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The prevalence of exposure to adversity is elevated in autistic populations, compared to neurotypical peers. Despite this, the frequency and nature of early adverse experiences are not well understood in autistic adults, with several underlying methodological limitations in the available literature. The purpose of this study is to systematically synthesise and analyse the prevalence of childhood adversity in this marginalised population, in accordance with the adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) framework.

Peer-reviewed empirical research articles were systematically searched for from electronic databases and screened against established inclusion criteria. Pooled prevalence rates for individual ACE types were calculated.

Four papers were included (N = 732), all of which used a predominantly or exclusively female sample. Only sexual abuse was reported in all papers, with a pooled prevalence rate of 38%. Physical abuse and emotional abuse were less frequently explored, with two papers reporting on these ACEs, though obtained comparable and higher pooled prevalence rates (39% and 49%, respectively). Pooled prevalence rates could be calculated for neither neglect nor “household” ACEs because of insufficient data. The limited state of the evidence, in conjunction with high levels of heterogeneity and poor sample representativeness found, positions the ACEs of autistic adults as a critical research priority.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to systematically synthesise the prevalence of early childhood adversities, as conceptualised in accordance with the ACEs framework, in adults with autistic traits.

This study aims to investigate the prevalence and characteristics of dysphagia among adults with intellectual disabilities (ID) referred to speech and language therapy for swallow assessment, providing information on the demographic characteristics, referral trends, co-occurring health conditions and reasons for referrals highlighting the complex health-care needs of this population.

This study used a standardised patient data extraction method over a six-month period involving 74 adults with ID referred to speech and language therapy for swallow assessment.

This study revealed a high prevalence of dysphagia among adults with ID referred to speech and language therapy for swallow assessment. Increasing age and severity of ID were associated with an increased likelihood of swallowing difficulties. Co-occurring health conditions such as mobility difficulties, epilepsy and gastrointestinal conditions were prevalent, suggesting that adults with ID and swallowing difficulties are often living with complex health conditions. Choking incidents and hospital admissions were primary reasons for referral.

This study stresses the pressing need for strategies to mitigate risks associated with choking incidents and hospital admission among this vulnerable population. Possible limitations include a reliance on referral and the focus being on a single service over a short period which may limit generalisation to the wider ID population.

This study emphasises the need to understand each person’s unique profile of health needs and the value of a specialised speech and language therapy service.

The importance of increasing awareness among caregivers and medical experts is highlighted.

The findings underscore the importance of tailored assessment, caregiver involvement and heightened interdisciplinary awareness to effectively manage dysphagia in individuals with ID.

The purpose of this study is to describe peer support work in a men’s mental health unit from a lived experience and service user’s perspective. The intertwining of process (a lived experience perspective) and subject (the therapeutic value of peer support) leads to greater knowledge and insight into peer support for people with mental health problems.

This service user narrative draws on the extracts from a reflective journal of interactions and conversations with people with mental health problems as well as feedback from service users and staff about the value of peer support. These methods allow a first-person, service user’s, reflective and narrative account of peer support work.

Peer support work, particularly hearing voices sessions, are found to be highly therapeutic and worthwhile. They promote insight and create feelings of safety and hope in what can sometimes be a frightening and hostile ward environment. Peer support provides emotional and practical support. Sharing stories and experiences of mental illness with people leads to trust, feelings of being valued, heard and accepted as well as better experiences of care and being seen as a person first. Due to their shared experiences, peer support workers are able to befriend people with mental health problems on the ward. Peer support work bridges the gap and vacuum of care between people with mental health problems and staff. It compensates for understaffing to provide more holistic and person-centred care and support.

Lived experience/ service user perspectives and narratives on peer support are rare, particularly in a hospital setting. This article provides a rich, perhaps overlooked and hidden narrative on the nature of peer support work. People with mental health problems, like Ben, are often excluded from society, health and social care, education, employment and research. This narrative opens up a pathway to understanding peer support from a service user perspective.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the onset of the conflict in Ukraine led to a sustained downturn in tourist arrivals (TA) in Russia. This paper aims to explore the influence of geopolitical risk (GPR) and other indices on TA over 1995–2023.

We employ a nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) model to analyze the effects, capturing both the positive and negative shocks of these variables on TA.

Our research demonstrates that the NARDL model is more effective in elucidating the complex dynamics between macroeconomic factors and TA. Both an increase and a decrease in GPR lead to an increase in TA. A 1% negative shock in GPR leads to an increase in TA by 1.68%, whereas a 1% positive shock in GPR also leads to an increase in TA by 0.5%. In other words, despite the increase in GPR, the number of tourists coming to Russia increases by 0.5% for every 1% increase in that risk. Several explanations could account for this phenomenon: (1) risk-tolerant tourists: some tourists might be less sensitive to GPR or they might find the associated risks acceptable; (2) economic incentives: increased risk might lead to a depreciation in the local currency and lower costs, making travel to Russia more affordable for international tourists; (3) niche tourism: some tourists might be attracted to destinations experiencing turmoil, either for the thrill or to gain firsthand experience of the situation; (4) lagged effects: there might be a time lag between the increase in risk and the actual impact on tourist behavior, meaning the effects might be observed differently over a longer period.

Our study, employing the NARDL model and utilizing a dataset spanning from 1995 to 2023, investigates the impact of GPR, gross domestic product (GDP), real effective exchange rate (REER) and economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on TA in Russia. This research is unique because the dataset was compiled by the authors. The results show a complex relationship between GPR and TA, indicating that factors influencing TA can be multifaceted and not always intuitive.

During the 1990s, Italian healthcare organisations (HOs) underwent a process of corporatisation, and the most innovative HOs introduced the balanced scorecard (BSC) to address the need for broader accountability. Currently, there is a limited understanding of the dynamics and outcomes of such a process. Therefore, this study aims to explore whether the BSC is still considered an effective performance management tool and analyse the factors driving and hindering its evolution and endurance in public and non-profit HOs.

We conducted a retrospective longitudinal analysis of two pioneering cases in the adoption of the BSC: one in a public hospital and the other in a non-profit hospital. Data collection relied on accessing institutional documents and reports from the early 2000s to the present, as well as conducting semi-structured interviews with the internal sponsors of the BSC.

We found evidence of three main categories of factors that trigger or hinder the adoption and development of the BSC: (1) the role of the internal sponsor and professionals’ commitment; (2) information technology and the controller’s technological skills; and (3) the relationship between the management and professionalism logics during the implementation process. At the same time, there is no evidence to suggest that specific technical features of the BSC influence its endurance.

The paper contributes to the debate on the key factors for implementing and sustaining multidimensional control systems in professional organisations. It emphasises the importance of knowledge-based assets and distinctive internal capabilities for the success of the business. The implications of the BSC legacy are discussed, along with future developments of multidimensional control tools aimed at supporting strategy execution.

Drawing on cue utilization theory and the theory of motivated reasoning, we investigate the impact of consumer xenocentrism on product preferences in a situation where domestic products objectively outperform their foreign counterparts.

We develop and test a model linking xenocentrism to consumers’ preference towards domestic vs. foreign products by (1) examining the mediating role of consumers’ ability to identify the superior product and (2) assessing the role of product involvement in potentially moderating this relationship. An experimental design was employed, whereby respondents (Thai consumers, N = 579) were asked to compare two products in the same product category, one foreign and one domestic. In one condition, the foreign product outperformed the domestic one on a range of relevant product attributes, whereas in a second condition, the opposite was the case.

Our findings provide clear evidence that xenocentric consumers often cannot recognize the superiority of domestic products and, even if they do, they still exhibit preferences toward (inferior) foreign products. Thus, for xenocentric consumers, it seems that the country of origin (COO) overrides other cues and often results in suboptimal product choices.

Our study adds to our theoretical understanding of the functioning of the consumer xenocentrism construct and has important implications for foreign companies targeting xenocentric consumers as well as for local firms seeking to counteract xenocentric tendencies.

Value-based healthcare suggested using patient-reported information to complement the information available in the medical records and administrative healthcare data to provide insights into patients' perceptions of satisfaction, experience and self-reported outcomes. However, little attention has been devoted to questions about factors fostering the use of patient-reported information to create value at the system level.

Action research design is carried out to elicit possible triggers using the case of patient-reported experience and outcome data for breast cancer women along their clinical pathway in the clinical breast network of Tuscany (Italy).

The case shows that communication and engagement of multi-stakeholder representation are needed for making information actionable in a multi-level, multispecialty care pathway organized in a clinical network; moreover, political and managerial support from higher level governance is a stimulus for legitimizing the use for quality improvement. At the organizational level, an external facilitator disclosing and discussing real-world uses of collected data is a trigger to link measures to action. Also, clinical champion(s) and clear goals are key success factors. Nonetheless, resource munificent and dedicated information support tools together with education and learning routines are enabling factors.

Current literature focuses on key factors that impact performance information use often considering unidimensional performance and internal sources of information. The use of patient/user-reported information is not yet well-studied especially in supporting quality improvement in multi-stakeholder governance. The work appears relevant for the implications it carries, especially for policymakers and public sector managers when confronting the gap in patient-reported measures for quality improvement.

The author develops a bilateral Nash bargaining model under value uncertainty and private/asymmetric information, combining ideas from axiomatic and strategic bargaining theory. The solution to the model leads organically to a two-tier stochastic frontier (2TSF) setup with intra-error dependence. The author presents two different statistical specifications to estimate the model, one that accounts for regressor endogeneity using copulas, the other able to identify separately the bargaining power from the private information effects at the individual level. An empirical application using a matched employer–employee data set (MEEDS) from Zambia and a second using another one from Ghana showcase the applied potential of the approach.

Several high street retail banks are extending their brands into digital banking through fully digital, app-only neobanks, which have been described as traditionally-driven neobanks (TDNBs). These TDNBs are considered a form of brand extension, representing the increased complexity of branding banks and financial institutions. This study explicitly addresses the branding strategies employed by TDNBs.

This study has adopted a case study research design, using a multi-stage data collection strategy. Initially, interviews were conducted with bank managers, followed by interviews with customers. Later, user-generated content was extracted through verified reviews from the app store. Subsequently, these three strands of data were thematically analysed and triangulated, in order to gain a holistic understanding of the branding strategies used by TDNBs.

Three key themes emerged regarding the branding strategies of the TDNBs: aligning with the parent brand, reinforcing the digital experience, and enhancing the brand image.

This study contributed to the growing body of research on marketing, branding, and digital transformation of bank services. As more traditional banks are exploring opportunities to pivot and explore other fintech options, this study offers significant insights that will help in managing brand experience and promotion across customer journeys in the banking sector.

This study contributes to the growing body of research on marketing, branding, and digital transformation of bank services. Even as more traditional banks explore opportunities to pivot as well as other fintech options, this study offers significant insights to help manage brand experience and promotion across customer journeys in the banking sector.

While previous studies on banking and financial services have concentrated on traditional retail and high street banks, there is a need for a greater understanding of the brand positioning of digital banks, especially those created by traditional banks.

At the global level, disaster risk finance (DRF) is playing an increasingly prominent role in the international agendas for climate change adaptation. However, before implementing such agendas, it is essential to understand the needs and limitations of DRF in the subnational context where they need to impact. This research aims to gain insights into the perspectives of community and governmental actors in Colombia regarding DRF. Its goal is to promote the specific design of collaborative educational and technical assistance processes that consider their interests in the subject and the cultural diversity of the territories.

To achieve this, semi-structured interviews were conducted, and the findings were organized to highlight key aspects that help to understand DRF perspectives in the Colombian context.

It was found that the most significant limitations of implementing DRF include a lack of knowledge on the topic, corruption that encourages a reactive approach and the absence of economic resources. Concerns have emerged regarding the possibility of climate risk insurance becoming a profit-driven enterprise and the potential development of dependency behaviors within community groups, leading to maladaptation and moral hazard. Similarly, the implementation of DRF through foreign funds has raised concerns about the loss of territorial sovereignty and autonomy.

This is one of the first studies that carry out this kind of research and contributes to the formulation of inclusive public policies for DRF in different contexts worldwide.