Darwinism and Organizational Ecology: A Reply to Reydon and Scholz

In an earlier article published in this journal I challenge Reydon and Scholz's (2009) claim that Organizational Ecology is a non-Darwinian program. In this replay to Reydon and Scholz's subsequent response, I clarify the difference between our two approaches denoted by an emphasis her on the careful application of core Darwinian principles and an insistence by Reydon and Scholz on direct biological analogies. On a substantive issue, they identify as being the principle problem for Organizational Ecology, namely, the inability to identify replicators and interactors "of the right sort" in the business domain; this is also shown to be easily addressed with reference to empirical studies of business populations.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Search for Advocacy: A measure of local attentiveness to homelessness

From urban capitals to rural countryside, and every locality in between, homelessness is a national phenomenon that affects every community. Each locality responds to it differently through the variety of homeless programs and services it offers. By doing such, each locality displays a certain level of attentiveness to their homeless population. This article explores how 10 small southeastern cities respond to their local homelessness and seeks to compare the homeless attentiveness of Bowling Green, Kentucky to similar localities. An evaluative measure of municipal attentiveness based on a range of homelessness program areas is used to score each city’s response to its homelessness. A non-parametric test finds that there is not a significant difference in the attentiveness of evaluated localities, and in turn concludes that Bowling Green’s attentiveness to its homelessness is not significantly less than that of the other cities. However, an analysis of the descriptive statistics reveal the strengths and weaknesses of Bowling Green’s response to homelessness, identifying prevention and emergency services as areas needing more attention. This research and its following discussion serve as a starting point for the ten localities examined, as well as other similar localities, to examine their own response to local homelessness

The Need for More Academics in Carbon Market Formation

In the wake of climate change negotiations in Cancún, and as New Mexico, California, Ontario, Quebec, and British Columbia design their own greenhouse gas markets, I am struck by the dearth of North American academics involved in the creation of climate change policy. Those tracking and attempting to influence the design of these markets are not few; they encompass representatives from energy to agricultural industries, industry trade associations like the International Emissions Trading Association, non-governmental organizations such as the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, World Resources Institute, and Stockholm Environment Institute. However, all of these interests have funding sources with an agenda. Academia is not completely immune to the plague of industry or interest group-sponsored research, but it is more protected as professors usually do not owe their salary to one of these entities and some external funding sources like the National Science Foundation have no anticipated outcome of studies or papers. Involving more academics can help provide a more unbiased review with equal emphasis on how policies will impact a variety of industries and the environment

Analysis of Carbon Capture and Sequestration Pore Space Legislation: A Review of Existing and Possible Regimes

Liability coverage for carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) is of paramount importance if the industry is going to mature and develop in a way that will allow it to make a significant contribution to mitigating climate change. Liability for CCS can be broken into two phases – short-term, which covers the pre-injection, injection, and closure stages of the project, and long-term, which covers the post-closure stage. Since pre-injection, injection, and closure occur over a relatively short period of time that may cover 20-30 years, typical liability instruments like private insurance, letters of credit, performance bonds, trust funds, and escrow accounts may be utilized. For the post-closure phase, which lasts indefinitely after the site has been closed, more enduring liability instruments must be used in order to ensure that adequate and long-lasting coverage is provided. Several states have created liability schemes to cover long-term liability, but most of these schemes are incomplete and may lead to confusion over who is responsible for damages and remediation if they are utilized. This paper discusses possible liability schemes, critically analyzes those schemes currently in place, and proposes the best possible choice for long-term coverage of geological sequestration

Finding Common Interests: Using Social Media to boost Retention in Voluntary Professional Associations

Attrition is one of the most important challenges faced by Professional Associations like the Project Management Institute (PMI). According to publicly available data, 90,000 members joined PMI in 2005. In the month of April 2006 alone, 33,751 new members were added, which leads to the logical conclusion that the PMI membership must have grown by over 115,750 during the period 2005-2006. However, records show that the growth has been by only 70,000. PMI’s reported growth of 5% would have been much higher had it not been for their attrition of 23%. Similarly, ISACA’s growth during 2014 dropped to 4% due to their attrition of 19%. In this paper, we combine the social identity theory and communication ecology theory to propose a Social Identity Theory (SITPA) for professionals. We argue that by leveraging the social media, Voluntary Professional Associations (VPAs) can provide “value” to their members, increasing their retention rates

What determines auditory similarity? The effect of stimulus group and methodology.

Two experiments on the internal representation of auditory stimuli compared the pairwise and grouping methodologies as means of deriving similarity judgements. A total of 45 undergraduate students participated in each experiment, judging the similarity of short auditory stimuli, using one of the methodologies. The experiments support and extend Bonebright's (1996) findings, using a further 60 stimuli. Results from both methodologies highlight the importance of category information and acoustic features, such as root mean square (RMS) power and pitch, in similarity judgements. Results showed that the grouping task is a viable alternative to the pairwise task with N > 20 sounds whilst highlighting subtle differences, such as cluster tightness, between the different task results. The grouping task is more likely to yield category information as underlying similarity judgements

The use of multispectral sensing techniques to detect ponderosa pine trees under stress from insect or pathogenic organisms

Application of multispectral sensors to detect insect and disease infestation of ponderosa pine tree