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Peer support (PS) has, over recent years, been implemented across a variety of NHS adult mental health settings. In November 2015, peer support workers (PSW) were introduced to an Early Intervention in Psychosis Service (EIS) in the Midlands. The purpose of this paper is to focus on organisational factors, asking how do PS impact on an early intervention in psychosis multi-disciplinary team (MDT).

Six EIS MDT members participated in an hour-long focus group. The data were analysed using thematic analysis, in line with a qualitative methodology (Braun and Clarke, 2006).

Two themes were generated, including “The values of PS” (consisting of three sub-themes: improving service engagement; personal qualities; and the peer relationship); and “The peer support role” (consisting of three sub-themes: living experience; boundaries; and alternative perspectives). Findings imply that PS in the current EIS related to: improved service engagement and greater understanding between service providers and users; which could be linked to better outcomes for service users (such as reduced duration of untreated psychosis (DUP)).

It has been suggested that PSWs facilitate an improved understanding between service providers and service users (Repper and Watson, 2012). However, research into organisational and team benefits of PS is lacking, with a need for more exploration (Repper, 2013). The current study begins to address the lack of literature regarding the organisational impact of PS, and even further regarding early intervention.

Describes the origins and development of the UK retailer, Laura Ashley, emphasizing the internationalization of the company and the emphasis on international comparison from an early stage of the company′s development. Charts the company′s overseas development in North America, Europe and the Pacific Basin with particular reference to the modifications to the trading format of the company that were necessary to gain acceptance in these markets. Considers the factors influencing Laura Ashley′s philosophy in its overseas markets and the recent events establishing Laura Ashley as an international retail brand.

Retailers, it is said, are behaving as brands. Tests whether retailers can be considered to be brands by comparing the current practices of British retailers against four criteria for a brand which are developed from the existing literature on branding. The four criteria are that the brand should: differentiate; be capable of a separate existence; command a premium price and; offer the customer some psychic value. Concludes that retail brands not only exist but also exist in two forms: the more obvious merchandise brands, commonly known as own‐brand that are now marketed as more than generic commodities; and the less obvious process brand that represents the experience that retailers provide. Argues that the process brand is purchased with the shoppers′ time rather than with their money. The process brand has value to the retailer as it generates customer flow, customer loyalty and higher expenditure.

Describes the positioning of a major brand in a niche market in a relatively new retailing environment. Suggests that the use of trend examination, consumer behaviour and product benefits to develop heuristic devices and position the product in this market are essential, and that the analysis of the company and competition were of essence.

Diane Crone and colleagues describe a collaboration between a university sport and exercise science department and the local mental health trust that not only resulted in a number of practice‐based research projects looking at the health benefits of physical activity, but also directly improved sports and other physical activity options for mental health service users. It has also provided final year degree students with vocational experiences, improving their career prospects.

Whilst at the Department of Computer Science at Columbia University, US, Michael Lebowitz, currently at the Analytical Proprietary Trading Unit of Morgan Stanley and Company, New York, researched into a variety of areas in natural language processing and machine learning. In particular his UNIMEM learning program has been applied to a wide range of domains including census data, software evaluation and congressional voting records. In a recent research contribution, “The Use of Memory in Text Processing”, Communications of the ACM, Vol. 31 No. 12, 1988, pp. 1483–1505, he describes how RESEARCHER, a program that reads, remembers and generalises from patent abstracts, makes use of its automatically generated memory to assist low‐level text processing. This, he says, involves disambiguation that could be accomplished in no other way.

Organisations are more professional in their approach to management development than they were ten years ago – but they are still not planning enough for the future, according to a new report by consultants Harbridge House. In a survey of top UK organisations, the researchers found that most companies still plan their training on a one‐year basis – despite a general awareness on the part of management developers of the need for long‐term planning to meet the demands of the 1990s. Part of the problem lies in a lack of overall perspective: although many companies are forging stronger links between management development and corporate strategy, nearly half feel that there is not enough top management involvement in the business of training and developing managers.

This paper aims to examine the effectiveness of PhD support groups as an intervention that improves mental well-being and increases confidence in timely PhD completion.

Participants of six PhD support groups, which we co-facilitated, completed a survey at the start of the intervention and at the end of the eight weeks of attendance. The survey measured subjective well-being and confidence in completion using the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale and statements from the Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (2017 and 2019). The final survey also included open-ended questions to identify the helpful factors of the intervention.

Participants’ subjective well-being scores increased considerably over the eight weeks of group attendance and improved from initial score ranges associated with risk of depression or psychological distress. As a result of feeling understood and supported by other group members, participants felt less isolated and anxious, were more satisfied with their life and work-life balance, and felt more confident about completing their PhD within the institutional time frame. The results confirm previous findings on the positive effects of social support and the relationship between poor well-being and attrition.

Support groups could form an integral part of university support as they increase well-being and could improve retention.

Existing literature mainly highlights factors that affect postgraduate researchers’ well-being, with limited research on innovative interventions. This paper investigates the impact of social support in a facilitated peer group that focuses on the emotional and psychological aspects of the PhD experience, rather than peer group learning or support with specific research tasks.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how today’s new type of opinion leaders, “Citizen Influencers” (CIs), persuade their followers by exploring which characteristics contribute to their persuasiveness.

Combining theories within opinion leadership, celebrity endorsement, product placement and user-generated content (UGC) five source characteristics – namely, expertise, trustworthiness, likeability, similarity and familiarity – are investigated using fashion as an example. A longitudinal netnographic study of ten CIs and their UGC and six focus groups with followers of specific CIs on Instagram are conducted.

All five characteristics contribute to the persuasiveness of CIs with trustworthiness as the main contributor. CIs persuasiveness lies in their unique ability to encompass two opposing qualities simultaneously: being attainable and relatable like ordinary consumers; being taste leaders with superior, celebrity-like status.

Only qualitative studies within the fashion category have been conducted, wherefore the relative weight between the two qualities cannot be quantified.

When choosing a CI, managers may consider: the amount of followers per CI as an indicator of influence; similarity between follower and CI as it provides the basis for trust; and the CIs personal universe on their Instagram profile as it leverage the meanings associated with the brand.

The key driver of CIs persuasiveness is their trustworthiness which mediates and amplifies the effect of the other four characteristics. CIs’ persuasive power rests upon the balancing act of being relatable and aspirational.

In every industry there are resources. Some are moving, others more fixed; some are technical, others social. People working with the resources, for example, as buyers or sellers, or users or producers, may not make much notice of them. A product sells. A facility functions. The business relationship in which we make our money has “always” been there. However, some times this picture of order is disturbed. A user having purchased a product for decades may “suddenly” say to the producer that s/he does not appreciate the product. And a producer having received an order of a product that s/he thought was well known, may find it impossible to sell it. Such disturbances may be ignored. Or they can be used as a platform for development. In this study we investigate the latter option, theoretically and through real world data. Concerning theory we draw on the industrial network approach. We see industrial actors as part of (industrial) networks. In their activities actors use and produce resources. Moreover, the actors interact − bilaterally and multilaterally. This leads to development of resources and networks. Through “thick” descriptions of two cases we illustrate and try to understand the interactive character of resource development and how actors do business on features of resources. The cases are about a certain type of resource, a product − goat milk. The main message to industrial actors is that they should pay attention to that products can be co-created. Successful co-creation of products, moreover, may require development also of business relationships and their connections (“networking”).