Hospital resource use of patients receiving isavuconazole vs voriconazole for invasive mold infections in the phase III SECURE trial

Objective: In the phase III SECURE trial, isavuconazole was non-inferior to voriconazole for all-cause mortality for the primary treatment of invasive mold disease (IMD) caused by Aspergillus spp. and other filamentous fungi. This analysis assessed whether hospital resource utilization was different between patients treated with isavuconazole vs voriconazole in SECURE. Methods: The analysis population comprised adults with proven/probable/possible IMD enrolled in SECURE. The primary endpoint was hospital length of stay (LOS) in the overall trial population. Patients were also stratified by estimated glomerular filtration rate-modification of diet in renal disease category (< 60?mL/min/1.73 m² [moderate-to-severe impairment] and ≥60?mL/min/1.73 m² [mild or no impairment]), body mass index (BMI; <25, ≥25–<30, and ≥30?kg/m²), and age (≤45, >45–≤65, and >65 years). Results: Data from 516 patients (258 per arm) were evaluated. Overall, median LOS was not statistically significantly different between the isavuconazole (15.0 days) and voriconazole (16.0 days; p?=?0.607) arms. Median LOS was statistically significantly shorter in patients with moderate-to-severe renal impairment treated with isavuconazole (9.0 days) vs voriconazole (19.0 days; hazard ratio [HR]: 3.44; 95% confidence interval [CI]?=?1.51–7.83). Median LOS was shorter, but not significantly, in patients with a BMI ≥30?kg/m² (isavuconazole 13.5 days vs voriconazole 22 days; HR?=?1.57; 95% CI?=?0.70–3.52) or aged >65 years (isavuconazole 15.0 days vs voriconazole 20.0 days; HR?=?1.37; 95% CI?=?0.87–2.16). Limitations: As the patient subgroups analyzed were small, sub-group findings should be interpreted with caution in light of the lack of statistical significance for each sub-group-by-treatment interaction. Conclusions: Isavuconazole may reduce hospital LOS in certain subgroups of patients with IMD, especially those with moderate-to-severe renal impairment.     

The relationship between growth,profitability, and firm value

This research examined predictions drawn from value-based planning models. Results indicate that profitability and growth do influence shareholder value in the manner predicted; however, the relationships are conditional. This study also shows that, the market-to-book value of equity ratio and Tobin's q-ratio are theoretically and empirically, equivalent measures of value creation.     

Neighborhood price externalities of foreclosure rehabilitation: an examination of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program

The federally funded, HUD-administered Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) was enacted in the wake of the financial recession to mitigate the underlying adverse neighborhood effects associated with foreclosed properties. We examined the neighborhood price impacts of NSP-funded foreclosure rehabilitation undertaken by Habitat for Humanity in Dallas County, Texas, using a difference-in-difference framework. Foreclosure rehabilitation projects in Dallas County produced an average 15% increase in neighborhood home prices that sold up to 30 months after the rehabilitated property sale and within 0.1 miles of the rehabilitated property. Foreclosure rehabilitation that involved significant exterior repairs was associated with the largest estimated effect sizes. Results suggest that NSP funding in Dallas County effectively targeted homes that had the potential to have the most severe neighborhood impacts and that rehabilitation was an effective means of reversing neighborhood price externalities associated with blighted foreclosed properties.     

Rethinking the effectiveness of asset and cost retrenchment: The contingency effects of a firm's rent creation mechanism

This paper posits that the efficacy of different retrenchment strategies depends upon the firm's core rent creation mechanism. We focus on two distinct mechanisms of rent creation: Ricardian rent creation based on the exploitation of resources and Schumpeterian rent creation based on explorative capabilities. We argue that cost retrenchment may have detrimental effects on firms with a relatively high Schumpeterian rent focus. On the other hand, asset retrenchment may erode the basis for future rent creation for firms with a higher Ricardian rent focus. Our findings based on a sample of large nondiversified Japanese firms highlight the differing degrees of fragility and recoverability of the two rent creation mechanisms in the context of different retrenchment strategies. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Welfare and technology in the network society—Concerns for the future of welfare

The last decade of explosive innovation thanks to the growth of information and communication technologies (ICT) has left the public sector, and particularly the provision of welfare services, largely unchanged. Where socialising, commerce, information finding, entertainment and travel have all undergone profound structural transformations, the workings of government have not seen a similar shift. To be sure, the pace of decision-making has been sped up, as it has elsewhere, by Blackberries, and a small number of services are delivered online. But these services are still based around their offline equivalents, and usually aim simply at cutting the costs associated with their delivery by moving online. While this will continue to be a key motivation for the digitisation of government, other more fundamental developments are set to take place which will herald new online-only services, and which will encourage radical decentralisation of power.The first part of this paper will look at the private sector's experience over the past decade for clues as to why the public sector has moved relatively slowly, and likely directions of development in coming years. We will also here present evidence from our own forecasts of the likely narrowing of the digital divide. The next two sections will then deal with future developments in more detail, firstly looking at ICT's future role in welfare service delivery, and secondly at the ways in which it might be used for greater citizen engagement, and the reshaping of power structures that will result from this. The final section will examine some conflicts that arise from this reorientation away from the centre.     

Achieving Temporal Ambidexterity in New Ventures

Organizations face a common intertemporal choice problem, where actions suitable in the shortterm are different from those that work in the longterm. Building on the organizational ambidexterity theory, we argue that organizations can reconcile their short‐term and long‐term tensions, but this does necessitate managerial endeavours that orchestrate this reconciliation. We introduce the concept of temporal ambidexterity and define four intertemporal tensions involving an organization’s objectives, resources, markets, and uncertainty. We examine how firms can address these tensions successfully in the context of new ventures, and to do so we focus on three managerial capabilities of founder‐CEOs: expertise breadth, external connectivity, and empowering leadership. Results from 243 new ventures in China suggest that temporal ambidexterity improves with these managerial capabilities, and more so for younger ventures. Our findings shed light on solutions and mechanisms by which intertemporal balance is fulfilled, particularly for new ventures in a dynamic environment.     

Late Start with Extra Schooling: The Effect of Increase in School Entry Age and Preschool Provision

This paper analyses the combined effect of school entry‐age increase and the changes in preschool provision on educational achievement using a difference‐in‐difference specification. Achievement is assessed using the score on national standardised tests across a range of subjects. The analysis uses the changes in policy in different years across two states in Australia. I find positive effects for several subjects across different grades. Results are robust to falsification tests. In one state, however, cohorts starting school during the policy transition period are adversely affected, possibly due to disruption in preschool education.     

Promoting promotions: Does showcasing free gifts backfire?

Two experiments examine the effect of the visual size of a gift in a free gift promotion on consumer judgments. Results show that promotional offers that highlight the free gift (rather than the product) are less effective than those that highlight the product to be purchased. Increasing the visual size of the free gift leads to perceptions of poorer product quality and has unfavorable consequences for purchase intentions of the offer. We propose that the larger the size of the gift in a promotional ad, the higher the perceived component of gift value in the total promotional offer, and accordingly the lower the value of the promoted product. Therefore, visually larger gifts can backfire and hurt the overall promotional offer. The presence of price information about the product moderates these effects. Implications for the use of visual cues to draw inferences, and managerial implications for advertising free gift offers are discussed.