Purchaser Provider Relationships and Innovation: A Case Study of GP Purchasing in Glasgow

NHS reforms have been the subject of much debate in recent years. Evidence from the purchaser provider arrangements is fragmented and limited in its conclusions. This paper presents research focusing on the relationship which has developed, demonstrating how GP fundholders and NHS Trusts have been engaged in mutual education, partnerships, purchasing, and designing services. It identifies considerable scope for innovation and learning at the interface between primary and secondary care and concludes that policy developments need to recognize and build on the achievements which have been made during recent years so as to optimize future collaborative potential.     

GP PRACTICE BUDGETS: AN EVALUATION OF THE FINANCIAL RISKS AND REWARDS

This paper considers the progress to date of those GP practices which have decided to become fundholding practices. We note that already, within the first year of operation, both GP fundholders and District Health Authorities have developed a number of budget ploys. As part of our work we report on the findings of a pilot survey of GP budget holders in the Kent Family Health Service. We conclude that if budget holding becomes the normal pattern of general practice, there will need to be a considerable development of the financial skills and managerial capabilities of the practices and it may be time for the new GP practice manager to come of age.     

厂商银业务货物质押监管的综合性分析

中小企业由于缺少必要的土地、房产做抵押,融资难一直以来都是制约其发展的瓶颈。厂商银业务货物质押监管是银行与物流服务提供商合作开展的一项新的物流服务,此业务的产生恰恰顺应了这一需要,不仅有效地解决了中小企业融资难的问题,同时满足了物流服务提供商的经营需求,并拓展了银行的业务范围,实现了需融资的中小企业、物流服务提供商和银行的"三赢"。     

第三方后勤在中国(上)

<正> 第三方后勤(The Third-party Logistics),又名契约后勤(Contract Logistics)或外包后勤(Outsourcing Logistics)。所谓“第三方”,是相对于“卖”与“买”,也就是产品的制造商和客户这两方而言的。顾名思义,第三方后勤是独立于买卖双方之外,但为其交易的完成提供后勤服务的。但这还远远不够,否则读者就会问:铁道部也成了第三方后勤啦?严格地说,第三方后勤是综合的后勤服务供应商(Integrated Logistics Service Provider),不仅能为企业提供多种方式的     

Strategic sourcing: from periphery to the core

As globalization changes the basis of competition, sourcing is moving from the periphery of corporate functions to the core. Always important in terms of costs, sourcing is becoming a strategic opportunity. But few companies are ready for this shift. Outsourcing has grown so sophisticated that even critical functions like engineering, R&D, manufacturing, and marketing can-and often should-be moved outside. And that, in turn, is changing the way companies think about their organizations, their value chains, and their competitive positions. Already, a handful of vanguard companies are transforming what used to be purely internal corporate functions into entirely new industries. Companies like UPS, Solectron, and Hewitt have created new business models by concentrating scale and skill within a single function. As these and other function-based companies grow, so does the potential value of outsourcing to all companies. Migrating from a vertically integrated company to a specialized provider of a single function is not a winning strategy for everyone. But all companies need to rigorously reassess each of their functions as possible outsourcing candidates. Presented in this article is a simple three-step process to identify which functions your company needs to own and protect, which can be best performed by what kinds of partners, and which could be turned into new business opportunities. The result of such an analysis will be a comprehensive capabilities-sourcing strategy. As a detailed examination of 7-Eleven's experience shows, the success of the strategy often hinges on the creativity with which partnerships are organized and managed. But only by first taking a broad, strategic view of capabilities sourcing can your company gain the greatest benefit from all of its sourcing choices.     

Customers’ ways of making sense of a financial service relationship through intersubjective mirroring of others

The importance of relationships between buyer and sellers in marketing research is well established. This study contributes to relationship marketing (RM) research as it examines the microfoundations of financial service buyer and seller relationships. The study uses intersubjective theory and a qualitative method with the purpose of conceptualising the qualitatively different ways customers experience face-to-face interactions with a service provider. An empirical study is conducted to determine, based on the customer's own words, what is experienced in the interaction between the customer and the provider. Findings from the empirical material show that not all personal interactions between customers and a service provider, in this case a bank, can be labelled as relationships. Instead, what customers do perceive as a relationship is an encounter where the interaction entails symmetry in the way the customer and the provider mirror each other. When customers receive a treatment in opposition to an expectation of intersubjectivity, they will not refer to the situation as a relationship and, subsequently, according to the underlying assumptions of RM, do not willingly engage in further business with the provider.     

Trust in UK financial services: A longitudinal analysis

The role and importance of trust for the development and maintenance of relationships in the financial services sector cannot be disputed. In a business to consumer context, this article presents a model for measuring trust for financial services organisations and positions trustworthiness as its key antecedent. The work also presents five important determinants of trustworthiness and ultimately trust. Our work is based on 5 years’ data before and during the ‘credit crunch’, and across the seven main types of product provider in the United Kingdom. The findings show that the overall trust rating for financial services has remained remarkably stable throughout the period of the study. The research also reveals that trust ratings are highest in relation to consumers who are older and that consumers are typically more trusting of brokers than any other type of product provider.     

Managing health and welfare plans instead of letting them manage you

The explosive growth and change in the health care provider industry is presenting a considerable challenge to employers that manage these benefits for their employees. Corporate mergers, supportive federal and state legislation expanding benefit availability and access to new consumer markets are a few of the forces changing the shape of the industry. Furthermore, participants are more knowledgeable about their benefit plans and are more vocal about their needs. The authors discuss these challenges and possible solutions for the employer that is attempting to determine how plan delivery and management needs can be served in a way that supports business environment and strategy.     

GP algorithm versus hybrid and mixed neural networks

In the current paper, we present an integrated genetic programming (GP) environment called java GP modelling. The java GP modelling environment is an implementation of the steady-state GP algorithm. This algorithm evolves tree-based structures that represent models of inputs and outputs. The motivation of this paper is to compare the GP algorithm with neural network (NN) architectures when applied to the task of forecasting and trading the ASE 20 Greek Index (using autoregressive terms as inputs). This is done by benchmarking the forecasting performance of the GP algorithm and six different autoregressive moving average model (ARMA) NN combination designs representing a Hybrid, Mixed Higher Order Neural Network (HONN), a Hybrid, Mixed Recurrent Neural Network (RNN), a Hybrid, Mixed classic Multilayer Perceptron with some traditional techniques, either statistical such as a an ARMA or technical such as a moving average convergence/divergence model, and a naïve trading strategy. More specifically, the trading performance of all models is investigated in a forecast and trading simulation on ASE 20 time-series closing prices over the period 2001–2008, using the last one and a half years for out-of-sample testing. We use the ASE 20 daily series as many financial institutions are ready to trade at this level, and it is therefore possible to leave orders with a bank for business to be transacted on that basis. As it turns out, the GP model does remarkably well and outperforms all other models in a simple trading simulation exercise. This is also the case when more sophisticated trading strategies using confirmation filters and leverage are applied, as the GP model still produces better results and outperforms all other NN and traditional statistical models in terms of annualized return.     

Promise-based management: the essence of execution

Critical initiatives stall for a variety of reasons--employee disengagement, a lack of coordination between functions, complex organizational structures that obscure accountability, and so on. To overcome such obstacles, managers must fundamentally rethink how work gets done. Most of the challenges stem from broken or poorly crafted commitments. That's because every company is, at its heart, a dynamic network of promises made between employees and colleagues, customers, outsourcing partners, or other stakeholders. Executives can overcome many problems in the short-term and foster productive, reliable workforces for the long-term by practicing what the authors call "promise-based management," which involves cultivating and coordinating commitments in a systematic way. Good promises share five qualities: They are public, active, voluntary, explicit, and mission based. To develop and execute an effective promise, the "provider" and the "customer" in the deal should go through three phases of conversation. The first, achieving a meeting of minds, entails exploring the fundamental questions of coordinated effort: What do you mean? Do you understand what I mean? What should I do? What will you do? Who else should we talk to? In the next phase, making it happen, the provider executes on the promise. In the final phase, closing the loop, the customer publicly declares that the provider has either delivered the goods or failed to do so. Leaders must weave and manage their webs of promises with great care-encouraging iterative conversation and making sure commitments are fulfilled reliably. If they do, they can enhance coordination and cooperation among colleagues, build the organizational agility required to seize new business opportunities, and tap employees' entrepreneurial energies.     

The coming wave of small business succession and the role of stakeholder synergy theory

Retiring business owners are expected to sell or bequeath $10T worth of assets over the next twenty years. Small businesses will drive this coming wave of succession. While stakeholder theory has generally been rejected in finance because it creates a lack of accountability for managers, it may be that entrepreneurs derive utility from positive outcomes for other stakeholders. We extend stakeholder synergy theory to the case of business succession and generate recommendations for selling business owners based on what they value. Our theoretical extension has implications for owners selling a business, their communities and employees, and private equity firms. We provide a case study to exemplify the issues faced by exiting business owners selling to nonfamily.     

Service transition strategies in service-dominant settings: Towards all finance solutions in SME markets

Intense competition and extensive customer needs are motivating companies to develop so-called ‘solution’ offerings in service industries. Building on service transition strategy literature, this article outlines the practical activities that broad-based financial service providers take in transitioning towards ‘all finance’ solutions and accentuates the inhibitors that their business customers perceive in this process. The empirical data consists of 40 semi-structured interviews among two service providers and 17 of their small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) customers. The results show that the service transition strategies of service extension and relationship focus are increasingly utilized in the financial industry. However, the integration of various components within a comprehensive bank and insurance offering is still in its early stages, suggesting providers rely mainly on a pure component strategy. SME customers, who seem to have taken the role of independent value creators, fail to perceive the benefits of purchasing comprehensive offerings from a single provider. Thereby, they tend to follow price-based purchase behaviour and negotiate their service offering with many different providers.     

THE IMPACT OF FUNDHOLDING ON PRIMARY HEALTH CARE: ACCOUNTS FROM SCOTTISH GPS

At the inception of the internal market in health care GP fundholding was seen rather as a 'sidesho' to the main reforms. But as the reforms have worked through, GP fundholding has emerged as pivotal to the purchaserlprovider agenda and the changes now associated with GP fundholding will be major issues in directing future health care policy initiatives. Drawing on empirical data from three Scottish regions, this paper argues that fundholding is now significant because GPs perceive benefits for primary health care. The paper uses the data collected from the case studies in the regions to assess these gains on two levels: the 'micro' impact of fundholding on primary health care processes and the 'macro' issues raised for health care policy by involving GPs more closely in resource management. Some GPs wish to use resource management as a vehicle for enhancing equity within the NHS, others are more concerned to manage resources so as to expand their practices into sites which combine primary, secondary and community health care, still others envisage developing the market to include monetary rewards for 'efficient' practices.     

Winning the worksite customer

As the UK financial services industry advances channel strategies in response to developments in regulation, technology and government policy, a number of systems are evolving. One such system is worksite distribution. The environment is set to facilitate the development of this channel and a good deal of activity is under way. Key environmental drivers include the legal obligation on UK employers regarding stakeholder pensions provision; the continuing erosion in state benefits and the recognition that individuals will almost certainly have to provide for themselves in retirement; and the culmination of IT infrastructure development. Along with a tight labour market and reduced access to financial advice for the ‘mass market’ as advisers turn their focus to high-net-worth individuals, the role of the employer and the workplace as a source of information and purchase power begins to make sense — in essence, the role of a ‘portal’. This paper takes a close look at the customer potential of worksite marketing — both employers and employees — and the technology challenge faced by providers in winning their business.Worksite distribution (also known as worksite marketing) is the latest distribution channel emerging in UK financial services. There has been much discussion over the last two years on the viability of this channel in the UK. These discussions initially focused on comparing the drivers in the UK to the different drivers behind the development of the channel in the USA. More recently, discussions have focused on UK activity and the scramble to secure (pre-register) stakeholder pension (SHP) clients. This flourish of provider activity may well account for the channel becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy, with many employers already being presented with a SHP or worksite proposition. ‘Best practice’ in this channel will be dependent on providing the best process for target customers — some lessons are learned from experience in other established markets and, importantly, from realising the inherent differences between the UK and these markets. This paper takes a deeper look at the subject and explores the worksite customer — who they are, how to win their business, and the enabling technology that will determine the outcome for financial service providers embarking on this channel.     

Internal audit outsourcing in Australia

The present study investigates the determinants of internal audit outsourcing using survey data on 99 companies listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, where 54.5 per cent fully rely on in‐house facilities and 45.5 per cent outsource some or all of their internal audit function. Results from logistic regression analyses suggest that internal audit outsourcing is associated with perceived cost savings and the technical competence of the external provider. For a subsample of firms that have previously undertaken internal audit activities before outsourcing, contrary to expectations, the larger the organization the greater the propensity to outsource. In addition, smaller firms are found to be adopting internal audit for the first time, through outsourcing. These results suggest that internal audit outsourcing is an expanding business opportunity for professional accountants; but with 75 per cent of firms outsourcing to their external auditor, there are implications for external auditor independence.     

BSC与EVA相结合的企业绩效评价研究——基于GP企业集团的案例分析

随着我国市场经济体制的完善和国有企业改革的推进,我国国有企业所面临的内外部环境发生了巨大变化,企业绩效管理模式也在改变。GP企业集团是一个有50多年历史的国有施工企业,在一定程度上体现了我国国有企业的绩效管理现状,本文通过对该企业集团的绩效考核现状进行分析,归纳了GP企业集团现行绩效管理体系存在的问题,并针对其不足,重新构建了基于BSC与EVA相结合的绩效评价指标体系,并对新旧指标体系的考核结果进行了对比分析,为我国类似国有企业集团提供绩效评价改进的新思路。     

"Any Willing Provider" laws not preempted by Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). Kentucky Association of Health Plans, Inc. et. al. v. Miller, Commissioner, Kentucky Department of Insurance

"Any Willing Provider" laws are not preempted by ERISA because they are state laws regulating insurance if they are (1) specifically directed toward entities engaged in insurance and (2) substantially affect the risk-pooling arrangement between the insurer and the insured. Thus, a state may prohibit health maintenance organizations (HMOs) from creating exclusive "provider networks" of doctors, hospitals and other health care providers by excluding other providers who are "willing and able" to comply with all the HMO's contractual terms if the law meets the new two-prong test established by the Supreme Court in this case. The Court made a "clean break" from using the McCarran-Ferguson Act factors for determining whether certain practices constitute "the business of insurance," when deciding when they regulate insurance for purposes of ERISA preemption.     

The Modigliani and Miller Propositions: The History of a Failed Foundation for Corporate Finance?

The Modigliani and Miller (MM) propositions provide a foundation for corporate finance theory. Nevertheless, this paper argues that their adoption has led to a disengagement of such theory from the humanity of business, as well as, more broadly, from concepts of corporate strategic management. As a result, the context within which textbooks allow corporate investment and financial decisions to take place is severely distorted from reality. The paper argues that we require the context of behavioural and strategic corporate management if we are to accommodate the reality of business, the behaviour of formalised groups, and an ethical dimension to business.     

Hedging derivative securities with genetic programming

One of the most recent applications of GP to finance is to use genetic programming to derive option pricing formulas. Earlier studies take the Black–Scholes model as the true model and use the artificial data generated by it to train and to test GP. The aim of this paper is to provide some initial evidence of the empirical relevance of GP to option pricing. By using the real data from S&P 500 index options, we train and test our GP by distinguishing the case in-the-money from the case out-of-the-money. Unlike most empirical studies, we do not evaluate the performance of GP in terms of its pricing accuracy. Instead, the derived GP tree is compared with the Black–Scholes model in its capability to hedge. To do so, a notion of tracking error is taken as the performance measure. Based on the post-sample performance, it is found that in approximately 20% of the 97 test paths GP has a lower tracking error than the Black–Scholes formula. We further compare our result with the ones obtained by radial basis functions and multilayer perceptrons and one-stage GP. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

对我国商业银行视角下中间业务收费现状的思考

商业银行中间业务是指银行利用自身的优势条件,不动用其资金,以中间人的身份替客户办理委托事项,提供各类金融服务而收取服务费用的业务。我国商业银行自引入中间业务以来,中间业务的收费问题屡次进入人们视野,收费市场混乱可见一斑。转入2014年,面对国家进一步放开存贷款利率限制以及网络金融的异军突起,商业银行由依靠传统业务向中间业务的转型迫在眉睫。然而,一直以来,商业银行对中间业务的忽视造成其发展过程中积弊重重,其中的收费问题又是各种问题集中展示的＂交通灯＂。本文试图在商业银行的立场下对当今中间业务收费现状进行思考,以期对商业银行进一步规范收费提出合理的建议。