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This research models the impact of patient perceptions of care quality on overall patient satisfaction in a rural healthcare organization over a three-year time period. The purpose of this paper is to determine if the factors that influence perceptions of service quality change over time and if the change affects overall patient satisfaction.

Data were collected for three fiscal years (2012-2014) using a 36-question, Likert-scaled attitudinal survey. Multiple regression analysis was performed to identify which constructs of five different service quality dimensions were statistically significant in predicting overall patient satisfaction. Paired comparison of means and ANOVA F-tests highlighted significant differences across years and demographics.

Multiple regression models of overall patient satisfaction over a three-year time period had significant repeat variables, indicating salience of the dimensions and constructs of service quality that predict patient satisfaction. However, some dimensions of service quality did not remain significant from one year to another, indicating there may be a gap in the patient service cycle over an extended time frame.

This paper explored the sequential relationship between patient satisfaction survey data and perceptions of service quality over a multi-year time frame. The research focussed on outpatient medical clinics, while the majority of previous studies have focussed on acute care or inpatient stays. A longitudinal study is especially relevant for outpatient clinics where continuity of care is important.

To validate the use of fuzzy control systems for information channel optimisation.

The research presents findings from a multi‐year case‐based study of an international software organisation. At the outset of the study, baseline log‐file data were collected from the organisation's customer relationship management and financial systems. As part of a business process reengineering effort, a fuzzy control system model was created and implemented to optimise the software support communication channels. After the first year, data were recollected to determine the effectiveness of the model. The log‐file analysis was augmented with individual interviews of stakeholders within the business.

The optimisation strategy based on the fuzzy control system allowed the organisation to focus on answering more queries from higher value customers and cut the support resolution time nearly in half, in less than a year. By focusing on higher value customers and more productive information channels, staff efficiency increased and costs were reduced. This research indicates that customers using synchronous communication channels such as the telephone seem to get better service than those using asynchronous channels such as e‐mail or web. Additionally, the research also indicates that several geographic factors such as proximity and language proficiency could influence information channel choice affecting the level of service received.

The case findings could be specific to the observed organisation or to the software service industry. Additional research is necessary to determine the universality of the method and ancillary findings.

Methods outlined in this case provide both practitioners and researchers with new tools to explore and react to the challenges of information channel proliferation.

This study aims to problematize how gender is enacted within entrepreneurship education and training (EET).

Using a social feminist lens, this study advances principles, a conceptual framework, assessment criteria and illustrative performance metrics to inform gender-sensitive EET programs and courses. Findings are based on a cross-case thematic analysis of two large-scale case studies conducted in Canada and Jordan.

The findings bridge social feminist theory and EET studies. The originality of the research rests in its utilization of the principles and conceptual framework to examine EET and to inform the development, design and assessment of gender-sensitive programs and courses.

The framework and criteria do not differentiate types or levels of EET. The investigators lead the assessment of curricula and co-construction of gender-sensitive course content. Interpreter bias cannot be ruled out.

The proposed principles, framework, criteria and performance will assist stakeholders in EET program/course design, content, delivery and evaluation.

Aligned with the United Nation Sustain Development Goal 5 (gender equity), the findings demonstrate the value of adapting a critical lens across all elements of EET and responding to biases in participant selection and engagement, program design and curricula.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is among the first studies to use a social feminist perspective and case study methodology to inform criteria to assess EET.

The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into how nascent entrepreneurs persist despite outward appearances of little progress by using participant observations, and autobiographical and interview data.

Utilizing a multi-year case study, the authors use participant observation, autobiographical, and interview data to build the arguments.

The authors demonstrate that persistence involves overcoming stage-gate issues, and overcoming stage gates requires a flurry of activity and opportunity variation. Once stage gates are overcome, entrepreneurs experience an emergence-like event with a new flurry of activity that propels them toward the next stage gate. Doing so, the authors extend theories of entrepreneurial persistence and entrepreneurial action by suggesting that nascent entrepreneurs who are slowly making progress toward start-up may be persisting by taking small but important steps toward start-up.

This study offers detailed observations and analysis about the behaviors and activities that a nascent entrepreneur undertook during an extremely long gestation/persistence period, which ultimately ended with the successful completion of the goal.

The purpose of this paper is to present a framework to integrate emergent management theory into graduate coursework using media and film.

The paper presents a qualitative and multi‐year case study.

Media used to teach management theory must not remain static. It should be updated periodically to remain effective as a pedagogical tool.

Further research should be conducted to examine long‐term retention rates for information covered. Larger empirical studies should be conducted to verify findings.

There appear to be generational differences that suggest trainers, instructors, and professors need to match media‐based pedagogical tools to their audience.

Few, if any, studies have addressed the need to update media imagery used as part of a comprehensive approach to teaching management theory and concepts.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the use of assessment to manage some of the challenges diversity brings into the teaching and learning in international real estate degree programs.

The paper is a multi‐year case study of a course in real estate valuation in a Swedish University. The impact of assessment on student experience and performance was analyzed.

Changes in the timing and rules of assessment have an appreciable impact on differences in student performance. However, some diversity problems must be addressed also at the program level.

Real estate departments must exercise pedagogical leadership if they are to continue to effectively provide globally relevant education.

This paper analyses one of the consequences of the expansion of international real estate education into a non‐traditional destination for foreign students.

Although the importance of climate change is generally acknowledged, its impacts are often not taken into account explicitly when planning development projects. This being due to limited resources, among others, this paper aims to propose a simple and low-cost approach to assess the viability of human activities under climate change.

Many human activities are feasible only within a narrow range of climatic conditions. Comparing such “climate corridors” with future climate projections provides an intuitive yet quantitative means for assessing needs for, and the viability of, adaptation activities under climate change.

The approach was tested within development projects in Pakistan, Peru and Tajikistan. The approach was shown to work well for forestry and agriculture, indicating positive/negative prospects for wheat in two districts in Pakistan, temperature constraints for maize in Peru and widening elevation ranges for walnut trees in Tajikistan.

Climate corridor analyses feed into the preparation of Local Adaptation Plans of Action in Pakistan.

The simplicity and robustness of climate corridor analysis allow for efficient analysis and communication of climate change impacts. It works when data availability is limited, but it can as well accommodate a wide range of complexities. It has proven to be an effective vehicle for mainstreaming climate change into adaptation planning.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of a commercial partnership in a project‐type supply chain. The research focuses on the performance of suppliers who develop a partnering mechanism for procurement of complex manufacturing projects. In total, four supply chain metrics are evaluated: project scope change, ratio of actual‐to‐estimated project costs, gross profit margin, and delay in deliverable shipments. Hypotheses are formulated to contrast partnerships and arms‐length relationships for industrial procurement. Statistical results support the conclusion that supplier performances improve under partnership.

Four supply chain metrics were generated through review of literature and in‐depth field study. The authors utilized the supply chain management, project management, and principal‐agent theory literature to develop hypotheses to examine effects of instituting a partnership agreement. A case study approach was employed to collect financial and operational data from 167 projects among a manufacturing supplier and a group of customers that purchase industrial analyzer systems. Statistical techniques were employed for hypothesis testing.

The findings from the authors' empirical work support the prediction in partnership literature that suppliers' operational and financial performances improve after they and manufacturing customers jointly implement partnerships. A supplementary finding also suggests that a manufacturer should develop partnering mechanisms with suppliers to achieve higher performance for both the individual firms and the entire supply chain.

This study, like other “before and after” analyses, encounters limitations on causality. Advanced techniques, e.g. cause‐effect investigation with richer data, are hence necessary to validate the causal relationships between performance metrics and their drivers. This study focuses only on the supplier's side of the supply chain and its partnership in a specific industrial setting. Future research may consider studying the joint performance by supplier‐customer dyads in commercial partnerships with variations of partnering agreements.

Partnerships motivate trading partners to engage in higher level of coordination. Transactional hazards can be reduced and performance may improve under the partnering mechanism. The manufacturer may design the procurement partnership as a collaborative mechanism, thus helping a partnering supplier and itself to obtain increased mutual gains.

The paper provides detailed information of a unique case study of the partnership in a project‐type supply chain, which is relatively new in the literature. Research streams on supply chain management, project management, and principal‐agent theory are integrated to evaluate supplier performance. Empirical results confirm partnership impacts on suppliers' business performance.

To provide a taxonomy of third party logistics (3PL) research and, based on that, to develop a research agenda for this field of study.

The proposed 3PL research classification framework is based on a comprehensive literature review, which concentrates on peer‐reviewed journal papers published within the period 1990‐2005. A total of 114 academic sources have been retrieved and analysed in terms of research purpose and nature, method employed, theoretical approach and level of analysis.

The review reveals that 3PL research is empirical‐descriptive in nature and that it generally lacks a theoretical foundation. Survey research is the dominant method employed, reflecting the positivist research tradition within logistics. It identifies certain knowledge gaps and develops five propositions for future research. It suggests that focus should be directed towards more normative, theory‐driven and qualitative method‐based studies. It also argues that further empirical research in relation to 3PL design/implementation and fourth party logistics services is needed.

This paper fulfils an identified need for a comprehensive classification framework of 3PL studies. It essentially provides both academics and practitioners with a conceptual map of existing 3PL research and also points out opportunities for future research.

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether having accessible cybersecurity programs (CPs) for high-school students affected girls’ long-term engagement with the industry, given that they already had interests in technology. Although much research has been done to evaluate how high-school science, technology, engineering, and mathematics programs retain girls in computing fields, it is necessary to see if this same long-term engagement exists in cybersecurity-specific programs.

In total, 55 members were surveyed from the aspirations in computing community regarding their experience in and accessibility to high-school CPs. A quantitative analysis of such responses was then undertaken using inferential statistical tools and chi-squared tests for independence.

The results showed that the existence of CPs alone are not influential factors in increasing long-term engagement with the field, showcasing that the high-knowledge barrier of CPs affects many students (even those with prior interests in technology). Instead, by having multiple occurrences of these programs and providing more cybersecurity resources to areas that lacked them, girls were more likely to report an increased interest in the field.

Such information can support future program leaders to develop effective, accessible and more targeted cybersecurity initiatives for students of various communities.

By analyzing the unique interactions of tech-aspiring women with cybersecurity, this exploration was able to demonstrate that women of different computing experiences face a shared barrier when entering the cybersecurity field. Likewise, in comparing these perspectives across different age groups, the investigation highlighted the development and subsequent growth of cybersecurity programming over the years and why such initiatives should be supported into the future.