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Using the pharmaceutical sector as a microcosm of the health sector, we highlight the most prevalent structural and policy issues that make this sector susceptible to corruption and ways in which these vulnerabilities can be addressed. We conducted a literature review of publications from 2004 to 2015 that included books, peer-reviewed literature, as well as gray literature such as working papers, reports published by international organizations and donor agencies, and newspaper articles discussing this topic. We found that vulnerabilities to corruption in the pharmaceutical sector occur due to a lack of good governance, accountability, transparency, and proper oversight in each of the decision points of the pharmaceutical supply chain. What works best to limit corruption is context specific and linked to the complexity of the sector. At a global level, tackling corruption involves hard and soft international laws and the creation of international standards and guidelines for national governments and the pharmaceutical industry. At a national level, including civil society in decision-making and monitoring is also often cited as a positive mechanism against corruption. Anticorruption measures tend to be specific to the particular “site” of the pharmaceutical system and include improving institutional checks and balances like stronger and better implemented regulations and better oversight and protection for “whistle blowers,” financial incentives to refrain from engaging in corrupt behavior, and increasing the use of technology in processes to minimize human discretion. This chapter was adapted from a discussion piece published by Transparency International UK entitled Corruption in the Pharmaceutical Sector: Diagnosing the Challenges.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that in times of economic constraints particularly in countries such as Greece that have long been stereotyped as corrupt, business practices amongst small- and medium-sized organisations that make up the majority of these nations’ tourism operators may become less than ethical or legal. The purpose of this paper is to explore these issues empirically in order to understand the impact of both cultural values and economic constraints on tourism businesses’ practices.

An exploratory case study using mixed methods has been adopted. Quantitative data were gathered from tourism business owners, managers and employees via questionnaires to establish the nature and scope of various unethical, illegal or immoral practices. Qualitative data were gathered to explore the ways these issues are considered and enacted.

Results show that there are many unethical and illegal practices that have been witnessed first-hand. Businesses’ attempts at acting in an ethical and socially responsible manner tend to be affected by not only cultural issues, but also economic constraints, yet there remains a desire to act in a way that does not impact negatively on tourists or on the local society and environment.

This research fills a gap in the literature relating to the ethical stance and practices of tourism entrepreneurs. It also presents an original conceptualisation of these issues in light of their location within the extant literature on ethics, corporate social responsibility and both sustainable and responsible tourism.

The decisions marketing managers make on advertising expenditures are vital to maintaining the sales and profitability of a firm. However, these decisions have not been taken into account to a great enough extent when determining a firm’s performance. The purpose of this paper is to better understand the marketing-finance interface and to reveal the effect marketers’ discretionary advertising expenditures can have on firm performance. In particular, the real activities method of managed earnings (ME) will be used to study this phenomenon.

The initial sample consisted of all the companies that appear in the North American COMPUSTAT files over the period 1970-2014. Since the focus here is on the effect of discretionary advertising expenses on firm performance, the authors restricted the samples to only include observations with advertising expenses. Therefore, the sample included 14,732 firms.

OLS regressions revealed a negative relationship between marketers’ discretionary advertising expenditures and firm performance using return on assets as a proxy for firm performance. Additional regressions displayed similar results for return on sale and return on cash adjusted asset proxies. Fixed effect and Tobit regressions also confirmed these findings. Finally, this effect was especially true for low performing firms. The economic significance of these findings on firm performance is also discussed.

The decisions made by marketing managers on advertising promotional efforts impact sales directly and brand equity indirectly, but they can also have an impact on firm performance. Therefore, it is important for investors to understand the level of ME in relation to marketing and advertising decisions that are taking place at their firm.

According to national statistics, small numbers of black American women earn science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) degrees. Instead of focusing on this disturbing, well-documented trend, this chapter explores STEM career success among black female graduate students who enroll in and complete PhD programs. In other words, we are engaged in an effort to address how black women in STEM fields succeed in graduate school. This chapter presents a qualitative look at successful PhD pathways. It will provide data on the pipeline of black women at the high school, undergraduate, and graduate levels; describe programs that the state of Maryland has employed among its public research universities to recruit and retain black women in doctoral programs; present testimonials from black women who have participated in these programs; and offer an extensive case study of 15 black women alumni of these programs who now have PhDs and are establishing their STEM careers. Programs that will be documented as successful for recruiting, mentoring, and retaining black women in STEM include the National Science Foundation's (NSF) University System of Maryland Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation Bridge to the Doctorate program; the NSF's PROMISE: Maryland's Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) program for UMBC, the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB), and the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP); the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) Meyerhoff Graduate Fellows Program in the Biomedical Sciences (Minority Biomedical Research Support – Initiative for Maximizing Student Development (MBRS-IMSD)) at UMBC and UMB; and subprograms such as the Dissertation House (DH), the Community Building Retreat, and the PROF-it: Professors-in-Training program. The case study will include the following questions: What were some of the obstacles that occurred during graduate school, and what helped you to overcome them? Were there any issues that occurred that made you want to quit? If you stopped for a while, or thought about stopping, what were your motivations for returning? Where did you receive mentoring during your graduate school process? What advice would you give to young women who are just starting? The chapter focuses on a variety of methods and practices that successfully shepherd black women from undergraduate ranks to PhD-level careers in STEM fields.

Aims to examine the effectiveness of UK supermarkets in transferring store loyalty to online loyalty.

An online survey of university staff is used to test both the brand equity proposition that loyal customers are more likely to adopt brand extensions, and the double jeopardy model's prediction that market leaders benefit disproportionately from loyalty transference.

The study provides support for the brand equity and double jeopardy propositions. Tesco's and Sainsbury's dominance of both the online and offline markets, coupled with their retention indices of 92 per cent (Tesco) and 76 per cent (Sainsbury's), support the brand equity view. Tesco also attracts a disproportionately higher percentage of its customers from competitors (67 per cent) compared with Sainsbury's (14 per cent), suggesting that it is benefiting from its market leadership position, as predicted by the double jeopardy model.

The relatively small size and restricted nature of the sample means that the exploratory findings now need to be investigated more rigorously. A larger sample would permit a more detailed exploration of the relationships between the different aspects of online loyalty.

The research suggests that smaller retail brands have two main options, namely growing the size of the brand or building a niche brand. For a market leader the challenge is to become a “super‐loyalty brand”. That is, to achieve levels of loyalty higher than predicted by the double jeopardy effect, either through segmentation or through better service provision than that of competitors.

This is the first study to examine transferability of store loyalty to online loyalty and demonstrate the usefulness of the brand equity and double jeopardy models for understanding and predicting loyalty transfer behaviour.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the behaviors of India’s information technology (IT) and business process outsourcing (BPO) employees in relation to diet, exercise, sleep, stress, and social habits.

This was a qualitative research study, using in-depth, semi-structured interviews. Descriptive data were collected from a two-stage purposive sample of 28 IT-BPO employees from three IT companies and two BPOs in Bangalore, India.

The majority of interviewees reported having an unhealthy diet and/or sedentary lifestyle. Lack of time due to demanding work schedules was the largest barrier to diet and exercise. Call-centers were described as a social environment with a young workforce.

Given the qualitative study design and limited sampling frame, results may not be generalizable. However, the qualitative data suggests that India’s young IT-BPO employees may be at greater risk of lifestyle-related diseases than the general population. The data also suggests that interventions incorporating social influence may be a promising solution, particularly at international call centers.

There is a lack of literature on the lifestyle of IT-BPO employees in India. The results from this study provide qualitative insight on the motives for health behaviors of IT-BPO employees, as well as the barriers and facilitators for leading a healthy lifestyle in this industry. The findings provide the framework for future workplace wellness interventions.

The purpose of this paper is to outline a study characterised by “pockets” of co-production and argue for the benefits of offering young people a palette of interdisciplinary methods to “opt into”, giving participants the opportunity to discuss their drinking practices and experiences “on their own terms”.

In total, 40 young people, aged 15-24 years, from the suburban case study locations of Chorlton and Wythenshawe, Manchester, UK, were recruited for multi-stage qualitative research. The participants were presented with a suite of both long-standing and innovative methods that they could “opt into”, including: interviews, peer interviews, diaries, mobile phone interviews, text messaging and participant observation.

This paper shows that both long-standing and innovative methods have their own individual strengths for researching into young people’s alcohol consumption practices and experiences. Yet, each of the methods utilised in this study also had specific drawbacks for researching substance use. Offering a palette of methods for participants to “opt into” was thus beneficial in: offsetting the weaknesses of other methods; triangulating the study findings; and enabling participants to communicate with the researcher in culturally credible ways.

By offering an honest account about the successes and failures of deploying a range of methods when exploring young people’s drinking practices and experiences, this paper is valuable for researchers in, and beyond, the field of substance use, seeking to broaden their methodological toolkit.