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This study aims to test the relationship between two measures of sociocultural adjustment (perceived acceptance and work standard) with work attitudes and behavior and with psychological distress following an internal merger of two previously distinct working groups within the one business.

A field study, using a cross‐sectional design, was used to assess the reactions of 250 employees (host employees=170; relocated employees=80) who had undergone an internal merger within a communications company.

Perceived acceptance and work standards following the merger were significantly related to work attitudes and behavior for both the host and the relocated employees. There was no direct relationship between perceived acceptance and work standards with psychological distress. However, work attitudes and behavior were found to mediate the indirect effect of perceived acceptance and work standards on psychological distress.

The findings must be considered within the limitations of the study which include the use of a cross‐sectional design and testing within one business setting.

The research suggests that ensuring that employees from both pre‐merger groups are assisted in feeling accepted in the new culture and that both groups are giving support and resources to maintain work standards are important factors in managing post‐merger integration.

The study is the first to empirically test Berry's concepts of sociocultural adjustment, neutrality and asymmetry within an internal business merger.

The Government's Merchandise Marks Bill had an uneventful passage through the House of Lords and has been formally read a first time in the House of Commons. The main purpose of the Bill is to give greater protection to honest traders against less scrupulous competitors. With this object, the main provision of the Bill extends the definition of “trade description” so as to include statements as to “the quality, fitness for purpose, strength, accuracy, performance or behaviour of any goods.” In addition, the existing prohibition of false trade descriptions is extended to misleading descriptions, including any trade description which, although true in itself is calculated to be misunderstood or to create a false impression. It is hoped that the amendments will achieve also two other aims, namely, greater protection to the public generally and to the shopping public in particular, and better protection to the good name of British craftsmanship throughout the world.

This chapter provides an overview of the volume, beginning with anecdotes from the editors. These anecdotes demonstrate the range of issues facing Indigenous scholars and researchers who choose to work with Indigenous participants and/or communities. Reference is made to Indigenous research sovereignty, honouring the immense work undertaken by previous Indigenous scholars, enabling many today to work effectively with their own people as well as other Indigenous groups. This is considered a courageous act, given the vulnerability this opens Indigenous peoples up to in terms of the change that is engendered and the criticism from external non-Indigenous researchers that has often arisen. The organisation of the volume into three parts is discussed, and this chapter ends with synopses of the following 16 chapters.

Properly conceived, conducted and interpreted, motivation research can be an extremely powerful management tool, designed to help the manufacturer or advertiser to sell more goods. Its aim is to expose the market situation, explain it and suggest courses of action which will lead to desired changes. It is a way of looking at a problem rather than a collection of specialist techniques and is strictly practical. Hence it can be used alongside other market research tools for the solution of marketing problems and can be applied to a wide range of business activities. Much of its development has been in the advertising field but it can also help in the formulation of production policy, solving packaging problems and marketing operations. It is examined here in all these contexts. The idea of motivation research, the reasons for its use and the techniques by which to apply it are discussed, as well as the pitfalls that are likely to occur. New and imaginary case studies are used throughout to illustrate points. A review of the subject literature is included.

IF the two definitions which were enunciated at various intervals by the Library Association are ever to be translated into complete practice, they will carry libraries far beyond any of their present achievements. It is the necessary preliminary that the leaders should make some Statement of the problem, and it is the business of every librarian, but particularly the young ones, to show how they want libraries to work in their time. At Marylebone only one young librarian spoke, and he wanted first the return to their normal duties of those librarians who are food‐controlling and otherwise doing war work, to the detriment, he supposed, of the library service. There is something in this argument, although, if these men had refused to accept their temporary tasks, it is probable that their libraries would Still have been taken for food and other offices, and they would have been marked as non‐co‐operators. We have to remember that great as is the part we sustain in this war in the maintenance of morale, in information service, in education and in the providing of anodynes and escapes from the awful actualities of the day, we rest our all on the book, and in the war‐mind that is a luxury rather than a necessity.

A Viagra-inspired drug, flibanserin, was marketed to treat women’s hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD). This paper aims to explore the value orientation of flibanserin as a treatment for female’s HSDD among different consumer segments.

Two surveys were run in the UK (Study 1, n = 223) and Israel (Study 2, n = 233), in which partnered heterosexual adults evaluated the value of the drug before and after being exposed to information on its side effects. Then, using content analysis of 36 online reviews among women who had tried the drug, the reported effectiveness and side effects were explored.

HSDD prevalence in both studies was about 50% (Study 1) and 66% (Study 2) (no gender differences in evaluations). All segments gave the drug less than neutral or negative value orientation ratings. Women did not relate low sexual desire to low levels of sexual thoughts that would increase flibanserin’s value orientation; however, men did. Information about flibanserin and its side effects decreased its value orientation for women, especially those with HSDD. The content analysis of user’s reviews showed most women reported side effects, said it was not effective and gave it a poor rating.

The results reveal the strategic problems in the marketing of the drug, both in its value orientation before and especially after exposure to information.

This research points to the necessity of evaluating the value orientation of flibanserin before marketing and satisfying the core expectations from the product (effectiveness and limited aversive side effects) among women with HSDD.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has several dimensions that are inherently unobservable or measured with errors. Due to measurement errors of CSR proxies, regression analysis seems inappropriate for investigating the relationship between CSR and firm value. Accounting for CSR measurement errors, the purpose of this paper is to use a latent variable analysis to examine whether CSR affects firm value.

This study applies a latent variable model that directly takes into account the measurement errors of CSR proxies. Moreover, the inclusion of firm-fixed effects in the model controls for time-invariant unobservable firm-specific characteristics that may drive both CSR and firm value. CSR is measured by environmental, social, and corporate governance activities.

Based on data of US firms between 2002 and 2014, this study finds conflicting evidence of a direct association between each CSR proxy and firm value. When all CSR proxies are incorporated into a latent variable model, CSR significantly positively impacts firm value. Therefore, CSR strategies based on a single measure of CSR or the equal weighting of CSR measures tend to underestimate the influence of CSR on firm value.

Corporate managers should enhance firm value by simultaneously engaging in environmental, social, and corporate governance activities because there is a synergistic effect with firm value. Furthermore, investors who downplay CSR factors in firm valuation can lead to significant errors in making equity investment choices.

This study presents a novel examination of the price-earnings ratio in the CSR valuation by using the latent variable model with firm-fixed effects.