Revenue management: the impact on business-to-business relationships

Purpose - This paper explores the links between revenue management and business-to-business (B2B) relationships and explains how revenue management can both support and damage B2B relationships. Design/methodology/approach - A single case study method was employed to conduct qualitative research into a company and its key accounts. In-depth data was collected from three divergent sources (company revenue managers, company account managers and nine of the company’s key accounts) through semi-structured interviews, observations and document studies. Findings - The research findings reveal that from the company’s perspective, managers acknowledge that revenue management has positively influenced the process of identifying and analysing key account activities and conducting contractual decision-making with key accounts. However, from the key accounts’ perspective, revenue management practices were found to have significant negative consequences, which damage trust and undermine long-term relationships and commitment. Research limitations - Although the research findings cannot be generalized to other service sectors because of the single-case study research method, the implications of this study suggest that the impact of revenue management practice on B2B relationships should be further investigated in a wide range of organizational and industry settings. Practical implications - The research findings confirm the long-held assumption that revenue management can negatively affect B2B relationships. The benefits of revenue management primarily reward the company, whilst long-term B2B relationship development suffers from the short-term consequences of the company’s opportunistic behaviour. Original/value of the paper - This paper bridges the gap in the literature between revenue management and key account management. It also explores the conceptual incompatibility between revenue management and a long-term relational approach to B2B relationships and provides evidence to support this proposition

Inviting an Impermissible Inquiry? RFRA’s Substantial-Burden Requirement and “Centrality”

The Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) prohibits the federal government from substan-tially burdening a person’s religious exercise unless the government can satisfy strict scrutiny. The statute also defines religious exercise to prohibit courts from inquiring into how central a particular religious exercise is to a person’s religion. “The term ‘religious exercise,’” reads the relevant provision, “includes any exercise of religion, whether or not compelled by, or central to, a system of religious belief.” Despite this prohibition on centrality inquiries, some scholars argue that RFRA’s substantial-burden element requires courts to consider the religious costs a law imposes on a religious adherent who chooses to comply with the law. This Note argues that approach is wrong. Considering the religious costs a law imposes in turn requires courts to consider the place or importance of a particular religious exercise in a person’s religion—i.e., whether it is compelled by, or central to, the person’s religion. But since 2000, RFRA has defined religious exercise to preclude such inquiries. So how should a court conduct a substantial-burden analysis? By focusing on the secular costs (e.g., the magnitude of civil penalties) a law imposes on a religious adherent who refuses to comply with the law for religious reasons. This Note surveys four categories of substantial secular burdens under RFRA. It also restates RFRA’s substantial-burden requirement. But the main pur-pose of the Note is to stress what should be clear from RFRA’s text: that considering how central a religious exercise is to a person’s religion is impermissible

The gas phase cyclization of deprotonated N-aryl-2-cyano-2-diazoacetamides

The document attached has been archived with permission from the publisher.1-Aryl-4-cyano-5-hydroxy-1,2,3-triazoles can be obtained in solution by base-catalysed cyclization of N-aryl-2-cyano-2-diazoacetamides. A similar reaction was shown to take place under conditions of negative ion chemical ionization in the ion source of a mass spectrometer. High resolution mass spectrometry, tandem mass spectrometry, charge reversal spectra, synthesis of the ions with known structures and quantum chemical calculations were used to prove the latter statement. The fact of the observed cyclization demonstrates once again the ability of mass spectrometry to study the gas phase chemical reactions that take place in solution.Vladislav V. Lobodin, Yuriy Yu. Morzherin, Tom Blumenthal, Daniel Bilusich, Vladimir V. Ovcharenko, John H. Bowie, and Albert T. Lebede

Cognitive deficits and functional outcome in schizophrenia

Cognitive dysfunction is a core feature of schizophrenia. Deficits are moderate to severe across several domains, including attention, working memory, verbal learning and memory, and executive functions. These deficits pre-date the onset of frank psychosis and are stable throughout the course of the illness in most patients. Over the past decade, the focus on these deficits has increased dramatically with the recognition that they are consistently the best predictor of functional outcomes across outcome domains and patient samples. Recent treatment studies, both pharmacological and behavioral, suggest that cognitive deficits are malleable. Other research calls into question the meaningfulness of cognitive change in schizophrenia. In this article, we review cognitive deficits in schizophrenia and focus on their treatment and relationship to functional outcome

A descriptive analysis of health practices, barriers to healthcare and the unmet need for cervical cancer screening in the Lower Napo River region of the Peruvian Amazon

OBJECTIVES: To undertake an descriptive analysis of the health needs, healthcare practices and barriers to accessing healthcare faced by women in Lower Napo River Region, Peru, and to understand health literacy regarding cervical cancer and the need for more effective cervical cancer screening services. METHODS: We performed a community-based needs assessment adapting Demographic and Health survey methodology with additional questions determining female health literacy on cervical cancer and assessing the availability and need for cervical cancer screening services. We surveyed women (N = 121) across all households in six communities along the Lower Napo River, Loreto, Peru, in May 2015. Data were collected as part of the larger Amazon Community Based Participation Cervical Cancer Screen-and-Treat Programme. Survey data were compared to national results from ENDES 2014. RESULTS: Comparison between our findings and the ENDES 2014 survey highlighted considerable inequality between indigenous or mixed indigenous, rural populations in Loreto, Peru, and national population data averages over level of formal education, literacy, barriers to accessing healthcare and maternal and sexual health. Even though only 5.9% (N = 7/117) of women had no formal health insurance coverage, money was reported as the leading barrier accessing healthcare (N = 88/117, 75.2%). Health literacy regarding cervical and breast cancer was poor. A high proportion of women highlighted fear of screening processes (70.8%, N = 80/113) and lack of available services (53.6%, N = 60/112) as barriers to cervical cancer screening. CONCLUSION: Although progress has been made in improving healthcare access in Peru, such gains have not been experienced equitably and women living in remote communities face persistent marginalization regarding their health. There is a significant need for education related to and screening for cervical cancer in this region that is tailored to the reality of women's lives in remote communities in Loreto

Loperamide for treatment of acute diarrhoea in infants and young children

No Abstract

Reviews

Reviews of Wage-fixing (Stagflation Volume 1), Is Knowledge Power?, Trade Unions: The Logic of Collective Action, Strikes in Australia: A Sociological Analysis of Industrial Conflict, No Free Lunc

Preschool development of coloured children in Cape Town

Developmental screening was applied during infancy to a birth cohort of 1 000 coloured infants born consecutively in Cape Town. The developmental progress of a sample of 187 children randomly selected from the cohort was followed over a period of 5 years. The value of the use of developmental screening is questioned, since 4 of the children in the cohort with major handicap had been diagnosed before the first screening was carried out and a 5th child with deafness was not detected by the screening process.Developmental milestones were similar to those studies reported in the literature. At 12 months the development correlated best with family stability. Language development at 30 months was associated with mother's education and family stability and reflected a general lag in verbal skills. By 5 years there was a good correlation between development and social indicators, particularly income and mother's education