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Mediating effects allow strategic management researchers to understand “black box” processes underlying complex relationships whereby the effect of an independent variable is transmitted to a dependent variable through a third variable. Since the seminal work of Baron and Kenny (1986), advancements have been made in mediation analysis. Thus, literature on the latest techniques for analyzing mediating and intervening varibales is presented. In addition, strategy literature published in the Academy of Management Journal and the Strategic Management Journal between 1986 and 2005 employing tests of mediation is reviewed to better understand how mediation techniques are used by strategy scholars. Finally, implications and limitations of current mediation analysis in strategy research are discussed, and recommendations are provided to strategy scholars examining mediation.

In the field of public relations and communication management, message evaluation has been one of the starting points for evaluation and measurement research at least since the 1970s. Reliable and valid message evaluation has a central role in message effects research and campaign design in other disciplines as well as communication science. The purpose of this paper is to offer a message testing protocol to efficiently acquire valid and reliable message evaluation data.

A message testing protocol is described in terms of how to conceptualize and evaluate the content and format of messages, in terms of procedures for acquiring and testing messages and in terms of using efficient, reliable and valid measures of perceived message effectiveness (PME) and perceived argument strength (PAS). The evidence supporting the reliability and validity of PME and PAS measures is reviewed.

The message testing protocol developed and reported is an efficient, reliable and valid approach for testing large numbers of messages.

Researchers’ ability to select candidate messages for subsequent deeper testing, for various types of communication campaigns, and for research in theory testing contexts is facilitated. Avoiding the limitations of using a single instance of a message to represent a category (also known as the case-category confound) is reduced.

Communication campaign designers are armed with tools to assess messages and campaign concepts quickly and efficiently, reducing pre-testing time and resources while identifying “best-in-show” examples and prototypes.

Message structures are conceptualized in terms of content and format features using theoretically driven constructs. Measures of PAS and PME are reviewed for their reliability, construct and predictive validity, finding that the measures are acceptable surrogates for actual effectiveness for a wide variety of messages and applications. Coupled with procedures that reduce confounding by randomly nesting messages within respondents and respondents to messages, the measures used and protocol deployed offer an efficient and utilitarian approach to message testing and modeling.

This paper utilizes highly detailed student-level data to examine whether the initiation of a high-stakes test for accountability purposes affected Florida public schools’ decisions regarding whether to assign students to special education. Using student-level fixed effects models, we find that schools systematically placed students from low socio-economic status backgrounds and historically low-performing students into special education categories that were at the time exempt from the accountability system. High-poverty schools are significantly more likely to reclassify low-achieving students than are more affluent schools. These results provide important implications for the design of school accountability systems.

Indirect or mediated effects constitute a type of relationship between constructs that often occurs in partial least squares (PLS) path modeling. Over the past few years, the methods for testing mediation have become more sophisticated. However, many researchers continue to use outdated methods to test mediating effects in PLS, which can lead to erroneous results. One reason for the use of outdated methods or even the lack of their use altogether is that no systematic tutorials on PLS exist that draw on the newest statistical findings. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This study illustrates the state-of-the-art use of mediation analysis in the context of PLS-structural equation modeling (SEM).

This study facilitates the adoption of modern procedures in PLS-SEM by challenging the conventional approach to mediation analysis and providing more accurate alternatives. In addition, the authors propose a decision tree and classification of mediation effects.

The recommended approach offers a wide range of testing options (e.g. multiple mediators) that go beyond simple mediation analysis alternatives, helping researchers discuss their studies in a more accurate way.

This study aims to examine how students with different goals differ in their subjective well-being, including academic self-efficacy (ASE) and affect at school (AAS). There are four goal orientations that motivate students to achieve academic performance. Therefore, this study examined the relationship between the four dimensions of achievement goals (AGs), ASE and AAS. It also examined five relationship models between these variables.

This study was conducted using a survey method with a questionnaire on 516 students at several private universities in Yogyakarta who have been studying for at least two years. After testing the validity and reliability of the measurements, correlation testing was conducted to determine the relationship between the two variables. Furthermore, testing of the five relationship models was conducted using structural equation modeling (SEM) with a two-step approach.

The findings showed that each goal was directly related to students' well-being with a diverse relationship nature. Furthermore, mastery-approach goals (MApGs) were the types that most consistently have a positive effect on students' well-being. Also, performance-avoidance goals (PAvGs) consistently and negatively affected students' well-being, while performance-approach goals (PApGs) produced various influences and relationships. In addition, mastery-avoidance goals (MAvGs) are among the four AGs that still need to be studied, especially in educational settings. This is because they had no effect on ASE either directly or indirectly.

The limitation of this study was using cross-sectional data and self-report in data collection. Furthermore, the respondents were limited to private university students, and they were few in number.

MApGs had a positive effect on ASE and AAS, while PAvGs can reduce ASE and cause negative effects. Therefore, higher institutions in Indonesia need to provide a curriculum that can increase students' curiosity, creativity and involvement in the learning process. This will make them confident in their abilities and have a positive attitude in school and the society. Also, this study showed that a PApG is not a negative goal because it can increase students' confidence in their abilities. This competency feeling needs to be fostered because it encourages them to increase knowledge and learning content, as well as increase their positive effects.

This paper addressed the need to understand how to generate and increase students’ motivation.

This study reviews the use of meta-analysis in accounting research. We categorize the meta-analytic research into five topics: financial reporting, auditing, corporate governance and accounting quality, management accounting, and miscellaneous topics. Further, we classify the studies by the meta-analysis technique employed: Hunter et al. (1982), Hunter and Schmidt (2000), Lipsey and Wilson (2001), and Stouffer’s approach. We identify 27 meta-analytical studies over the period 1985–2014 with financial reporting (auditing) topics representing seven (six) of these studies. Our review highlights that meta-analytic methods are being applied and accepted, more frequently, to answer complex questions concerning the moderating effects of country-level variables, such as national culture, economic conditions, and institutional characteristics, on various associations of interest.

Longitudinal regression analysis is conducted to clarify causal relations and control for unwanted influences from actor heterogeneity and state dependence on theoretically important coefficient estimates. Because strategic management contains theory on how firms differ and how firm actions are influenced by their current strategic position and recent experiences, consistency of theory and methodology often requires use of longitudinal methods. We describe the theoretical motivation for longitudinal methods and outline some common methods. Based on a survey of recent articles in strategic management, we argue that longitudinal methods are now used more frequently than before, but the use is still inconsistent and insufficiently justified by theoretical or empirical considerations. In particular, strategic management researchers should use dynamic models more often, and should test for the presence of actor effects, autocorrelation, and heteroscedasticity before applying corrections.

Permittivity and dissipation factor (D_k and D_f) are effects of polarization of different components of the dielectric substrate material when subjected to an electrical field. A database of these important design parameters for PWBs has been developed for Thermount RT. Effects of variations in the level of moisture (bone‐dry to completely saturated at various relative humidity levels), testing temperature (room temperature to 120uC) and testing frequencies (1MHz to 1.5GHz) on D_k and D_f are reported. As the frequency of test is increased from 1MHz to 1.5GHz, the effect of moisture on the properties is reduced. Comparison with conventional glass/FR4 laminate properties shows the distinct advantage of Thermount. It is increasingly used in high frequency cellular telephone, satellite, and wireless applications which require HDI PWBs to achieve the highest packaging density at the lowest cost and weight.