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This paper aims to examine the role of network effects (defined as increased utility for users of a technology that occurs when adoption increases among other users) in the adoption of electronic medical records (EMR) systems. EMR systems, which have experienced slow adoption rates, promise to improve the efficiency of the healthcare system by facilitating information exchange among physicians caring for the same patients.

Survey responses from physicians are used to test several hypotheses. The authors are interested in how market level EMR adoption was related to physician adoption intentions. The authors also test the “strong ties” notion of network effects by examining whether EMR adoption among generalists, and specialist physicians, had differing influences on adoption intentions in a given market.

Support for network effects is found; each one unit increase in market‐level EMR adoption is associated with a significant increase in overall physician adoption intention in that market. Secondary analyses suggest adoption of EMRs by specialists is significantly predictive of generalists' adoption intentions in a given market. However, as predicted, EMR among generalists does not influence other generalists' intentions; nor does EMR adoption by a specialists influence other specialists' intentions.

Network effects play a role in the EMR adoption among physicians. Decision‐makers wanting to influence adoption should target defined market segments in an effort to build a critical mass of adoption then move to adjacent segments once network effects take hold.

This paper applies network effects theory to help explain the suboptimal adoption rates of an important healthcare technology.

An enormous volume of literature has evolved which promises remedies for any organization′s new product development woes. Unfortunately, new product development is an inherently uncertain and complex process which is generally not amenable to standardized solutions. Based on extensive consulting experience, addresses three commonly held misconceptions regarding the new product development process. Provides examples to illustrate each of the misconceptions and presents the lesson to be learned from each. Finally, discusses recommendations for management.

Most recent work in the area of new product development has been of a theoretically prescriptive basis, ignoring, to a large degree, the current state of affairs in US corporations. The study examines, on a comparative basis, consumer and business products organizations, practices being utilized to guide the development process and key factors influencing the success/failure of the process. Results from an empirical study reveal that: (1) there is no one best means to structure the process; (2) top management commitment to and support of the process is a critical factor; (3) knowledge of markets and customers remains elusive; and (4) more similarities than differences exist between the practices undertaken by and the factors influencing success/failure in consumer versus business products organizations.

Learners with autism require specialized education and supports to ensure acquisition and mastery of various communication skills. This is particularly true for individuals whose disability significantly impacts their language development. Without functional communication, these individuals often engage in severe behavior, have reduced self-determination, and experience diminished quality of life. Accordingly, researchers in special education and related fields have sought ways to improve the communication skills of learners with autism who need specialized language and communication interventions. Although the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) is well-established in the empirical literature and has helped countless individuals learn to communicate, the method known as facilitated communication (FC; which also is being called “supported typing” and “rapid prompting method”) has become increasingly popular in recent years. Few methods in special education have been as thoroughly discredited as FC and perhaps none are as dangerous. This chapter contrasts the thoroughly debunked FC and its pseudoscientific characteristics with those underpinning PECS. A brief historical account of each method is provided along with key scientific and pseudoscientific features that distinguish science from pseudoscience. Ultimately, our intent is to further clarify how FC is not an augmentative or alternative communication method and why PECS is.

Recreancy is a concept that received William R. Freudenburg’s studied attention. Freudenburg moved beyond its conventional meaning – shirking duty – to a larger realm of irresponsibility by public actors who breach a societal trust they assume. This research focuses on the issue of “Peak Farmland,” a rendering of global carrying capacity that, we suggest, qualifies for what Freudenburg called “privileged discourse” and possibly recreancy. Scholars identified with dematerialized progress argue that finite farmland in the face of increasing population will improve human welfare and spare land for nature. This iconoclasm presents an arena for testing academic probity with respect to global food security. After an overview of past carrying capacity debates, we summarize the “Peak Farmland” position of the dematerialization school and suggest an important blind spot: the dematerialization of the global land base itself. Gathering the results of multiple studies on land loss, we offer evidence that the world’s warehouse of productive land is not just peaking but eroding on a grand scale. Ignoring this form of dematerialization while proclaiming nearly unlimited carrying capacity for Earth’s denizens strains the meaning of responsible scholarship.

This book provides a deeper understanding of what it means to promote social justice and equity work in schools and communities around the world. Throughout this book, narratives describe how authors continue to reshape the agenda for educational reform. They remind us of the significance meaningful relationships play in promoting and sustaining reform efforts that address the injustices vulnerable populations face in school communities. Their voices represent the need for engaging with obstacles and barriers and a resistant world through a web of relationships, an intersubjective reality (see Ayers, 1996). As authors engaged in thinking about addressing injustices, they describe how their thoughts transformed into actions moving beyond, breaking through institutional structures, attempting to rebuild and make sense of their own situations (see Dewey, 1938).

Consciously or unconsciously, every management researcher adopts a certain philosophical perspective. In this chapter, I discuss the connection between philosophy and management research and show how philosophical perspectives affect the perception of empirical phenomena, choice of research methods, and interpretation of research results. The discussion indicates that the connection is far more crucial than what many management researchers may have thought. I then share my experience of studying philosophy and provide suggestions to those who are interested in enhancing their knowledge of the subject.

Schedule UTP requires that firms disclose to the IRS the uncertain tax positions that comprise the federal portion of the tax reserve disclosed on their financial statements. To investigate whether Schedule UTP has been an effective audit tool to the IRS, we use financial statement disclosures of reductions in reserves due to a lapse in the statute of limitations (Lapse). We find that the probability of a Lapse is 3.4 percent lower after Schedule UTP. However, this result is driven by domestic firms; we do not find evidence that Schedule UTP has been effective in the audit of multinational firms.