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Since the murder of Steven Hoskin, there have been considerable changes in the way that agencies in Cornwall operate. In order to prevent further tragedies on such a scale, a protocol was agreed by the agencies about when an alert should be triggered (Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Safeguarding Adults Board, 2008). This paper describes the process and implications of the protocol from the perspective of Devon and Cornwall Police, South Western Ambulance Service Trust and Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Primary Care Trust. The protocol has improved and encouraged information sharing within and between agencies, which will help to identify and reduce the risks to vulnerable adults.

This paper reviews the progress that Cornwall County has made since the murder of Steven Hoskin and the resulting Serious Case Review (Flynn, 2007). Interviews were held with senior and frontline personnel, whose agencies were in contact with Steven and the people who moved into his bedsit. The agencies have progressed significantly, in terms of attitude and reforming the way in which they work. The outcomes and processes that have resulted from the action plans that were drawn up have been welcomed, although there are still challenges to overcome.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of product substitutability on sales performance of integrated and decentralised supply chains. The authors model supply chain performance effects by applying a Cournot equation to a combination of different industry configurations. The study aims to extend existing equilibria models in different supply chains by including the effects of product substitutability on supply chain performance. By extending existing equilibria models, the authors explore the relationship between the degree of product substitutability, chain structure and chain performance when some actors of the supply chain behave as Stackelberg leaders in a duopoly.

The paper models a supply chain performance by applying a Cournot equation to different supply chain structures in a duopoly.

The findings indicate that, for each specific-supply chain structures in different market configurations, when product substitutability reaches a certain threshold decentralised supply chains outperform integrated chains, in disagreement with common belief in current existing literature.

The study is limited to the application of differential equations in a competitive market configured as a duopoly. Future studies might extend the same model to a competitive market characterised by more than two actors. The findings imply that current tendency of lean implementations through integrated supply chains does not always favour supply chain performance.

The paper includes implications for the development of a stronger differentiation strategy based on consumer value when markets are characterised by high-product substitutability.

These findings highlight the importance of differentiation and consumer-value generation in markets that follow Nash equilibria as opposed to the current focus on price competition.

A religious revival is occurring in the United States today as the traditional wall preventing faith from entering the work place is crumbling. With workers increasingly practicing their religion at work, employers face a growing cavalcade of dilemmas, including those where employees discuss religious tenets, wear religious symbols, object to employer edits on the basis of faith, and proselytize. The faith/work challenge is made even more complex because of the greater number of religions practiced today (both traditional religions based on Judeo‐Christian principles and the so‐called “immigrant religions” that have blossomed during recent decades) coupled with the growing popularity of a host of “spirituality” movements. As the mixing of faith and work becomes common place, employers and employees naturally look to the law to establish concomitant rights and duties.

The purpose of this paper is to ascertain the factors that led to Cape Town’s gay village to transform from a “gaytrified” tourism mecca to a “heterosexualised” urban space, from a gay leisure space owner perspective.

Empirical observations of the six remaining gay leisure space owners in De Waterkant (population) are taken into account by using semi-structured interviews. All narratives are analysed in Altas.ti – qualitative data analysis software – to identify applicable factors, which participants believe are contributing to the “de-gaying” of Cape Town’s gay village.

From the conducted analyses, it becomes apparent that Western theorisation of the “de-gaying” of gay villages is not universally applicable as certain factors contributing to De Waterkant’s demise appear to be location-specific, suggesting that Western theory is insufficient to explain gay spatial realities in non-Western contexts such as South Africa. The identified factors responsible for the “de-gaying” of De Waterkant adversely affect Cape Town’s status as a gay capital and its ability to market this gay neighbourhood to attract the gay tourism market. This may result in lost socio-economic opportunities considering the financial contribution of gay travellers to the local tourist economy.

This study is the first of its kind to use first-hand narratives of the six remaining gay business owners in De Waterkant and marks the first attempt to investigate the factors, from a non-Western perspective, which led to the “de-gaying” of Africa’s only gay village. Taking into account the socio-economic value added by gay tourism, the findings provide the first non-Western perspective on the demise of Africa’s and South Africa’s only gay neighbourhood from a gay leisure space owner perspective, including the possible repercussions on Cape Town’s local tourist economy. Some tactical considerations and recommendations are suggested to ensure the continuation of gay tourism in the city.

Man has been seeking an ideal existence for a very long time. In this existence, justice, love, and peace are no longer words, but actual experiences. How ever, with the American preemptive invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq and the subsequent prisoner abuse, such an existence seems to be farther and farther away from reality. The purpose of this work is to stop this dangerous trend by promoting justice, love, and peace through a change of the paradigm that is inconsistent with justice, love, and peace. The strong paradigm that created the strong nation like the U.S. and the strong man like George W. Bush have been the culprit, rather than the contributor, of the above three universal ideals. Thus, rather than justice, love, and peace, the strong paradigm resulted in in justice, hatred, and violence. In order to remove these three and related evils, what the world needs in the beginning of the third millenium is the weak paradigm. Through the acceptance of the latter paradigm, the golden mean or middle paradigm can be formulated, which is a synergy of the weak and the strong paradigm. In order to understand properly the meaning of these paradigms, however, some digression appears necessary.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of congruity and endorsement on consumer attitudes toward sports website advertisements (Aad), the advertising brand (Abr), and consumers’ future intentions (FI).

The current study followed a 2×3 between-subjects experimental design. Sports celebrity (or the presence or absence of a sports celebrity in a banner ad) and the level of congruity between the website and banner ad (high congruity – soccer, medium congruity – snowboard, and low congruity – computer) were the primary independent variables. Data were collected in two stages. An initial pilot study (n=40) established the reliability and validity of the scaled measures guiding this test. The second phase of data collection, the main study, was conducted over a five-day period. A random assignment of treatment conditions (i.e. exposure to one of six banner ad manipulations) was followed by a series of short surveys designed to measure the dependent variables of subjects’ cognitive ad responses (i.e. Aad, Abr, and FI).

The results indicated that participants who viewed the ad with the endorsement showed a more positive Aad than those who viewed the ad without it. The participants with a high congruity condition reported a more positive Abr and higher FI than those with low or medium congruity.

This study extends the application of congruity theory to banner advertisements, thereby aiding our understanding of consumers’ perceptions of advertising.

Discusses the ethics of marketing to children and the concept of social responsibility, in particular the question of what counts as responsible advertising in a society where consumption is essential to the capitalist system and children are socialised into consumers. Shows how advertising helps children learn the tools of social interaction and the social significance of brands. Asks whether advertising deceives children, reporting research that shows that eight‐year‐olds do not believe all advertising but nevertheless value some of the advertisements. Moves on to the pressure that advertisements may put on parents to supply children with the products advertised. Notes that over half the advertisements shown in children’s television are for food related products, and that advertisers are accused of promoting unhealthy food. Concludes with children as a macro audience, i.e. one to which advertising has not been explicitly targeted but which is recognised as an inevitable recipient of the message.

Addresses the question of how well the banking industry in Australia understands the needs of their business customers. It is based on a nationwide survey of chief executive officers of 2,500 business firms and 25 banks conducted during 1996. In the survey, both groups were asked to rank those factors they consider most important in the bank selection process. Overall, significant differences were found in six out of 15 factors. When the responses were analyzed on the basis of market segment served, we found that Australian bankers have missed the mark when it comes to the issues of competitive prices and service delivery. These results will no doubt have an impact on the marketing efforts of Australian banks as they move into the twentieth century. They should also be useful to firms currently operating in Australia or firms interested in doing so in the future.