Sean Laraway

Implications of customer and entrepreneurial orientations for SME growth

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to empirically investigate how the business orientations of customer orientation (CO) (represented by responsiveness to customers) and entrepreneurial orientation (EO) (represented by proactiveness, innovativeness and risk‐taking) impact the growth of SMEs.Design/methodology/approach – This study uses a quantitative empirical approach, using structural equation modeling with the software package AMOS to analyze the results of 660 surveyed SMEs from Austria.Findings – This analysis reveals that EO is positively related to SME growth but CO shows a negative association with growth. Moreover, this analysis suggests that SMEs grow the most if they exhibit high EO and low CO.Research limitations/implications – This analysis shows that CO, interpreted as a purely responsive and reactive construct, cannot be considered a strategy that leads to sustainable SME growth. If an SME desires growth, EO is needed to fuel these growth aspirations. In spite of these findings however, thi...

Unconditioned and Conditioned Establishing Operations in Organizational Behavior Management

Abstract The establishing operation (EO) is a behavior-analytic motivational concept that prompts a more comprehensive theoretical understanding of motivation with practical implications. The field of Organizational Behavior Management (OBM) has made limited use of the EO concept, but other specialization areas in behavior analysis have developed EO-based treatments. Analogous success in OBM will likely require advances in the use of molecular analyses of behavior, functional analysis technologies, and analyses of verbal behavior. Theoretical and technical progress will also require a better understanding of Michaels (1982; 1993a; 1993b) taxonomy of unconditioned and conditioned EOs. Therefore, this taxonomy is illustrated with empirical research examples and plausible organizational examples at a molecular level of analysis, including the unconditioned effects of activity deprivation and conditioned EOs related to nicotine deprivation, behavior-based safety observations, and intrinsic motivation to learn on the job. A behavioral approach to understanding motivation is practical and empirically approachable, and the class of motivational variables known as EOs will help advance our understanding of workplace motivation.

Response acquisition with immediate and delayed conditioned reinforcement

Groups comprising eight rats initially were exposed to response-independent water deliveries, then to conditions under which a lever-press response raised an empty dipper immediately or after a resetting delay of 15, 30, or 45 s. When their performance was compared to that of control animals using a 90% confidence level, six rats in the immediate-reinforcement group met the primary criterion for response acquisition during a single 6-h session; 4, 4, and 3 did so in the 15, 30, and 45 s delay groups, respectively. Similar evidence of acquisition was obtained when a 95% confidence level was used. With a 99% confidence level, however, evidence of acquisition was not compelling. Although these data appear to provide the first demonstration of response acquisition in the absence of handshaping or autoshaping under conditions where the putative reinforcer is both conditioned and delayed, they also demonstrate that whether response acquisition occurs depends, in part, on how it is defined.

The Abative Effect: A New Term to Describe the Action of Antecedents that Reduce Operant Responding

Behavior-analytic terminology concerning the so-called inhibitory effect of operant antecedents lacks precision. The present paper describes the problem with current nomenclature concerning the effects of antecedent events that reduce operant responding and offers a solution to this problem. The solution consists of adopting a new term, abative, for the effect in question. This paper suggests that the new term has several advantages over terms currently used and that adopting this term will yield a variety of practical and theoretical benefits, including, but not limited to, a more consistent vocabulary to describe antecedent—behavior relations.

Gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) reduces operant behavior without impairing working memory in rats responding under fixed-consecutive-number schedules

The use of gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB), a therapeutic agent and recreational drug, has increased since the late 1990s. Researchers have primarily studied GHBs neurochemical, discriminative, and reinforcing effects, but little is known about the drugs effects on learning, memory, or other complex behavioral processes. This study examined the acute and chronic effects of GHB in rats responding under fixed-consecutive-number (FCN) schedules, which assess working memory. Additionally, we examined stimulus control and response effort as modulators of GHBs effects. GHB dose-dependently reduced operant activity and response rates, but tolerance developed to these effects. GHB had no effect on accuracy or efficiency (i.e., working memory). Stimulus control and response effort did not modulate GHBs effects. These results suggest that GHB produced non-selective behavioral disruption but not working memory impairment.

An Empirical Evaluation of the Diagnostic Criteria for Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder: Problems with Sex Specificity and Validity

Premenstrual dysphoric disorder is a psychiatric disorder that reportedly affects between 3 to 8% of women. Although not an official diagnosis in the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, premenstrual dysphoric disorder has received increasing attention in the clinical literature, and considerable debate exists regarding the validity of this proposed condition. This study examined the prevalence of premenstrual dysphoric disorder in a sample of women and men and assessed the construct validity of the disorder. Twenty percent of women met the criteria for provisional diagnosis of premenstrual dysphoric disorder using Diagnostic and Statistical Manual criteria. In addition, 4% of men met these criteria when given sex-neutral assessment forms. Self-reported psychological distress and impaired interpersonal functioning did not predict womens likelihood of meeting the criteria for premenstrual dysphoric disorder. Results cast doubt on the sex-specificity of the diagnostic criteria of premenstrual dysphoric disorder and the construct validity of the disorder. Limitations of this study are discussed.

MDMA and Performance Under a Progressive-Ratio Schedule of Water Delivery

This study investigated the possible motivational effects of (+-)3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, ecstasy) in water-deprived rats responding under a progressive-ratio 2 schedule of water delivery. Lower doses (1.0 and 1.8 mg/kg i.p.) had inconsistent effects on breakpoints and response rates, whereas higher doses (3.2 and 5.6 mg/kg ip) significantly decreased both response measures relative to vehicle control levels. Increasing the level of water restriction significantly increased both response measures, and decreasing restriction significantly decreased both response measures. This study found no evidence that MDMA increased the reinforcing efficacy of water, although prior findings have suggested that the drug might have such an effect. MDMA-induced changes in motor activity may account for the present results.

Cocaine and automaintained responding in pigeons: rate-reducing effects and tolerance thereto with different durations of food delivery.

Pigeons were exposed to an automaintenance procedure in which 6-s key illuminations in one color (red or white) were immediately followed by 3-s food deliveries and key illuminations in the other color were followed by 9-s food deliveries. Both conditions engendered consistent responding. With both durations of food delivery, acute and chronic cocaine administrations (1.0-17.8 mg/kg) produced dose-dependent decreases in mean percent trials (key illuminations) with a response and mean total response per session. Tolerance developed to the disruptive effects of cocaine on both response measures. Food duration did not significantly affect either response measure or significantly interact with cocaine dose or drug regimen. The orderliness of the present findings, like those of a related study examining whether probability of food delivery modulated the effects of cocaine on automaintained responding [Porritt, M., Arnold, M., Poling, A., Cocaine and automaintained responding in pigeons: rate-reducing effects and tolerance thereto with different CS-US pairing probabilities. Pharmacol Biochem Behav 2007; 87:405-411.], suggests that the automaintenance procedure is a useful assay for examining tolerance to drug effects on classically-conditioned responding. Unlike the results of that study, however, the present findings are inconsistent with a behavioral momentum analysis of drug effects on such responding.

Simplified Approach Charts Improve Data Retrieval Performance

The effectiveness of different instrument approach charts to deliver minimum visibility and altitude information during airport equipment outages was investigated. Eighteen pilots flew simulated instrument approaches in three conditions: (a) normal operations using a standard approach chart (standard-normal), (b) equipment outage conditions using a standard approach chart (standard-outage), and (c) equipment outage conditions using a prototype decluttered approach chart (prototype-outage). Errors and retrieval times in identifying minimum altitudes and visibilities were measured. The standard-outage condition produced significantly more errors and longer retrieval times versus the standard-normal condition. The prototype-outage condition had significantly fewer errors and shorter retrieval times than did the standard-outage condition. The prototype-outage condition produced significantly fewer errors but similar retrieval times when compared with the standard-normal condition. Thus, changing the presentation of minima may reduce risk and increase safety in instrument approaches, specifically with airport equipment outages.