Gene A. Fisher

Hazards of the Market: The Continuity and Dissolution of Interorganizational Market Relationships

The authors propose a theory of the market as an intertemporal process that integrates multiple theoretical perspectives. Using event-history methods, thery analyze the dissolution of interorganizational market ties between advertising agencies and their clients as a function of three forces - competition, power, and institutional forces. The informal rules of exchange institutionalized in the emergence phase of the advertising services market include exclusivity (sole-source) and loyalty (infrequent switching). They find that most exchange relationships between advertising agencies and their clients are indeed exclusive, and most last for several years; but competition, power, and institutional forces support or undermine these rules. Most institutional forces reduce the risk of dissolution of agency-client ties. Powerful advertising agencies mobilize resources to increase tie stability, but powerful clients mobilize resources to increase or decrease stability. Competition is the weakest market force, but it has a consistent and substantial effect on tie dissolution : competition always increases the risk of dissolution. They conclude that the market is institutionalized as imperfectly repeated patterns of exchange, because competition and changing norms about the duration of market ties destabilize market relationships

Murder and medicine: the lethality of criminal assault 1960-1999

Despite the proliferation of increasingly dangerous weapons and the very large increase in rates of serious criminal assault, since 1960, the lethality of such assault in the United States has dropped dramatically. This paradox has barely been studied and needs to be examined using national time-series data. Starting from the basic view that homicides are aggravated assaults with the outcome of the victim’s death, we assembled evidence from national data sources to show that the principal explanation of the downward trend in lethality involves parallel developments in medical technology and related medical support services that have suppressed the homicide rate compared to what it would be had such progress not been made. We argue that research into the causes and deterability of homicide would benefit from a “lethality perspective” that focuses on serious assaults, only a small proportion of which end in death.

Unions between blacks and whites: England and the US compared

In this article, US and UK census data are used to compare the propensity for matches between blacks and native born whites in England and the US. Blacks are disaggregated into three ethnic groups: Black Caribbeans, Residual Blacks and, in the US, African Americans. The first group receives the most theoretical attention. Both raw percentages and parameters that control for several covariates - such as age, education and city of residence - are examined. The results indicate that, with or without controls and irrespective of ethnicity, blacks in Britain are significantly more likely to have a native born white partner than their US counterparts. These findings accord with assimilation theory, but the articles conclusion suggests that, in both countries, the assimilation of people of African descent operates differently from the assimilation of whites.

And the hits just keep on coming: Music programming standardization in commercial radio

Abstract Despite much concern over the effects of deregulation and competition in the commercial radio industry, no studies have shown empirically how market characteristics, organizational policies, and programmer practices both promote and constrain music programming standardization in the United States. In this article we analyze playlists from a sample of radio stations to develop a measure of music programming standardization, and relate this variable to eight factors identified in the literature as promoting or limiting music programming standardization. Our findings indicate that large markets are the driving force behind music programming standardization, while station ownership is a secondary factor. The effects of these environmental factors on music programming are mediated by organizational policies and programmer practices: low programmer autonomy and the use of audience research and consultants encourage standardization, while an orientation toward new music and the local audience tend to counteract standardization. Based on these findings we argue that, despite increasing ownership consolidation in the commercial radio industry, music programming standardization will likely be confined to larger markets. We further suggest that concentration in the commercial music radio industry will enable small, specialist stations to survive and even multiply so that diversified programming will be available in all market areas.

Black Caribbeans in comparative perspective

Abstract This article compares the gap in socioeconomic well‐being between native‐born white persons and Black Caribbean immigrants in four nations: the USA, the UK, Canada and France. Theoretical considerations suggest that the gap will be smallest in France, followed by the USA. The data come from recent censuses and labour market surveys. Four labour market outcomes are considered: labour force participation, unemployment, occupational status and earnings. Each outcome is analysed using multi‐variate models which are estimated separately by gender and nation. A comparison of the size of the inter‐racial gap within genders and across nations reveals a pattern of cross‐national similarity, other things equal. The articles conclusion considers some reasons why the empirical analysis failed to support theoretical expectations. It appears that these reasons have as much to do with the shortcomings of cross‐national methodology as with the shortcomings of social science theory.

Black-White Unions: West Indians and African Americans compared

In this research we use 1990 PUMS data to compare the propensity for unions between African Americans and native whites with the propensity for unions between British West Indians and native whites. In addition, we distinguish women and men. Descriptive statistics indicate that West Indians, with the exception of men who arrived as adults, are more likely than African Americans to have white partners. After the introduction of controls for several correlates of intermarriage, however, West Indian men of any generation have lower exogamy rates than African American men, while exogamy rates are higher among West Indian women who arrived as children or who were born in the United States than among African American women. Thus we find no consistent evidence of greater exogamy for British West Indians than for African Americans.

Homicide as a Medical Outcome: Racial Disparity in Deaths From Assault in US Level I and II Trauma Centers

BACKGROUND: Since 1900, thousands of medical journal articles have been published on the topic of racial disparities in health and medical outcomes in the United States, including overlapping disparities based on health insurance status. But research on the question of such disparities in the medical treatment of injury from assault—matters of public safety, considerable public expense, and policy debate—is lacking. METHODS: To determine differences by race and insurance status on death from intentional injury by others on and after trauma center arrival, propensity score matching is used to estimate adjusted mortality risk ratios by race and medical insurance controlling for facility, case, and injury characteristics. Analysis is based on a nationally representative sample of 100 Level I and II US trauma centers (National Trauma Data Bank 2005–2008) and includes 137,618 black and white assault cases aged 15 years and older: 35% white, and 65% black, with 46% of the whites and 60% of the blacks coded as uninsured. RESULTS: Black patients showed higher overall raw mortality rates from assault than whites (8.9% vs. 5.1%), but after propensity score matching, the black to white adjusted risk ratio for death from assault (homicide) dropped significantly across firearm, cutting/piercing, and blunt injuries. After adjustment, estimated black deaths were 29% in excess of white deaths for firearm injuries, 36% in excess for cutting/piercing injuries, and 61% in excess for blunt injuries. Uninsured blacks comprised 76% of all excess trauma center deaths from assault. CONCLUSIONS: Along with insurance status, and after excluding on-scene deaths, among patients brought to the Level I and II trauma centers, race is a substantial independent predictor of who dies from assault. Blacks, especially the uninsured, have significantly worse outcomes overall, but there is some evidence that this pattern is minimized at higher levels of injury severity. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: I, prognostic study.

Informal systems of care for the chronically mentally ill.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the structure and functioning of informal caregiving systems of community-based chronically mentally ill individuals. From a sample of 409 family member reports, 150 caregiving systems are described in terms of size, composition and division of caregiving labor. Results show that these systems are about as large as those found for elder caregiving systems, that women and relatives predominate as caregivers, that there is considerable diversity in the types of caregivers and that size and composition are related to the division of labor observed in these systems.

Family bonding of the mentally ill: an analysis of family visits with residents of board and care homes.

Early studies offamily visits to hospitalized mental patients suggested thatfamily bonds tend to unravel as the chronicity of the patients illness becomes established. The present study examines visitation outside of the hospital for persons living in the community. Hypotheses are developed to explain variation among families in level of involvement with mentally ill relatives, and tested with data from a recent study of residents of board and care homes in seven states. Visitation, including both visits by family members to the board and care home and visits by disabled members to the family residences, is used to indicate level of family involvement. Tobit regressions within categories of visitation suggest that family involvement decreases with distance, physical disability, and impairment, but increases with need for services. Sharp differences in visiting patterns are found between residents who had at least one psychiatric hospitalization and residents who had never been hospitalized for mental illness. These differences suggest that the bonding offamilies to the chronically mentally ill is quite different from the bonding offamilies to patients with organic brain syndromes.

Cape Verdean identity in a land of Black and White

Cape Verde is an island group off the African coast with a history of slavery. Its residents having both European and African ancestors, they consider themselves a mixed-race people. Residents of the United States, however, observe the one-drop rule: anyone with a perceptible trace of African blood is defined as Black. This difference motivates us to ask: how do Cape Verdean Americans answer questions about their racial identity? Strict assimilationists predict that, as they adapt to their new home, Cape Verdeans will identify less as mixed-race than as White or Black. Others suggest that the quality of race relations at the time immigrants arrive affects their identity. We test these ideas using data from the 2000 US Census and the American Community Survey. Our multivariate analysis shows that some, but not all, forms of assimilation increase the odds of identifying as Black. The odds of identifying as White, on the other hand, have little to do with assimilation. The timing of arrival also has a significant effect on racial identity, with Black gaining popularity among recent immigrants.