The Institutionalization of Institutional Theory

[Excerpt] Our primary aims in this effort are twofold: to clarify the independent theoretical contributions of institutional theory to analyses of organizations, and to develop this theoretical perspective further in order to enhance its use in empirical research. There is also a more general, more ambitious objective here, and that is to build a bridge between two distinct models of social actor that underlie most organizational analyses, which we refer to as a rational actor model and an institutional model. The former is premised on the assumption that individuals are constantly engaged in calculations of the costs and benefits of different action choices, and that behavior reflects such utility-maximizing calculations. In the latter model, by contrast, \u27oversocialized\u27 individuals are assumed to accept and follow social norms unquestioningly, without any real reflection or behavioral resistance based on their own particular, personal interests. We suggest that these two general models should be treated not as oppositional but rather as representing two ends of a continuum of decision-making processes and behaviors. Thus, a key problem for theory and research is to specify the conditions under which behavior is more likely to resemble one end of this continuum or the other. In short, what is needed are theories of when rationality is likely to be more or less bounded. A developed conception of institutionalization processes provides a useful point of departure for exploring this issue

A topological realization of the congruence subgroup Kernel A

A number of years ago, Kumar Murty pointed out to me that the computation of the fundamental group of a Hilbert modular surface ([7],IV,${\S}$6), and the computation of the congruence subgroup kernel of SL(2) ([6]) were surprisingly similar. We puzzled over this, in particular over the role of elementary matrices in both computations. We formulated a very general result on the fundamental group of a Satake compactification of a locally symmetric space. This lead to our joint paper [1] with Lizhen Ji and Les Saper on these fundamental groups. Although the results in it were intriguingly similar to the corresponding calculations of the congruence subgroup kernel of the underlying algebraic group in [5], we were not able to demonstrate a direct connection (cf. [1], ${\S}$7). The purpose of this note is to explain such a connection. A covering space is constructed from inverse limits of reductive Borel-Serre compactifications. The congruence subgroup kernel then appears as the group of deck transformations of this covering. The key to this is the computation of the fundamental group in [1]

Institutional Sources of Change in the Formal Structure of Organizations: The Diffusion of Civil Service Reform, 1880-1935

This paper investigates the diffusion and institutionalization of change in formal organization structure, using data on the adoption of civil service reform by cities. It is shown that when civil service procedures are required by the state, they diffuse rapidly and directly from the state to each city. When the procedures are not so legitimated, they diffuse gradually and the underlying sources of adoption change overtime. In the latter case, early adoption of civil service by cities is related to internal organizational requirements, with city characteristics predicting adoption, while late adoption is related to institutional definitions of legitimate structural form, so that city characteristics no longer predict the adoption decision. Overall, the findings provide strong support for the argument that the adoption of a policy or program by an organization is importantly determined by the extent to which the measure is institutionalized — whether by law or by gradual legitimation

Lp-cohomology of negatively curved manifolds

We compute the $L^p$-cohomology spaces of some negatively curved manifolds. We deal with two cases: manifolds with finite volume and sufficiently pinched negative curvature, and conformally compact manifolds

Quantitative chemical tagging, stellar ages and the chemo-dynamical evolution of the Galactic disc

The early science results from the new generation of high-resolution stellar spectroscopic surveys, such as GALAH and the Gaia-ESO survey, will represent major milestones in the quest to chemically tag the Galaxy. Yet this technique to reconstruct dispersed coeval stellar groups has remained largely untested until recently. We build on previous work that developed an empirical chemical tagging probability function, which describes the likelihood that two field stars are conatal, that is, they were formed in the same cluster environment. In this work we perform the first ever blind chemical tagging experiment, i.e., tagging stars with no known or otherwise discernable associations, on a sample of 714 disc field stars with a number of high quality high resolution homogeneous metal abundance measurements. We present evidence that chemical tagging of field stars does identify coeval groups of stars, yet these groups may not represent distinct formation sites, e.g. as in dissolved open clusters, as previously thought. Our results point to several important conclusions, among them that group finding will be limited strictly to chemical abundance space, e.g. stellar ages, kinematics, colors, temperature and surface gravity do not enhance the detectability of groups. We also demonstrate that in addition to its role in probing the chemical enrichment and kinematic history of the Galactic disc, chemical tagging represents a powerful new stellar age determination technique.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS

Leo V: A Companion of a Companion of the Milky Way Galaxy

We report the discovery of a new Milky Way dwarf spheroidal galaxy in the constellation of Leo identified in data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Leo V lies at a distance of about 180 kpc, and is separated by about 3 degrees from another recent discovery, Leo IV. We present follow-up imaging from the Isaac Newton Telescope and spectroscopy from the Hectochelle fiber spectrograph at the Multiple Mirror Telescope. Leo V's heliocentric velocity is 173.4 km/s, which is offset by about 40 km/s from that of Leo IV. A simple interpretation of the kinematic data is that both objects may lie on the same stream, though the implied orbit is only modestly eccentric (e = 0.2)Comment: Submitted to ApJ (Letters

Sobolev Inequalities for Differential Forms and Lq,pL_{q,p}-cohomology

We study the relation between Sobolev inequalities for differential forms on a Riemannian manifold $(M,g)$ and the $L_{q,p}$-cohomology of that manifold. The $L_{q,p}$-cohomology of $(M,g)$ is defined to be the quotient of the space of closed differential forms in $L^p(M)$ modulo the exact forms which are exterior differentials of forms in $L^q(M)$.Comment: This paper has appeared in the Journal of Geometric Analysis, (only minor changes have been made since verion 1

A Keck/DEIMOS spectroscopic survey of faint Galactic satellites: searching for the least massive dwarf galaxies

[abridged] We present the results of a spectroscopic survey of the recently discovered faint Milky Way satellites Boo, UMaI, UMaII and Wil1. Using the DEIMOS spectrograph on Keck, we have obtained samples that contain from 15 to 85 probable members of these satellites for which we derive radial velocities precise to a few km/s down to i~21-22. About half of these stars are observed with a high enough S/N to estimate their metallicity to within \pm0.2 dex. From this dataset, we show that UMaII is the only object that does not show a clear radial velocity peak. However, the measured systemic radial velocity (v_r=115\pm5 km/s) is in good agreement with recent simulations in which this object is the progenitor of the recently discovered Orphan Stream. The three other satellites show velocity dispersions that make them highly dark-matter dominated systems. In particular the Willman 1 object is not a globular cluster given its metallicity scatter over -2.0<[Fe/H]<-1.0 and is therefore almost certainly a dwarf galaxy or dwarf galaxy remnant. We measure a radial velocity dispersion of only 4.3_{-1.3}^{+2.3} km/s around a systemic velocity of -12.3\pm2.3 km/s which implies a mass-to-light ratio of ~700 and a total mass of ~5x10^5 Msun for this satellite, making it the least massive satellite galaxy known to date. Such a low mass could mean that the 10^7 Msun limit that had until now never been crossed for Milky Way and Andromeda satellite galaxies may only be an observational limit and that fainter, less massive systems exist within the Local Group. However, more modeling and an extended search for potential extra-tidal stars are required to rule out the possibility that these systems have not been significantly heated by tidal interaction.Comment: 24 pages, 11 figures, MNRAS accepte

Kepler KOI-13.01 - Detection of beaming and ellipsoidal modulations pointing to a massive hot Jupiter

KOI-13 was presented by the Kepler team as a candidate for having a giant planet - KOI-13.01, with orbital period of 1.7 d and transit depth of ~0.8%. We have analyzed the Kepler Q2 data of KOI-13, which was publicly available at the time of the submission of this paper, and derived the amplitudes of the beaming, ellipsoidal and reflection modulations: 8.6 +/- 1.1, 66.8 +/- 1.6 and 72.0 +/- 1.5 ppm (parts per million), respectively. After the paper was submitted, Q3 data were released, so we repeated the analysis with the newly available light curve. The results of the two quarters were quite similar. From the amplitude of the beaming modulation we derived a mass of 10 +/- 2 M_Jup for the secondary, suggesting that KOI-13.01 was a massive planet, with one of the largest known radii. We also found in the data a periodicity of unknown origin with a period of 1.0595 d and a peak-to-peak modulation of ~60 ppm. The light curve of Q3 revealed a few more small-amplitude periodicities with similar frequencies. It seemed as if the secondary occultation of KOI-13 was slightly deeper than the reflection peak-to-peak modulation by 16.8 +/- 4.5 ppm. If real, this small difference was a measure of the thermal emission from the night side of KOI-13.01. We estimated the effective temperature to be 2600 +/- 150 K, using a simplistic black-body emissivity approximation. We then derived the planetary geometrical and Bond albedos as a function of the day-side temperature. Our analysis suggested that the Bond albedo of KOI-13.01 might be substantially larger than the geometrical albedo.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic

Investigation of the New Local Group Galaxy VV 124

We present the results of our stellar photometry and spectroscopy for the new Local Group galaxy VV 124 (UGC 4879) obtained with the 6-m BTA telescope. The presence of a few bright supergiants in the galaxy indicates that the current star formation process is weak. The apparent distribution of stars with different ages in VV 124 does not differ from the analogous distributions of stars in irregular galaxies, but the ratio of the numbers of young and old stars indicates that VV 124 belongs to the rare Irr/Sph type of galaxies. The old stars (red giants) form the most extended structure, a thick disk with an exponential decrease in the star number density to the edge. Definitely, the young population unresolvable in images makes a great contribution to the background emission from the central galactic regions. The presence of young stars is also confirmed by the [O III] emission line visible in the spectra that belongs to extensive diffuse galactic regions. The mean radial velocity of several components (two bright supergiants, the unresolvable stellar population, and the diffuse gas) is v_h = -70+/-15 km/s and the velocity with which VV 124 falls into the Local Group is v_LG = -12+/-15 km/s. We confirm the distance to the galaxy D = 1.1+/-0.1 Mpc and the metallicity of red giants ([Fe/H] = -1.37) found by Kopylov et al. (2008).VV 124 is located on the periphery of the Local Group approximately at the same distance from M 31 and our Galaxy and is isolated from other galaxies. The galaxy LeoA nearest to it is 0.5 Mpc away.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy Letters (2010, Vol. 36, No. 5, pp. 309-318