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The paper aims to focus on a unique quality control system that was set up ten years ago to evaluate Medical Classification Committee decision‐making processes at the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) conscription center.

Two main approaches were deployed by the control system to assess medical classification committees' performance. The first was direct assessment of the medical committees' clinical work and decision‐making processes. The second applied data mining procedures to the computerized medical databases. The functional classification codes (FCCs) – codes for the most common medical disorders assigned to male recruits from the central computerized central IDF database, the sub‐districts comprising the recruitment centers, and the chairmen assigning the FCCs to recruits – were all analyzed.

A total of 26 FCCs, each indicating a common medical problem and its severity, constituted approximately 90 percent of all FCCs assigned at recruitment centers between 2001 and 2006. Major contributors to medical profiling outcomes were underweight, asthma, chronic headache, mental illness, symptomatic scoliosis, hypnosis, chronic back pain, knee joint disorders, allergic rhinitis and sinusitis. Evaluating the computerized medical database revealed significant differences in: medical profile prevalence; recruitment center FCCs; different sub‐districts in a given recruitment center; and profiling by medical committee chairmen.

Findings indicate disparities between recruitment centers and their chairmen in the medical profiling process owing to variations in recruitment center working methods and medical history taking, physical examinations, interpreting medical information and individual differences in the chairmen's decision‐making process. Other reasons include technician and laboratory staff inaccuracies. These significant discrepancies highlighted the need for an intervention program. To minimize variations and create a uniform work platform, an orderly instruction system and training programs for the committee chairmen, technicians and laboratory staff were established. These actions resulted in improved performance in 2007 as confirmed by a decreased variability in the assignment of medical FCCs.

The paper highlights methods that can be used to assess disability screening, sports medicine committees and primary care setting procedures.

This paper seeks to examine an intervention program which was developed in order to improve the performance and skills of technical medical personnel at the military recruitment medical committees.

Evaluation of the technician soldiers' performance was carried out by the usage of a specifically farmed survey, comprising a designed questionnaire, and direct observation of their work, including appraisal of their measurements and interpretation skills.

Prior to intervention, analysis revealed: insufficient knowledge of normal range of blood pressure and pulse values, visual acuity of color vision, urinalysis and their relation to the classification process at medical committees; and inadequate technicalities such as incorrect weight and height measurements.

The model of the intervention program could be modified and adopted by medical committees, sports medicine examinations, periodic screening procedures, and primary care medicine in order to improve the quality of medical records and medical care.

As part of the routine work of the medical committees in the Israel Defense Forces, a unique nationwide computerized control system is being implemented to assess and manage medical processes. The purpose of this paper is to report on that implementation.

The computerized system consists of three main components: a specific status indicating the processes in each file, an appointment system, and an internal computerized system that uses a magnetic card for the regulation of the local waiting lists.

The combined computerized system improves the control and management of the medical processes and informatics from the point‐of‐view of both the patients and system operators. Different parameters of quality control regarding the medical and administrative processes are assessed (such as efficiency), and solutions are sought. Computerized system‐based design and re‐allocation of human and medical resources were implemented according to the capacities and limitations of the medical system. A reduction in the daily number of invited recruits improved the quality of the medical encounters. Specific combined status codes were introduced for the efficient planning of the medical encounters. Implementation and automation of medical regulations and procedures within the computerized system make the latter play a key role and serve as a control tool during the decision‐making process.

The computerized system allows efficient follow‐up and management of medical processes and informatics, led to a better utilization of human and medical resources, and becomes a component of the decision making by the system operators and the administrative staff. Such a system could be used with success in clinics, hospitals, and other medical facilities.

The twofold aim of this theory-building article is to raise questions about the ability of queer cinema to transform market culture and ideologies around gender and sexuality. First, the authors examine how the very capitalization of queer signifiers may compromise the dominant order from within. Second, the authors address how brands possibly can draw on these signifiers to project authenticity.

Through visual methods of film criticism and the semiotic analysis of three films (Moonlight, Call Me By Your Name and Portrait of a Lady on Fire), the authors outline some profound narrative tensions addressed by movie makers seeking to give an authentic voice to queer lives.

Brands can tap into these narrative attempts at “seeing the invisible” to signify authenticity. False sublation, i.e. the “catch-22” of commodifying the queer imaginaries one seeks to represent, follows from a Marcusean analysis.

In more practical terms, “seeing the invisible” is proposed as a cultural branding technique. To be felicitous, one has to circumvent three narrative traditions: pathologization, rationalization and trivialization.

In contrast to Marcuse's pessimist view emphasizing its affirmative aspects, the authors conclude that such commodification in the long term may have transformative effects on the dominant ideology. This is because even if something is banished to the realm of imagination, e.g. through aesthetic semblance, it can still be enacted in real life.

Resurgent interest in the life and work of the Italian Cambridge economist Piero Sraffa is leading to New Directions in Sraffa Scholarship. This chapter introduces readers to some of these developments. First and perhaps foremost is the fact that as of September 2016 Sraffa’s archival material has been uploaded onto the website of the Wren Library, Trinity College, Cambridge University, as digital colour images; this chapter introduces readers to the history of these events. This history provides sharp relief on the extant debates over the role of the archival material in leading to the final publication of Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities, and readers are provided a brief sketch of these matters. The varied nature of Sraffa scholarship is demonstrated by the different aspects of Sraffa’s intellectual legacy which are developed and discussed in the various entries of our Symposium. The conclusion is reached that we are on the cusp of an exciting phase change of tremendous potential in Sraffa scholarship.

The purpose of this paper is to enrich country of origin (COO) effect in international marketing theory by adding the understanding of temporal dynamism into COO research.

Utilizing a qualitative and interdisciplinary phenomenological approach, this paper analyses historical and contemporary sources triangulated with contemporary primary interview data. The example of how perceptions of Italians about the values typical of the British Sixties varied over time periods is presented.

COO perceptions are both malleable and in evolution. Results show that values from earlier peak periods of appeal can be combined and recombined differently over time due to the varying historical and contemporary resonances of COO values.

This study focuses on COO applied to two product areas, fashion and music, over a limited time period, in a two-country study and so the findings are not fully generalizable, but rather are transferable to similar contexts.

The fact that COO is neither static nor atemporal facilitates a segmented approach for international marketing managers to review and renew international brands. This enriched COO theory provides a rich and variable resource for developing and revitalizing brands.

The major contribution of this paper is that temporal dynamism, never before discussed in international marketing theory, renders COO theory more timeless; this addresses some critiques recently made about its relevance and practicality. The second contribution is the original research design that models interdisciplinary scholarship, enabling a thorough historical look at international marketing.

The purpose of the present study is to examine the relationship between Social and Environmental Accountability (SEA), Attitude towards Environmental Advertising (AEA), Materialism, and Intention to purchase Environmentally Sustainable Products (IPESP).

The study sample consists of 205 business students from two B schools in India. Data was collected through the survey method, and the moderated-mediation model was statistically tested using SPSS Process Macro software.

The findings of the study suggest that the attitude towards social and environmental accountability (SEA) is positively associated with the intention to purchase environmentally sustainable products (IPESP). Moreover, this relationship is mediated and moderated by AEA and materialism, respectively.

The findings of the study reveal that a consumer with low materialism and a positive attitude for both environmental sustainability and environmental advertising has higher chances of purchasing environmentally sustainable products.

This study contributes to the existing literature on sustainability by providing a basis for understanding the moderated-mediation mechanism, which affects the relationship between SEA and IPESP; two key variables that have not been examined in combination.