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In our media‐orientated, image‐conscious contemporary society the librarian may very well seem particularly unfortunate, reflected in the imagination of the general public as a fussy old woman of either sex, myopic and repressed, brandishing or perhaps cowering behind a date‐stamp and surrounded by an array of notices which forbid virtually every human activity. The media, for whom the librarian is frustration personified, have reinforced this stereotype, hitherto transmitted solely by superstition and hearsay; its greatest impact has no doubt fallen on the two‐thirds of the population who never use the library. One of its effects will be to ensure that they never do so in the future. As Frank Hatt has pointed out: “The controllers of the new media of communication … have shown a tendency to limit choices by using the considerable power of the media to limit their audience's established attitudes, simply because such limitation is good business.” The popular BBC television series, The last of the summer wine, portrayed a librarian whose vicarious sex‐life through the pages of D. H. Lawrence led to inevitably frustrated attempts to act out his fantasies in occasional under‐the‐counter forays with his similarly repressed female assistant. A Daily mail leader on an appeal against unfair dismissal made by a London Deputy Borough Librarian reiterates this concept:

There are many definitions of profound and multiple learning disabilities. Most definitions include having a high degree of learning disability in conjunction with at least one other severe impairment, such as visual, auditory or physical impairments (Male, 1996; Ware, 1996; Lacey, 1998). Bunning (1997) adds that people with such disabilities are very reliant on others for support, including support in taking part in communicative events. Establishing reliable and consistent methods of communication may be exceptionally difficult (Florian et al, 2000). However, it is important to consider the individuality and extreme diversity of this population (Detheridge, 1997; Hogg, 1998), which includes variability in communication strengths and needs (Granlund & Olsson, 1999; McLean et al, 1996). Communication is often given little attention when services are planning ways of supporting individuals to participate, develop independence and make choices (McGill et al, 2000). While the individual's communication strengths and needs should remain central within any discussion, the significant others and the environment will also have an important influence. This article explores some of the communication issues experienced by people with profound and multiple learning disabilities and highlights the importance of the communication partnership within interventions.

This international survey involved 11 countries and was led and financed by Groupe ESC Rennes. The University of Portsmouth Business School headed the UK research programme. Business Link Hampshire and the University of Portsmouth also financially supported the UK work. Five sectors were investigated: construction, industry, retailing, services and transport. Some 800 mailed questionnaires were returned from SMEs (small and medium enterprises) from cluster locations throughout the UK. The objective of the undertaking was to identify the key factors in the profiles of SME owner‐managers that influence business performance and to contribute to the literature. The following are the findings.

LAST MONTH we wrote in anticipation of the Annual General Meeting at the National Conference in Nottingham. This month we are able to comment on the event itself, which was duly held on September 12th.

The article seeks to show that companies should and can build winning cultures.

A total of 365 companies in Europe, Asia and North America were surveyed for links between financial out‐performance and winning culture. Three dozen high performers were analyzed in in‐depth case studies; one from each region that has transformed its culture is presented.

Findings were that building a winning culture – which fewer than 10 per cent of companies succeed in doing, despite broad recognition that culture provides the greatest source of competitive advantage – requires five key steps: setting expectations, aligning leaders, accountability for delivery, organization‐wide consistency and communication/celebration. Winning cultures tend to display six key behaviours: high aspirations, external focus (customers and competitors), attitude of ownership, bias to action, valuing collaboration and striving for the exceptional. These can be measured through the daily performance of the company's front line.

By definition, out‐performance is rare, but further insights into winning cultures may result when the survey of companies is extended to new regions, such as Latin America.

Practical implications are the winning culture key behaviours, key building steps and performance measurement identified. The article also shows that challenges and even crisis can help, rather than hinder, the transformation of a corporate culture into a winning one.

The article will help focus company leaders on the opportunity and challenges in building a winning culture. It identifies the key behaviours of winning cultures, key steps in building them, and how to measure their progress. It should be of value to all management levels from the chief executive to front‐line staff.

This article outlines the findings and general implications of Mental Health Foundation research into the needs of older Asians with dementia and their carers. The project was carried out in an area with an Asian majority population in North West Kent. The focus is on the identification of need and on factors which block access to care and support. There are recommendations for practitioners and commissioners about raising awareness, service development and training.

The purpose of this article is to explore financial fraud in the private health insurance sector in Australia. Fraud in this sector has commonalities to other countries with similar health systems but in Australia it has garnered some unique characteristics. This article sheds light on these features, especially the fraught relationship between the private health funds and the public health insurance agency, Medicare and the problematic impact of the Privacy Act on fraud detection and financial recovery.

A qualitative methodological approach was used, and interviews were conducted with fraud managers from Australia’s largest private health insurance funds and experts in fields connected to health fraud detection.

All funds reported a need for more technological resources and higher staffing levels to manage fraud. Inadequate resourcing has the predictable outcome of a low detection and recovery rate. The fund managers had differing approaches to recovery action and this ranged from police action, the use of debt recovery agencies, to derecognition from the health fund. As for present and future harm to the industry, the funds found on-line claiming platforms a major threat to the integrity of their insurance system. In addition, they all viewed the Privacy Act as an impediment to managing fraud against their organizations and they desired that there be greater information sharing between themselves and Medicare.

This paper contributes to the knowledge of financial fraud in the private health insurance sector in Australia.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

Expert assessment of organized crime (OC) group capabilities is often the basis for national threat assessments; it is rare, however, for variations in collective expert opinions of OC success factors to be systematically evaluated. The purpose of this paper is to examine the differences in how 150 criminal intelligence experts from a variety of national and organizational backgrounds sort and organize perceived attributes for OC group success.

The paper uses the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Sleipnir framework as a foundation for a Q-sort survey regarding the characteristics of OC group success. The survey was delivered to over 150 criminal intelligence specialists at a national conference in 2011. Descriptive statistics, seemingly unrelated regression, and biplots reveal different aspects of survey responses.

Results show that perceptions of the ingredients for OC group success both vary by nationality and by analysts’ level within the hierarchy of the law enforcement structure (local, state, national). These differences are marked; particular characteristics are viewed as differentially important for the perceived success of OC groups. Furthermore, the results suggest that there are shared and structured differences in perceptions of OC group success characteristics.

The survey has identified distinct differences between the characteristics for OC group's success perceived by analysts in the USA, Canada, and beyond. Furthermore, the organizational level of the analyst (local, state, national) shapes the perceptions of success factors. It is possible variations identified merely reflect differentials in training and experience, i.e. different organizational perceptions of the same problem. That aside, the patterning of results seem likely to be based to some degree on external factors linked to OC group operations, and not just on individual characteristics of the surveyed intelligence professionals.

The current research raises a number of questions regarding the confidence that should be placed in OC group assessments. The research has highlighted areas of professional dissonance that were not apparent from the RCMP Sleipnir research alone. Causes of the dissonance in assessments, and connections of these variations to both intelligence analysts’ experience, training, and organizational ethos; and to OC group capabilities, seem deserving of additional attention.

Expert intelligence analyst interpretation of OC group capability is central to most national risk and threat assessments, yet the assessment processes themselves are rarely examined. This is a unique survey of over 150 intelligence personnel that highlights significant differences in perceptions of OC groups, differences that raise questions about how the authors evaluate the OC threat.

This paper aims to identify the archetypes of marketing mix standardization-adaptation in MNC subsidiaries and to examine the relationships between MNC subsidiary strategy, environment and performance through the theoretical lenses of fit and equifinality.

The authors use a mail survey to collect data from MNC subsidiary business units located in multiple countries. They apply a novel archetypal analysis method to identify the diverse archetypes of marketing mix standardization-adaptation in MNC subsidiaries. Finally, through cross-tabulation and regression analysis, they examine the relationships between MNC strategy, environment and performance.

They identify four archetypes of MNC subsidiary standardization-adaptation including a new archetype that is not recognized in the literature. This analysis finds partial support for both fit and equifinality, suggesting complementarity between the two theories.

The study could be extended with longitudinal data to examine the dynamics in MNC marketing mix strategy and performance in response to the changing business environment.

The findings suggest that MNC subsidiary managers could deploy a broader set of international marketing strategy configurations than those currently prescribed to enhance performance.

The authors use a novel configuration-based archetypal analysis method and extend the theoretical typology of international marketing strategies pursued by MNC subsidiaries. The partial support for both fit and equifinality expands the theoretical lens through which we can examine the relationships between MNC marketing strategy, environment and performance.