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This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/09526869710189315. When citing the article, please cite: Rebecca Haines, Alan Blair, Michael Osborn, (1997), “The challenges of assessing outcome in chronic pain”, International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Vol. 10 Iss: 4, pp. 149 - 152.

Clinicians in chronic pain services are facing the need to develop meaningful and methodologically adequate measures, not only to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions and to assure quality, but also to support the continued funding and future development of such services. Explores the problems inherent in assessing outcomes in chronic pain. These include the complexity of the chronic pain syndrome itself, the multidimensional nature of interventions and the challenges of defining outcomes in the chronic illness syndrome. The complexity and challenges of assessing outcomes may lead to some reticence in facing the challenges but it is the responsibility of the clinicians to continue developing measures and to communicate to purchasers and other stakeholders the complexity of assessing outcomes in chronic pain.

Draws attention to the poisonous effects of lead and details the legislation which protects those who work in industries which use lead in their processes and manufactures. Gives particular consideration to lead in paint, especially to be found in houses built pre‐1965, and the inherent dangers in the removal of such paint to contractors, DIY enthusiasts and the occupants, especially children, who are more susceptible to lead absorption. Provides details of preventive measures, and concludes that surveyors have a responsibility to warn of the dangers of lead in property and to test for its presence in paint and water supplies.

This study statistically examines the shifting distribution channels in the American wine industry based on the growth trajectory of sales, seasonality and disruption due to consumers switching to online platforms. The purpose of this paper is to design a model that will have general applicability beyond the wine industry.

The research uses regression-based additive decomposition of time series data to predict the trajectory of the market share for the digital distribution channel. The study develops a statistical prediction model using time series data between 2007 and 2020, inclusive, sourced from US Annual Wine Reports and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms databases.

The results show an increasing trajectory of wine sales through the online distribution channel with predictable seasonality. The disruptive effects of consumer switching behavior point to a steady increase in sales due both to increasing demand and accelerating switching. Nevertheless, the model shows that bricks and mortar purchases will remain strong and continue to account for the bulk of wine sales. COVID-19 has caused a step function increase in online sales but this should moderate after the crisis subsides and can be tested further.

This study is original in developing a model for an industry where bricks and mortar sales are growing and are expected to remain strong while there is still identifiable switching to online sales. The wine industry presents a classic case of accelerating switching behavior where there is still a strong franchise for in-store purchases. The model should have general applicability to distribution channels beyond the wine industry where steady growth, marked seasonality and disruptive consumer switching are in evidence.

This chapter attempts to elucidate the important role that divergent thinking plays in organizational creativity, innovation, and change. We define brainstorming as a systematized method of divergent thinking, review this literature, and advocate for the strategic use of brainstorming to enhance creativity and innovation. We identify contradictory findings in the research literature that have led practitioners and researchers to disregard brainstorming techniques. We suggest that cultural forces embedded in organizations may prevent divergent thinking and brainstorming from becoming established normative organizational processes, thus hampering organizations’ potential for change and innovation. The chapter closes by putting divergent thinking and brainstorming in perspective and provides guidelines for its use.

Plans and planning have a long and checkered history. In their commentaries, Ettlie (this volume) and Miller and Osborn (this volume) take rather different views on the need for planning in innovative projects. In this commentary, we take the position that innovation requires constraints. These constraints induce certain risk factors that warrant attention, such as oversystemization. By the same token, they produce conditions, including social conditions that make sustained innovation possible. Based on these observations, some potential directions for future research are discussed.

The US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) ENERGY STAR Buildings Program was established in the early 1990s as a means for building owners and managers to improve the energy performance of their facilities, while simultaneously reducing the amount of pollution emitted into the atmosphere from power plants. The programme outlines a five‐stage approach to improving the energy efficiency of existing buildings to help control rising energy costs. The five stages include lighting upgrades, building tune‐up, load reductions, air distribution system upgrades and HVAC plant upgrades. Each stage is designed to build on the success of the previous stages. Today, the EPA recognises buildings that perform in the top 25 per cent in terms of energy efficiency through the ENERGY STAR Label for Buildings. This paper describes the five‐stage ENERGY STAR Buildings strategy as well as how a building achieves the status of being ENERGY STAR labelled. Furthermore, this paper demonstrates the potential of the ENERGY STAR Buildings Program through a case study of four office buildings, owned and operated by the Ohio Building Authority. These buildings have each been upgraded, following the EPA’s five‐stage strategy, and each has received the ENERGY STAR Label for Buildings.

Collaborative forms range from co-located teams engaged in short term local projects, to international joint ventures, to worldwide networks of organizations and citizens linked together to generate global social change. In order to discern patterns that transcend the breadth of forms (including virtual), a new term is introduced that encompasses the entire spectrum: collaborative entity (CE). The diverse and far-ranging CE literature is then integrated into the Collaborative Capacity (CC) Framework. That framework is comprised of ten broad constructs and their interrelationships that, when considered together, capture fundamental aspects of all CEs. The CC Framework provides a bridge-building language to help facilitate inter-disciplinary, multi-dimensional dialogue, research, and perspectives on fostering collaborative capacity.

Purpose – The broader aim of this research is twofold. First, we aim to better understand how the business computer was conceptualized and used within U.S. industry. Second, this research investigates the role of social factors such as relational structure, institutional entrepreneurs, and position in the formation of conceptualizations of new technologies.

Design/methodological/approach – This paper is theoretically motivated in the sense that it responds to the lack of attention to the failure of institutional entrepreneurs to change belief systems. Through detailed archival, network, and descriptive statistical analysis, the paper shows how the failed institutional entrepreneur fits conventional explanations for success. The paper then analyzes two matched cases, comparing the insurance industry's rejection of the institutional entrepreneur with manufacturing's acceptance, in order to identify what is missing in current explanations of institutional entrepreneurs.

Findings – Our analysis reveals that the role of the audience structure in interpreting the institutional entrepreneur's message influences the change outcome. In our case, the institutional entrepreneur's view of the computer as a brain that supported decision-oriented applications did not fit with views of the insurance groups who had centralized authority over interpreting the computer. Because manufacturing had less centralized control in its discourse around the computer, there were fewer constraints on assimilation, allowing the entrepreneur's views to resonate with some of the occupational groups.

Research limitations/implications – This paper develops a theoretical approach to institutional entrepreneurship that situates the entrepreneurial efforts of individual actors within a system characterized by the structure of its audience and subject to distinct historical macro-structural processes that present significant obstacles to the realization of their entrepreneurial projects.

With the large majority of colleges and schools of business integrating ethics into their curricula, business ethics educators must work to improve the quality of instruction and find methods that enhance student learning. Because many films now address business ethics issues, the content of these films may be used to enhance the teaching of business ethics to undergraduate and graduate business students. This chapter suggests films that may be presented in business ethics classes to illustrate the four ethical categories set forth by the accrediting body for schools of business, The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB International), in their 2004 report on ethics education in business schools: ethical decision-making, ethical leadership, responsibility of business in society, and corporate governance.