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The success of firm lawyers depends largely upon their ability to develop a clientele. Naturally, access to potential clients and the relationships between lawyers and their clients and potential clients are exceedingly important for client development. Various factors likely play into relationships between lawyers and business leaders, two important factors being homophily and in-group preferences. Both homophily and in-group preferences mechanisms would predict that law firms are more likely to assign clients to associates who bear certain similarities to those clients. Accordingly, associates who are more similar to the business community they serve are more likely to be assigned clients and awarded responsibility. In this way, a lawyers' success depends in part on the composition of the business community in which they operate. In making partnership decisions, law firms value associates' aptitude for client relations, thus incorporating these effects into promotion evaluations. This study asks the question: at the state level, to what extent does the success of female-owned businesses correlate to the success of female lawyers who work at law firms? Using a national survey of lawyers seven years after admission to the bar, logistic regression demonstrates that it is not the percentage of businesses in a state that are female-owned that influences the likelihood of making partner for female associates. Rather, the results show that the percentage of sales generated by female-owned businesses is the influential variable: as women generate a greater percent of a state's economic activity, female lawyers are in turn more likely to achieve the status of partner.

Distance-based partnerships are being increasingly used in health care and have previously been described to facilitate the training of nurses, researchers, and occupational therapists.1–6 In 2013, the Society of Hospital Medicine’s newly published guidelines for pediatric hospital medicine (PHM) programs indicated that strong leadership is critically important to a program’s success. Many smaller children’s hospitals have very few dedicated pediatric hospitalists, and these hospitalists might not have formal leadership or quality improvement (QI) training, resources, or dedicated time for QI work because of their clinical responsibilities. Similarly, pediatric residency programs at smaller institutions might lack robust inpatient QI experiences for their trainees. Leaders at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (Cincinnati) were approached by leaders at Niswonger Children’s Hospital (Niswonger) to complete a needs assessment of Niswonger’s inpatient program. Niswonger is a 69-bed children’s hospital colocated with Johnson City Medical Center, an adult hospital. These hospitals are located in a suburban area with a large rural catchment area. Both the adult and children’s hospitals are part of a larger health system, Mountain States Health Alliance. Niswonger is affiliated with East Tennessee State University (ETSU) Department of Pediatrics, which provided the majority of physician staffing. The needs assessment, completed in 2012, consisted of several site visits, observation of inpatient rounds, interviews with Niswonger faculty and staff, evaluation of available historical data, and collection of new data. Two main gaps in clinical care and training at Niswonger were identified. The first was the need for a dedicated hospitalist program with providers who did not have competing clinical responsibilities. The general pediatric inpatient unit was historically staffed by several ETSU faculty members, all of whom had primary responsibilities in other areas such as intensive care, outpatient primary care, and infectious disease and none of whom were dedicated pediatric hospitalists. These physicians would typically conduct inpatient teaching rounds in the morning and then resume other clinical responsibilities. The second was the need for QI training for the 19 residents in the ETSU pediatric residency program, an Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education requirement.

This study describes the partnership between an urban community college and seven high schools from its inception. The purpose of the partnership was to increase the number of high school seniors transitioning into college-level math courses through the college math readiness program, an existing community college intermediate algebra course. In addition to archival records and documents, college math faculty, high school math teachers, administrators and staff, and college students were interviewed for this study. Four major challenges were identified in the following areas: student recruitment process, data management, lack of information to students, and collaboration among math faculty and math teachers. Despite all challenges, the partnership and the college math readiness program was perceived by stakeholders to be a successful program for the students and the institutions involved.

The focus for this research project was to explore the development of human trafficking mercy ministries within South Coast Presbytery. South Coast Presbytery consists of 21 churches belonging to the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), a Christian denomination with member churches throughout the United States. The study was conducted following a constructivist paradigm with a PCA church belonging to South Coast Presbytery to determine the role of the church and the presbytery in addressing human trafficking through the development of mercy ministries. Interviews were conducted with 11 church members. Five major themes emerged from analysis of the interviews: 1) Effects of the existence of human trafficking on participants; 2) The role of the church/presbytery in addressing human trafficking; 3) Service provision to victims of human trafficking; 4) Partnerships with outside agencies; and 5) Ministry development in South Coast Presbytery. An action plan was developed based on the following subthemes: raising awareness, teaming up, the need for specialists, and the need for oversight. The action plan includes the following: the development of a presentation to raise awareness, plans to visit each church of South Coast Presbytery to promote a shared vision, and building a database of available church resources to link with needs identified by service providers in the community.

The agricultural sector in Zambia is supported through the government use of public expenditure programs to spur the production and subsidize the consumption of key grains to stabilize prices. Previous research has documented the effects of public spending on agriculture in terms of food prices and food security. The effects of government spending on the trade of key grains, however, is not well understood. As such, there is a gap in knowledge regarding the impact of agricultural policy on the agricultural trade. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of Zambian agricultural policy on grain trade. A combination of 2 trust-based theories formed the theoretical foundation of this study. These theories included ecology of games theory and Kingdon's garbage-can model. Secondary data were acquired from the Food and Agriculture Organization Corporate Statistical Database and Michigan State University. A vector autoregression analysis of time-series data covering a 10-year period from 2003 to 2012 showed that grain quantities purchased by the Food Reserve Agency significantly impacted grain trade (p = 0.000), whereas the Farmer Input Subsidy Program did not significantly impact grain trade (p = 0.843). However, the combined effect of these 2 policy instruments was found to be statistically significant (p = 0.000). The key finding of this study is that for every 1 metric ton purchased by the Food Reserve Agency, grain trade increases by 0.342 metric tons; whereas for every 1 Kwacha spent on Farmer Input Subsidy Program, grain trade decreases by 0.187 metric tons. Positive social change may be achieved through recommendations to policy makers to increase appropriations to postharvest management and extension to increase tradable volumes and farmers' income.

Charitable nonprofit organizations are growing in number and scope, but the body of literature and knowledge about communication within these organizations is limited. Today, charitable organizations face a flurry of economic and environmental factors that challenge their continued survival: growing community needs, mounting funding cuts from all segments of government, increased competition for funding, a limited pool of dedicated community leaders to serve on boards, decreased charitable giving for some causes, and persistent calls for greater accountability. As nonprofits explore new ways of coping with these socioeconomic pressures---such as reorganization, consolidation, mergers, and management service organizations---there is a clear need for applied communication research on organizational change in nonprofit settings. This research explores the unique issues nonprofit organizations face when considering a specific form of consolidation---a management service organization---focusing on interorganizational communication among nonprofits and funders and the challenges faced during reorganization planning and implementation. In particular, this research explores communication processes both within and among the Neighborhood Family Center Coalition (NFCC) (a collaborative of nonprofit organizations), and the Juvenile Welfare Board of Pinellas County (JWB), a funder of these same organizations, as the members planned and developed a management service organization. Action research was the chosen methodology for this study due to the strong desire of the research participants to engage fully in planning, executing and analyzing this research. Working together, we co-generated the research questions for this study. Agreed upon areas for research included considerations and challenges in implementing the management service organization, the funder's role in guiding and assisting in the integration process, management and communication strategies implemented to mitigate the negative effects of this type of organizational change and/or to contribute to successful implementation of this type of integration model, and lessons learned that may benefit future JWB efforts, as well as funders and service providers in communities throughout the United States. The research team worked together to identify and develop appropriate research methods and protocols that included interactive interviews and ethnographic observation. Interviews were conducted with all members of the NFCC and key management staff from the JWB. The applicability of this research is of great importance to funding institutions, many which are taking on a more active role to stabilize or strengthen their funded programs, and more often today, through encouragement to consolidate. Results of this study also may lay the groundwork to support and engage nonprofit leaders considering consolidation as an option for their organizations.

Etre membre d'un réseau offre à l'entreprise un lieu, un espace d'échanges et de progression. C'est un moyen de valoriser ses savoir-faire et se différencier de ses concurrents. Une collaboration efficace mise en place entre les entreprises est avant tout fondée sur la confiance mutuelle. Selon les termes contractualisés du partenariat, les bénéfices voire les risques peuvent alors être partagés aboutissant à une relation gagnant-gagnant. Si au contraire les parties prenantes n'ont pas pris toute la mesure des conséquences de ces collaborations, elles peuvent se trouver dans des situations peu confortables mettant en danger la survie même des plus dépendantes d'entre elles. L'analyse du déséquilibre et des pouvoirs relatifs des partenaires au sein d'un réseau est une clé méthodologique pertinente pour comprendre le comportement de chaque membre et son influence sur le fonctionnement global. Un acteur puissant peut imposer des conditions défavorables à ses fournisseurs ou clients. Si une entreprise sur-estime ou sous-estime son pouvoir, elle pourrait affecter sa capacité de négociation avec le fournisseur ou le client. Dans ce contexte, la contribution majeure visée par nos travaux est l'élaboration d'une étude fondamentale mais surtout pratique sur le concept du pouvoir. Ainsi, nous proposons un cadre d'analyse et une boîte à outils permettant à une entreprise de comprendre le réseau d'influences l'englobant afin de réduire au maximum les impacts négatifs d'un déséquilibre des pouvoirs. Nous mettons au point une méthode d'analyse situationnelle conçue pour aider les gestionnaires à analyser les situations de collaboration lesquelles les acteurs seront impliqués, et à prédire leurs stratégies et tactiques plausibles. Nous proposons également une étude pour évaluer et comparer le pouvoir relatif entre deux acteurs sur la base de la dépendance. Une validation de nos résultats sur pouvoir a été réalisée via des interviews dans quatre entreprises du secteur higt tech au Maroc. Les résultats de nos recherches permettent d'apporter une contribution à la connaissance des enjeux théoriques et empiriques du Pouvoir / Being a menber of a network offers the company a place, s space for exchange and progression. This is a way to develop its expertise and distinguish it from other competitors. Effective collaboration established betqeen companies is primarily based on mutual trust. under the terms of the partnership contracted, benefits or risks can therefore be shared, which results in a xin-win relationship. on the contrary, unless the stakeholders have taken into account the powerful effects of these collaborations, thez may find themselves in uncomfortable situation. The analysis of the imbalance of powers of the partners in a network is a pertinent methodological key to understanding the behavior of each member and its influence on the global functioning of network. A powerful actor may impose unfavorable contions to its suppliers, or even customers Il a company overestimates or underestimates its power, il could affact its ability to negotiate with the supplier or the customer. In this context, our xork intends mainly to contribute to the development of a basic study of power. We propose an anlysis framework allowing a company to understand the power in order to reduce the negative impact of power imbalance. Additionally, we develop a situational analysis method with a vezwq to assisting managers in collaborative situations to predict their plausible strategies and tactics. We also provide a method to evaluate the relative power between two actors on the basis of dependency. Validation of our results research on power comes from interviews conductef in four high tech sector companies in Morocco. Thus, the results of our research aim to contribute to the understanding of the theoretical and empirical issues of power.

A modelagem de contrato de uma Parceria Público-Privada tem aumentado nas principais economias do mundo, principalmente por recomendação do Banco Mundial que organiza estudos e manuais sobre o tema a fim de padronizar o conceito. A pergunta que se faz é como se configuram as relações de agência em uma Parceria Público-Privada, pensados em termos de conduta oportunista, assimetria de informação e desenho institucional. Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo geral discutir as relações de agência a partir do desenho institucional desta Parceria Público-Privada. Os objetivos específicos são: operacionalizar o conceito de PPP para este trabalho, conforme a legislação federal e a estadual sobre o tema; identificar as diferenças de outros modelos de contratação e de investimento tradicionalmente utilizados; reconhecer a capacidade das instituições instaladas, sua histerese ou resiliência à esta modelagem de contratualização; trazer o contexto histórico à atualidade, considerando o ambiente institucional democrático de transparência e responsabilização; e interpretar como a Teoria da Agência pode iluminar os resultados destas parcerias. Como estrutura teórica, apresenta-se a evolução crítica das teorias da regulação, o problema Principal-Agente e a abordagem institucionalista da regulação econômica setorial. A seguir é apresentada a evolução da regulamentação de concessões de PPP no Brasil. Por fim, é realizado um estudo de caso da Rodovia MG-050 à luz da Teoria da Agência. Como resultado a pesquisa apresenta proposições sobre o que a contratualização de serviços públicos do tipo Parcerias Público-Privadas gera para os desafios democráticos de transparência, responsabilização e ampliação da cidadania; sobre o que este tipo de contratualização gera para as falhas de mercado; e sobre a capacidade do Estado neste tipo de modelagem, tanto pela necessidade de um Estado planejador para estes projetos, quanto pela demanda de um Estado garantidor / The contractual modeling of Public-Private Partnerships has increased in the world\'s major economies, mainly on the recommendation of the World Bank that organizes studies and manuals on the subject in order to standardize the concept. This issue raises is how the agency relations are configured in a Public-Private Partnership, thought in terms of capture, asymmetry of information and institutional design. This research has the general objective to discuss the Agency Theory based on the institutional design of this partnership. The specific objectives are: to operationalize the concept of PPP for this research, according to the federal and state legislations on the subject; the differences from other traditionally used contracting and investment models; the capacity of the installed institutions, their hysteresis or resilience to this contractual modeling; bring the historical context to the present, considering the democratic parameter of transparency and accountability; and thus interpret how the Agency Theory can illuminate the results of these partnerships. As a theoretical framework, we present the critical evolution of theories of regulation, the Principal-Agent problem and the institutionalist approach to sectoral economic regulation. The following is the evolution of the regulation of PPP concessions in Brazil. Finally, a case study of Highway MG-050 is carried out in light of the Agency Theory. As a result, the research presents propositions about what the contracting of public services of the Public-Private Partnership type generates to the democratic challenges of transparency, accountability and enlargement of citizenship; what this type of contracting generates for market failures; and on the capacity of the State in this type of modeling, both by the need of a state planner for these projects, and by the demand of a guarantor State.