Search results

Accumulated evidence shows that breast‐feeding not only is beneficial for normal growth and infant development, but also provides a measure of protection against a number of diseases. Few women are unable to breast‐feed but the UK is noteworthy for having one of the lowest breast‐feeding rates in Europe. This paper reports a survey of 50 pregnant women and analyses factors associated with their stated feeding intentions. Over the years, a number of papers have investigated aspects of decision making but this study offers a snapshot of intention in the late 1990s and pessimistically concludes that any behavioural change is hard won. By the time that the women came into contact with midwives, feeding intentions were clearly established and professional procedures were not able to offer effective intervention.

Although marketing does not play a large role in the Canadian health‐care system, acute care facilities have been conducting patient satisfaction surveys as a quality measurement tool for a number of years. More recently those in the long‐term care system have expressed an interest in this concept. This study set out to determine if long‐term care facilities in the Ministry of Health, Ontario Central West Region, conduct consumer satisfaction surveys. If they do, the study asked how the information is utilized and, if they do not, why not. This paper will highlight issues of service quality, health‐care quality and health‐care consumer satisfaction. This study is focused on long‐term care; however, the majority of the available research and information pertains to the acute care system. Although the principles of quality measurement and consumer satisfaction are the same for acute and long‐term care, our findings will identify the unique ways in which these principles apply to the long‐term care system.

In the matter of food purity and control Hospital Catering Services have been outside the law, a privileged position where the general law of food and drugs have never applied and the modern regulatory control in food hygiene has similarly not applied. In the eyes of the general public hospital catering standards have always been high above the general run of food preparation. As the NHS continued, complaints began gradually to seep out of the closed community, of dirt in the kitchens and prevalent hygiene malpractices. The general standard for most hospitals remained high but there were no means of dealing with the small minority of complaints which disgusted patients and non‐cater‐ing staff, such as insect and rodent infestations, and an increase in the frequency of food poisoning outbreaks.

Extending knowledge of the cultural shaping and variegating of white identity that occurs through the commercial diffusion of identity myths, we examine the reception of Southern identity myths promoted in the oppositional narratives of New South commercial media. We characterize oppositional narratives as texts which operate by eliciting an interpretive reading that devalues rather than supports the surface narrative, and explain the duplicitous text as one intended to seduce a dominant power, while empowering and bolstering identity of a marginalized group. After elaborating how oppositional discourse can serve to reinforce the identity frame constructed by regional media producers, we report on a study examining how urban and rural Southerners read and respond to this discourse. Our findings highlight mediators in the relationship between individuals’ oppositional readings and their alignment of identity in a manner responsive to it.

The purpose of this paper is to report on the results of a study carried out to examine the mediating effect of attitude in the relationship between subjective norm, religiosity and intention to adopt Islamic banking in a developing secular state like Uganda.

This study’ research design was cross sectional. Closed ended questionnaires were distributed to 258 managers of micro businesses in Uganda. Data were analyzed with the help of SPSS v22 and MedGraph program (Excel version).

Attitude is a significant mediator in the relationship between subjective norm and intention to adopt Islamic banking. Also, attitude significantly mediates the relationship between religiosity and intention to adopt Islamic banking.

The study used only a single research methodological approach; therefore, future research could be undertaken using a mixed-methods approach.

Emphasis should be put on improving the mindsets of Ugandans toward Islamic banking.

While there has been a number of studies on Islamic banking, this study provides an initial empirical evidence on the mediation effect of attitude in the relationship between subjective norm, religiosity and intention to adopt Islamic banking in a single study in an African developing secular state like Uganda.

This paper aims to consider if an initial driver of the cross-country global coronavirus pandemic was trade openness with China.

The authors estimate simple, seemingly unrelated and zero-inflated count data specifications of a gravity model of trade between China and its trading partners, where the number of human coronavirus infections in a country is a function of the number of distinct good/services exported and imported from China.

Parameter estimates reveal that the number of early cross-country human coronavirus infections increased with respect to trade openness with China, as measured by the number of distinct Chinese exported and imported goods/services, and can account for approximately 24% of early infections among China's trading partners. The findings suggest that one of the costs of trade openness and globalization is that they can be a driver of cross-country human disease pandemics.

This inquiry constitutes a first approach at embedding the possible disease pandemic costs of free trade, trade openness and globalization within a trade gravity model.

Inequality in the creative industries often serves as the starting point for public debates over culture in the UK. Academic literature has long recognised the precarious nature of the fashion industry. This chapter offers a critical review of the relationships of power existing in the support offered to ethnic minorities in disadvantaged communities in the fashion and creative sectors in the UK. In addressing these issues, a Foucauldian perspective is adopted. The chapter focuses on Black, Asian, and minority ethnic (BAME) fashion entrepreneurs’ challenges in promoting young designers from disadvantaged communities.

Our findings show that the BAME entrepreneurs are active agents who are essential in identifying and shaping new creative and talented young designers. The chapter contributes to the debate through a critical review of the relationships of power existing in the support offered to ethnic minorities in disadvantaged communities in the fashion and creative sectors in the UK.

This study takes an interdisciplinary research orientation in an attempt to comprehensively investigate the effects of police stress internal to the organization (i.e. role ambiguity, role conflict, supervisor support, group cohesiveness, and promotion opportunities) on organizational commitment, after controlling for the effects of job satisfaction. Existing empirical models have mainly been limited to analyses of the effects of role conflict and role ambiguity on job strain and rely on samples of salespeople, customer satisfaction employees, and retail managers working at private organizations to the neglect of not‐for‐profit organizations.

Therefore, the underlying research hypotheses were tested using responses to 150 surveys from police officers of six law enforcement agencies.

Results indicate that in addition to job satisfaction, supervisor's support, group cohesiveness, and promotion opportunities are the best predictors of organizational commitment of law enforcement officers. The results also indicate a significant relationship between organizational commitment and intention to leave.

Study findings are based on responses of officers from six police agencies in Florida. Results may not be representative of all US police.

Research findings may help senior police officers in charge of managing the police force design strategies that both enhance police officers', organizational commitment and diminish turnover intentions.

This study empirically tested a model that examines the effects of stressors on commitment and turnover intentions in police settings.

This study aims to present the conceptualization and measurement of knowledge generation competence (KGC) as the fundament for firm's internal knowledge generation. Furthermore, it seeks to assess different antecedents of a firm's KGC and its potential for improving a firm's innovativeness.

Data were collected by nationwide mail survey in the German automation and the consulting industry. The final sample consists of 110 respondents (response rate of 32.9 percent). The measurement model was tested by using structural equation modeling applying partial least squares (PLS) estimation. PLS was also used to investigate the relationships between KGC, its antecedents and innovativeness.

The findings support the conceptualization and measurement of knowledge generation competence (KGC). The included dimensions explained 47.6 percent of the variance of knowledge generation competence. Furthermore, most of the relationships included in the research model were supported by the empirical data.

The data suggest that firms which want to increase their innovativeness can develop their knowledge generation competence by providing learning orientation culture and investing in human resource practices.

The paper aids in uncovering the relationship between organizational learning, human resource practices, knowledge generation competence, and innovativeness of a firm.