Perspectives on international collaboration in sales research

Abstract

International research collaboration and co-authorship among scholars is always encouraged, yet it comes with its share of difficulties. While globalization brings its own challenges in sales, this special issue focuses on the challenges of fostering international collaboration in sales research. Such perspective is important in today’s academic context for three main reasons. First, international collaboration in research forces scholars to take an international perspective on research problems and thus consider fields of study that may transcend cultural boundaries. Second, with international research collaboration indubitably comes broader exchanges of ideas. Having a breadth of perspectives is at the very essence of scholastic work. Third, international research collaborations can drive intellectual communities to embrace important global challenges confronting modern sales organizations.     

Ethical considerations in psychotherapy effectiveness research: choosing the comparison group

The primary purpose behind effectiveness research is to determine whether a treatment with demonstrated efficacy has utility when administered to the general population. The main questions these studies are meant to answer are these: Can the typical patient respond to treatment? Is the treatment acceptable to the typical patient? Can the treatment be administered safely and in its entirety in the typical treatment setting? Is the treatment under study significantly better than the community standard of care both from and a cost and outcome perspective? Answering these questions is meant to provide sufficient information to providers and policymakers so that effective interventions can be adopted and become the new community standard. For this research to make a meaningful impact on a provider and policymaker's decision to change the status quo, study interventions should be compared to the existing community standard of treatment, often referred to as treatment as usual (TAU). From an ethical perspective, this decision may not always be the safest choice. In some populations, TAU may mean no treatment at all, and in others TAU may be worse than withholding treatment. The effectiveness researcher is then caught between the pull to do no harm and the need for research to have an impact on change. The purpose of this article is to highlight certain conditions when TAU is ethically acceptable and to discuss alternatives when TAU may be an unethical treatment condition. For purposes of precision, we focus exclusively on psychotherapy effectiveness research rather than system-intervention research or medication-intervention research.     

Ethical considerations for research and treatment with runaway and homeless adolescents

Ethical considerations for working with runaway and homeless youth in research and treatment settings are presented. Issues of parents' and adolescents' consent for research and treatment are discussed, with particular attention given to the lack of explicit guidelines for working with abused and neglected youth. The principles of beneficence and justice are discussed as they apply to intervening with a high-risk, multiproblem population. The authors offer a rationale for allowing adolescents to self-consent to research and treatment. They argue that in many circumstances, requiring parental consent may not be in the youth's best interest and may preclude his or her participation in treatment and research programs.     

The court house chaplaincy—a project in collaboration

Summary This paper describes a Court House Chaplaincy Program in which Clinical Pastoral Education trainees and local clergymen were assigned to regular voluntary assignment as chaplains of the Harvey County Court House. Worked out in coordination with the Newton Ministerial Alliance and the commissioners of Harvey County, the project served court house clients, staff, and pastors as well. The paper describes a model for community collaboration that could be operated in many settings. In this plan, the mental health center clergyman joins with other clergymen in the community in a task that is directed toward the community's whole good and not specifically a project operated by the mental health center. The importance of careful preparation, of political negotiations, of responsible supervision, and clarity regarding the issues of funding are also illustrated.     

Ethical issues and approaches in stem cell research: from international insights to a proposal

In recent years and months, human stem cell research has dominated many scientists' interests, the media, public debate, and social policy. This paper aims to consider, first, the major scientific data on stem cell research that are available. Second, I reflect on them by examining how they shaped policies in Europe and the United States. I also point to current changes in policy-making concerning the creation of ad hoc committees to address this novel issue and how, in a few instances, different ethical positions are part of the documents produced. In other words, diverse approaches are not solved but kept in tension. Finally, I suggest that the current state of research on human stem cell will benefit from an ethics of risk.     

The intervention selection bias: an underrecognized confound in intervention research

Selection bias can be the most important threat to internal validity in intervention research, but is often insufficiently recognized and controlled. The bias is illustrated in research on parental interventions (punishment, homework assistance); medical interventions (hospitalization); and psychological interventions for suicide risk, sex offending, and juvenile delinquency. The intervention selection bias is most adequately controlled in randomized studies or strong quasi-experimental designs, although recent statistical innovations can enhance weaker designs. The most important points are to increase awareness of the intervention selection bias and to systematically evaluate plausible alternative explanations of data before making causal conclusions.     

Ethical decision-making in research: identifying all competing interests. Commentary on "Six Domains of Research Ethics"

Ethical dilemmas are the result of conflicts between potential benefits or harms for two or more competing interests. Therefore, ethical decision-making implies a responsibility to identify those interests, harms, and benefits. For this purpose, researchers have responsibilities to the research, the subjects of research, other researchers, the institution, society, the environment, and self.     

Commentary: Writing About Clients: Ethical and Professional Issues in Clinical Case Reports

From the standpoint of a former journal editor and long‐time professional, this commentary challenges the direction of the profession as demonstrated in this special section. The ongoing creation of more and more ethical constraints not only harms the profession but also loses sight of fundamental ethical principles.     

Psycholinguistic research in language intervention programming: The pronoun system

This paper presents a linguistic analysis of the pronoun system in terms of binary semantic and syntactic features. A model is presented which indicates how these features serve to differentiate among the members of this set. A hypothetical order of development of these features is proposed, supported by developmental data. Suggestions are made regarding the possible relationship of the pronoun system to other areas of language. Finally, proposals are presented for the development of pronoun training procedures within the context of language training programs.This research was supported in part by Speech and Hearing grant HD 05088 and in part by CORE grant HD 02528.