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Interventions that improve timely access to outpatient health services are essential in managing demand. This process evaluation aimed to describe the implementation, mechanism of impact and context of an intervention to reduce waiting for first appointments in an outpatient epilepsy clinic.

The UK Medical Research Council framework was used as the theoretical basis for a process evaluation alongside an intervention trial. The intervention, Specific Timely Appointments for Triage (STAT), is a data-driven approach that combines a one-off backlog reduction strategy with methods to balance supply and demand. A mixed methods process evaluation synthesised routinely collected quantitative and qualitative data, which were mapped to the domains of implementation, mechanisms of impact and contextual elements.

The principles of the STAT model were implemented as intended without adaptation. The STAT model reached all patients referred, including long waiters and was likely generalisable to other medical outpatient clinics. Mechanisms of impact were increased clinic capacity and elimination of unwanted variation. Contextual elements included the complexity of healthcare systems and the two-tier triage practice that contributes to prolonged waiting for patients classified as non-urgent.

This process evaluation shows how a data-driven strategy was applied in a medical outpatient setting to manage demand. Improving patient flow by reducing waiting in non-urgent, outpatient care is a complex problem. Understanding how and why interventions work is important for improved timeliness of care, and sustainability of public health services.

In general, it is believed that firms belonging to the high technological intensity stratum have a more innovation capability. However, evidence has begun to appear in the literature demonstrating that firms in the low-tech stratum also have the innovation capability. This paper seeks to solve this dilemma. Through an analysis of industrial firms in an emerging country, this study aims to identify the existence of innovation capability in all strata of technological intensity.

The authors empirically assessed the impact of innovation capability on the performance of firms in all strata of technological intensity. The authors studied a sample of 910 firms from different industries and technology intensities operating in Peru, by applying a partial least squares structural equation model (PLS-SEM).

This study obtained three important findings. First, the authors show that innovation capability is present in all strata of technological intensity. Second, innovation capability differs according to the technological stratum. Third, firms in the lowest technological stratum can use more capabilities than those in the other strata.

This study pioneers the empirical analysis of innovation capability and technological intensity simultaneously to verify that innovation capability exists in the four strata of technological intensity.

This study aims to explore the impact of leader emotional labor on employee voice. According to the emotion as information theory and the voice as a deliberate decision-making process framework, this study develops and tests a model that examines the mediating effects of psychological safety and perceived voice efficacy in this relationship.

This study conducted two studies to test hypotheses. Study 1 used a quantitative research methodology using a two-wave survey of 435 employees and 58 leaders in China. The research model was analyzed using multilevel path analyses. Study 2 collected 301 full-time employees from Prolific Platform. Hypotheses were tested using Mplus.

The results in Study 1 reveal that leader deep acting has a positive indirect relationship with employee voice via psychological safety. Conversely, leader surface acting has a negative indirect effect on employee voice through psychological safety. The results in Study 2 supported the hypotheses.

This study contributes to the voice as a deliberative process literature by introducing leader emotional labor as an antecedent of voice behavior. Additionally, this study indicates that perceived psychological safety and perceived voice efficacy are two important mediating mechanisms for implementing voice behavior.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the determinants of financial inclusion among women-owned informal enterprises in India.

The study is based on a primary survey of 321 informal enterprises. The data has been collected through a structured questionnaire. A chi-square test has been used to examine the significant association between the characteristics of informal enterprises and their owners and financial inclusion. A logistic regression model has been developed to analyse the determinants of financial inclusion among women-owned informal enterprises.

A significant and negative association has been found between business duration and entrepreneurs’ experiences with financial inclusion. In addition, the chi-square test shows a significant association between resource capability, use of ICT by enterprises and financial inclusion. Further, logistics regression shows that duration of business, entrepreneurial experience, resource capability in terms of machinery and equipment use, and ICT are significant determinants of financial inclusion among women-owned informal enterprises.

There are several practical implications for national policymakers and other stakeholders, such as banks and international bodies working on financial inclusion. It is suggested that while designing the policy for financial inclusion among woman-owned informal enterprises, it should ensure that experience and older woman entrepreneurs are included in financial inclusion schemes.

There has been very few research on financial inclusion in woman-owned businesses. However, no research has been conducted on the financial inclusion of women-owned informal businesses. This study fills a gap by investigating the factors that influence financial inclusion in women-owned informal businesses.

This study aims to examine the mediating role of audit seasonality on the association between audit fees and audit quality in Nigerian deposit money banks.

The sample comprises 14 banks with annual financial statements between 2008 and 2020. The modified Baron and Kenny’s (1986) causal mediation model by Iacobucci et al. (2007) through the use of bootstrapped partial least square structural equation modelling and Sobel’s (1986) z-test is adopted to achieve this study’s objective.

The results of the causal mediation analysis show evidence of a fully mediating role of c between audit fees and audit quality in the Nigerian banking industry.

This study extends the body of knowledge by demonstrating how audit fees influence audit quality through audit seasonality as a mediator in line with the job demands-and resources and conservation of resources theories. Regulatory authorities should be wary of policies that will further increase the workload of already burdened personnel of audit firms as the uniform fiscal year-end of 31 December introduced in the Nigerian banking system has unintended consequences on audit fees and audit quality.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is one of the first studies to provide evidence on the indirect association between audit fees and audit quality.

This study aims to test the effect of a falsely balanced message (i.e. exposure to two opposing arguments) on perceived expert consensus about an interrogation practice.

Participants (N = 254) read a statement about minimization tactics and were assigned randomly to one of four conditions, where true expert consensus about the tactic was either presented as high or low, and a balanced message (i.e. read two opposing arguments about the factual nature of the tactic) was present or absent.

Results showed that exposure to balanced messages led to less perceived expert consensus; especially when true expert consensus about the tactic was high. Exposure to balanced messages also reduced public support for experts testifying about the interrogation tactic.

Such findings suggest that pairing expert knowledge (i.e. empirical evidence) about investigative interviewing issues with denials might be powerful enough to override scientific beliefs about important matters in this field.

Researchers in the field of investigative interviewing have put much effort into developing evidence-based interviewing practices and debunking misconceptions on the field. While knowledge mobilization is particularly important in this consequential, applied domain, there are some individuals who aim to hinder the advancement and reform of investigative interviewing. Falsely balancing scientific findings (e.g. minimization tactics imply leniency) with denials is but one of many practices that can distort the public’s perception of expert consensus on an issue. It is crucial for investigative interviewing researchers to recognize such strategies and develop ways to combat science denialism.

This study attempts to analyze the overall effectiveness of Lean System (LS)-based India post facility layout design (FLD) selection.

We have grouped all Lean Six Sigma elements into three different categories: Lean Technical Practices, Lean Workplace Environment Practices, and Lean Ergonomics Practices based on literature support and field surveys in the Indian postal service. Further, it employs a mathematical model known as the graph theory (GT) method. From the GT approach, interactions were identified through LS tools represented through the digraph, matrix model approach. This study was directed at the National Sorting Hub in Mysuru, Karnataka, in the southern part of India. A number of insights were given in the GT area where FLD is possible to evaluate.

The results showed that Layout five has the highest value, followed by Layout one from the GT approach. The relative relevance and effect values are given as inputs to the permanent function in the digraph technique, and an evaluation index is obtained as an output.

When solving any optimization issue with a high number of attributes, the digraph and matrix technique is successful. The layouts that have been identified have yielded valuable insights into how to enhance critical decision-making processes, which are necessary to accomplish company strategic objectives like growing postal business services.

The process operations carried out in India post service as well as its heterogeneity of articles and the intangible measures of production are the significant challenges to keenly analyze the layout design through lean service principles.

Drawing on the co-creation literature and self-determination theory, this study takes a broader organisational perspective linking employees’ motivational antecedents (corporate brand socialization, employee brand identification and impression management) and employee-based brand co-creation (EBBC), with three employee-level outcomes: sales performance, employee resilience and adaptive selling. We therefore bridge the complex nexus between employees and organisational performance.

Survey data of 313 employees across industries and different-sized business-to-business (B2B) companies in China were collected. We used AMOS 21 to carry out structural equation modelling (SEM) for testing the main hypotheses.

The results reveal that EBBC is driven by external, internal and self-related motivations and leads to an increase in the three employee performance-related outcomes. The results further indicate that employees’ social media usage exerts contrasting moderating effects for each of the three motivational antecedents: While it strengthens the effect of employee identification on EBBC, it weakens the effect of corporate brand socialization on EBBC and exerts no effect on the relationship between impression management and EBBC.

This study confirms the effectiveness of EBBC in improving performance outcomes for B2B employees, particularly sales performance, resilience and job satisfaction, all of which are crucial for employee success. On the basis of our findings, in terms of employee satisfaction and performance, and in addition to conventional strategies and incentives, B2B organisations should encourage employee co-creation activities as outlined above, since such activities tend to impact these outcomes positively.

This study features and substantiates the self-related goal initiatives in EBBC, such as developing a sense of self-promotion desires and uncovers a moderator of the relationships between motivational antecedents and EBBC. These findings highlight the managerial relevance of specific motivational and psychological pathways in building employee brand co-creation behaviours, employee outcomes and organisational performance via employee sales.

There is a growing demand for healthy food across multicultural societies, and there are few exploratory studies that examined the motivations behind healthy eating. The purpose of this study is to explore the motives and understand the perceptions of healthy eating and how the online community conceptualizes their healthy eating.

Data were collected from the online community, such as posts and comments on YouTube channels, Facebook, Twitter and blogs using the hashtags (#healthyeating, #healthylifestyle, #foodforyourhealth, #culinarymedicine, #functionalfood and #nutrition). Content related to healthy eating was transcribed manually. Consumer motives regarding healthy food choices were explored using qualitative data analysis software using thematic analysis and applying Kozinet’s steps for data analysis. By examining communication on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and blogs, this online study will help us to understand the motives behind healthy food choices.

Respondents appeared to rate food goods’ healthiness on a spectrum. Healthy eating can be conceptualized at both the concrete and abstract representation levels. The themes that emerged through thematic analysis were healthy lifestyles, culinary medicine and the perceived benefits of food.

This study will guide policymakers and marketers of food products on how to develop strategies while making food products for multicultural societies. Social networking platforms are used to disseminate information on healthy eating to the online community.

The results that were found express the need for healthy food as well as health-related problems and diseases, and they reflect subjects of interest. Social networking sites give healthcare professionals a forum to interact with and educate the online community about nutrition and health. A health care provider can actively participate in online discussion to establish rapport, respond to questions and serve as a reliable source of factual information.

Despite evidence that cashless payment modes influence spending behavior, researchers have yet to explain the underlying mechanism. Cash serves as a store of value, and transactions involve the transference of ownership in circulation. This study aims to unpack why the physical and visceral nature of cash embodies psychological ownership and how the physicality of cash attenuates the awareness of spending, curtailing instinctive and unnecessary spending.

Drawing on data collected in 2013 in New Zealand, the authors conducted another study in the quite different context of China in September 2023, using identical semistructured discussion protocols. The data from 2013 involved five focus group sessions containing at least six participants, involving 31 adults who also completed an open-ended questionnaire immediately before the group discussion commenced. The data collection in 2023 used the same open-ended and semistructured discussion protocol used in 2013, resulting in 180 adult open-ended responses – a nonprobability criterion-based purposive sampling guided participant selection in the 2013 and 2023 studies.

Findings reveal that psychological ownership does manifest in the app more than in the ownership of money itself. People felt happy, confident, safe and secure while using apps that stored their money. Physical attributes of cash result from sensory perceptions of handling, counting and touching cash and coins. A sense of psychological ownership heightens spending awareness and ramifies spending behavior. The research found sadness and guilt as negative emotions when parting with money.

This study offers empirical support to explain why psychological ownership of cash regulates spending and why the psychological processes that underlie “owned” money interrupt the spending with cash.