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Mental health promotion is saturated with theoretical ambiguity and is ripe for sustained philosophical investigation. Unfortunately, most philosophical discussion in health promotion is commonplace rather than academic, and many health promotion theorists are unaware that there is a difference. In order to illustrate this intransigent problem, I discuss Glenn MacDonald's recent contribution to this journal (Vol. 1, Issue 2). In so doing I demonstrate four philosophical errors frequently made in health promotion theory, research and practice.

Three articles in the inaugural issue of this Journal discuss the idea of mental health promotion. Here, each is discussed in terms of claims, assumptions and, in some cases, weaknesses such as an unreconstructed account of mental illness prevention, the mistake of relying on an arbitrary definition of mental health and problems with relying on ‘resilience’ as a central concept. It is argued that none of the papers pays enough attention to social experiences and processes, cultural values and norms on which all judgements about what promotes and demotes mental health are based. In response to this critique, the ten‐element map of mental health promotion and demotion is referred to as a more comprehensive, illuminating and, in the end, more philosophically sound account.

Outlines previous research on the security analyst “superstar” phenomenon, including the stochastic model of Yule and Simon. Applies this to data on the 1986‐1997 selections for the Institutional Investor’s All‐British Research First Team (ABRT) and finds that it does not explain the distribution, i.e. that selection does appear to be based on skill rather than luck. Considers consistency with other research and expects future research to concentrate on the ABRT’s ability to forecast earnings per share and share prices.

Historically, Panama has always been “a place of transit.” While technically the isthmus formed part of Colombia in the nineteenth century, it was linked geopolitically to the United States soon after the California gold rush, beginning in the late 1840s. The first attempt at building a canal ended in failure in 1893 when disease and poor management forced Ferdinand de Lesseps to abandon the project. The U.S. undertaking to build the canal could only begin after Panama declared itself free and broke away from Colombia in 1903, with the support of the United States.

The purpose of this paper is to use multidimensional approach to provide a well-being description across European regions.

By considering the set of socioeconomic indicators provided by Eurostat for the EU 266 NUTS-2 regions, three main analyses have been performed for the year 2009: first, the “ideal point” technique has been used to identify: the best EU performances; the number and type of indicators that needs to be improved in every European regions. Second, a map of well-being has been elaborated to provide a picture summarizing the regional values in comparison to the European average. Third, Gini coefficient has been calculated to identify the indicators performing the largest inequalities across EU. The method presented in this paper is suitable to be complemented with subjective ranking of values and preference, making the proposed methodology useful to investigate well-being in a national, regional or individual scale.

By providing a multidimensional description of well-being across the 266 EU regions, the present paper identifies and maps the existing differences on socioeconomic performance.

The results provided can be useful to design policies oriented to reduce inequalities and to promote socioeconomic and environmental convergences across European regions. As far as the authors know, this is the first paper that provides a map of regional socioeconomic well-being across Europe.

This paper examines the Random Walk Hypothesis (RWH) for aggregate New Zealand share market returns, as well as the CRSP NYSE‐AMEX (USA) index during the 1980‐2001 period. Using several indices, we rely on the variance‐ratio test and find evidence to support the rejection of the RWH with some evidence of a momentum effect. However, we find evidence to suggest the behaviour of share prices to be time‐dependent in New Zealand. For example, we find the indices tested were closer to random after the 1987 share market crash. Further analysis showed even stronger results for periods subsequent to the passage of the Companies Act 1993 and the Financial Reporting Act 1993. We also find evidence that indices based on large capitalisation stocks are more likely to follow a random walk compared to those based on smaller stocks. For the USA index, we find stronger evidence of random behaviour in our sample period compared to the earlier period examined by Lo and Mackinlay (1988)

The unobserved benefits of digital technologies are described as digital dark matter. Product service systems (PSSs) are bundles of products and services that deliver value in use, which is unobserved but generates benefits. This paper aims to empirically quantify digital dark matter within PSSs and correlates that measure with national competitiveness.

A novel methodology establishes the link between customer needs and a product and digital service portfolio offered across ten developed economies. The case context is the music industry where product and services are often substitutes – a cannibalistic PSS. Consumer information is obtained from a unique database of more than 18,000 consumer surveys. Consumer demand for digital formats is modelled and predicted through logistic regressions.

The work provides inverse estimations for digital dark matter within PSSs by calculating the gap between supply and demand for digital offers – described as the business model challenge. The USA has the lowest business model challenge; the home of major companies developing digital technologies. Digital dark matter is shown to be positively correlated with national competitiveness and manufacturing competitiveness indices.

The success of a cannibalistic PSS requires good understanding of market demand. Governments embarking on soft innovation policies might incentivise the development of service-orientated business models based on digital technologies.

Work expands theory on the concept of digital dark matter to the PSS literature. Empirically, a novel method is proposed to measure digital dark matter.

In recent years, organisations around the world have been seriously affected by a range of economic, political and social upheavals that have gathered momentum in most parts of the globe. The viability of the conventional (pyramidal) organisational structures is being challenged in conjunction with major shifts in the roles of mid and top managers. In many countries, the pace of the above socio‐economic events and uncertainties is happening at an unprecedented pace. Some markets are showing signs of potential gigantic expansions while others (historically prosperous) are on the verge of complete collapse (Dent, 1991). In responding to the socio‐economic challenges of the nineties, organisations (across the board) have resorted to dismantling the conventional pyramidal structure and adopting so‐called “leaner” structures (see Zeffane, 1992). The most common struggle has been to maintain market share in an economic environment increasingly characterised by excess labour supply (Bamber, 1990; Green & Macdonald, 1991). As organisations shifted their strategies from “mass production” to “post‐fordism” (see, for example Kern and Schumann, 1987), there has been a significant tendency to emphasise flexibility of both capital and labour in order to cater for the niche markets which are claimed to be rapidly emerging, world‐wide. This has resulted in massive organisational restructuring world‐wide.