Community bank structure an x-efficiency approach

Community banks have historically been important sources of intermediary services. Changes in regulation and intermediation technologies have affected the efficiency with which these firms can perform these services. Relatively small community banks, those with assets of $1 billion or less, have experienced particular changes in their ability to generate loan products as efficiently as their larger counterparts. Using FFIEC data for all banks of $10 billion or less, we measure the x-efficiency of all community banks and compare the results of small and all other community banks since 2010. We test for the importance of internal and external determinants of efficiency. We observe that declines in product provision are related to specific determinants of declining x-efficiency in small community banks. The results indicate limited assets or customer growth rates experienced by small community banks, coupled with a declining population in community bank trade areas, do not support improvements in x-efficiency through expanded intermediation activity. Small asset community bank managers will need to strategically deploy products that allow the customer relationship to be enhanced and sustained, using customer affiliations that cannot be easily adopted by larger competitors.     

An integrated approach to control system design

Existing approaches to the problem of designing management control systems may be described as primarily structural or behavioral. The first approach is characteristic of the accounting literature. It takes a rational and mechanistic view of control and treats the control system design problem as one of designing an effective information structure. The behavioral approach, exemplified by the socio-psychological literature on performance, views control as a problem of designing social relationships which lead to high performance.     

Accountable clinical management: an integrated approach

Hospitals should move from the traditional siloed approach to managing the clinical side of the enterprise, where finance leaders and clinicians play distinctly different roles without coordination, to an integrated approach that assembles a multidisciplinary team to focus coordinated attention on identifying and pursuing opportunities for clinical process improvement. Senior executives should lead this top-down effort to establish goals and set priorities for action, using an integrated, high-level reporting dashboard that shows overall performance in terms of quality, efficiency, and patient experience. Implementing integrated clinical management requires a clear, consistent communications plan and messaging for physicians and managers to show why it is increasingly necessary for both hospitals and physicians.     

Accounting information systems and learning theory: an integrated approach to teaching

A background to the adoption of computing in accounting education is discussed. There has been considerable pressure by the accounting profession for information technology to be taught in tertiary accounting courses. While accommodating these expectations, accounting academics have been concerned that such teaching should focus on conceptual understanding, rather than training. Research on effectiveness of computers and the learning of accounting concepts has been considered and found to be inconclusive and conflicting. It has been argued that an understanding of learning theory is necessary to enhance the effectiveness of teaching computerized accounting. An approach to teaching computerized accounting information systems and integrating learning theories is presented via a practical example: the objectives of teaching computerized accounting and reasons for adopting the SYBIZ Rev L software package are presented. The chosen approach in developing the teaching and learning material is outlined and linked to learning theory. It is argued that computers in accounting education should not merely be treated as a fait accompli, but be recognized as a part of a process which we should understand and influence. Research needs to continue on a number of methodological fronts. Suggestions are given for more specific empirical research, as well as suggestions on how to incorporate the findings of other related disciplines.     

An integrated approach to communication skills in an accounting curriculum

While accounting students think that they do not need written and oral communication skills in order to succeed in the profession, educators and practitioners stress the need for these skills. Not only is there a set of perceived factors of success in the field that includes the quality of communication skills, but also managers in many different industries complain that recent graduates are unable to effectively communicate their ideas in writing. This article presents the results of an integrated approach to this problem along with specific methodologies, cases, and heuristic evaluation of the program. In addition, it is proposed that communication skills are best taught within professional accounting programs in core courses rather than being taught solely either as part of general education or by a special business communication course.     

Network vs integrated organizational structure of cooperative banks: Evidence on the Italian reform

We empirically investigate the impact of the regulatory change from a network organizational structure to an integrated one on scale economies, scope economies, and market power in cooperative banks. We exploit the passage of the Italian cooperative bank reform in 2016. Using a difference-in-differences identification strategy, we examine a treated group of 424 cooperative banks and a matched control group of 192 commercial banks over the period 2009–2019. Our findings indicate that cost scale and scope economies of cooperative banks are positively affected by the reform, while their profit scale and scope economies are not affected. Lastly, the Lerner Index is positively affected by the reform. Overall, the reform enhances cooperative banks' ability to exploit advantages related to a larger size and diversification.     

Health care reform and reform for health: creating a health system for communities in the 21st century

If we are to improve the health of the population and reduce the inequalities in health that plague our communities and our planet, we will have to give greater attention to the determinants of health. The reform of the health care system, necessary though it is, will never be sufficient; we need to reform our whole society and in particular to focus on human rather than economic development. At the community level we need to create healthy communities that are “health-creating systems” of environmental, social and human development, as well as health care systems that focus first on improving and maintaining health. Such a “bottom-down” health care system would see the hospital become once again the place of last resort (but still a potentially important partner in creating healthier communities) and would focus instead on how to provide health promotion and health care from the household level up.     

Managing disabilities in an integrated health environment: the experience of Aetna

Disability-related outlays are increasing at a rate well above the medical inflation rate. This article discusses the experience of one company in its attempt to manage these skyrocketing costs, by developing a new program that integrates health and related benefits by combining the medical and human resources interventions into a unified program. The authors discuss the initiation, development and progress of the program, concluding with measured results revealing reduced lost work time, improved employee health and productivity, and reduced disability costs.     

Transforming the structure of a health system

In starting the planning process for an organization's transformation or restructuring, healthcare finance leaders should: Identify strategic imperatives for the organization and physicians, Remember the organization's core area of business, Define the starting point and create clear objectives, Develop a strategy that engages front-line employees to change the culture of the organization.     

Epilogue: health care reform and productivity

Only a health care system that balances the best interests of consumers with those of employers and government payers will ultimately provide quality care at manageable costs. These need not be opposing interests.     

Developing critical reflection: An integrated approach

The increasing impact of globalisation and digitalisation on accounting reinforces the need for accounting education to develop students' core professional skills such as communication, analytical skills and critical thinking, as well as their ability to evaluate the relativity of their knowledge and acknowledge learning needs. This paper reports on a comparative study that explores outcomes from surveys of two separate student groups as they engaged with the elements and components of a task designed to develop their skills and ability to reflect on the currency of knowledge. Findings show merit in the design's integrated and interactive approach, including the transition of students' perspectives, with critical reflection developed through sequencing individual and cooperative learning, oral and written exercises, and formative and summative assessment. Survey responses from students indicate that they responded positively to the challenge of critically reflecting upon research and articulating the relativity of their knowledge.     

An integrated approach to supply chain risk analysis

Despite the increasing attention that supply chain risk management is receiving by both researchers and practitioners, companies still lack a risk culture. Moreover, risk management approaches are either too general or require pieces of information not regularly recorded by organisations. This work develops a risk identification and analysis methodology that integrates widely adopted supply chain and risk management tools. In particular, process analysis is performed by means of the standard framework provided by the Supply Chain Operations Reference Model, the risk identification and analysis tasks are accomplished by applying the Risk Breakdown Structure and the Risk Breakdown Matrix, and the effects of risk occurrence on activities are assessed by indicators that are already measured by companies in order to monitor their performances. In such a way, the framework contributes to increase companies’ awareness and communication about risk, which are essential components of the management of modern supply chains. A base case has been developed by applying the proposed approach to a hypothetical manufacturing supply chain. An in-depth validation will be carried out to improve the methodology and further demonstrate its benefits and limitations. Future research will extend the framework to include the understanding of the multiple effects of risky events on different processes.     

Social welfare effects of tax-benefit reform under endogenous participation and unemployment: an ordinal approach

This paper analyzes the social welfare effects of tax-benefit reforms in a framework integrating endogenous labor supply and unemployment. We adopt an ordinal approach to social welfare comparisons by searching for “socially desirable” reforms that would improve social welfare for an entire class of social welfare functions. In the model, there is a discrete distribution of individuals’ productivities and individuals are heterogeneous with respect to leisure preferences (or disability of work). Labor supply decisions are limited to the participation decision. Unemployment is modeled in a search and matching framework with individual wage bargaining. For the social welfare analysis, the model is calibrated for Switzerland. Starting from a situation with an unemployment benefit scheme, the introduction of in-work benefits is shown to be a “socially desirable” reform: it would be unanimously preferred to the current situation according to all social welfare functions based on the criteria of Pareto, anonymity, and the principle of transfers. This result holds for two different types of preference heterogeneity (leisure preferences or disability of work) and also for the case where job search effort cannot be monitored.     

Optimal discrete hedging of American options using an integrated approach to options with complex embedded decisions

In order to solve the problem of optimal discrete hedging of American options, this paper utilizes an integrated approach in which the writer’s decisions (including hedging decisions) and the holder’s decisions are treated on equal footing. From basic principles expressed in the language of acceptance sets we derive a general pricing and hedging formula and apply it to American options. The result combines the important aspects of the problem into one price. It finds the optimal compromise between risk reduction and transaction costs, i.e. optimally placed rebalancing times. Moreover, it accounts for the interplay between the early exercise and hedging decisions. We then perform a numerical calculation to compare the price of an agent who has exponential preferences and uses our method of optimal hedging against a delta hedger. The results show that the optimal hedging strategy is influenced by the early exercise boundary and that the worst case holder behavior for a sub-optimal hedger significantly deviates from the classical Black–Scholes exercise boundary.     

Public education reform: Community or national funding of education?

I use a political economy model of public funding of education to evaluate the welfare implications of a move from a community- to a nation-wide funding policy. Broadening the scope of education finance has intragenerational redistribution effects as well as intergenerational effects. Previous studies have emphasized the intragenerational redistribution effects of moving from local to state-financed systems, while holding factor prices fixed. The model in this paper includes a social security system and allows factor prices to vary endogenously. I examine the welfare effects of broadening the scope of financing from a community- to a nation-wide system and find that there are very large welfare gains as voters “internalize” the effect of the education policy on both factor prices and social security benefits. I also focus on the intergenerational distributional effects, finding that significant welfare gains occur despite the displacement of the median voter to an older agent that cares less about children's well-being.