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This chapter analyzes the tourism industry from national and regional perspectives, in order to understand the past and current trends in Costa Rica’s positioning and branding attributes and strategies for tourism development. The intent here is not to provide an exhaustive comprehensive literature review of academic research on country branding; and so it is by all means a case study as it describes the evolution of the tourism industry in Costa Rica – including the transformative stages the country went through since the 1980s – as planned tourism national management programs evolved toward reaching the target of creating a nature-based tourism brand. The medical industry and then medical tourism industries are analyzed in a global basis and the US market is examined in detail because of its potential to develop a new complementary niche for Costa Rica’s tourism industry. The chapter intends to asses Costa Rica’s potential to become a country brand in medical tourism, leveraged on its natural tourism destination branding status quo.

Although research on patient satisfaction and loyalty has grown rapidly, the literature on corporate social responsibility (CSR) health care and patient satisfaction and loyalty is scarce. This paper aims to examine the impact of CSR health care on patient satisfaction and loyalty in Bangladesh.

A quantitative study was performed, and data were collected using purposive sampling among 195 patients who used CSR health-care services from six public and private hospitals in Bangladesh. The data were analysed using structural equation modelling through the partial least square approach.

The study found a significant positive relationship between CSR health-care services and patient satisfaction and between patient satisfaction and loyalty at p < 0.01.

The study provides insights into policymakers in the development of Bangladesh health sectors and CSR health-care activities. However, the results might not be generalisable due to the unavailability of a sample frame.

The study addresses the lacuna in the literature on CSR health-care practices of hospitals in Bangladesh from the perspective of patient satisfaction and loyalty.

The homelessness of those 50–64, older homeless people, is a growing problem in the United States. This chapter seeks to understand the unique healthcare issues faced by this population. Data in the city of Chicago was collected and analyzed through a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods. Data included answers to survey questions by older homeless individuals, interviews with providers and older homeless individuals, focus groups with older homeless individuals, and agency data from homeless service organizations. Findings agree with previous research that shows a growth in the homeless population, the greater number and severity of health problems in the population, the significant number of barriers that the population encounters in obtaining health care, housing, and jobs, and the concern with preventative health that the older homeless have. After outlining these findings, this chapter offers policy and program recommendations for the larger health care and homeless service systems.

External assistance is often urgently required when an area is struck by a catastrophe. Central government-oriented aid (CGA), national non-governmental organizations aid (NNA), and international humanitarian aid (IHA) are three typical aid models, and national counterpart aid (NCA) is an innovative model for post-Wenchuan earthquake recovery and reconstruction (PWERR). The purpose of this paper is to make a comparative study of the aid models in order to develop recommendations on external assistance for better post-disaster recovery and reconstruction (PDRR).

This study was performed in three steps: a case study on the NCA model during the PWERR; a documentary research on the CGA, NNA and IHA models; and a comparative analysis of the four models.

The results of the comparative study show that the NCA model is more efficient and effective than the other three typical aid models. However it must be based on the premise of a centralized government.

The NCA model contributes to disaster management in a developing country context. It develops a viable model for developing countries in coping with the catastrophe, can enhance their ability for domestic self-assistance, and has reference to the construction of national integrated disaster management systems.

This paper empirically researches the innovative NCA model, and compares it with commonly used aid models for the PDRR. Although it is a Chinese experience, the systematic inter-governmental collaboration of the NCA model has reference to other countries in disaster management.

To determine the health status of women before, during, and after the war, and to explore women’s perceived health needs and current access to healthcare.

Individual interviews and focus groups were conducted in urban and rural areas. A total of 52 women participated in the study (N = 52; Individual Interviews, n = 12; Focus Group Participants, n = 40).

Women’s health concerns and healthcare needs overlap between the rural and urban communities. The women reported the needs for empowerment in the forms of social support groups for health, specialists for women’s health, education, resources, prevention, financial support to look for medical services, and mental health issues.

Since these focus groups and interviews were conducted, the women have continued to meet. The strength of these meetings is represented in the forms of preparing a meal, eating, and socializing in unity. The social support experienced in these gatherings allows the women to openly express their issues, fears, concerns, joys, and successes. The CBPR approach is an important necessity when working with vulnerable populations. There were some inherent limitations due to economic issues to support the gatherings, transportation, and health-related complications that may have prevented women from attending.

Disparate health outcomes and biologic–environmental interactions are represented in female survivors of war. Their issues began or were exacerbated during war and continue today. In the future, we seek to identify and establish a culturally and gender-specific intervention for health access, prevention, maintenance, and improvements.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) influences an organization in deciding its ethical approaches in the corporate practices and also important to maintain sustainable development. Islamic banks are capturing almost 40% of the total bank account holders in Bangladesh and contributing to the socio-economic and environmental development of the country through their CSR activities. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impacts of CSR activities of Islamic banks for sustainable development in Bangladesh from the perception of the beneficiaries.

This study is based on a questionnaire survey of 200 conveniently selected beneficiaries from five purposively selected Islamic banks in Bangladesh. Respondents’ agreement score for various CSR-related activities has been observed in a five-point Likert scale and, finally, to identify the impact of CSR, exploratory factor analysis has been done.

Results revealed that respondents are expressing strong agreement for almost all the activities, and they are much satisfied with ongoing CSR activities by Islamic banks, which implies positive attitudes of beneficiaries regarding CSR activities. The results of factor analysis further confirm the perception of respondents toward CSR activities of Islamic banks in terms of social enhancement, education and health, socio-economic well-being and contemporary arts and culture.

The Islamic banks should enhance their CSR activities for socio-economic development, provide more allocation in education programs, increase sponsorship in sports events and assist in flourishing Bangladeshi arts and culture.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the efficiency of public goods provision in Wenchuan earthquake-stricken rural areas. The study was undertaken in August and September 2012 by the field survey of 24 villages.

This paper, by applying the methods of analytic hierarchy process and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation, aims to evaluate the efficiency by means of villagers’ satisfaction, which is designed in the idea of combining overall goal-classifications and specific indicators, including 7 classifications and a total of 36 specific indicators.

Based on maximum membership principle by the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation, the calculation results in 0.4485862 as a “general” level of the evaluation membership of efficiency in the post-quake public goods provision, and 3.0634837 as overall comprehensive score, a level lower than 3.5.

The efficiency by means of villagers’ evaluation is generally at a lower degree. Although the reconstruction has completed some high-quality infrastructure, schools, hospitals and houses, we still face more macroscopic and long-term problems of recovering and sustaining the post-quake communities in many fields.

It is more worthy to consider how to improve the efficiency of the reconstruction, especially in public goods and public services provision in the quake-stricken rural areas.

Conflict and violence are the main drivers of globally escalating humanitarian needs. Local grassroots initiatives are pivotal in distributing humanitarian supplies in the acute response phase until more established humanitarian aid organizations can enter. Nevertheless, scant research exists regarding the role of grassroots associations in providing humanitarian assistance during a military conflict. The purpose of this paper is to understand the role of grassroots associations and identify important themes for effective operations.

This paper adopts a case-study approach of three Ukrainian grassroots associations that began operating in the immediate days of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The findings are based on analyzing primary sources, including interviews with Ukrainian volunteers, and are supported by secondary sources.

Grassroots associations have local contacts and a contextual understanding of population needs and can respond more rapidly and effectively than large intergovernmental agencies. Four critical themes regarding the operations of grassroots associations emerged: information management, inventory management, coordination and performance measurement. Grassroots humanitarian response operations during conflict are challenged by personal security risks, the unpredictability of unsolicited supplies, emerging volunteer roles, dynamic transportation routes and shifting demands.

Grassroots responses are central to humanitarian responses during the acute phase of a military conflict. By examining the operations of grassroots associations in the early months of the 2022 war in Ukraine, the authors provide a unique perspective on humanitarian logistics. Nonetheless, more inclusive models of humanitarian responses are needed to harness the capacities and resilience of grassroots operations in practice.