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We review quantitative methods for analysing the equity impacts of health care and public health interventions: who benefits most and who bears the largest burdens (opportunity costs)? Mainstream health services research focuses on effectiveness and efficiency but decision makers also need information about equity.

We review equity-informative methods of quantitative data analysis in three core areas of health services research: effectiveness analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis and performance measurement. An appendix includes further readings and resources.

Researchers seeking to analyse health equity impacts now have a practical and flexible set of methods at their disposal which builds on the standard health services research toolkit. Some of the more advanced methods require specialised skills, but basic equity-informative methods can be used by any health services researcher with appropriate skills in the three core areas.

We hope that this review will raise awareness of equity-informative methods of health services research and facilitate their entry into the mainstream so that health policymakers are routinely presented with information about who gains and who loses from their decisions.

Based on the work of Jurgen Habermas, language and communication and ways to move from words to communicative action in the business environment are discussed. Information is not the basis of communication. Rather, it is language and understanding. Language operates on two levels, a technical or linguistic level and a social or communicative level. The latter leads to interpersonal relationships and communicative action which provide the context for critique, change, and organisational competitiveness. The ways for managers to develop communicative competence among members of an organisation are considered.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the link between one aspect of primary care in England – the annual review by general practitioners for dementia patients – and length of hospital stay (LoS). The annual review should identify the needs of both patients and carers and co-ordinate services across health and social care to address those needs. If this is done well, timely discharge from hospital may be facilitated.

The study uses linked national data from 2006/2007 to 2010/2011 on over 36,000 patients, employing sophisticated statistical techniques to isolate the effect of the annual dementia review on LoS.

Hospital patients discharged to the community have significantly shorter stays if they are cared for by practices that reviewed a higher percentage of their patients with dementia. However, this effect is small and is not evident for patients discharged to care homes or who died in hospital. Longer LoS is associated with a range of co-morbidities, markers of low availability of social care and with intensive provision of informal care.

Although the dementia review has only a modest effect on LoS, the components of the review could improve the health and well-being of those with dementia and their carers.

The study is the first to employ a robust methodology to investigate the impact of the annual dementia review on hospital LoS, an important aspect of the interface between primary and secondary care. There are implications for clinical and financial aspects of health and social care policy.

The aim of this research is to determine the extent to which the human resource (HR) function can screen and potentially predict suicidal employees and offer preventative mental health assistance.

Drawing from the 2019 National Survey of Drug Use and Health (N = 56,136), this paper employs multivariate binary logistic regression to model the work-related predictors of suicidal ideation, planning and attempts.

The results indicate that known periods of joblessness, the total number of sick days and absenteeism over the last 12 months are significantly associated with various suicidal outcomes while controlling for key psychosocial correlates. The results also indicate that employee assistance programs are associated with a significantly reduced likelihood of suicidal ideation. These findings are consistent with conservation of resources theory.

This research demonstrates preliminarily that the HR function can unobtrusively detect employee mental health crises by collecting data on key predictors.

In the era of COVID-19, employers have a duty of care to safeguard employee mental health. To this end, the authors offer an innovative way through which the HR function can employ predictive analytics to address mental health crises before they result in tragedy.

This chapter posits that we underestimate the way in which our immersion in the ‘social logic’ of capitalist consumption constrains our attempts to understand and respond to the ecological crises at both a personal and political level – and that both dimensions of our response are bound together.

Survey of literature on psychology, well-being and mindfulness.

How has the culture of capitalism – its psychic investment in colonizing our attention – compromised our ability to respond meaningfully to the challenges of sustainable development? In an acknowledgement of a certain closure around such themes within Western thought, I look to a point of exteriority in Peter Hershock’s work, drawing on China’s Chan Buddhist philosophy, for intimations of a worldview that challenges the West’s over-commitment to forms of ‘control’ in favour of a cultivation of mindful and careful awareness – and an offering of unconditional attention.

Draws attention to a new phase of ‘enclosure’ in the cultural processes of capitalism.

Original introduction of a critical approach to mindfulness in the debate on well-being.

The purpose of this research paper is to study the effect of transformational leadership (TL) and job crafting (JC) on nurses’ innovative work behaviors (IWB) while accounting for the mediating effect of psychological empowerment (PsyEmp).

To test the developed hypotheses quantitatively, two statistical methods were used: structural equation modeling via partial least squares and bootstrapping estimation. The survey elicited responses from 270 nurses, but after data screening, only 168 were used. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to establish the distinctness of the variables used in this study.

Findings indicate that there are a positive influence of both TL and JC on PsyEmp. Additionally, the findings show a beneficial effect of PsyEmp as a mediator between TL, JC and IWB.

This study adds to the body of knowledge by demonstrating the effects of nurse TL and JC on nurses’ PsyEmp and IWB. In addition to the role of PsyEmp as a partial mediator in the relationship between TL, JC and IWB. The research novelty resides in the fact that none of these links has before been studied in the context of Iraq.

We examine the dividend pay out patterns for all UK listed industrial companies featured in the FTSE All Share Index for the period 1992‐1998. Then we match the pay out patterns to different dividend policies. From our empirical observations, we argue that dividend signalling does not universally apply to all firms. We also report our evidence that there is no industry norm for dividend policy, particularly when firms have decided whether to use dividends to signal or not. In addition, we found that the percentage of insiders’ share holdings, market capitalisation and as set book values are statistically significant for determining whether firms use dividends to signal or not.

The paper aims to examine the management practices of owner‐managers of small businesses seeking to grow their firms. It seeks to better understand their strategic thinking in relation to internal and external environmental issues.

A sample of 204 owner‐managers who had indicated their desire for growth was surveyed using a questionnaire developed from earlier research that examined their strategic and operational behaviour. Follow‐up discussions over their results were conducted face‐to‐face. Data were analysed using confirmatory factor analysis and discriminant analysis.

Firms that possessed formal written business plans were found to be more likely to have stronger support network partnerships, formal quality assurance and the ability to lead change among employees. A relationship was found between an above average level of annual sales turnover and the personal vision of the owner‐managers.

Although the sample was atypical, in that it was comprised of owner‐managers who had a growth orientation, the study suggests that owner‐managers who have a strong growth orientation are likely to have an enhanced sense of their strategic vision, and the ability to communicate this vision to their employees.

The findings in this paper suggest that owner‐managers from small firms should seek to benchmark their business against industry best practice, but that such benchmarking must be supported by a clear strategic vision and the capacity to communicate this vision to others, particularly employees.

The literature relating to strategic thinking and behaviour within small firms remains underdeveloped, and this paper provides valuable insights into this area.

This study examines the direct and indirect impact of environmental belief, nature-based destination image and time perspective on tourist attitude towards ecotourism.

Data was collected through a structured questionnaire survey conducted in Vietnam. The dataset consists of 479 valid responses by Vietnamese tourists. Correlation analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM) were used to test the causal relationships among time perspective, environmental belief, nature-based destination and ecotourism attitude. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) is conducted to verify the reliability and validity of each latent construct, and to evaluate the discriminant validity, convergent validity, composition reliability and average variance extracted (AVE) for the latent constructs.

This study finds statistically significant and positive effects of time perspective, environmental belief and nature-based destination image on ecotourism attitude. The results also indicate that environmental belief is found to have statistically significant effects both direct and indirect on ecotourism attitude; its indirect effect is transmitted through nature-based destination image. Our findings demonstrate empirically that tourists are mainly attracted by natural environment sites and that tourists having environmental beliefs are likely to engage in ecotourism than other types of tourism by first influencing their attitude.

One limitation is associated with our measurement method, which relies on respondents’ self-ratings of their activities. Second, our study is based on internal consistency assessments for establishing construct reliability and validity, which might be the problem of measurement misspecification in tourism research and hinder us to adequately capture the dynamic nature of the variables and the underlying relationships. Third, the survey is conducted in one specific ecotourism nation like Vietnam, and thus, the findings must also be explained in this case.

Policymakers need to pay careful attention to the planning and conservation of local resources, as well as infrastructure, for ecotourism development. Moreover, the management of eco-site needs to maintain ecology properly, provide an authentic ecotourism experience to improve ecotourism destination. Otherwise, ecotourism operators should focus on marketing strategies to increase traditional and natural values and promote eco-friendly social standards for fostering demand.

This study examines an integrated model analyzing the impact of time perspective, environmental belief and nature-based destination on tourist attitude towards ecotourism. This study reveals the understanding of how individuals’ view towards belief in environment and location image, influences their attitude to engage in ecotourism. The study provides several implications for practice.