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A need exists for a readily usable tool for different scheduling strategies in an Emergency Room (ER) of a hospital. An ER simulation model incorporating the major activities has been developed. The primary goals of such a tool are to assess the effectiveness of the current system and to improve the emergency room′s ability to anticipate the impact of various changes in patient throughput flow. The model allows the evaluation of “what if?” questions through changing the values of the variables and simulating the results. The ER simulation model determines the effects of changes in the scheduling practices, allocation of scarce resources, patient demand patterns, and priority rules for serving patients.

In this paper, I demonstrate an alternative explanation to the development of the American electricity industry. I propose a social embeddedness approach (Granovetter, 1985, 1992) to interpret why the American electricity industry appears the way it does today, and start by addressing the following questions: Why is the generating dynamo located in well‐connected central stations rather than in isolated stations? Why does not every manufacturing firm, hospital, school, or even household operate its own generating equipment? Why do we use incandescent lamps rather than arc lamps or gas lamps for lighting? At the end of the nineteenth century, the first era of the electricity industry, all these technical as well as organizational forms were indeed possible alternatives. The centralized systems we see today comprise integrated, urban, central station firms which produce and sell electricity to users within a monopolized territory. Yet there were visions of a more decentralized electricity industry. For instance, a geographically decentralized system might have dispersed small systems based around an isolated or neighborhood generating dynamo; or a functionally decentralized system which included firms solely generating and transmitting the power, and selling the power to locally‐owned distribution firms (McGuire, Granovetter, and Schwartz, forthcoming). Similarly, the incandescent lamp was not the only illuminating device available at that time. The arc lamp was more suitable for large‐space lighting than incandescent lamps; and the second‐generation gas lamp ‐ Welsbach mantle lamp ‐ was much cheaper than the incandescent electric light and nearly as good in quality (Passer, 1953:196–197).

This paper provides novel empirical evidence on the impact of bank internal organization structure characteristics on costs and productive efficiency. The specific internal organization characteristics examined include centralized versus decentralized 1) decision‐making, 2) service delivery systems, and 3) back‐office operations, e.g. accounting, computing, and advertising, among others. The analysis is conducted using average data drawn from a sample of 118 large US commercial banks for the years 1989 and 1990. The analysis reveals that centralized decision‐making tends to increase costs. Likewise, centralized service delivery systems either increase or have an insignificant impact on costs. In no case was it found that centralized service delivery systems reduce costs as is often envisioned by proponents of centralization. Centralized back‐office operations were found to reduce costs significantly and is consistent with the existence of scale economies in bank back‐office operations.

The purpose of this paper is to examine to what extent the factors of the operating environment influence the structural dimensions and subsequent performance of a firm's recovery system.

Using contingency theory and a sample of 158 service firms, this research tests for structural differences in service recovery systems based on Schmenner's widely‐cited taxonomy, the service process matrix. To conduct the analysis, both multiple analysis of variance (MANOVA) and analysis of variance (ANOVA) models were tested to assess overall system differences and to detect individual dimensional differences.

The results indicate that differences in the structure of service recovery systems do exist across divergent operating environments. Additionally, differences in performance measures were found only in capability improvements, while customer‐oriented performance did not vary across operating environments.

The paper is believed to be the first to empirically investigate how differences in operating environments increase the likelihood that firms will employ divergent recovery system configurations. This work yields valuable insights into how organizations can design their systems to more appropriately respond to the demands of the environments in which they operate. The results also lend credence to the concept of equifinality, which suggests similar ends are attainable through multiple means.

One of the key initiatives of the National Institute of Mental Health in England National Workforce Programme (NIMHE NWP) has been to explore the development and sustainability of the non‐professionally qualified workforce (NPQW). Both the National Service Framework (NSF) for Mental Health (Department of Health, 1999) and the wider Department of Health Changing Workforce Programme (Department of Health, 2001) provided a unique opportunity to start this process off.

The article reviews the contribution of Hirschman’s Exit, Voice and Loyalty (EVL) to research in political science. The argument is the framework of exit and voice offers greater understanding of a range trade-offs that exist in politics, in particular over collective action and citizen responses to dissatisfaction, which have implications for institutional design as well as for the functioning of democratic processes. The paper summarizes the EVL model and discusses how it may be elaborated. The main part of the article reviews applications to research literatures on political participation, responses to oppressive regimes, political party and interest group membership, and reports a number of formal treatments. The applications have been useful and illuminated a number of research problems, but overall they are modest in their impact in political science. The article suggests that the potential range of impacts could be much greater as EVL can show how individual choices are made in politics and are constrained by its institutions.

A survey of Scottish local government IT managers confirms the existence of systems allowing modern decision support systems (DSS) to be successfully exploited. Extensive in‐house software exists across departmental functions indicating significant internal expertise. IT use is inversely related to managerial level, with the majority of users located in the central services and housing functions. The traditional supporting role of information systems and technology (IS/T) is changing as compulsory competitive tendering (CCT) is applied to the IS/T function itself. Considerable uncertainty surrounds decision making in IS/T as a result of proposed structural change to unitary authorities.

In “Reinventing Entrepreneurial History,” Wadhwani and Lubinski (2017) encourage the study of legitimacy, the sense that a new organization or venture “belongs” to, or fits within, the social construct of its time.

To this end, this query will consider methods used in the period between the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement to show legitimacy in black economic endeavors. Three Atlanta entrepreneurs’ efforts will be used as demonstrative examples.

The overarching aim of this investigation of economic legitimization is to give practical examples of three distinct strategies in play: endorsement, authorization and storytelling. In addition, a fourth external actor, social organizations, that exists outside of the realms of media, government and law as noted by Bitektine and Haack (2015) is illustrated to grant validity within the black community. Also, the storytelling strategy is used to illustrate promoters, actors pushing legitimacy to benefit the community at large.

Arguably the search for economic and collective legitimacy within black businesses is not confined to the past. Stated in another way, black businesses still fight for legitimacy, and future research should be undertaken to show the similarities and differences in the two aforementioned periods.

ANY GOOD DICTIONARY will define its terms, and this is a good precedent to follow. What is meant by ‘the affability factor’ comprises many elements which act together to create a favourable environment for a) first use of the library, and b) for the encouragement of repeat visits.