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The purpose of this paper is to examine two of Feldman and Bolino's proposals: career anchor plurality and career anchor relationships.

A novel method for examining the relationships between career anchors called “indices of mutual presence” is developed for this study to generate meaningful results from ordinal and ipsative career anchor data.

Evidence for some individuals having multiple career anchors was found. Complementary and exclusivity career anchor relationships are identified and a model for representing them is presented. The importance and possible benefit of understanding both an individual's preferred and “unpreferred” anchors is discussed. The non-reflexive nature of career anchors is explored and the idea of “mutually” exclusive career anchors is rejected. Weaknesses in the octagon shaped career anchor relationships diagram presented by Feldman and Bolino are discussed.

Despite the benefits associated with forced-choice assessments, some have expressed concern because of the nature of this type of evaluation. Each time an item is preferred, another item must be “unpreferred.” Thus, for one item to have a high preference count, some other item must necessarily have lower preference counts. The resulting data is ordinal rather than interval or ratio. It contains information regarding order of preference, but provides little insight into magnitude of preference. This makes it difficult to identify and examine how much more or less one individual prefers an item when compared to another individual.

The second property of forced-choice data that raises concern is its ipsative nature. As respondents are constrained to unprefer an item each time the prefer one, the total preference counts remain the same for every individual. As a result, the preference scores for every individual will always sum to the same value. When data has this property, it is called ipsative. Ipsative data is not free to vary, and thus statistical methods which analyze variance may yield spurious results. Thus, traditional factorial statistical methods cannot be appropriately used with ipsative data (Baron, 1996; Bartram, 1996; Closs, 1996). It is commonly believed that researchers trade ease of use and accuracy for fewer available statistical tools when using forced-choice methods. However, this paper attempts to use “indices of mutual presence” developed for this study (described below) that do not rely on variance to generate meaningful results from ipsative career anchor data.

Theory is needed for a discipline to mature. This research aims to provide a summary analysis of the theories being used in contemporary logistics and supply chain management (SCM) studies.

A comprehensive literature review of articles appearing in five top tier logistics and SCM journals is conducted in order to identify how often theory is used and to classify the specific theories used. An analysis of the theoretical categories is presented to explain the type and frequency of theory usage.

Over 180 specific theories were found within the sampled articles. Theories grouped under the competitive and microeconomics categories made up over 40 per cent of the theoretical incidences. This does not imply all articles utilize theory. The research found that theory was explicitly used in approximately 53 per cent of the sampled articles.

Two implications are central. First, in the minds of editors, reviewers and authors is approximately 53 per cent theory use enough? Literature suggests there continues to be a need for theory‐based research in the discipline. A first step may be to increase our theory use, and to clearly describe the theory being used. Second, the vast majority of theories used in recent logistics and SCM research originated in other disciplines. Growth in the discipline dictates the need for greater internal theory development.

Despite multiple calls for the use of theory in logistics and SCM, little formal research has been produced examining the actual theories being used. This research provides an in‐depth review and analysis of the use of theory in logistics and SCM research during the period 2004‐2009.

This article reports the evaluation of two workshops to develop evidence‐based practice (EBP) in occupational therapy and physiotherapy. An innovative approach was taken in the design of workshops on critical appraisal which specifically addressed needs of therapists to appraise clinical effectiveness (ACE). The background to the workshops is given and the evaluative process and a summary of the findings presented. The statistical analysis indicates that there is a significant difference (P= 0.0001) in self‐reported knowledge before and after the workshops. The evaluation highlights the differing needs of health care professional groups in establishing a culture of EBP in then‐workplaces.

The purpose of this study is to identify the critical components of the reverse logistics (RL) disposition decision‐making process and suggest a decision framework that may guide future investigation and practice.

The authors utilized a problem‐driven content analysis methodology. RL literature from 2000 through 2010 was content analyzed to determine which components may impact a firm's RL disposition decision.

The authors extrapolated seven RL disposition decision components from a compilation of 60 variables identified in the literature. Practical implications and suggestions for future research are offered, and a RL disposition decision‐making framework is presented.

Although methodological techniques were carefully followed, the nature of a content analysis may be subject to author bias. Future investigation and use of the framework presented will verify the findings presented here.

This study identifies seven components that should be considered when deciding which RL disposition alternative should be adopted and integrates these components into a decision‐making framework. Supply chain professionals who refer to this framework during the decision process will benefit from a more comprehensive analysis of potential RL disposition alternatives.

Congruent with recent assertions suggesting that RL research is evolving from an operational‐level focus to a holistic business process approach for maximizing value recovery, this study synthesizes operational‐level research to develop a practical framework for RL disposition decision‐making.

RDDirect is a novel telephone help line which was established in response to national policy to improve research consciousness and capacity in the NHS. This regionally funded telephone referral service takes research enquiries from aspiring or experienced researchers, which are then “diagnosed” and directed to relevant sources of advice and information. The infrastructure for RDDirect includes a panel of research specialists, a Web site with links to relevant research resources, and a monitoring and follow‐up system. The first year has been subject to both internal monitoring and evaluation and an external evaluation. Findings from both approaches show that user satisfaction was high, although uptake was low. Advisors were also satisfied, both with interactions with RDDirect staff and referrals received. The Web site was accessed far more than anticipated. A key area of concern is effective publicity for the service.

This review and discussion outline domains and a research agenda leading to improvements in the quality of transitions of care between health‐care settings. Over the past two decades changes in health care financing have restructured the organization and delivery of health care. Health‐care plans and insurers have shifted to provision of health care in less expensive settings and growing concerns about the quality of health care have arisen – continuity may be lost, errors may occur, and patients may end up deeply dissatisfied. To improve the quality across the continuum of care, providers will need to reconceptualize from an intra‐organizational to an inter‐organizational viewpoint and will have to focus on transitions of care across settings. Services, such as case management, must effectively bridge gaps in the continuity of care. Improved measurement of outcomes, such as satisfaction with the transition, will be necessary.

Quality has an established history in health care. Audit, as a means of quality assessment, is well understood and the existing literature has identified links between audit and research processes. This paper reviews the relationships between audit and research processes, highlighting how audit can be improved through the principles and practice of social research.

The review begins by defining the audit process. It goes on to explore salient relationships between clinical audit and research, grouped into the following broad themes: ethical considerations, highlighting responsibilities towards others and the need for ethical review for audit; asking questions and using appropriate methods, emphasising transparency in audit methods; conceptual issues, including identifying problematic concepts, such as “satisfaction”, and the importance of reflexivity within audit; emphasising research in context, highlighting the benefits of vignettes and action research; complementary methods, demonstrating improvements for the quality of findings; and training and multidisciplinary working, suggesting the need for closer relationships between researchers and clinical practitioners.

Audit processes cannot be considered research. Both audit and research processes serve distinct purposes.

Attention to the principles of research when conducting audit are necessary to improve the quality of audit and, in turn, the quality of health care.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the effects on performance of two types of misfits (overfit vs underfit) as well as two types of fits (high-high fit vs low-low fit) between environmental uncertainty and supply chain flexibility.

The two asymmetry hypotheses have been tested with survey data from 212 Chinese manufacturing firms.

The results in general provided empirical evidences for the asymmetric effects in the fits and misfits between environmental uncertainty and supply chain flexibility. For the same degree of misfit, underfit deteriorates performance more than overfit. In addition, high supply chain flexibility fitting high environmental uncertainty (i.e. high-high fit) results in a higher performance than low supply chain flexibility fitting low environmental uncertainty (i.e. low-low fit).

It suggests that managers should strive to avoid the underfit of supply chain flexibility rather than the overfit, if the perfect fit is impossible to achieve. In addition, as it is beneficial to realize the fit of supply chain flexibility to high levels of environmental uncertainty, managers should probably embrace the highly uncertain environment and enhance the supply chain flexibility of their organizations to meet the increasing uncertainty of environment.

Fit and misfit are the core concepts to understand the relationships among environmental uncertainty, supply chain flexibility strategy, and performance. While the existing literature highlights the differential performance consequences of fit vs misfit between environmental uncertainty and supply chain flexibility strategy, the effects on performance are assumed to be the same for the two types of misfits, and two types of fits. The authors challenge these symmetry assumptions by arguing that overfit has a less negative effect on performance than underfit, and high-high fit has a stronger positive effect than low-low fit. The authors found empirical evidence in a large sample of Chinese manufacturing firms.

This study aims to use the lens of the stereotype threat theory to explore older consumers’ age identity and experiences with service providers.

This study used semi-structured interviews with Australian consumers aged between 55 and 69. Data were examined using thematic analysis.

Older consumers justify a younger cognitive age by distancing themselves from the negative stereotypes associated with ageing and by associating themselves with attitudes and behaviours consistent with a younger age identity. Older consumers are confronted with age-based stereotype threats in a services context through four practices. Exposure to these threats results in service failure and can have a negative impact on both consumers’ ability to function effectively as consumers and their overall well-being.

A more diverse sample is required to identify the extent to which age-based stereotype threats are experienced and which services marketing practices have the most detrimental impact on older consumers.

The findings provide insight for services marketers seeking to effectively cater for older consumers and have implications for service staff training, service technology and communications.

The findings have implications for the well-being of older consumers in terms of their self-efficacy and self-esteem as well as their ability to function effectively as consumers.

This study contributes to the nascent understanding of older consumers’ experiences and their expectations of service interactions and advertising communication. The findings also extend the literature on service failure by demonstrating how age-based stereotypes threaten age identity, resulting in a negative customer experience.

The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of integration capabilities on reverse supply chain (RSC) adoption and, consequently, RSCs' effectiveness. Thus, supply chain (SC) integration capabilities and their types in relation to internal, supplier and customer integration capabilities are investigated.

In this paper a quantitative survey was conducted with Malaysian manufacturers with a certified the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14001 environmental management system. The entire population was utilized through census sampling; 150 useable survey responses were received. The partial least squares technique was used for the data analysis.

The results indicate that internal integration improves external integration. In addition, supplier and customer integration have a positive direct effect on the adoption of RSC activities. Though internal integration has no significant direct effect on the adoption of RSC activities, it has an indirect impact through both supplier integrative capabilities and customer integrative capabilities.

The findings of this study suggest that the managers of manufacturers whose internal integrative capabilities are the base and whose SC integrative capabilities and external integrative capabilities are reinforcing SC integrative capabilities should adopt RSC activities.

The paper offers in-depth insight into this issue and has shed light on the ambiguities in the literature regarding the role of SC integration in RSC adoption.