1998),"Customer-service provider relationships: an empirical test of a model of service quality, satisfaction and relationship-oriented outcomes"If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation.

Subjective judgements by planners and managers are a major component in the process of strategic planning. If such judgements are faulty, efforts at better strategic plans are likely to be misdirected. This paper discusses those biases which appear common to both managers and planners when they make judgements about risk. Implications of biased judgement are discussed in a planning context. Although we still do not know the best ways to elicit judgements, the paper concludes with a discussion of subjective sensitivity analysis which appears to offer some hope.

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Peripheral artery disease (PAD) stems from atherosclerosis of lower extremity arteries with resultant arterial narrowing or occlusion. The most severe form of PAD is termed chronic limb-threatening ischemia and carries a significant risk of limb loss and cardiovascular mortality. Diabetes mellitus is known to increase the incidence of PAD, accelerate disease progression, and increase disease severity. Patients with concomitant diabetes mellitus and PAD are at high risk for major complications, such as amputation. Despite a decrease in the overall number of amputations performed annually in the United States, amputation rates among those with both diabetes mellitus and PAD have remained stable or even increased in high-risk subgroups. Within this cohort, there is significant regional, racial/ethnic, and socioeconomic variation in amputation risk. Specifically, residents of rural areas, Afro-American and Native American patients, and those of low socioeconomic status carry the highest risk of amputation. The burden of amputation is severe, with 5-year mortality rates exceeding those of many malignancies. Furthermore, caring for patients with PAD and diabetes mellitus imposes a significant cost to the healthcare system—estimated to range from $84 billion to $380 billion annually. Efforts to improve the quality of care for those with PAD and diabetes mellitus must focus on the subgroups at high risk for amputation and the disparities they face in the receipt of both preventive and interventional cardiovascular care. Better understanding of these social, economic, and structural barriers will prove to be crucial for cardiovascular physicians striving to better care for patients facing this challenging combination of chronic diseases.

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Previous research and reviews on comparative advertising report mixed results. The authors report the results from a meta-analysis that examines the efficacy of comparative advertising. The analysis shows that comparative ads are more effective than noncomparative ads in generating attention, message and brand awareness, levels of message processing, favorable sponsored brand attitudes, and increased purchase intentions and purchase behaviors. However, comparative ads evoke lower source believability and a less favorable attitude toward the ad. Additional analyses of moderator variables find that market position (sponsor, comparison, and relative), enhanced credibility, message content, and type of dependent measure (relative versus nonrelative) affect some of the relationships between advertising format and cognition, brand attitudes, and purchase intentions. New brands comparing themselves to established brands appear to benefit most from comparative advertising.

The authors develop a 31-item instrument (ECOSCALE) for the assessment of environmental responsibility. Discussion of the conceptualization and operational functions used in constructing and refining the multiple-item scale to measure the construct environmental responsibility are described. Also presented is evidence that the scale has been validated through assessment of content validity, predictive validity, and construct validity. A final description of the theoretical uses of such a scale is provided. 0 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 596 STONE ET AL. ECOSCALE 597