Evaluation of new first response initiatives in emergency services

By training and equipping human resources from other public service sectors than emergency response, to act as first responders, it is possible to reduce the first response times at a low cost. Before launching such an initiative, it is however important to evaluate the potential benefits. In this work, a method for doing this kind of evaluation is developed and applied to a potential initiative, utilizing fire service day personnel as new first responders. By developing a smartphone application and performing an experiment, sending alerts to potential first responders, and combining this with expert reviews of the possible value of their contribution, it is possible to estimate the response time reductions, as well as the monetary benefits of the initiative. The results show that there is a monetary benefit, even with a low number of new first responders, but that it is highly dependent on how quickly they can start travelling towards the emergency site.     

Government and social trust vs. hotel response efficacy: A protection motivation perspective on hotel stay intention during the COVID-19 pandemic

Based on protection motivation theory (PMT), this study conceptualizes a research framework to explain and examine customer intentions regarding hotel stays during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected from 700 U.S. consumers via a crowdsourcing website in July 2020. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the collected data for testing proposed hypotheses. The analytical results showed that the level of threat perceived by customers significantly reduced their intention to stay at a hotel. On the contrary, individual customer response efficacy significantly enhanced their intention to stay at a hotel. Additionally, both government and social trust, as well as hotel response efficacy, were found to significantly increase hotel stay intention by mediating the effects of threat perception and individual response efficacy. To the best of our knowledge, this study is one of the first attempts to apply PMT to explain customer hotel stay intentions during the COVID-19 pandemic.     

Relative-to-rival corporate philanthropy,product market competitiveness,and stakeholders

Unlike most of the literature that examines the relationship between corporate philanthropy and financial performance, this study investigates the mechanisms through which corporate socially responsible behaviors produce financial outcomes. We propose that corporate philanthropy improves corporate competitiveness by eliciting positive responses from stakeholders, who assess a firm’s philanthropic contribution in relation to its rivals to determine what level of support they wish to provide to the firm. We predict that a firm’s philanthropy relative to its rivals has a positive effect on its product market competitiveness, and that this positive effect is moderated by three conditions that influence stakeholder response: stakeholder attention to philanthropy, its perceived legitimacy, and expectations of corporate giving. Our predictions are generally supported by our analyses. Overall, this paper shows that strategic philanthropy has a quantitative dimension, and firms obtain the market competitiveness associated with corporate philanthropy by integrating their rivals’ positions into their decision making.     

Minimising emergency response time of ambulances through pre-positioning in Dhaka city,Bangladesh

This study conducted a large-scale survey in Dhaka, Bangladesh; the survey involved 95 major hospitals, more than 3000 emergency room patients, and 2 of the largest ambulance operators. Currently, most ambulances are parked within the vicinity of hospitals and are either dispatched or fetched by the acquaintances of the patient on demand, resulting in lengthy round trips. Reducing the response time of ambulances would certainly improve the emergency service, and pre-positioning of the ambulances could be a solution to reducing the response time. This study used two approaches to address the problem. First, the location-allocation problem was solved to find the optimal number of ambulance locations by maximising the demand coverage. Second, separate location-allocation for the peak and off-peaks, using K-means clustering, was applied to systematically optimise the ambulance positioning in small clusters near demand points. These approaches could substantially improve the existing emergency response time. Distributing ambulances near demand points yielded greater improvements in response time than when the ambulances are stationed near hospitals.     

Productivity impact of drought tolerant maize varieties under rainfall stress in Malawi: A continuous treatment approach

Drought tolerant (DT) maize varieties have received massive support in sub‐Saharan Africa because of their potential to protect smallholder farmers against drought‐related maize yield losses. Using four waves of household farm panel data from six districts in Malawi, we examine the impact heterogeneity of this technology on maize productivity using a continuous treatment approach. We find strong evidence of positive correlation between maize yield and adoption of DT maize varieties. On average, an increase by one hectare in the area allocated to DT varieties increases maize yield by 547 Kg/ha representing a 44% increase from the average maize yield of 1,254 Kg/ha for our sample. Our findings give evidence that DT maize technology has potential to protect smallholder farmers against drought‐related production losses. Policies that promote increased allocation of maize area to DT maize hold potential to enhance food security. Smallholder farmers especially in drought‐prone areas should be encouraged to allocate at least one‐third of the maize plot to DT varieties while breeders continue with the efforts of breeding a DT variety that is not only drought tolerant but also adapted to all weather conditions. More importantly, the government should ensure provision of timely ex ante weather information to guide farmers on decision‐making with respect to maize varietal choices.     

Imperfect Accounting and Reporting Bias

Errors and bias are both inherent features of accounting. In theory, while errors discourage bias by lowering the value relevance of accounting, they can also facilitate bias by providing camouflage. Consistent with theory, we find a hump‐shaped relation between a firm's propensity to engage in intentional misstatement and the prevalence of unintentional misstatements in the firm's industry for the whole economy and a majority of the industries. The result is robust to using firms’ number of items in financial statements and exposure to complex accounting rules as alternative proxies for errors and to using the restatement amount in net income to quantify the magnitude of bias and errors. To directly test for the two effects of errors, we show that when errors are more prevalent, the market reacts less to firms’ earnings surprises and bias is more difficult to detect. Our results highlight the imperfectness of accounting, advance understanding of firms’ reporting incentives, and shed light on accounting standard setting.     

Using skin conductance and facial electromyography to measure emotional responses to tourism advertising

Although an objective and increasingly common technique in marketing, media and psychology, psychophysiological measures are rarely used in tourism research to detect tourism consumers’ spontaneous emotional responses. This study examines the use of psychophysiological measures in tourism and in particular explores the usefulness of skin conductance (SC) and facial electromyography (EMG) methods in tracking emotional responses to destination advertisements. Thirty-three participants were exposed to three destination advertisements while their self-report ratings, real-time SC and facial EMG data as well as post hoc interview data were obtained. The results demonstrate that, compared with self-report measures, psychophysiological measures are able to better distinguish between different destination advertisements, and between different dimensions of emotion. Participants’ affective experience reported in post hoc interviews was found to be consistent with emotional peaks identified from continuous facial EMG and SC monitoring. These results validate the ability of psychophysiological techniques to capture moment-to-moment emotional responses and it is concluded that psychophysiological methods are useful in measuring emotional responses to tourism advertising. Methodological insights regarding the constraints associated with the use and application of psychophysiological methods are discussed.     

Online consumer behaviour and its relationship to website atmospheric induced flow: Insights into online travel agencies in China

Although the study of flow has recently received a lot attention, little is published about what factors controllable by firms influence its formation. Furthermore, there is a lack of knowledge between the relationship of website atmospheric cues and flow experience. Using a stimulus–organism–response framework (S–O–R framework) as the theoretical basis, this study examines the impact of consumer perceptions of website atmospheric cues (informativeness, effectiveness and entertainment) on the development of flow and its subsequent impact on purchase intention and satisfaction. A self-administered online survey was used for data collection through an internet market research firm which randomly selected individuals from its online panel. Our results support the validity of the S–O–R framework in the context of online tourism and indicate that flow fully mediates the three site atmospheric cues with regards to purchase intention and satisfaction with the travel website. This study enhances our understanding on the determinants of online purchase intention and satisfaction as well as on how a proper web atmospheric design alters consumer shopping experience which entices favourable purchase intention and generates satisfaction.     

Consumer response to food labels in an emerging market: the case of Romania

This study investigates consumer response to food labels in an emerging market. More specifically, it measures the levels of awareness, objective and perceived understanding, perceived usefulness and perceived trustworthiness of the most prominent food labels found in the Romanian market. An online survey was conducted with a convenience sample of 428 respondents (45.6% males of an average age of 30.6 years). Results revealed that for most respondents, awareness levels towards food labels are generally low, except for the Guideline Daily Amount (GDA) and the organic food labels. Objective understanding towards food labels was relatively high, especially towards those food labels that included a clear text element. Perceived understanding, perceived usefulness and perceived trustworthiness were found to be consistently high with regard to the GDA and the national organic food labels, while the European organic label scored lower. Finally, response to food labels was found to differ between aware and unaware respondents.