This article examines the sources of the serious instability of the social care services market in one British county. It suggests that the future sustainability of the market…
Abstract
This article examines the sources of the serious instability of the social care services market in one British county. It suggests that the future sustainability of the market will not only be costly to achieve, but also require new approaches in all sectors.
Melanie Jessup, Marianne Wallis, Justin Boyle, Julia Crilly, James Lind, David Green, Peter Miller and Gerard Fitzgerald
This paper aims to show that identification of expectations and software functional requirements via consultation with potential users is an integral component of the development…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to show that identification of expectations and software functional requirements via consultation with potential users is an integral component of the development of an emergency department patient admissions prediction tool.
Design/methodology/approach
Thematic analysis of semi‐structured interviews with 14 key health staff delivered rich data regarding existing practice and future needs. Participants included emergency department staff, bed managers, nurse unit managers, directors of nursing, and personnel from health administration.
Findings
Participants contributed contextual insights on the current system of admissions, revealing a culture of crisis, imbued with misplayed communication. Their expectations and requirements of a potential predictive tool provided strategic data that moderated the development of the Emergency Department Patient Admissions Prediction Tool, based on their insistence that it feature availability, reliability and relevance. In order to deliver these stipulations, participants stressed that it should be incorporated, validated, defined and timely.
Research limitations/implications
Participants were envisaging a concept and use of a tool that was somewhat hypothetical. However, further research will evaluate the tool in practice.
Practical implications
Participants' unsolicited recommendations regarding implementation will not only inform a subsequent phase of the tool evaluation, but are eminently applicable to any process of implementation in a healthcare setting.
Originality/value
The consultative process engaged clinicians and the paper delivers an insider view of an overburdened system, rather than an outsider's observations.
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Marianne Morgan and Ian Griffiths
Competitive pricing is dominating the commercial aircraft market, and greater cost efficiency is a key demand on designers, providing in particular an emphasis on metal to plastic…
Abstract
Competitive pricing is dominating the commercial aircraft market, and greater cost efficiency is a key demand on designers, providing in particular an emphasis on metal to plastic conversion for lost cost assembly. Victrex Peek polymer is one of the first materials to be evaluated for metal to plastic conversion. Describes the product in detail, in particular its high and added value, the design fit and performance contribution, savings made, and utilization in the manufacture of fasteners.
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Jean-Eric Pelet, Benoît Lecat, Jashim Khan, Sharyn Rundle-Thiele, Linda W. Lee, Debbie Ellis, Marianne McGarry Wolf, Androniki Kavoura, Vicky Katsoni and Anne Lena Wegmann
This paper aims to examine the relationship between feelings toward buying wine on mobile phones and m-commerce website loyalty by examining the mediating role of sales promotion…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the relationship between feelings toward buying wine on mobile phones and m-commerce website loyalty by examining the mediating role of sales promotion and the moderating role of service attributes of the m-commerce websites in influencing the mediation.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 3,318 completed surveys were collected. Drawing on a large non-probability criterion-based purposive sample across six countries (France, Germany, Greece, South Africa, USA and Canada), mediation analysis was performed to examine the hypothesized relationships.
Findings
Results show that sales promotion mediates the relationship between feelings toward buying wine on mobile phones and m-commerce website loyalty. Moderated mediation reveals that the indirect pathways (sales promotion) through which feelings toward buying wine over mobile exert its effect on m-commerce website loyalty are dependent on the value of service (wine delivery) attributes of the website. The results demonstrate that sales promotion and service are of paramount importance to wineries and wine marketers.
Research limitations/implications
Wine producers and retailers should consider the use of sales promotion to enhance sales and loyalty to m-commerce websites.
Practical implications
Wine producers and retailers should consider use sales promotion (such as SMS or push notifications) to enhance sales and influence consumer feelings and hence their loyalty.
Originality/value
Wine m-commerce studies are limited, especially with an international perspective comparing six different countries: three from the old world (France, Germany and Greece) and three from the new world (North America with USA and Canada; and South Africa). Altogether, these six countries represent around 40 per cent of the world’s wine consumption.
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Lauren Gurrieri and Hélène Cherrier
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the representations and experiences of beauty amongst fat women to understand how females located outside of the normative ideal consume…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the representations and experiences of beauty amongst fat women to understand how females located outside of the normative ideal consume, express, challenge and resist “straight” beauty.
Design/methodology/approach
A netnographic approach is taken to analyse 922 blog posts written by five female “fatshionistas” who play a significant role in the Australian fat activism movement.
Findings
The research findings illustrate that fatshionistas (re)negotiate cultural notions of beauty through three performative acts – coming out as fat, mobilising fat citizenship and flaunting fat.
Research limitations/implications
The study demonstrates how beauty is negotiated as a mode of praxis, a performance in the interaction of day‐to‐day life, whereby the possibilities for multiple and provisional beauties are highlighted.
Practical implications
Given the active participation of those outside of the idealised form in “mainstream” beauty consumption, practitioners should make visible multiple bodily representations that are not reduced to an unhelpful construction of what is considered to be “real”.
Originality/value
By emphasising the lived experience of beauty as something subjective, communal and resistant, this research poses a challenge to mainstream marketing that constructs beauty as normative, singular and conformist. The paper further calls for a “queering” of the gender research agenda within marketing to better interrogate the linkages between an individual's fluid and contested identity work, consumption and marginalised or excluded status within the marketplace.
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Lynn McAlpine, Gill Turner, Sharon Saunders and Natacha Wilson
This paper aims to examine the experience of gaining research independence by becoming a principal investigator (PI) – an aspiration for many post-PhD researchers about whom…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the experience of gaining research independence by becoming a principal investigator (PI) – an aspiration for many post-PhD researchers about whom little is known. It provides insight into this experience by using a qualitative narrative approach to document how 60 PIs from a range of disciplines in one European and two UK universities experienced working towards and achieving this significant goal.
Design/methodology/approach
Within the context of a semi-structured interview, individuals drew and elaborated a map representing the emotional high and low experiences of the journey from PhD graduation to first PI grant, and completed a biographic questionnaire.
Findings
Regardless of the length of the journey from PhD graduation to first PI grant, more than a third noted the role that luck played in getting the grant. Luck was also perceived to have an influence in other aspects of academic work. This influence made it even more important for these individuals to sustain a belief in themselves and be agentive and persistent in managing the challenges of the journey.
Originality/value
The study, unusual in its cross-national perspective, and its mixed mode data collection, offers a nuanced perspective on the interaction between agency and an environment where the “randomness factor” plays a role in success. The function of luck as a support for sustained agency and resilience is explored.
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The following bibliography focuses mainly on programs which can run on IBM microcomputers and compatibles under the operating system PC DOS/MS DOS, and which can be used in online…
Abstract
The following bibliography focuses mainly on programs which can run on IBM microcomputers and compatibles under the operating system PC DOS/MS DOS, and which can be used in online information and documentation work. They fall into the following categories:
Claire Verraes, Mieke Uyttendaele, Antoine Clinquart, Georges Daube, Marianne Sindic, Dirk Berkvens and Lieve Herman
In recent years consumers in Belgium have shown a great interest for foods from the short supply chain. The difference with the conventional chain is that in the short supply…
Abstract
Purpose
In recent years consumers in Belgium have shown a great interest for foods from the short supply chain. The difference with the conventional chain is that in the short supply chain the primary products are locally processed and sold directly by the producer to the consumer. The short supply chain has different microbiological quality and safety aspects in comparison with the conventional chain. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate these aspects.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodology consists of analyzing the available scientific literature and results of microbiological analyses on foods from the short supply chain.
Findings
The main findings were that Listeria monocytogenes was frequently detected (15 percent) in sampled raw dairy products whereas Salmonella was not isolated in 1,023 samples. Human pathogenic vero (cyto) toxin-producing Escherichia coli and Campylobacter spp. are potential hazards, in particular for products that are not thermally treated. Data with regard to E. coli counts showed a greater variability in products from the short supply chain compared to the conventional chain.
Research limitations/implications
The paper discusses strengths and weaknesses with impact on microbial quality and safety in operation of food safety management in the short supply chain vs the conventional chain.
Originality/value
This is the first paper that assesses the risks from the short supply chain vs the conventional chain and that makes recommendations for operators in the short supply chain.
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Bernice Skytt, Birgitta Ljunggren, Maria Engström and Marianne Carlsson
The purpose of this paper is to examine whether two groups of first‐line nurse managers perceived improvements in skills and knowledge regarding interpersonal skills and group…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine whether two groups of first‐line nurse managers perceived improvements in skills and knowledge regarding interpersonal skills and group management, achievement orientation, and organizational view and political savvy after participation in two different development programmes, compared to participants in a comparison group. Further, to understand the first‐line nurse managers' expectations for and experiences of the programme as well as its strengths and weaknesses.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 13 first‐line nurse managers participated in a training programme, 14 in a self‐development programme, and 14 in a comparison group. Group interviews were used to describe the managers' expectations for and experiences of the programmes, the Leadership and Management Inventory were used to assess the impact of the programmes.
Findings
The results of the interviews showed that the programmes met many of the participants' expectations. Participants perceived significant improvements – in organizational knowledge following the training programme and in achievement orientation following the self‐development programme.
Research limitations/implications
Participation in the groups was not based on random assignment.
Practical implications
Different development programmes focussing on different issues can increase flexibility and decrease costs, as managers can apply to programmes suited to their development needs.
Originality/value
Mixed methods have been used in this study: qualitative methods to describe the participants' experiences of the programmes, and quantitative methods to describe the impact of two different leadership programmes and to contrast these results with a comparison group.