Strong Explanation Research Articles

How the Cycladic Islanders Found Their Marbles: Material Engagement, Social Cognition and the Emergence of Keros

This paper utilizes Material Engagement Theory (MET), which examines material culture as a dynamic and integral component of human cognitive systems, in order to explore the relationship between Cycladic marble sculpting and the complex social organization evinced at the sites of Dhaskalio and Kavos on the island of Keros. The article shows how the development of Cycladic sculpting in conjunction with transforming settlement patterns suggests that the figurines emerged as part of a kinshipping dynamic. In this context, evidence from the cognitive sciences reveals how Cycladic figurines were profound attention-capturing technologies which shaped the development of intersubjectivity and collective activity. Cycladic marble provided a medium through which a semiotics of value could be generated, circulated and manipulated across the archipelago. The article argues that marble artefacts formed part of a distributed cognitive system which enabled the regional organization of long-range voyaging regimes centred on Dhaskalio-Kavos. The role of Cycladic sculpture in mediating maritime social interactions is clarified by examining the dynamics of social cognition and the organizational burdens of long-range voyaging culture. The relationship between marble, social interaction and longboat voyaging provides a strong explanation for the development and transformation of Keros as well as for broader chronological developments in the region. Cycladic sculpting traditions mediated the shifting burdens upon social cognition during the Early Bronze Age, facilitating the novel forms of social organization in the central Cyclades as a response to both the pressures and the opportunities of the Aegean world. Keros provides an exemplary case study of material culture's role in extending the boundaries of social cognition in ways that enable social complexity to emerge at new scales.

Incentivizing the Opposition: The EU’s Impact on Good Governance in Central and Eastern Europe

Under what conditions does the European Union (EU) promote good governance? Focusing on the EU members in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), I present the first systematic analysis in the literature based on longitudinal data suggesting state performance varies across two indicators of governance: While there has been a general trend of backsliding in corruption control since EU accession, various time series analyses reveal no such tendency regarding ethnic minority rights. I argue that the EU has the ability to offer electoral incentives/opportunities to opposition parties in national legislatures to adopt pro-EU policy preferences, which pressures government parties to implement reforms demanded by the EU. Several statistical models suggest that such political leverage the EU has over national governments is a stronger explanation for the cross-issue variation than any other alternative in the literature including the popular ‘membership conditionality’ argument. More specifically, prior to membership, the EU offers electoral incentives to opposition parties in CEE and mobilizes them to pressure governments to fight corruption. Yet, following accession, parties move away from EU-induced policies. Regarding minority protection, pro-minority opposition parties empowered by the EU during candidacy continue to favor pro-minority policies after accession and push governments accordingly.

Explaining the impact of consumer religiosity, perceived risk and moral potency on purchase intentions

The role of religion has been overlooked as an antecedent to risk perception, as has moral potency, when purchasing religiously sensitive products. The aim of this study is to demonstrate how perceived risk and moral potency explain the impact of shopper religiosity on purchasing religiously-questionable products from retailers. A conceptual model was tested on a sample of 271 respondents, elucidating the complex relationships between religiosity, social and psychological risk, moral potency and purchase intention. The model offers a strong psychological explanation of how a shopper's religion may increase their perceptions of risk and personal responsibility, confidence and courage, which subsequently impact purchase intentions. Retail managers may choose to implement this model to better predict shopper adoption behaviour of new religiously-questionable products. The model allows for future empirical examinations across multiple shopping contexts and may be employed to estimate levels of demand for new products based on the extent of religiosity, moral potency and risk.

Problems with using stability, specificity, and proportionality as criteria for evaluating strength of scientific causal explanations: commentary on Lynch et al. (2019)

Lynch et al. (Biol Philos 34:62, 2019) employ stability, specificity, and proportionality as criteria for evaluating microbiome causal explanations. Although these causal characteristics signify relevant differences between causal roles, I suggest that they should not be used as general criteria for strong or good causal explanations.

Pemicu Tindakan Terorisme di Kabupaten Lamongan

One of the problems that continues to emerge in the Indonesian public sphere is religious intolerance, radicalization and terrorism. Religious intolerance, radicalization and terrorism are manifested in the prohibition of religious worship activities, the spread of hatred, religious based violence or the destruction of places of worship. In addition to increasingly diverse forms of intolerance, the area is also expanding. Early studies show that there is a strong geographical link between the growth of religious intolerance and the recruitment of terrorist groups and ISIS. Religious intolerance has occurred in almost all regions of Indonesia, as well as the radicalization of religion and terrorism. The purpose of this research is to provide an adequate and strong explanation related to the nature and causes of intolerance, radicalism and terrorism in Indonesia. This research specifically wants to find out more clearly and in depth about why and how some Indonesians have a tendency to turn into intolerance and radicals, or on the other hand, why and how some others can maintain the values ​​of tolerance.

Joseph Priestley and the Argument from Design

ABSTRACTAlthough Joseph Priestley was notorious for rejecting much of orthodox Christianity and replacing it with a materialistic Unitarianism, in another respect he was an orthodox theist of his time in that he passionately upheld the Argument from Design. The Argument from Design was the heart of his “rational religion”. He contended that natural order, especially biological order, could only be successfully explained by intentional agency. At the time, however, the Argument was coming under attack, first from David Hume, then from Matthew Turner, and lastly from Erasmus Darwin. Priestley replied to each of these critics. This article surveys his replies. The three critics of the Argument contended that intelligent agency could offer only a weak explanation of natural order, that natural order is self-explanatory, or that natural mechanisms can explain biological order. Priestley in turn critiqued all three contentions, arguing that the Argument is a strong explanation; that natural order cannot be self-explanatory; and that the proposed natural explanations conflict with the empirical evidence.

Uncertainty and adaptation in the context of Brexit

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to propose a framework to understand firms’ adaptation to uncertainty and change, specifically, in regards to the perceived impacts of the Brexit phenomenon. In doing so, the study considers entrepreneurial action theory (EAT) and the dynamic capabilities approach (DCA).Design/methodology/approachFace-to-face interviews were conducted with owners and managers of 34 family-run firms operating in Italy’s Prosecco Superiore and Spain’s Cava industries.FindingsThe element of uncertainty because of the imminent Brexit decision clearly emerged and was demonstrated through various effects on firms including the falling British Pound. The findings revealed that combining the EAT and the DCA provides a stronger explanation in understanding adaptation to uncertainty. For example, sensing (DCA) was suggested to be a precursor of opportunity attention and evaluation (EAT) or recognising opportunities and was subsequently manifested by operators’ action or seizing (DCA), including through more involvement in exports and wine tourism.Originality/valueThe study is one of the few efforts to date to examine the potential impacts of an uncontrollable contemporary phenomenon, and ways to adapt from the perspective of entrepreneurs involved in a traditional and socioeconomically significant industry. The different adaptive strategies that emerged from the findings can provide practical insights. The proposed framework emphasises the theoretical and practical value of understanding adaptation through the lens of the adopted theoretical foundations.

A framework for assessing adaptive capacity to multiple climatic and non-climatic stressors in small-scale fisheries

As climate change and other socio-economic stressors continue to impact coastal social-ecological systems, we need to deepen our knowledge of the capacity to adapt. Global environmental change research has generated several useful concepts and frameworks for understanding and assessing adaptive capacity to climate change impacts, but our ability to effectively integrate and use this wealth of knowledge to mobilise and build the needed adaptive capacity remains low. We build on the capitals and the vulnerability frameworks to develop a new framework to argue for how existing frameworks and concepts can be consolidated for assessing adaptive capacity, how adaptive capacity can be mobilised and the need to assess adaptive capacity in the context of multiple climatic and non-climatic stressors. The framework adds three important insights into the studies of adaptive capacity. First, it recognises that links among various forms of capital (components of adaptive capacity) are critical for mobilising, building or depleting adaptive capacity. Second, it explicitly shows adaptive capacity is better understood when assessed in the context of multiple climatic and non-climatic stressors because the impacts of climate change are bound to manifest in complex coupled human and social systems. Third, it highlights that knowledge of multiple interactions among stressors provides a strong explanation for tackling some inherent developmental issues with climate change adaptation plans and actions. Evidence from small-scale coastal fisheries of Ghana supports the framework’s assumptions and arguments.

Computing Argumentative Explanations in Bipolar Argumentation Frameworks

The process of arguing is also the process of justifying and explaining. Here, we focus on argumentative explanations in Abstract Bipolar Argumentation. We propose new defence and acceptability semantics, which operates on both attack and support relations, and use them to formalize two types of explanations, concise and strong explanations. We also show how to compute the explanations with Bipolar Dispute Trees.

Cell competition in tumor evolution and heterogeneity: Merging past and present.

In many cases, cancers are difficult to eliminate because they develop resistance to a primary chemotherapy or targeted therapy. Tumors grow into diverse cell subpopulations, increasing the ability to resist elimination. The phenomenon of 'cell competition' describes our body's natural surveillance system to optimize tissue fitness by forcing viable but aberrant cells to undergo cell death. Cell competition is not simply comparison of cell division potential. Competition factors signal for 'loser' cell elimination and 'winner' cell dominance. New evidence demonstrates it is possible to restrict cancer growth by strengthening the cell fitness of surrounding healthy tissue via anti-apoptotic pathways. Hence, cell competition provides strong conceptual explanation for oncogenesis, tumor growth and suppression. Tumor heterogeneity is a hallmark of many cancers and establishes gradients in which competitive interactions are able to occur among tumor cell subpopulations as well as neighboring stromal tissue. Here we review cellular/molecular competition pathways in the context of tumor evolution, heterogeneity and response to interventions. We propose strategies to exploit these mediators and design novel broad-spectrum therapeutic approaches that eliminate cancer and enhance fitness of neighboring tissue to improve patient outcomes.

Issue-based micromobilization on social media: Mediated pathways linking issue involvement and self-network opinion congruity to expressive support

Research has provided compelling evidence on the influence of issue involvement to mobilize individuals for collective action, but none has examined the social psychological factors linking issue involvement to such outcomes or how the process affects issue-based mobilization attempts by ideologically opposing groups on social media. To fill these gaps, the current study evaluated a mediated pathway model testing the influence of personal issue involvement via individual-group identification, perceived self-network issue opinion congruity, and perceived participative efficacy on expressive support for and against the LGBTQ issue on Facebook. Strong explanation for expressive support outcomes (commenting, ‘liking,’ ‘sharing’) between both groups, 90.1% (supporters of LGBTQ) and 74.9% (non-supporters of LGBTQ), was retrieved. Group identification is a robust mediator of issue involvement, predicting expressive support irrespective of users' attitude toward the issue. Perceived participative efficacy is the strongest predictor of support expression, but, like perceived self-network opinion congruity, vary between users with different issue attitudes and involvement. Findings suggest an intricate social media-based micromobilization process that needs to consider issue-group positions and counter-group dynamics.

Readers’ Processing and Use of Source Information as a Function of Its Usefulness to Explain Conflicting Scientific Claims

ABSTRACTThe present research examines how the usefulness of source information to explain conflicting scientific claims affects laypersons’ processing of this information as they seek possible explanations for the conflicting scientific claims in the sources and during resolution of the conflict. In an eye-tracking experiment, we presented 76 participants with two conflicting scientific claims (on a controversial nanotechnology issue) put forward by two scientists (sources) that did or did not differ in their implied trustworthiness. We expected differences in trustworthiness to be useful source information for claim evaluation and explanation of the conflict. This should lead to longer processing of the source information during reading, to a stronger explanation of the conflict through differences in the scientists’ motivations, and to stronger agreement with the claim of the source which was more trustworthy. Our results show that differences in the sources’ trustworthiness indeed led to increased visual attention to source information during reading. Moreover, the source information affected individuals’ explanation of the conflict as well as their claim agreement: Individuals in the condition with differences in trustworthiness agreed more strongly with scientists’ motivations as a potential explanation for the conflict and agreed more strongly with the claim of the more trustworthy source than the individuals in the control condition. These results are discussed in the context of the content-source integration (CSI) model.

Processes of business model evolution through the mechanism of anticipation and realisation of value

This study applies a process approach to analyse the evolution of a business model in a network environment. The business model provides a context in which to observe change processes arising through interactions amongst network actors. Based on a systematic search of the literature, the study proposes six processes by which business models evolve, motivated by the causal mechanism of value anticipation/realisation. We argue that actors' anticipations and realisations of value, arising continuously through repeated interactions, motivate changes in their interactions, which cause their interlinked business models to evolve over time. We explain the connection between the evolving business model and value in a way that accommodates interactive and time dimensions of value. The process explanation is demonstrated with empirical evidence from the longitudinal case history of an IT company. What appear to be discontinuous phases in the history of the focal firm's business model are shown to be causally connected by continuous event sequences. The study contributes to process methods by providing a worked example of a strong process explanation applied to a network business phenomenon.

Gas, power, and norms: competing logics for the declining use of chemical warfare

ABSTRACTWhat restrains states from employing chemical weapons during modern war? Despite widespread and consistent efforts by the international community to outlaw chemical weapons in the twentieth century, major deviations from this goal occur. Two of the strongest explanations that exist for this trend are the logics of deterrence and norms that consider the use of chemical weapons to be a taboo. We test these theories using factor analysis and find that norms provide a better explanation of non-use in the twentieth century among states with a chemical-weapon capability. We then conclude with avenues for future research in this burgeoning field of study, which includes closer qualitative examination of norms, as well as the expansion of the dataset to include intrastate warfare and non-state warfare.

Development of the Short Form Adolescent Parenting Stress Scale

This study aimed to develop the Short Form Adolescent Parenting Stress Scale (APSS) to assess primary mental health of middle aged women with adolescent child. Methods: Data were collected from 210 middle aged women with adolescent children from two large cities in South Korea. Self-reported data were collected in September 2018. Using SPSS/WIN 21.0 version, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted to verify construct validity. Pearson’s correlation coefficients and intra-class coefficient between original scale and the short form were evaluated for convergent validity. Reliability was tested using Cronbach’s α. Results: The Short Form-APSS consisted of 3 sub-scales among 34 items: adolescent domain (11 items/4 factors); parent domain (13 items/5 factors); and adolescent-parent relationship domain (10 items/3 factors). It was observed to have strong explanation (adjusted R2=.98) and high correlation (r=.99) with the original APSS. The Short Form-APSS demonstrated sufficient level of intra-class coefficient (α=.99) and internal consistency (α=.94). Conclusion: The Short Form-APSS is valid and reliable to measure adolescent parenting stress amongst Korean mothers. It can be used for development and evaluation of parents’ role in education programs for improving adolescent mental health.

Strategic Information Systems Enabling Strategy-as-Practice and Corporate Performance: Empirical Evidence from PLS-PM, FIMIX-PLS and fsQCA

Many studies have been investigating how IS (information systems) can help build a corporate performance, but there are less research investigating how IS contributing to performance by mediating business strategy in uncertain environments. To address this question, the present study seeks to empirically explore the relationship between strategic information systems and corporate performance by mediating business strategy. Partial Least Squares-Path Modeling (PLS-PM) confirmed SIS's strong influence on strategy, and full strategy mediation on the relationship between SIS and performance. SIS showed greater performance contribution in high heterogeneity environments than in lower ones, and small and medium-sized firms have 50% more contribution of the effects of strategy on performance than large firms. The post-hoc-analysis study did not identify the presence of heterogeneity segmentation not observed by Finite Mixture (FIMIX-PLS). Through fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), non-linear causality was verified in the strategy in certain solutions by the variables of large firms, with intensive use of SIS and high environmental heterogeneity. Moreover, the study demonstrated that SIS’s strategic alignment has strong effects and explanation power on performance and may suggest that it is an indissociable resource for the strategy-as-practice effectiveness. Hence, the study contributed to understanding how SIS create value to strategy-as-practice approach under environmental turbulence to impact corporate performance.

Location and Intergenerational Educational Mobility

High school dropouts are more likely to have children in cities where college share is high, while those who received greater education are less likely to have children in these cities. This pattern is puzzling as cities that attract college graduates have higher cost of living, and can be more expensive to raise children, especially for the least educated households. We provide one compelling explanation for why the less educated households locate in high skilled cities – better education for their children. Using the Census and ACS data from 1980 to 2010, our study finds that children in ages 16 to 24 living with a high school dropout head are more likely be enrolled in school in cities with high share of college graduates. We do not find such relationship for children of parents with higher educational attainment. These results hold after addressing endogeneity and self-selection. Further, by examining PUMAs within MSAs, we find that peer effect provides a strong explanation of why the children of the least educated receive most educational benefit from living in a high skilled city. Our findings suggest that location can have greater impact for the children in households with less resource to support them.

Auxiliary Verbs in Serbo-Croatian, French, Persian, Spanish and English: A Cognitive-Semantic Approach to the Auxiliary Verb Usage and Passive Voice

Auxiliary verbs have an important influence in the way languages connect with the cognitive processes. In this study, we investigate the role of auxiliary verbs in the formation of the semantic picture we get from their usage. Furthermore, the semantic notion and its interaction with the cognitive processing are taken into account. For our goal to be more tangible and testable, we took Serbo-Croatian, Persian, Spanish, French and English for an in-depth analysis, wherefrom we proposed a classification scheme for all languages based on the behavior of their auxiliary verbs. Based on the proposed model, we investigate furthermore the passive voice in English and propose a strong explanation for the cognitive-semantic sense of the passive in English based on the cognitive duality principle. Importance of Croatian in the way that it forms an extreme pole in the proposed classification scheme is further discussed. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that Persian has a syntactic incorporation in its simple past and present perfect.

Sparse estimation in high-dimensional zero-inflated Poisson regression model

In the high-dimensional zero-inflated Poisson (ZIP) regression model, the traditional Gauss-Newton iteration method and Expectation Maximization (EM) algorithm cannot do the variable selection. We propose an Expectation-Maximization-Regularization (EMR) algorithm. In the E step, we calculate the expected value of the implicit variable under the existing estimated value. In the MR step, the “regularization + likelihood function” method is used. We introduce the elastic net penalty and use the coordinate descent method to obtain the sparse estimate. The simulation results show that the EMR method makes the parameter estimation and variable selection simultaneously, and the estimation accuracy is high. Finally, applying the EMR method to forecast the number of municipal engineering Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) projects in Hebei Province, this model has a strong explanation.

Translating children’s literature: some insights from corpus stylistics

In this paper I explore the potential of a corpus stylistic approach to the study of literary translation. The study focuses on translation of children’s literature with its specific constrains, and illustrates with two corpus linguistic techniques: keyword and cluster analysis — specific cases of repetition. So in a broader sense the paper discusses the phenomenon of repetition in different literary (stylistic) traditions. These are illustrated by examples from two children’s classics aimed at two different age groups: the Harry Potter and the Winnie the Pooh books — and their translations into Czech. Various shifts in translation, especially in the translation of children’s literature, are often explained by the operation of so-called ‘translation universals’. Though ‘repetition’ as such does not belong to the commonly discussed set of translation universals, the stylistic norms opposing repetition seem to be a strong explanation for the translation shifts identified.