This paper investigates the relationship between market conditions and the value and use of sourcing flexibility for service processes. We develop and analyze a series of models, and we derive expressions for the optimal switching decision, the value of the option to outsource, the value of the option to backsource, and the probability and timing of switches between the alternative sources. One...

The new training literature suggests that in a monopsonistic market employers will not only pay for fi rm-specifi c training but also for general training if the risk of poaching is limited. This implies that training participation should decrease when competition for employees is higher among fi rms. Using worker level data for Germany we fi nd that the hypothesis is supported empirically. Spe...

OBJECTIVES The aim of the present study was to assess both the direct and indirect effects (i.e., interacting with various job demands) of skill discretion on various psychological outcomes (i.e., emotional exhaustion, intention to leave, affective well-being, and job satisfaction). MATERIAL AND METHODS Data were collected by a self-reported questionnaire in 3 hospitals in Italy. The sample c...

Common-sense folk psychology and mainstream philosophy of action agree about decisions: these are under an agent's direct control, and are thus intentional actions for which agents can be held responsible. I begin this paper by presenting a problem for this view. In short, since the content of the motivational attitudes that drive deliberation and decision remains open-ended until the moment of...

McFarland and Crouch (2002) reported substantial positive correlations (a) between the Implicit Association Test (IAT) and response speed and (b) between IATs assessing racism or self-esteem and ostensibly unrelated control IATs. Using an IAT measure in millisecond-difference score format, they concluded that the IAT was confounded with general cognitive ability. A reanalysis of these data usin...

In the early 1990s, a set of new techniques for manipulating mouse DNA allowed researchers to 'knock out' specific genes and observe the effects of removing them on a live mouse. In animal behaviour genetics, questions about how to deploy these techniques to study the molecular basis of behaviour became quite controversial, with a number of key methodological issues dissecting the interdiscipli...

The purpose of this study was to compare performance factors of youth soccer players according to position. A total of 101 high school soccer players were selected and were classified into goalkeeper (n=7), defense (n=37), midfield (n=39), and forward (n=18) positions. All subjects were subjected to the Wingate test for anaerobic capacity, shuttle run test for aerobic capacity, and pass, kick, ...

We introduce skill chaining, a skill discovery method for continuous domains. Skill chaining produces chains of skills leading to a salient event—where salience can be defined simply as an end-of-task reward, or as a more sophisticated heuristic (e.g., an intrinsically interesting event (Singh et al., 2004)). The goal of each skill in the chain is to reach a state where its successor skill can ...

INTRODUCTION The vulnerability of children under 5 years old requires paying more attention to the health of this group. In the Iranian health care system, health workers are the first line of human resources for health care in rural areas. Because most health workers begin working in conditions with minimal facilities, their clinical qualifications are crucial. The aim of this study was to det...

A Nonparametric Examination of Capital-Skill Complementarity This paper uses nonparametric kernel methods to construct observation-specific elasticities of substitution for a balanced panel of 73 developed and developing countries to examine the capital-skill complementarity hypothesis. The exercise shows some support for capital-skill complementarity, but the strength of the evidence depends u...