Improving Software Flexibility for Business Process Changes

In times of continuous change, companies need to adjust their business processes to gain sustainable competitive advantage. Resulting changes in the company’s IT currently require the involvement of developers from departments that are mostly not aligned with the business. These changes often result in high transaction and labor costs. The article presents a platform-based method to adjust business processes with the aim of increasing both efficiency and flexibility compared to current approaches. The core of our work is an evaluation against traditional component-based software development using a sound simulation model. Three real-world scenarios of business process change show that – despite a slight increase in transaction costs – our suggested method decreases labor costs while increasing operational flexibility.     

Military conquest and sovereign debt: Chile,Peru and the London bond market, 1876–1890

As a result of the War of the Pacific (1879–1883), Chile conquered Peruvian and Bolivian territories rich in nitrates and guano. We conduct econometric tests for structural breaks in the time series of the government bonds for Chile and Peru between 1876 and 1890 in order to examine the effects of the changes in resource endowments on the investors’ perceptions of the risk premia of Chilean and Peruvian securities. Our results reveal that investors were extremely pessimistic about the prospects of Chilean, and especially Peruvian debt prior to the war. Early Chilean victories that anticipated the transfer of the richly endowed provinces to Chile caused significant increases in the price of Chilean securities. But such was the low regard with which investors viewed the Peruvian government that the fall of Lima caused an increase in the price of Peruvian bonds on the hope that Chile would assume some of the responsibility for them. Endowments, reputations, and the countries’ financial conditions figure prominently as the driving forces behind the investors’ behavior.     

Networks in Socially Embedded Local Food Supply: The Case of Retailer Co-operatives

This paper investigates network development in food retailing, in order to evaluate the role of retailer consumer co-operatives. Opportunity is seen to lie in niche (for example, local) markets and a social/ethical orientation. The method is single case and exploratory. Investigation shows that a co-operative can survive and add value as an alternative organizational form, when genuine social responsibility is experienced by a network consisting of the co-operative, its members, customers, suppliers and the community as a whole.     

The Impact of Pharmacy-Specific Any-Willing-Provider Legislation on Prescription Drug Expenditures

Many states have implemented some form of Any-Willing-Provider (AWP) legislation, which requires a managed care organization (MCO) to accept any provider, who agrees to the managed care organization’s reimbursement rates, terms, and conditions, into its network. AWP laws may result in larger networks, more patient choice, and greater competition among providers. Opponents cite AWP legislation as prohibiting managed care organizations from selective contracting and obtaining discounts by offering providers a larger volume of patients. Such legislation is therefore argued to prevent MCOs from effectively reducing health care costs. A small literature exists on the effect of these laws on hospital expenditures, physician expenditures, and total health care expenditures. Most studies, however, fail to recognize that the vast majority of the existing laws target pharmacies exclusively, as opposed to more comprehensive laws that also apply to physicians and hospitals. If AWP legislation prevents cost reduction available through selective contracting, then states with such legislation may incur higher health care expenditures. I find that pharmacy-specific AWP legislation is associated with increased pharmaceutical expenditures. This result is robust to several alternative specifications.     

Match Point Management — Gleichzeitig Kosten- und Marktperformance verbessern

Der Matchpoint entscheidet über Sieg oder Niederlage. Match Point Management zeigt, wie man Krisen meistert, indem man gleichzeitig Gewinn und Kosten verbessert — ohne in die Falle eines zyklischen Auf und Ab zu tappen.     

The Interaction of Learning Styles and Teaching Methodologies in Accounting Ethical Instruction

Ethical instruction is critical for trainee accountants. Various teaching methods, both active and passive, are normally utilised when teaching accounting ethics. However, students’ learning styles are rarely assessed. This study evaluates the learning styles of accounting students and assesses the interaction of teaching methods and learning styles in an ethics instruction environment. The ethical attitudes and preferred learning styles of a cohort (137) of final year accounting students were evaluated pre-instruction. They were then subject to three different teaching methods while studying ethics during an auditing course. When ethical attitudes and preferred learning styles were re-assessed post-instruction, the teaching methods were found to have influenced active learners more than passive ones. Furthermore, when learning styles matched teaching methods used, usefulness was assessed as high but when learning styles and teaching methods differed, usefulness deteriorated significantly. Students displayed a preference for passive learning styles, despite being so advanced in their education. The implications are that instructors should consider learning styles before deciding on appropriate teaching methods, in accounting ethics environments.