Impact of the Safe Community program in Harstad on the incidence of injuries

Objectives Since 1987, the Harstad community in Norway has run an injury prevention program according to the Safe Community approach. The effectiveness of this approach in reducing injury rates is poorly documented. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of the Harstad program on the incidence of injuries. Methods We used data from the National Injury register of Norway and compared age-adjusted incidence rates and standardized rate ratios of injuries in Harstad and three control communities for the period 1992-1997. Results Harstad had the second highest rates for both all injuries and fractures. No reduction in the incidence of injuries in Harstad was observed from 1992-1997. The injury rates in 1992-1997 were similar to the rates recorded in 1985/86. Conclusions The injury prevention program in Harstad has not reduced overall injury rates. The Safe Community concept is an organizational strategy, but implementation of proven and targeted risk reduction measures will be needed if community-based programs are to result in risk reductions.     

Methodological Issues in Negotiation Research: A State-of-the-Art-Review

This study provides insight into the dominant methodological practices that have shaped the field of negotiation over the past four decades and sheds light on possible gaps and trade-offs. We content analyzed 941 peer-reviewed negotiation articles (published between 1965 and 2004) and identified the most important methodological trends over time. The results reveal significant changes in reliability, validity, and triangulation issues. In addition, the rise of multivariate statistics and multiple data sources displays positive evolution towards more sophisticated methodologies. Despite these positive evolutions, we want to encourage current and future researchers to conduct more longitudinal and qualitative research to further advance our knowledge on negotiation.     

'Integration' in Communication Management: Conceptual and Methodological Considerations

The pervasive notion of 'integration' has found wide acceptance in writings across the disciplines of marketing-communications, public relations and corporate identity management but has to date not been subjected to systematic empirical research. The paper develops systematic measures and propositions in regard to 'integration' for further empirical research.     

Appreciating the Meta-Analytic Methodological Context: Rejoinder to a Reply

In this paper, the authors respond to a recent critique of their Journal of Business Ethics article, which provided a meta-analytic review of ethical climate theory research (Martin and Cullen, 2006). They review basic principles of meta-analytic research and discuss the methodological context of their work, which was not discussed in the recent reply article. Additional methodological and practical evidence is presented in support of Martin and Cullen (2006), including a discussion of the paper’s findings and its contribution to ethical climate theory and research.     

Agriculture in Europe: New challenges ahead

The recent reform of the EC’s Common Agricultural Policy is likely to be only the beginning of the adjustments which will be necessary in the near future. Accession applications by various EFTA countries are pending. At the same time Eastern Europe desperately needs assistance from Western Europe, not only in the form of food aid but also in the form of help in establishing agricultural production and trade based on the laws of the market. The following article takes stock of the situation.     

Globalization: Economic challenges and the political response

Recently, resistance to the—presumed and actual—consequences of globalization in both developed and developing countries has gained momentum. While the arguments raised against globalization often lack economic substance, it will probably only prevail if a broad majority of the population can be convinced that closer worldwide integration does serve their interests. This can hardly be achieved without a convincing strategy for compensating the potential losers of globalization, given that globalization tends to reduce the national states’ leeway for taxation and redistributive measures through social policies.     

Foresight in services: possibilities and special challenges

Service sectors have been only loosely linked to foresight projects considered essential for wiring up innovation systems. This article examines possibilities and methodological challenges in the foresight of services on the basis of a study conducted in Finland in knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS). It also provides empirical results about the future trends in KIBS. The most central of these are the growing emphasis on a consultative way of working and broad service solutions, the tightening linkages to clients' strategies, the blurring of sectoral boundaries and the diversification of the forms of internationalisation.     

Marketplace spirituality: challenges for the New Age retailer

The consumers of New Age spirituality products have been said to be involved in a form of ‘pick and mix’ religion or to be browsing in a ‘spiritual supermarket’ which emphasises borrowing from a wide variety of cultures. The paper details the different physical and virtual channels through which consumers may access goods and services. Retailers who serve this market are typically independent traders and face many of the challenges that are characteristic of the small business sector. The term ‘New Age' is identified as applying to a broad range of retailers who attempt to occupy different market positions. The research however identifies considerable product overlap between these retailers and suggests that the market displays limited differentiation. As this paper is an exploratory study, it finally sets out a series of research themes for future work.     

Japanese multinationals in the post-bubble era: new challenges and evolving capabilities

Since the bursting of Japan's bubble economy, from 1990 onwards, Japanese multinational companies (MNCs) have faced new competitive challenges and questions about the management practices on which they had built their initial success in global markets. Japanese engagement in the international economy has undergone a number of phases. In the period before the Second World War, Japanese companies learnt from foreign MNCs in trading, shipping, and manufacturing, frequently through strategic alliances, and leveraged their capabilities to succeed in overseas and largely Asian markets. In the immediate post-war decades, during the Japanese ‘economic miracle’, there were notable examples of MNC investment in raw materials and labour intensive production, but both inward and outward foreign direct investment were not significant. Japanese companies achieved leadership in management and technology, in order to support a strategy of export-orientated industrialization. Changes in government policies in the developed economies of the US and Western Europe forced leading Japanese manufacturers to convert themselves into MNCs and to transfer their home-grown capabilities to overseas subsidiaries. The period after 1990 marked declining Japanese competitiveness and it asked questions about the ability of Japanese MNCs to be more responsive and global in their strategies, organization and capabilities.     

Methodological considerations in the use of electroencephalographic techniques in advertising research

This paper focuses on methodological concerns of interest to advertising researchers who seek to employ electroencephalographic (EEG) methods for assessing the impact of advertising stimuli. It is suggested that the validity of EEG applications in advertising research needs to be demonstrated on the basis of examining relationships between EEG measures and more traditional measures of evaluating advertising effectiveness. More attention needs to be focused on determining the content-specific cues that engage the viewer's attentional processes. Further research is necessary to determine hemispheric differences in processing emotional cues in advertising stimuli and relationships between subjective reactions to advertising stimuli and lateralized differences in activation patterns. It is suggested that individual differences in hemispheric preferences may be related to response to advertising stimuli and that computersimulated brain topographical techniques may by useful in revealing shifts in region-specific activation patterns during exposure to advertising stimuli such as television commercials.     

Child injury prevention in Vietnam: achievements and challenges

As with other South Asian countries, injury is becoming a leading cause of death and morbidity among children in Vietnam. In response to the increasing burden of child injury, government and non-government agencies in Vietnam have combined efforts during the last decade to develop and implement various child injury prevention strategies and programmes. This article provides, through a review of relevant documents and interviews with major stakeholders, an overview of these efforts and highlights major challenges to child injury prevention in the country. The findings point to notable achievements in terms of increasing awareness of injury facing children at all levels in the community and developing a sound injury prevention policy framework in a relatively short period of time. However, much needs to be done to implement necessary environmental and legislative changes, strengthen child injury surveillance and injury prevention research; and to improve access to health services. The insight into the experience of Vietnam could benefit other low- and middle-income countries with a high burden of child injury.     

Child injury prevention in Vietnam: achievements and challenges

As with other South Asian countries, injury is becoming a leading cause of death and morbidity among children in Vietnam. In response to the increasing burden of child injury, government and non-government agencies in Vietnam have combined efforts during the last decade to develop and implement various child injury prevention strategies and programmes. This article provides, through a review of relevant documents and interviews with major stakeholders, an overview of these efforts and highlights major challenges to child injury prevention in the country. The findings point to notable achievements in terms of increasing awareness of injury facing children at all levels in the community and developing a sound injury prevention policy framework in a relatively short period of time. However, much needs to be done to implement necessary environmental and legislative changes, strengthen child injury surveillance and injury prevention research; and to improve access to health services. The insight into the experience of Vietnam could benefit other low- and middle-income countries with a high burden of child injury.     

Corporate social responsibility in China: implementation and challenges

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is becoming increasingly important in China. This paper investigates the implementation of instruments for dimensions of CSR that are relevant for the Chinese context and the challenges that Chinese companies face. Based on a survey among 109 Chinese companies, we find that formal instruments to implement CSR are rather common. Companies spend most effort in improving the economic aspects of CSR, such as competitiveness, product innovation and process innovation. Only a small minority of the companies set concrete targets and report the realization of these targets for social and environmental goals. This indicates that the attention to social and environmental aspects of CSR is still rather loose. The most important challenges for improving CSR are strong competitive pressure, insufficient support from the government and/or nongovernmental organizations and high costs of CSR implementation. Multiple regression analysis shows that the use of instruments is positively related to company size and foreign ownership and negatively related to lack of resources and support for CSR by investors and consumers.     

EMU: Experiences to date and challenges for the future

Have the first two years of European Monetary Union fulfilled the expectations of its supporters? Or have the fears of the critics been confirmed? What challenges will EMU have to face in the years ahead?     

The Evaluation of Innovation Capabilities in Small Software Firms: A Methodological Approach

This paper presents a methodological approach for the evaluation of innovation capabilities in small software firms. The methodology is based on the assumption of a relationship between specific resources managed by small software firms and their innovation capabilities. Within the proposed methodological approach, a model for the quantitative analysis of innovation capabilities is presented. In order to show how the methodology can be applied to concrete situations, three case studies of small firms operating in the software sector and information services are presented and discussed.