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Past research has shown that consumers believe there is a strong relationship between price and quality; they also believe there is a strong relationship between brand and quality. Therefore, when comparing similar pieces of apparel, items with a designer brand or a higher price are perceived, by most customers, to be of higher quality. The purpose of this study was to compare the pricing and quality of identical designer merchandise sold in department stores and manufacturers’ outlet stores. The researchers found no significant differences in the quality of apparel sold in the two retail formats; however, there was a significant difference in the price. The department store merchandise was 31 per cent higher in price than the outlet store merchandise.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the challenges that are experienced by staff responsible for commissioning liaison psychiatry services and to establish if these are shared by other health professionals.

Using a mixed-methods design, the findings from a mental health commissioner workshop (n = 12) were used to construct a survey that was distributed to health care professionals using an opportunistic framework (n = 98).

Four key themes emerged from the workshop, which was tested using the survey. The importance of secure funding; a better understanding of health care systems and pathways; partnership working and co-production and; access to mental health clinical information in general hospitals. There was broad convergence between commissioners, mental health clinicians and managers, except in relation to gathering and sharing of data. This suggests that poor communication between professionals is of concern.

There were a small number of survey respondents (n = 98). The sampling used an opportunistic framework that targeted commissioner and clinician forums. Using an opportunistic framework, the sample may not be representative. Additionally, multiple pairwise comparisons were conducted during the analysis of the survey responses, increasing the risk that significant results were found by chance.

A number of steps were identified that could be applied in practice. These mainly related to the importance of collecting and communicating data and co-production with commissioners in the design, development and monitoring of liaison psychiatry services.

This is the first study that has specifically considered the challenges associated with the commissioning of liaison psychiatry services.

This study aims to understand client food preferences and how pantry offerings can be optimized by those preferences.

This study develops and administers customized surveys to study three food pantries within the Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwestern North Carolina network. This study then categorizes food items by client preferences, identifies the key predictors of those preferences and obtains preference scores by fitting the data to a predictive model. The preference scores are subsequently used in an optimization model that suggests an ideal mix of food items to stock based upon client preferences and the item and weight limits imposed by the pantry.

This study found that food pantry clients prefer fresh and frozen foods over shelf-friendly options and that gender, age and religion were the primary predictors. The optimization model incorporates these preferences, yielding an optimal stocking strategy for the pantry.

This research is based on a specific food bank network, and therefore, the client preferences may not be generalizable to other food banks. However, the framework and corresponding optimization model is generalizable to other food aid supply chains.

This study provides insights for food pantry managers to make informed decisions about stocking the pantry shelves based on the client’s preferences.

An emerging topic within the humanitarian food aid community is better matching of food availability with food that is desired in a way that minimizes food waste. This is achieved by providing more choice to food pantry users. This work shows how pantries can incorporate client preferences in inventory stocking decisions.

This study contributes to the literature on food pantry operations by providing a novel decision support system for pantry managers to aid in stocking their shelves according to client preferences.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate masculinity in Chinese social media marketing for global luxury fashion brands through two studies.

Study 1 compares physical characteristics of males in visually oriented US (Instagram) and Chinese (Weibo) social media posts promoting global luxury fashion magazine brands (e.g. Vogue, Cosmopolitan, GQ and Esquire). Study 2 examines the prevalence of and Chinese consumers’ responses (reposts, comments and likes) to different masculinities depicted in luxury fashion brand-sponsored Weibo posts.

Male portrayals for Chinese audiences feature more characteristics associated with emerging East Asian hybrid masculinities – “Little Fresh Meat” (LFM) and “Old Grilled Meat” (OGM) – than associated with global or regional hegemonic masculinity (i.e. the scholarly Wén and action-oriented Wu). Wén remains common in social media posts for luxury fashion goods, but LFM and OGM engender more consumer responses.

Chinese luxury fashion marketing depicts masculinity more similarly to other East Asian marketing than to Western marketing. Some luxury fashion brands are struggling for acceptance among Chinese youth. Luxury fashion marketers should incorporate hybrid rather than hegemonic masculinities to prompt more favorable responses among Chinese consumers, especially younger female target markets.

Growing female occupational and consumer power and shifting male employment from blue-collar to white-collar jobs have influenced media portrayals of masculinity. Social media marketing for luxury fashion brands demonstrates the prevalence and appeal of hybrid masculinities in China.

Strong leadership in primary care is necessary to coordinate an effective pandemic response; however, descriptions of leadership roles for family physicians are absent from previous pandemic plans. This study aims to describe the leadership roles and functions family physicians played during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada and identify supports and barriers to formalizing these roles in future pandemic plans.

This study conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with family physicians across four regions in Canada as part of a multiple case study. During the interviews, participants were asked about their roles during each pandemic stage and the facilitators and barriers they experienced. Interviews were transcribed and a thematic analysis approach was used to identify recurring themes.

Sixty-eight family physicians completed interviews. Three key functions of family physician leadership during the pandemic were identified: conveying knowledge, developing and adapting protocols for primary care practices and advocacy. Each function involved curating and synthesizing information, tailoring communications based on individual needs and building upon established relationships.

Findings demonstrate the need for future pandemic plans to incorporate formal family physician leadership appointments, as well as supports such as training, communication aides and compensation to allow family physicians to enact these key roles.

The COVID-19 pandemic presents a unique opportunity to examine the leadership roles of family physicians, which have been largely overlooked in past pandemic plans. This study’s findings highlight the importance of these roles toward delivering an effective and coordinated pandemic response with uninterrupted and safe access to primary care.

Incivility is pervasive in organisational settings, particularly in healthcare, and is associated with negative employee outcomes. The aim of this study was to analyse the relationships between experienced incivility, sleep quality and emotional outcomes, positioning sleep quality as a mediator. Additionally, the protective role of tenure and the unique effects of incivility from different sources were examined.

This study used a daily diary longitudinal design using self-report questionnaires with 92 nurses of varying tenure.

This research demonstrates that experiencing incivility negatively impacts sleep quality, which, in turn, increases surface acting and emotional exhaustion. Furthermore, the negative relationship between incivility and sleep quality is attenuated among nurses who have longer tenure.

These findings are helpful in developing targeted practical practices, such as incivility interventions and mentorship programs to reduce the incidence and impact of incivility.

This study draws upon theories of self-regulation and emotion regulation to examine how incivility diminishes self-control resources, leading to negative outcomes. This study also positions job tenure as a buffer against incivility and examines the differential impact of different sources of incivility.

Research indicates that a link exists between resting heart rate (RHR) and various forms of antisocial, violent and criminal behavior among community and criminal samples. However, the relationship between RHR and engagement in aggressive/violent encounters among law enforcement has not yet been examined. The purpose of this paper is to examine the link between RHR and engagement in violent encounters using prospective longitudinal data on a sample of law enforcement officers in the USA.

Negative binomial regression, Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox hazard regressions are conducted using a sample of 544 police officers to determine if there a relationship between RHR and engagement in violent encounters by law enforcement, even when controlling for demographics, biological and social covariates.

Results indicate that higher RHR is associated with an increased risk of officers engaging in a violent altercation, as measured by the number of arrests for suspects resisting arrest with violence, even after controlling for all other relevant factors.

This study was the first to examine police officers RHR levels and its associated with violent altercations during arrest using a rigorous statistical methodology.

The study reported in this article aims to examine the effects of national versus store brands on consumer evaluation of a garment, taking into account the intended product usage situation (for everyday use versus for a special occasion) as well as price (regular versus discount), type of store (department versus boutique), and store image (lower‐class versus upper‐class).

An experiment was conducted with 127 Canadian adult consumers where the above variables were manipulated by means of short vignettes presenting a to‐be‐evaluated branded shirt.

The results of the experimental study showed that consumer evaluations of store brands and national brands were influenced by the joint effects of store image and intended usage situation.

Retailers in upper‐class retail clothing stores willing to promote their store brands should emphasize in their communication programs buying contexts in which an item is needed for some special event (e.g. a wedding anniversary) because this appears to correspond to situations where store brands are best valued. Retailers in lower‐class stores should rather promote their store brands by stressing the good quality of their clothes in day‐to‐day usage situations. As for national brands of clothing, emphasizing the satisfaction guarantee that comes automatically with well‐established brands would seem to be the best communication strategy.

The paper shows the influence of store image on consumer evaluations of garments.

The research paper examines the commercial evolution of retail tenants within the UK factory outlet sector. The research aims to identify the key characteristics of commercialisation and the resulting strategic positions occupied by tenants.

The paucity of research surrounding the research objectives necessitated exploratory research based on 32 in‐depth interviews conducted with factory outlet tenants, managers and owners.

The research presents four tenant segments used to analyse commercial evolution. Although many tenants are initially pushed into the channel to solve a physical stock problem they invariably increase their level of commercialisation as they apply the experience curve, economies of scale and opportunism. Ultimately, the key to commercialisation lies in the ability of a factory outlet tenant to make adjustments to their retail business model, through sales productivities and improved cost ratios. The single biggest adjustment lies in the potential of made for outlet merchandise which secures both product continuity and enhanced margin.

The research provides a conceptual framework for evaluating the relevance of current factory outlet leasing and performance management programmes. Practical application of the framework will require a correlation to be established between the stages of commercialisation and actual sales performance across a wider sample of tenants. The finding provide possible stepping stones to further research within the sector, not least the evolutionary pattern of factory outlet tenants across Europe. The findings provoke many questions related to the role of outlets within a tenant's overall multi‐channel distribution strategy. The sophistication of certain tenants' outlet business models and the high level of integration across channel of distribution suggest factory outlet centres are becoming increasingly accepted as part of mainstream growth strategies.

The COVID-19 pandemic has actively changed the face of all medical disciplines, including mental health practices. In a matter of days from the introduction of the lockdown, clinicians have to adapt to new working models with many changing the consultation methods clinicians have utilized for years. To best understand the wider clinical impact, a limited study was carried out to assess the effect of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on psychiatric clinical practice.

A qualitative study was performed to analyze the impact of COVID-19 on clinician practice at a UK secure care mental health facility. A four-question free-text survey was distributed online to all physicians and seven responses were analyzed using thematic analysis.

Four key themes were identified – use of technology, the importance of face-to-face contact, work/life balance and mental well-being.

Overall, the results of the study reported that although some negative changes to the traditional work–life balance were identified, the clinicians found remote working within a secure care setting cultivated a more efficient working environment while allowing for more effective social distance practices.

This study highlighted some of the challenges faced by clinicians employed in a secure care mental health setting following the introduction of lockdown measures in the UK associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. The study will also inform future work practices, including the potential of longer term remote working in this sector.