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Because increased attention is being given to the problems and possibilities associated with interdependence among organizations and sectors in theory and practice, this introduction to the symposium emphasizes the importance of a rethinking of concepts, concerns, and strategies for interorganizational and intersectorial relationships. Described are the major themes of seven articles in the symposium which address issues of accountability in contracting, the validity of the three sector model, loss of organizational identity by nonprofits, virtual organizations, subversion of values in urban development policymaking, motivation in environmental networks, and deliberation in nonprofit organizations.

This article advocates for evidenced‐based management and aims to demonstrate how it works.

The article identifies seven implementation principles to help people and companies that are committed to doing what it takes to profit from evidence‐based management.

The seven principles are: treat your organization as an unfinished prototype; no brag, just facts; see yourself and your organization as outsiders do; evidence‐based management is not just for senior executives; like everything else, you still need to sell evidenced‐based management; if all else fails, slow the spread of bad practices; and the best diagnostic question: what happens when people fail?

A follow‐up article needs to show results when firms institute evidence‐based management.

A key underpinning of evidence‐based management are three truths: that most so‐called breakthrough ideas are either old, wrong, or both; that effective companies and leaders are more interested in what is true than what is new; and that those that do simple, obvious, and even seemingly trivial things well will dominate competitors who search for silver bullets and instant magic.

The article explains why the implementation of evidenced‐based management promotes competitive advantage.

States the top reason why managers should take notice of scholarly research is because actions based on sound evidence beat those based on suspect intuition every time. Posits that even academic research at its best is perhaps not that much of a better alternative to guru’s fads and fantasies.

Academic librarians are frequently called upon to provide instruction in relatively unfamiliar disciplines. This article presents introductory information for librarians providing bibliographic instruction (BI) in the field of psychology. Its primary purpose is to identify key readings from the library science and psychology literature that provide a basis for informed delivery of psychology BI. These works are fully identified in the list of references at the end of this article. Because the primary purpose of discipline‐specific bibliographic instruction is to teach the skills necessary for retrieval of the products of scholarship in that discipline, we begin with a discussion of scholarly communication and documentation, which describes how scholars and researchers within psychology communicate research findings and theoretical developments in the discipline. The major emphasis of this article is on formal, group instruction rather than individualized instruction, although much of the information will be applicable to both types.

With a few exceptions, the extant literature lacks substantive analysis of the ways downsizing and outsourcing impact on organizational structure and the roles and behaviors of organizational members. This is especially true of research focussing on organizational buying behavior. Provides an important step toward increasing our understanding in these areas by proposing a model of some of the conceptual linkages between current organizational downsizing and outsourcing initiatives and organizational structure and buying behavior. Develops theoretical arguments along with a set of propositions concerning the likely effects of downsizing and outsourcing on organizational structure, as well as on buying centre structure, membership, and shared authority, and on purchase participant role conflict, motivation, and risk aversion. Aims to encourage future conceptual and empirical analyses of these important relationships and linkages.

This article discusses the evaluation process in organizations.

Provides a viewpoint based on experience.

Facing the hard facts and truths about what works and what does not, understanding the dangerous half‐truths that constitute so much conventional wisdom about management, and rejecting the total nonsense that too often passes for sound advice will help organizations perform better.

Provides a useful insight into the evaluation process.

The pace of organizational change has accelerated, competitive pressures have intensified, and most organizations are now forced to operate within much more complex environments than was the case a relatively few years ago. In the past, many organizations focused on vertical integration as a means of increasing control in uncertain environments and/or taking advantage of economies of scale. High volume was believed to be the key to success. Today, however, organizations are finding it less beneficial to own and operate a large number of factories or to employ a large number of people. Increased global competition has caused many organizations to realize that the key to competitiveness is not “high‐volume” but “high‐value.”

This paper synthesizes existing experimental research in the area of investor perceptions and offers directions for future research. Investor-related experimental research has grown substantially, especially in the last decade, as it has made valuable contributions in establishing causal links, examining underlying process measures, and examining areas with little available data. Within this review, I examine 121 papers and identify three broad categories that affect investor perceptions: information format, investor features, and disclosure credibility. Information format describes how investors are influenced by information salience, information labeling, reporting and accounting complexity, financial statement recognition, explanatory disclosures, and proposed disclosure changes. Investor features describes investors’ use of heuristics, investor preferences, and the effect of investor experience. Disclosure credibility is influenced by external and internal assurance, management credibility, disclosure characteristics, and management incentives. Using this framework, I summarize the existing research and identify areas that would benefit from additional research.