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21 – 30 of 202This paper aims to provide an understanding of how brands acquire meanings in a historical context. It examines the politico-economic environment that led to emergence of khadi in…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to provide an understanding of how brands acquire meanings in a historical context. It examines the politico-economic environment that led to emergence of khadi in India.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses historical data to examine political economy of khadi. The author uses both written text and visuals for data collection and analysis.
Findings
It elucidates how the significance of khadi changed from being a mere cloth to a product of self-sufficiency and national importance in India’s freedom movement. This work is based on the analysis of Gandhian activities, especially consumption of khadi and usage of spinning wheel, during Indian freedom movement. The work analyzes the evolution of khadi in its historical, social and political context in colonial India. This paper reveals how and why brands acquire certain historical meanings.
Research limitations/implications
The paper is developed in colonial India.
Originality/value
This paper examines the role of institutions, social and political movements in the creation, development and nurturing of a brand and its meanings.
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Alison Hurst, Anna Price, Rebecca Walesby, Moira Doolan, Wendy Lanham and Tamsin Ford
Despite an increasing policy focus, routine outcome monitoring (ROM) is not common practice in UK children's services. This paper aims to examine whether it is feasible and valid…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite an increasing policy focus, routine outcome monitoring (ROM) is not common practice in UK children's services. This paper aims to examine whether it is feasible and valid to use measures from ROM of evidence-based parenting programmes (EBPPs) to assess the impact of services and to drive service improvements through feedback mechanisms.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a secondary analysis of ROM measures collected from a London clinic offering EBPPs over five years. Demographic information from referrals was compared for attendees and non-attendees. Changes in parent reported child behaviour were measured using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), and a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS).
Findings
No significant differences were found in socio-demographic characteristics of attendees and non-attendees. Statistically significant differences were found between pre- and post-scores on parent reported SDQ scores and VAS concerns, as well as the SDQ Added Value Score. The data collected did not allow for investigation of a dose-response relationship between the level of attendance and any improvement made.
Originality/value
This study illustrates that ROM can provide useful information about the impact of EBPPs in a particular clinical context. Demographic data could support service managers to evaluate reach and uptake while evidence of improvements can be communicated back to parents and support future funding bids. Incomplete data limited the inferences that could be drawn, and collaborations between research centres and clinics may be a way to optimise the use of ROM to drive service improvement and innovation.
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Aleksei V. Bogoviz, Tatiana V. Skryl, Irina S. Ferova, Anna A. Burdina and Aigul Sultanguzhiyeva
The purpose of this chapter is to study the American practice of implementing the model of information economy as an example to the leading countries of the American region of the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this chapter is to study the American practice of implementing the model of information economy as an example to the leading countries of the American region of the global economic system and to compile a conceptual model of formation and development of information economy in modern America.
Methodology
For provision of compatibility of data on different regions of the global economic system, the research is performed on the basis of the previously used methodology and information platform. The values of the indicators of technosphere, sociosphere, economic sphere, and target result in information economy’s formation in American countries and are compared to determine their variation from direct average; subsequently, they are compared with the global values for evaluation of percentage deviations. The research concerns countries such as USA, which is a leader in the American region with regard to the global economic system, Canada, which is the country closest to the level of economic development by the region’s leader, and Brazil, which is the foremost leading country among the developing countries of the American region. The data from 2017 is used in the study.
Results
The authors conclude that the US economy is not a deviant economic system but a true leader of the American region with regard to the the global economic system. That is, the USA shows higher level and rate of information economy’s formation, but applied that for the same conceptual model as other countries of the American region. The most vivid uniqueness of the American model of establishment and development of information economy is the stage-by-stage character of the noosphere pyramid, which is manifested by vivid reduction of the area of its structural elements, the most massive of which is technosphere, which corresponds to the indicators that are standard for the leading countries of the world.
Recommendations
The offered conceptual model is recommended for studying the formation of information economy in the America region and compare this process in other regions of the world.
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David Philippy, Rebeca Gomez Betancourt and Robert W. Dimand
In the years following the publication of A Theory of Consumption (1923), Hazel Kyrk’s book became the flagship of the field that would later be known as the economics of…
Abstract
In the years following the publication of A Theory of Consumption (1923), Hazel Kyrk’s book became the flagship of the field that would later be known as the economics of consumption. It stimulated theoretical and empirical work on consumption. Some of the existing literature on Kyrk (e.g., Kiss & Beller, 2000; Le Tollec, 2020; Tadajewski, 2013) depicted her theory as the starting point of the economics of consumption. Nevertheless, how and why it emerged the way it did remain largely unexplored. This chapter examines Kyrk’s intellectual background, which, we argue, can be traced back to two main movements in the United States: the home economics and the institutionalist. Both movements conveyed specific endeavors as responses to the US material and social transformations that occurred at the turn of the 20th century, notably the perceived changing role of consumption and that of women in US society. On the one hand, Kyrk pursued first-generation home economists’ efforts to make sense of and put into action the shifting of women’s role from domestic producer to consumer. On the other hand, she reinterpreted Veblen’s (1899) account of consumption in order to reveal its operational value for a normative agenda focused on “wise” and “rational” consumption. This chapter studies how Kyrk carried on first-generation home economists’ progressive agenda and how she adapted Veblen’s fin-de-siècle critical account of consumption to the context of the household goods developed in 1900–1920. Our account of Kyrk’s intellectual roots offers a novel narrative to better understand the role of gender and epistemological questions in her theory.
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Lucrezia Coletta, Milena Vainieri, Guido Noto and Anna Maria Murante
This study aims to systematically review the literature on the use of customer value for the evaluation of inter-organizational performance, with a wide perspective embracing…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to systematically review the literature on the use of customer value for the evaluation of inter-organizational performance, with a wide perspective embracing different contexts and settings.
Design/methodology/approach
Searching within the Scopus and ISI Web of Science databases, a systematic literature review has been conducted analyzing 41 papers published between 1991 and 2020.
Findings
Categorization of customer value and inter-organizational performance measures were developed and the main differences among different settings were discussed.
Practical implications
The results presented in this study may be helpful for practitioners and managers who, in the completion of their activities, have to maintain strong and frequent relationships with other organizations. In fact, practitioners and managers interested in enhancing customer value and measuring inter-organizational performance may find an innovative perspective linking the two dimensions. They could find the categorizations presented in this study as a starting point for developing a performance evaluation framework suitable for evaluating their present business relationships. In fact, the categorizations provide a panorama of how scholars have measured until now inter-organizational performance through customer value, and therefore, they could choose the measures more appropriate for their situation.
Originality/value
No systematic literature review of the use of customer value for assessing inter-organizational performance has previously been undertaken, especially considering different settings.
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Anna E. Sundström and Camilla Hakelind
Assessment of complex clinical skills and abilities is a challenge in mental health education. In the present study, an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) was…
Abstract
Purpose
Assessment of complex clinical skills and abilities is a challenge in mental health education. In the present study, an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) was adapted to psychology and implemented in a Master in Psychology program. The purpose of the present study was to examine aspects of validity of this OSCE.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 55 students enrolled in the Master in the Psychology program at Umeå University, Sweden, participated in two OSCE occasions. In addition to OSCE data, questionnaires were administered immediately after the OSCE to students (n = 18) and examiners (n = 13) to examine their perceptions of the OSCE.
Findings
The results provided support for different aspects of validity. The level of internal consistency was close to acceptable, and there was a good correspondence between global ratings and checklist scores for many stations. However, adding an additional category to the global rating scale and reviewing some of the station checklists might improve the assessment further. The present cut-score of the OSCE was comparable to a cut-score set by the borderline regression model. In general, students and examiners perceived the OSCE as a high-quality examination, although examiners raised some issues that could improve the OSCE further.
Originality/value
In conclusion, OSCE is a promising assessment in psychology, both from a psychometric perspective and from a test-taker and examiner perspective. The present study is an important contribution to the field as there are only a few examples where OSCE has been used in clinical psychology, and to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to evaluate the validity of such an assessment.
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Anna-Leena Kurki, Elina Weiste, Hanna Toiviainen, Sari Käpykangas and Hilkka Ylisassi
The involvement of clients in service encounters and service development has become a central principle for contemporary health and social care organizations. However, in…
Abstract
Purpose
The involvement of clients in service encounters and service development has become a central principle for contemporary health and social care organizations. However, in day-to-day work settings, the shift toward client involvement is still in progress. We examined how health and social care professionals, together with clients and managers, co-develop their conceptions of client involvement and search for practical ways in which to implement these in organizational service processes.
Design/methodology/approach
The empirical case of this study was a developmental intervention, the client involvement workshop, conducted in a Finnish municipal social and welfare center. The cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) framework was used to analyze the development of client involvement ideas and the modes of interaction during the intervention.
Findings
Analysis of the collective discussion revealed that the conceptions of client involvement developed through two interconnected object-orientations: Enabling client involvement in service encounters and promoting client involvement in the service system. The predominant mode of interaction in the collective discussion was that of “coordination.” The clients' perspective and contributions were central aspects in the turning points from coordination to cooperation; professionals crossed organizational boundaries, and together with clients, constructed a new client involvement-based object. This suggests that client participation plays an important role in the development of services.
Originality/value
The CHAT-based examination of the modes of interaction clarifies the potential of co-developing client-involvement-based services and highlights the importance of clients' participation in co-development.
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Jürg Stettler, Barbara Rosenberg-Taufer, Lukas Huck, Anna Amacher Hoppler, Jürg Schwarz, Chanin Yoopetch and Julia Huilla
This study conceptualizes commercial hospitality in the form of a conceptual framework, which it operationalizes by means of a questionnaire. A survey using this questionnaire was…
Abstract
This study conceptualizes commercial hospitality in the form of a conceptual framework, which it operationalizes by means of a questionnaire. A survey using this questionnaire was conducted in Switzerland and Thailand in order to investigate tourists’ levels of satisfaction with commercial hospitality in Switzerland and Thailand and to assess the conceptual framework. The questionnaire was filled in by 1001 tourists in both countries, 601 in Switzerland and 400 in Thailand. The results suggest that tourists in Switzerland are more satisfied with the hospitality in the context of tourism service than tourists in Thailand. The results also serve as an indication that the questionnaire used in this study is able to uncover cultural differences in hospitality in a tourism service context. It is assumed that domestic tourists are accustomed to local practices and are therefore more critical in assessing tourism employees’ hospitality skills and behavior.
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