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Unclaimed property is an important part of state government operations, yet very little research has been conducted on the function of returning unclaimed property to owners or the related public administration operation of unclaimed property. The purpose of this paper is to offer an exploratory study of unclaimed property in the USA and the factors that influence management.

The authors use Agency Theory to examine the role of unclaimed property in state government budgeting and operations. The data consisted of a 2011 survey of state unclaimed property agencies, which was utilized for a regression model.

Results showed: type of uniform code used to govern unclaimed property; and presence and size of marketing staff in the agency had a significant relationship with extent of property returned to owners.

This is the first comprehensive study on how state governments manage unclaimed property. This study can provide practitioners, policymakers, and researchers with a better insight into unclaimed property management.

Using broad definitions of sustainable and non-sustainable consumer behavior, identifying key elements of these types of consumer behavior and differentiating between spirituality and religiosity, the purpose of this study is to develop and test a research model.

A systematic literature review was conducted to identify elements of the research constructs. Literature on sustainable business practices was particularly important. Once elements were identified, measures used in previous consumer behavior research were used to collect data from 116 undergraduate students enrolled in marketing and management classes at a major university located in the southwestern USA.

Results indicate that the level of a consumer’s spirituality affects both sustainable and non-sustainable consumer behavior. In addition, the model predicts that the level of a consumer’s religiosity has no impact on non-sustainable consumer behavior, and this prediction is verified by the study results.

As it is important for businesses to conduct sustainable business practices, it may also be beneficial to consumers to practice sustainable behavior. A significant predictor of this sustainable consumer behavior is spirituality, and it is important to distinguish spirituality from religiosity.

Sustainable consumer behavior is more thoroughly described. Also, religiosity and spirituality are delineated. Finally, for the first time, the separate and distinct impact of religiosity and spirituality on sustainable and non-sustainable consumer behavior is assessed.

The study maps workplace stakeholders’ perceptions of living wage (LW) impacts in New Zealand. Empirical findings inform an inaugural model of LW impacts and contingent factors at individual, organisation, sector/industry and national levels.

Data from a national employee survey, semi-structured interviews with business sector representatives, and staff in two LW organisation cases were subjected to thematic content analysis.

Informants emphasised anticipated LW impacts amid complex workplace and regulatory dynamics. Employers/managers stressed its cost effects. However, employees, human resource (HR) advocates and other LW proponents highlighted employee “investment” impacts that improve worker productivity and societal circumstances.

This study highlights the need for further context-sensitive LW analysis. An initial model of LW impacts provides a framework for comparative and longitudinal work in other national contexts.

The proposed model categorises perceived LW effects and can inform policy development. Findings also stress a need for cross-agency initiatives to address LW concerns, including a key role for HR.

The findings highlight perceptions of a LW impacting within and beyond the workplace. Whilst higher-quality management is seen to encourage better-informed decisions about “going living wage”, a LW's positive socio-economic impacts require multi-lateral initiatives, suggesting that those initiatives are is part of wider obligations for policy makers to encourage decent living standards.

This study provides a much-needed and inaugural focus on the intertwined workplace and wider impacts of a LW, extending extant econometric analyses. The paper also synthesizes different data sources to develop an inaugural, context-sensitive model of perceived LW effects.

To identify the Obama administration’s policy responsiveness to the (African) American LGBT communities.

Theory development and content analysis.

Civic universalism, as a theory, can explain President Obama’s evolution on his support for marriage rights for same-sex couples. Obama employed the concept of e pluribus unum in his many approaches to LGBT responsive politics.

To date, theoretical development within the social sciences of LGBT policy responsiveness is limited.

Very little is written on the subject of LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered) politics in the 21st century. The study of the LGBT experience generally has been devoid of political variables because of a lack of attention toward LGBT issues, until recently, in national political party agendas. In this chapter, we review some of the contours of the LGBT community’s fight for political recognition in the United States as a precursor to the election and reelection of President Obama. Drawing parallels with presidential responsiveness toward Blacks in their quest for rights, we examine the Obama administration’s LGBT public policy initiatives as administrative policy and programs. We conclude by identifying new areas of research to explore on LGBT politics.

Rather than organize as traditional firms, many of today’s companies organize as platforms that sit at the nexus of multiple exchange and production relationships. This chapter considers a most basic question of organization in platform contexts: the choice of boundaries. Herein, I investigate how classical economic theories of firm boundaries apply to platform-based organization and empirically study how executives made boundary choices in response to changing market and technical challenges in the early mobile computing industry (the predecessor to today’s smartphones). Rather than a strict or unavoidable tradeoff between “openness-versus-control,” most successful platform owners chose their boundaries in a way to simultaneously open-up to outside developers while maintaining coordination across the entire system.

Purpose – Cory Booker will likely step down as mayor of Newark in 2014 or 2018. When he does, the possibility of a strong Latino candidate emerging is quite likely. There are a number of black politicians who would like to succeed Booker as well. This chapter identifies eight potential successors to Booker and assesses their ability to create a multiracial electoral coalition using prior vote performance in citywide elections.Design/methodology/approach – This study regresses district (or precinct) level vote preferences for the aforementioned potential successors in previous elections on the racial and ethnic composition of the district, using voter district demographic data from 2000 and 201011The 2010 data is still incomplete at the time of publication. As such, this data will be used sparingly. compiled by the US Census Bureau and the Minnesota Population Center.Findings − There is a decade’s worth of evidence suggesting racially polarized voting among blacks and Latinos in Newark. The racialized black and Latino candidates examined in this chapter had much stronger support in districts with large coethnic populations. In contrast, the more deracialized candidates often had softer support in districts with high concentrations of coethnic voters, but often performed better in districts with higher concentrations of non-coethnics.Originality/value − While the author cautions against reading too much into the findings, the results do portend a future of racially polarized voting in Newark, especially as the city’s population diversifies and as different factions vie for power.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the development, implementation and initial evaluation of the Geriatric Flying Squad's reciprocal referral pathways with emergency responders including New South Wales Ambulance, Police and Fire and Rescue. These innovative pathways and model of care were developed to improve access to multidisciplinary services for vulnerable community dwelling frail older people with the intent of improving health and quality of life outcomes by providing an alternative to hospital admission.

This is a case study describing the review of the Geriatric Flying Squad's referral database and quality improvement initiative to streamline referrals amongst the various emergency responders in the local health district. The implementation and initial evaluation of the project through online survey are further described.

Sustainable cross-sector collaboration can be achieved through building reciprocal pathways between an existing rapid response geriatric outreach service and emergency responders including Ambulance, Police, Fire and Rescue. Historically, emergency services would have transferred this group to the emergency department. These pathways exemplify person-centred care, underpinned by a multidisciplinary, rapid response team, providing an alternative referral pathway for first responders, with the aim of improving whole of health outcomes for frail older people.

Enablers of these pathways include a single point of contact for agencies, extended hours to support referral pathways, education to increase capacity and awareness, comprehensive and timely comprehensive assessment and ongoing case management where required and contemporaneous cross-sector collaboration to meet the medical and psychosocial needs of the client.

The Geriatric Flying Squad reciprocal pathways are a unique model of care with a multi-agency approach to addressing frail older people's whole of health needs.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how digital and physical product development can be successfully coordinated and which new product development and contextual practices are suitable for the combined digital-physical product development process.

The paper is based on a multiple-case study within one company with three digital-physical product development projects as the units of analysis. The data collection and analysis are guided by an existing research model. The case study is used deductively to illustrate the model.

When combining digital and physical development processes, one or both need to change. This may lead to sub-optimization of one or both of the processes but optimizes the combined digital-physical process. Various development and coordination practices as well as contextual measures must be put into place to improve fit to the digital-physical process characteristics and mixed materiality.

The paper illustrates the research model with case evidence and suggests tentative theory in the form of propositions. Further research needs to explore the impact of the practices and contextual measures proposed.

This research proposes a range of conditions facilitating the successful development of digital-physical products.

This paper is among the first to empirically explore the complex process of digital-physical product development. Taking a process perspective and focusing on organizational and managerial practices and the influence of context, organization theory is used as the theoretical lens.

Clearance rates for nonfatal shootings, especially cases involving gang- and drug-related violence, are disturbingly low in many US cities. Using data from a previously completed project in Boston, we explore the prospects for improving gang/drug nonfatal shooting cases by investing the same investigative effort found in similar gang/drug gun murder cases.

Our analyses primarily focus on a sample of 231 nonfatal shootings that occurred in Boston from 2010 to 2014. Logistic regressions are first used to analyze differences in the likelihood of case clearance for gang/drug nonfatal shooting cases relative to other nonfatal shooting cases. Independent samples t-tests are then used to compare the investigative characteristics of these two different kinds of nonfatal shootings. Next, independent samples t-tests are used to compare the investigation of gang/drug gun assaults relative to the investigation of very similar gang/drug gun homicides.

Results demonstrate that the odds of clearing gang/drug nonfatal shootings are 77.2% less likely relative to the odds of clearing nonfatal shootings resulting from other circumstances. This stark difference in clearance rates is not driven by diminished investigative effort, but investigative effort does matter. Relative to gang/drug gun assaults, gang/drug gun homicides have much higher clearance rates that are the result of greater investigative resources and effort that produces significantly more witnesses and evidence, and generate more forensic tests and follow-up investigative actions.

Gang- and drug-related violence generates a bulk of urban nonfatal shootings. Low clearance rates for nonfatal shootings undermine police efforts to hold offenders accountable, disrupt cycles of gun violence, and provide justice to victims. Police should make investments to improve investigative effort such as handling these cases with the same vigor as homicide cases.