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A majority of the American laity have switched congregations at least once in their adult lives, and more than two-thirds of U.S. congregants have previously attended a different congregation (Schwadel 2012). In contrast to religious tradition switching, we know little about the individuallevel correlates of congregational switching. In this paper, we provide a framework for understanding congregational switching that emphasizes the role of congregational legitimacy in a social context of declining religious authority and ethnic religious communities, expressive individualism, and the "spiritual marketplace." This social context leads to evaluations of congregations according to individually defined spiritual needs and social belonging. The salience of religion to the individual, for example, makes the link to a particular congregation more precarious as individuals seek the best fit for their perceived religious and spiritual needs. Using the 2006 and 2012 Portraits of American Life Surveys (PALS), a nationally representative panel survey of U.S. adults, we find that social ties, a sense of belonging, religious salience, leadership roles, and views of congregational decision-making influence switching. Most of these factors remain even after accounting for residential mobility. We draw implications for theories of religion and understandings of congregational dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Popular press often portrays the millennial generation as evidencing increasing selfishness, or conversely as representing one of the most generous generations alive today. This paper investigates these contradictory claims by extending and challenging theories of individualism, collectivism, and voluntarism in explicating trends among a national, diverse, and longitudinal millennial cohort transitioning to adulthood. This analysis contributes two primary advancements to understanding youth and American culture. First, it examines the utility of traditional theories in explaining contemporary trends. Rising globalization raises questions as to the remaining relevance of classic theories in explaining contemporary trends. Second, this paper integrates a life course framework in cultural analysis. Combining these approaches, this paper investigates whether individual and collective orientations can be held in combination, and whether youth change their weighing of self and other orientations over time. Longitudinal findings indicate that the millennial cohort - who had high levels of individualism during adolescence - evidence greater collectivist and hybrid orientations as emerging adults, and promoting attention to cultural values undermines individualistic orientations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Robots are expected to become present in society in increasing numbers, yet few studies in human-robot interaction (HRI) go beyond one-to-one interaction to examine how characteristics of robot groups will affect HRI. In particular, people may show more negative or aggressive behavior toward entitative (i.e., cohesive) robot groups, like they do toward entitative human groups, compared to diverse groups. Furthermore, because people in collectivist (e.g., Japan) and individualistic (e.g., US) cultures respond to groups and to cues of entitativity differently, entitative robot groups may affect people differently across such cultures. This study examines how robot Entitativity Condition (Single Robots, Diverse Group, Entitative Group) and Country (USA, Japan) affect emotions toward, mind attributions to, and willingness to interact with robots. Results indicate that Entitative robot groups, compared to Single robots, were viewed more negatively. Entitative robots were also more threatening than Diverse robots. Diverse robot groups, compared to Single robots, were viewed as having more mind, and participants were more willing to interact with them. These findings were similar in the USA and Japan. This indicates that robot group entitativity and diversity is critical to keep in mind when designing robots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To reduce clock power, we present a novel timing-driven incremental multi-bit register (MBR) composition methodology for designs that may be rich in MBRs after logic synthesis. It identifies nearby compatible registers that can be merged without degrading timing, and without reducing the "useful clock skew" potential. These registers are merged providing the MBR placement can be legalized according to the proposed simplified physical constraints. A new integer linear programming (ILP) formulation minimizes the total number of registers in the design. It significantly reduces register count and clock capacitance, without adding any timing/routing/placement violations and without increasing the total wire-length of the designs, as shown by experimental results on industrial benchmarks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the case of Big Five Personality, Openness and extraversion traits prevail in the USA and South Korea. Customer service structures are based on openness and agreeableness. In the case of Hofstede, South Korea has a higher power distance compared to the USA. This means its customer service structure is modeled on a strong hierarchical structures where the boss has complete responsibility. India is a country who is very much a patriarchal, masculine society. This can be seen from many aspects of life including arranged marriages, flashy displays of wealth, and male children inheriting the family's wealth. The power distance in India is high as well with society being divided based upon the caste system. In fact, this ancient form of societal oppression still dominates the socio-economic status, with certain jobs, education, and marriages being restricted to certain castes. Canada is a very individualistic society. Canadians are not limited and defined by their communities. They are self-reliant and depend on hard work to merit their successes. Canada is also a very indulgent culture. Canadians tend to enjoy life and have fun. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studying value systems in the structure of ideas of morality of the modern women of the Republic of Sakha is of particular importance, because the Northeastern Region of Russia is a region in which the most important geostrategic interests of the country are concentrated. The nature and economic potential of this region are becoming the resource of the Russian economy in its innovative way of development. Upbringing of reliable citizens is one of the necessary elements of the unique Eurasian mission. Therefore, the goal of our research is to study the relationship between the individualistic / collectivistic values and peculiarities of ideas of morality. 427 women aged from 15 to 50 and living in various populated areas (villages, towns, cities) of the Republic of Sakha have participated in the study. Individualistic and collectivistic values have been measured with the help of Sh.Shvarts' method for studying individual values which has been adapted for Russian sample groups by V.N.Karandashev. Peculiarities of the ideas of morality of the respondents have been revealed by method «Moral consciousness» developed by A.A.Khvostov. ASA-In all age groups, the individualists have shown more readiness to break laws than collectivists. Individualistic and collectivistic values are expressed differently depending on the age of the respondent. Individualistic or collectivistic orientation is the crucial factor that determines moral principles and moral choices in adulthood and adolescence. ASA-The results obtained testify to the fact that women of the Republic of Sakha are mostly oriented towards individualism implying the right of a person to pursue own goals and emphasise own unique inner world. At the same time, women's individualism has a correlation with lesser observance of moral and ethical standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creativity is a critical skill in entrepreneurship. Yet creativity can differ according to culture and in a global marketplace these differences in creativity could hinder idea development internationally. This study addresses international similarities/differences in approaches to divergent creativity and their impact on entrepreneurship education. Students from the United States, Ireland, Sweden, France, Nigeria, Croatia, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Honduras, and China were given a divergent thinking creativity exercise and a creativity survey. Results were compared as to number of ideas generated (fluency), range of ideas given (flexibility), use of creative approaches, comfort level with the divergent thinking exercise and self- perception of creativity. Results were compared using the individualistic/collectivistic orientation. Significant differences were found between individualistic and collectivistic cultures in regard to fluency, flexibility, and comfort level, but not in perceived creativity. Additionally approaches used to develop creative problem solving were more similar than dissimilar. Implications for the entrepreneurship curriculum are discussed [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative study examined a social phenomenon called "Hines Ward Syndrome" in South Korea. Korea's enthusiasm for Hines Ward, who is a Korean American pro football player for the Pittsburgh Steelers and whose mother is Korean, was initiated by his being named MVP of Super Bowl XL in February of 2006. As a honhyeol (mixed-blood people), Hines Ward became a "national hero" since he demonstrated Koreans' potential which was inherited from a natural bearer of Korean culture, his mother. The Hines Ward Syndrome appears to be exceptionally encouraging but also incongruent with the deep-rooted discrimination and plight that other honhyeols living in Korea have had experienced. Analyzing the discourses circulated in Korea, therefore, this paper explored the fluid cultural identity and unstable boundaries of "Korean." The meaning and limitation of multiculturalism as a prescription for the discrimination against honhyeol people in Korea was also examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the theoretical and methodological problems faced by Caribbean women. It mentions that the research was done by media scholars on the basis of gender, race and colonialism. It offers information on the efforts of Caribbean Institute of Media and Communication (CARIMAC) to analyze the terrain of the gender.

Transnational adoption is a rapidly growing social phenomenon, which involves women of different classes, races, cultures, and nationalities as major players - adoptive mothers in the 'first world' and birthmothers in the 'third world'. The discourse of transnational adoption tends to pit these two groups of women against one another in a competition for legitimate motherhood. However, a critical inquiry of birthmothers in the emerging scholarship in transnational adoption and women's studies falls short. In 2001, a group of Korean birthmothers whose babies were put up for adoption gathered around the Internet site where they process, mediate, and negotiate the "unspeakable loss" - the loss of both their own experience of mothering and their child. This article examines this unprecedented community of Korean birthmothers who become 'virtual mothers' and perform their 'virtual motherhood' at the interface with computer technology. I argue that this Internet community not only reveals birthmothers' travails but also suggests a new paradigm of thinking bodies and subjectivities, a condition for the possibility to envision a non-exclusionary feminist activism which pushes forward women's re/productive rights. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a substantive discussion of the multiple levels of analysis involved in macro-sociological explanation. In so doing it also criticizes the renewed emphasis on individualistic explanation found in much contemporary sociological theory. For illustrative material it returns to intellectual uses of Weber's "Protestant Ethic thesis," showing how an artificial version has been employed as a kind of proof text for an alleged scientific necessity of individualist explanation. The core of the article reconstructs the discussion of Protestantism and capitalism in an explicitly multi-level way, differentiating possible individual-level, social-organizational, and institutional linkages. We show that the causal processes involved are independent ones, with the more structural forms neither plausibly reducible to individual-level ones nor realistically attainable via individual-level reasoning. We argue more generally that methodological and theoretical individualisms typically conflate issues of explanation with issues having to do with the ontological microfoundations of social life. This persistent intellectual conflation seems to have cultural sources, specifically the extraordinary cognitive and normative standing of individualism in contemporary folk and policy models of society. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theories of power range from reductionist approaches which attribute power to the characteristics of individuals to more structural approaches which assert that power is wholly the result of structural conditions. Research, however, has shown that neither purely individualistic nor structural approaches are effective in modeling power in exchange networks. The result is the development of multi-level theories of power that include both individual and structural conditions. This chapter critically analyzes the capabilities of two multi-level theories, Power Dependence and Network Exchange, to model two or more connection types within the same exchange network. Connections are structural conditions that specify exchange requirements. Beginning with the psychological basis of Power Dependence Theory, the two theories are traced from their application to dyads to networks with more than one type of connection. The analysis indicates that Network Exchange Theory has a broader scope regarding exchange networks with multiple connection types and thus greater utility. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emile Durkheim continues to occupy center-stage as a key sociologist of culture, even though the conception of culture he pioneered has found to be flawed, especially in its commitment to a methodologically collectivist or holist conception of culture. The extent of Durkheim's sacrifice to academic empire-building becomes clear when one reviews the sophistication and richness of the French intellectual tradition which he could have inherited. It shows that Durkheim broke with a well-established and productive way of thinking about culture thus saddling sociology with two of its cardinal problems: lack of explanation by mechanism and methodological holism. He sacrificed veracity and clarity to his goal of intellectual empire building. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is possible to combine methodological individualism with methodological holism to integrate many theories about socio-behavioral processes. Methodological individualism allows us to study all the social and environmental factors that impinge on an individual and affect his/her body, emotions, memories, thoughts and actions. Mead?s theory of agency shows how emotions, memories and thoughts can lead to agentic action?and ways to help people increase their level of agentic sophistication. Methodological holism links the individual?s actions into a dynamic model of whole social systems by focusing on cycles of interactions that entwine the individual with his/her social and physical environments. This allows us to incorporate theories of development and socialization, then link them with theories of social change and social evolution. Public sociologies can use this information at all levels from micro to macro. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changing marital practices over the past several decades have prompted scholars to examine how marriage beliefs have also shifted during this time, particularly among the middle class. Most recent studies of middle-class marital discourse focus on the rise of individualist orientations towards marriage. This paper advances the existing literature by identifying marriage discourses beyond those that draw upon the language of expressive individualism. Specifically, this paper examines discourses of marriage postponement and marriage pursuit, as they emerged in interviews with forty middle-class young adults. The analysis identifies four ideal types of marriage postponers?preservers, protectors, protestors and polyamorous--and five ideal types of marriage pursuers?promise seekers, partnerers, procreators, publicists, and progressors. One of the most important contributions of this study is that it challenges and complicates current reductionist analyses of middle-class marital discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This section presents abstracts of studies on business policy and strategy including "The Contribution of Alliance Networks to Firm Performance: The Case of the U.S. Software Industry," by Dovev Lavie, "The Minimum Assumed Incentive Effect of Executive Share Options," by Brian G. Main, Trevor Buck, Alistair Bruce and Rodio Skovoroda and "Environmental Uncertainty and the Real Options Value of Korean Firms' International Investments," by Seung-Hyun Lee and Mona V. Makhija.

This section presents abstracts of several symposia on business policy and strategy including "Challenging Traditions in Strategy: Strategizing and Strategy as Practice--A Micro Perspective," organized by Paula Jarzabkowski, "Multiple Perspectives on New Venture Alliances", chaired by Manuela Hoehn-Weiss and "The Problem Solving Perspective and the Theory of the Firm," chaired by Jackson A. Nickerson.

Previously Network Exchange Theory (NET) considered exchange conditions only under the assumption of a narrowly rational actor. There is, however, a large body of literature which shows that people are not always narrowly rational. In order to expand the scope of NET, we synthesize it with Social Value Orientations (SVO). SVO literature identifies three types of orientation to rational action based on how actors regard self and other: prosocial, individualist, and competitor. While SVO research has generally focused on social dilemmas, this research places the three types of actors in exchange relations and structures. We apply NET to generate predictions for mixtures of SVO actors in the dyad, 3-Line, and 4-Line and report on results from preliminary research. Space allowed by ASA will limit us to showing how predictions are generated for dyads with contrasting SVOs. The final paper and the presentation, however, will also show how predictions are generated for the 3-Line strong power structure and the 4-Line weak power structure. Preliminary experimental results are reported here. Further results will be available by meeting time and they will also be reported then. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]