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Appropriate self‐regulation of exposure to driving in view of age‐related declines in driving ability is a significant problem for older individuals in the UK, as programmes designed to encourage and support self‐regulation are sorely lacking. This paper outlines the development of a CD‐based Mixed Media and Virtual Reality (MMVR) programme, consisting of: information and reference material; cognitive tests; and virtual reality (VR) driving simulator components, all of which are orientated to address the older driver. The research on the self‐regulation of driving that informs the rationale and development of the ‘shell’ of the MMVR programme is overviewed, followed by a description of state of development of the cognitive tests and VR driving simulation components of the CD. It is argued that the development of programmes such as that proposed in this paper are necessary to reconcile the mobility needs of the expanding UK elderly population and public safety concerns.

In 1962, historian Raymond E. Callahan argued that American educators had allowed themselves to become overly enchanted by Taylorite notions of scientific management and had adopted the techniques of the business‐industrial world, to the detriment of the nation's students. Callahan's Education and the Cult of Efficiency not only offered a new and bold interpretation of the history of education in the twentieth century, but it also coined a phrase that continues to represent the constant struggle faced by educators as they seek to balance high‐quality instructional practices with external calls for accountability that often come from corporate and public leaders. This special issue of the Journal of Educational Administration (JEA) presents a set of articles which explore the theme of “Education, Ethics, and the Cult of Efficiency.” The articles that make up this issue began as papers delivered at the 8th Annual Values and Educational Leadership Conference held at Pennsylvania State University in October 2003. The essence of our message in this: The traditional parameters of managerialism and efficiency focused responses to administrative situations must now be augmented with more creative, sophisticated and morally defensible approaches to leadership.

Over the past few decades, the Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) has become one of the most controversial and politicized divisions of the Department of Labor. Republic and Democratic Administrations have adopted starkly different practices concerning both the allocation of resources and the focus of regulatory activities at the division. These differences have been brought into sharp focus during the Bush II and Obama Administrations. Under the Bush Administration, funding for OLMS increased significantly, and the DOL revised union financial reporting requirements, imposing a more onerous burden on unions in the name of promoting transparency and accountability. Section 1 of this paper provides a summary and analysis of the most significant changes and innovations at the OLMS under the Obama Administration. Section 2 of the paper provides a detailed summary of the Bush era reforms and their fate under the Obama OLMS, and an analysis of the impact of these reforms in the area of increasing union transparency and accountability. It argues that the Bush reforms did little or nothing to achieve greater accountability and may instead have been motivated largely by a desire to impose a more onerous administrative burden on reporting unions.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is no study that investigates the historical roots of quantitative paradigm hegemony over the qualitative paradigm in marketing using a critical lens. The purpose of this paper is to stimulate thoughtful reflections among marketing scholars so that the dialog among paradigms expands, the stale paradigmatic debates disappear, and the marketing discipline evolves and contributes to the actual functioning of markets and the welfare of society.

This study is conducted in the light of foucauldian genealogy through the analysis of historical materials that Foucault called discourses, a set of languages, systems of thinking and governality techniques that determine how individuals or organizations come to be disciplined. In this paper, the concept of discourse mainly refers to visible rituals and practices by which marketing researchers have been psychologically and behaviorally shaped to reproduce and perpetuate a hypothetical-deductive mainstream within their discipline.

This paper intends to stimulate a dialog among marketing scholars about expanding paradigms so that stale debates disappear, and marketing disciplines proves their scientific status by better contributing to the functioning of markets and the welfare of society. As an evolving social science, marketing requires new theory, new concepts and new research methods.

The intellectual contribution of this paper lies in its intention to alert marketing researchers about the danger we are exposing our discipline to by promoting imperialist traditions and standardization of thinking.

It is now forty years since there appeared H. R. Plomer's first volume Dictionary of the booksellers and printers who were at work in England, Scotland and Ireland from 1641 to 1667. This has been followed by additional Bibliographical Society publications covering similarly the years up to 1775. From the short sketches given in this series, indicating changes of imprint and type of work undertaken, scholars working with English books issued before the closing years of the eighteenth century have had great assistance in dating the undated and in determining the colour and calibre of any work before it is consulted.

Improving organizational performance under turbulent internal and external environments has been a challenging managerial task. This paper highlights the reengineering experience of a state government office that successfully improved its performance. Keeping in mind its strategic goals throughout the integration of keys aspects of business process redesign (BPR), information technology (IT) and organization development (OD), prevented the department from random reengineering which, in many organizations, leads to downsizing. Putting more emphasis on OD through the reengineering process resulted in building the organization's ability to assess its current functioning and to achieve its goals.

The purpose of this study is uncovering the connotative and symbolic meaning of “luxury-lite brands” [轻奢].

Applying mixed methods, this study conducted two studies: (1) a semiotic analysis of a focus group discussion and 10 interviews on luxury-lite brands and (2) a content analysis of 248 Weiblog posts from 10 luxury-lite brands in a two-month period.

Study 1 showed that luxury-lite brands are interpreted as foreign brands that serve people's needs for social presence, and symbolize youthfulness, tastefulness, and aspirations. Other descriptors of luxury-lite brands included unique design, and less than the best quality offered by luxury brand. Study 2 suggested brands are missing out on a wide range of stories that resonate with their core segments in their social media advertising.

Based on the definition of luxury-lite brands in the context of China proposed by the researchers, we recommend that managers broaden topics of stories, make more effort to create desirable symbolic brand meaning, and use social media to excite these young crowds.

Luxury-lite brands have been a cultural sign in the Chinese market projected to grow into an over 90 billion USD business by 2025. Therefore, an insightful understanding of the masstige market of China is a must for any Western masstige brand to be successful and competitive.