Vanessa Pinfold, Ceri Dare, Sarah Hamilton, Harminder Kaur, Ruth Lambley, Vicky Nicholls, Irene Petersen, Paulina Szymczynska, Charlotte Walker and Fiona Stevenson
The purpose of this paper is to understand how women with a diagnosis of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder approach medication decision making in pregnancy.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to understand how women with a diagnosis of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder approach medication decision making in pregnancy.
Design/methodology/approach
The study was co-produced by university academics and charity-based researchers. Semi-structured interviews were conducted by three peer researchers who have used anti-psychotic medication and were of child bearing age. Participants were women with children under five, who had taken anti-psychotic medication in the 12 months before pregnancy. In total, 12 women were recruited through social media and snowball techniques. Data were analyzed following a three-stage process.
Findings
The accounts highlighted decisional uncertainty, with medication decisions situated among multiple sources of influence from self and others. Women retained strong feelings of personal ownership for their decisions, whilst also seeking out clinical opinion and accepting they had constrained choices. Two styles of decision making emerged: shared and independent. Shared decision making involved open discussion, active permission seeking, negotiation and coercion. Independent women-led decision making was not always congruent with medical opinion, increasing pressure on women and impacting pregnancy experiences. A common sense self-regulation model explaining management of health threats resonated with women’s accounts.
Practical implications
Women should be helped to manage decisional conflict and the emotional impact of decision making including long term feelings of guilt. Women experienced interactions with clinicians as lacking opportunities for enhanced support except in specialist perinatal services. This is an area that should be considered in staff training, supervision, appraisal and organization review.
Originality/value
This paper uses data collected in a co-produced research study including peer researchers.
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Qian Long Kweh, Irene Wei Kiong Ting, Wen-Min Lu and Hanh Thi My Le
Consensus on how intellectual capital (IC) affects corporate performance is limited because of various measurement models of IC and corporate performance. This study thus aims to…
Abstract
Purpose
Consensus on how intellectual capital (IC) affects corporate performance is limited because of various measurement models of IC and corporate performance. This study thus aims to further the debate on the relationship between IC and corporate performance from the perspectives of nonlinearity, the capital values of IC and the use of a holistic measure of corporate performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Using 1,395 firm-year observations derived from Vietnamese listed companies from 2010 to 2018, this study focuses on (1) presenting an IC model benchmarked on value-creating expenses; (2) using a directional distance function (DDF)-based stochastic nonparametric envelopment of data (StoNED) framework to scrutinize multiple performance indicators and the capital values of people, structures and relationships simultaneously; and (3) adopting firm-year cluster-robust regressions to analyze the nonlinear association between IC and corporate performance empirically with an appropriate U test.
Findings
Results suggest that human capital (HC), structural capital (SC) and relational capital (RC) are the main contributors of high corporate efficiency, whereas only HC and RC contribute to high corporate profitability. These results are absent when this study employs the conventional data envelopment analysis (DEA), which is also a multidimensional framework, as the dependent variable. More importantly, IC and its components can improve corporate performance, namely, both corporate efficiency and corporate profitability up to a critical point, after which the effects would drop.
Practical implications
Overall, this study highlights not only the need to invest in IC but also its associated costs. That is, policymakers also need to note the marginal cost of investing in IC, which may in the end outweigh the benefits from IC.
Originality/value
This study extends IC-related studies by investigating the nonlinear relationship between IC and corporate performance. Moreover, the value of this study also lies in the multidimensional DDF-based StoNED framework.
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Tina Karrbom Gustavsson, Anna Kadefors, Sofia Lingegård, Ola Laedre, Ole Jonny Klakegg, Nils Olsson and Johan Larsson
The purpose of the study is to map previous and current construction procurement research to further develop the research in the Nordic counties.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the study is to map previous and current construction procurement research to further develop the research in the Nordic counties.
Design/Methodology/Approach
Mapping of previous and current research based on search in national database. The analysis is based on research perspectives, empirical contexts and research methods.
Findings
That the blind spots are partly overlapping, but that there is potential for knowledge transfer in some areas. There is also the potential for a Nordic research program on one or several of the blind spots.
Research Limitations/Implications
The study is limited to PhD and licentiate-thesis reports in Norway and Sweden. Further research should include the other Nordic countries and a more extensive literature review including journal articles to broaden the scope. Findings have implications on collaborative Nordic research initiatives, knowledge transfer and in a longer perspective on the level of procurement knowledge in industry and society.
Practical Implications
Findings provide a base for future research collaborations, initiatives and applications.
Originality/Value
Findings provide a comprehensive understanding of construction procurement research in the Nordic countries, starting with Norway and Sweden. This understanding is needed for developing research collaborations and applications.
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Melissa Candel and Tina Karrbom Gustavsson
Previous research on clients’ procurement typically focuses on their procurement strategies. Research on local sustainability governance has, however, revealed that municipalities…
Abstract
Purpose:
Previous research on clients’ procurement typically focuses on their procurement strategies. Research on local sustainability governance has, however, revealed that municipalities also govern construction projects through land allocations. This paper aims to explore how housing developers are governed by municipal land allocations and the implications. The purpose is to problematize the governance of sustainability during the early phases of construction projects.
Design/Methodology/Approach:
A case study on an urban development project in Sweden was conducted. Empirical material consists of interviews with housing developers’ project managers, observations from seminars and meetings between the developers and municipality officials and the municipality’s policy for land allocations and sustainability program. This was analyzed using Bulkeley and Kern’s (2006) typology of modes of governing change at the local level as a framework.
Findings:
The results provide examples where the municipality governs the housing developers by authority, enabling and provision. The implications for the housing developers during the early phases of their construction projects are explored.
Research limitations/implications:
Findings have implications for research on clients’ procurement strategies because it illustrates how they can be governed during the early phases of certain construction projects, which might limit their flexibility during procurement. However, the study is only based on housing projects in one urban development project governed by one municipality.
Practical implications:
Findings provide support for clients when designing their procurement strategies.
Originality/value:
This paper contributes to the understanding of how sustainability is governed in construction projects and the implications for housing developers’ flexibility.
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Beth Blankenship and Peter B. Petersen
W. Edwards Deming, famous for his work with the Japanese following the Second World War, had a unique set of theories and approaches that were clearly his own. While much has been…
Abstract
W. Edwards Deming, famous for his work with the Japanese following the Second World War, had a unique set of theories and approaches that were clearly his own. While much has been written about his experience and views, this article will focus on those individuals who made a significant impact on the formation of his views during the 1920s and 1930s and what he gained from each of them. Walter A. Shewhart was clearly the individual who had the most profound influence on Deming’s views and subsequent approaches to quality. But more than an influence, Shewhart was Deming’s mentor. Others who influenced Deming during this period include: Clarence Irving Lewis, Sir Ronald A. Fisher, and Jerzy Neyman. Those who wish to understand Deming’s theories can gain from studying Deming’s experience and views. In addition, a more detailed understanding of Deming can be gained by also studying the work and theories of those who influenced him.
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Søren Wandahl, Louise Lund, Hasse Neve and Stina Rask Jensen
The aim of this study is to develop a framework that incorporates social aspects of housing refurbishment when evaluating the sustainability of refurbishment projects. The…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this study is to develop a framework that incorporates social aspects of housing refurbishment when evaluating the sustainability of refurbishment projects. The research examined whether the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB) certification yields a holistic approach to social sustainability.
Approach
A framework for social sustainability was established from values identified through reviews of certification systems, published literature and from interviews. The target is to better assess and value holistic and soft parameters like social sustainability when assessing the overall value creation of projects.
Findings
The result was a more transparent and systematic structure, which revealed that the DGNB certification had shortcomings in a holistic approach to social sustainability. Counteractions for these shortcomings are discussed.
Research Limitations
Researchers are still discussing how to include more soft aspects like social aspects with the more hard measures like energy consumption and initial cost in the same equation for addressing sustainability in a more holistic framework. This research contributes to this.
Practical Implications
Considering the current climate situation and the amount and the state of existing European building stock, sustainable renovation is inevitable. In Europe, the DGNB certification is one of the most applied certification systems of sustainability. It approaches all parts of sustainability. Yet, social sustainability has been criticised for being neglected.
Originality/Value
A review of literature concerning the concept suggests that it is a concept in chaos. There have been a number of attempts to impose some order to this; however, the attempts have all been made differently and with limited success.
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Irene Pollach and Stefan Schaper
Social and environmental reports have become an increasingly regulated area of corporate reporting and communication. Nevertheless, the substance and level of detail present in…
Abstract
Purpose
Social and environmental reports have become an increasingly regulated area of corporate reporting and communication. Nevertheless, the substance and level of detail present in such disclosures is largely at the discretion of companies, which has implications for the value of such disclosures to stakeholders. The purpose of this study is to shed light on social visibility as a determinant of the variation in substance found in social disclosures in order to understand underlying reasons for why some firms offer more substance than others in their social disclosures.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a number of hypotheses, which are combined into social visibility, the paper investigates whether a firm's social visibility is a determinant of substance in social disclosures. To this end, the case of modern slavery statements is used as a recently introduced and legally mandated form of social sustainability disclosures.
Findings
The findings suggest that social visibility can explain part of the variation in the substance of social disclosures. However, for the remaining part, it is argued that substance in social disclosures can also be driven by institutional logics, which shape organizational outcomes in specific contexts, but are largely unobservable.
Originality/value
This article contributes new insights to the literature on the relationship between corporate social visibility and the substance of social disclosures.