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‘How are contemporary careers constructed?’ The aim of the article is to answer this question by developing a conceptual model of how professional and organizational environments shape careers in today’s knowledge-based economy. Focusing on the interplay of two macro-level forces, professionalization and the diversity of organizations, we develop a typology of four distinct career models and incorporate them into a dynamic evolutionary process of careers. The implications for developing a more integrated and dynamic approach on contemporary careers are discussed.

Background: The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of vitamin E on oxidative stress and cell membrane fluidity in the liver of streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats. Methods: Sprague-Dawley male rats weighing 100 ± 10 g were fed a vitamin E-free diet (the DM-0E group), a 40 mg vitamin E/kg diet (the DM-40E group), or a 400 mg vitamin E/kg diet (the DM-400E group). Result: Dietary vitamin E reduced the increased concentration of lipid peroxides in the liver tissues of diabetic rats through decreasing their increased phospholipase A₂ (PLA₂) activity and phosphatidylethanolamine hydrolysis. However, vitamin E reduced the accumulation of superoxide radical and decreased the generation of oxidative damage substances, such as the carbonyl value, increased membrane fluidity and lowered oxidative damage. Conclusions: Vitamin E was found to be excellent for regulating the activity of PLA₂, reducing the generation of reactive oxygen species and damaging oxidative substances, and maintaining cell membrane fluidity in the liver of diabetic rats.

How do analysts make decisions about which firms to cover? Previous research has not considered how such decisions can be influenced by cultural understandings about appropriate forms of corporate governance. Drawing upon the institutional logics perspective, we propose that analyst firms’ home-country institutional logics of corporate governance can shape analyst perception of coverage risks for family firms. Specifically, we argue that given the negative view towards family governance in shareholder-based logic, family firms are less likely to be covered by analyst firms from shareholder-based countries than by those from stakeholder-based countries. Furthermore, the coverage divergence between shareholder- and stakeholder-based analyst firms will be greater for family firms featuring higher risks of value assessment and expropriation. We test our framework in the context of global analysts’ coverage of publicly listed firms in Taiwan between 1996 and 2005 and find empirical support. Our study contributes to the institutional logics perspective by establishing the implications of corporate governance logics for analyst coverage and providing a boundary condition for agency theory. We also uncover a less-noted source of institutional variation among the analyst community.

How do macro social forces shape the career profiles of organizational leaders? The aim of the article is to answer this question by examining how institutional and ecological forces have influenced the careers of law school deans in the US from the late 19th century to the present. Specifically, we focus on the coexistence of two social forces—professionalization and the diversity of an organizational population. On the one hand, we view professionalization as a converging institutional force that promotes homogeneity among leader career profiles. The diversity of an organizational population, on the other hand, is viewed as a diverging ecological force that increases heterogeneity among leader career profiles. We show how these two opposing forces have left different imprints on leader career profiles with a unique career data of 1396 deans in American law schools from 1894 to 2009. We utilize optimal matching analysis to assess the degree of similarity (or dissimilarity) among deans’ career sequences and test our hypotheses. This study contributes to our understanding of the link between macro social transformations and leader career profiles.