Understanding hospital quality: the case of cumulative and balanced quality

A more precise way to conceptualize and operationalize hospital quality is needed to increase hospitals’ productivity. This paper investigates how hospitals’ conformance quality (CQ) and experiential quality (EQ), in terms of their combined magnitude (i.e. their interaction) and relative balance (i.e. the absolute difference between them) impact hospital productivity. First, we explore the impact of both the ‘combined dimension of quality’ and ‘balance dimension of quality’ on hospital productivity. Second, we investigate quality dominance to analyze its impact on productivity when CQ is greater than EQ, and vice versa. Secondary data (January 2015 to December 2015) were collected from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and American Hospital Directory (AHD) for US acute care hospitals. The results provide strong empirical support for the benefit of minimizing the gap between the two types of quality. In addition, the results suggest that considering quality dominance (experiential vs. conformance) might be useful in shedding light on the inherent tension that exists when firms are forced to allocate resources to provide different types of quality simultaneously.     

The impact on stock prices of deferral and elimination of internal control audit requirement for small firms

This paper examines the cumulative market reaction to the events related to deferral of internal control audit requirement under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and its elimination under the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 for nonaccelerated filers (small firms). We document that small firms experienced negative cumulative abnormal returns around these events; and the differences between the cumulative abnormal returns for small firms and the two control groups (accelerated and large accelerated filers) were negative and significant at the 1% level. These results support the notion that market participants value the reliability of financial information irrespective of the firm size. Within the small firms, we find no firm characteristic significantly explains the market reaction to the events considered. That is, all small firms lost market value in reaction to the events that delayed and eliminated their internal control audit requirement.     

Mobile Commerce Website Success: Antecedents of Consumer Satisfaction and Purchase Intention

With the rapid development of apparel mobile commerce in the United States, more companies view mobile commerce as a new source of competitive advantage. Despite the importance of apparel mobile website quality and its effect on consumer satisfaction and future purchase stimulus, extant research has paid little attention to these topics. This study proposes a website quality–consumer satisfaction–purchase intention research model based on the self-regulatory process theory. Six dimensions of apparel mobile website quality—website visual appeal, apparel visual appeal, brand trust, website information quality, website response time, and website security—were investigated. In all, 293 eligible responses were collected via an online survey. Multiple regression analysis was utilized to test the proposed relationships. Results reveal that website information quality, website visual appeal, apparel visual appeal, and website security positively affect consumer satisfaction toward apparel mobile commerce websites, while website response time and brand trust show insignificant impacts on consumer satisfaction. With higher satisfaction on an apparel mobile commerce website, consumers are more likely to purchase apparel through the website.     

Are they telling the truth? Revealing hidden traits of satisfaction with a public bike-sharing service

Public bike-sharing systems (BSSs) are an emerging mode of transportation introduced by municipalities to solve congestion problems in metropolitan areas, especially when integrated with other types of transportation. In the last years, the number of public bike-sharing services has been constantly on the rise all over the world, and generally the overall satisfaction with them is high. However, satisfaction with public services is driven by mechanisms that can differ from those in the private sector. It is important to establish to what extent a high satisfaction is genuine or simply ephemeral. Even “old” public services (like public transportation) become “gold” when accompanied by the introduction of new technologies. In this paper we analyze this phenomenon using data from a satisfaction web-survey conducted among customers of the public BSS “BikeMi” in Milan, Italy, in a period when mobile technologies have been introduced to speed up the service. On analyzing the responses to satisfaction questions using simple summary statistics, the level of satisfaction resulted very high. However, our aim was to look for potential “darker” sides of the service by detecting possible hidden satisfaction components. For this purpose, we used the Nonlinear Principal Components Analysis, which is particularly powerful in this context. A simple textual analysis was also performed as a validating test. Results from our analysis indicated that satisfaction is flawed by a set of factors like the mechanics of the bikes, the picking and dropping system, and the apps used to organize the service. Less concern was detected for more general aspects of the service.     

How Fast are Semiconductor Prices Falling?

The Producer Price Index (PPI) for the U.S. suggests that semiconductor prices have barely been falling in recent years, a dramatic contrast to the rapid declines reported from the mid‐1980s to the early 2000s. This slowdown in the rate of decline is puzzling in light of evidence that the performance of microprocessor units (MPUs) has continued to improve at a rapid pace. Over the course of the 2000s, the MPU prices posted by Intel, the dominant producer of MPUs, became much stickier over the chips' life cycle. As a result of this change, we argue that the matched‐model methodology used in the PPI for MPUs likely started to be biased after the early 2000s and that hedonic indexes can provide a more accurate measure of price change since then. MPU prices fell rapidly through 2004 on every price measure we present, with the PPI declining at an even quicker pace than the hedonic indexes. However, from 2004 to 2009, our preferred hedonic index fell faster than the PPI, and from 2009 to 2013 the gap widened further, with our preferred index falling at an average annual rate of 42 percent, while the PPI declined at only a 6 percent rate. Given that MPUs currently represent about half of U.S. shipments of semiconductors, this difference has important implications for gauging the rate of innovation in the semiconductor sector.     

Examining the extent of and determinants for sustainability assurance quality: The role of audit committees

This study examines the extent of and determinants for sustainability assurance quality. Data comprise sustainability assurance statements published by the top 100 listed companies in Australia and New Zealand from 2017 to 2019. The findings indicate that Australian companies lead their New Zealand counterparts in sustainability assurance. Although sustainability reporting has risen, assurance rates remain significantly low. Accountants dominate the market, and companies prefer to use their own auditors for sustainability assurance work. Sustainability assurance quality is poor and does not vary significantly among Australian and New Zealand companies. Low-quality sustainability assurance plays a limited role in mitigating potential stakeholder–agency conflicts. The regression analysis indicates that audit committee characteristics such as members' independence, industry/market expertise, and attending meetings enhance sustainability assurance quality, whereas audit committee size has no affect. These findings suggest that audit committee characteristics such as independence, industry expertise, and regular meeting attendance have the potential to reduce stakeholder–agency conflicts by improving the quality of sustainability statement assurance. Our findings build on the sustainability assurance literature by exploring current trends in sustainability assurance practices in Australia and New Zealand where corporate governance codes have been recently revised. Further, these findings are timely given recent changes in standards (International Standard on Assurance Engagements [ISAE] 3000 and Global Reporting Initiative [GRI]). Our study contributes to the audit committee literature and sheds light on the role played by audit committee characteristics on sustainability assurance statement quality. The study findings potentially offer useful insights for practitioners, standard setters, and regulators.     

基于限制因素组合序列的耕地质量提升潜力研究*——以什邡市为例

[目的]通过分析什邡市耕地质量现状,充分把握影响耕地质量的主导因素并进行质量提升分区,测算不同质量提升区的提升潜力,以期为全市耕地质量的建设与发展指明方向。[方法]依据农用地分等理论,构建2014年什邡市耕地质量限制性指数评价体系,采用限制性指数模型测算耕地质量限制性指数,结合因素组合法、耕地质量潜力测算法,分别进行耕地质量提升分区及其提升潜力评价。[结果]什邡市耕地质量现状差异显著,地域分布特征明显;因素限制程度以中限制为主,多因素共同主导限制耕地比重大;各质量分区限制特征明显,各区耕地质量提升潜力在时序上和空间上也存在差异。高等别耕地集中分布于南部平原,受土壤酸碱度中等限制和剖面构型高程度限制为主;北部丘陵区以及南部河谷低洼地带主要为低等别耕地,表现为坡度与灌溉因素较高程度限制为主;综合提升潜力较大的耕地集中于北部丘陵区与南部河谷低洼地带。[结论]什邡市范围内耕地质量差异明显,存在普遍限制且分区限制特征明显,各区提升潜力空间差异明显。     

土地细碎化和土地质量是否影响小麦技术效率*——基于山东省小麦种植户的实证分析

［目的］小麦是我国重要的口粮之一，提高小麦的技术效率对于保障粮食安全具有重要的战略意义。在测算小麦技术效率的基础上，找出影响小麦技术效率的关键因素，为保障国家口粮安全提供参考。［方法］基于调研数据，运用超越对数生产函数以及一步随机前沿分析方法，构建计量模型分析土地细碎化和土地质量对小麦技术效率的影响。［结果］全部样本的技术效率差距较大，规模经营农户的技术效率高于小农户，农户技术效率最高的种植面积为67~333hm2，代表小麦种植的适宜规模。从技术效率的影响因素来看，土地细碎化程度和土地质量都对小麦生产的技术效率产生显著影响。［结论］为了提高小麦的技术效率，应该发展多种形式适度规模经营，鼓励创新土地流转形式，提高农业机械化水平； 深入开展土地质量调查，因地制宜地选择土地修复路径； 实行精准补贴，切实保护农民的利益。     

What is driving increases in dietary quality in the United States?

Over 1994–2010, adult dietary quality in the United States increased by 10 percent. We find a shift in consumption between at-home and away-from-home food played a relatively minor role as compared to changes in demographics and educational attainment. The two largest contributors we identify include an increased usage of nutritional information and a shift away from relying heavily on price, taste, storability and ease of preparation when shopping for food. Our findings suggest nutrition policy discussions could focus on further shifting attitudes/preferences towards healthier diets while allowing consumers to better extract nutrition information when making food choices.     

Private information in currency markets

Using daily abnormal currency returns for the universe of countries with flexible exchange rates, we show local currency depreciations ahead of unscheduled, public sovereign debt downgrade announcements. Consistent with the private information hypothesis, the effect is stronger in lower institutional quality countries and holds after we control for concurrent public information and for publicly available rumors about the forthcoming downgrades. Our results persist when abnormal currency returns are adjusted for global carry and dollar risk factors, world equity and bond returns, as well as local stock market returns. Finally, the currency depreciations are permanent, providing evidence for a link between fundamentals and currency markets.