Leading to Grow and Growing to Lead: Some Lessons from Positive Organizational Scholarship The purpose of this paper is to use the lens of Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS) to offer new insights to how to grow leaders. We reframe the “Assess/Challenge/Support” model of leadership development created by the Center for Creative Leadership through a POS perspective. In leadership development, the CCL model is typically implemented by (1) focusing on performance gaps, (2) closing the gaps by introducing discomforting challenges, and (3) having the organization provide formal support (e.g., through mentoring). A POS perspective, drawn from recent research on thriving (or growing) at work, takes a complementary but unique approach by (1) leveraging strengths instead of gaps, (2) providing challenges through positive jolts rather than hardships, and (3) co-creating support through the development of microcommunities. We suggest that this complementary approach can create healthy and sustainable growth because it creates high energy and learning. We close the paper by recognizing some of the complications in taking a POS approach to growing leaders.

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This study used multiple methods to examine group processes (information sharing, morale building,planning, critical evaluation, commitment, monitoring, and cooperation) that mediate the effect of relationship level on group performance. The study uses a 2 by 2 experimental design, crossing relationship (friendship vs. acquaintance) as a between-subjects variable and task type (decision making vs. motor) as a within-subject variable. Fifty-three 3-person groups participated in the study, and data from 4 types of measurement were used to analyze the mediating processes between relationship level and task performance. Friendship groups performed significantly better than acquaintance groups on both decision-making and motor tasks because of a greater degree of group commitment and cooperation. Critical evaluation and task monitoring also significantly increased decision-making performance, whereas positive communication mediated the relationship between friendship and motor task performance.

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This paper has been developed from research conducted to date within the ‘Learning as Work’ project, a four year ESRC funded multi-sector study in the UK (2003 – 2008). It presents some initial findings of qualitative case study research concerning workplace learning in the UK hairdressing sector. Drawing upon interviews and observations carried out across four franchised hair salons, the paper addresses the various ways in which formal and non-formal processes of learning are organised and ‘done’ across the salons and foregrounds the relationship between learning at work, the organisation of work, and individual/organisational performance. These relationships are addressed through the presentation of empirical data concerning franchising, customer service, the learning of apprentice stylists the learning of older and more experienced stylists and interactive ‘conversion’ processes of client retention and customer spending.

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In Field Study Part 1 and Field Study Part 2, teachers and travel agents data were surveyed by students as part of their thesis. The reported experiments were accomplished by students within three practical courses for course credits, supervised by the author of this dissertation. Results of Experiments and Field Study Part 1 and 2 were presented at several conferences.

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This study tested the effects of using ergonomic work pacing software (EMS - Ergonomic Management System) on typing (accuracy and amount of keying), and mouse work (frequency and duration of mouse use). The performance of fifty-six highly skilled computer software programmers, technical development staff and executives at Lockheed Martin were passively monitored using the EMS system for four weeks, to establish a baseline. The EMS system then was fully activated for all personnel, and work performance monitored for an additional four-weeks period. Complete keying error data were recorded for oneweek during the baseline and test periods respectively. Full activation allowed the EMS software to coach users to take periodic microbreaks throughout the day depending on their work rate (if workers are pacing themselves appropriately then the EMS will not need to provide rest-break alerts).

There was a statistically significant 59% improvement in work accuracy following implementation of the EMS system. There was no difference in total keystrokes or in mouse use between the baseline and test conditions. Results confirm previous research that showed that alerting users to take more short rest and break periods did not impair their overall keystroke and mouse use, but did improve their work accuracy. Economic analysis shows that in this situation the performance benefits alone that accrued from using ergonomic work pacing software show a return on investment of less than one-week. It is concluded that appropriate work pacing plays an important role in facilitating office work performance.

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Why do firms delegate job design decisions to workers, and what are the implications of such delegation? We develop a private-information based theory of delegation, where delegation enables high-ability workers to signal their ability by choosing difficult tasks. Such signaling provides a more efficient allocation of talent inside the firm, but at the cost that low ability workers must be compensated to be willing to self-sort. Career concerns put a limit to the efficiency of delegation: when market observability of job content is high, the compensation needed to get low ability workers to self-sort is high, and firms limit delegation to avoid creamskimming of the high-ability workers. We investigate implications of the theory for how misallocation of talent within firms may occur and to the design optimal incentive contracts.
Keywords: Career concerns, Delegation, Discretion, Peter Principle, Sun Hydraulics.

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The purpose of this study was to identify the responsibilities of critical care nurse
professionals specializing in cardiac medicine as a first step in the development of a job-related certification examination. The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses-Certification Corporation (AACN-CC) requested the services of Applied Measurement Professionals, Inc. (AMP) to design and conduct a study which would provide the support necessary to develop specifications upon which a content valid certification examination could be built. AACN-CC identified the need to ensure that the examination specifications would be representative of critical care nurse
professionals who specialize in cardiac medicine.

AACN-CC appointed a Practice Analysis Committee (PAC) to conduct the activities necessary to identify cardiology nurse practitioners' responsibilities and develop examination specifications. The diversity of this group was reflective of the cardiac medicine specialty and all PAC members had demonstrated expertise in this area of critical care nursing.

The study involved development of a practice analysis survey, distribution of that survey to practitioners via the web, and an analysis of the responses. Test specifications for the nurse specializing in cardiac medicine were developed on the basis of these data.

The PAC met during February 2004 to initiate the following six tasks:
1. Developing a sampling plan
2. Identifying tasks for the survey instrument
3. Identifying classifications of core tasks
4. Determining the rating scales
5. Determining the relevant demographic variables of interest
6. Integrating demographics, rating scales, and tasks into a survey instrument

A total of 1,642 surveys were e-mailed to professionals in cardiology nursing. After reducing the sample size for undeliverable e-mail addresses (n=160), it was determined that twenty-two percent of the sample responded with surveys that were suitable for analysis (n=330). The responses to the demographic questions indicated that there were sufficient numbers of respondents in relevant groups for subsequent analysis. Approximately 99 percent of the respondents felt that the practice analysis survey at least adequately addressed the responsibilities of the cardiac medicine nursing profession. In addition, respondents used all rating scales with an acceptable level of reliability.

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We study optimal incentive contracts when commitments are limited, and agents have multiple tasks and career concerns. The agent career concerns are determined by the outside market. We show that the principal might want to give strongest explicit incentives for agents far from retirement to account for the fact that career concerns might induce behavior in conflict with the principal’s preferences. Furthermore, we show that maximized welfare might be decreasing in the strength of the career concerns, that optimal incentives can be positively correlated with various measures of uncertainty, and that career incentives have strong implications for optimal job design.

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The authors summarize 35 years of empirical research on goal-setting theory. They describe the core findings of the theory, the mechanisms by which goals operate, moderators of goal effects, the relation of goals and satisfaction,and the role of goals as mediators of incentives. The external validity and practical significance of goal-setting theory are explained, and new directions in goal-setting research are discussed. The relationships of goal setting to other theories are described as are the theory’s limitations.

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Although goal setting is a common organizational practice, studies concerning goal setting have almost exclusively been carried out in experimental settings. It may therefore be erroneous to assume that the relationships found to exist in controlled settings will hold true within organizations. Goal difficulty and participation in the goal setting process were examined as they related to goal performance. Participants were 132 scientists and professional staff, and 27 of their supervisors. The positive linear relationship between goal difficulty and performance typically found in controlled settings was not replicated. Consistent with some previous studies, a modest but significant relationship between participation and performance was found. The results of this research have implications for practitioners, researchers conducting goal setting studies within applied settings, and for goal setting theory in general.

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Many assume job analysis information is accurate, yet there is reason to believe that the types of subjective judgments involved in job analysis may be affected by systematic sources of inaccuracy. This chapter begins by discussing some prototypical situations which can occur in job analysis and reduce the accuracy of job analysis information. To understand how these inaccuracies can arise, we then review a framework of inaccuracy forwarded by Morgeson and Campion (1997) which includes 16 separate sources of inaccuracy in job analysis.

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I am a sick man. ... I am a spiteful man. I am an unattractive man. I believe my liver is diseased. However, I know nothing at all about my disease, and do not know for certain what ails me. I don’t consult a doctor for it, and never have, though I have a respect for medicine and doctors. Besides, I am extremely superstitious, sufficiently so to respect medicine, anyway (I am well-educated enough not to be superstitious, but I am superstitious). No, I refuse to consult a doctor from spite. That you probably will not understand. Well, I understand it, though. Of course, I can’t explain who it is precisely that I am mortifying in this case by my spite: I am perfectly well aware that I cannot ‘pay out’ the doctors by not consulting them; I know better than anyone that by all this I am only injuring myself and no one else. But still, if I don’t consult a doctor it is from spite. My liver is bad, well—let it get worse!.....get this free ebook with click link below

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Tell me, O Muse, of that ingenious hero who travelled far and wide after he had sacked the famous town of Troy. Many cities did he visit, and many were the nations with whose manners and customs he was acquainted; moreover he suffered much by sea while trying to save his own life and bring his men safely home; but do what he might he could not save his men, for they perished through their own sheer folly in eating the cattle of the Sun-god Hyperion; so the god prevented them from ever reaching home. Tell me, too, about all these things, oh daughter of Jove, from whatsoever source you may know them.....

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documents precisely; and a wonderful discovery crowned my labors in a very definite fashion. It will be remembered that, later, when digging in the substructure of the Opera, before burying the phonographic records of the artist's voice, the workmen laid bare a corpse. Well, I was at once able to prove that this corpse was that of the Opera ghost. I made the acting-manager put this proof to the test with his own hand; and it is now a matter of supreme indifference to me if the papers pretend that the body was that of a victim of the Commune.

The wretches who were massacred, under the Commune, in the cellars of the Opera, were not buried on this side; I will tell where their skeletons can be found in a spot not very far from that immense crypt which was stocked during the siege with all sorts of provisions. I came upon this track just when I was looking for the remains of the Opera ghost, which I should never have discovered but for the unheard-of chance described above.

But we will return to the corpse and what ought to be done with it. For the present, I must conclude this very necessary introduction by thanking M. Mifroid (who was the commissary of police called in for the first investigations after the disappearance of Christine Daae), M. Remy, the late secretary, M. Mercier, the late acting-manager, M. Gabriel, the late chorus-master, and more particularly Mme. la Baronne de Castelot-Barbezac, who was once the "little Meg" of the story (and who is not ashamed of it), the most charming star of our admirable corps de ballet, the eldest daughter of the worthy Mme. Giry, now deceased, who had charge of the ghost's private box. All these were of the greatest assistance to me; and, thanks to them,I shall be able to reproduce those hours of sheer love and terror, in their smallest details, before the reader's eyes.............

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Great story from best novel. The Last World, famous story and was cinema. If you want get this ebook for free, click this ink below

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MR. UTTERSON the lawyer was a man of a rugged countenance, that was never lighted by a smile; cold, scanty and embarrassed in discourse; backward in sentiment; lean, long, dusty, dreary, and yet somehow lovable. At friendly meetings, and when the wine was to his taste, something eminently human beaconed from his eye; something indeed which never found its way into his talk, but which spoke not only in these silent symbols of the after-dinner face, but more often and loudly in the acts of his life. He was austere with himself; drank gin when he was alone, to mortify a taste for vintages; and though he enjoyed the theatre, had not crossed the doors of one for twenty years. But he had an approved tolerance for others; sometimes wondering, almost with envy, at the high pressure of spirits involved in their misdeeds; and in any extremity inclined to help rather than to reprove..........

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Wow, this is a dramatic story. A Man who around the world just in 80 days. Read this story for free. Just click link below

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This is a famous story. Alice's adventure to Wonderland with "bunny" doll. even, this novel was goes to cinema. But if you want to read again this wonderfull story, get this ebook for free. Just click link below.

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Do you know The Legend of Moby Dick? if you don't know that legends, you can read this ebook for free. Click here to get this ebook from planetPDF

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Now "The Arabian Nights," some of which, but not nearly all, are given in this volume, are only fairy tales of the East. The people of Asia, Arabia, and Persia told them in their own way, not for children, but for grown−up people. There were no novels then, nor any printed books, of course; but there were people whose profession it was to amuse men and women by telling tales. They dressed the fairy stories up, and made the characters good Mahommedans, living in Bagdad or India. The events were often supposed to happen in the reign of the great Caliph, or ruler of the Faithful, Haroun al Raschid, who lived in Bagdad in 786−808 A.D. The vizir who accompanies the Caliph was also a real person of the great family of the Barmecides. He was put to death by the Caliph in a very cruel way, nobody ever knew why. The stories must have been told in their present shape a good long while after the Caliph died, when nobody knew very exactly what had really happened. At last some storyteller thought of writing down the tales, and fixing them into a kind of framework, as if they had all been narrated to a cruel Sultan by his wife. Probably the tales were written down about the time when Edward I. was fighting Robert Bruce. But changes were made in them at different times, and a great deal that is very dull and stupid was put in, and plenty of verses. Neither the verses nor the dull pieces are given in this book.

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Perceptual discrimination is fundamental to rational choice in many product categories yet rarely examined in consumer research. The present research investigates discrimination as it pertains to consumers’ ability to identify differences—or the lack thereof—among gustatory stimuli. Three experiments reveal systematic bias resulting from the presence of common visual and verbal product cues. Particularly noteworthy is the finding that the amount of bias induced by a subtle, nonevaluative cue can far exceed the bias induced by overt and well-established evaluative cues. In addition, the effects these cues have on perceptual discrimination diverge from the effects they have on preference.

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Superfluous choices are unnecessary choice steps that could be removed without affecting the final choice context and outcome. They are introduced in this article in order to study the mere effects of consumer participation. Superfluous choices have no immediate impact on the chosen option but strongly increase consumers’ propensity to persist with the same option on future choice occasions. Four experiments that isolate and investigate this indirect effect and its moderators highlight the impact of consumer participation that derives from a perception of greater deliberation and fluency in decision making.

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Corporate sponsorship of events contributes significantly to marketing aims, including brand awareness as measured by recall and recognition of sponsor-event pairings. Unfortunately, resultant advantages accrue disproportionately to brands having a natural or congruent fit with the available sponsorship properties. In three cued-recall experiments, the effect of articulation of sponsorship fit on memory for sponsor-event pairings is examined. While congruent sponsors have a natural memory advantage, results demonstrate that memory improvements via articulation are possible for incongruent sponsor-event pairings. These improvements are, however, affected by the presence of competitor brands and the way in which memory is accessed.

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This research examines the effect of brand cues on retrieval of target brands by individuals in collaborative (vs. noncollaborative) settings. We examine two theories, salience of the brand cue and retrieval-strategy disruption, as potential explanations. Two experiments show that brand cues lead to greater inhibition of target brands in a collaborative versus a noncollaborative setting. The theoretical is the exposition of a double-cueing effect of brand cues such that both (a) cue salience and (b) cue-induced retrieval-strategy disruption are greater for individuals in a collaborative setting. The discussion highlights additional theoretical implications of this research.

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Prior research has demonstrated that actions are regretted more than inactions in the short term. We show that, in limited purchase opportunities—situations where the purchase decision cannot be reversed—not purchasing (inaction) is seen as a loss and is associated with greater short-term regret than purchasing, reversing the omission bias. With respect to long-term regret, we use coping and availability mechanisms to suggest that, contrary to prior findings, inaction (nonpurchase) regrets decrease over time. We also argue that action (purchase) regrets should increase over time, but only when long-term utility is low. We support our predictions with a field study and two laboratory experiments.

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We introduce the concept of affective misforecasting (AMF) and study its impact on product evaluations. Study 1 examines whether and when AMF affects evaluations, finding that AMF has an impact on evaluations when the affective experience is worse (but not when better) than forecasted. Study 2 tests a process model designed to understand how and why AMF influences evaluations. The extent of elaboration is shown to underlie the observed effects. The studies demonstrate the robustness of the findings by controlling for alternative factors, specifically experienced affect, expectancy disconfirmation, and actual performance, which might have an impact on these judgments.

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Two experiments suggest that when participants evaluate an ad, they prefer improving ad emotions, because attitudes are based on an assessment of whether the emotions deviate positively or negatively from previous levels of emotions. In contrast, when emotions are experienced, positive emotions facilitate coping with later negativity, and an ad with declining (vs. improving) emotions results in more favorable attitudes. This beneficial effect of experienced positive emotions in reducing the impact of subsequent negative emotions is reversed when the positive emotions are allowed to dissipate over a time delay between the experiences of the two emotions.

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Existing evidence for affect’s influence on information processing and choice under high elaboration is mixed. In addition, affective choice is often viewed as erroneous in that it is assumed to lead to regret. We show that affect has a reliable impact on choice under high elaboration, which occurs through a combination of heuristic and systematic processing. Furthermore, consumers were able to correct for the impact irrelevant affect had on systematic processing but not for its impact on less conscious heuristic processing. Finally, affective purchases led to greater long-term satisfaction for important purchases, suggesting that affective choice can be functional.

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Still a lot of products are advertised and sold on the basis of their feature list. Marketing teams go out and ask consumers what new feature they require, and then return to the company to implore the technologist to provide them in the next release of the product. In the case of manifest and latent consumer needs and some conceptual ideas about new products this is feasible, however, if it comes to latent needs and non-existing products then traditional marketing methodologies do not suffice. How do we specify consumer requirements for products or features that do not even exist? This paper specifies a research methodology for next generation product developments on the basis of context-aware latent consumer needs.

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Recent research has identified a positivity effect in consumers’ evaluations of agents, such as friends and professional critics, who provide word-of-mouth evaluations and recommendations. Specifically, agreement with an agent on previously loved alternatives is perceived as more diagnostic of the agent’s suitability than agreement on previously hated alternatives. This article argues that the positivity effect arises from greater ambiguity about attribute ratings of hated versus loved alternatives. Three studies support this by showing that the effect is moderated by the number of attributes, the number of alternatives, and the revelation of an agent’s attribute ratings, and is mediated by attribute ambiguity.

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We contrast memory-based and stimulus-based choices, using dual-process theories such as Kahneman and Frederick’s system 1/system 2 dichotomy. Systems 1 and 2 are conceptualized as distinct modes of thought, the former automatic and affective, the latter controlled and deliberate. Cognitive load impedes system 2, yielding greater reliance on system 1. In memory-based choice, consumers must maintain relevant options in working memory. Thus, memory-based choices are associated with greater cognitive load than stimulus-based choices. Indeed, we find that memory-based choices favor mmediately compelling, affect-rich system 1 options, whereas stimulus-based choices favor affect-poor options whose attractiveness emerges from deliberative system 2 thought.

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Dynamic pricing practices by sellers in response to segment and individual-level differences have been made more feasible as internet buyer behavior increases. While benefits from these pricing practices can accrue to sellers and buyers, the potential for (un)fairness perceptions to mitigate these advantages is important. In an effort to investigate these issues, this article reports the results of three studies that examine the effects of seller-, consumer-, time-, and auction-based price differences on perceived price fairness and purchase satisfaction. The findings underscore the potential negative effects associated with price differences from dynamic pricing practices.

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Are you newbie in Affiliate Marketing? Get this ebook free, for your guide to do affiliate marketing.Table of Contents
Affiliate Marketing Introduced; The 3 Things All Affiliate Marketers Need To Survive Online; How To Become A Super Affiliate In Niche Markets; So Many Affiliate Programs! Which One Do I Choose?; Which Affiliate Networks To Look Out For When Promoting; Easy Profits Using PPC In Your Affiliate Marketing Business; Using Product Recommendations To Increase Your Bottom Line; Using Camtasia to Increase Your Affiliate Checks; Top 3 Ways To Boost Your Affiliate Commissions Overnight; How To Avoid The 3 Most Common Affiliate Mistakes; Recommended Resource and Bonuses

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Polysemous brand slogans have multiple meanings that may convey several product attributes. We build on extant research by suggesting that some consumers automatically access multiple meanings of a polysemous brand slogan, whereas others access only a single, immediately available meaning. A novel measure of automatic access to secondary meaning (the Secondary Meaning Access via the Automatic Route Test, or SMAART) is developed to capture this individual difference and show its consequences for consumer responses to polysemous slogans with unfavorable secondary meanings. The automatic-access account is further validated by employing the Implicit Association Test (Greenwald, McGhee, and Schwartz), suggesting that the unconscious impact of polysemous brand slogans can be more influential than intuitively expected.


*Claudiu V. Dimofte (dimofte@msb.edu) is assistant professor of marketing, Robert Emmett McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057. Richard F. Yalch (ryalch@u.washington.edu) is professor of marketing, University of Washington Business School, Box
353200, Seattle, WA 98195. The article is based on the first author’s doctoral dissertation at the University of Washington under the supervision of the second author. The authors acknowledge the helpful input of the editor, as sociate editor, and reviewers. In addition, the authors thank Forentiu Damian for help with software development and Anthony Greenwald and Ronald Goodstein for their helpful comments.

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Prior research has traced poor judgment quality to poor calibration. We suggest inconsistency to be another reason for poor judgment quality—utilizing different models on different occasions resulting in increased wandering in judgments. We demonstrate differing consistency in the utilization of models depending upon which variable is used as a cue and which is used as the criterion to be predicted. This results in differing correlations underlying judgments between the same two variables, an internally inconsistent pattern. We trace this to the utilization of lay causal models to make predictions but with the strength of the causal story moderating the consistency in use of the model.


*Arul Mishra is a doctoral candidate in marketing at the Tippie College of Business, University of Iowa, S252 PBB, Iowa City, IA 52242 (arul-mishra@uiowa.edu). Dhananjay Nayakankuppam is assistant professor of marketing at the Tippie College of Business, University of Iowa, W234 PBB, Iowa City, IA 52242 (dhananjay-nayakankuppam@uiowa.edu). Both authors contributed equally to the research, and order of authorship is alphabetical. The authors thank Joe Priester, Himanshu Mishra, and the participants of the JDM Brown Bag at the University of Iowa for their feedback at various stages of this project.

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The food system changes from being producer-driven to consumer-driven. Simultaneously, food systems are becoming increasingly confronted with fast-changing demands of consumers. These tendencies must be viewed in the context of the consumer society. Today’s food consumer behavior is both influenced by “traditional” concerns such as price or product quality, and by “modern” ones such as variety or process-oriented quality. Particularly the latter concerns are important to gain trust from consumers. To elaborate on this idea, four different consumer images are presented. These images contain various assumptions on food consumption. They are tested among a sample of consumers in the Netherlands.


*Agricultural Economics Research Institute (LEI), P.O. Box 29703, The Hague 2502 LS, The Netherlands, E-mail: h.j.m.hansman@lei.wag-ur.nl / j.c.dagevos@lei.wagur.nl

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We examine movie sequels as brand extensions of experiential goods. Study 1 reveals a reversal of the traditional categorization model such that dissimilar extensions are rated higher than similar extensions. This reversal is moderated by the name of the sequel; numbered sequels (Daredevil 2) are influenced by similarity more than named sequels (Daredevil: Taking It to the Streets). Study 2 reveals that the reversal arises because numbered sequels invoke a greater degree of assimilation with the parent movie, thereby increasing consumers’ level of satiation of experiential attributes. The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) provides external validity for our results (study 3).


*Sanjay Sood is assistant professor of marketing, UCLA Anderson School of Management, 110 Westwood Plaza, Suite B414, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1481 (sood@ucla.edu). Xavier Dreze is assistant professor of Marketing, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6340 (xdreze@wharton.upenn.edu). Correspondence: Sanjay Sood. The authors acknowledge the helpful input of the editor,associate editor, and reviewers. In addition, the authors thank the Entertainment and Media Management Institute of UCLA for helping fund the research.

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Our two-stage framework predicts that, during impression formation, individuals who hold ambivalent attitudes toward an issue are influenced by other sources regardless of their perceived reliability on the target issue. Less ambivalent individuals are presumed likely to check the reliability of the message’s source before accepting it. Experiment 1 finds that highly ambivalent participants do not differentiate between a more versus less reliable source when forming impressions of a political candidate, whereas less ambivalent participants do. Experiments 2 and 3 show that less ambivalent individuals’ attitudes can be influenced by less reliable sources if participants are unaware of this influence or if participants’ cognitive resources are curtailed.


*Martin R. Zemborain is assistant professor of marketing at IAE Management and Business School, Austral University, Mariano Acosta s/nro. Y Ruta Nac. 8 (1629) Pilar, Buenos Aires, Argentina (mzemborain@iae.edu.ar). Gita Venkataramani Johar is Meyer Feldberg Professor of Business at the
Graduate School of Business, Columbia University, 3022 Broadway, New York, NY 10027 (gvj1@columbia.edu). The authors contributed equally to this article and gratefully acknowledge helpful suggestions on earlier versions of the manuscript from the editor and two reviewers. This research was supported by the Columbia Business School research fund and was conducted while the first author was a doctoral student at Columbia University.

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Do consumers prefer auctions that allow them to place more precise bids to auctions that accept less precise bids? Can consumers accurately estimate their need for price-elicitation precision? This research addresses these questions by applying the notion of compatibility to the relationship between consumers’ bidding price uncertainty and the precision implied by the price-elicitation task. Data from four experiments show that when consumers are uncertain about the optimal bidding price, decision tasks requiring elicitation of precise bids lead to lower decision confidence, and vice versa. It is further shown that consumers display stronger preference for high-precision auctions, even though such auctions are associated with less confident pricing decisions.


*Alexander Chernev is associate professor of marketing at Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 2001 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208 (ach@northwestern.edu). The author thanks Pierre Chandon, Ryan Hamilton, Vincent Nijs, the editor, the associate editor, and the three anonymous reviewers for their advice and constructive comments.

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In response to a call by Gangestad and Snyder (2000), this paper is a preliminary step in the investigation of status-oriented motivation in self-monitoring theory. A word association task with four student samples (US, UK, Quebec and Switzerland) shows that the nature of the link between prestige-related knowledge and self-monitoring level varies substantially between the four national samples. Future research should therefore take into account cultural factors when studying the role of prestige as a motivation behind self-monitoring. A series of research questions resulting from the study are discussed in the paper.

*The paper is forthcoming in the Society for Consumer Psychology 2003 Winter Conference Proceedings, New Orleans.

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The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of twelve stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, featuring his famous detective and illustrated by Sidney Paget.

These are the first of the Sherlock Holmes short stories, originally published as single stories in the Strand Magazine from July 1891 to June 1892. The book was published in England on October 14, 1892 by George Newnes Ltd and in a US Edition on October 15 by Harper. The initial combined print run was 14,500 copies.

The book was banned in the Soviet Union in 1929 for occultism, although the book shows few to no signs of such material. Later, the embargo was lifted.

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The novel, however, is far from simple hagiography, avoiding conventional narrative and pious language, Instead, it recreates the process by which Jean Sulivan discovered Strozzi's life and the meaning of his priesthood. Because the narrator is called "Sul" within the text, and the name Jean Sulivan appears on the cover, there is a mixture of genres, including a personal and intimate journal with a spiritual journey of its own. Indeed, the narrator has resisted Strozzi's influence on the book he is writing. Sulivan had started out to do a book about the reformed prostitute Elizabeth, anticipating a lurid underworld.

But Elizabeth kept speaking about Strozzi; from the outset Sulivan complains, "Strozzi stole my novel."

The psychological and spiritual journey that marks Sulivan's work is especially challenging for a Catholic writer who is aware of the rich but burdensome tradition of images and symbols that western Christianity has created. The art of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance each provide a representation of the spiritual ideals, religious institutions, and historical actualities of their age; how can a Catholic writer invent a form and language that will reflect our post-Christian age? In his 1964 novel, Mais il y a la mer (The Sea Remains, 1969. o.p.), Sulivan embodies the problem in Ramon Rimaz, a retired Spanish Cardinal living in a cottage next to the sea. Rimaz has, in a sense, been stripped of his vestments, his office, and his function. As a man he must confront his present existence (a housekeeper, a chance friendship with a boy on the beach, an encounter with a neighbor) and make sense of a life devoid of the imagery and authority of his history. The anonymous narrator finds in the image of nature, spec ifically the sea, a basis for a lyrical reconciliation with the immanent God.

In a sense Eternity, My Beloved might be seen as an historical text, a novel about the state of religious life in Paris before and after World War II, seen from the perspective of a writer living in the 60s, shortly before May 1968 produced the rebellion of the young against an entrenched bourgeois system of education. Mauriac's Woman of the Phraisees had already attacked the rigidity and hypocrisy of bourgeois religious life. Although Bernanos's Diary of a Country Priest is set in a poor rural parish, its description of the crisis of religion in France and its diary form obviously influenced Sulivan. (Like Bernanos, Sulivan writes in short units, from a few lines to several pages, 107 sections in 136 pages, arranged arbitrarily, without chronology, reflecting the fractured disorder of discovery.) Eternity, My Beloved, however, was written after Vatican II and reflects the renewed sense of hope that the Council engendered. With Latin no longer the universal language of the church, Sulivan attempts to find a new language for what the translator calls "that" -- the inexpressible, the mystical, the representation of the presence of God here and now - particularly in the character of Strozzi.

In this historical moment in the U.S., marked by a plethora of spiritual autobiographies, Eternity, My Beloved offers an unusual artistic experience and a challenging spiritual analysis. Whatever differences they are between the social and religious histories of France and the United States, we share the same post-Christian culture, at the heart of which, as Sulivan shows in this book, is the attitude toward sex. The epigraph, which provides the title, is from Nietzsche: "I have never found the woman by whom I would want to have a child, except this woman that I love, for I love you, eternity, my beloved." Strozzi is represented as a man beyond social and institutional constraints who faithfully maintains a spiritual presence among the marginalized members of his parish.

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Pride and Prejudice, first published on 28 January 1813, is the most famous of Jane Austen's novels and one of the first "romantic comedies" in the history of the novel. The book is Jane Austen's second published novel. Its manuscript was initially written between 1796 and 1797 in Steventon, Hampshire, where Austen lived in the rectory. Called First Impressions, it was never published under that title, and following revisions it was retitled Pride and Prejudice.

Background

The novel was originally titled First Impressions, and was written between October 1796 and August 1797. Jane Austen's father wrote to London bookseller Thomas Cadell on November 1, 1797, offering it for publication, but it was rejected unseen by return of post. The unpublished manuscript remained with Austen, and it was not until 1811 that the first of her novels would be published, Sense and Sensibility.

Buoyed by the release of her first published novel, Austen revised the manuscript for First Impressions, likely between 1811 and 1812.[1] She renamed the story Pride and Prejudice, an "apparent cliche" phrase of the times. In renaming the novel, Jane Austen probably had in mind the "sufferings and oppositions" summarized in the final chapter of Fanny Burney's Cecilia called "Pride and Prejudice". Literary scholar Robert Fox cautions against reading too much into the title when discerning the novel's themes since commercial factors may have played a role in its selection: "After the success of Sense and Sensibility, nothing would have seemed more natural than to bring out another novel of the same author using again the formula of antithesis and alliteration for the title". It is also possible that the novel's original title was altered to avoid confusion with other works. In the years between the completion of First Impressions and its revision into Pride and Prejudice, two other works had been published under that name: a novel by Margaret Holford and a comedy by Horace Smith.

Austen sold the copyright for the novel to Thomas Egerton of Whitehall in exchange for £110 (Austen had asked for £150). This proved a costly decision. Austen had published Sense and Sensibility on a commission basis, whereby she indemnified the publisher against any losses and received any profits, less costs and the publisher's commission. Unaware that Sense and Sensibility would sell out its edition, making her £140, she passed the copyright to Egerton for a one-off payment, meaning that all the risk - and all the profits - would be his. Jan Fergus has calculated that Egerton subsequently made around £450 from just the first two editions of the book.

Plot introduction

Mr and Mrs Bennet's five daughters are all unmarried, and when a rich, amiable young man moves into the neighbourhood, Mrs Bennet hopes to secure him as a husband for her beautiful, eldest daughter. The growing relationship, however, is sabotaged by the young man's haughty friend, who regards the match as unsuitable. When the friend in turn falls in love with the second Bennet daughter, his condescending offer is rejected with scorn and the connection seems over. However, events conspire to bring the various parties together despite the obstacles and misunderstandings that separate them. Pride on one side and prejudice on the other are slowly overcome and the characters come to a better knowledge of themselves and each other.

Plot summary

The novel opens with the line, "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." The arrival of such a man in the neighbourhood greatly excites Mrs Bennet, whose sole interest in life is to see her five daughters married. The wealthy young man in question, Mr Bingley, has leased the Netherfield estate and plans to settle for a while with his two sisters and his brother-in-law.

The newcomers excite great interest locally, particularly amongst mothers of marriageable daughters. They attend a public ball in the village of Meryton, where Mr Bingley shows himself to be amiable and unpretentious, dancing with many young ladies and showing his decided admiration for Jane Bennet. His friend Mr Darcy, however, makes himself unpopular despite his fine figure and income of £10,000 a year, being proud and disagreeable. Of Elizabeth Bennet he is heard to say, "She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me." Following the ball, Jane is invited for an evening to Netherfield, but catches a bad cold and is forced to stay for some days. Elizabeth comes to nurse her, engaging Darcy's guarded attention and the not-so-guarded hostility of Miss Bingley, who appears to have in interest in Darcy herself.

Mr Collins, a cousin who will inherit the Bennet estate as Mr Bennet's nearest male relative, arrives for a visit. He is also "in want of a wife", and intends to marry one of his cousins, thus atoning for his position as entailed heir and healing the breach in the family. A pompous buffoon of a clergyman, he has been ordered by his imperious patroness, Lady Catherine de Bourgh (who is also Darcy's aunt), to find himself a suitable wife. Finding that Jane appears destined for Bingley he switches his sights to Elizabeth, who refuses him absolutely despite the threats and entreaties of her mother. Eventually, to Elizabeth's surprise, he is accepted by her friend Charlotte Lucas, who neither loves nor respects him, but wishes to escape the fate of becoming an old maid. Elizabeth does not regret the loss of her suitor, but is disppointed in Charlotte and unsure how happy she will be as Mrs. Collins.

For some time Meryton has been home to a regiment of soldiers, delighting the giddy, young Bennet sisters Kitty and Lydia. Elizabeth is introduced to a pleasant young officer, Mr Wickham, who tells her that he has known Mr Darcy from childhood, and has been cheated by him of a bequest by Darcy's late father. This reinforces Elizabeth's growing dislike of Darcy and she is relieved when he leaves the neighbourhood, although Bingley and his party also leave, dashing the hopes of Jane, who has fallen very much in love with him. However, Elizabeth encounters Darcy again on a visit to the newlywed Mr and Mrs Collins, as he arrives to visit Lady Catherine at Rosings Park, the estate to which Mr Collins's living is attached. She tolerates him, unaware of his growing admiration, and is astounded when he suddenly proposes to her. His offer is high-handed and condescending – he does so, he says, "against his own will" and in spite of her objectionable family. He is stunned and mortified to be rejected in no uncertain terms: Elizabeth tells him he is "the last man in the world whom [she] could ever be prevailed on to marry." She has recently learnt that it was Darcy who persuaded Mr Bingley to sever ties with Jane, increasing her dislike for him, and also cites his treatment of Wickham, his arrogance and his ungentlemanly conduct as reasons for her refusal.

The next day, Mr Darcy intercepts Elizabeth on her morning walk and hands her a letter before coldly taking his leave. In it, he justifies his actions over Bingley and Jane, and reveals the true nature of Wickham, who has misrepresented his treatment by Darcy, and, shockingly, even attempted to seduce and elope with Darcy's young and vulnerable sister. New light is shed on Mr Darcy's personality and Elizabeth begins to reconsider her opinion. Later, on holiday with her aunt and uncle, the Gardiners, Elizabeth is persuaded to tour Pemberley, Mr Darcy's estate, on the understanding that he is away. To her embarrassment he returns unexpectedly; however, his altered behaviour toward her – distinctly warmer than at their last meeting – and his polite and friendly manner toward her aunt and uncle, begin to persuade her that underneath his pride lies a true and generous nature. Her revised opinion is reinforced on meeting his sister Georgiana, a gentle, shy young girl upon whom he dotes.

Just as her relationship with Mr Darcy is beginning to thaw, Elizabeth receives the dreadful news that her headstrong younger sister Lydia has apparently eloped with Mr Wickham, who has resigned his commission to evade gambling debts. She returns home, believing that this scandal can only further disgust Darcy with the idea of a connection with her family, whatever he may feel for her personally. All is in chaos at home, particularly when it becomes apparent that Wickham has not married Lydia and the two are living together in London. Mr Gardiner apparently traces them and arranges the wedding, delighting the foolish Mrs Bennet. Only from a careless remark of Lydia's does Elizabeth discover that it was really Darcy who secretly intervened, buying Wickham's compliance and saving Lydia's reputation at great financial cost. This completes the reversal in Elizabeth's sentiments, and she regrets having turned down his earlier proposal of marriage.

Lady Catherine discovers Mr Darcy's feelings for Elizabeth, which threaten her long-cherished desire for him to marry her daughter. She pays Elizabeth an unannounced visit and brusquely tries to intimidate her into refusing such an engagement. Unfortunately for Lady Catherine, her visit only serves to consolidate Elizabeth's intentions. Furthermore, Lady Catherine later visits Mr Darcy, and relates the entire conversation to him – giving him the hope that if he proposes to Elizabeth again, she may accept him. After ensuring the rekindling of Mr Bingley and Jane Bennet's relationship, Mr Darcy and Elizabeth become engaged.

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