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Activities are classified with the aim of helping the non‐specialist analyst (i.e. the manager acting as analyst) to define and describe the objective setting and directed streams of activity which constitute business systems. The aim is to help managers understand better the structure of the systems they manage and to provide them with a framework for developing effective information systems.

This study compares filmic and televisual representations of fictional black presidents to white Americans’ reactions to the advent of the United States’s first African American president. My main goal is to determine if there is convergence between these mediated representations and whites’ real-world representations of Barack Obama. I then weigh the evidence for media pundits’ speculations that Obama owes his election to positive portrayals of these fictional heads of state.

The film and television analyses examine each black president’s social network, personality, character traits, preparation for office, and leadership ability. I then compare the ideological messages conveyed through these portrayals to the messages implicated in white Americans’ discursive and pictorial representations of Barack Obama.

Both filmic and televisual narratives and public discourses and images construct and portray black presidents with stereotypical character traits and abilities. These representations are overwhelmingly negative and provide no support for the argument that there is a cause–effect relationship between filmic and televisual black presidents and Obama’s election victory.

Neither reel nor real-life black presidents can elude the representational quagmire that distorts African Americans’ abilities and diversity. Discourses, iconography, narratives, and other representations that define black presidents through negative tropes imply that blacks are incapable of effective leadership. These hegemonic representations seek to delegitimize black presidents and symbolically return them to subordinate statuses.

Identifies key activities that network users can perform in order to use the network effectively. Offers recommended reading, from beginner to expert user status. Explains some commonly used terms (e.g. Turbo Gopher with Veronica!). Lists useful Internet resources.

Sport celebrities often endorse their team, their sport, and non‐sports‐related products. Increased idolizing of sport celebrities by adolescents is one artifact of this promotional practice. Although seemingly innocuous, adolescents who idolize sport celebrities may, as adults, come to worship such celebrities; this unhealthy obsession may afflict 10 percent or more of adults. If adolescent hero worship of sport celebrities is a gateway to this adult psychopathology, then alerting parents, as well as encouraging social responsibility among advertisers and sport teams/leagues, is critical. This paper aims to address the issues.

After a brief review of the literature on adolescent hero worship, the literature on the determinants and effects of celebrity worship are explored.

Once parents, advertisers, sport team/leagues are sensitized to the problem, adolescent hero worship of sport celebrities can be mitigated as a likely gateway to many adults' unhealthy obsession with celebrities.

Directions for future sport celebrity worship research are suggested.

The incidence of a potentially psychologically damaging affliction can be reduced without harm to advertisers, sport teams/leagues, and athletes.

Ways to reduce promotion‐induced sport celebrity worship – without eliminating sport promotion per se – are suggested. Recommendations are targeted for sport‐related and non‐sport‐related products as well as teams and leagues/conferences.

This paper is the first to suggest a link between adolescent hero worship of sport celebrities and psychologically dangerous celebrity worship by adults.

I suggest that the search for Adam Smith’s theodicy is likely to be in vain. The paper begins with a brief history of approaches to evil, emphasizing the context in which they arose, and the questions authors were addressing. Approaches most relevant to Adam Smith include those of Augustine and Calvin, and the early modern theodicies of Leibniz, Samuel Clarke and William King, as well as the attacks on them by Bayle and Voltaire. Scottish Enlightenment writers were not terribly interested in theodicy, though Hutcheson and Kames did devote space to their versions of problems of evil. David Hume’s Dialogues on Natural Religion are often taken to be classic statement of the problem of theodicy and argument against religious belief, but his concern was to demolish rationalistic theodicies rather than religious belief or practice. The paper then turns to Smith’s writings, considering similarities and differences to these approaches to evil. Smith emphasizes the wisdom and beneficence of God, and that evils we observe are part of a larger providential plan. He makes no attempt to justify the God in the face of evil, and in this respect Smith shares more with Augustine and Calvin than he does with the early modern theodicists. Smith’s approach to evil is simple and ameliorative. Smith’s approach contrasts with early nineteenth century English political economists, from Malthus onwards, for whom theodicy was important. Whatever view we take of the theodicists project of justifying an all-powerful and good God in the face of evil may, we still struggle to make sense of economic suffering and evil.

MOST of you would receive at the recent Annual Conference, a circular illustrating a paper by Mr. Chivers on “Library Bookbinding,” in which he describes “an experiment carried out in a large library with a book bound from the sheets in improved binding, and a book purchased in the ordinary way and twice re‐bound.” The pamphlet in question forms a suitable introduction to my remarks.

Information and communication technology (ICT) plays an increasingly important role in delivering healthcare today. Healthcare professionals, including consultants, doctors and nurses, are engaged in what is seen as a radical action plan for improving the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK. A major focus of this plan is the greater empowerment of the patient, and providing them with more information about their health needs and care. Information and communication technology has the potential to effectively support the complexities involved in the communication that takes place both amongst healthcare workers themselves and between healthcare workers and their patients in both primary and secondary care both in the UK and elsewhere. This paper explores the challenges involved in human interaction and describes how AIDMAN, a clinical information system, allows for richer communication between the patient and those involved in their health.

Because language deficits are often present among individuals with pervasive developmental disorders, evaluation of language abilities is an essential part of a comprehensive assessment. According to Wetherby, Prizant, and Schuler (2000), assessment of language skills for persons with autistic spectrum disorders must focus on three broad areas of concern: linguistics, social and emotional communication, and language-related cognitive functions. Linguistic evaluation includes assessment of both expressive and receptive language. Examination of social and emotional communication must assess reciprocity of social interaction, understanding and expression of emotion, and regulatory strategies to manage emotional arousal. Finally, evaluation of language-related cognitive domains must include an assessment of the use of symbolic representations and imitation (Wetherby et al.).

This study aims to model the purchase intention of virtual reality hardware using the cognition-affect-conation (CAC) model, which integrates psychology and consumer behavior research to explain how individuals' thoughts, emotions and intentions influence their behaviors.

Data were collected from individuals aged 18 and above who had no prior experience with virtual reality hardware. A total of 330 valid responses were obtained from individuals residing in Malaysia and analyzed using the partial least squares (PLS) approach.

The study validates that vividness, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment and utilitarian value have a positive impact on attitude. Vividness, perceived ease of use, perceived enjoyment and perceived value have a significant relationship with satisfaction, while perceived usefulness and utilitarian values have a negative impact on satisfaction. Furthermore, the study underscores the positive correlation between attitude and satisfaction. The relationship between satisfaction, attitude and purchase intention is confirmed. Lastly, the moderating effect of individualism on the relationship between satisfaction and attitude towards purchase intention is confirmed.

The findings provide valuable guidance for virtual reality designers and marketers, offering effective strategies to enhance brand promotion, user retention and sales through the skillful integration of virtual reality hardware.

The study enhances the understanding of consumer acceptance behavior regarding virtual reality hardware by incorporating affective aspects into cognitive factors and including individualism as a moderating factor. It addresses an important gap in the research landscape of the immersive industry, particularly concerning virtual reality hardware within the Malaysian context.

This study aims to investigate countries without national property insurance and see how experience affects behavior toward higher-risk flood prone property.

Using a unique data set that captures the flood experiences of homeowners that search for new housing, the authors examine the premiums or discounts of such experience on homes at risk. The authors use hedonic property modeling to estimate the effects of experience on values.

The authors find that such experiences play a strong role in convincing buyers of the real risks imposed by climate change and sea level rise and the authors expect these demand-side behavioral changes to persist. This finding is unlike more developed markets where insurance may be subsidized and negative effects on value dissipate within a few years.

The world is starting to pay more attention to climate risk and the results in developed countries have been biased by the extensive insurance provided by the government or emergency funding.

Providing market transparency on climate risks will result in permanent market effects, if not otherwise subsidized.

The governments should encourage market disclosure.

No one has ever had a data set like this before where the authors get to observe the behavior of those already experiencing property losses from flooding.