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The purpose of this paper is to highlight the role of national health registries in three European countries in order to improve patient care.

The methodology used was a literature review of databases in Sweden, the UK and Portugal, and a search on Medline and Pubmed as well. In addition case studies from the three countries are included.

In Sweden registries encompassing cardiac intensive care, hip‐fractures and stroke are the most developed. In the UK, the collection of information on healthcare performance, both specific to particular specialties and general hospital performance, is widespread. There are some national and regional registries in Portugal, but the most developed areas are the Cardiovascular and the Oncology areas. The collection of information on health quality/performance indicators, based on administrative and clinical data is an important tool for quality improvement.

This paper showed differences and similarities between the three countries with a common aim; to improve quality of care, delivered on equal terms for the whole populations, and in an effective and efficient way and will be useful to those in the field of patient care.

The purpose of this study is to elaborate on the management, sources, levels of strength and dynamics of inherent tension in coopetition between small- and medium-sized firms (SMEs).

An embedded single-case design is applied in the study. Two manufacturing SMEs in coopetition are studied. The units of analysis are their past dyadic coopetition with other competitors, their present coopetition with each other and their view of possible dyadic coopetition with other partners in the future.

This study addresses the call for more research on coopetition and tension dynamics. It gives longitudinal insight into the changes of a coopetitive relationship through the evolution of tension inherently present in the relationship. Furthermore, the results show that a partial separation of the cooperative and competitive dimensions enables entrepreneurs’ integration of a contradictory logic. The successful management of tension also relies on mechanisms for mutual value appropriation, which eventually enhances the ability to embrace contradictions.

This study contributes to the limited knowledge on tension management by showing how partners in coopetition apply different tension management principles or combinations of principles due to how the tension in the relationship evolves. Furthermore, on a practical level, it introduces a mapping or configuration scheme to identify the sources and levels of strength of inherent tension, enhancing coopetition partners’ ability to monitor their relationship over time.

The article introduces selected theoretical approaches to time and temporality relevant to the field of library and information science, and it briefly introduces the papers gathered in this special issue. A number of issues that could potentially be followed in future research are presented.

The authors review a selection of theoretical and empirical approaches to the study of time that originate in or are of particular relevance to library and information science. Four main themes are identified: (1) information as object in temporal perspectives; (2) time and information as tools of power and control; (3) time in society; and (4) experiencing and practicing time.

The paper advocates a thorough engagement with how time and temporality shape notions of information more broadly. This includes, for example, paying attention to how various dimensions of the late-modern time regime of acceleration feed into the ways in which information is operationalised, how information work is commodified, and how hierarchies of information are established; paying attention to the changing temporal dynamics that networked information systems imply for our understanding of documents or of memory institutions; or how external events such as social and natural crises quickly alter modes, speed, and forms of data production and use, in areas as diverse as information practices, policy, management, representation, and organisation, amongst others.

By foregrounding temporal perspectives in library and information science, the authors advocate dialogue with important perspectives on time that come from other fields. Rather than just including such perspectives in library and information science, however, the authors find that the focus on information and documents that the library and information science field contributes has great potential to advance the understanding of how notions and experiences of time shape late-modern societies and individuals.

There are many factors that may explain the number of spells and the number of days of absence from work reported as due to sickness. Health problems seem to be the most natural candidate to include among the explanatory factors, but individual health behavior could enter the scene in several ways. A day of reported sickness might primarily be due to the fact that a person's capacity to produce market goods and household commodities is so heavily reduced so the day is just spent at home with very little or no household commodities produced. It might also be a day when the person actively produces a restoration of his or her health, combining own time and healthcare of some kind. It might be a day when the person waits for a hospital treatment, for instance, a hip replacement, but his or her condition is an obstacle for taking part in market production (very much depending on the kind of job, in which the person would normally be involved).

Drawing on an in‐depth case study of the Volvo automobile company’s strategy in the early 1990s, before the Ford takeover in 1999, this paper demonstrates how policies designed to reduce inventory costs and slim the distribution pipeline can affect a business’ network of suppliers and distributors in unexpected ways. It also shows how the implementation of cost reducing reengineering projects naturally lead to sub‐optimization and a need to consider higher‐level processes. In the Volvo illustration a manufacturer’s reengineering of its distribution chain evolved into a complete recasting of its order fulfillment process, and an adoption of a process management structure. The paper traces the effects on the network of distributors and dealers and shows how Volvo’s new structure curtails the distribution role of foreign sales subsidiaries and shifts their tasks towards market analysis, demand forecasting and customer service in foreign markets. It also shows how a process management perspective impacts a firm’s value chain, marketing function and organizational structure. In the end, the case demonstrates how a division can cut costs and still become more customer‐oriented – and become a more valuable asset for a diversified corporation.

The purpose of this paper involves evaluating the impact of coopetition on the innovation activities and innovation performance of companies.

The study deployed data from the Community Innovation Survey – CIS 2012 and subject to the application of different multivariate statistical analysis processes.

The authors furthermore conclude that coopetition and the transfer of knowledge to and from competitors generates a statistically significant positive impact on company innovation-related activities and performance.

This work enriches the theory of innovation from the perspectives of game-theoretic strategic and resource theory approach. Moreover, the findings provide several recommendations for managers to effectively conduct firm’s coopetition strategy on innovation performance.

The market is not the only spontaneous order. Hayek himself drew attention to language and English common law as other examples, noting that they had first been identified as such by Scottish Enlightenment philosophers such as Adam Smith and Adam Ferguson. Hence, such orders “are made with equal blindness to the future; and nations stumble upon establishments, which are indeed the results of human action, but not the execution of any human design” (Ferguson, 1782, sec. II). In the 20th century, Michael Polanyi used the term spontaneous order for the polycentric feedback system that explains the growth of scientific knowledge (Polanyi, 1962).

Proposes that the main objective here is a system being developed for segmenting industrial markets on the basis of the level demonstrated by buying centre members. Examines the factors which influence the individual member of the buying centre in the context of his/her participating in the acquisition of an innovation. Explores the concept of consumer creativity or maturity as developed in the context of consumer marketing, and considers factors which are deemed influential. Posits that greater success rates in new product development would be achieved if research and development worked in tandem with an identified cross‐section of sophisticated buying centre members.