual performance.

This study demonstrates the effects of university-firm collaboration on academic performance. In addition, the authors discuss the factors that influence collaboration to help the firm to increase its innovation and financial performance. Therefore, it would be interesting to see simultaneously how university-firm collaboration affects the performance of both partners.

Two studies were conducted to investigate the impact of socially‐induced positive affect on organizational conflict. In Study I, male and female subjects were provoked or not provoked, and then exposed to one of several treatments designed to induce positive affect among them. Results indicated that several of these procedures (e.g., mild flattery, a small gift, self‐deprecating remarks by an opponent) increased subjects' preference for resolving conflict through collaboration, but reduced their preference for resolving conflict through competition. In addition, self‐deprecating remarks by an opponent (actually an accomplice) increased subjects' willingness to make concessions to this person during negotiations. In Study 2, male and female subjects were exposed to two treatments designed to induce positive affect (humorous remarks, mild flattery). These were presented before, during, or after negotiations with another person (an accomplice). Both treatments reduced subjects' preferences for resolving conflict through avoidance and increased their preferences for resolving conflict through collaboration, but only when delivered during or immediately after negotiations. Together, the results of both studies suggest that simple interventions designed to induce positive affect among the parties to conflicts can yield several beneficial effects.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate commitment escalation tendencies and magnitude in groups of entrepreneurship-minded decision makers.

The paper uses a software-based management simulation to expose 447 graduate business students in the USA and India to research stimuli under conditions that resemble important aspects of entrepreneurs’ business environment, such as a focus on overall firm performance. Unlike most previous escalation research that studied individuals, the primary unit of analysis is a three-person group.

The paper demonstrates a positive relationship between the groups’ entrepreneurial intentions and escalation magnitude. The paper also finds a direct relationship between sunk costs and subsequent investment amounts, suggesting an additional route through which sunk costs may impact escalation behavior – anchoring and insufficient adjustment.

The authors hope that the findings will stimulate further research on commitment escalation modalities and mechanisms among entrepreneurship-minded decision makers and provide impetus for efforts to develop effective debiasing strategies.

The study addresses a long-standing gap in entrepreneurship research, by demonstrating a significant positive relationship between entrepreneurial intentions and escalation behaviors. Also noteworthy, the results are generated using a different research method (simulation) than the experimental approach used in most extant escalation research. As such, the exploration provides important triangulating evidence that is currently lacking from the rich escalation literature.

This project demonstrates three specific applications for integrating paper‐based information into the electronic environment. The first allows users to interactively select and view portions of page‐images, such as illustrations, subtitles, or text paragraphs, when either the screen resolution of their workstations or low transmission rates prevent viewing the bitmap of the entire page. The second application automates the selection of suitable portions of the document (e.g., abstracts) for subsequent optical recognition for full‐text searching of journals and reports in paper form. The third application automatically links pixel maps of illustrations with ASCII text files.

Virtual corporations, enterprise re‐engineering, and adaptive/agile manufacturing are all new concepts based on the accomplishments of integrated manufacturing of the past decade. The new manufacturing enterprises are characterized by an ability to effect flexible reconfiguration of resources, shorter cycle times and quick response to customer demands. Information is a key factor in transcending physical barriers and imparting the enterprise‐oriented agility and adaptiveness to organizations. To this end, a theory‐based reference model for information integration is needed in manufacturing enterprises. Employs the paradigm of parallel formulation as the reference model and demonstrates how it is used to guide the planning for information integration. The model provides both a detailed data and task analysis of manufacturing functions and their interactions, and guidelines for regrouping tasks into parallel processes and thereby achieving a high level of global integration. Describes a case study of the model, conducted on the existing CIM model at Rensselaer to evaluate and reformulate the previous processes. The results show a better design featuring concurrent execution of functions which in turn support agility and adaptiveness.