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This study aims to observe and discuss an emerging disintermediation in transportation, finance and health care, and explain how these three key areas depend on intermediary institutions that are the fruit of modern corporate governance conditions that find their roots in classical sociological theory.

The authors review and incorporate a diversity of research literature to explain the likelihood for the development and continuation of disintermediation.

The authors map two sociological perspectives (Emile Durkheim’s theory of interdependence and Herbert Spencer’s theory of contracts) to two modern corporate governance theories (resource dependence theory and agency theory). The authors then discuss the challenging social situation resulting from modern corporate governance and show how these conditions create the potential for a continuum of disintermediation across the specific and crucial economic sectors of transportation, finance and health care.

The implications of this theoretical integration can help organizational leaders navigate complex social and strategic issues and prepare for the consequences that may result from the emerging disintermediation.

Firm performance remains at the heart of strategic management. In the quest to refine the field’s contribution, Venkatraman and Ramanujam (1986) argued that reliance upon single measures of firm performance is risky and firm performance should be treated as a multidimensional construct. Subsequently, researchers have examined trends in firm performance measurement ever since. Over a decade since the last examination of this issue, this study aims to add to the ongoing conversation.

The authors investigated 1,972 research papers published in five premier management journals for the years 2015–2019 to determine if multidimensional measurement of firm performance has improved.

The findings suggest that approximately two-thirds of papers that measure firm performance are published using only a single measure of firm performance, and approximately three-fourths do not measure firm performance across multiple dimensions.

This study contributes to the literature by emphasizing the necessity to consider the dimensionality of firm performance, use multiple measures and consistently ground firm performance variables with theory – especially control variables – to keep firm performance as the focus of the strategy field. Evidence and implications are discussed and recommendations for researchers and reviewers are provided.

The purpose of this article is to critique extant nursing research on nursing practice environments by juxtaposing it with critical sociological perspectives on nurses' work and to propose an alternative paradigm for future research based on these perspectives.

The extant nursing/health services research on nursing practice environments is reviewed. Sociological concepts are introduced, expanded on, and linked to the variables measured in the nursing literature.

The substantial body of nursing research about nurses' job satisfaction has been targeted to management concerns and has taken the positivistic perspective that is traditional in organizational research. However, attempts to address nurses' working situations using expedient solutions obscure any consideration of underlying influencers. Several well‐developed sociological concepts pertaining to gender, knowledge, professionalization, and organizations have direct relevance for the study of nurses' work and can provide new perspectives for deeper questioning about nurses' work experiences.

Unprecedented organizational restructuring in health care has had a profound impact on the practice of nursing, prompting health system administrators and nursing researchers to study the consequences of system change and devise solutions. This paper presents a discussion of typically disconnected perspectives in the study of work (management and sociological) in order to reframe what is known about the factors influencing the quality of nurses' working lives and to provide a conceptual foundation for deeper and more critical research about nurses' work.

The enormous improvement in child health in this country—in infant mortality and morbidity, in physical growth and well‐being, are self‐evident. Not only do we see the physical improvement in our children, but it strikes visitors from overseas more forcibly, and there can be few other countries in the world which can boast such swarms of healthy, vigorous children. If this was preventive medicine's only success, it would be worth many times over the money spent on this branch of the National Health Service, which is little enough in all conscience: about £20 millions a year compared with over £400 millions for curative medicine. Can any of the undoubted great and dramatic advances of the latter match the far‐reaching effects of this one achievement of preventive medicine?

Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker (Teknisk Bibliotek), Ingerslevs Plads 7, Aarhus, Denmark. Representative: V. NEDERGAARD PEDERSEN (Librarian).

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the perceived quality of two traditional food products with protected designation of origin (PDO). Specifically, we study the influence of perceived quality of intrinsic attributes (e.g. colour, flavour, smell, appearance) and extrinsic attributes (e.g. brand, denomination of origin, and image of traditional product) on consumer satisfaction, loyalty and purchasing intention.

Data were obtained using a structured questionnaire to consumers of both food products. After the fieldwork, a screening process was performed to obtain 223 (olive oil) and 251 (air‐cured ham) valid questionnaires. Structural equations model was applied to relate the perceived extrinsic and intrinsic quality with satisfaction, loyalty and purchasing intention.

In relation to the influence of intrinsic and extrinsic quality attributes we have found. First, for the new PDO of olive oil, the results reveal the existence of a significant influence of intrinsic perceived quality on satisfaction and loyalty. Nevertheless, no evidence has been found to support the link of extrinsic attributes on satisfaction and loyalty. Second, for the consolidated PDO of air‐cured ham our results show that the influence of intrinsic perceived quality on satisfaction and loyalty are not significant. In contrast, the influence of extrinsic perceived quality is significant in this case.

The results of this paper suggest the need to promote and increase the consumer knowledge of brands protected under the PDO and specially the PDO itself.

This paper analyzes the quality concept, adopting a double dimensional perspective (intrinsic and extrinsic attributes).