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This paper describes a project which investigates the human resource management practices that are being used in managing information professionals in ICT companies or ICT departments. The effectiveness of the practices is evaluated from individual and management perspectives. It is assumed that the nature of the contract between the IS professional and the organization influences the effectiveness of different practices. Thus, the notion of “best practice” is seen as context dependent. When writing the paper, the research was still in progress and no results can yet be given. After completing the study, practitioners can use the results to compare their own practices with those that were found to be effective in the nine case organizations. For researchers, the results will provide hypotheses about the relationship between HRM practices and job satisfaction of the IS professionals.

This study aims to focus on the following research question: Which institutional characteristics are associated with sustainability reporting by UK higher education institutions?

To answer the aforementioned research question, this study uses logistic regression.

The results show that 17 per cent of the UK higher education institutions report on their sustainability (July 2014). In line with legitimacy and stakeholder theory, logistic regressions provide evidence that the larger the size of the institution, the higher the probability of reporting. By contrast, high public funding decreases this probability.

The findings show characteristics of higher education institutions that support or hamper sustainability reporting. Overall, the findings imply a lack of institutionalisation of sustainability reporting among higher education institutions.

Although a lot of research has been done on corporate sustainability reporting, only a small number of studies have addressed the issues of sustainability reporting of higher education institutions. This study covers all sustainability reports disclosed among the 160 UK higher education institutions. It is the first study that investigates characteristics of higher education institutions that disclose a sustainability report.

The purpose of this paper is to study international opportunities gained through co‐opetitive relations in small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as to examine the influence of different levels of co‐opetition on international opportunities.

In order to achieve the purpose, multiple in‐depth case studies are conducted in four SMEs.

The results reveal a paradigm shift in competition in an international context. Co‐opetition has provided international opportunities for the case companies, though to varying degrees and character. Furthermore, international opportunities can be found in strong and weak cooperation‐dominated relations as well as in equal relations between competitors. However, the different levels of co‐opetition influence the characteristics of the international opportunities in terms of continuity and scope.

The results highlight the importance of taking co‐opetitive relations in general as well as the different levels of co‐opetition within these relations into consideration when analyzing the exploration and exploitation of international opportunities in SMEs. The results are, however, limited by the number of cases analyzed and further research on a larger scale is needed in order to draw additional conclusions.

The influence of various co‐opetitive relations found on international opportunities and competitiveness brings to light the value for companies to focus on and to develop these relations as well as to maintain a variety of cooperative relations with their competitors in the internationalization process.

The paper increases the knowledge on a yet largely unexplored, but significant topic, which is valuable both from a practical‐ and a research‐oriented perspective.

This work examines implications for educational administration of the International Association for the evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) surveys. Major implications discussed include productiveness of both international comparison and international measures of educational achievement. Implications are also discussed in terms of viability of the application of large scale sample survey data to decision making within individual countries. Issues generated by the IEA studies are presented including: (1) cultural relevance of test items; (2) ethnocentrism of test makers; (3) contributions to comparative analysis; (4) cost effectiveness and feasibility; (5) potential descriptive value to individual nations; (6) data interpretation; (7) relating data to micro policy issues; (8) and potential for redefining concepts of educational achievement. It is concluded that the work of educational administration must proceed with awareness of the hazards and blessings of cross‐sectional research for training, practice, and new research.

This volume of Progress in International Business Research comprises of a selection of 12 competitive papers from the 34th EIBA (European International Business Academy) annual conference, which was held in Tallinn, Estonia in December 2008 with the theme “International Business and the Catching-up Economies: Challenges and Opportunities”. It addresses two main issues – (1) the internationalization process and (2) the role of knowledge and innovation for internationalization – that are important in the current economic slowdown both for catching-up and for other economies, scholars, and practitioners.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how Finnish higher education institutions communicate market differentiation on the admissions webpages of their international business and technology programmes when attempting to appeal to prospective students and distinguish themselves from other institutions.

The sample included admissions webpages of 68 bachelor’s and master’s programmes representing both Finnish universities and universities of applied sciences. The analysis method was a qualitative content analysis.

The international programmes heavily accentuated their labour market relevance in their advertising and generated strong claims regarding the future career prospects of the graduates. In addition, the programmes emphasised their pedagogical methods and international atmosphere. References to non-academic life were not observed.

The analysis was only based on text and included two study fields.

The results of this study can be used by marketers to critically examine their own marketing differentiation efforts and promises made to students.

Finnish business and technology programmes send an unequivocal marketing message that education has an instrumental value and students are considered consumers of education.

This study is the first comprehensive study of the marketing communication practices of international higher education programmes in Finland. Moreover, this study contributes to the study of global international market mechanisms and research on marketing communication practised by higher education institutions.

Integrated care models have shown to deliver efficient healthcare, but implementation has proven to be difficult. The Support Consultation is an integrated care model, which enables full integration by bundled payment, insurer involvement, predefined care pathways and strengthening of primary care. The purpose of this paper is to provide an indication of the improvements in healthcare delivery after implementation of this proposed model and to create a base for extension to similar interfaces between primary and secondary care.

A retrospective study was used to compare the effect on the number of referred patients with non-acute cardiac complaints and the cost effectiveness before and after implementation of the Support Consultation. Patients who previously would have been referred to the cardiologist were now discussed between general practitioner and cardiologist in a primary care setting.

The first consecutive 100 patients (age 55±16 years, male 48 percent), discussed in the Support Consultation, were analyzed. Implementation of the Support Consultation resulted in a net costs (program costs and referral costs) reduction of 61 percent compared with usual care. All involved parties were positive about the program.

The Support Consultation has the ability to provide more effective healthcare delivery and to reduce net costs. The setting of the current study can be used as example for other specialties in countries with a similar healthcare system.

This study provides the potential cost savings after implementation of an integrated care model, based on real-life data.

The purpose of this paper is to explore and elucidate adolescents’ reasoning about risks related to food and eating.

Boys and girls aged 15-16 years participated in a focus group interview with role-playing as a stimulus for discussion and reflection. In all, 31 participants took part, divided into five groups. In the role-playing, the participants portrayed agents who they perceived to give messages about food. In the focus group they discussed their experience of carrying out the role-play, and how they usually cope with conflicting messages, preferences and needs regarding food and eating.

The findings suggested that there were two main themes of risk profiling related to eating. One concerned bodily risk related to the food ingested and included concerns both about not reaching health and performance due to the unfavourable intake of calories, nutrients, additives, bacteria, viruses and parasites, and threats to immediate well-being following consumption. The second main category concerned the risk of being conspicuous, or “sticking out”, which incorporated food-based gender norms and norms related to table manners. In practice, the risk of not displaying an appropriate image of themselves through their food and eating choices was more prominent than risk perceptions related to impacts of food choices on well-being and performance. Difficulties in classifying foods as “good” or “bad” enhanced their uncertainty.

The results suggest that health-promotion activities for young people should focus not only on how to feed their bodies but also on how to avoid feeding their anxieties.

The purpose of this paper is to explore remembered positive eating and food experiences, aiming to gain an understanding of the nature of these past experiences.

Positive food‐related experiences were gathered through focus group interviews. These experiences were inductively categorised into recurring themes and dimensions within the themes.

An analysis of the qualitative data led to the recognition of several themes involving eating that were related to childhood memories, eating related to tourist experiences, as well as memories of commensal eating and homemade food. The experiences were drawn together into dimensions to provide deeper comprehension of the observed themes. As a result, the study suggests that remembered eating and food experiences are characterised by the self, place, food, context and time.

The study provides knowledge on what constitutes memorable positive and pleasurable food‐related experiences, which the consumer may even want to relive. Hence, the study helps managers understand the significance of providing food‐related experiences that become memorable.

The context was not predetermined to a particular eating setting, which resulted in a multidimensional framework of remembered experiences with several implications. The approach provided new insights into understanding the effects of positive and pleasurable food‐related experiences.

The purpose of this paper is to enrich extant understanding of the role of both agency and context in the uptake of sustainability assurance. To this end, the authors examine auditors' attempts to promote sustainability assurance and establish it as a practice requiring the professional involvement of auditors.

Applying institutional work (Lawrence and Suddaby, 2006) and institutional logics (Thornton, 2002; Thornton et al., 2012) as the method theories, the authors examine interview data and a variety of documentary evidence collected in Finland, a small society characterized by social and environmental values, beliefs in functioning institutions and public trust in companies behaving responsibly.

With this study, the authors make two main contributions to extant literature. First, the authors illustrate the limits that society-level logics related to corporate social responsibility, together with the undermining or rejected institutional work of other agents, place especially on the political and cultural work undertaken by auditors. Second, the study responds to Power's (2003) call for country-specific studies by exploring a rather unique context, Finland, where societal trust in companies is arguably stronger than in many other countries and this trust appears to affect how actors perceive the need for sustainability assurance.

This is one of the few accounting studies that combines institutional logics and institutional work to study the uptake of a management fashion, in this case sustainability assurance.