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Joint Strategic Needs Assessments (JSNAs) are intended to help create evidence-based priorities for public health commissioning at local government level in the UK. They are supposed to consider the needs of people with protected characteristics, and this study aims to look at how the JSNAs for London are serving the city’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) population.

JSNAs are documentary data and are in the public domain. Each of the 31 JSNAs for London was individually assessed against a series of questions designed to test their inclusion of the local LGBTQ+ population.

Fewer than one in five of London’s JSNAs: had a dedicated LGBTQ+ section; cited bespoke research into, or engagement with, the local LGBTQ+ population; made recommendations for specialist services for people from this community; or considered intersectionality in the context of this population.

This study demonstrates that many of London’s JSNAs contain little information on the city’s local LGBTQ+ population and only minimal assessment of its health, care and wellbeing needs. Recommendations include conducting further research on this population at the local level, using available guidance and engaging best practice.

The study aims to introduce a comprehensive segmentation instrument that incorporates the push–pull winescape attributes, providing a new perspective of the wine tourist profile and explaining their behavioural intentions in the Australian winescape.

A literature review, focus groups and expert panels generated an extensive list of push–pull winescape attributes. Pen-and-paper surveys conveniently sampled 739 wine tourists at three wineries across three wine regions in Australia. Adopting push–pull winescape attributes as the segmentation base, cluster analysis identified four segments, namely, inspireds, self-drivens, market-drivens and inerts, and their behavioural intentions were examined.

Inspireds demonstrate both self- and market-motivation. Self-drivens exhibit self-motivation but limited market-motivation, whereas Market-drivens characterise market-motivation but limited self-motivation. Inerts are limited in both market- and self-motivations. At the Swan Valley, all four segments were identified, with Inspireds being the most willing to revisit and recommend to others and Inerts, the least willing. At the Barossa Valley, only two segments emerged. Again, Inspireds and Inerts were the most and least willing to revisit and recommend to others respectively. Finally, at the Yarra Valley, three segments were identified. Market-drivens were most willing to revisit and recommend to others, followed by self-drivens and lastly, by inerts.

A comprehensive push–pull winescape segmentation base of wine tourists is introduced, which provides a more sophisticated profile of wine tourist segments than otherwise would be attained with conventional measures.

New insights into who the wine tourist is and what it is they seek from the winescape are vital to smaller wine producers whose best access to the domestic retail and export markets is through direct selling at the cellar door.

The empirically tested 18-item push–pull winescape instrument presents a comprehensive segmentation approach, which profiles wine tourists and predicts their behavioural intentions based on an extensive investigation of push–pull winescape attributes.

Considering that context is important and relying on a contingency perspective, the purpose of the study is to analyze the relationship between an entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and firm performance in one of the world's oldest economies: Italy. The contingency perspective relies on competitive strategy as a moderating variable.

Using a mix of primary and secondary data sources, relationships are explored in a sample of 229 Italian for-profit firms. Moderated regression analysis is used for the sample and additional tests are conducted by firm size groupings.

The analysis suggests that an EO is positively associated with firm performance in the sample firms. Further, competitive strategy acts as a moderating influence: a low-cost strategy negatively influences the relationship, while a differentiation strategy positively influences the relationship. The firm size groupings do not appear to affect the results.

The study examines only for-profit firms in a single country, Italy; therefore, generalizability is limited. The results must be interpreted in light of these limitations.

This study contributes to the entrepreneurship literature by considering a relatively new international context in the EO–firm performance relationship. Further, a new contingency perspective is advanced by considering competitive strategy. In doing so, this study extends an understanding of the conditions under which an EO might be associated with firm performance.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the conjecture that worker cooperatives (firms that practice participatory management and share profits broadly) suffer a competitive disadvantage relative to conventional firms is not supported by existing empirical research. It also considers alternative explanations for why such cooperatives are rare.

Historical analysis, literature survey, and survival analysis.

Studies of worker cooperatives in a variety of national settings indicate their failure rate is lower than conventional firms at least in the short and medium term. This contradicts the proposition that they are rare because they suffer a competitive disadvantage and focuses attention instead on their low formation rate.

The “liability of newness,” wealth and credit constraints, entrepreneurial rents, and collective action problems are cited as important barriers for the creation of worker cooperatives de novo, but these factors should be greatly reduced for those created through the conversion of an existing firm. Paradoxically, the overwhelming majority of cooperatives are created from scratch, and hence this explanation remains incomplete.

Existing policies incentivizing the creation of worker cooperatives, and current initiatives to promote them, do not encourage the creation of inferior economic institutions.

This paper contradicts the widely held belief that the distinctive features of worker cooperatives (participatory management and broadly shared profit) place them at a competitive disadvantage in a market economy. It also provides insight into why cooperatives are rare by challenging explanations based in presumed inefficiencies and focusing attention instead on barriers to creation.

AT the time this appears about ten per cent of the librarians of this country will be studying how best to profit by the Hastings conference at the end of the month. The town itself is interesting, the old and new being combined in a quite graciously intriguing manner, and the library service there is worthy of attention. We say that pointedly because the pressure of these meetings is so great that the library of the place, the local example of all librarians stand for, is, by the majority, not even visited. In our October issue we hope to give an impression, at any rate a preliminary one, of the proceedings. From the advance notices, which are all that are as yet available, they are to revolve somewhat loosely round staff, stock, and standards, which can be made to cover the whole of librarianship, so that we need not descant upon its importance or pretend that it presents any original subject. Its treatment we hope will be so, as the most ordinary library topic is an old one, but fresh light upon it is always possible. The speakers appear to be all librarians of relatively small libraries and, as these comprise 75% at least of public libraries, there can be no quarrel with that. The new chairman of the L.A. Education Committee, Mr. W. B. Paton, is to look again at the pressing question of staff recruitment and training; we know he will look with clear eyes at a real problem. The Annual Lecture will be by Sir Ben Bowen Thomas, who is Permanent Secretary of the Welsh Department of the Ministry of Education. There will be the usual section meetings, annual dinner, and exhibition. We may be sure that the Presidential Address will be characteristic of Mr. C. B. Oldman, which means that it will be a scholarly reflection of many or some of his wide range of library interests; and also that, under his guidance, the whole conference will be managed well.

HASTINGS is now a memory of a conference in which the members of the L.A. heard papers of singular merit and one or two addresses of marked distinction. If we were to select the Presidential Address of Mr. C. B. Oldman, the beautiful Annual Lecture by Mr. Bowen Thomas and the quite remarkable performance in English of Mr. Bengt Hjelmqvist, on the organization of his native Swedish libraries, as the highlights of the general sessions, and Nigel Balchin's model after‐dinner speech as another, we are not the less aware of the excellence of nearly all the papers submitted at every session; indeed, there was not really a bad paper throughout, although some were much too long. They averaged forty‐five minutes. Possibly the Conference Committee set this length; if so, we suggest respectfully that however long the written paper may be the time should be reduced by at least one third for which the audience is required to listen. One felt in several cases that even the authors of the papers grew weary, or were under a sense of hurry, before they reached the end. This was occasionally caused by extempore insertions, a most difficult performance in which few succeed. Fortunate is the reader who addresses a morning session; he escapes the afternoon somnolence.

Circular causality is one of several unorthodox assumptions underlying cybernetics. This paper identifies “blind spots” which obscure the soundness of this assumption, rendering cybernetics liable to rejection. The purpose of this paper is to aid students of cybernetics in appreciating circular causality.

The presented argument is based on textual and diagrammatic explication of several more or less obvious causal scenarios. Some of these modes are shown to obscure circular causality from observation.

Previously discussed “blind spots” obscuring circular causality are referenced. The notion of probabilistic causality is developed from the notion of collateral effects, which is introduced by extension of the notion of contributory causality. The possible “lossiness” of probabilistic causation is shown to constitute another “blind spot” obscuring circular causality, for example in design.

The presented argument aims to promote acceptance of circular causality. Assuming a radical-constructivist perspective, it discusses the construction of mental models of causal relationships.

Ignorance of circular causality has previously been attributed to preferences for description in terms of energy, and in terms of timeless logic. Additionally, this paper proposes the obscuring effect of probabilistic causality, and the possible co-occurrence of multiple “blind spots.”

The purpose of this paper is to present a cybernetic way of seeing analog and digital along with a basic vocabulary for discussing assumptions underlying the use of both terms.

Taking analog and digital not as properties of observed phenomena but as properties of observers, I ask not what is digital or analog, but what I do when I use these terms. I analyze introspectively, and report on, what I think my assumptions are when using the two terms.

I develop a basic vocabulary to describe engagements that I describe as analog or digital. This vocabulary is applicable beyond technical contexts and suitable also for discussing social and creative processes. It includes a kind of observer who I call matchmaker.

The presented research is preliminary and subjective.

While previous discussions consider analog and digital as properties of observed phenomena, they are considered here as properties of observers. The presented discussion is sufficiently abstract to account for the analog and the digital at various scales, including electronic signal processing and human interaction. The author argues that discussions of engagements described as analog or digital must account for observers of these engagements, including those who act as their matchmakers.