Being Superwoman: Low Income Mothers Surviving Problem Drinking and Intimate Partner Violence

We elucidate ways mothers think about behavior change related to heavy drinking and violent relationships. A purposive sample of 32 women, predominantly black and low income, were identified as engaging in both problem drinking on the AUDIT and experiencing severe partner violence on the Conflict Tactic Scale. Narratives from audiotaped Motivational Interviewing sessions conducted in an urban emergency department were transcribed, inductively coded and examined through the lens of feminist standpoint theory. Our analysis suggests motherhood is a powerful motivator for positive change, but multiple barriers combine to prevent self-protection and modification of adverse behaviors among this vulnerable population. Interventions to help low-income mothers dealing with relationship violence and substance abuse should also address the structural violence and substantive barriers these mothers face. Further work should examine the power of personal narratives related to being a good mother on women’s ability to improve life circumstances for themselves and their children.     

‘The Biosciences Knowledge Value Chain and Comparative Incubation Models’

This research derives from an EU DG Enterprise (IPS Programme) project on bio-incubation, called Bio-Link. The Bio-Link project is innovative in three ways. First, it involves an international comparative analysis of biotechnology incubators of the kind that is rarely if ever done. Second, the incubator representatives are monitored and investigated by an academic partnership team. Third, there is a stated aspiration by the incubator companies to engage in co-incubation across borders. Co-incubation is, as far as we are aware, a new kind of boundary crossing innovation in which advanced start-up businesses are assisted to enter other national markets and/or benefit from specialised services or scientific, technological, or commercial knowledge absent in the home country but present in a partner country. Evidence from research on European, Israeli and North American bioincubators is included to compare, contrast and enable future judgements of incubator appropriateness to biotechnology.     

Books in review

Among his books are The Social Psychology of Social Movements; Violent Men; Reforming Human Services; Living in Prison;and, with Kenneth Adams and J. Douglas Grant, Coping.     

Defense Conversion in Small Companies: Risk, Activities, and Success Assessment

The defense industry has been experiencing a large draw-down during the 1990s. This has left many companies, large and small, in a situation where they had to examine the viability and future of their businesses. While large and medium-size companies were somewhat assisted by government policies and support, small subcontractors were often left alone, facing higher risks and severe threats to their future. This research investigated the events, decisions, activities and success of small defense contractors, which had to face this new situation. It developed a specific framework, which may be used to help companies in assessing their conversion efforts. The study was conducted by utilizing a within-case and cross-case methodology for case study analysis. Results assert the difficulties for highly defense dependent companies to enter and succeed in the commercial market and explain why many conversion efforts have often failed in the past. Our findings show that to convert successfully, companies must streamline and improve their internal processes, develop a strategic plan, develop their marketing capabilities, and must have management and employee commitment to the process. Although such recommendations were expected, we found, that to many of these companies, they were completely new. As a by-product to this study, we found that managers in small businesses are typically not aware of modern concepts of strategic management and do not normally read the management literature. A new approach to educating such managers is needed, and thus suggested.     

Leaving Careers in IT: Gender Differences in Retention

The low prevalence of women in the information technology (IT) workforce has received considerable attention in recent years. The focus of much of this discussion concerns how women can be recruited into careers in IT by making careers more attractive and accessible to women. The size of the IT workforce depends on retention as well as recruitment. The focus of this study is on retention, examining factors related to retention and how retention varies by gender. Data for the study come from the Scientists and Engineers Statistical Data System (SESTAT) compiled by Science Resources Statistics (SRS), National Science Foundation (NSF). We find that retention varies by gender and that a sizeable proportion of IT-trained women who are not working in IT jobs leave the labor force rather than take positions in other occupations. We also find that marriage and family play different roles for women and men in affecting retention.JEL Classification: J1, J4, J6, J7, O39