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This paper examines how “quality” was framed in the design and implementation of a policy to reform hospital funding and associated care delivery. The aims of the study were: (1) To describe how government policy-makers who designed the policy and managers and clinicians who implemented the policy framed the concept of “quality” and (2) To explore how frames of quality and the framing process may have influenced policy implementation.

The authors conducted a secondary analysis of data from a qualitative case study involving semi-structured interviews with 45 purposefully selected key informants involved in the design and implementation of the quality-based procedures policy in Ontario, Canada. The authors used framing theory to inform coding and analysis.

The authors found that policy designers perpetuated a broader frame of quality than implementers who held more narrow frames of quality. Frame divergence was further characterized by how informants framed the relationship between clinical and financial domains of quality. Several environmental and organizational factors influenced how quality was framed by implementers.

As health systems around the world increasingly implement new models of governance and financing to strengthen quality of care, there is a need to consider how “quality” is framed in the context of these policies and with what effect. This is the first framing analysis of “quality” in health policy.

This paper proposes - through the integration of self-congruence, brand personality, sponsorship and sports spectator behaviour literatures - a conceptual framework to extend our current understanding of self-congruence in specific consumption situations. Initial empirical results support the proposed framework which shows that self-congruence based consumers' orientation towards sports and brand personality is positively associated with sponsorship outcomes.

With the progress of the education system, many technological inventions have been found to develop the learning and teaching process. Several factors contributed to the advancement of education, from computer-based materials to web-based programs and technical tools. All these have revolutionized the whole education system and changed it from a monotonous and traditional teacher-centered approach to a motivating and interactive learner-based approach. Recently, digital technology has been implemented in many educational processes to increase teacher–learner interaction. The main feature characterizing digital learning is the active engagement that transforms learners from passive attendants to active participants in the learning process. From this perspective, teachers and learners are considered educational technologists. The purpose of this chapter is to shift the role of creativity and critical thinking from teachers to learners and show how the latter could create authentic writing by employing technology that is used and needed in the workplace. In doing so, learners become ready for their career life, and they learn to be more creative and collaborative individuals.

Objective – This chapter examines the performance of the market to discover efficient equilibrium under alternative auction designs.

Background – Auctions are increasingly being used to allocate emissions allowances (“permits”) for cap and trade and common-pool resource management programs. These auctions create thick markets that can provide important information about changes in current market conditions.

Methodology – This chapter uses experimental methods to examine the extent to which the predicted increase in the Walrasian price due to a shift in willingness to pay (perhaps due to a shift in costs of pollution abatement) is reflected in observed sales prices under alternative auction formats.

Results – Price tracking is comparably good for uniform-price sealed-bid auctions and for multi-round clock auctions, with or without end-of-round information about excess demand. More price inertia is observed for “pay as bid” (discriminatory) auctions, especially for a continuous discriminatory format in which bids could be changed at will, in part because “sniping” in the final moments blocked the full effect of the demand shock.

Conclusion – Uniform-price auctions (clock and sealed-bid uniform-price, and continuous uniform-price) generate changes in purchase prices that are reasonably close to predicted changes. There is some evidence of tacit collusion causing prices to be too low relative to predictions in most cases. The worst price tracking was observed for discriminatory auctions.

Application – Uniform-price auctions appear to perform at least as well as other auction designs with respect to discovery of efficient market prices when there are unexpected and unannounced changes in willingness to pay for permits.

Total demand rose for the first time since 1979–80, by 3.9% to 2,772,000. Foreign demand reached a new peak, the International Loan Service being especially heavily used; more significantly, British demand increased by 4%. The Urgent Action Service, enabling users to telephone and receive a quick response, became established; an option of telefacsimile transmission was added. Telefax was also used for an Urgent Action Service abroad. The pattern of foreign demand changed somewhat; the countries making most use of the service are now Japan, France and Spain. Automated request transmission continued to grow. Retrospective conversion of records of the Division's monograph stock (post‐1979 imprints) to machine‐readable form made good progress, and Lending Division holdings have begun to appear on the regional ISBN union lists. The Keyword Index to Serial Titles continued to grow in size and coverage. The acquisition programme was maintained, nearly two‐thirds of the acquisition budget being spent on serials and over a quarter on monographs; the Division's coverage of ‘grey literature’ was further improved. A radical review of binding and conservation expenditure was started. Surveys included one of serials in order of demand, one of demand and satisfaction, and one of backup libraries. A Geac computer was installed for the Monograph Acquisitions and Records System and a Systime 8780 for the serials system. Retrospective MEDLARS searches increased sharply. Publications continued to be profitable, and plans were made for the interdivisional British Library Publications Sales Unit to be housed at Boston Spa. The Division continues to be involved in discussion on electronic document storage and transmission projects.

The Waldorf property is a tract of land whose development value is uncertain. One acre must be preserved as wetlands: The seller claims that it is too small an amount, and the Corps of Engineers indicates that it could be large enough. The case offers students the opportunity to apply the tools of pro forma cash-flow forecasting, electronic-spreadsheet modeling, decision analysis, and discounted cash flow and to wrestle with risk aversion and develop creative alternatives for reducing the uncertainty.

The year saw not only a sustained rise in total demand, by 3.5% to 2,871,000 requests but also marked the peak annual demand recorded. Both UK and foreign demand increased, the latter more than the former (1.6% and 11% respectively). Demand on the UK Urgent Action Service, a telephone request service for urgent requests, grew rapidly. The Division's Monograph Acquistions and Records System (MARS) expanded to 165,000 stock records. The Keyword Index to Serial Titles also grew both in size and coverage. The aquisitions programme was maintained despite unfavourable exchange rates. On‐line cataloguing of newly‐acquired books began early in 1984. Access to ‘grey literature’ was improved by the mounting of the System for Information on Grey Literature in Europe (SIGLE) database on BLAISE. A review of the Division's conservation and binding policies provided useful changes. The mini‐computer which processes all ART (Automatic Request Transmission) requests was linked to the British Telecom Packet Switch Stream network (PSS); 29% of all requests are now received by some form of automated means. Retrospective searches performed by MEDLARS increased markedly. A BL interdivisional Publications Sales Unit was set up at Boston Spa and the publications programme continued to be profitable. The Division continued discussions with publishers on electronic storage and document delivery. The latter part of the year saw the production of a divisonal plan as part of a wider British Library Strategic Plan.