Background

The Present Study

Method

Results

Discussion

References

Abstract

The authors used data from the 1994, 2002, and 2012 General Social Survey (N = 1,450) to examine whether support for divorce has increased among adults aged 50 years and older. Consistent with the rise in the gray divorce rate, today’s older adults were more accepting of divorce than their predecessors were two decades ago. Attitudinal change was modest between 1994 and 2002, but accelerated after 2002. The acceleration was primarily due to period rather than cohort change, signaling the role of broader shifts in the meaning of marriage as it has become deinstitutionalized. Older birth cohorts and individuals who were either divorced or remarried were especially likely to hold supportive attitudes toward divorce.

Discussion

Divorce is now common across the adult life course and actually on the rise among older adults (Kennedy & Ruggles, 2014). Consistent with our expectations, older adult support for divorce has increased. In 2012, nearly two thirds agreed that divorce was the best solution for couples who could not work out their problems whereas support hovered at 56% in 1994. Older adults were more supportive of divorce than were younger adults, and this gap grew over time. Drawing on a social change perspective (Firebaugh, 1992, 1997; Ryder, 1965), we assessed the extent to which this change was due to cohort replacement versus intracohort change. Initially, the growth in supportive divorce attitudes was quite modest in magnitude and was driven primarily by cohort replacement. During the more recent period, intracohort change was the main reason why there was an increase in favorable divorce attitudes.

Introduction

Literature Review

Theoretical Framework

Background of the Textile and Apparel Sector of Pakistan

Empirical Strategies

Empirical Findings

Conclusion

References

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of globalization (defined as phasing-out of the multifiber arrangements [MFA]/agreement on textile and clothing [ATC]) on working conditions of textile and apparel workers in general and female workers in particular in Pakistan. We found that the impact of the elimination of the MFA/ATC on workers of the textile and apparel sector is negative and statistically insignificant. The working conditions of workers in the textile and apparel sector are not different relative to other sectors. The working conditions of females deteriorated as a result of the phasing out of the MFA/ ATC in relation to the male working environment and compared with other industries. Our findings are robust in the sense that the direction of the impact remains the same and statistically significant even after performing sensitivity analysis. We also controlled for provincial heterogeneity, and the results showed minor correction in magnitude but remain negative and statistically significant. We also addressed treatment selection bias by performing propensity score analysis and found similar results.

Introduction

Globalization (or increasing global economic integration) is defined as a reduction in barriers to international flows (i.e., investment, trade, and migration) and a rise in international trade, investment, and migration across borders. These international flows affect workers directly and indirectly in both developed and developing economies. While a chunk of international trade and investment is between developed nations, globalization has expanded drastically in many developing nations. The merchandise trade to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio increased substantially in low- and middle-income economies between 1990 and 2003 based on the World Developed Indicators (WDI) database. Even some economies witnessed big changes in the ratio of trade in goods to their GDP. The world scenario of the textile and apparel trade changed considerably during the agreement on textile and clothing (ATC) and after elimination of the multifiber arrangements (MFA/ ATC). The performance of Asian economies changed significantly after the elimination of the MFA/ATC. The MFA/ ATC’s termination resulted in a dramatic redistribution of the provision of the world apparel production (Lopez-Acevedo & Robertson, 2012; Staritz, 2011). The impact of globalization on working conditions is inconclusive in existing empirical research and only a few studies systematically evaluate this impact either within or across nations (Brown, 2009). However, there is support for the proposition that those workers from industries with small wages and adverse non-monetary environment move to industries with comparatively higher wages and better nonmonetary working environment due to globalization (Jayasuriya, 2008). In reality, how trade liberalization affects working conditions also depends on the existing scenario of the economy. The impact of trade openness varies across industrial units, industries, and economies. The impact of globalization depends on the measure that is used for it, as different measures of globalization have different effects on the economy. Trade theories forecast that free trade will boost the nation’s working environment indirectly by raising its per capita income.

Method

Results

Discussion

Discussion

References

Abstract

It is often assumed that there is a robust positive symmetrical relationship between happiness and social behavior: Social relationships are viewed as essential to happiness, and happiness is thought to foster social relationships. However, empirical support for this widely held view is surprisingly mixed, and this view does little to clarify which social partner a person will be motivated to interact with when happy. To address these issues, we monitored the happiness and social interactions of more than 30,000 people for a month. We found that patterns of social interaction followed the hedonic-flexibility principle, whereby people tend to engage in happiness-enhancing social relationships when they feel bad and sustain happiness-decreasing periods of solitude and less pleasant types of social relationships that might promise long-term payoff when they feel good. These findings demonstrate that links between happiness and social behavior are more complex than often assumed in the positive-emotion literature.

Discussion

Our findings challenge the notion that happiness and social behavior relate to one another in a simple reciprocal and symmetrical fashion. Whereas our large-scale investigation of everyday life confirms that relationships with people who are close are crucial to happiness, we also demonstrate that happiness relates to people’s social behavior in more complex ways than previously acknowledged. As we predicted using the hedonic-flexibility principle, people seek happinessenhancing social relationships when they feel bad and are more likely to sustain happiness-decreasing periods of solitude or engage in less pleasant types of social relationships that might promise long-term payoff when they feel good. Our data cannot directly tell us whether spending at least some portion of the time alone and regularly meeting new people predict enhanced psychological and social adjustment 5 or 10 years later. Yet research does suggest that although solitude can increase loneliness and negative affect, it may also offer opportunities for concentration, renewal, autonomy, and spirituality, which might be adaptive (Larson, 1990; Long & Averill, 2003). Likewise, a large body of work has consistently demonstrated the importance of building and maintaining strong social networks on mental and physical health (Holder & Coleman, 2007; Lee & Ishii-Kuntz, 1987; Pinquart & Sörensen, 2000).

Introduction

Theory and hypotheses

Methodology

Analysis and results

Discussion

Conclusion

References

Abstract

This article extends knowledge of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) by examining EO in the context of international performance of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). We enhance understanding of foreign market entry of SMEs by taking into account the mediating mechanisms (i.e. networking capability and experiential learning) through which firm EO leads to superior performance across borders. A sample of 164 internationalising SMEs in New Zealand supported the direct impact of EO on international performance as well as the mediating role of experiential learning and networking capability in this focal relationship. These findings reveal the importance of EO in internationalisation of SMEs.

Introduction

For more than three decades, scholarly interest in entrepreneurial orientation (EO) has continued to grow rapidly (Covin and Wales, 2019). EO in the international entrepreneurship (IE) context has recently gained momentum, largely due to the increasing globalisation of markets. IE is defined as the discovery, enactment, evaluation and exploitation of opportunities across national borders to create and capture value (Coviello et al., 2011; Oviatt and McDougall, 2005). In this view, foreign market entry, like other forms of market entry, is explained as a process of opportunity development (Jones et al., 2011), which is certainly an entrepreneurial act (Knight and Cavusgil, 2004).

Introduction

Methods

Can Childhood Maltreatment Predict Parenting Practices Later in Life?

Mechanisms to Explain Intergenerational Transmission of Maltreatment

Poverty and Structural Disadvantage

Mental Health and Emotion Regulation

Biology of Childhood Abuse From an Early-Life Stress Perspective

Genetic Predispositions and Individual Differences

Epigenetic Embedding of Maltreatment

Epigenetic Inheritance of Maltreatment

Timing of Maltreatment

Methodological Challenges

Discussion

References

Abstract

Parents who experienced maltreatment in childhood may be at an increased risk of presenting abusive or neglectful behavior toward their own children. Research suggests reoccurring patterns of abuse and neglect across generations, but the factors that influence these behavioral patterns are complex and poorly understood. Although abusive or neglectful parenting styles undoubtedly are strongly influenced by social factors (ie, “nurture”), there might be underlying biological components to perpetuating behavioral patterns (ie, “nature”). Importantly, nature and nurture are known to interact in shaping developmental outcomes, and as such should not be considered in isolation. In this review, we examine the evidence regarding the inheritance of abusive and/or neglectful parenting behavior using a transdisciplinary approach. We integrate knowledge of the social and biological science fields on the continuance of abusive and neglectful behavior, as well as the methodological challenges that complicate the interpretation of existing research. Finally, we stress the importance of considering contextual factors of both social and biological research findings concerning the intergenerational inheritance of child abuse and neglect and discuss the potential for early social intervention to disrupt harmful intergenerational patterns.

Introduction

Child maltreatment can have devastating psychological and neurobiological consequences. Major areas in which damage can occur include behavioral and affect regulation, attachment relationships, development of identity and self-esteem, peer relationships, and academic performance and adaptation. Consequences may extend into adulthood and include internalizing and externalizing behavior problems, post-traumatic stress, alcohol abuse, obesity, chronic pain, and sexually transmitted infections, unemployment, poverty, and social assistance usage, as well as impairments in attention, abstract reasoning, working memory, problem-solving, verbal and nonverbal fluency, verbal and nonverbal inhibition, and directed attention. To prevent abuse and neglect and the associated consequences, it is critical to determine all the factors that operate in concert to cause maltreatment. The etiology of child abuse and neglect is generally viewed as complex and multiply determined. Estimates of intergenerational transmission of maltreatment vary widely, underscoring the methodological limitations inherent to studying parenting across generations and the lack of clarity in this field of study (see Table 1). Importantly, existing reviews have only included a focus on either social science research or biological research, and several have given too much weight to methodologically weak studies (see63). The purpose of this article is to review the evidence on the role of childhood maltreatment in predicting later abusive and neglectful behavior in order to identify possible mechanisms and interactions influencing the continuity and discontinuity of harmful parenting practices across generations.

Introduction

Literature review

Research hypotheses and model

Research methodology

Results

Discussion

Implications for theory and practice

Conclusion and limitations

References

Abstract

Although cloud computing has a number of benefits, privacy risks play a critical role in organizations’ decisions to switch to cloud services. However, few studies on cloud adoption have investigated effects of both benefits and costs on switching intention. Based on cost-benefit analysis and technology acceptance model, this study develops a research model to investigate how benefits (perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use) and costs (perceived risk and privacy concerns) influence organizations’ switching intention to cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). The model also accounts for trust and perceived control in the context of cloud computing. Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and privacy concerns significantly affect switching intention. Trust can enhance perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use and reduce perceived risk. Perceived control can also reduce perceived risk and privacy concerns. The findings are useful to understand switching issues from traditional ERP to cloud ERP for both researchers and practitioners.

Introduction

In recent years, cloud computing has become an emerging information technology (IT) development. It provides business products, services, and solutions that are delivered and consumed in real-time over the Internet (Gen 2008). Cloud-based models can be categorized into public, private, and hybrid clouds. In the public cloud model, services and resources are provided by cloud service providers and accessed over the Internet; in the private cloud model, IT resources and services remain within an organization and are accessed via the Intranet. Hybrid clouds mix the models of public and private clouds. Recently, public clouds have received increasing attention in IT industries. As International Data Corporation (IDC) reports, public cloud services reached US$47.4 billion in 2013. Furthermore, the market for cloud services is expected to reach US$107 billion by 2017 (Mishra 2013). Several organizations tend to switch to public cloud systems because of the benefits and useful interfaces of cloud computing (Low et al. 2011). However, the switch from traditional systems to cloud systems is still in the early stages (Park and Ryoo 2013). Accessing to data and services over the Internet increases the chances of compromising security.

Introduction

Method

Results

Discussion

Conclusion

Implications of the Study

Limitations and Suggestions for Future Research

References

Abstract

The study aimed at determining the influence of organizational culture on the performance of microfinance institutions in Kenya. A descriptive cross-sectional survey design was adopted. Secondary data were collected from annual reports by the Association of Microfinance Institutions in Kenya and the Microfinance Rating Africa. Primary data were collected using structured questionnaire targeting the chief executive officer, human resource manager, and marketing manager. Data were analyzed using factor analysis and hierarchical regression. Our analysis identifies clan and hierarchy as the dominant cultural typologies in the microfinance industry. The results obtained demonstrate that organizational culture has a significant influence on non market performance. In addition, market culture is inversely associated with debt/equity ratio. We conclude that organizational culture is a major source of sustainable competitive advantage in the microfinance industry. Furthermore, we conclude that market culture promotes financial independence and sustainability in the long term.

Introduction

Business firms operating in competitive markets are consistently under pressure to monitor and improve their performance with the goal of meeting the ever-increasing expectations of investors, employees, and customers. Microfinance institutions (MFIs) operate in competitive financial sector characterized by dominant and resourceendowed commercial banks and the member supported savings and credit cooperative societies that enjoy a large number of loyal clientele. Unlike their competitors, majority of MFIs rely on debt from established lenders to provide credit services to their customers. However, developing countries where majority of the MFIs are domiciled have stringent depositor protection regulations that constrain the bulk of nondeposit taking MFIs to mobilize funds from the public. Therefore, exceptional management of organizational resources to compete in the market is essential for the performance of MFIs. Performance relates to the results and outcomes the top management of the firm plans to achieve (Thompson, Strickland, & Gamble, 2008). The upper echelons of firms based in unpredictable and competitive industries spend most of their time and effort in search of answers to performance enhancement questions. The performance management challenge has equally attracted attention of researchers in management. Over the years, studies have attempted to explain how organizational performance can be managed by finding a strategic fit between the firm’s diverse range of resources and changes in the external environment. Organizational culture has been identified as an important intangible resource and a barrier to imitation with powerful effects on performance. Schein (1985) proposed that organizational culture serves the dual roles of adaptation to changes in the environment external to the firm and enabling internal integration. Colyer (2000) suggest that performance can be understood better by analyzing organizational culture as firms respond to changing circumstances based on their established culture.

Review of the Literature: Prior Studies on Play Therapy

Method

Discussion

References

Abstract

This article reports a systematic review of the effectiveness of individual child play therapy with children aged 4–12 on several different presenting concerns. From over 5,000 citations, 180 studies were reviewed in detail and 17 met the inclusion criteria. A wide range of results on different concerns were revealed, with effect sizes ranging from d ¼ –0.04 to g ¼ 3.63, though most ranged from .35 to .80. Across most concerns, play therapy was affirmed as an empirically supported therapy.

Review of the Literature: Prior Studies on Play Therapy

As early as 1953, Lebo questioned the lack of research documenting the effectiveness of play therapy. Phillips (1985) also challenged the effectiveness of play therapy, noting the small samples sizes utilized and the omission of control or comparison groups in published studies. Carroll (2000) argued that research assessing the effectiveness of play therapy is needed in social work. LeBlanc and Ritchie (2001) completed a metaanalysis of play therapy outcomes with children with a mean age of 7.8 years, reporting overall a 0.66 standard deviation (SD) improvement. LeBlanc and Ritchie also found that parent involvement was linked to better outcomes, as was longer duration play therapy with the child. Bratton, Ray, Rhine, and Jones (2005) completed another meta-analysis of play therapy outcomes. They included 93 studies with children of a mean age of 7 years, reporting overall 0.80 SD improvement. Bratton and colleagues further reported that humanistic and nondirective play therapies had better results (d ¼ 0.93) than did behavioral approaches (d ¼ 0.73) and that involvement of parents was linked to better outcomes. Further, they reported that “play therapy appeared equally effective across age, gender, and presenting issue” (p. 376). These early reviews found play therapy to be quite effective. Later, Ray, Armstrong, Balkin, and Jayne (2015) published a review and meta-analysis of 23 CCPT studies provided in elementary schools. They report smaller but statistically significant effects, ranging from d ¼ 0.34 for externalizing problems, 0.21 for internalizing problems, and 0.34 for total problems. Lin and Bratton (2015) completed another meta-analysis of 52 controlled studies completed from 1995 to 2010. They report an overall effect size of d ¼ 0.47 for CCPT, as well as “statistically significant relationships between effect size and … child’s age, child’s ethnicity, caregiver involvement, treatment integrity, publication status, and presenting issue” (p. 45). CCPT appeared effective but with smaller effect sizes than had been previously reported. No 95% confidence intervals (CI) were reported. These publications, however, mixed several different models and modalities of play therapy. From a methodological perspective, Bratton and Swan (2017) reviewed 26 studies including both individual and group CCPT, filial therapy, group sandtray therapy, and Adlerian play therapy. Experimental, quasi-experimental, and one group pre– post designs were included. Twelve studies included active treatment comparisons while 14 employed wait-list controls; with a mean of 42 participants per study. Manualized treatment approaches were few but appeared in some recent studies. Bratton and Swan argue that play therapy is an empirically supported treatment (EST) or research-supported treatment (RST), demonstrating effectiveness with diverse populations and in a variety of real-world settings. However, they did not perform a meta-analysis of the studies they summarized due to variation in outcomes studied nor did they provide 95% CI for their effect size results.

Information asymmetry and agency conflicts between managers and outside investors are two primary market frictions that affect financiers’ decisions to supply capital to a firm (Jensen & Meckling, 1976; Myers & Majluf, 1984). Given that corporate disclosure plays a critical role in mitigating information asymmetry and agency problems, a large body of literature examines how managers utilize voluntary disclosure strategically in anticipation of external financing activities to influence investors’ perception of firm performance and governance (see, for example, Frankel, McNichols, & Wilson, 1995; Lang & Lundholm, 2000). Relatively, little research looks into whether and how managers alter their financing choices under mandated disclosure in which they are left with little discretion over the information flow. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) of 2002 requires firms to disclose material weaknesses in their internal control systems, and this mandatory disclosure limits managerial discretion over influencing the mix of information available to investors. In this study, we investigate how managers adjust their firms’ debt-equity choices after the mandated disclosure of internal control weaknesses (ICWs). To address our research question, we employ a comparison method, similar to Hope and Thomas (2008), by examining how ICW firms differ from non-ICW firms in terms of financing pre-disclosure and whether these differences persist post-disclosure.1 We construct two samples to operationalize the comparison. The predisclosure sample spans from 2000 to 2002 (financing period) with firms having Section 404 reports filed between November 15, 2004 and December 31, 2005 (disclosure period).2 We follow Doyle, Ge, and McVay (2007b) to determine the internal control status of firms in the pre-disclosure sample by assuming that a firm that discloses at least one material weakness during the disclosure period has ICWs during the financing period.3 For the post-disclosure sample, we focus on firms disclosing ICWs for the first time under Section 404 between 2004 and 2008 and examine their financing decisions following the initial disclosure. Given that the disclosure of ICWs causes both shareholders and debtholders to priceprotect themselves by charging higher risk premiums (e.g., Ashbaugh-Skaife, Collins, Kinney, & LaFond, 2009; Dhaliwal, Hogan, Trezevant, & Wilkins, 2011), we first examine whether the ICW disclosure adversely affects firms’ access to external financing (debt and equity). Our empirical results indicate that ICW firms are more inclined to raise external capital than non-ICW firms before the disclosure, but they behave similarly as regards the size and frequency of external financing post-disclosure. This finding suggests that increased costs of capital do not hinder ICW firms’ access to capital markets. Instead, the disclosure dampens the pre-disclosure desire for external capital shown by ICW firms.

Abstract

This study explores the events leading up to the origination of public sector accounting standards in Canada by the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA) and their adoption by the Government of Canada. We interpret these events from the perspective of institutional theory. We find that a long-standing institutionalized practice of self-developed government accounting policies was disrupted by a series of challenges. An influential actor in this process was the Office of the Auditor General of Canada which first pushed for the creation of independent government accounting standards and then pushed the government toward the implementation of the accounting policies developed by the CICA’s public sector accounting standard-setting body. Two CICA studies served to further disrupt the status quo. We also find evidence of the role played by an inter-organization professional network in defining and labeling problems that ultimately resulted in the change.

Introduction

The preparation of financial statements is guided by criteria that determine such matters as what is included in and excluded from the financial statements, how financial statement items are measured, how financial statement information is presented or otherwise disclosed, and what the appropriate reporting entity is. During the mid-twentieth century, standard-setting bodies came into existence around the world, including in Canada, to promulgate standardized principles, rules, and guidelines for organizations to follow in the preparation of financial statements. In the United Kingdom, The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales released its Statement of Intent on Accounting Standards in the 1970s noting the need to address the diversity of reporting practices (Rutherford, 2007). In Australia, the process of standard setting by the profession got under way in 1966; few standards, however, were issued until the mid-1970s (Ryan et al., 2007). In Canada, the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA) took on the role of standard setter and in 1968 produced the CICA Handbook which laid out the standards for financial statement preparation and the standards for auditing those financial statements. These standards, however, related solely to the private sector. This study is concerned with the origin of standard setting for public sector entities in Canada.

The question of what influences a firm’s financial reporting practice has been examined extensively in the accounting literature (Dechow, Ge, & Schrand, 2010). Prior studies approach this question by identifying factors at the market level (Leuz, Nanda, & Wysocki, 2003), the firm level (Klein, 2002; Lang, Raedy, & Wilson, 2006), and more recently the individual manager level (Ge, Matsumoto, & Zhang, 2011). However, the papers that study the influence of individuals on corporate financial reporting decisions focus on corporate executives, mostly CEOs and CFOs.1 This article investigates the impact on corporate financial reporting choices of a different group of individuals: audit committee members. Specifically, this article examines whether financial reporting decisions are affected by differences in individual characteristics among audit committee members that are generated from various factors such as personality, ethical beliefs, and personal experiences that are not directly observable. Audit committees of public firms play the role of ‘‘overseeing the accounting and financial reporting processes of the issuer and audits of the financial statements of the issuer.’’2 Such a role involves ‘‘reviewing and discussing with management, internal and outside auditors the annual audited financial statements . . . and quarterly financial statements’’ (Braiotta, 2004). Hence, the financial statements of a firm are the end product of a reporting process which involves both management and the audit committee. The audit committee sometimes makes substantial adjustments to the financial statements during this process, by resolving the dispute between outside auditors and management, gathering information from internal auditors, and/or overseeing management’s compliance with financial reporting standards and regulation (Caskey, Nagar, & Petacchi, 2010). Prior literature has identified various audit committee characteristics that are associated with financial reporting quality, such as independence (Klein, 2002), expertise (Be´dard, Chtourou, & Courteau, 2004), and busyness (Tanyi & Smith, 2014). A common feature of these studies is that they rely on observable characteristics of the audit committee: For example, the expertise of audit committee members is usually captured by their professional qualifications (e.g., Certified Public Accountant [CPA] or Certified Financial Analyst), and independence is measured by whether the member is a current or former employee, is a family member of an executive officer, or receives compensation from the firm other than for being a board member (Klein, 2002). These observable characteristics, while meaningful, may not capture the full picture of how audit committee members can influence their firms’ financial reporting. In particular, psychology studies find that an individual’s job performance and career outcomes are affected by numerous factors, such as personality traits (e.g., Hurtz & Donovan, 2000), self-perception (Judge, Erez, & Bono, 1998), ethical beliefs (H. Koh & Boo, 2001), and childhood experience (Blustein, Walbridge, Friedlander, & Palladino, 1991), to name but a few. These factors are often not directly observable but are likely to affect the effectiveness of monitoring by audit committee members, and thus in turn influence firms’ financial reporting practices. The goal of this study was to examine the overall effect of audit committee members on financial reporting that arise from these unobservable characteristics. Following prior literature, I label these characteristics as ‘‘styles’’ of audit committee members (Bertrand & Schoar, 2003).

Marketing Systems Theory and the Collective Drive for Change

Marketing systems theory rests on the foundational idea that marketing represents a provisioning technology of society that can be reflexive as it can often bring change to society through its ability to influence dimensions of society, such as the economic, political, sociocultural, and technological dimensions of society (Fisk 1967, 1974; Fisk 1997; Kadirov and Varey 2011; Layton 2007, 2009, 2015; Mittelstaedt, Kilbourne, and Mittelstaedt 2006). Fisk understood marketing as a social process that must be seen (i.e. interpreted) from the perspective of stakeholders who experience spillover effects, in the form of both public “goods” and “bads.” He further indicated that his reading of classic marketing thinkers (e.g. Alderson, Breyer, Cox) led him to believe that effective marketing systems meet human needs efficiently and flexibly while maximizing positive externalities. Although Fisk (1997) did not specifically discuss how marketing systems emerge and evolve, he emphasized the need of disenfranchised market actors—disenfranchised market actors influence technologies that ensure outcomes such as distributive justice, collective advance, improved quality of life, and long-run community flourishing. Since then, marketing systems theory has focused largely on the demand for goods/services assortments (Layton 2007) and questions regarding whether market actors “think” like macromarketers, and whether they comprehend systemic issues, whether they desire institutional change in society beyond markets. Macromarketing research indicates that marketing systems arise as a solution to the problem of “demand heterogeneity” (Layton 2009; Mittelstaedt, Kilbourne, and Mittelstaedt 2006). Demand heterogeneity arises due to formal, informal, and philosophical antecedents (Mittelstaedt, Kilbourne, and Mittelstaedt 2006) as well as evolving market-mechanisms (Layton 2015). Somewhat counter to this, Fisk (1997) suggested that the demand at a micro-level was endogenously shaped and determined within marketing system structures. The current article puts these seemingly different logics together in an attempt to answer the following question: where does the drive for change, which goes beyond the immediate context of micro-level exchanges, fit in this framework? Recent evidence in macromarketing research attests to the desire for wellfunctioning, dignity-enhancing, just marketing systems, specifically among disenfranchised groups (Jagadale, Kadirov, and Chakraborty 2017; Laczniak and Santos 2011; Vulkan, Roth, and Neeman 2013). Collective “dissatisfaction” with marketing systems is rooted in systemic issues and reflected in “wicked” problems (Kennedy 2017). Market injustice, when it occurs, is clearly reflected in the experiences of marketing system participants (Klein 2008; Vulkan, Roth, and Neeman 2013). Consumers might accept solutions proffered by marketing system assortments that are offered at a micro level while they still seek desired macro-changes as observed in the example of American gun-violence-prevention groups (Huff et al. 2017). Continued attempts to “fix” problematic markets are undertaken when participants, despite transacting in these markets, end up feeling that the whole process was chaotic, inefficient and unfair (Roth 2008, 2013). The drive for change becomes salient when actors’ selfinterests align and intersect. The perspective of markets as the agora stresses this aspect of marketing systems that goes beyond exchange markets, which include political, sociocultural, technological, and institutional influences (Mittelstaedt, Kilbourne, and Mittelstaedt 2006). The agora perspective considers possibilities that some exchange practices of a group of market actors may impact the potential of demand satisfaction for other groups.

Actors in competitive environments are bound to decide and act under conditions of uncertainty because they rarely have accurate foreknowledge of how their opponents will respond and when they will respond. Just as a competitor makes a move to improve their standing on a given variable relative to a target competitor, she should expect the latter to counteract with an iterative lagged asymmetric response, that is, with a sequence of countermoves (iteration) that is very different in kind from its trigger (asymmetry) and that will be launched at some unknown point in the future (time lag). The paper explicates the broad relevance of the newly proposed concept of ‘‘iterative lagged asymmetric responses’’ to the social study of temporality and to fields as diverse as intelligence and counterintelligence studies, strategic management, futures studies, military theory, and long-range planning. By bringing out in the foreground and substantiating the observation that competitive environments place a strategic premium on surprise, the concept of iterative lagged asymmetric responses makes a contribution to the never-ending and many-pronged debate about the extent to which the future can be predicted.

Introduction

Competition and cooperation are fundamental attributes of animal and human societies at all levels of analysis (Axelrod, 2006; Fjeldstad et al., 2012; Simpson and Willer, 2015). They are carried out by a changing mix of actors, with a changing mix of concerns, enthralled into cascades of action and response to one another’s moves, which in turn sustain an interactional, highly contingent, social field (Abbott, 2001, 2016; Fligstein and McAdam, 2011; Simandan, 2017). Competition and cooperation are often imbricated with each other, which means that their identification in a given context is a function of one’s research focus and theoretical background (Bowles and Gintis, 2011; McNamara, 2013; Miekisz, 2008). An intuitive example of imbrication would be that of two soccer teams competing in a game. From the standpoint of aiming to win the game, the two teams are competing; from the higher standpoint of publicizing the beauty and interestingness of soccer to a social audience, the two teams are cooperating, by, for example, giving their best, playing by the rules, and so on. Each team is constituted by a collection of players who must cooperate with one another in order to have a chance at winning the higher order competition with the other team. At the same time, within each team, there is also competition among players on various performance metrics, such as who scored the most. From an evolutionary standpoint, rank and status are important concerns, and humans are motivated to preserve and improve their social standing on a variety of evolutionary-relevant dimensions (attractiveness, peer respect, social dominance, financial resources, etc.). As social comparison theory argues, the relentless preoccupation with monitoring one’s social standing makes humans highly sensitized to moves that threaten it and thereby triggers ‘‘competitive behavior to protect one’s superiority’’ (Festinger, 1954: 126). The extent of prior interaction makes a difference in how competition is carried out. A growing research literature (Converse and Reinhard, 2016) distinguishes between merely incidental competitors (with no shared history of competing with each other) and rival competitors. Rivalry appears only when there is a history of competition between the two actors and when both of them subjectively identify each other as such. Unlike incidental competitors, rivals perceive the current competition as connected to the past ones, they put more effort and eagerness into their competitive performance, they are less prudent, and they tend to be concerned with their long-term legacy, that is, with how the broader social context will judge the whole history of competition between them and a particular rival (Converse and Reinhard, 2016).