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The purpose of this paper is to examine how one firm – the British Shoe Corporation – eventually failed because, as a result of the strength of its predominant managerial mental model it fell into a number of exploitative learning capability traps.

The paper uses a contemporary historical case study approach. This allows for a longitudinal study of the phenomenon. It examines the core concepts involved before moving on to consider the task environment in which the company operated, the origins and nature of its predominant managerial mental model, its performance over its lifetime and how and why it fell into the various capability learning traps.

The study found that the firm's predominant managerial mental model had a significant impact on its capability learning. It argues that to prevent other firms falling into these sorts of traps they should adopt scenario planning and seek out internal asymmetries.

The study is limited in that it only considers one specific case. More studies of the same sort need to be carried out before the findings can be considered generalisable. Again much more research is needed into the process of seeking out internal asymmetries, a recently developed concept with very little written on it.

The paper provides advice on ways to prevent firms falling into the same sorts of learning traps as the British Shoe Corporation.

The paper is original in that it relates the problem of falling into capability learning traps to the predominant managerial mental model of the organisation. It provides a practical example of the phenomenon and discusses practical strategies that other firms can adopt to avoid suffering the same outcome.

Examines how the British Shoe Corporation eventually failed because, as a result of the strength of its predominant managerial mental model, it fell into a number of exploitative learning‐capability traps.

Considers the core concepts involved before moving on to examine how and why it fell into the various capability‐learning traps.

Argues that the firm's predominant managerial mental model had a significant impact on its capability learning.

Provides advice on ways to prevent firms falling into the same sorts of learning traps as the British Shoe Corporation.

Discusses practical strategies that other firms can adopt to avoid suffering the same outcome.

The purpose of this paper is to document health care needs expressed by people living with diabetes, describe the solutions they envisaged for improving the quality of primary care (PC) services and empower them to make better use of PC services.

A participatory research approach was used. Six workshops were organised to provide diabetes patients with knowledge on available services and to engage them in sharing their experience. Group discussions were recorded. Data were analysed using the thematic analysis method.

In total, 79 persons living with diabetes for a mean of 13 years participated. Needs expressed were grouped under seven themes: assurance of satisfactory follow-up by a family physician, continuous access to services adapted to evolving needs, motivation to adopt and maintain healthy behaviours, maintenance of knowledge about diabetes, psychological support, financial constraints, and collaboration with secondary-level services. Patients proposed solutions for improving services that were grouped under five themes: facilitating access to services, disseminating information about available services, centralising diabetes information on the internet, offering personalised services and improving interprofessional collaboration.

Needs expressed by diabetic patients concern different aspects of care such as accessibility, organisation, coordination, and better dissemination and visibility of services. The solutions proposed by patients focussed on better access to information and interprofessional services.

The workshop format used in this study offers an original and interesting approach and tool for actively engaging patients in quality improvement of services.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about a contingent shift to remote working and learning worldwide. However, little is known regarding the impact of this shift on internships. Moreover, much of the available literature studies on internships are focused largely on perceptions by students, less so by supervisors. This paper describes the impact of COVID-19 on public health (PH) internships and examines interns' and supervisors' perspectives on their experiences in internships before and during the pandemic.

A cross-sectional study design was conducted on two cohorts of undergraduate students and their supervisors in Singapore. Participants were surveyed using questionnaires with both close-ended and open-ended questions about various aspects of the internship experience. Data were triangulated from these surveys and module evaluation reports, and analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively.

COVID-19 disrupted internships significantly, with a reduction in the number of placements offered and necessary changes to the internship scope. Overall, the internship experience has been positive. Supervisors and e-interns reported high levels of satisfaction and documented learning gains such as the development of technical skills and soft skills unique to remote work.

The study findings fill current gaps in the literature on supervisor perceptions and internship experiences during COVID-19. Recommendations are proposed to optimize e-internships, a potentially authentic workplace in the post-COVID era.

While some institutionalists have highlighted the explanatory power of organizational actors, others stress their social construction. In line with the latter perspective, the author states in the first part that, except from meta-theoretical reflections, the social sciences tend to utilize actor concepts without further reflection. The author also shows how actors are reproduced in social practice, excessively in media semantics and more rigid in legal affairs, and that experts and professional helpers constantly reproduce actor images and identities. The second part focuses on the differences between the three dominant types of actors: states, organizations, and individuals. Although rationalization constructs the three different types of actors, which share much in common as institutionally derived entities, each type – still – has its own distinctive qualities: welfare issues are crucial for states; emotional qualities are a characteristic feature of individuals; and stakeholder sensitivity is paramount for organizational actors.

Investigates ‘end paper advertising’ (publishers inclusion in own publications of additional printed matter not connected with the primary text). Makes note of books and other publications from as far back as 1751 ‐ ‘The Gardeners Kalendar’ and goes on to give an in‐depth study of this area. Concludes that this study covers a heretofore‐uncovered area of interest.

ONE evening, while in Virginia, I dined in very select company—for I was the only guest present, excepting the Secretary of the American Library Association, who had not been a president of that body. I was not, however, the only Englishman in the party,—and by Englishman in this paragraph 1 mean British born,—for Andrew Keogh, the Librarian of Yale University and President for 1929–30, sat opposite me. Keogh, like myself, was born in Newcastle‐on‐Tyne.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between pre-departure human resource management practices (HRMPs) and post-assignment behavioral outcomes (PABOs) among Sri Lankan expatriates.

The study focuses on three research questions, namely, first, whether individual HRMPs reinforce desirable PABO consequences, second, whether this relationship would be strengthened when HRMPs are bundled together, and third, whether the purpose of an expatriate’s international assignment would affect the strength of the relationship between HRMPs and PABOs. A questionnaire method was employed to survey Sri Lankan repatriates, and 155 responses were analyzed using a hierarchical regression analysis.

The authors found that two HRMP types, namely, preparation and selection, significantly influenced job commitment, organizational commitment, and retention, both individually and when bundled. Practices such as recruitment, training, performance evaluation, and compensation, bundled with others, improved job and organizational commitment but not retention. Further, the specific task assigned to the expatriate affected the interaction between the HRMPs and their PABOs except retention.

As bundled HRMPs influence job and organizational commitment, organizations should attempt to combine several HRMPs. However, there may be a need to customize HRMPs to improving retention and address the development-driven purpose of assignments.

This study is amongst the first in the Sri Lankan context to emphasize the necessity of proactively managing expatriates’ PABOs before they relocate, using system and contingency approaches.