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Dependence assessment among human errors in human reliability analysis (HRA) is an important issue. Many of the dependence assessment methods in HRA rely heavily on the expert's opinion, thus are subjective and may sometimes cause inconsistency. In this article, we propose a computational model based on the Dempster‐Shafer evidence theory (DSET) and the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method to handle dependence in HRA. First, dependence influencing factors among human tasks are identified and the weights of the factors are determined by experts using the AHP method. Second, judgment on each factor is given by the analyst referring to anchors and linguistic labels. Third, the judgments are represented as basic belief assignments (BBAs) and are integrated into a fused BBA by weighted average combination in DSET. Finally, the CHEP is calculated based on the fused BBA. The proposed model can deal with ambiguity and the degree of confidence in the judgments, and is able to reduce the subjectivity and improve the consistency in the evaluation process.

AbstractResearch suggests powerful resource dependencies are present in the public and nonprofit sectors. The individuals operating at the nexus between organizations and resource providers, and who mitigate dependencies, are referred to as boundary spanners. Research suggests that there may be both positive and negative personal repercussions for boundary spanners, but research has not sufficiently examined these unintended consequences through a gender lens. Bringing together research on resource dependence and sexual harassment, this study explores sexual harassment as an unintended consequence for boundary spanners of resource dependence mitigation strategies. Drawing on a feminist methodology and purposive sampling, we engaged in interviews with 36 professional fundraisers, a quintessential boundary spanning role, to examine the problem of sexual harassment by donors. These experiences leave fundraisers feeling harassed by donors and exploited by employers that pressure them to do "whatever it takes" to obtain donations. We contribute to research on resource dependence by surfacing sexual harassment and exploitation as unintended consequences for boundary spanners of strategies to mitigate organizational resource dependence. Our findings assist in reconsidering the assumptions that underly resource dependence theory and related research.

AbstractWe develop a theoretical framework that accounts for complex dependence in foreign direct investment (FDI) relationships. Conventional theories of FDI focus on firm-, industry-, country-, or dyad-level characteristics to account for cross-border capital movements. Yet, today's globalized economy is characterized by the increasing fragmentation and dispersion of production processes, which gives rise to complex dependence among production relationships. Consequently, FDI flows should be represented and theorized as a network. Specifically, we argue that FDI relationships are reciprocal and transitive. We test these hypotheses along with conventional covariate determinants of FDI using an exponential random graph model (ERGM) for weighted networks. We find that FDI networks exhibit strong reciprocity and transitivity. Our network approach to studying FDI provides new insights into cross-border investment flows and their political and economic consequences, and more generally the dynamics of globalization. In addition to our substantive findings, we offer a broad methodological contribution by introducing the ERGM for count-weighted networks in political science.

For several decades, public political discourses on 'welfare dependency' have failed to recognise that welfare states are not the source of economic dependence, but rather reconfigure economic dependencies in a specific way. This article distinguishes four senses of 'economic dependence' that can help to clarify what is missing from these discourses, and what is at stake in political and legal decisions about how we may economically depend upon one another. While feminist, republican and egalitarian philosophical work has examined the problems of dependence on states, in families and in markets, the present approach adds a further dimension to our cultural and political concerns with economic dependence: it argues that it is reasonable and useful to consider the economic dependence of the economically powerful. Doing so requires a clarification of the 'varieties of dependence' that exist in contemporary societies and economies, and the recognition that legal and political choices regarding social and economic justice are often about choosing between varieties of dependence, not about escaping dependence entirely.

Our central concern in this issue is to raise new questions about dependency theory, elaborate and refine ideas, and generate new thinking on the subject. Timothy Harding, who was deeply involved in the dialogue and revision on the Fernández-Ocampo article, is Associate Professor of History at California State University, Los Angeles and author of a recent study of labor in Brazil. Raúl A. Fernández and José F. Ocampo argue for discarding dependency theory altogether and identify a number of weaknesses in that theory. Fernández is Assistant Professor and Ocampo is Visiting Professor in the Program in Comparative Culture at the University of California, Irvine. Critical comments on their paper are offered by Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Marvin Sternberg. Cardoso, director of the Centro Brasileiro de Análise e Planejamento in Sao Paulo and author of major contributions on dependency strongly attacks Fernández- Ocampo. Sternberg, Associate Professor of Economics at the State University of New York, Albany, attempts to move toward a reconciliation of theory by dependentistas and traditional Marxists. Now associated with the Latin American Institute of the Free University of Berlin, André Gunder Frank reviews his own writings on dependency and underdevelopment in the light of many criticisms he has received in recent years, and he offers a negative prognosis on the work of dependistas. Guy J. Gilbert, a graduate student in political scince at the University of California, Riverside, delves into another area; he examines and rebuts the proposition that dependency is of crucial significance in socialist countries.

The concept of dependence is used in several different scholarly traditions to refer to aspects of relational asymmetry in international and transnational relations. In three such traditions, dependence refers to three quite differentkindsof concepts with the result that possibilities are restricted for fruitful dialogue about dependence across these scholarly traditions of dependencia theory, systematic empiricism, and formal, analytical theory. To aggravate this problem of multiple "languages," there are two basic conceptual notions generally associated with the termdependence. These two meanings have clearly distinct implications for the nature of a theory of dependence, the character of entities dependent on one another, and the assessment or measurement of dependence. Thus, if the "language" gap is to be bridged and fruitful dialogue is to occur among different scholarly traditions, attention must be directed to the basic conceptual meaning of dependence in each tradition. Dialogue between systematic empiricism and dependencia theory is possible if empiricists recognize the fundamentally historical and historicist character of the particular substance of dependencia theory. These principles are exemplified here.

Under third-party power intervention (TPPI), which increases uncertainty in task environments, complex channel power interplays and restructuring are indispensable among green supply chain members as they move toward sustainable collaborative relationships for increased viability and competitive advantage. From the resource dependence perspective, this work presents a novel conceptual model to investigate the influence of political and social power on channel power restructuring and induced green supply chain collaboration in brander-retailer bidirectional green supply chains of fashionable consumer electronics products (FCEPs). An FCEP refers to the consumer electronics product (e.g., personal computers, mobile phones, computer notebooks, and game consoles) with the features of a well-known brand associated, a short product lifecycle, timely and fashionable design fit for market trends, and quick responsiveness to the variations of market demands. The proposed model is tested empirically using questionnaire data obtained from retailers in the FCEP brander-retailer distribution channels. Analytical results reveal that as an extension of political and social power, TPPI positively affects the reciprocal interdependence of dyadic members and reduces power asymmetry, thereby enhancing the collaborative relationship of dyadic members and leading to improved green supply chain performance. Therein, reciprocal interdependence underlying collaborative relationship is the key to reducing the external environmental uncertainties in the TPPI context.

The article maintains that in order to understand the theory of dependence in the slope developed by the Brazilian thinker Ruy Mauro Marini in his Dialectic of Dependence and in other texts, it can only be understood in the conceptual, categorical, methodological and analytical context of the critique of political economy and Marxism, in particular with the inputs of Capital and Marx's Grundrisse, and Lenin's programmatic developments with his theories of the State and imperialism.

Governance today often requires concerted action by multiple organizations operating within and across sectors. Although scholars fruitfully have assayed many factors that facilitate or constrain interorganizational collaboration, the extant literature largely ignores the ways in which historical patterns of policy and organizational development may figure in present-day obstacles to collaboration. This is unfortunate, for such obstacles may result from path dependence and, thus, be particularly ingrained and resistant to change. In this article, we detail recent advances in path dependency theory, then illustrate our argument with a case study of path-dependent barriers to collaboration between two public programs pressed to work together after decades of deliberately separate operation. The case confirms the utility of new theoretical developments, yet also suggests necessary clarifications and refinements. Though aspects of path dependence theory should be reexamined, we argue that it is ripe for use by scholars of public management concerned with barriers to collaboration and other contemporary governance challenges.

The past development of social marketing theory and practice has been based largely on the translation of ideas and practices from conventional, commercial marketing. The application of a customer orientation and conventional marketing techniques has often successfully revolutionized the pursuit of social goals and has led to the growing popularity of social marketing. There is, however, a danger that an over-emphasis on the direct translation of mainstream marketing principles and practices into social contexts may create practical problems and also confusion regarding the theoretical basis of social marketing. This paper provides a critique of the development of social marketing theory and its reliance on mainstream commercial marketing. It argues that social marketing's future development may depend upon a better understanding of, and emphasis on, the differences between the social and commercial contexts. The paper concludes that social marketing needs the developmentof its own distinctive vocabulary, ideas and tools. To achieve this, there may beopportunities for theorists to follow the example of other marketing sub-disciplines, and also to reach back directly into the disciplines on which marketing is founded, including economics, psychology, sociology and communications theory, in search of new and better-adapted practices and theories to apply.