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The paper summarizes data from 12 countries, chosen to exhibit wide variation, on the role and place of public participation in the setting of priorities. The purpose of this paper is to exhibit cross-national patterns in respect of public participation, linking those differences to institutional features of the countries concerned.

The approach is an example of case-orientated qualitative assessment of participation practices. It derives its data from the presentation of country case studies by experts on each system. The country cases are located within the historical development of democracy in each country.

Patterns of participation are widely variable. Participation that is effective through routinized institutional processes appears to be inversely related to contestatory participation that uses political mobilization to challenge the legitimacy of the priority setting process. No system has resolved the conceptual ambiguities that are implicit in the idea of public participation.

The paper draws on a unique collection of country case studies in participatory practice in prioritization, supplementing existing published sources. In showing that contestatory participation plays an important role in a sub-set of these countries it makes an important contribution to the field because it broadens the debate about public participation in priority setting beyond the use of minipublics and the observation of public representatives on decision-making bodies.

Many practitioners strive to increase the efficiency of their product development. In addition, smaller companies must satisfy customers’ expectations of their product development. These expectations can be e.g. use of specific methodologies such as Lean Product Development (LPD) and/or Design for Six Sigma (DFSS). This study attempts to identify differences and similarities between these methodologies and the connection between them. This comparison is of interest to practitioners that must choose a strategy for their product development as well as to researchers. The aim of both methodologies is to reduce waste and time of development and to raise the quality of a product at the very roots of the product: its development. LPD and DFSS help development managers to structure projects and focus as much as possible on customer expectations and satisfaction.

The verification of bibliographic information in a known item search can be both lengthy and tedious. The difficulties in using some of the traditional sources are well‐known. For example, the National Union Catalog provides access only through main entry; Books in Print and the Cumulative Book Index have author, title, and subject access but are limited by the fact that they cover only books either in print in a given year or published in a given year. The result can be a frustrating and, at times, fruitless search.

Goes back to thinking on the price theory of oligopoly in 1960. In particular, is concerned with Stackelberg’s oligopoly theory. Presents a careful description of the development of Stackelberg’s analysis. Takes into account his mathematical appendix. Confronts the theory with game theory and concludes that in a dynamic game a Nash‐Cournot equilibrium will emerge.

Theories of the business cycle can be classified into two main groups, exogenous and endogenous, according to the way they explain economic fluctuations – either as responses of the economy to factors that are external (exogenous shocks) or as upturns and downturns of the economic system internally generated (by endogenous factors). In endogenous theories, investment is generally a key variable to explain the dynamic status of the economy. This essay examines the role of investment in endogenous theories. Two contrasting views on how changes in investment and profitability push the economy towards expansion or contraction are represented by the insights of Kalecki, Keynes, Matthews and Minsky versus those of Marx and Mitchell. Hyman Minsky claimed that investment ‘calls the tune’ to indicate that investment is the only variable not determined by other variables, so that future profits, investment and the dynamic status of the economy are determined by current investment and investment in the near past. However, this hypothesis does not appear to be supported by available empirical data for 251 quarters of the US economy. Statistical evidence rather supports the hypothesis of causality in the direction of profits determining investment and, in this way, leading the economy towards boom or bust.

The history of economics has often been described as the “history of economic thought.” In this essay, I explore an alternative perspective that builds on the French tradition of historical epistemology and treats economics as a social practice. I argue that a practice-based view provides a more philosophically robust conception of historiography and a richer field of investigation for historians of economics.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of available online library games and offer six suggestions for best practices based on the available games.

The paper presents a thorough review of the literature on online games in libraries as well as an analysis of the games freely available online. Further information from some game designers was sought by e‐mail as needed to enhance the published literature.

A total of 17 online library games have been mentioned in the literature, 11 of which are at least partially available online. They vary greatly in type of game, technical sophistication, cost of development, and visual appeal. Some have been successful (designers report being satisfied), some have been less successful, and some have been abandoned before completion. Suggestions for development of future games include keeping it simple; having a plan to use it in class or market to faculty; “gating” key concepts; making it fun; giving feedback; and play testing throughout the development process.

While previous articles have mentioned three or four online games in libraries, no one has attempted to make a comprehensive overview or to suggest similarities among what has worked well in these projects. Analyzing the key traits of the more successful games will help librarians develop games in the future.

Six Sigma and lean production are established concepts in industry and academia. Both have given rise to associated concepts that have been applied in product development: Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) and Lean Product Development (LPD), respectively. Proposals are being published for the merger of DFSS and LPD, and the purpose of this paper is to discuss potential benefits and risks of such proposals.

The paper is based on an interview study encompassing 11 interviews at seven companies.

The results show that a possible merger of DFSS and LPD could prove beneficial in providing guidance both on the structure and the content of improvement efforts. Further, a merger has a potential of supporting radical, as well as incremental, improvements. However, differences in industrial practices that should be considered in applications of a merged initiative are the overall goal of the improvement work (cost reduction versus waste reduction), the emphasis on what to do or on how to do it, and the documentation demanded (extensive versus short and visual).

This study has taken DFSS and LPD applications as its starting point, as the merged initiative of DFSS and LPD has started to develop further studies based on the implementation of the merged initiative would be of value. These studies could especially focus on the organisation of improvement work, identified in this paper as a potential area of conflict.

This paper discusses potential benefits as well as risks of merging DFSS and LPD based on industrial experiences. Consideration of the differences addressed, by practitioners as well as academics, will contribute to a well thought‐out design of a merger of the two concepts.

The purpose of the study is to investigate the stressors faced by migrant entrepreneur-managers of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as their resilience strategies for reviving their businesses.

This study employs a qualitative research design based on grounded theory. Semi-structured interview questionnaire was used for one-to-one interviews with 20 migrant entrepreneur-managers, representing ten different business sectors during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 and 2021. Interviews were transcribed, coded into open code, axial code and selective code to identify the major themes, and analysis was done into three levels to explore the stressors and initial strategies implemented to cope with the crisis. Trustworthiness of the findings was ensured by credibility, transferability, dependability and conformability, and reflexivity.

This study explored three types of stressors: finance-related stressors, supplies-related stressors and human resources-related stressors in migrant SME entrepreneur-managers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study revealed the use of comprehensive supply chain strategies followed by migrant SME entrepreneur-managers to be resilient enough to cope with a crisis situation like the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study covers an under-researched area of research related to stressors and resilience strategies in migrant SME entrepreneur-managers during the pandemic situation. A large body of prior research contributes to employees' stress and coping behaviors, while this paper focuses on stressors in migrant entrepreneur-managers in the special context of pandemics and their strategies to be resilient during a crisis situation. Thus, the findings of this study contribute to SME entrepreneur-managers, policy makers and academicians so that a large number of migrant entrepreneurs can develop resilient strategies for crisis situations. Furthermore, this study contributes to the supply chain resilience literature and resource dependency theory.