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The aim of this article was to focus on how supervisors relate to and handle the emotional work involved in the supervision process. These emotional issues are related to changes in the academic system, such as an increasing emphasis on efficacy and quality assurance.

Interviews with supervisors are discussed using a theoretical framework built on the concepts of emotional boundary work and feeling rules. A narrative approach was used to make connections between individual stories and the institutional level of the academic system.

The findings show how emotions challenge and condition supervision, and how the micro-processes of supervision and the wider university systems are tightly connected. A paradox is illuminated where emotional aspects are both recognized as an important feature of supervision and as a threat, which could affect it in the context of regulation and increasing demands on efficiency.

The findings suggest that a mediating role of supervisors and emotional boundary work needs to be considered in supervision, which demands certain amount of flexibility in regulations. Also, the risks of associating supervision with private issues are acknowledged.

The findings suggest that supervision is a highly emotional process, and that supervisors, on the one hand, tend to downplay the emotional side of this process, but on the other hand, are well aware of the complexity of the supervision process and its demands on them. Although supervisor–student interactions have become more regulated, they also include more attention to human interactions, feelings and emotional boundary work.

The purpose of this study is to explore how the family firm identity is affected when it is no longer publicly communicated.

A case study approach was used to follow a third-generation family business, a large Swedish home electronics firm that acquired a competitor and, initially, continued using its family firm identity after the acquisition. This study longitudinally tracks the company and its owning family using archival data combined with interviews.

The case company decided to stop communicating their identity as a family business. Such a move initially appears counterintuitive, since it potentially threatens the family firm identity and leads the firm to forgo other advantages, e.g. in branding. However, the decision was based on arguments that were rational from a business perspective, leading to a decoupling of family and firm identity.

This study contributes to the literature by showing a decoupling of internally experienced and externally communicated identities. It further contributes to the understanding of the family firm identity concept.

The purpose of this paper is to challenge the common claim of “infinite variety” being demanded in the marketplace by measuring not just how much variety theoretically could be produced, but how much is actually demanded by the customer. To this effect, the authors propose and validate market‐based variety measures with empirical data and in a second step, extend their analysis by applying these measures and empirically testing the impact of variety mitigation strategies, such as postponement and options bundling.

The authors analyse production and sales data of 226,106 passenger cars, comprising of three models of one vehicle manufacturer sold across four global market regions. The theoretical variety is compared with actual variety for each model‐market combination, and these data are linked to actual production and sales records.

The authors propose and validate product variety measures based on actual customer orders, and empirically demonstrate how these measures can be used to assess the impact of late configuration and option bundling strategies, and find that these are generally valid, but that their applicability is contingent upon the respective variety distribution profile.

Analyses are developed within the context of a single firm and industry, although an attempt was made to counter this weakness by considering models from the volume, niche and premium market segments.

The paper highlights how actual variety differs from theoretical variety in practice, which in turn co‐determines the effectiveness of mitigation strategies applied by firms.

The paper's main contribution is to propose and empirically test a set of novel measures of product variety: the average repetition ratio and a specification Pareto curve, both of which complement and enhance one's understanding of product variety and its impact on manufacturing and distribution systems.

An empirical study of 57 top‐tier suppliers to the North American automotive industry examined the direct and complementary effects of information system infrastructure (ISI) and process improvements on time‐based performance. The results show that the three dimensions of ISI – design‐manufacturing integration (DMI), manufacturing technology (MT), and information technology (IT) – directly influenced at least one dimension of time‐based performance. For example, DMI influenced manufacturing lead time, MT influenced new product development time, and IT influenced customer responsiveness. Process improvement also directly influenced supply‐chain time performance. Finally, ISI and process improvement had a positive and complementary effect on time‐based performance. Specifically, the IT factor along with process improvement variables (standardization and concurrent engineering) had a complementary and significant positive influence on time‐based performance. The findings strongly support the idea of joint deployment of information system infrastructure and process improvement to streamline cycle time performance in a supply chain.

Transition to parenthood (TTP) is a major life event that affects all aspects of one’s psychosocial function. Similar to their partners, men experience a lot of psychological changes during the TTP process. As there are a few studies on this subject, so the purpose of this study is to review previous studies on psychological and functional changes in men during TTP.

This is a review study that reports the findings from a review of previous studies on psychological and functional changes in men during TTP. This study searched from the electronic database between articles published in between 2005–20.

This study was carried out in five stages: framing research questions; searching databases with an effective strategy; selecting relevant studies; findings mining; summarizing and classifying findings; and providing results. After the literature review, relevant studies were categorized into three groups. The first, second and third groups included studies on prenatal, labor and delivery and postnatal TTP, respectively. Psychological and functional changes in men during TTP significantly affect child-father relationships, development of children and sexual relationship with a partner. Therefore, further attention should be given to this important process, along with changes, expectations, needs, etc.

This study reviews men’s functional changes along with their psychological changes during the parental transition. This study also reviews effective strategies and interventions for successful parental transition in men.

This paper explores and analyses the findings from a survey of UK participants in a trade mission to Moscow, with reference to relevant academic literature. The focus is on their experience of doing business in transition economy (TE) country‐markets (including Russia itself); their perceptions of Russian market opportunities and risks; their main sources of information and advice; and their strategies for Russian market entry and development. The findings suggest businesses with experience of TEs and Russia may be best placed to succeed in the Russian market, provided that they draw fully on the resultant lessons. Newcomers to the Russian market can maximise their chances of success by seeking out good information and advice, forging good contacts with Russian businesses, and by adopting a well‐structured, but flexible approach to their marketing strategies. Official support agencies can help UK businesses to succeed in Russia by maximising the quantity and quality of the support, information and advice that they provide.

The conventional economic perspective on long run resource limitations is that short run scarcity will lead to price increases, which will induce innovation, which will in turn, overcome scarcity. In the global warming case, if we are convinced that cost-effective low carbon technologies will in fact emerge as carbon prices rise, why wait? Given that the investment dollars will be spent regardless, would it not be more efficient to invest in the new technologies today? In that way, we might avoid several decades of carbon emissions and consequent environmental damage. Moreover, such an approach is attractive for its likely impacts on both the size and composition of national R&D spending, as well as for its insurance function. On the other hand, informational constraints may argue against a technology policy strategy. This chapter explores these issues. In an application to the wind industry, I conclude that if wind power continues down its experience curve at its historical pace, early investment in wind would be socially efficient.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the empirical support for the use of assistive technology in the care of people with dementia as an intervention to improve independence, safety, communication, wellbeing and carer support.

A total of 232 papers were identified as potentially relevant. Inclusion criteria were: studies published between 1995 and 2011, incorporated a control group, pre-test-post-test, cross sectional or survey design, type of interventions and types of participants. The 41 papers that met criteria were subjected to an assessment of their validity using the model provided by Forbes. Following the assessment seven papers were considered as strong, ten moderate and 24 weak. The review is presented around the following topics: independence, prompts and reminders; safety and security; leisure and lifestyle, communication and telehealth; and therapeutic interventions.

The literature exploring the use of assistive technologies for increasing independence and compensating for memory problems illustrate the problems of moving from the laboratory to real life. The studies are usually limited by very small samples, high drop-out rates, very basic statistical analyses and lack of adjustment for multiple comparisons and poor performance of the technology itself.

Research to date has been unable to establish a positive difference to the lives of people with dementia by the general use of the assistive technology reviewed here.