Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[leslie]

Hi,

While reading a bussiness article, I don't quite understand these two. Could you please help paraphrase them?

1. Ideally, it would be desirable to investigate adaptation directly. Unfortunately, in a cross-sectional study such as this, adaptiveness is hard to measure because of its normative overtones.

2. Uncertain environments were shown by Miller (1988) to warrant the expenses of, and to benefit the most from, product innovation and aggressive marketing differentiation.

(question: Which is benifted? uncertain environments or product innovation?)

(from Danny Miller's Stale in the Saddle: CEO Tenure and The Match Between Organization and Environment)

Thanks in advance!!
_________________
Less Is Blessed

[CP]

1. A cross-sectional study is one made at one point in time, getting information from individuals from different groups -- different age groups, different economic groups, different ethnic groups, different education levels, or whatever may be of interest.

If the researcher is measuring adaptive behavior, and wants to know how it changes as one ages or as one gains knowledge (education or skill on the job), for example, a cross-sectional study might not yield the best, truest results. A longitudinal study, in which the researcher tests the same participants at different points in time as they age or gain experience, might yield better results.

So the first part is saying that the design of the study may not give the best results, because it is a cross-sectional study. And adaptiveness is hard to measure because of its normative overtones, that is, that adaptation may be confused with just conforming with one's peers at work or school or play.

2. Here the writer is saying that the person trying to market goods or services will get results from product innovation (new twists and improvements in the products) and aggressive market differentiation (targeting the marketing specifically) in uncertain environments rather than in more predictable environments. (I'm not sure how the person is defining "uncertain environments," but it should make sense in the context of the material you are reading.)
_________________
You live a new life for every new language you speak. -Czech proverb

[leslie]

Thank you very much, CP.

However, I still don't get the meaning of 'normative overtones'. The sentence after 'normative overtones' is "Almost all executives claim that they are adaptive---that they scan their environments for problems and opportunities and adjust their strategies accordingly.

My understanding is that since almost all executives say that they are adaptive but the true adaptation is not clear, therefore, it's hard to measure its adaptiveness because their claims are 'normally' the same but the carrying out of adaptation is not yet confirmed or matched to what they 'normally' claims. Is my understanding correct?

Thank you once again.
_________________
Less Is Blessed