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Psychotherapy is often used to treat dysfunctional inter-personal relationships, but it is rarely used to treat dysfunctional B2B relationships. Yet many of the variables found in inter-personal relationships are also found in B2B relationships and both types of relationships have similar fail rates. The authors take a multi-disciplinary approach by adapting an instrument from marriage therapy into a new measure called the Business Relationship Health Index (BRHI). In the process we re-evaluate the drivers of B2B relationships.

The authors apply the Global Assessment of Relational Functioning (GARF) psychiatric system to B2B relationships. The GARF instrument incorporates three components: interaction/problem solving, organization/structure and emotional climate. Using US panel data of 500 B2B relationships based in the USA, the authors use partial least squares analysis and develop a structural equation model to test the validity and reliability of the BRHI with some well-known relationship measures including, satisfaction, trust, commitment and performance.

The findings support a strong link between the BRHI (emotion, interaction and organization) and relationship performance. The proposed measure shows a strong link between BRHI and relationship performance (R² = 0.54).

The GARF instrument has never been applied to a B2B context. BRHI is a holistic instrument used for assessing the specific relational characteristics of B2B relationships. The BRHI can benefit relationship stakeholders when used as a diagnostic tool to prioritize B2B investment strategies. Managers can use BRHI to determine the extent to which the relationship is healthy or needs repair, re-evaluation, re-commitment, or repositioning.

The behavioural theory adds a new paradigm of analysis with the assumptions of the decision maker’s cognitive biases and their repercussions on financing decisions. The aim of the study is to analyse the repercussions of these biases on the adjustment speed of firm’s capital structure toward the optimal level.

Based on a partial adjustment model, the study uses the Dynamic Panel Fractional estimator to analyse panel data from 4,990 Portuguese entrepreneurial firms.

The results show that the cognitive overconfidence bias impacts the entrepreneurial firm’s capital structure. In fact, the firms run by overconfident managers adjust more slowly than their counterparts. Furthermore, the findings suggest that entrepreneurial firms make relatively fast adjustments toward the optimal debt level and follow a hierarchical financing order in the funding process.

The results of this paper are not only interesting to the academia, but also contain practical implications for corporate, institutional and business policy and governance. First, the paper introduces a new measure of cognitive bias in optimistic managers, which is useful for current and future academic research. Also, in practical terms, the findings of the paper reveal that when a company is contemplating hiring a manager, it should consider whether they need an optimistic or non-optimistic manager based on the company's present life cycle or situation.

The current analysis extends the existing literature. The study suggests that financial classical and behavioural paradigms should not be separated, which can provide evidence to help narrow the gap between these two major perspectives.

This chapter focusses on how qualitative research can capture the lived experiences of entrepreneurial individuals by exploring their subjective experiences. Traditional methods of data collection involve listening to what entrepreneurial individuals say and observing their actions, although particular attention to their feelings is often absent. To achieve data congruence and to gain a deeper understanding of their lived experiences, it is crucial to also take into consideration how they feel. This chapter will recount a confessional tale recorded during a recent field study in entrepreneurship that will shed light on the pivotal role that a researcher’s sensory processing sensitivity (SPS) trait can play during qualitative data collection in helping researchers becoming mindful of the feelings of entrepreneurial individuals, even when those feelings are not directly expressed by them. The introduction of the researcher’s SPS trait in promoting data congruence during qualitative data collection will be this chapter’s principal contribution.

High divorce rates have coincided with higher rates of remarriage. Although remarriages are more susceptible to dissolution than first-order marriages, less research has focused on factors that promote vulnerabilities among remarried couples. In the current study, the authors focused on whether predictors of divorce differ by the number of times someone has been married. The authors examined some of the most common reasons for divorce, as identified by parents who completed a state-mandated divorce education course (n = 8,364), while also controlling for participant sociodemographic characteristics. Participants going through their first divorce were more likely to identify growing apart and infidelity as reasons for seeking a divorce. Conversely, those going through a subsequent divorce were more likely to list problems with alcohol/drug abuse, childrearing differences, emotional/psychological/verbal mistreatment, money problems, physical violence, and arguing. Multivariate analyses indicated that sociodemographic factors were stronger predictors of divorce number than commonly listed reasons for divorce for both male and female participants. Implications for remarital and stepfamily stability and directions for future research are discussed.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected many industries, and reports indicate that this includes the illicit drug market. Recent research suggests that the homeless are particularly vulnerable during the pandemic, and the UK Government has acted to house rough sleepers. Research is scarce regarding homeless people’s experiences of the illicit drug market. This study aims to explore homeless people’s experiences of the drug supply in the UK during COVID-19.

Eight homeless people who use illicit drugs, residing in hostels for homeless people in Southampton, participated in semi-structured one-on-one telephone-based interviews.

A thematic analysis revealed five themes: availability of drugs, presence of dealers, quality of drugs, finances and personal experiences. Participants reported varying experiences of the drug supply, with lockdown measures expressed as the main reason for reduced supplies, as users found it difficult to find dealers and generate income for purchasing drugs.

The results may lack generalisability to the wider population, such as rough sleepers and drug dealers, suggesting a need for further research into people’s experiences of the drug supply during COVID-19. Research on this topic could be more in-depth through the use of research methods that are convenient for the homeless population.

Services should invest in harm reduction services and encourage homeless people who use drugs to engage in substitution treatment. Homeless services should provide psychological support for homeless people who use drugs.

The changes in homeless people’s behaviour following the pandemic may have implications for their interactions with the rest of society (e.g. begging in town centres may reduce). These changes in behaviour may also change the way society can best support homeless people.

The results are partially consistent with other research findings about the illicit drug supply; however, they also suggest that some individuals experienced minimal change in the illicit drug supply.

Hazel Kyrk’s contribution is the most advanced formulation of the economics of consumption as a social phenomenon, an approach to the analysis of consumption that, originated from Veblen’s theory, was developed in the US in the early 20th century. This approach was part of a wider stream of empirical analyses of consumption expenditure that had begun more than a century earlier.

Along with elements that can be traced back to the neoclassical tradition, in Keynes’ analysis of consumption, we find original elements. The dependence of consumption expenditure on the level of income, which is essential for asserting the principle of effective demand, can also be found in a long tradition of empirical studies. In qualifying this relationship, Keynes uses theoretical elements echoing key insights of the economics of consumption as a social phenomenon. There is no documentary evidence that Kyrk or the economics of the social relevance of consumption came to Keynes’ attention. It is possible, however, to develop reasonable speculative considerations to argue a link between Keynes’ elaboration and both the empirical literature on the determinants of consumption and the economics of consumption as a social phenomenon.

Children with developmental disabilities (e.g. learning disability and autism) often struggle with handwriting skills. This study aims to implement an adapted handwriting programme for children with developmental disabilities to improve their handwriting skills.

Six children with developmental disabilities aged 9–15 years received an adapted Handwriting Without Tears® (HWT) programme in small groups over eight weeks. The programme was delivered by typical teaching staff (i.e. paraprofessionals) at a special education school following a brief training session and with ongoing supervision. A range of measures assessed the children’s handwriting and related skills. Social validity interviews were conducted with school staff following the intervention to evaluate the programme’s acceptability.

Typical teaching staff implemented the handwriting programme with 92.3% average fidelity and delivered a minimum of three sessions per week. Social validity interviews demonstrated the acceptability of the intervention to school staff. After eight weeks of intervention, all children improved their handwriting on various assessments. Improvements were only partially maintained at follow-up.

This study supports the feasibility of using an adapted HWT programme to teach handwriting to children with developmental disabilities in special education settings. Typical teaching staff can be trained to support the delivery of the programme to children in small groups.

Health care ecosystems instantiate different innovation trajectories, driven either by science-/techno-push or user-centric rationales. This article focuses on organization intermediaries (OIs), respectively, active in health care ecosystems driven by science- and techno-push versus user-centric innovation processes; it aims at characterizing their operation and intervention modes. The analysis elaborates on network and content brokerage. Innovation also needs to consider various challenges associated with physical vicinity. The authors check whether territorial anchoring plays a role in brokerage, depending on the innovation model.

The article offers an investigation of eight French organizations matching the definition of OIs and active in different areas of health care-related innovation. It follows a qualitative and abductive research protocol adhering to the precepts of grounded theory.

First, the authors show that content and network brokerage specialize in specific activities in each innovation model. On network brokerage, the authors show that OIs foster the development of communities of practice in the science-/techno-push model, while they nurture communities of innovation in the user-centric model. Services materializing content brokerage are typical consequences of activities performed in each model. The second contribution deals with physical vicinity. In the science-/techno-push model, OIs install a physical space (the “internal” dimension) to support the development of communities of practice, while the “external” dimension copes with agglomeration effects. In the user-centric model, OIs deliver services thanks to the “internal” space; communities of innovation create a leverage effect on the physical space to operate their activities that are supported by “external” network effects.

The originality of the article lies in the description of the alternative roles plaid by organization intermediaries in the science-/techno-push versus user-centric approaches of innovation. In these two approaches, (contents and network) brokerage and physical vicinity play different roles.