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The present study analyzed the performance of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) when carrying out reading comprehension and written composition tasks. Thirty children with ADHD and 30 normally developing children without ADHD, matched on age, IQ, word retrieval and spelling, were selected. All of the subjects were evaluated using four types of reading comprehension tasks (literal comprehension, inferential comprehension, a fragment ordering task, and recall of story content), and a composition writing task. The results indicate that the two groups (ADHD and without ADHD) do not differ on literal comprehension or inferential comprehension. Nevertheless, our results show that children with ADHD perform significantly worse than the group without ADHD on the fragment ordering task, the recall of story content, and on different indicators of written language production, which depend primarily on self-regulation abilities necessary for organizing information and maintaining the level of effort. The findings suggest that the deficit observed in reading comprehension and written composition skills in children with ADHD may reflect deficiencies in executive processes. The methodology used in this research on the reading comprehension and written composition problems of children with ADHD presents a series of strengths and weaknesses. The reflections on the limitations identified in the study serve as a basis for establishing directions for future research.

Prior research suggests that hospitality firms behave differently than other firms in terms of financing and investment issues. Such behavior may be attributable in part to agency problems and corporate governance structures in hospitality firms. This paper contains a report of an investigation into whether corporate governance mechanisms differ in hospitality firms relative to other industries. Our findings suggest that hospitality firms are more likely to experience agency problems than are nonhospitality firms. Hospitality firms have lower governance control mechanisms, better financial performance and higher-quality earnings than nonhospitality firms. An understanding of corporate governance control mechanisms helps to reduce agency problems and improves the hospitality firm's performance in the hospitality corporation.

The relationship between market orientation and innovation has been the subject of numerous studies. While some find positive effects, the others argue negative effects of market orientation (or its components). The majority of the critique regards mostly its potential to limit creativity and the technological breakthrough. Concerns over its benefits for commercialization of an innovation are less pronounced. The purpose of this paper is to address the implementation of market orientation in new product development activities and seek to find if they follow different patterns or whether the whole concept is applied equally in successful innovating firms.

The study relies on qualitative methodology. Findings are based on seven case studies. Cases are selected according to theoretical sampling. In order to collect the data the authors employ interviews.

The research findings support the assumption that the general principles of customer and competitor orientation are subject to different manifestations. However, no forms of interfunctional orientation have been identified.

The findings of the study can help us to understand how market oriented firms establish a suitable setting for creativity and innovation and enable innovation development.

The purpose of this study is to empirically examine whether two major stakeholder groups – customers and employees – consider third party-reviewed corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports and assurance on the quality of internal controls as value determinant in their decisions, and how their decisions influence financial performance through the halo effect of these reports.

Using Compustat North America and Global Reporting Initiative data, the authors used first-order autoregressive models over the period from 2006 to 2012.

The results indicate that the impacts of customers and employees on financial performance are influenced by third party-reviewed CSR reports and effective internal control. Moreover, it is found that the third party-reviewed CSR reports and effective internal control enable the persistence of financial performance.

The findings have implications for stakeholders in terms of third party-reviewed CSR reports and effective internal control. The findings are important due to the influence that these stakeholders (customers and employees) have on the financial performance of firms and the impact that CSR actions can have on society as a whole.

To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study that contributes to the literature by demonstrating that information about third party-reviewed CSR reports and internal control reviews may influence the perceptions of firms by two primary stakeholders – customers and employees.

Al-Qaeda is conventionally portrayed as a monolithic, hierarchical organization whose activities – coordinated by the network's leader Osama bin Laden – are the source of international terrorism today. Al-Qaeda is considered a radical tendency within the broader Islamist Salafi movement, legitimizing its terrorist operations as a global Islamist jihad against Western civilization. Al-Qaeda's terrorist activity today is considered, “blowback” from long finished CIA and western covert operations in Afghanistan.

The conventional wisdom is demonstrably false. After the Cold War, Western connections with al-Qaeda proliferated around the world, challenging mainstream conceptions of al-Qaeda's identity. Western covert operations and military – intelligence connections in strategic regions show that “al-Qaeda” is a network whose raison d’etre and modus operandi are inextricably embedded in a disturbing conglomerate of international Western diplomatic, financial, military and intelligence policies today. US, British, and Western power routinely manipulates al-Qaeda through a complex network of state-regional and human nodes. Such manipulation extended directly to the 9-11 hijackers, and thus to the events of 9-11 itself.11This paper advances an original argument based partially on research in Ahmed (2005), supplemented here with significant new data and analysis. Also see Ahmed (2002).

Aims to examine current debates about the recruitment and retention of teachers and explore the views of Local Education Authority Human Resource Advisors, governors and teachers.

Addresses the issue of whether the Government is actually achieving its stated aims of best value in selecting, recruiting and retaining the most effective teachers in primary and secondary education.

The conclusion for the appointment of teachers in schools is that structured panel interviews, with trained panel members, and preferably including an HR professional, would represent best practice.

Raises serious concerns about the delegation of HR practice.

With the emergence of the knowledge economy different countries are responding with changes within their tertiary education systems. Education is increasingly recognized as a cornerstone to the continued growth of a country but with the globalization of business is education becoming a commodity?

This paper examines educational policies and their implementation within the UK and Canada.

This paper finds that education in the UK has become a commercial product within the international arena, unlike Canada where tertiary education has remained a domestic pursuit.

This paper engages in a controversy that questions whether the economic value to a nation of education is found only in the numbers of students or can be enlarged to include the results of the education for the students.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of governance and managerial characteristics of schools. More specifically, the aim is to individuate the factors that are associated to higher schools’ performances, as measured through student achievement.

The research is conducted by means of a survey in the private junior‐secondary schools in one Italian region (Lombardy).

The results show that some features characterize the group of “high‐performing” schools: the presence of structured tests to measure student’ achievement; specific services for disabled and foreign students; a high level of principal's autonomy in strategic decision making; the use of assessment for defining strategies; and a high collaborative attitude among teachers.

The present paper focused only on the private sector, because non‐public schools benefit from a substantial autonomy in their organizational and managerial profile. Some of the indicators collected in this study could be included in the Italian standardized tests’ protocol, by creating an ad hoc school's questionnaire.

This paper answers to the call by educational research, applied economic research and present institutional assessment activities for a renewed desire to build reliable indicators about schools’ performance in Italy. In this paper an analytical framework is developed to collect relevant information about schools’ characteristics.