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The paper aims to describe the behind-the-scenes strategy and processes that fund managers use to make investment decisions.

The research involved semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with 34 fund managers in Istanbul, London, Melbourne and New York during 2012. Results describe their approach, and tie it back to theoretical explanations.

Large investors make limited use of neoclassical finance theory. They believe that securities markets trend over the short term, mean revert over the long term, and have upward sloping demand curves. They rely on qualitative techniques, think of security prices rather than returns, acknowledge constraints by their employer and clients, are heavily socialised and see no limitation from using similar approaches to competitors.

This is the first interview-based evaluation of global manager techniques since the market crash after 2008, and provides an innovative depiction of actual processes followed by institutional investors.

When finance managers face decisions, they do not always make clinical evaluations using rational methodology, but systematically depart from utility maximisation. This article addresses biases that are related to risk propensity, and categorises them under five headings: decision makers' characteristics and perception; reference levels; mental accounting and the assumption of mean reversion; the longshot bias or overconfidence; and the desire for immediate gratification. The research reported in the paper seeks to understand the mechanisms of these biases using a study of decision making by Australian finance executives in a setting that is representative of a typical business decision.

This paper uses a case study that was designed to identify why decision makers facing choices will prefer a risky alternative. Data were collected using e‐mail contact and an electronic survey. Respondents (n=67) provided demographic data, and answered questions that probed their attitudes and decision styles. Risk propensity was quantified by respondents' attitude towards a risky decision, and was explained using independent variables related to decision maker traits.

Just over half the executives proved willing to take a risk, and almost half the variance in their risk propensity was explained roughly equally by respondents': endowment, perception of risk's role in decisions, assessment of alternative choices, and expectation of the decision's outcome. Manipulation of the cases along four dimensions varied the decision's facts, but they proved only marginally significant to risk taking.

The study provides a practical explanation of the risk taking behaviour of finance executives; confirms that context is more important to decisions than their content; and adds to the growing body of applied behavioural research in finance.

Based on extensive empirical fieldworks conducted in Belgian and French family justice courtrooms in order to explain how culture and ethnicity are processed and understood in the daily reasoning and assumptions of legal professionals, this chapter analyzes different forms in which culture and ethnicity are framed in family law cases. Understanding how and along which dimensions these elements do vary in judicial reasoning constitutes the preliminary but necessary step before assessing the need of cultural expertise as such. In this attempt, we shed light on a scope of variations between complex and non-deterministic models of culture – consistent with contemporary anthropology literature – and more simplistic ones, in which culture and identity are conceived as fixed realities. Throughout this path between norms, facts, and stereotypes, we illustrate not only the multiplicity and complexity of forms which cultural elements can take in the exercise of family justice, but also the risks that some significances may carry with them and the urgent need to improve more fluid and dispassionate conceptions of cultural diversity before developing “cultural expertise” as such, an expertise that could otherwise reinforce stereotypical and fixed views of “cultures.”

Despite the over-representation of stepfamilies in the clientele receiving protective services, there is still very little information about the different forms of the parental commitment of stepfathers in those families. However, the characteristics of families receiving child protective services (CPS) are likely to influence the way that the stepfathers’ commitment is expressed.

Taking into account the viewpoint of mothers (n = 10), stepfathers (n = 10), and adolescents (n = 10), this study attempted to document, using the free association method and semistructured interviews, the following: (1) the representations that the members of these stepfamilies had of the stepfathers’ parental commitment; and (2) the way in which engagement was expressed in daily life.

While the participants agreed that the stepfather had a parental role to play, that is to take care of the children, they did not necessarily agree about which dimensions were the most important. Whereas the adults emphasized the child-rearing dimension of this role and the necessary cooperation with the biological parents, the adolescents insisted on the relational aspect. The results likewise indicated that these men were very committed to their partners’ adolescents and showed that even in families challenged by problems that lead to involvement with CPS, stepfathers can play a positive, supportive role.

This study represents an important addition to the existing literature on the role of stepfathers in that it uses multiple measures and direct reports from father figures allowing us to explore the main dimensions of stepfather commitment.

This paper aims to analyze the impact of brand management system (BMS) practices on subjective and objective performance in both service- and product-oriented sectors.

Based on a “grounded-in-practice” approach to BMS, a comprehensive formative BMS scale is developed and its validity is assessed. The impact of BMS on subjective brand performance (i.e. predictive validity) and on objective financial performance is assessed. Data are collected from a sample of 298 brand managers and marketing directors in five business sectors (cosmetics, convenience goods, industry, bank/insurance and media) and from a financial database. Path analysis and multigroup analysis are performed to test mediating and moderating effects.

The results reveal that subjective brand performance (perceived brand performance) mediates the relationship between the BMS and objective financial performance of the firm and on each of the three BMS dimensions; and product-oriented (vs service-oriented) sector positively moderates the relationship between the BMS and subjective brand performance.

The paper offers insights into adapting brand management practices along all BMS dimensions to achieve better business performance and improve objective financial performance in product-oriented activities. It highlights the role of brand management implementation, as well as the role of brand management in hierarchical relationships, in improving performance in service activities.

The formative BMS scale offers a tool which can be used to improve strategic decisions and give practical guidance on product vs service sector specificities. The indirect impact of a BMS on financial objective performance reinforces the legitimacy of brand managers and marketing managers.

This paper shows the impact of the BMS on objective financial performance by using a “grounded-in-practice” BMS scale. It also affords explanation on sectoral effects of brand management practices and their consequences on subjective and objective performance.

With the recent publication of The Engagement Cycle (DH, 2009a), exploring the issues surrounding patient and public involvement (PPI) in World Class Commissioning, it seems timely to look at how this type of involvement/engagement has developed in recent years. Set against official rhetoric that emphasises the importance of PPI in the NHS, this paper is informed by evidence emerging from a three‐year research project into the development of practice‐based commissioning conducted at Manchester University. It is suggested that commissioners (primary care trusts and practice‐based commissioners) need to think deeply about the meaning of public involvement in their context, while at national level strategies should be flexible enough to allow a diversity of approaches which may ultimately allow PPI to flourish.