Feasibility of routine collection of injured worker occupational information in hospital emergency departments

The aim of this study was to examine injury events and risk-factors among Swedish adult eventing athletes. A cross-sectional study design with retrospective recording of 1-year sports-specific exposure and injury data was used. The invited study population consisted of all members of the Swedish Equestrian Federation with eventing as their primary discipline (n = 513). The participation rate was 70.0%. The total 1-year injury prevalence was 26.6%; the specific 1-year prevalence of traumatic injury was 19.3% and of overuse injury 10.9%. The incidence of traumatic injury events was 0.54 injury events/1000 eventing hours (95% confidence interval (CI), 0.35–0.73 injury events/1000 eventing hours) for novices and 0.35 injury events/1000 eventing hours for qualified riders (95% CI, 0.21–0.49 injury events/1000 eventing hours). A total of 27.9% of the traumatic injury events led to severe injuries (causing more than 3 weeks absence from riding). Attitude to risk-taking was the only factor predicting an athlete becoming injured (p = 0.023), and qualification level was the only risk factor for additional injuries among injured riders (p = 0.003). Our results suggest that injury prevention programs in eventing should also give attention to overuse injuries and that care should be taken when eventing athletes are licensed into higher qualification groups.     

Contingency factors on the success of services for social integration and job placement schemes

The success of a strategy depends, to a large extent, on the contingency factors that condition the functioning of an organisation. This study presents empirical research to contrast the existence of a significant relationship between the implementation of a particular strategy (in this case, related to the management of job placement and social insertion schemes) and a set of given structural parameters or contingency factors, in particular, the organisational structure of the firm such as time with the firm, firm size, technology used and organisational culture. The empirical analysis is applied to the strategies used by local development and employment officers with regard to the management of job placement and social integration schemes.     

An evaluation of the assessment of quality of life utility instrument as a measure of the impact of injury on health-related quality of life

The Assessment of Quality of Life (AQoL) is a generic health-related quality of life (HRQL) measure. It is the only HRQL instrument, currently available, that incorporates health preference values derived from an Australian population and has been extensively trialled in over 40 studies. However, prior to this study, it had not been used to measure HRQL in injury patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the AQoL, as a measure of the impact of injury on HRQL, by examining its correlation with other commonly used measures of health outcome and its ability to discriminate between groups with injuries of varying type and severity. A total of 221 admitted injury patients, aged 18-74 years, were recruited into the study from four major Victorian metropolitan hospitals and followed up over 12 months. The AQoL and the SF-36 were administered to obtain retrospective measures of pre-injury HRQL and health status with post-injury measurements obtained at five intervals post-injury (to 12 months). A preliminary analysis of data from this study showed the AQoL was positively related to other common outcome measures and, overall, showed a strong correlation with the SF-36 Physical Component Summary and a moderate correlation with the Mental Component Summary. It also demonstrated good discrimination between groups on the basis of type of injury, body region injured and severity of injury. While further testing of the AQoL, in this context, is still necessary, this study suggests that the AQoL may be a useful measure of the impact of injury on HRQL.     

Consumer involvement and acceptance of biotechnology in the European Union: a specific focus on Spain and the UK

Biotechnology stands out as a clear‐cut example of an industry where legislation on new technologies has been shown to be linked with public attitudes. Indeed, consumer consultation has played a leading role in the acceptance of genetically modified (GM) food as well as in government policy and legislation. This paper examines the issue of consumer consultation by analysing how public opinion has conditioned the acceptance of GM food in the European Union in general and specifically in Spain and the UK. We draw upon the evidence of two Eurobarometer surveys (46.1 and 52.1) to argue that consumer decision making on new technologies is an information‐dependent factor explaining consumer rejection to non‐transparent introduction of GM food. Individuals feel ill‐prepared to make decisions and rely on trusted information advisors such as consumer organizations. Findings suggest significant information dependency as well as widespread heterogeneity in attitudes towards the applications of biotechnology. Finally, the role played by information channels indicates that consumer participation should precede the adoption of communication policies, as they might need to adapt to the specific cultural characteristics of each country.     

Understanding the Strength of Gentleness: Soft-Skilled Leadership on the Rise

This paper focuses on the topic of “soft skills” as an intrinsic part of successful leadership. The first part of the paper presents a literature review about the shift in perspective in recent years on what matters in leadership, and the significant changes this prompted in some areas of education and corporate recruitment. In the second part, the findings of a year round study conducted among Los Angeles based workforce members in an MBA program are presented. By utilizing a multi-method approach, consisting of a survey model with three open ended, interview style questions, and data analysis in phenomenological trend, a number of interesting findings emerged, supporting the literature reviewed, that soft leadership skills, such as self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills, are steadily on the rise, and that greater attention should be apportioned to strengthen these skills in future leaders.     

Micro-Entrepreneurship in Niger: Factors Affecting the Success of Women Street Food Vendors

Micro-entrepreneurship in the informal sector plays a vital role in generating employment and income in West Africa. In this article, the authors examine business success factors for micro-entrepreneurs involved in the production and sale of street foods in Niger, drawing on the resource-based view theory. Business success was measured by size of firm and vendor's perception of enterprise growth. Their results indicate that business experience is an important success factor, while the need for cash is a constraint for business success. A rare resource, limited access to financial assets translates into limited opportunities for growth of these informal micro-enterprises into viable businesses.     

Ethical Challenges in Strategic Management: The 19th IESE International Symposium on Ethics,Business and Society

This paper is the Introduction to the Special Issue comprising a selection of papers submitted to the 19th IESE International Symposium on Ethics, Business and Society. The main topic of the Symposium was “Ethical Challenges in Strategic Management.” The paper presents the rationale and context of the Symposium. We begin with a brief historical overview of the evolution of the relationship between ethics and strategy. We propose four pillars that are at the core of a definition of strategy and elaborate on how ethics can contribute to strategy. We present the six papers that make up this selection within the framework of the four aspects introduced in the previous section. We conclude with some proposals for further research that consider the content of the papers.     

The expansion of branding in international marketing: The case of olive oil, 1870s–1930s

Abstract

Drawing on a variety of sources, this article investigates the emergence and expansion of branding in the international olive oil markets prior to World War II. It documents the rapid growth of the world trade in packaged olive oil from the 1870s onwards and shows that the main destinations of this consumer-ready product were in the Americas. In this respect, it complements previous findings based on the use of trademark registration figures. The article then argues that the expansion of canned and branded olive oil exports to the New World was the result of three interconnected factors: the mass migration of southern Europeans in the late nineteenth century and the formation of a new market on the other side of the Atlantic; significant transformations in the commodity chain of the product in the Americas during the first third of the twentieth century; and the problems of quality uncertainty and fraud in the emerging New World markets for olive oil. By analysing these factors, this study also provides evidence to further the debate on the purpose of branding and modern marketing.     

Foreign sourcing and exporting

The aim of this paper was analysing the role of sourcing intermediate inputs internationally on export decisions and distinguishing whether intermediates are sourced from firms belonging to the same business group or from independent suppliers. To analyse firms' export decisions, we use a specification that also accounts for sunk costs and accumulated experience in export markets (i.e., export market learning). We consider that importing intermediates might have direct and indirect effects (operating through enhanced productivity) on the export participation decision. The direct effects on exporting are isolated once we control for productivity and the effects of belonging to an international group. We use a manufacturing panel data set drawn from the Spanish Survey on Business Strategies (ESEE) for the period 2006–14. Both productivity and inward or outward FDI increase the probability of exporting. Moreover, our results uncover the existence of sunk costs and export market learning, and also the relevant role played by intermediate imports in firms' export choices. Their effects act both through the (indirect) channel of enhancing firms' productivity and through a direct effect related to product upgrading, more competitive selling prices or learning from the firm's import experience.     

Measurement and correlates of social attitudes

A review of research addressing correlates of attitudes toward social responsibility of business leads to the conclusion that little can currently be confidently stated concerning such correlates and that progress toward the understanding of relevant linkages is largely dependent on the development of psychometrically adequate indices of social attitudes. Using a sample of high level executives from a large number of industries, this paper examines various psychometric properties of an index of social attitudes, the Social Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ) (Aldag and Jackson, 1977) and considers relationships of SAQ subscale scores to multiple measures of firm size and economic performance and to managerial demographic and social psychological characteristics. Results of this study reflect favorably on psychometric integrity of the SAQ and reveal a complex set of correlates of its subscales. He presently serves as Vice President-Program Chair, Midwest Academy of Management. He was previously Chairperson of the Public Sector Division, National Academy of Management. He is co-author ofTask Design and Employee Motivation (Scott, Foresman & Co., 1979) andIntroduction to Business (South-Western Publ. Co., in press). He is also author or co-author of over 40 journal articles. His writings appear inPsychological Bulletin, Academy of Management Journal and various other journals. He is at present member of the Editorial Review Board of theJournal of Marketing. He is co-author ofMarketing Profitability Analyses and author or co-author of over fifty journal articles and professional papers. His writings appear inJournal of Business Administration, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Advertising and elsewhere.