358 research outputs found
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Regional index of sustainable economic well-being development project: final report
This report presents results from a development project carried out by nef (the new economics foundation) on behalf of emda (the East Midlands Development Agency) and Natural England, to improve the methodologies used in the calculation of the R-ISEW (Regional Index of Sustainable Economic Well-Being)
Stakeholder engagement strategies, national institutions, and firm performance: A configurational perspective
**Research summary**
Research documents the performance effects of attending to shareholders and treating employees well but underplays national differences in the relative power of labor and capital. We advance a configurational perspective that acknowledges the fit between stakeholder engagement, context, firm attributes and performance. As a cornerstone of this perspective, we develop a typology of stakeholder engagement strategies expressing how firms navigate the tension between conforming with local expectationsâby prioritizing shareholders or employees, according to contextâand being distinctiveâby diverging from their peers. Analyzing a crossânational sample of firms from 2004 to 2011, we identify combinations of engagement strategies, firm attributes, and contexts linked to high performance. Our findings highlight the multiple contextâdependent paths, which link stakeholder engagement to high firm performance.
**Managerial summary**
How do firms navigate pressures from shareholders and employees across different institutional environments? We develop a typology of stakeholder engagement strategies based on how firms in different countries strike a balance between conformity (i.e., prioritizing locally important stakeholders) and differentiation (i.e., prioritizing stakeholders that their local peers might neglect). Our findings show that the engagement strategies associated with high performance vary according to local institutional context and firm characteristics. In particular, by not merely prioritizing stakeholders who are already locally important, firms can use stakeholder engagement to differentiate themselves from their peers, and such engagement strategies are often linked to high performance.
**Online appendix: Data Set**
Available at [https://doi.org/10.35065/sten-2001](https://doi.org/10.35065/sten-2001
Can Volunteering Help Create Better Health and Care. An evidence review.
This report was commission by Sir Thomas Hughes-Hallett founder of HelpForce in
March 2017 to review the current evidence on the effectiveness, deployment and impact of
volunteers in the NHS, to support the organisationâs work in maximizing the potential of
volunteering in health and social care. This reportâs remit was to pull together evidence to
help answer the following questions:
1. What volunteer / lay roles are effective in health and care?
2. What do we know about the effective recruitment, management and deployment of
volunteers (in any setting)?
3. What evidence is there about the impact of volunteers in health and social care, within
England health and social care organisations, and from voluntary sector initiatives
working into health and social care
Analysis of the profile, characteristics, patient experience and community value of community hospitals : a multimethod study
Background: Community hospitals have been part of Englandâs health-care landscape since the mid-nineteenth century. Evidence on them has not kept pace with their development.
Aim: To provide a comprehensive analysis of the profile, characteristics, patient experience and community value of community hospitals.
Design: A multimethod study with three phases. Phase one involved national mapping and the construction of a new database of community hospitals through data set reconciliation and verification. Phase two involved nine case studies, including interviews and focus groups with patients (n = 60), carers (n = 28), staff (n = 132), volunteers (n = 68), community stakeholders (n = 74) and managers and commissioners (n = 9). Phase three
involved analysis of Charity Commission data on voluntary support.
Setting: Community hospitals in England.
Results: The study identified 296 community hospitals with beds in England. Typically, the hospitals were small
(<30 beds), in rural communities, led by doctors/general practitioners (GPs) and nurses, without 24/7 on-site
medical cover, providing step-down and step-up inpatient care, with an average length of stay of <30 days
and a variable range of intermediate care services. Key to patientsâ and carersâ experiences of community
hospitals was their closeness to âhomeâ through their physical location, environment and atmosphere and the
relationships that they support; their provision of personalised, holistic care; and their role in supporting
patients through difficult psychological transitions. Communities engage with and support their hospitals
through giving time (average = 24 volunteers), raising money (median voluntary income = ÂŁ15,632),
providing services (voluntary and community groups) and giving voice (e.g. communication and consultation).
This can contribute to hospital utilisation and sustainability, patient experience, staff morale and volunteer
well-being. Engagement varies between and within communities and over time. Community hospitals
are important community assets, representing direct and indirect value: instrumental (e.g. health care),
economic (e.g. employment), human (e.g. skills development), social (e.g. networks), cultural (e.g. identity
and belonging) and symbolic (e.g. vitality and security). Value varies depending on place and time.
Limitations: There were limitations to the secondary data available for mapping community hospitals and
tracking charitable funds and to our sample of case study respondents, which concentrated on people
with a connection to the hospitals.
Conclusions: Community hospitals are diverse but are united by a set of common characteristics. Patients
and carers experience community hospitals as qualitatively different from other settings. Their accounts
highlight the importance of considering the functional, interpersonal, social and psychological dimensions
of experience. Community hospitals are highly valued by their local communities, as demonstrated through
their active involvement as volunteers and donors. Community hospitals enable the provision of local
intermediate care services, delivered through an embedded, relational model of care, which generates
deep feelings of reassurance. However, current developments, including the withdrawal of GPs, shifts
towards step-down care for non-local patients and changing configurations of services, providers and
ownership may undermine this.
Future work: Comparative studies of patient experience in different settings, longitudinal studies
of community support and value, studies into the implications of changes in community hospital
function, GP involvement, provider-mix and ownership and international comparative studies could all
be undertaken
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Embracing Causal Complexity: The Emergence of a Neo-Configurational Perspective
Causal complexity has long been recognized as a ubiquitous feature underlying organizational phenomena, yet current theories and methodologies in management are for the most part not well suited to its direct study. The introduction of the Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) configurational approach has led to a reinvigoration of configurational theory that embraces causal complexity explicitly. We argue that the burgeoning research using QCA represents more than a novel methodology; it constitutes the emergence of a neo-configurational perspective to the study of management and organizations that enables a fine-grained conceptualization and empirical investigation of causal complexity through the logic of set theory. In this article, we identify four foundational elements that characterize this emerging neoconfigurational perspective: 1) conceptualizing cases as set theoretic configurations; 2) calibrating casesâ memberships into sets; 3) viewing causality in terms of necessity and sufficiency relations between sets; and, 4) conducting counterfactual analysis of unobserved configurations. We then present a comprehensive review of the use of QCA in management studies that aims to capture the evolution of the neo-configurational perspective among management scholars. We close with a discussion of a research agenda that can further this neoconfigurational approach and thereby shift the attention of management research away from a focus on net effects and towards examining causal complexity
Proteinase-activated receptor 2 modulates OA-related pain, cartilage and bone pathology
Objective Proteinase-activated receptor 2 (PAR2) deficiency protects against cartilage degradation in experimental osteoarthritis (OA). The wider impact of this pathway upon OA-associated pathologies such as osteophyte formation and pain is unknown. Herein, we investigated early temporal bone and cartilage changes in experimental OA in order to further elucidate the role of PAR2 in OA pathogenesis.
Methods OA was induced in wild-type (WT) and PAR2-deficient (PAR2â/â) mice by destabilisation of the medial meniscus (DMM). Inflammation, cartilage degradation and bone changes were monitored using histology and microCT. In gene rescue experiments, PAR2â/â mice were intra-articularly injected with human PAR2 (hPAR2)-expressing adenovirus. Dynamic weight bearing was used as a surrogate of OA-related pain.
Results Osteophytes formed within 7â
days post-DMM in WT mice but osteosclerosis was only evident from 14â
days post induction. Importantly, PAR2 was expressed in the proliferative/hypertrophic chondrocytes present within osteophytes. In PAR2â/â mice, osteophytes developed significantly less frequently but, when present, were smaller and of greater density; no osteosclerosis was observed in these mice up to day 28. The pattern of weight bearing was altered in PAR2â/â mice, suggesting reduced pain perception. The expression of hPAR2 in PAR2â/â mice recapitulated osteophyte formation and cartilage damage similar to that observed in WT mice. However, osteosclerosis was absent, consistent with lack of hPAR2 expression in subchondral bone.
Conclusions This study clearly demonstrates PAR2 plays a critical role, via chondrocytes, in osteophyte development and subchondral bone changes, which occur prior to PAR2-mediated cartilage damage. The latter likely occurs independently of OA-related bone changes
Function of specialized regulatory proteins and signaling pathways in exercise-induced muscle mitochondrial biogenesis
AbstractSkeletal muscle mitochondrial content and function are regulated by a number of specialized molecular pathways that remain to be fully defined. Although a number of proteins have been identified to be important for the maintenance of mitochondria in quiescent muscle, the requirement for these appears to decrease with the activation of multiple overlapping signaling events that are triggered by exercise. This makes exercise a valuable therapeutic tool for the treatment of mitochondrially based metabolic disorders. In this review, we summarize some of the traditional and more recently appreciated pathways that are involved in mitochondrial biogenesis in muscle, particularly during exercise
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