Brett Scholz

Determinants of export success in professional business services: a qualitative study

Despite their crucial contributions to the prosperity of national economies worldwide, there is limited knowledge on the international operations of professional service firms (PSFs). The purpose of this paper is to investigate the antecedents of export success of PSFs, taking into account both firm characteristics and market characteristics. Research findings indicated that management attitude, resource commitment, and international experience and reputation significantly enhanced their export performance. However, the firms appeared to disagree on the role of firm size in fostering their success. Additionally, the performance of professional service exporters was also determined by competition intensity and actions by the host governments. Finally, export promotion efforts, in the form of export assistance by home government and support from industry-based associations, also played a significant role.

Social shedding: Identification and health of men's sheds users.

OBJECTIVE Extant research has previously found several benefits of community Mens Sheds. Drawing on social identity theory, we examine the extent to which membership in Mens Sheds can influence the quality of life of Mens Sheds users. METHOD We surveyed 322 Mens Sheds users in Australia on 4 quality of life domains and their willingness to take health advice offered at the sheds. RESULTS Social identity was found to be a significant predictor of physical health, psychological, social relationships, and environmental domains of quality of life, as well as willingness to accept health advice. CONCLUSIONS Our exploratory findings enrich the existing knowledge on the benefits of community mens groups. We highlight the potential importance of social identity (particularly ingroup ties) among Mens Sheds members. These initial insights may be beneficial for future research and the promotion of mens engagement with health information and practice.

“We’ve Got to Break Down the Shame”: Portrayals of Men’s Depression

News articles play a role in reproducing or challenging stigma. Stigma, in turn, can be a barrier to men’s mental health help seeking. We used discursive analytic principles to analyze portrayals of men’s communication about depression in news articles over a 5-year period. We found that news articles depicted men who were open about depression as experiencing positive outcomes such as recovery. Such depictions might challenge stigma associated with talking about mental health concerns. However, some articles problematically positioned depressed men as individually responsible for defying stigma and achieving recovery. We suggest that portraying depression as something that impacts a plurality of men is one way that media messages might dispel stigma. We drew recommendations from the findings about the language that could be used by media, mental health campaigns, and health service providers to mitigate the impact of stigma on men’s mental health help seeking.

Improving exchange with consumers within mental health organizations: Recognizing mental ill health experience as a 'sneaky, special degree'

Stigmatizing views towards consumers may be held even by those working within mental health organizations. Contemporary mental health policies require organizations to work collaboratively with consumers in producing and delivering services. Using social exchange theory, which emphasises mutual exchange to maximise benefits in partnership, the current study explores the perspectives of those working within organizations that have some level of consumer leadership. Interviews were conducted with 14 participants from a range of mental health organizations. Data were transcribed, and analyzed using thematic analytic and discursive psychological techniques. Findings suggest stigma is still prevalent even in organizations that have consumers in leadership positions, and consumers are often perceived as less able to work in mental health organizations than non-consumers. Several discourses challenged such a view - showing how consumers bring value to mental health organizations through their expertise in the mental health system, and their ability to provide safety and support to other consumers. Through a social exchange theory lens, the authors call for organizations to challenge stigma and promote the value that consumers can bring to maximize mutual benefits.

Embedding a physical health nurse consultant within mental health services: Consumers' perspectives.

The life expectancy of people living with mental illness is significantly shorter than that of the rest of the population. Despite the profound impact of physical health issues on both quality of life and life expectancy, the perspectives of mental health consumers have yet to be thoroughly explored. Furthermore, research has focused far more on describing barriers than on identifying solutions. This paper reports on findings from a qualitative exploratory research study, with the aim to examine the potential role of a specialist nurse with advanced physical health-care skills. Focus groups were conducted with 31 consumers. Data were analysed thematically. The concept of a role like this was supported; however, participants stressed: (i) the importance of integration between health professionals and various components of the health-care system; and (ii) the need for culture change for nurses to work from a less medically-dominated approach. Previous research literature suggests that a nursing position dedicated to physical health care and coordination might produce positive outcomes for mental health consumers. The findings from the current research project emphasize the need for consumers to be identified as key stakeholders in a solution-focused approach to improved physical health care for mental health consumers.

“Males Don’t Wanna Bring Anything Up To Their Doctor”: Men’s Discourses of Depression

Men experiencing depression may present with externalizing behaviors including avoidance, getting angry, or finding distractions rather than seeking help. General practitioners report that depression is harder to diagnose in men than in women. Research has not typically focused on men’s accounts of depression; thus, the current study uses an exploratory design to better understand men’s subjectivities of depression. A thematic framework informed the analysis of interviews with 10 men who had experienced high levels of depressive symptoms at least once within the prior 5 years, with two overarching discourses of depression discussed. The first relates to links between depression and health, including comorbid illnesses. The second relates to social contexts in which depression is experienced. These findings extend upon previous research suggesting medical practitioners have difficulty with competing biomedical and social discourses of depression, highlighting the importance of continuing to improve understandings of men’s depression discourses.

What Physical Health Means to Me: Perspectives of People with Mental Illness

There are significant inequalities in physical health and life expectancy between people with and without a mental illness. Understanding perspectives of people with mental illness on personal meanings of physical health is essential to ensuring health services are aligned with consumer understandings, needs, and values. A qualitative exploratory study was undertaken involving focus groups with 31 consumers in The Australian Capital Territory, Australia. Participants were asked: “What does physical health mean to you?” Thematic analysis was applied to interview transcripts. Five themes are discussed, representing different emphases in the meaning of physical health: (1) physical and mental are interconnected, (2) absence of disease, (3) moving the body, (4) struggling for healthy diet, and (5) functioning and participation. Physical pain was a difficulty that arose across these themes. Mental health consumers see physical health as always connected with well-being. Nurses would benefit from been informed by consumer understandings of physical health. In addition, there should be more attention to quality of life measures of people with mental illness as these are more congruent with consumer perspectives on physical health than biomedical measures.

Sympathy, shame, and few solutions: News media portrayals of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders

OBJECTIVE there is a lack of public understanding about fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD), and many countries lack policies to deal with FASD concerns. Given the role of news media in disseminating a range of health information, the aim of the current study was to explore the media coverage on alcohol use during pregnancy and FASD, and to identify ways to improve associated health messages. DESIGN the current study uses a framing analysis of news media reports about FASD over a 1-year period. Framing analysis seeks to better understand how media messages serve to shape the thoughts, feelings, and decisions of readers. FINDINGS two frames dominated the media coverage of FASD: a frame of sympathy, and a frame of shame. Some news media encouraged feelings of sympathy for children with FASD, while others encouraged sympathy towards mothers of these children. At the same time, mothers were also portrayed as deserving of shame. KEY CONCLUSIONS the interrelated frames of sympathy and shame may confuse readers, as they inconsistently hold different parties responsible for the impact of FASD. Media portrayals that encourage women to refrain from alcohol consumption during pregnancy might be more useful than stigmatising and isolating those who do. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE practitioners should be aware that conflicting messages about alcohol consumption during pregnancy might lead to shame and confusion, and should encourage openness with mothers to challenge stigma. Guidelines for media reporting should discourage stigmatising frames, and media articles should also consider the role that government, non-government organisations, and the alcohol industry could play for improving FASD shame.

“Why am I like this?” Consumers discuss their causal beliefs and stigma

ABSTRACT The stigma associated with mental illness has several negative consequences for consumers (e.g., discrimination in employment and accommodation, reduced help-seeking, increased social isolation) and impacts their quality of life. Consumers’ beliefs around the causes of mental illness are thought to influence stigma and self-stigma. This study aims to investigate the types of causal beliefs consumers endorse about their own mental illness, mental illness in general, and consumers’ beliefs about causes endorsed by the public. Moreover, this study explores the impact that these beliefs have on factors that influence stigma and self-stigma. A thematic framework guided the analysis of semi-structured interviews with 23 consumers who self-identified as having mental illness. Consumers endorsed multiple causes simultaneously and causes differed between their own mental illness, thinking about mental illness in general, and the causal beliefs perceived to be held by the public. The majority of consumers thought that mental illness in general was caused by a combination of biogenetic, psychological, and environmental factors. Consumers endorsed fewer causal beliefs when considering their own mental illness, with all consumers stating that environmental factors contributed to their illness. Consumers thought that the public had a narrower range of causal beliefs and tended to think the public believed personal weakness/choice caused mental illness. Findings extend previous research and show that consumers’ causal beliefs may have an impact on several factors (e.g., control and management of illness, self-blame, feelings of responsibility, perceptions towards self) which are thought to influence treatment, recovery, and stigma.

Social and material aspects of life and their impact on the physical health of people diagnosed with mental illness

People diagnosed with mental illness have shorter lives and poorer physical health, compared to the general population. These health inequities are usually viewed at an individual and clinical level, yet there is little research on the views of mental health consumers on clinical factors in broader contexts.