It's time to highlight more great research and scholarship coming out of Sonoma State.
Zheng, Y., Drew Peabody, S., & Jiang, J. (2024). Do dividends and share repurchases convey information about financial strength? An exploration of the disparities between banks and industrial firms. The Journal of Financial Research.
Differing from prior literature, this article suggests dividends are positively associated with financial strength for both financial institutions (i.e., banks) and non‐financial firms (i.e., industrials), and that this relationship is much more pronounced for banks. We also find that the signaling impacts of dividend changes on financial strength are asymmetric for these two groups as a decrease (increase) in dividends is more powerful than an increase (decrease) for banks (industrials). This suggests that dividend cuts send a more significant negative signal of bank financial strength than similar decreases by industrial firms, and that dividend increases say more about industrials' improvements in financial strength than those by banks. Similar to dividends, share repurchases are indications of financial strength for industrials but not for banks. This suggests that share repurchases serve more as a buffer (substitute) of dividends for banks (industrials).
Kladou, S., Usakli, A., & Lee, K. (2024). Zooming in small family wineries: exploring service quality, loyalty and the moderating role of wine involvement. International Journal of Wine Business Research.
The purpose of this study is to examine the role of wine involvement in moderating the effect of winery service quality on loyalty toward small family wineries.The results reveal that wine involvement moderates the effects of winery service quality on wine tourists’ loyalty. Specifically, staff behavior affects the loyalty toward wine tourists with low involvement more significantly compared to the wine tourists with high wine involvement. On the other hand, the quality of wine tastings affects the loyalty of wine tourists with high wine involvement more significantly in contrast with the wine tourists with low wine involvement.
Boaler, J., Conrad, B., Ford, B., Mazzeo, R., Nelson, J. (2024). Three views on the California math framework. Notices of the American Mathematical Society.
In California, curriculum frameworks are adopted periodically to give guidance on implementation of the state standards in a particular subject. A framework is written by a committee working with the Department of Education, multiple drafts are posted for public comment, the drafts are revised in response to comments, and eventually the document goes to the State Board of Education for consideration. Frameworks are not the same as the state standards, which specify what students should learn and determine what will be on the state assessment. In California, the math standards are the California version of the Common Core State Standards, adopted in 2013. The most recent math framework was adopted this year, and we asked three authors to give their point of view on the framework and on the processes around its development. Note that the first piece is about the framework in its final, approved form, which accommodates important aspects of the feedback provided during the process described by the second two pieces.
Garcia-Putnam, A., Michael, A. R., Duff, G., Maronie, A., McCrane, S. M., & Morrill, M. (2024). Embodied Poverty: Bioarchaeology of the Brentwood Poor Farm, Brentwood, New Hampshire (1841–1868). American Antiquity., 89(3), 459–474.
Through a commingled, fragmentary assemblage of skeletal remains (MNI = 9) recovered from a 1999 salvage excavation, this article explores the lives and deaths of individuals interred at the Brentwood Poor Farm, Brentwood, New Hampshire (1841–1868). This work demonstrates that bioarchaeological analyses of smaller samples can provide nuanced accounts of marginalization and institutionalization even with scant historical records. The skeletal analysis presented here is contextualized within the larger history of the American poor farm system and compared to similar skeletal samples across the United States. The hardships these individuals faced—poverty, otherness, demanding labor—were embodied in their skeletal remains, manifesting as osteoarthritis, dental disease, and other signs of physiological stress. These individuals’ postmortem fates were also impacted by status; they were interred in unmarked graves, disturbed by construction, and once recovered, were again forgotten for more than 20 years.
Smith, H. J., & Grant, D. R. (2024). How to improve group affirmation manipulations: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations.
Researchers often ask participants to affirm positive aspects or shared values for a group important to them (a group affirmation manipulation) in order to encourage healthy behavior, acknowledge historical harm, accept group-based criticism, or diffuse the impact of social exclusion. An exploratory meta-analysis of 92 experiments that included a group affirmation manipulation and a threat to participants’ self-integrity revealed an average g of −0.03, 95% CI [−0.10, 0.05], and enormous heterogeneity (I 2 = 77.15%). Group affirmations predicted a larger effect size if participants in the comparison condition completed the dependent variable immediately afterwards, compared to other comparison conditions. They also predicted stronger positive self-evaluations compared to dependent measures such as behavioral intentions or attitudes. Group value affirmations slightly reduced defensive information processing, whereas affirmations of positive group characteristics increased ingroup bias; a pattern that reflected researchers’ decisions to treat group affirmation as either an opportunity to reduce defensiveness or to increase the pursuit of collective interests. Careful consideration of the intergroup context and group norms should improve the effectiveness of group-based affirmations.
Jeffra, Miah. American Gospel : A Novel in Three Parts. Mount Vernon, New York? Black Lawrence Press, 2023. Print.
A low-income Baltimore neighborhood is targeted for a controversial urban renewal project--an amusement park in the theme of Baltimore itself--that forces its residents to reckon with racism, displacement, and their futures. Peter Cryer is a queer teenager who fantasizes about leaving Baltimore and the instability of his home life while also seeking a place to belong. Ruth Anne, his prickly mother, is terrorized by her estranged husband and the indecision of what to do after the wrecking ball comes through her neighborhood. Thomas, a cleric and History teacher at Peter's school, questions his vocation in the face of the neighborhood's destruction. These three voices braid together a portrait of a neighborhood in flux, the role of community and violence in our time, and the struggles of a very real and oft misunderstood city.
Sullins, J. P. (2024). Artificial Intelligence with Dignity, and Trust – Comments on: The Prospect of a Humanitarian Artificial Intelligence, by Carlos Montemayor, Bloomsbury Publishing, Feb 23 2023. Journal of Artificial Intelligence and Consciousness, 1–4.
Dr. Sullins provides a review and commentary on the book The Prospect of a Humanitarian Artificial Intelligence by Carlos Montemayor. His comments focus on the importance of centering and honoring human dignity in the development of AI technologies.
