Reigniting the fire: a contemporary research agenda for social,political and nonprofit marketing

The paper reports on the core challenges faced by the nonprofit, political and social marketing disciplinary areas and suggests a series of research agendas to develop theory and practice to meet these challenges.

• Social marketing's research agenda involves the continued adaptation of the new developments in commercial marketing, whilst building a base of social marketing theory and best practice benchmarks that can be used to identify, clarify and classify the boundaries of social marketing against social change techniques.
• Nonprofit marketing is pursuing the dual research agenda of developing the theory and practice of social entrepreneurship whilst seeking deeper consumer‐based research to understand motivations for charitable behaviour and gift giving.
• Political Marketing's research agenda looks for an increase in the level of background research, core data and market research to use as a basis for developing more advanced theoretical and practical models. In addition, as political marketing is being transferred internationally between a range of political and electoral systems, there is a need for comparative research into both the relevance and effectiveness of these techniques to isolate nation independent and nation dependent political marketing strategies and campaigns.

Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Screening of gunshot residues using desorption electrospray ionisation-mass spectrometry (DESI-MS)

Several studies have indicated that there are potential environmental sources of particles resembling inorganic primer found in gunshot residues (GSR); as a consequence examiners are reluctant to unambiguously assign the origin of inorganic particles. If organic gunshot residues (OGSR) were found in combination with inorganic particles, the possibility of environmental sources could be potentially eliminated, thereby significantly enhancing the strength of the evidence. Methods have been previously described whereby GSR specimens can be analysed for the presence of OGSR or inorganic GRS (IGSR). However, no methods have been reported that allow the analysis of both OGSR and IGSR on the same specimen. Described in this article is a direct method using desorption electrospray ionisation-mass spectrometry (DESI-MS) for the detection of methyl centralite (MC), ethyl centralite (EC) and diphenylamine (DPA) on adhesive tape GSR stubs typically used for scanning electron microscopy-energy-dispersive X-ray (SEM-EDX) analysis. The optimisation of numerous parameters was conducted using an experimental design. The results indicate that direct analysis of these organic components of GSR is possible although some limitations were also identified. This initial investigation has also indicated that subjecting stubs to DESI analysis does not interfere with subsequent SEM-EDX analysis of primer residues; therefore the technique described herein allows a comprehensive examination of GSR that would be highly probative in the event that both OGSR and IGSR are detected in the same specimen.     

Parental Alienation Syndrome in Italian legal judgments: an exploratory study

The present study highlights the characteristics of separated families in Italy for whom Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS) has been diagnosed during court custody evaluations. The study analyzed the psychological reports of 12 court-appointed expert evaluations of families for whom PAS had been diagnosed. Twelve evaluations that did not receive the PAS diagnosis served as a control group. A specific coding system was used for data analysis. The results indicated that the alienating parents were always the parents who had custody of the children. Children who were diagnosed with PAS were predominantly the only child in the family, had identity problems and manifested manipulative behavior. The consultant in these cases suggested individual psychotherapy for the children and recommended foster care to the Social Services agency.     

Th e Decision to Contract Out: A Study of Contracting for E-Government Services in State Governments

Government contracting, especially for information technology products and services, has accelerated in recent years in the United States. Drawing on the insights of privatization studies, the authors examine the economic and political rationales underpinning government decisions to contract out e-government services. This article tests the extent to which economic and political rationality influence governments' contracting decisions using data from multiple sources: a survey conducted by National Association of State Chief Information Officers, a survey by the National Association of State Procurement Officers, the Council of State Legislatures, and macro-level state data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Important factors affecting the state-level contracting decision are population size, market size, the competitiveness of the bidding process, the professional management of contracts, the partisan composition of legislatures, and political competition. Political rationales appear to play a major role in state contracting decisions. Some arguments associated with markets and economic rationality are clearly politically motivated.     

The Effect of Gang Perpetrated Crime on the Likelihood of Non-Lethal Victim Injury

Studies consistently find that gang members are involved in a disproportionately high rate of violence. The association between gangs and violence is largely based on the legal definition of violence, however. The current study moves beyond the legal definition of gang violence by examining the relationship between non-lethal gang involved incidents and the likelihood of victim injury, using pooled data (1992–2005) from the National Crime Victimization Survey. Overall, results reveal that gang members are not more likely than are non-gang members to injure their victims. When analyses are restricted to incidents involving injury, or incidents involving weapons, gang members are no more likely to more severely injure their victims than non-gang members. Strengths and limitations of the study are discussed.     

Joint Working: The Health Service Agenda

The purpose of this article is to examine the policy and practice of collaboration between health and local government from a health servicesperspective. Within this remit, the authors primarily focus on the area of primary care. Four key elements of the post-1997 policy context are discussed: the move from GP fund-holding to Primary Care Groups and Trusts (PCG/Ts); a shift from treating to preventing illness; a drive for implementation by central government; and an emphasis on collaboration. Within this broad context, there are a number of factors which may support enhanced collaboration: the size, scope, responsibilities and budgets of PCG/Ts may well provide an organisational framework which is supportive of joint working. However, the ‘Berlin Wall’ between health and social care has proved to be enduring, and there are aspects of the post-1997 policy context which will continue to inhibit effective joint working, in particular centrally designed performance management systems and the dominance by GPs of PCG/Ts.     

Does the public sector outperform the nonprofit and for‐profit sectors? Evidence from a national panel study on nursing home quality and access

Are public and private organizations fundamentally different? This question has been among the most enduring inquiries in public administration. Our study explores the impact of organizational ownership on two complementary aspects of performance: service quality and access to services for impoverished clients. Derived from public management research on performance determinants and nursing home care literature, our hypotheses stipulate that public, nonprofit, and forprofit nursing homes use different approaches to balance the strategic tradeoff between two aspects of performance. Panel data on 14,423 facilities were analyzed to compare measures of quality and access across three sectors using different estimation methods. Findings indicate that ownership status is associated with critical differences in both quality and access. Public and nonprofit organizations are similar in terms of quality, and both perform significantly better than their forprofit counterparts. When compared to nonprofit and, in some cases, for‐profit facilities, public nursing homes have a significantly higher share of Medicaid recipients. The paper proposes strategies to address the identified long‐term care divide. © 2008 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.