Search results

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the size of the population of people with Down’s syndrome in Scotland in order to provide a basis for estimating likely numbers of people with dementia in Down’s syndrome at a range of ages.

Recorded data were requested from all general practitioner (GP) services in Scotland on people with an identified READ code denoting Down’s syndrome. A statistical weighting model was then applied to account for non-response bias.

There were 3,261 people with Down’s syndrome estimated by the application of a statistical weighting model. Of these, 1,118 people (34 percent) were aged between 40 and 59. This age banding includes the age groups reported as having the highest incidence of early onset dementia in Down’s syndrome.

It is not possible to apply a benchmark to the percentage of observed data which gives an indication of how accurate the estimates produced are. Rather, the quality of the estimates depends on the response rate itself and the extent to which response is correlated with the outcome variable. In short, the quality of the final weighted estimates depends on the extent to which the biasing effect is mitigated by the weighting. As a result, a different response rate to this survey would have resulted in variations in the weighting model and therefore provided a different set of estimates.

Adults with Down’s syndrome have an elevated risk of developing dementia significantly earlier than the general population and require specific age appropriate supports and services to meet their needs both pre and post-diagnosis. The reality of this is currently not fully realized in either standard practice or national policy concerning the issue.

This is the first set of data collected from GP services in Scotland to examine this issue and attempt to identify the population of people with Down’s syndrome in Scotland as a whole.

This chapter outlines the contextual factors that define an impoverished northern town in the UK called Blackpool, and the implications of this are drawn out through social reproduction theory. Following this, the equalities literacy framework is used to abductively analyse the narratives of six young people. This provides the reality of the young people's lives situated within this context and draws out recommendations for how young people's lives in Blackpool and beyond might be improved by frontline staff, organisations, policy makers and governments.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a commentary on “Adults with learning disabilities known to local authorities in Scotland: a national dataset” by Claire Stuart and colleagues.

Drawing on experiences with the National Intellectual Disability Database in Ireland, the authors identify the key elements to be addressed such as the uses to which information from the database will be put; the definition of intellectual disability for inclusion of individuals; defining the information to be gathered; the systems for gathering information; checking and auditing the information that is collected, and the types of reports emerging from the analyses.

A national database of persons with an intellectual disability is at least desirable – if not essential – to the delivery of equitable and effective service supports. The advent of computerised data management tools makes this a realistic option in most European countries although debates continue around the protection of personal data and the costs involved in establishing and maintaining dedicated databases.

National data sets on intellectual disability can make a significant contribution to equitable and effective service planning. However, major challenges need to be overcome so that the information collected is reliable and valid.

Learning Disability Statistics Scotland collects information on adults with learning disabilities who are known to local authorities in Scotland and the services they use. The data collection supports national and local government policy making and is focused on monitoring the implementation of learning disability policy. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Individual level data are requested from all 32 local authorities on adults aged 16-17 who are not in full-time education and those aged 18 and over. Annual data guidance is developed in conjunction with local authorities prior to the collection and is issued to standardise the process and manage avoidable error. The collated data are extracted from local authority administrative data and records are provided on each adult regardless of whether they are currently receiving a service. Anonymisation takes place prior to upload and strict guidelines are followed to ensure it is not possible to identify individuals.

The paper provides insights to the project's processes, uses, challenges and future plans. It details the position of the data outputs within a policy context and the role these might play within a broader research agenda.

This data includes only adults known to local authority services.

The value of the project lies in its strength as a national social care data set comprised of individual level data. This methodology increases the analytical potential of the data set. This paper will be of interest to those interested in data on learning disability and those with an interest in the analytical potential of an individual level national data set.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature and process of leadership in a mid‐sized, family‐controlled bank in Singapore in order to understand how it grew and developed under family control.

The paper draws on distributed leadership as a theoretical framework in exploring how a major corporate acquisition was conceived and undertaken to advance the bank's growth and development. Data were obtained through structured interviews with managers based on a three‐part discussion protocol following a pre‐interview questionnaire.

An “extended” system of leadership involving different levels of managers is developed that successfully completed the acquisition and produced significant growth from the combined businesses.

Based on a single case, the paper does not claim that the observed phenomena are typical of mid‐sized family‐controlled businesses (FCBs). However, for scholars, the paper suggests how studying leadership practice in such FCBs may produce insights that challenge the popular view of an all‐powerful family leader by substituting a more nuanced perspective of a collaborative leadership system that facilitates entrepreneurial activity down the firm.

For managers, the study suggests how deeply developed collaboration among different levels of managers may produce competitive advantage for FCBs that seek further growth and development.

It is suggested how further research of the growth processes of mid‐sized FCBs may maximize the value of entrepreneurial opportunities for their “extended” family of stakeholders, specifically for their customers with whom FCBs typically enjoy close relations.

The paper fills an empirical gap in the literature on competitive, mid‐sized FCBs by articulating a process in which a unique competency is developed for their ongoing survival as a family‐controlled enterprise.

The purpose of this paper is to compare first‐, second‐, and third‐generation family business managerial characteristics and practices in a combined sample from six countries (Croatia, Egypt, France, India, Kuwait, and the USA) with significant differences in cultures, economies, levels of entrepreneurial activity, and family business demographics.

The design was survey research with a sample of 593 businesses from six countries. To compare differences between the three generations, analysis of covariance was run for the 11 dependent variables, followed by post hoc Tukey honestly significant difference multiple comparisons tests to determine which of the three generations were significantly different.

As family businesses move from first to second to third generation, some managerial characteristics and practices remain the same while others change. Furthermore, only minor generational differences between the various countries were found, thus supporting commonality of family businesses in spite of the differing cultural, economic, and demographic variations.

The results lead to an improvement in our understanding of entrepreneurial behavior and managerial characteristics and practices between generations of family business in six very diverse economic and cultural settings.

Prior family business research has rarely focused specifically on comparisons of first‐, second‐, and third‐generation firms. No prior research combined family firm data from different countries. The analyses are more complex and mixed than the methodologies used in most of the limited previous research, raising questions and indicating a need for further research.

The paper aims to develop an expanded conceptualisation of copreneurship, locating it within the family embeddedness perspective on entrepreneurship.

The paper draws upon entrepreneurship and family business literatures in order to identify the concept of copreneurship within both traditions.

Copreneurship has been examined by researchers in both fields and, although there are limitations to the current understanding, it clearly represents an important phenomenon, and the role of spousal support in entrepreneurship being identified as particularly significant.

By locating copreneurship as a key link between the entrepreneurship and family business literatures, this paper offers a useful basis for framing subsequent work using insight from both fields.

Copreneurship, and other forms of small family firms, represent a high proportion of new ventures and there are, therefore, considerable policy benefits to gaining greater understanding of the dynamics of such ventures.

The paper offers an expanded conceptualisation of copreneurship which both increases its utility as a construct and highlight key definitional issues for future research.

There is a paucity of studies on the complex longitudinal dynamics of innovation incorporation within family‐based small‐ to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in response to market and technological change. Attempts at innovation implementation are likely to be influenced by the dynamic effects of critical incidents or crisis points in small family‐based firms. The aim of this EU‐funded study is to explore the effects of critical incidents on innovation implementation within a regional cluster of family‐based SMEs over a two‐year period.

The research methodology involves the longitudinal study of a regional cluster of five family‐based businesses in relation to innovation implementation at firm level. A participant observation and critical action learning methodology was used to study the firms over the two‐year period of the study.

The findings, as summarised using a conceptual model, show that the critical incidents acted interactively with the firm's lifecycle stage and its approach to family versus business, to either act as a catalyst for developing more radical innovation or in maintaining the status quo or continuous improvement.

The findings can act as a guide for how family‐based firms can evaluate and maximise their responses to critical incidents and leverage them to encourage more radical approaches to innovation implementation.

There is a paucity of longitudinal studies on the effect of critical incidents on approaches to innovation implementation in family businesses.

The theme of this paper is entrepreneurial risk taking. Specifically, the paper has twofold objectives: to develop insights into individual and familial correlates of risk‐taking propensity in family firms; to explore impacts of risk taking on business performance.

A quantitative survey was conducted with the sampling frame outlined based on the FAME database. A total of 236 companies participated in this survey.

The results suggest that individual and familial variables will determine the risk‐taking propensity, specifically entrepreneur's industrial tenure, age, and the controlling generation in family businesses. Furthermore, risk‐taking intensity correlates with business performance.

The cross‐sectional rather than longitudinal design of the study determines that it can only proffer a snapshot of the scenario. Further, the current study excludes non‐incorporated firms. Future explorative studies in a similar vein may be executed through channels of national and local development agencies to capture non‐incorporated firms.

Recent recognition of the intertwinement of family and business in family firms has led to the assumption that risk‐taking propensity in family firms is influenced by family ownership and family associated concerns. Nonetheless, rarely has the influence of family on risk‐taking propensity and the ensuing performance been addressed in the literature. The insights developed by this original exploration will broaden the knowledge landscape of family firms and entrepreneurial venturing allowing us to better understand how family firms can survive and prosper in the increasingly competitive market.