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The purpose of this article is to describe the quantitative evaluation of an engineering monograph approval plan using circulation analysis.

The circulation frequency of titles purchased under the approval plan was analyzed, and compared with the circulation frequency of all engineering books during the same time period, purchased both individually and through the plan.

It was found that 23 percent of the approval plan books circulated, compared with 6 percent of engineering books as a whole. There was considerable variation in circulation frequency between engineering disciplines, but approval plan books circulated much more frequently in all subject areas.

This study assesses circulation only during the most recent complete year, which means that the approval plan books are all new books. However, more than half of the books in the engineering collection are less than ten years old, so age is unlikely to be the only reason for the much higher circulation of approval books.

Since this evaluation concludes that the approval plan does have value for Rowan University's users, such a plan might be worth considering by other academic libraries looking for a better way to obtain new engineering monographs which serve user needs.

While the circulation data described in this study reflect the unique needs of the Rowan University user community, they can serve as a useful benchmark for engineering librarians who want to assess the usage of their monograph collections. The study also has value for academic librarians who are evaluating an approval plan from YBP or another vendor.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a consensus method for multi-attribute group decision-making (MAGDM) problems based on preference-approval structure and regret theory, which can improve the efficiency of decision-making and promote the consensus level among individuals.

First, a new method to obtain the reference points based on regret theory and expert weighting method is proposed. Second, a consensus reaching method based on preference-approval structure is proposed. Then, an adjustment mechanism to further improve the consensus level between individuals is designed. Finally, an example of the assessment of elderly care institutions is used to illustrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method.

The feasibility and validity of the proposed method are verified by comparing with the advanced two-stage minimum adjustment method. The compared results show that the proposed method is more consistent with the actual situation.

This paper presents a consensus reaching method for MAGDM based on preference-approval structure, which considers the avoidance behaviors of individuals and reference points. Decision makers (DMs) can use this approach to rank and categorize alternatives while further increasing the level of consensus among them. This can further help determine the optimal alternative more efficiently.

A new MAGDM problem based on the combination of regret theory and individual reference points is proposed. Besides, a new method of obtaining experts' weights and a consensus reaching method for MAGDM based on preference-approval structure are designed.

In China, private equity placement (PEP) has become the most important equity refinancing method because most listed firms issue new stocks in this method. However, previous literature has not paid much attention to the impact of political connections on PEP. In this paper, the authors aim to focus on the effect of ultimate ownership types and political connections on approval, approval time, approval results and proceeds of PEP. Besides that the authors also explore the influence of different types and levels of political connections on PEP.

This study investigates the impact of ultimate ownership and political connections of private firms on the approval of PEPs. The authors obtain a final sample of 1,651 private placement events of Chinese-listed firms. To test the hypothesis that the authors developed in this paper, the authors use empirical models from the existing literature about political connections and corporate finance. They establish multiple linear regressions to test Hypothesis 1 and 3 and introduce a logit model to test Hypothesis 2.

First, this study documents that state-owned firms have significant advantages over private firms in approval procedure. Second, political connections seem to help private firms obtain approval of placements from China Securities Regulatory Commission. Third, political connections through government officers are not useful for firms to obtain refinance resources, whereas the connections of being members of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and People’s Congress are the two valuable types of political connections to help private firms obtain approval.

This paper has three main contributions to the previous literature. The first contribution is to provide an evidence for the relation between political connections and PEP approval procedures. The second contribution is to provide a comparison between government officer’s connection and social title’s connection. The third contribution of this paper is to reveal the influence of non-disclosed political connection on PEP approval. All the three contributions are important for understanding the relation between political connections and firm refinancial policy.

This study aims to identify sociocognitive determinants of managers' adherence to the expense report approval control. A behavioral view of control was adopted, drawing on the theory of planned behavior.

Managers authorized to approve subordinates' expense reports in three large organizations were surveyed.

Results indicate that managers' perception of overall consequences (for the organization or for themselves) resulting from their adherence to the expense report approval control (attitude) and their perception of control over the approval (perceived behavioral control) are positively related to their intention to adhere to the expense report approval control, while their perceived pressures from important referents in that matter (subjective norm) are not.

By adopting a behavioral view of control to examine individual-level adherence, this study contributes to the accounting literature. By focusing on a positive response to control (adherence), it contributes specifically to the literature on control effectiveness and acts as a counterpoint to the abundant literature on negative control responses such as fraud.

Results could help organizations identify motivations and barriers to managers' adherence to expense report approval control. This could help reduce losses, improve asset safeguarding and provide insights into the understanding of behavioral/individual factors that can influence the application of other control policies and procedures.

The study defines and measures the “adherence” construct in a control context.

This chapter focuses on the regulatory scheme used by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve medical products for commercial use in this country. After providing a brief introduction of the role of the FDA and the scope of the products regulated by the agency, the chapter outlines the common characteristics of premarket controls for drugs, medical devices, and biological products, including how clinical trials of these medical products are conducted with humans as part of the premarket approval process. The chapter then provides a detailed examination of the particular regulatory scheme for each product category. The chapter concludes with an analysis of how FDA regulates emerging medical technologies, such as cellular and tissue-engineered products. FDA regulates a variety of products intended to diagnose, cure, mitigate, treat, or prevent diseases or conditions under a legal scheme established in the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and the Public Health Service Act and regulations promulgated by FDA. How a product is classified (drug, device, or biologic) forecasts the regulatory approval pathway that must be followed to bring the product to market. This chapter provides education and direction regarding regulatory requirements that must be met to market medical products in the United States.

The purpose of this study is to explore the ideological gaps on police use of force.

In a national-level survey distributed via Mechanical Turk (MTurk) (n = 979), the authors explore the role that respondents' political ideology plays in the approval of police use of force across a range of scenarios.

Across all scenarios, self-identified conservative respondents maintain strong approval of police use of force. In comparison, liberal respondents provide more variance in their views on approval of police use of force based on the scenario. The scenarios where there are small gaps in approval between the two ideologies are when reasonable force is used toward a violent threat.

There are specific circumstances where the messaging surrounding use of force can create agreement (reasonable) or disagreement (excessive) among conservatives and liberals.

Conservatives and liberals demonstrate gaps across an even larger set of use of force scenarios.

When pluralistic ignorance about cyberloafing is increased, individuals engage more in cyberloafing. Cyberloafing has become a great challenge in business organisations, and it is believed that many organisations do not complete their daily activities as a result of employee cyberloafing. Using the social norms theory as the main theoretical framework, the current study aims to assess the effects of prescriptive social norms on employee cyberloafing with the moderating effects of power distance and co-worker interdependency.

The data sample included 237 employees from six large organisations in the service sector. This study used a survey to collect data at different times and analysed the data using hierarchal regression and Hayes Process Macro.

Findings revealed that there exists a positive and significant impact of supervisors' approval of cyberloafing on employees' cyberloafing. Co-workers' approval of cyberloafing does not have any impact on employee cyberloafing. Power distance was found to moderate the relationship between supervisors' approval of cyberloafing and employees' cyberloafing. However, co-workers' interdependency did not moderate the relationship between co-workers' approval of cyberloafing and employees' cyberloafing.

This research examines employees' cyberloafing behaviours and highlights the adverse consequences of prescriptive social norms in a work environment characterised by co-workers' interdependence and power distance.

The purpose of this paper is to use a unique, hand-collected data set of Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved products to understand the effect of lobbying on the product market. The authors gather total 86,462 FDA labels including drug patents, drugs, pre-market approvals and medical devices and test the relationship between lobbying and future firms’ product submissions.

Using a sample of 86,462 FDA labels including drug patents, drugs, pre-market approvals and medical devices, the authors test the effect of lobbying on a firm’s future product submissions using survival analysis, logit, difference-in-differences and propensity score matching techniques.

The authors find lobbying firms experience an increase in the number of medical products approved. However, increased number of FDA labeling comes at the cost of product failure. The authors document that lobbying increases product recalls when responsible firms are associated with higher market withdrawals.

This study contributes to both the management literature on corporate lobbying and product recalls. Additionally, the study reveals the connection between pharmaceutical lobbying and firm value.

The second in a series of articles. Sets out the seven key areas of organizational competence described in the City and Guilds Centre Approval and Monitoring Guidelines for organizations seeking to become Approved Centres complying with Training and Development Lead Body standards. Outlines the requirements in each area of competence including the qualifications by the two classes of staff required, i.e. Designated Assessors and Designated Internal Verifiers, and makes clear the distinction between provisional and full approval.

The residential construction industry has a major share in Canada's GDP. In spite of huge spending and technical advances in the residential construction sector, the current permit approval process still adheres to traditional manual permit approval process. Consequently, this has contributed to project delays and increased monetary costs to the stakeholders associated with the process. The research presented in this paper seeks to explore key issues related to the current housing development permit approval process.

This paper describes a proposed methodology for the automation of the residential construction development permit approval process. The proposed methodology has been incorporated into a computer system that integrates a knowledge‐based expert system (KBES), database management system (DBMS), and computer‐aided design (CAD). Various concepts related to the database structures, system architecture, process flow and user interfaces are introduced and described in the context of the development permit approval process.

This paper presents a knowledge‐based prototype for the development permit approval process that can be customized as per the needs of various cities. A case study is also presented in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method and to illustrate the implementation of the research.

The prototype is application‐independent and may be implemented anywhere in the AutoCAD environment. The research paves the way for the setting of drafting standards for the residential industry.

Prototype provides significant gains in productivity and accuracy over the current practices by minimizing the redundancies involved in the development permit approval process.