Two sides to attitudinal commitment:the effect of calculative and loyalty commitment on enforcement mechanism in distribution channels

Previous conceptualizations of attitudinal commitment are extended by considering two very different components of a manufacturer’s attachment to an independent channel intermediary. Relying on commitment theory, a model is developed that describes how attitudinal commitment may reside in either the instrumental or the social strain of a manufacturer’s relationship with its distributor. For each strain, the developmental role played by key facets of the channel setting—relative dependence, pledges, and trust—are shown. Furthermore, the nature of the attachment bond is posited to motivate very different governance mechanisms as the distribution agreement is enforced by either social or contractual means. Empirical support for the model demonstrates that an expanded view of attitudinal commitment is important in understanding the complex nature of attachment in channel relationships.

Design of sway frames

The aim of the work presented in this thesis is to produce a direct method to design structures subject to deflection constraints at the working loads. The work carried out can be divided into four main parts. In the first part, a direct design procedure for plane steel frames subjected to sway limitations is proposed. The stiffness equations are modified so that the sway in each storey is equal to some specified values. The modified equations are then solved by iteration to calculate the cross-sectional properties of the columns as well as the other joint displacements. The beam sections are selected initially and then altered in an effort to reduce the total material cost of the frame. A linear extrapolation technique is used to reduce this cost. In this design, stability functions are used so that the effect of axial loads in the members are taken into consideration. The final reduced cost design is checked for strength requirements and the members are altered accordingly. In the second part, the design method is applied to the design of reinforced concrete frames in which the sway in the columns play an active part in the design criteria. The second moment of area of each column is obtained by solving the modified stiffness equations and then used to calculate the mlnlmum column depth required. Again the frame has to be checked for all the ultimate limit state load cases. In the third part, the method is generalised to design pin-jointed space frames for deflection limitatlions. In these the member areas are calculated so that the deflection at a specified joint is equal to its specified value. In the final part, the Lagrange multiplier technique is employed to obtain an optimum design for plane rigidly jointed steel frames. The iteration technique is used here to solve the modified stiffness equations as well as derivative equations obtained in accordance to the requirements of the optimisation method.

Early visual detection of oriented line targets: spatial characteristics,and reference frames of early visual orientation-processing

The orientations of lines and edges are important in defining the structure of the visual environment, and observers can detect differences in line orientation within the first few hundred milliseconds of scene viewing. The present work is a psychophysical investigation of the mechanisms of early visual orientation-processing. In experiments with briefly presented displays of line elements, observers indicated whether all the elements were uniformly oriented or whether a uniquely oriented target was present among uniformly oriented nontargets. The minimum difference between nontarget and target orientations that was required for effective target-detection (the orientation increment threshold) varied little with the number of elements and their spatial density, but the percentage of correct responses in detection of a large orientation-difference increased with increasing element density. The differing variations with element density of thresholds and percent-correct scores may indicate the operation of more than one mechanism in early visual orientation-processIng. Reducing element length caused threshold to increase with increasing number of elements, showing that the effectiveness of rapid, spatially parallel orientation-processing depends on element length. Orientational anisotropy in line-target detection has been reported previously: a coarse periodic variation and some finer variations in orientation increment threshold with nontarget orientation have been found. In the present work, the prominence of the coarse variation in relation to finer variations decreased with increasing effective viewing duration, as if the operation of coarse orientation-processing mechanisms precedes the operation of finer ones. Orientational anisotropy was prominent even when observers lay horizontally and viewed displays by looking upwards through a black cylinder that excluded all possible visual references for orientation. So, gravitational and visual cues are not essential to the definition of an orientational reference frame for early vision, and such a reference can be well defined by retinocentric neural coding, awareness of body-axis orientation, or both.

The SEC’s retail investor 2.0: Interactive data and the rise of calculative accountability

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the United States mandated a new digital reporting system for US companies in late 2008. The new generation of information provision has been dubbed by Chairman Cox, ‘interactive data’ (SEC, 2006a). Despite the promise of its name, we find that in the development of the project retail investors are invoked as calculative actors rather than engaged in dialogue. Similarly, the potential for the underlying technology to be applied in ways to encourage new forms of accountability appears to be forfeited in the interests of enrolling company filers. We theorise the activities of the SEC and in particular its chairman at the time, Christopher Cox, over a three year period, both prior to and following the ‘credit crisis’. We argue that individuals and institutions play a central role in advancing the socio-technical project that is constituted by interactive data. We adopt insights from ANT (Callon, 1986; Latour, 1987, 2005b) and governmentality (Miller, 2008; Miller and Rose, 2008) to show how regulators and the proponents of the technology have acted as spokespersons for the interactive data technology and the retail investor. We examine the way in which calculative accountability has been privileged in the SEC’s construction of the retail investor as concerned with atomised, quantitative data (Kamuf, 2007; Roberts, 2009; Tsoukas, 1997). We find that the possibilities for the democratising effects of digital information on the Internet has not been realised in the interactive data project and that it contains risks for the very investors the SEC claims to seek to protect.

Theorizing accounting and other [calculative] practices in private equity:Experimenting with Schatzki’s ‘site’ ontology

This thesis contributes to social studies of finance and accounting (Vollmer, Mennicken, & Preda, 2009) and the practice theory literatures (Feldman & Orlikowski, 2011) by experimenting (Baxter & Chua, 2008) with concepts developed by Theodore Schatzki and demonstrating their relevance and usefulness in theorizing and explaining accounting and other organizational phenomena. Influenced by Schatzki, I have undertaken a sociological investigation of the practices, arrangements, and nexuses forming (part of) the social ‘site’ of private equity (PE). I have examined and explained the organization of practices within the PE industry. More specifically, I have sought to throw light on the practice organizations animating various PE practices. I have problematized a particular aspect of Schatzki’s practice organization framework: ‘general understanding’, which has so far been poorly understood and taken for granted in the accounting literature. I have tried to further explore the concept to clarify important definitional issues surrounding its empirical application. In investigating the forms of accounting and control practices in PE firms and how they link with other practices forming part of the ‘site’, I have sought to explain how the ‘situated functionality’ of accounting is ‘prefigured’ by its ‘dispersed’ nature. In doing so, this thesis addresses the recent calls for research on accounting and control practices within financial services firms. This thesis contributes to the social studies of finance and accounting literature also by opening the blackbox of investment [e]valuation practices prevalent in the PE industry. I theorize the due diligence of PE funds as a complex of linked calculative practices and bring to fore the important aspects of ‘practical intelligibility’ of the investment professionals undertaking investment evaluation. I also identify and differentiate the ‘causal’ and ‘prefigurational’ relations between investment evaluation practices and the material entities ‘constituting’ those practices. Moreover, I demonstrate the role of practice memory in those practices. Finally, the thesis also contributes to the practice theory literature by identifying and attempting to clarify and/or improve the poorly defined and/or underdeveloped concepts of Schatzki’s ‘site’ ontology framework.

Identifying frames:a comparison of research methods

Framing plays an important role in public policy. Interest groups strategically highlight some aspects of a policy proposal while downplaying others in order to steer the policy debate in a favorable direction. Despite the importance of framing, we still know relatively little about the framing strategies of interest groups due to methodological difficulties that have prevented scholars from systematically studying interest group framing across a large number of interest groups and multiple policy debates. This article therefore provides an overview of three novel research methods that allow researchers to systematically measure interest group frames. More specifically, this article introduces a word-based quantitative text analysis technique, a manual, computer-assisted content analysis approach and face-to-face interviews designed to systematically identify interest group frames. The results generated by all three techniques are compared on the basis of a case study of interest group framing in an environmental policy debate in the European Union.