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As a result of a drastic increase in new patients, two major shifts are occurring in the US hospice care industry: an increase in the number of for‐profit providers, and hospices are increasing in size through acquisitions and mergers. Hospices are trying to both increase the number of innovative programs they offer and decrease their operating expenses to improve their margins and attract more patients. This study seeks to investigate if strategic groups exist within the industry as hospices try to become more innovative and efficient, which grouping factors are most significant, and to determine whether there is a relationship between group membership and performance.

Cluster analysis and ANOVA are used to analyze data from 93 California hospices.

Three strategic groups exist within the market, innovative practices significantly affect group membership, and innovation‐oriented groups outperform others in terms of quality of care.

Many hospices focus on innovation, and evidence suggests that continued pursuit of innovative practices is critical, whereas efficiency does not appear to have a significant impact on quality of care. Focus on such evidence‐based practices is important for long‐term success.

This is the first study to investigate strategic group formation in the hospice care industry.

This study focuses around the central question of whether or not the relative importance of conformity to institutional norms varies as markets become more competitive.

Using data gathered for 187 managed health care plans in the US, this study uses hierarchical regression analysis involving blocked variables.

This study finds that conformity to technical environmental requirements has a significant impact on performance at all levels of competition. However, the importance of conformity to institutional norms increases as markets becomes more competitive.

From the perspective of MCOs, this means that managers need to carefully monitor the prevailing technical and institutional environmental forces and match their responses according to the competitiveness of their individual markets. From a societal perspective, this study suggests that improved health care delivery is likely to result from increased competition in the managed care market.

Prior research has shown that conformity to social norms is important for MCO performance. However, this is the first study to examine the whether the importance of conformity to social norms varies as a function of market competition.

The study aims to determine the contributions of universal school-based educational programs to the current and future worldwide youth mental health condition.

A systematic search was conducted in accordance with the PRISMA 2020 guidelines. Academic education and health databases including ERIC, Education Database, APA PsycInfo, APA PsycArticles, Psychology Database, and PubMed were used. Characteristics and outcomes of educational interventions developed in school settings and education potential for mental health promotion were examined.

Universal school-based mental health educational programs positively affect preadolescents and adolescents. The study review provided further insight into educational programs' characteristics and identified two primary curricula foci: mental health education and development of resiliency traits and skills.

Research on mental health promotion using a pedagogical approach is rare as most studies focus on mental health symptomatology and psychotherapy techniques training.

The purpose of this article is to present an overview of the history and development of transaction log analysis (TLA) in library and information science research. Organizing a literature review of the first twenty‐five years of TLA poses some challenges and requires some decisions. The primary organizing principle could be a strict chronology of the published research, the research questions addressed, the automated information retrieval (IR) systems that generated the data, the results gained, or even the researchers themselves. The group of active transaction log analyzers remains fairly small in number, and researchers who use transaction logs tend to use this method more than once, so tracing the development and refinement of individuals' uses of the methodology could provide insight into the progress of the method as a whole. For example, if we examine how researchers like W. David Penniman, John Tolle, Christine Borgman, Ray Larson, and Micheline Hancock‐Beaulieu have modified their own understandings and applications of the method over time, we may get an accurate sense of the development of all applications.

Using a longitudinal research methodology, this research investigated the grocery shopping habits of residents in rural communities in Western Stirlingshire, Scotland. In particular, it attempted to uncover the factors and attitudes that influence customers’ store choice decisions and their attitudes towards their local shops. Findings revealed that although respondents held a positive overall view of their local shops, less than one‐third purchased a high proportion of their food shopping in local shops. While it is unlikely that local traders will reverse outshoppers’ shopping behaviours, with a re‐evaluation of their overall offer, they may be able to establish themselves as a reliable supplementary or secondary choice option, thereby maintaining the local shop as a viable function. Recommendations based on offer, service and environment are made to differentiate local shops from the major multiples.

This chapter reviews literature on hazing and hazing prevention specific to university athletics, with an emphasis on US and Canadian contexts. A synthesis of studies related to the nature and extent of student-athlete hazing and gender, sexuality and hazing is shared followed by a summary of public health-based approaches to hazing prevention and athlete-specific hazing prevention strategies.

The librarian and researcher have to be able to uncover specific articles in their areas of interest. This Bibliography is designed to help. Volume IV, like Volume III, contains features to help the reader to retrieve relevant literature from MCB University Press' considerable output. Each entry within has been indexed according to author(s) and the Fifth Edition of the SCIMP/SCAMP Thesaurus. The latter thus provides a full subject index to facilitate rapid retrieval. Each article or book is assigned its own unique number and this is used in both the subject and author index. This Volume indexes 29 journals indicating the depth, coverage and expansion of MCB's portfolio.

Since the first Volume of this Bibliography there has been an explosion of literature in all the main areas of business. The researcher and librarian have to be able to uncover specific articles devoted to certain topics. This Bibliography is designed to help. Volume III, in addition to the annotated list of articles as the two previous volumes, contains further features to help the reader. Each entry within has been indexed according to the Fifth Edition of the SCIMP/SCAMP Thesaurus and thus provides a full subject index to facilitate rapid information retrieval. Each article has its own unique number and this is used in both the subject and author index. The first Volume of the Bibliography covered seven journals published by MCB University Press. This Volume now indexes 25 journals, indicating the greater depth, coverage and expansion of the subject areas concerned.

This issue is a selected bibliography covering the subject of leadership.

Open‐ended interviews with bibliographers and the Assistant Director of Collection Development at the University of Miami (Florida) Richter Library reveal personal attributes and philosophies that may affect collection development decision making. These attributes may include one or more of the following: 1) subject expertise gained through a master's degree or prior work experience; 2) a strong commitment to serving the teaching and research needs of the faculty; 3) active participation in professional associations in the field for which the librarian selects materials; 4) frequent contact with the faculty and departmental book selectors; and 5) participation in research in the specialty area, e.g., publication of articles in scholarly journals or presentation of papers at meetings. This study suggests the need for more empirical data based on a large, representative sample.