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Nurse navigators (NNs) coordinate patient care, improve care quality and potentially reduce healthcare resource use. The purpose of this paper is to undertake an evaluation of hospitalisation outcomes in a new NN programme in Queensland, Australia.

A matched case-control study was performed. Patients under the care of the NNs were randomly selected (n=100) and were matched to historical (n=300) and concurrent (n=300) comparison groups. The key outcomes of interest were the number and types of hospitalisations, length of hospital stay and number of intensive care unit days. Generalised linear and two-part models were used to determine significant differences in resources across groups.

The control and NN groups were well matched on socio-economic characteristics, however, groups differed by major disease type and number/type of comorbidities. NN patients had high healthcare needs with 53 per cent having two comorbidities. In adjusted analyses, compared with the control groups, NN patients showed higher proportions of preventable hospitalisations over 12 months, similar days in intensive care and a smaller proportion had overnight stays in hospital. However, the NN patients had significantly more hospitalisations (mean: 6.0 for NN cases, 3.4 for historical group and 3.2 for concurrent group); and emergency visits.

As many factors will affect hospitalisation rates beyond whether patients receive NN care, further research and longer follow-up is required.

A matched case-control study provides a reasonable but insufficient design to compare the NN and non-NN exposed patient outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the intra-party conflicts in Hong Kong’s Democratic Party (DP) and their implications for broader democratic processes in the territory. It also examines some other thematic issues including: the party’s policy decision-making process, candidate selection, party membership and mergers, and their overall relevance for democratisation in Hong Kong.

The study gives a historical review of intra-party conflicts. The concept of factionalism is applied to better understand the DP in Hong Kong’s political space.

Hong Kong is unique and popular models of party conflicts are hardly applicable to the country. Intra-party conflict is an obvious, expected conflict because of differences in formation, leadership, manifestoes and ideologies. The present author tries to examine the case with a view to making a novel contribution.

The study of political factionalism is not uncommon in Hong Kong but this paper intends to study intra-party elite conflicts and self-democratisation of the Hong Kong DP as a case study which is seldom addressed. Consolidation is a possible scenario and its presence is evident when political elites increasingly demonstrate commitment towards creating a democratic regime and when they hold strong beliefs in democratic procedures and institutions as crucial to governing public life.

Conflict was recognized as a major cause of inefficiency and limited performance of construction projects. Factors pertaining to conflict in construction are vast; however, there have been less recognition of these factors in international construction projects. The purpose of this paper is to provide in-depth understanding of conflict in this context and analyze how it influences project performance.

A questionnaire survey was used to collect data from 161 professionals working in Malaysian companies, which are undertaking construction projects overseas.

Analyzing the data using factor analysis revealed six new factors of conflict: external, internal, control-related, knowledge-related, mismanagement, and social conflicts. Further analysis of the data using partial least squares-path modeling (PLS-PM) affirmed a significant relationship between project performance and two factors of conflict only: internal and social. The results also showed that conflict contributes to about 27 percent of the variance in project performance.

This paper provided a clear picture for project managers and team members about specific aspects of conflict and how to mitigate them to attain better performance of international construction projects.

Audit committees (ACs) have been perceived as an important means of corporate governance, safeguarding the interests of shareholders by monitoring internal control and risk management. This study aims to examine specific structural and operational characteristics of ACs for firms in Hong Kong, where regulators have strived to adhere to international compliance standards.

This study is based on a cross‐sectional examination of disclosures on ACs by 223 listed companies in Hong Kong.

The independence and financial expertise of AC members do not enhance the value of the respective firms, despite maintaining satisfactory compliance. The discrepancy in the value relevance of ACs in prior studies is explained by the possible inadequacy of the resources available to ACs.

The data in this study are entirely from secondary sources of disclosures by listed companies for the year immediately following the implementation of the code of best practices of corporate governance. No in‐depth case studies are supplemented.

A key implication of this study to the regulators is that the proper allocation of resources to an AC should be considered beyond the independence and financial expertise of AC members to ensure the effectiveness of an AC.

This paper is an empirical study about the practices and compliance of ACs among listed companies in a global financial centre.

This study aims to address research gaps by constructing critical success factors (CSFs) in the context of green hotel investment in Taiwan. It contributes to the domain knowledge to cultivate Taiwan’s green hotel development in the future.

The authors secured 20 prominent green hotel management/owners/architects as crucial informants. The first stage used the Delphi method to collect expert opinions (i.e. CSFs) and the second stage applied the analytic hierarchy process to analyze the importance of CSFs.

The results show that the “financial investment benefits” is considered the most crucial success factor for the green hotel investment. However, to balance long-term economic development with environmental impact, green hotel investors should consider other aspects of the research to sustain future financial performance returns.

Further studies should consider regional characteristics to accommodate geographic/social differences and hotel types to explore possible CSFs for the green hotel investment. The authors suggest including panel experts from government officials and prominent scholars to represent a broader but different view on subject matters. They also offer implications for investors’ governmental policies, hotelier cognition and customer-related aspects in green hotel investment.

This study built a hierarchical framework based on the CSF concept by evaluating priority differences between hotel management and hotel owners/architects. Such findings help investors’ effective decision-making through considering factors’ relative importance for green hotel investments.

Despite the extensive body of research on the relationship between trust and performance in a supply chain environment, the concepts and the relationship between them has not been fully understood. The purpose of this paper is to develop a model that links the antecedents of trust, trust itself and firm outcome success.

A questionnaire survey was conducted to gather the data for this study. Statistical analysis included factor analysis with reliability and validity tests, and partial least square of structural equation modeling.

The data suggest that trust is built principally through supplier centric traditional performance metrics such as delivery reliability and product quality conformance. However, contrary to the extant literature, the people oriented trust enablers (e.g. personnel exchange, interpersonal contacts) have no bearing on the establishment of trust.

The research limitation is the relatively small sample size. However, this study can be perceived as a directional one for further research.

The results can be used by the managers to improve their understanding on the relationship with other parties in the supply chain.

The significant value of this research can be retained by buying firm managers. The results are particularly important for them to improve their understanding in how they allocate time and resources in managing their supply chains and partner firms.

For readers' advisory librarians, genre literature can prove to be difficult collection management areas. The literature itself has rarely been defined in anything but the negative (“not great literature,” “not of lasting quality”) and yet it makes up a good deal of the attraction for many patrons to the public library, and gives great circulation support to their collections. Percentage‐wise, it gets the least attention for the most benefits. Many budgets are based on circulation figures, and much of the commendable relationship with the public is based on readers who devour genre literature. Why is it that genre readers are given such short shrift for their loyalty and devotion? Some of the problem lies in the traditional view of genre literature and the rest in the new view of collection development.

An improvement in the management of information system (IS) based resources and capabilities of hotels must affect competitive advantage. Based on that premise, this work has two aims. The first is to determine how the strategic value of the IS area affects the organizational performance of three‐, four‐ and five‐star hotels. The second is to check how it influences the resources and capabilities used in the IS area of hotel companies in a determined tourist destination, and their relationship with organizational performance.

The study was conducted on a representative sample of hotels in Gran Canaria, Spain. It takes the framework of Bharadwaj as a reference to help companies tackle the management of the IS area and to develop a superior capability in that activity.

The results of the study indicate that the more valuable, non‐substitutable and inimitable the IS area is, the better the non‐financial performance is. The results also show that the resources and capabilities that most affect hotel performance are the internal and external technical resources and the capabilities of the IS area to influence and strengthen relations with users and with different areas of the hotel. The work also finds that organizational capabilities have a particular influence on non‐financial performance, especially that related to organizational quality.

This study helps to establish a new framework of analysis in the literature on IS management by introducing a perspective of analysis for the study of the strategic deployment of IS attributes that is based on the resource based view of the firm.

This paper constitutes a suitable framework to begin the diagnosis of the situation of each hotel regarding its available IS resources and capabilities and to identify and select the IS resources and capabilities that make greater contributions to hotel profitability and quality.

This work serves to help identify which IS resources and capabilities are most important in the development of distinctive hotel competences.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the significance of political and community activism in Toronto’s Chinese Canadian community between 2000 and 2016.

Adopting a mixed approach (historical, political and personal), the paper draws from both primary and secondary sources to explore three different cases – SARS in 2003, the Head Tax Redress in 2006 and Maclean’s “Too Asian?” controversy in 2010 – to illustrate discrimination against the Chinese Canadian community in Toronto during the 2000–2016 period while illuminating the importance of safeguarding human rights and dignity in the community.

The outbreak of SARS in early 2003 traumatized the whole city of Toronto and sparked waves of racial discrimination and bigotry directed at the Chinese Canadian community. Meanwhile, the community’s ongoing struggle to fight for justice and redress for the Chinese Head Tax seized the opportunity in 2006 to successfully challenge the Canadian government and other political parties to recognize and apologize for the racist tax and its long-term negative impact on the community. However, despite constant efforts, discrimination against Asian Canadians rose again, fueling Maclean’s controversial “Too Asian” article in 2010. Notwithstanding Canada’s positive image abroad, racial discrimination still exists. This paper urges that Canadians of all backgrounds must come together in solidarity and work hard to advocate for social and racial justice and human rights.

This paper will be of interest to community activists, journalists and scholars who are interested in the history of political and community activism in Toronto since 2000. Policymakers may also learn that an unexpected public crisis like SARS can ignite racial intolerance and negative attitudes toward Chinese Canadian and other communities.

Tingting Qi's chapter titled, “Moving toward Decentralization? Changing Education Governance in China After 1985,” provides the historical and policy context for the volume. This chapter integrates the post-1978 Chinese educational reforms into the socioeconomic context of China. The special contribution of this chapter is that it explores the complexity of educational decentralization in China through an in-depth analysis of changes in education finance, administration, and curriculum. Qi reviews prior studies, government documents, laws, and regulations related to Chinese education reform since 1978 within the context of education decentralization in China. Qi also demonstrates that China's educational policy reforms are moving China toward “centralized decentralization” because decentralization is driven by a common, centralized national goal of economic modernization. The chapter presents evidence that “centralized decentralization” is a strategic maneuver that maintains centralized control while providing the reform legitimacy of decentralization. By focusing on decentralization as the core of Chinese educational policy reforms, this chapter situates the following chapters within the social, cultural, and political context of post-1978 China.