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Forced migrants (refugees and asylum seekers) are very vulnerable to mental health problems, and their difficulties are often made worse by the migration process itself. David Palmer describes a unique project, based in west London, that trains migrant qualified doctors to provide mentoring support to fellow refugees and asylum seekers experiencing mental distress.

This study compares filmic and televisual representations of fictional black presidents to white Americans’ reactions to the advent of the United States’s first African American president. My main goal is to determine if there is convergence between these mediated representations and whites’ real-world representations of Barack Obama. I then weigh the evidence for media pundits’ speculations that Obama owes his election to positive portrayals of these fictional heads of state.

The film and television analyses examine each black president’s social network, personality, character traits, preparation for office, and leadership ability. I then compare the ideological messages conveyed through these portrayals to the messages implicated in white Americans’ discursive and pictorial representations of Barack Obama.

Both filmic and televisual narratives and public discourses and images construct and portray black presidents with stereotypical character traits and abilities. These representations are overwhelmingly negative and provide no support for the argument that there is a cause–effect relationship between filmic and televisual black presidents and Obama’s election victory.

Neither reel nor real-life black presidents can elude the representational quagmire that distorts African Americans’ abilities and diversity. Discourses, iconography, narratives, and other representations that define black presidents through negative tropes imply that blacks are incapable of effective leadership. These hegemonic representations seek to delegitimize black presidents and symbolically return them to subordinate statuses.

This research project explored how refugee community organisations (RCOs) could become more involved in the government's health agenda to improve the level of consultation and responsiveness in the design and provision of mental health services for ethnic minorities. The method involved a review of relevant literature, interviews with refugee community organisation leaders and community workers, and a survey of refugee service users' involvement with RCOs. The research found that the causes and effects of mental ill health in refugees as understood by interviewees were consistent with much of the literature in this area. The mental health needs of refugees are very similar across nationalities and ethnicities, and distinct from those of the general population and of other migrant groups. Appropriate responses, as understood by community leaders and professional community workers, are currently only partly and insufficiently provided by statutory health services, and there is extensive unmet need.

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is a much discussed topic, but remains widely misunderstood. In this article David Palmer clarifies the current significance and future direction of EDI.

Refugees are among the most socially excluded and marginalised groups in the UK. This paper examines ways in which the refugee service user's voice can be heard and the power imbalance between service provider and service user addressed. Lessons learned from addressing the needs of refugees can be extrapolated for other disadvantaged groups.

This article is concerned with strategies for combating health inequalities for refugees. It explores a service provider's (St Pancras Refugee Centre) response to the mental health and social care needs of refugees in the London Borough of Camden. Drawing on primary and secondary research, the article presents relevant findings and theoretical discourse in this area. It also draws on my own experience of working with refugees, providing a holistic approach to their social care requirements. The main focus is an examination of how social care and mental health needs are addressed. The article argues that providers need to develop services which engage with users on a mutually beneficial level in order to combat health inequalities and provide adequate health and social care provision.

Research on polychronicity generally treats time use preference, context, and time tangibility as isomorphic variables that can be represented on a single continuum. An alternative model of temporality that treats these variables as independent dimensions is presented. This model is tested in a sample of 258 middle and senior level executives representing more than 200 organizations and 25 countries. Correlations among the variables and confirmatory factor analyses provide support for the multidimensional view of polychronicity. Further classification provided evidence that all eight possible configurations of the three variables can and do exist. The most frequent “type” reflected a polyphasic time use preference, low context, and high time tangible profile. This profile fits the description of Type A behavior pattern adding support for the multidimensional view.

This paper aims to reflect on the paper “Service failure and loyalty: an exploratory empirical study of airline customers” published 18 years ago. It positions it in the evolving literature on relationship marketing and suggests directions for further research and developments in the area.

A review of key contributions of the paper to the study of relationship marketing and the effects of service failures on relationships identifies emerging strands of research.

The concept of a “relationship lifecycle” is now widely used in marketing for identifying customer segments. Different points in the lifecycle are associated with differing sets of relationship expectations and levels of tolerance to service failure. Customer relationship management has tended to morph into customer experience management where principles of relationship lifecycles have been applied to mapping customer “journeys” through a service process.

The original study informed practices of managing relationship expectations and handling failed expectations, depending on a customer’s length of relationship with a company. Although relationship marketing was originally conceived as an integrator of marketing cues, its emphasis on cognitive evaluations may have been too limiting and customer experience management has since introduced additional affective dimensions.

The original paper had been widely cited and generated discussion and important further research. It has value as part of the emerging landscape of services marketing research. This retrospective analysis locates this historical development with reference to currently popular issues of customer experience management.

Forced migration and the resettlement experience combine to produce a set of social, cultural, economic and psychological challenges for forced migrants which may affect integration, mental and physical health, and access to health and social care. There is very little research on the resettlement experience of Ethiopian forced migrants in London, particularly on causes of mental illness and access to mental health care. Few studies have examined whether and how traditional beliefs and customs affect the experiences of this group in health care. The paper reports on a pilot study consisting of interviews with an Ethiopian priest, community leaders and Ethiopians working in the community health sector with the aims of improving our understanding of the issues, and to inform further study. Initial analysis suggests that this group faces multiple forms of disadvantage which affect mental health. A further interesting dynamic is the relation between lack of ‘help seeking behaviour’, due to cultural expectations and norms, and lack of access and engagement with Western treatments. Religious mechanisms and activities were also reported as bolstering coping mechanisms. Perhaps most significant was concern about the increasing suicide rate among this group, many respondents suggesting a direct causal link between suicide and maladjustment in exile.

The resource-based view of the firm and strategic groups research are two of the most investigated frameworks in strategic management. Historically, assumptions behind these two views have seemingly put them at odds. The resource-based view of the firm argues that sustained competitive advantage is best attained when firms have unique resources, while strategic groups research argues that a number of firms within the same industry can achieve sustained profitability with strategies that are similar to one another, but distinct from other industry members. The two views focus on different levels of analysis and each largely ignores the other’s focal level. Yet neither offers any propositions that are incompatible with the tenets of the other. Thus, conceptual integration that crosses levels of analysis is possible and potentially fruitful. Indeed, some strategic groups research has begun to bridge the gap between these two theories by suggesting that firm differences exist both within and between strategic groups. This article adopts a multi-level view by developing propositions concerning contingencies when firm differences, group processes, or both may lead to sustained competitive advantage. Implications for practitioners as well as suggestions for future theory building and empirical tests are also discussed.