Stakeholder Theory and Marketing: Moving from a Firm-Centric to a Societal Perspective

This essay is inspired by the ideas and research examined in the special section on “Stakeholder Marketing” of the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing in 2010. The authors argue that stakeholder marketing is slowly coalescing with the broader thinking that has occurred in the stakeholder management and ethics literature streams during the past quarter century. However, the predominant view of stakeholders that many marketers advocate is still primarily pragmatic and company centric. The position advanced herein is that stronger forms of stakeholder marketing that reflect more normative, macro/societal, and network-focused orientations are necessary. The authors briefly explain and justify these characteristics in the context of the growing “prosociety” and “proenvironment” perspectives—orientations that are also in keeping with the public policy focus of this journal. Under the “hard form” of stakeholder theory, which the authors endorse, marketing managers must realize that serving stakeholders sometimes requires sacrificing maximum profits to mitigate outcomes that would inflict major damage on other stakeholders, especially society

Expression of CD33 is a predictive factor for effect of gemtuzumab ozogamicin at different doses in adult acute myeloid leukaemia

It remains unclear in adult acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) whether leukaemic expression of CD33, the target antigen for gemtuzumab ozogamicin (GO), adds prognostic information on GO effectiveness at different doses. CD33 expression quantified in 1583 patients recruited to UK-NCRI-AML17 (younger adults) and UK-NCRI-AML16 (older adults) trials was correlated with clinical outcomes and benefit from GO including a dose randomisation. CD33 expression associated with genetic subgroups, including lower levels in both adverse karyotype and core-binding factor (CBF)-AML, but was not independently prognostic. When comparing GO versus no GO (n=393, CBF-AMLs excluded) by stratified subgroup-adjusted analysis, patients with lowest quartile (Q1) Í33-positivity had no benefit from GO (relapse risk, HR 2.41 (1.27–4.56), P=0.009 for trend; overall survival, HR 1.52 (0.92–2.52)). However, from the dose randomisation (NCRI-AML17, n=464, CBF-AMLs included), 6 mg/m2 GO only had a relapse benefit without increased early mortality in CD33-low (Q1) patients (relapse risk HR 0.64 (0.36–1.12) versus 1.70 (0.99–2.92) for CD33-high, P=0.007 for trend). Thus CD33 expression is a predictive factor for GO effect in adult AML; although GO does not appear to benefit the non-CBF AML patients with lowest CD33 expression a higher GO dose may be more effective for CD33-low but not CD33-high younger adults

The X-Ray Properties of the Optically Brightest Mini-BAL Quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

We have compiled a sample of 14 of the optically brightest radio-quiet quasars ($m_{i}$~$\le$~17.5 and $z$~$\ge$~1.9) in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 5 quasar catalog that have C IV mini-BALs present in their spectra. X-ray data for 12 of the objects were obtained via a Chandra snapshot survey using ACIS-S, while data for the other two quasars were obtained from archival XMM-Newton observations. Joint X-ray spectral analysis shows the mini-BAL quasars have a similar average power-law photon index ($\Gamma\approx1.9$) and level of intrinsic absorption ($N_H \lesssim 8\times 10^{21} \ {\rm cm}^{-2}$) as non-BMB (neither BAL nor mini-BAL) quasars. Mini-BAL quasars are more similar to non-BMB quasars than to BAL quasars in their distribution of relative X-ray brightness (assessed with $\Delta\alpha_{\rm ox}$). Relative colors indicate mild dust reddening in the optical spectra of mini-BAL quasars. Significant correlations between $\Delta\alpha_{\rm ox}$ and UV absorption properties are confirmed for a sample of 56 sources combining mini-BAL and BAL quasars with high signal-to-noise ratio rest-frame UV spectra, which generally supports models in which X-ray absorption is important in enabling driving of the UV absorption-line wind. We also propose alternative parametrizations of the UV absorption properties of mini-BAL and BAL quasars, which may better describe the broad absorption troughs in some respects.Comment: ApJ accepted; 21 pages, 11 figures, and 9 table

Is youth unemployment really the major worry? (AOM)

Youth unemployment is neither the only nor the basic problem of the European labour market. The comparative analysis of unemployment data demonstrates that the unemployment of older people is even more serious. The article proves that the weight of young people in total unemployment has as a tendency been declining in the “inner periphery” of the EU, among them in Central and Eastern European member states (CEECs). The trend is just the opposite in the developed or “core” countries of the Union where youngsters took a higher share in total unemployment in 2012 than 10-12 years ago. In Europe there are millions of young people beyond the active unemployed who do not want to work or think they cannot find a job that fulfils their expectations and refuse to take part in any kind of education or training (NEETs-“Not in Employment, Education or Training”). By estimating the rate of NEETs in the adult population the article claims that the NEETs-phenomenon is not the differentia specifica of the youth. At the end the article details two suggestions for the mitigation of the problem. It concludes that the joblessness in Europe is an old and tendencially worsening problem that cannot be solved by particular policies

An appropriate tool for entrepreneurial learning in SMEs? The case of the 20Twenty Leadership Programme

The 20Twenty Leadership Programme was developed by Cardiff Metropolitan University as an executive education programme to be delivered within South Wales to small businesses. It is funded by the European Social Fund (ESF) and administered by the Welsh European Funding Office and has the key aim of developing SME’s growth potential via a range of leadership and management skills, including a focus on ‘soft’ skills. The focus of this paper is to place the 20Twenty Leadership Programme within the wider context of entrepreneurship policy and SME training initiatives in particular, and then to examine the rationale and delivery methods of the Programme in relation to these. It also reflects on the Programme’s success (or otherwise) to date where possible. Finally, the paper seeks to suggest fruitful areas of further research both in terms of the 20Twenty Leadership Programme itself, but also with regard to evaluation in relation to other parallel programmes, and to SME training initiatives more generally

A qualitative study of stakeholders' perspectives on the social network service environment

Over two billion people are using the Internet at present, assisted by the mediating activities of software agents which deal with the diversity and complexity of information. There are, however, ethical issues due to the monitoring-and-surveillance, data mining and autonomous nature of software agents. Considering the context, this study aims to comprehend stakeholders' perspectives on the social network service environment in order to identify the main considerations for the design of software agents in social network services in the near future. Twenty-one stakeholders, belonging to three key stakeholder groups, were recruited using a purposive sampling strategy for unstandardised semi-structured e-mail interviews. The interview data were analysed using a qualitative content analysis method. It was possible to identify three main considerations for the design of software agents in social network services, which were classified into the following categories: comprehensive understanding of users' perception of privacy, user type recognition algorithms for software agent development and existing software agents enhancement

Bovine tuberculosis epidemiology in Cameroon, Central Africa, based on the interferon gamma assay

Despite sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) accounting for ~20% of the global cattle population, prevalence estimates and related risk factors of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) are still poorly described. The increased sensitivity of the IFN-γ assay and its practical benefits suggest the test could be useful to investigate bTB epidemiology in SSA. This study used a population-based sample to estimate bTB prevalence, identify risk factors and estimate the effective reproductive rate in Cameroonian cattle populations. A cross-sectional study was conducted in the North West Region (NWR) and the Vina Division (VIN) of Cameroon in 2013. A regional stratified sampling frame of pastoral cattle herds produced a sample of 1,448 cattle from 100 herds. In addition, a smaller cross-sectional study sampled 60 dairy cattle from 46 small-holder co-operative dairy farmers in the NWR. Collected blood samples were stimulated with bovine and avian purified protein derivatives, with extracted plasma screened using the IFN-γ enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (Prionics Bovigam®). Design-adjusted population prevalences were estimated, and multivariable mixed-effects logistic regression models using Bayesian inference techniques identified the risk factors for IFN-γ positivity. Using the IFN-γ assay, the prevalence of bTB in the dairy cattle was 21.7% (95% CI: 11.2–32.2). The design-adjusted prevalence of bTB in cattle kept by pastoralists was 11.4% (95% CI: 7.6–17.0) in the NWR and 8.0% (95% CI: 4.7–13.0) in the VIN. A within-herd prevalence estimate for pastoralist cattle also supported that the NWR had higher prevalence herds than the VIN. Additionally, the estimates of the effective reproductive rate Rt were 1.12 for the NWR and 1.06 for the VIN, suggesting different transmission rates within regional cattle populations in Cameroon. For pastoral cattle, an increased risk of IFN-γ assay positivity was associated with being male (OR = 1.89; 95% CI:1.15–3.09), increasing herd size (OR = 1.02; 95% CI:1.01–1.03), exposure to the bovine leucosis virus (OR = 2.45; 95% CI: 1.19–4.84) and paratuberculosis (OR = 9.01; 95% CI: 4.17–20.08). Decreased odds were associated with contacts at grazing, buffalo (OR = 0.20; 95% CI: 0.03–0.97) and increased contact with other herds [1–5 herds: OR = 0.16 (95% CI: 0.04–0.55); 6+ herds: OR = 0.18 (95% CI: 0.05–0.64)]. Few studies have used the IFN-γ assay to describe bTB epidemiology in SSA. This study highlights the endemic situation of bTB in Cameroon and potential public health risks from dairy herds. Further work is needed to understand the IFN-γ assay performance, particularly in the presence of co-infections, and how this information can be used to develop control strategies in the SSA contexts

Estimating age-dependent survival from age-aggregated ringing data - extending the use of historical records

Bird ring-recovery data have been widely used to estimate demographic parameters such as survival probabilities since the mid-twentieth century. However, while the total number of birds ringed each year is usually known, historical information on age at ringing is often not available. A standard ring-recovery model, for which information on age at ringing is required, cannot be used when historical data are incomplete. We develop a new model to estimate agedependent survival probabilities from such historical data when age at ringing is not recorded; we call this the historical data model. This new model provides an extension to the model of Robinson (2010) by estimating the proportion of the ringed birds marked as juveniles as an additional parameter. We conduct a simulation study to examine the performance of the historical data model and compare it with other models including the standard and conditional ringrecovery models. Simulation studies show that the approach of Robinson (2010) can cause bias in parameter estimates. In contrast, the historical data model yields similar parameter estimates to the standard model. Parameter redundancy results show that the newly developed historical data model is comparable to the standard ring-recovery model, in terms of which parameters can be estimated, and has fewer identifiability issues than the conditional model. We illustrate the new proposed model using Blackbird and Sandwich Tern data. The new historical data model allows us to make full use of historical data and estimate the same parameters as the standard model with incomplete data and in doing so, detect potential changes in demographic parameters further back in time

DIAPH3 Governs the Cellular Transition to the Amoeboid Tumour Phenotype

Therapies for most malignancies are generally ineffective once metastasis occurs. While tumour cells migrate through tissues using diverse strategies, the signalling networks controlling such behaviours in human tumours are poorly understood. Here we define a role for the Diaphanous-related formin-3 (DIAPH3) as a non-canonical regulator of metastasis that restrains conversion to amoeboid cell behaviour in multiple cancer types. The DIAPH3 locus is close to RB1, within a narrow consensus region of deletion on chromosome 13q in prostate, breast and hepatocellular carcinomas. DIAPH3 silencing in human carcinoma cells destabilized microtubules and induced defective endocytic trafficking, endosomal accumulation of EGFR, and hyperactivation of EGFR/MEK/ERK signalling. Silencing also evoked amoeboid properties, increased invasion and promoted metastasis in mice. In human tumours, DIAPH3 down-regulation was associated with aggressive or metastatic disease. DIAPH3-silenced cells were sensitive to MEK inhibition, but showed reduced sensitivity to EGFR inhibition. These findings have implications for understanding mechanisms of metastasis, and suggest that identifying patients with chromosomal deletions at DIAPH3 may have prognostic value