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Many countries are developing primary care collaborative memory clinics (PCCMCs) to address the rising challenge of dementia. Previous research suggests that quality assurance should be a foundational element of an integrated system of dementia care. The purpose of this paper is to understand physicians’ and specialists’ perspectives on such a system and identify barriers to its implementation.

The authors used interviews and a constructivist framework to understand the perspectives on a quality assurance framework for dementia care and barriers to its implementation from ten primary care and ten specialist physicians affiliated with PCCMCs.

Interviewees found that the framework reflects quality dementia care, though most could not relate quality assurance to clinical practice. Quality assurance was viewed as an imposition on practitioners rather than as a measure of system integration. Disparities in resources among providers were seen as barriers to quality care. Greater integration with specialists was seen as a potential quality improvement mechanism. Standardized electronic medical records were seen as important to support both quality assurance and clinical care.

This work identified several challenges to the implementation of a quality assurance framework to support an integrated system of dementia care. Clinicians require education to better understand quality assurance. Additional challenges include inadequate resources, a need for closer collaboration between specialists and PCCMCs, and a need for a standardized electronic medical record.

Greater health system integration is necessary to provide quality dementia care, and quality assurance could be considered a foundational element driving system integration.

This study explores auditors’ professional attitudes and behaviours. It tests the influence of public interest commitment, independence enforcement beliefs and organisational ethical culture on auditors’ acceptance of and engagement in practices that compromise their objectivity. The study is based on survey responses of 122 Spanish auditors. To analyse the combined effect of the variables under study, variance-based structural equation modelling (partial least squares, PLS) was employed. The results suggest that the regulatory efforts to improve auditors’ behaviours by enforcing independence rules have been internalised by auditors. The results also reinforce the need to instil the societal responsibilities of professional auditors, since auditors’ public interest commitment is related to their ethical decision making. Furthermore, this study reveals that firms’ ethical cultures influence auditors’ commitment to the public interest, as well as their ethical decision making. The study raises practical implications for auditing professionals, regulators and audit firms. Understanding auditors’ beliefs and behavioural patterns is critical to proposing mechanisms that enhance their ethical behaviours, which could ultimately enhance audit quality. The chapter contributes to the field by analysing the combined effect of the regulatory framework and organisational context on auditors’ professional values and behaviours.

The present study investigated the impact of earnings volatility and environmental uncertainty on accounting comparability in an emerging economy and the moderating role of COVID-19 pandemic for the companies listed on Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE).

The data about 181 companies during 2014–2021 were examined. In this study, accounting comparability was predicted for the firms' accounting systems and the coefficient estimates were calculated. The present study used the coefficient of variation of sales to capture sales volatility as the primary environmental uncertainty measure.

The results showed that both the earnings volatility and environmental uncertainty have a significant negative effect on accounting comparability, and that COVID-19 significantly increases the negative impact of earnings volatility and environmental uncertainty on accounting comparability. The hypothesis testing based on robust, GLS, GMM, GLM, OLS regressions and t+1 test confirmed these results.

The present study aimed to develop knowledge-providing benefits for companies about the accounting comparability and managing more efficient decisions. The present findings help investors to understand and evaluate the performance of firms more accurately especially in earnings volatility and environmental uncertainty conditions and in the wake of a pandemic crisis such as COVID-19.

This study aims to examine the components and evolution of the Chinese wine festival market using the Dalian International Wine and Dine Festival (DIWDF) as a case study.

Adopting a longitudinal approach, survey data were collected from attendees of the first, fifth and seventh DIWDF in 2012, 2016 and 2018, respectively. Cluster analysis segmented attendees by wine and festival experience and consumption features. Comparative analysis was conducted to examine segment differences by demography, festival motivation, satisfaction and intention. Changes in segments over time were examined across the three times.

The following three clusters were identified: “wine-novice fest-newbies,” “occasional drinker fest-goers” and “wine-lover fest-enthusiasts.” Over the study period, the proportion of “wine-lover fest-enthusiasts” increased significantly while the percentages of the other two segments decreased, demonstrating the evolution of the Chinese wine festival market and their consumer impacts.

This study offers straightforward indicators of market value via consumption features for both wine businesses and festival organizers. The characteristics of the segments and their inter-linkage have important implications for developing product mix, targeting strategies, festival service design and market development.

This is the first known empirical research globally to investigate relationships among market segments both horizontally (differences between segments) and vertically (development over time) and to incorporate both wine- and festival-related consumption features.

The purpose of this study is to examine and interpret the characteristics of social responsibility in general, and business responsibility in particular, that were evident during a period in European history that was plagued by widespread social problems and change. Based on that interpretation, the authors explore the lessons those characteristics may have for social responsibility in a contemporary world that is facing similar conditions.

The paper presents a qualitative analysis of the proceedings of the Bienfaisance Congress held in Frankfurt in 1857, where societal leaders from different nations met to answer the question, who has responsibility for whom, and for what? The authors use grounded theory, as it is operationalized in what is known as the “Gioia template,” to conduct a structured analysis of this particular text, and to in turn produce a theoretical interpretation of how that question was answered.

The interpretation from this study is that congress participants articulated certain established dimensions of responsibility (individual, organizational, national), as well as one new dimension (international), and did so by differentiating boundaries of responsibility; in turn, the authors suggest that these dimensions and boundaries work together to form a nested system of responsibilities.

There is limited empirical evidence available that documents the variety of responsibility-based initiatives that were being conducted during the 19th century. An analysis of the congress proceedings allows us to gain a better understanding of how the 19th-century world, particularly the upper echelons of European society, approached the question of under what conditions actors in different domains have responsibility for another. While the implications are limited by the analysis of the proceedings of one congress that was attended by elites, they do provide a snapshot of how Europe sought to articulate a system of bounded responsibilities during a time of widespread social problems and change.

Although the nested system of responsibilities framework that emerged from the grounded theory analysis is not applicable to all situations, it should sensitize policymakers and business leaders to the need to address social problems in a systemic way.

The authors both present a systems-based framework for understanding how responsibility is differentiated among actors (individual, organizational, state and international) and demonstrate how a theoretical interpretation of historical documents can be accomplished through the use of grounded theory, as operationalized through the Gioia template.

Over the past 25 years, trash, and facilities for the disposal of trash, have been transformed from public “problems” and resources to property. The social process of transformation has been prompted by increased environmental concerns and increasing volumes of trash which, in turn, prompted the development of regional public disposal facilities and large international trash corporations which dominate this multi‐billion dollar industry. This social and economic transformation has been accompanied by change in legal forms that ratify the economic transformations, as suggested by Balbus and Pashukanis, while also creating conflicts and contradictions, as suggested by Chambliss, which are currently the focus of attention in the United States Congress. This paper traces the social and economic transformation which has occurred and analyzes the legal process of ratifying this transformation, primarily in Federal appellate courts, and the current activity in Congress.

The Ba River catchment and delta on the island of Viti Levu, Fiji, supports a wealth of livelihoods and is populated by diverse communities who are living with an increased frequency and intensity of hydro-meteorological hazards (floods, cyclones and droughts). Participatory mapping as part of focus group discussions is a tool that can be used to elucidate communities’ understanding of the differing impacts of multiple hazards, as well as the strategies used to prepare and respond to different hazards. In this chapter, the authors present the results of qualitative research undertaken with members of three communities along the Ba River, from the Nausori highlands to the coastal mangroves, with a particular focus on recent floods (2009, 2012) and Tropical Cyclone Winston (2016). The communities draw on a wide range of livelihood strategies from fishing and agriculture to tourism and outside work. Natural hazard events vary in their impact on these livelihood strategies across the landscape and seascape, so that community members can adjust their activities accordingly. The temporal ‘signatures’ of ongoing impacts are also variable across communities and resources. The results suggest that taking a broad, landscape (and seascape) approach to understanding how communities draw livelihoods is valuable in informing effective and inclusive adaptation strategies for environmental change. Furthermore, documenting how the landscape is used in a mapped output may be a valuable tool for future social impact assessment for resource extraction activities.

This paper discusses national differences in the interpretation of time in mixed motive decision contexts, such as negotiation. Specifically, we consider how members of different national cultures (Portugal, Turkey, and the United States) experience temporality in these situations. We argue that cultural temporality such as polychronicity, future orientation, and uncertainty avoidance form part of a broader national environment. The national environment is also expressed in national stability factors such as legal systems, family ties, and homogeneity of populations. We propose that temporality and stability aspects of national environment determine negotiation paradigms, which subsequently influence temporality in negotiations. We conclude by suggesting that inclusion of complex and interdependent national environment factors in the study of negotiation has the potential to substantially advance our understanding of mixed motive decision situations.

This study proposes a model of the effect of financial and non-financial performance measures on nonprofit organizations’ (NPOs’) effectiveness where internal stakeholders' trust play an intervening role in the aforementioned relationships.

Data were collected from 218 employees working at the largest Palestinian NPOs. The perceptions of these employees were used to measure the variables, and structural equation modeling was used to examine the hypotheses.

Results suggest that the use of financial and non-financial performance measures was positively related to NPOs' effectiveness. Internal stakeholders' trust showed a significant mediating effect between the use of performance measures and NPOs' effectiveness.

This study may be of value for NPOs' managers due to the positive effects performance measurement (PM) can have on NPO effectiveness. Managers and boards should seek to enhance their internal stakeholders' trust to achieve higher levels of effectiveness.

This study has three main contributions. First, it is one of the very few papers which empirically examines the links between PM and NPOs' effectiveness, rather than providing conceptual lens. Second, the paper investigates the role of stakeholders' trust as a mediating mechanism in the proposed model, a topic that has been neglected by NPOs governance researchers. Finally, the study uses data from the Palestinian context, contributing to the PM literature by providing evidence on the relationship between performance measures and NPOs' effectiveness from a non-Western context.