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For more than two decades both the business press and research in several academic disciplines have seen an extended debate over what has been called “myopia” or “short‐termism”. These terms have been used to describe decisions in which firms pursue short‐term gains ( for example, seeking to maximize quarterly profits) at the expense of long term strategies ( for example, investing in basic research or laying the groundwork for new core competencies). Despite the attention to this subject, there remain conflicting positions in the business press and inconclusive evidence from research regarding causes and proposed solutions. This paper proposes that progress may be possible by looking inside firms – addressing how managerial systems and decision‐making processes affect the development of long term strategies. Survey results suggest that systemic elements – organizational culture, processes, and routines – have promised in understanding why firms may undervalue the long term and pay too much attention to the short‐term. This study finds that firms are less likely to undervalue the long term when they are able to manage tradeoffs between short‐term and long term results, and create a climate of trust that allows individuals to weather the short‐term setbacks necessary to achieve long term results.

Scholars have begun to recognize the importance of integrating organizational issues into real options theory. In doing so, some argue that options are inappropriate for evaluating critical strategic investments. In a more in-depth analysis, we argue that the organizational form that an option takes has a profound effect on exercise decisions. When options are initially integrated, organizational elements such as routines and culture become increasingly intertwined over time, raising the cost of abandoning the option – in effect, pushing firms to exercise options. In contrast, initially isolated options become idiosyncratic and more costly to integrate over time – pushing firms to kill them. There are also reputational and social capital effects that may bias exercise decisions beyond the mere consideration of costs, leading to escalation or missed opportunities.

Accordingly, firms must first be able to manage the associated organizational costs and minimize systematic bias in exercise decisions. Real options theory is moving away from the limitations of the financial options analogy and is increasingly integrated with strategy and organization theory. This shift requires that researchers consider issues such as intermediate organizational forms, external monitoring of exercise decisions, portfolios of competing options, and group process interventions.

Research into the correlation between market share and profitability has led to debate over whether the observed association is direct or spurious. The fundamental question remains whether the pursuit of market share is an appropriate strategy. This paper reports the results of a structural equations model which provides the clearest test to date of the competing viewpoints. The direct association between market share and profitability depends upon restrictive statistical assumptions. When these assumptions are relaxed, the results show that there is no direct association between market share and profitability.

Previous research indicates that mentalisation-based treatment (MBT) is an effective therapeutic programme for difficulties associated with borderline personality disorder (BPD). The purpose of this paper is to explore service user experiences of the therapy.

Seven adults (five female and two male), recruited via three NHS trusts, were interviewed. Participants were attending intensive out-patient MBT for BPD between 3 and 14 months. Data were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis.

Participants experienced the group component of MBT as challenging and unpredictable. They highlighted developing trust as key to benefitting from MBT. This was much more difficult to achieve in group sessions than in individual therapy, particularly for those attending MBT for less than five or six months. The structure of MBT generally worked well for participants but they identified individual therapy as the core component in achieving change. All participants learned to view the world more positively due to MBT.

Enhanced mentalisation capacity may help address specific challenges associated with BPD, namely, impulsivity and interpersonal difficulties. MBT therapists are confronted with the ongoing task of creating a balance between sufficient safety and adequate challenge during MBT. Potential benefits and drawbacks of differing structural arrangements of MBT programmes within the UK are considered.

Learning about service user perspectives has facilitated an enhanced understanding of experiences of change during MBT in addition to specific factors that may impact mentalisation capacity throughout the programme. These factors, in addition to implications for MBT and suggestions for future research, are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a selected bibliography of recent resources on library instruction and information literacy.

The paper introduces and annotates periodical articles, monographs, and audiovisual material examining library instruction and information literacy.

The paper provides information about each source, discusses the characteristics of current scholarship, and describes sources that contain unique scholarly contributions and quality reproductions.

The information may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.

Exploiting a novel measure of hostile takeover exposure primarily based on the staggered adoption of state legislations, we explore a crucial, albeit largely overlooked, aspect of corporate social responsibility (CSR). In particular, we investigate CSR inequality, which is the inequality across different CSR categories. Higher inequality suggests a less balanced, more lopsided, CSR policy.

In addition to the standard regression analysis, we perform several robustness checks including propensity score matching, entropy balancing and an instrumental-variable analysis.

Our results show that more takeover exposure exacerbates CSR inequality. Specifically, a rise in takeover vulnerability by one standard deviation results in an increase in CSR inequality by 4.53–5.40%. The findings support the managerial myopia hypothesis, where myopic managers promote some CSR activities that are useful to them in the short run more than others, leading to higher CSR inequality.

Our study is the first to exploit a unique measure of takeover vulnerability to investigate the impact of takeover threats on CSR inequality, which is an important aspect of CSR that is largely overlooked in the literature. We aptly fill this void in the literature.

The aim of this article is to explore how, and to what extent, American advertising and its consumerist messages infiltrated Irish society in the period 1922-1960.

The article is based on an analysis of primary and secondary sources.

The article argues that American advertising practices and messages influenced the advertising industry in Ireland. It also contributed to the technical, style and content of Irish advertising and informed the Irish woman's view of American consumerism. Finally, it suggests that Irish society was more open to external influences, which challenges the narrative of Ireland as a closed society before 1960.

The article is based on extensive original research and opens up a number of new areas of research relating to the history of consumerism and advertising in Ireland.