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Evidence suggests that healthcare system performance may be improved with policy emphasis on primary care, quality improvement, and information technology. The authors therefore sought to investigate the extent to which policy makers in seven countries are emphasizing these areas.

Policies in these three areas in seven high-income countries were compared. A comparative descriptive approach was taken in which each of the country-specialist authors supplied information on key policies and developments pertaining to primary care, quality improvement and information technology, supplemented with routine data.

Each of the seven countries faces similar challenges with healthcare system performance, yet differs in emphasis on the three key policy areas; efforts in each are, at best, patchy. The authors conclude that there is substantial scope for policy makers to further emphasize primary care, quality improvement and information technology if aiming for high-performing healthcare systems.

This is the first study to investigate policy-makers' commitment to key areas known to improve health system performance. The comparative method illustrates the different emphases that countries have placed on primary care, quality improvement and information technology development.

Discusses challenges facing the US health‐care system now that prepaid or capitated health plans are gaining market share. Investigates how this affects providers, payers and policy makers and the concerns for the maintenance of a quality system. Concludes that the current changes in the US health‐care system are driven by the changing role of the consumer, concerns for quality and efforts to contain costs. Maintains that further research is needed to provide better guidelines to help these challenges to be met.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

This research provides accounting-ethics authors and administrators with a benchmark for accounting-ethics research. While Bernardi and Bean (2010) considered publications in business-ethics and accounting’s top-40 journals this study considers research in eight accounting-ethics and public-interest journals, as well as, 34 business-ethics journals. We analyzed the contents of our 42 journals for the 25-year period between 1991 through 2015. This research documents the continued growth (Bernardi & Bean, 2007) of accounting-ethics research in both accounting-ethics and business-ethics journals. We provide data on the top-10 ethics authors in each doctoral year group, the top-50 ethics authors over the most recent 10, 20, and 25 years, and a distribution among ethics scholars for these periods. For the 25-year timeframe, our data indicate that only 665 (274) of the 5,125 accounting PhDs/DBAs (13.0% and 5.4% respectively) in Canada and the United States had authored or co-authored one (more than one) ethics article.

THE responsibility for materials handling methods, as for all other production methods, should be made the clear responsibility of the head of Work Study. The reasoning behind that firm conclusion is very logical. Industry in general depends for its success upon the application of some process such as machining or finishing of raw materials. Every such operation adds to its value and builds up a firm's turnover. It is therefore obvious that the more time there is devoted to conversion the less will be wasted on profitless storage or unproductive transport from one part of the works to another.

This chapter focuses on the critical work of Dorothy Lipsky and Alan Gartner’s Inclusion and School Reform: Transforming America’s Classrooms, specifically through their 1987 piece, Beyond Special Education: Toward a Quality System for All Students. The chapter explores the five broad, interrelated areas of: (1) The Separate Special Education System; (2) Inclusive Education; (3) School Restructuring; (4) The Reform of Education and the Remaking of American Society; and (5) Amplification of Inclusion Issues. The chapter shows how the work of Lipsky and Gartner examines each theme in a discrete way whilst also showing how they are interrelated, analogous to jigsaw pieces that ultimately create a more comprehensive analysis of inclusive education scholarship and practice.

This paper seeks to examine the relevance of some existing Western motivation and job design theories in explaining employees' service performance, termed service orientation in delivery, in a developing country context.

The satisfaction‐performance thesis and the two factor theory (motivation and hygiene factors) are tested using a case study from a developing economy, Ghana. Survey data were collected from 535 retail bank employees of two large commercial banks across 85 branches in the final phase of the research. Multiple and hierarchical regression as well as split sample analyses were used to examine data.

Overall, the findings indicate some support for the validity and relevance of the satisfaction‐service performance thesis even in a non‐developed economy. Some outcomes, however, seem to challenge the validity of the two factor theory: context/hygiene satisfaction elements emerged as better predictors of service performance than content/motivator factors. In particular, context satisfaction dimension relating to co‐workers appeared to be the most important predictor. Satisfaction with pay and rewards, however, appeared unimportant to the service performance of the bank employees surveyed.

As the research was limited to the banking sector from only one developing country, generalisations and applications of its findings should be made with caution. Future studies which provide broader conceptual and empirical views, in terms of how specific co‐worker attitudes and behaviours motivate or discourage service‐oriented performances in multi‐country studies, could be useful.

Despite its limitations, the confirmation of the satisfaction‐performance thesis in this paper may indicate to managers that some, if not all, of the management theories taught in American/European schools may be equally relevant to developing economies such as Ghana. In addition, the findings provide managers with insights regarding the potential importance of context satisfaction elements to employees' service performance.

Overall, the broad findings from the study indicate some support for the relevance of the satisfaction‐service performance thesis even in a non‐developed economy, characterised by relatively challenging economic conditions. However, some outcomes reported in this paper seem to challenge the validity of the two factor theory and its relevance for job motivation and design.