The Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) project was initiated by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in early 2009 as the implementation of Goal 1.4 of its just-issued strategic plan. In keeping with the NIMH mission, to "transform the understanding and treatment of mental illnesses through basic and clinical research," RDoC was explicitly conceived as a research-related initiative. The ...

Current business conditions mandate greater competitive advantage from HR agendas and processes. To add greater competitive advantage, HR must contribute strategic value against criteria from customer and capital markets. HR can add strategic value either reactively or proactively. In its strategically reactive mode, HR assumes the existence of a business strategy and adds value by linking HR p...

In this paper, we discuss and debunk the four most common critiques of the rational choice research program (which we prefer to call Positive Political Theory) by explaining and advocating its foundations: the rationality assumption, component analysis (abstraction), strategic behavior, and theory building, in turn. We argue that the rationality assumption and component analysis, properly under...

Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) is well-equipped to deal with conflicting objectives when evaluating strategic options. Scenario Planning provides a framework for confronting uncertainty which MCDA lacks. Integration of these methods offers various advantages, yet its effective application in evaluating strategic options would benefit from scenarios that reflect a larger number of wide-...

A case study on the suitability of an existing system configuration and control policy to the manufacturing strategic objectives has been conducted in a discrete part factory that belongs to a large Swedish manufacturing company. There are two market segments for the products identified as Segment A and Segment B with different priority of competitive factors. A newly formulated manufacturing s...

Recent interest in evidence-based design (EBD) by the U.S. healthcare industry has led to new questions about how to best use this knowledge to improve the efficiency, safety, quality, and sustainability of new or existing facilities. Proponents of EBD claim that it enhances healthcare outcomes by utilizing empirical research to drive decision-making during all phases of healthcare facility pla...

Strategic management has been popularized since the 1960s as a useful tool in search for success factors organizations’ internal and external environments. researchers have observed created strategies now considered to be essential pillars of contemporary operations. This approach relies on managers’ ability understand evaluate contextual trends, but variety questions left unanswered, especiall...

Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis is a popular tool which examines strengths and weaknesses (internal factors) of an organization or industry together with opportunities and threats (external factors) of the marketplace environment. SWOT analysis is the best method to provide the basic outline to take strategic decisions. In this study, we have integrated SWOT ana...

OBJECTIVES To review the criteria and 'other' considerations used internationally for prioritizing new health technologies, and to demonstrate a conjoint-analysis methodology (also known as discrete choice experiments) for deriving relative weights for the criteria. METHODS We searched the literature for criteria and other considerations for prioritizing new technologies. A convenience sample...

alborz province with an area of about 5121.7 km2 has about 0.31% of the total area of the country. the total arable area of the province is about 48954 hectares. water, land and capital are the most important factors for agricultural production. by understanding the subjective beliefs, decision-making criteria and economic incentives of local farmers, the priority of crops can be achieved with ...