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The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of bank branch location on the likelihood of bank failure during the most recent financial crisis.

This paper estimates the probit regression to identify the causes of bank failures and attempts to determine the role of branch location in bank performance.

Using data from failed and surviving banks in Georgia and Florida, this paper finds that diversifying the balance sheet and operating in more competitive markets reduced failure rates, but branching intensity, measured by number of branches and distance of branches from the home office did not significantly reduce the probability of failure. This suggests that, at least in today ' s market, it is not important to bank stability to have a branching network a significant distance from the home office.

This paper carefully considers the role of branch location in the likelihood of bank failure during financial distress. As such, it contributes to the historical policy debate regarding regulation prohibiting or minimizing banks ' ability to branch. It also contributes to our understanding of how banks structure their branching networks in the contemporary banking environment.

The Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act address factors to consider in educating students with and without disabilities together to the maximum extent appropriate. This chapter is designed to examine the origins and evolving interpretations of the LRE concept in special education policy and practice. Discussion traces the evolution of the concept as a legal principle, and reviews its application to educational strategies for students with learning and behavioral disabilities in contemporary schools. In conclusion, the future of the LRE concept is addressed in light of competing policies promoting presumptive inclusive education, and publicly funded school choice programs promoting greater involvement of parents in choosing where their children with and without disabilities should be educated.

Many university-based services for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have incorporated peer mentorship programs; however, the research on the success of these programs to increase social engagement is extremely limited. This study aims to examine the effectiveness of a peer mentor program, both alone and combined with an incentive program, on increasing the social engagement of college students with ASD. Additionally, the perceptions of college students with ASD were also examined to determine potential barriers to participate in these social events.

A component analysis was used to determine what intervention component or combination of components, was most effective in increasing the social engagement among college students with ASD. The number of students during each component was totaled and averaged across the number of social events held during that phase. A survey regarding barriers to social engagement was also provided.

Results suggest that both the peer mentor program alone, as well as the peer mentor program in conjunction with an incentive program, were effective at increasing students’ attendance at weekly supervised social events. Results from the survey regarding barriers to social engagement revealed that the majority of students reported difficulties managing time to fit social events into their schedule.

To the knowledge, the use of peer-mentoring programs combined with an incentive program on increasing social engagement has not yet been investigated. Further, perceptions of the use of these programs by college students with ASD is relatively limited.

Policy makers and practitioners argue that electronic exchange of clinical data across the healthcare system is a key component of improving health service delivery in the United States. Provider administrators, however, question the strategic value of participation in health information exchanges (HIEs) and remain reluctant to participate. Existing research fails to adequately illuminate the potential value derived from HIEs by participating organizations. This paper addresses this gap by developing a conceptual model informed by the complementary theoretical perspectives of the relational view and systems theory to specify both a provider organizationʼs internal conditions and the HIE structure necessary for both financial accrual and quality improvement. This two-sided model can assist policymakers as they attempt to encourage HIE development, as well as provider and HIE leadership that seek to benefit from HIEs. The propositions developed from this model can also help guide researchers as they evaluate the impact of HIEs.

This study seeks to understand how regulatory and competitive forces impact firms' actions and innovation performance. The study investigates how firms strategize internally and externally to address regulatory and competitive forces, and how such actions influence firms' innovation performance.

The data were collected via a survey of 217 managers of business organizations in Nigeria.

Regulatory forces have a positive relationship with both absorptive capacity (AC) and information sharing (IS). Competitive forces, on the other hand, only have a negative relationship with IS but not with AC. AC has a positive relationship with innovation performance, while IS, surprisingly, does not have a positive relationship with innovation performance.

The study contributes to knowledge by empirically validating the relationships between environmental forces and innovation performance; more importantly, the study uncovers the underlying factors, i.e. IS and AC that link environmental forces and firms' innovation performance.

THE Leeds Conference of the Library Association was, in many respects, the most important gathering of librarians which has taken place in Britain since librarianship first became organised. The value and interest of the topics discussed, the joint discussion with representatives of famous educational bodies, and other features of a novel kind, all contributed to give the Leeds meeting a character which was very impressive; and its results are likely to be fruitful, if a strong effort is made to follow up the various important matters which were brought forward.

A recent study found state bond bank participants continually realize considerable interest cost savings. Savings were calculated as differences in interest costs of bond bank loans and the bond offerings participants would have sold as alternatives to loans, (alternative market offerings). The present evaluation determines the sources of the savings. Savings are generated by not only differences in issue characteristics of bond bank issues and alternative market offerings, but also differential impacts of the same market forces and institutional factors on the interest costs of both types of sales. These findings verify that bond bank issues and alternative market offerings sell in different sub-markets, and confirm municipal bond market segmentation.

The present paper seeks to establish, through literature reports, if TQM is still a management theory in vogue or now a management fad. To achieve this, the innovative change process of TQM is examined, along the dimension of creativity, invention, innovation, diffusion and adoption.

The approach for data collection is basically secondary sources. The literature is extensively reviewed to arrive at the position presented in the paper.

From the reviews made it is argued that, although TQM looks faddish in graphical presentation of articles on TQM, it cannot be concluded that it is now a management fad. Though reports on TQM seem to diminish among popular press but academic scholars are still very much engrossed with empirical studies on TQM. This is based on the fact that many organizations still adopt and implement TQM and its diffusion is on the increase globally.

The main source of literature for the presentation is the ABI‐INFORM database. This might have reduced the generalizability of the findings in the present research. It is encouraged for other sources of literature to be explored.

It is implied from the present research that TQM is still a management philosophy in practice. Because it is diffused cross‐culturally, it is encouraged for its adopters not to use it as a “canned technique” of management change. Rather the management ideas need to be adapted within specific organizational settings, putting into consideration employees' personality, organizational leadership styles, reward system, and other cultural practices. Implementers of TQM should endeavor to fully understand the antics of the management philosophy and implement accordingly. A clear understanding and training of personnel on TQM philosophy is pertinent for protecting it from becoming a management fad.

What is original about the paper is the conceptualization of TQM along the organizational change process. TQM is presented as an innovation and its diffusion and adoption processes are sequentially analyzed.