Ian T. Johnson and Elizabeth Lund
Although there are welcome signs that mortality from coronary heart disease is declining, both in the United States and more recently in Britain, the condition remains a major…
Abstract
Although there are welcome signs that mortality from coronary heart disease is declining, both in the United States and more recently in Britain, the condition remains a major source of disability and premature death. In our increasingly health‐conscious age, much public attention is focused on the identification and avoidance of risk‐factors such as smoking, lack of exercise and a high level of blood cholesterol due to an unhealthy diet.
Susan J. Fairweather‐Tait, Ian T. Johnson, S. Gabrielle Wharf and Elizabeth K. Lund
Discusses the problems associated with an inadequate dietary supply of iron in relation to the prevention of anaemia. Describes results of recent work examining the free radical…
Abstract
Discusses the problems associated with an inadequate dietary supply of iron in relation to the prevention of anaemia. Describes results of recent work examining the free radical generation hypothesis to explain epidemiological observations that high iron intakes are associated with an increased risk of colorectal cancer. Further work is needed to derive the upper limits of dietary reference values. Attention is drawn to the difficulties in setting dietary reference values in the absence of information on bioavailability of whole diets.
Camilla Malm, Stefan Andersson, Håkan Jönson, Lennart Magnusson and Elizabeth Hanson
In Sweden, the care of older people and people with disabilities is increasingly carried out by informal carers, often family members, who are unpaid and outside a professional or…
Abstract
Purpose
In Sweden, the care of older people and people with disabilities is increasingly carried out by informal carers, often family members, who are unpaid and outside a professional or formal framework. While there is an increasing awareness of the role of carers within service systems and their own needs for support, their involvement in research is underexplored. The purpose of this paper is to explore carers’ views and experiences of involvement in research and development (R&D) work.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative study was conducted, consisting of 12 individual interviews with carers from different local Swedish carer organizations.
Findings
Core findings included carers’ discussions of the perceived challenges and benefits of their involvement in research, both generally and more specifically, in the context of their involvement in the development of a national carer strategy.
Research limitations/implications
Limitations included the relative lack of male carer participants and the convenience sample.
Practical implications
Authentic carer involvement in research demands a high level of engagement from researchers during the entire research process. The provided CRAC framework, with reference to the themes community, reciprocity, advocacy and circumstantiality, may help researchers to understand and interpret carer involvement in research and provide the prerequisites for their involvement.
Originality/value
There is a dearth of studies that systematically examine carer involvement in research. This paper attempts to redress this gap by providing a nuanced analysis of carer involvement in R&D work from the perspective of carers themselves.
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Lorna Elizabeth Wildgaard and Haakon Lund
Systematic reviews of biomedical literature are used to inform patient treatment. Yet the acquisition of relevant literature is proving increasingly challenging due to the large…
Abstract
Purpose
Systematic reviews of biomedical literature are used to inform patient treatment. Yet the acquisition of relevant literature is proving increasingly challenging due to the large volume of information that needs to be searched, filtered and collocated. There is a need to improve the efficiency of biomedical literature searches. PubMed remains the primary resource for biomedical literature, and as PubMed makes the Medline data and Entrez PubMed Programming utilities freely available, any developer can produce alternative tools to search the database. The authors question if PubMed still provides the superior search interface for systematic searches or if the innovativeness of third-party tools provide alternatives worth considering. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
In all, 76 third-party tools that build on PubMed content were identified in a PubMed search and in published studies known to the authors. Only tools that provided free access to the broad PubMed content and designed specifically to enhance the search were included, reducing the set to 16 tools. The functionality of each tool within the scenario of a systematic search was compared across 11 aspects. A systematic search in PubMed was used as study control.
Findings
The 16 tools limited rather than advanced the sorting, filtering, and export functionality required in a systematic search. The reproducibility of the searches in these sources was reduced. The study shows that PubMed remains the superior provider for searching, identifying, and exporting biomedical literature for systematic reviews.
Originality/value
The work contributes to the discussion of how librarians can help researchers navigate the biomedical literature in systematic reviews.
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Isabella Krysa and Marke Kivijärvi
This research attempts to make sense of the experiences of two academic women who become mothers.
Abstract
Purpose
This research attempts to make sense of the experiences of two academic women who become mothers.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is an autoethnography. Applying the autoethnographic method allows us to discuss cultural phenomena through personal reflections and experiences. Our autoethnographic reflections illustrate our struggles and attempts of resistance within discursive spaces where motherhood and our identity as academics intersect.
Findings
Our personal experiences combined with theoretical elaborations illuminate how the role of the mother continues to be dominated by such gendered discursive practices that conflict with the work role. Once women become mothers, they are othered through societal and organizational practices because they constitute a visible deviation from the masculine norm in the organizational setting, academia included.
Originality/value
This paper explores how contemporary motherhood discourse(s)within academia and the wider society present competing truth claims, embedded in neoliberal and postfeminist cultural sensibility. Our autoethnographic reflections show our struggles and attempts of resistance within such discursive spaces.
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Stephen A. Greyser, John M.T. Balmer and Mats Urde
The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of corporate communications on behalf of the monarchy as a corporate brand.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of corporate communications on behalf of the monarchy as a corporate brand.
Design/methodology/approach
Draws on the preliminary findings of a major study on monarchies.
Findings
Argues that corporate communications is an important aspect of corporate brand management (especially in relation to constitutional monarchies).
Research implications
That monarchies are analogous to organisational brands and are amenable to being managed as such.
Originality/value
Draws on a unique study relating to monarchies as corporate brands.
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Daniel Jr Soriano Balbin and Elizabeth Allan Lascano
The study aims to determine the extent of COVID-19’s impact on the libraries and information centers within Benguet. It identified the key differences in the effect of the…
Abstract
Purpose
The study aims to determine the extent of COVID-19’s impact on the libraries and information centers within Benguet. It identified the key differences in the effect of the pandemic on each type of library: public, special, school and academic. It recalled and documented the challenges faced by libraries and librarians. It determined which aspects of their library were affected and how they were modified in terms of their policies, personnel, physical space, services, collection, infodemic response and marketing.
Design/methodology/approach
The study used the qualitative descriptive method approach, specifically narrative research design and conducted online focus group discussions in which 14 librarians with managerial or supervisory functions participated. This method was used to explore the topic holistically by using qualitative inquiry. It best suited the purpose of fully understanding the experiences of libraries during the pandemic. The recorded online focus group discussions conducted through Zoom were reviewed and analyzed to identify key themes and responses from the participants. The themes identified from the thematic analysis were further validated with the participants through correspondence, chats or e-mails.
Findings
The findings showed that libraries were faced with challenges brought on by the lack of a written policy for the pandemic response, a lack of information communication and technology skills and resources, strict requirements on physical setup for pandemic compliance, budget cuts or realignments and delayed procurement, misinformation and users’ lack of awareness of the new services offered by the library.
Research limitations/implications
The study focused on the pandemic experiences of libraries and information centers in Baguio-Benguet, which was hailed as a model for local pandemic response, through the lenses of librarians with supervisory roles or functions.
Practical implications
Libraries could reflect on their experiences in this pandemic to plan for future strategies that would be best implemented in situations where face-to-face services are not allowed.
Originality/value
This study presented various best practices from different library institutions that could be emulated in the future. Many of these are still relevant regardless library services are going back to normal.
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Julia Marcet Alonso, Elizabeth Parsons and Daniela Pirani
This paper aims to explore how a global fashion retailer uses a social media platform to build an appeal via a process of online employer branding.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore how a global fashion retailer uses a social media platform to build an appeal via a process of online employer branding.
Design/methodology/approach
The study involved a narrative and thematic analysis of posts of a global fashion retailer on LinkedIn. The authors sampled organisational posts and the responses they received over a six-month period.
Findings
The organisation uses carefully curated success stories of “ideal” existing employees to build an appeal based on the values of growth and belonging. While varied, the responses of platform users tend to be limited to brief contributions, questioning the success of the organisation’s attempts at creating an appeal.
Research limitations/implications
The authors argue that employer branding literature needs a new conceptual toolbox, which better reflects the mediated, affective and networked nature of platforms.
Practical implications
To avoid career-washing, employer brands should engage with the networked nature of platforms, fostering authentic conversations with users rather than using platforms merely as a billboard to post content.
Originality/value
The authors theorise the appeal of the employer brand through the concept of the “employer brand promise”. Furthermore, they show how, on social networks, this promise attempts to create value through meaningful engagement. They also conclude by observing how the employer brand promise can act as a form of career-washing, where there is a significant dis-connect between the promise offered and the reality of retail work on the ground.
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Elizabeth Wilson and Kevin Besnoy
Social studies teachers possess a daunting task in a 21st century environment of economic-mindedness and technological infatuation. In a setting of individualism and instant…
Abstract
Social studies teachers possess a daunting task in a 21st century environment of economic-mindedness and technological infatuation. In a setting of individualism and instant gratification, enabling a future citizenry to realize the patterns of economic disparity and to accept their responsibilities towards other less fortunate citizens provides a formidable challenge. The authors interpret understandings of citizenship as being closely related to conceptualizations of economics and view methods by which classrooms employ instructional technology as paramount to exploring these associations. This paper conveys how technology represents an instructional resource that may foster exploration and examination of these relationships and describes a student-centered cooperative instructional model for its classroom implementation.
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The principal purposes of this paper are to provide normative advice in terms of managing the British Monarchy as a Corporate Heritage Brand and to reveal the efficacy of…
Abstract
Purpose
The principal purposes of this paper are to provide normative advice in terms of managing the British Monarchy as a Corporate Heritage Brand and to reveal the efficacy of examining a brand's history for corporate heritage brands generally.
Design/methodology/approach
Taking a case history approach, the paper examines critical events in the Crown's history. It is also informed by the diverse literatures on the British Monarchy and also marshals the identity literatures and the nascent literature relating to corporate brands. Six critical incidents that have shaped the monarchy over the last millennium provide the principal data source.
Findings
In scrutinising key events from the institution's historiography it was found that the management and maintenance of the Crown as a corporate brand entail concern with issues relating to: continuity (maintaining heritage and symbolism); visibility (having a meaningful and prominent public profile); strategy (anticipating and enacting change); sensitivity (rapid response to crises); respectability (retaining public favour); and empathy (acknowledging that brand ownership resides with the public). Taking an integrationist perspective, the efficacy of adopting a corporate marketing approach/philosophy is also highlighted.
Practical implications
A framework for managing Corporate Heritage is outlined and is called “Chronicling the Corporate Brand”. In addition to Bagehot's dictum that the British Monarch had a constitutional obligation to encourage, advise and warn the government of the day, the author concludes that the Sovereign has a critical societal role and must be dutiful, devoted and dedicated to Her (His) subjects.
Originality/value
This is one of the first papers to examine the British Monarchy through a corporate branding lens. It confirms that the Crown is analogous to a corporate brand and, therefore, ought to be managed as such.