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In early September 2008, in the midst of the subprime crisis, a manager with the student-run Darden Capital Management fund, wants to evaluate whether Comerica Incorporated, a regional bank based in Dallas, Texas, is a good candidate for inclusion in his portfolio. He needs to perform a valuation of the bank to assert whether the bank seems to be undervalued by the market or whether a further decline in value might be possible. He must account for all the factors that affect bank valuation, both as related to the bank itself as well as to the current market conditions. The case can be taught to: a) examine the valuation of a bank during turbulent times; b) understand the key accounting statements (balance sheet and income statement) for a bank and how they may differ from those for an industrial company; and c) understand the key value drivers of bank value (metrics for profitability, credit quality, liquidity, and capital).

Purpose – This article aims to outline the main physical characteristics of the British pub, its products and facilities, clientele and licensee at around the end of the Second World War. Design/methodology/approach – There has been a heavy use of secondary sources drawn from the whole of the period studied. This has been augmented by discussions with licensees, retired licensees and older pub customers, to collect their reflections on the industry. Findings – The public house of 60 years ago had a largely male, working class beer‐drinking clientele. Women were becoming more frequent visitors, but their custom was restricted by traditional attitudes and poor facilities. Research limitations/implications – The paper examines the state of the industry. Further work could examine this more carefully, and could include regional studies for comparison purposes. Practical implications – The paper sets the scene for an illustration of the extent of change that has taken place since then. Originality/value – There have been other attempts to examine the history of the public house. This is the most detailed, and as such could be of interest to the general reader as well as practitioners and students of the hospitality industry.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the level of total quality management (TQM) implementation in Palestinian governmental and non-governmental hospitals using the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) framework.

The study is based on collecting data using a survey questionnaire that was designed according to the MBNQA criteria. In total, 363 questionnaires from governmental and non-governmental hospitals operating in Gaza Strip were analyzed to assess the level of TQM implementation level in all hospitals (governmental and non-governmental).

The main results of this study indicate that Palestinian hospitals operating in Gaza Strip perform at a relatively acceptable level. Comparing results shows that the performance of non-governmental hospitals is better with higher degree of TQM implementation than the governmental hospitals. Detailed analysis identifies improvement opportunities-related specific aspects of the human resources focus and the performance results.

Although this study has collected data from one Palestinian Territory, the Gaza Strip, it still identifies the critical factors and practices for TQM implementation within the Palestinian healthcare organizations to improve performance.

This paper suggests that business excellence models such as the MBNQA criteria can be used to assess the level of implementation of quality practices and identify the strengths and weaknesses to improve the quality of service delivery, processes, and performance of hospitals.

Despite the widespread use of TQM in the developed countries, little attention has been placed to implement and assess the quality initiatives by organizations in the developing countries and even fewer in low-income Arab countries (Aamer et al., 2017; Øvretveit and Al Serouri, 2006). In addition, a very few number of studies in reference to the assessment of TQM implementation in the Palestinian context, in general, and in healthcare organizations, in particular, highlight the need for this study. To move the field in that direction, the goal of this research was to assess the level of TQM implementation in the healthcare organizations (mainly hospitals) in Gaza Strip (one of the least fortunate areas of the Palestinian-occupied territories) where no prior similar research studies could be found. Therefore, this study contributes to filling this gap in the literature by providing empirical assessment of TQM level of implementation in Gaza Strip hospitals.

This study reports a recent survey of the current state of quality management implementation and practices in China with reference to the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) criteria. Comparisons are made between firms in three different stages of the development of a quality system: firms that focus on inspection, statistical quality control, and total quality management. The results support the common wisdom that firms practising total quality management have superior performance in leadership, strategic planning, customer and market focus, information and analysis, human resource focus, process management, and business results. The survey results also indicate that most Chinese firms still lack a full understanding of strategic quality management although a higher percentage of them claim that they are total quality management companies. To further the quality movement in China, quality managers and professionals should take a leading role in promoting contemporary, strategic quality management concepts and practices.

This paper aims to provide an assessment of the quality of management practices and implementation in hospitals operating in the West Bank of Palestine using the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) Criteria.

Based on the MBNQA Criteria, a survey of 51 hospitals was conducted using questionnaires, interviews and focus groups to gather data. Data were analyzed and compared across all administrative types of hospitals using the MBNQA points system.

The results show that the performance of non-governmental organizations and private hospitals was superior with respect to all other administrative types. A closer look at the results show that all hospitals exhibit areas of concern such as human resource focus, information and analysis, as well as performance results.

Despite the exclusion of hospitals operating in the Gaza Strip, this research promotes critical management practices aimed at improving quality of management practices and their subsequent implementation in the surveyed hospitals.

The MBNQA Criteria, as well as other quality assessment tools, can be used to measure the various activities of hospitals and identify competencies and weaknesses in a tangible manner to improve hospital performance.

This paper presents a fresh perspective on the quality management issues in Palestinian hospitals to practitioners, administrators and academics using the MBNQA Criteria. Also, it serves as a foundation for future initiatives and programs aimed at improving quality in hospitals.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent of total quality management (TQM) practices implemented in Palestinian hospitals and their relationship to organizational performance using the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award criteria.

A survey of 51 hospitals operating in the West Bank of Palestine was conducted in order to test the validity and reliability of TQM constructs and their relationship to organizational performance.

The results showed that TQM constructs used in this study are positively related to hospital performance and for the most part the relationship was significant; they were capable of explaining a significant portion of variance in performance. Three elements were found to be strongly significant predictors of performance- people management, process management, and information and analysis.

Although hospitals operating in the Gaza Strip were excluded from the study, this research promotes critical management practices that help channeling organization resources into areas aimed at improving quality and performance.

The study showed that there are certain areas where administrators or managers need to focus on should they aspire for better performance. The constructs used in this study can be used to assess the implementation of quality practices and highlight areas for movement.

This paper provided practitioners, administrators, and academics with a fresh perspective on quality management practices and their impact on organizational performance. It also served as a foundation for future initiatives and programs aimed at improving quality in hospitals.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how women small business owners’ (SBOs) business start-up motivations influence their network content.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 28 women SBOs who were recruited through purposeful sampling methods. Interview data on their start-up motivations were used to categorise them into three types: classic, forced and work-family. The interviews explored the network contents of the three categories of participants.

There were many similarities between network contents of classic and forced SBOs, as both groups had started their business for financial reasons rather than family reasons. All the participants’ networks contained information and advice, economic transactions, intangible support and strong ties. However, the sources and types of network content were different for the classic and forced SBOs when compared to work-family SBOs.

This study has limitations that tend to be commonly found in exploratory studies, such as a small sample size. However, the findings lay the groundwork for future quantitative studies that examine associations between SBOs’ motivations for starting a business and their network contents.

This research responds to calls for studies aimed at developing a more nuanced understanding of SBOs’ networking behaviour. The study provides empirical evidence of a relationship between the motivations for starting a business and the network content of SBOs. The findings can be used by businesswomen’s network organisations in their mentoring and training interventions.