Innovative healthcare delivery

Critics of the American healthcare system recite a long list of problems, including rising out-of-pocket costs, inconvenient access, overuse of emergency departments, uncoordinated medical records, and declining numbers of primary care doctors. To address these issues, some new venues have evolved, such as retail and urgent care clinics; however, the emergency department has become the only service provider available to all patients on a 24/7 basis. It is time to reinvent the system. The concept of patient-centered medical homes offers a structure for integrating innovations that can transform the delivery of healthcare. In this model, each patient develops an ongoing relationship with a primary care physician supported by a team of caregivers. An integral feature is the electronic medical record, which facilitates coordinated communication and decisions. Access expands beyond the traditional physician office visit to satellite services tailored to individual needs. Services center on whole-person care, including wellness and preventive counseling, as well as acute and chronic care. Adoption of the patient-centered medical home transforms healthcare delivery into a system that benefits everyone.     

Switching up the delivery game: Understanding switching intention to retail drone delivery services

Drone delivery services have been gaining momentum in retail due to the surge in digital commerce, and retail giants are seen making significant progress in delivering parcels with minimal human intervention. However, the wider diffusion of drone delivery services requires an in-depth understanding of consumers' switching intention from traditional delivery services to drone delivery services. To address this gap, the present study aims to propose and validate an asymmetric model encompassing innovation barriers, shopping motivations, and individual differences (i.e., inertia and affinity for technology interaction) in understanding consumers’ switching intention. An online survey was conducted. The data was analyzed using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). The results revealed five configurations with different combinations of causal antecedents.     

Which food delivery platforms are winning the restaurant food delivery wars? Analysis from a consumer perspective

The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically lowered the foodservice industry's income overnight. Conversely, the practical measure of remaining at home to deal with the pandemic's impact has boosted the online food delivery business. In this study, a consumer perspective was adopted and an adapted version of the extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2) was used alongside multi-attribute decision-making methods (DEMATEL, DANP and modified VIKOR) to construct a model for evaluating and selecting a food delivery platform (FDP). The results of the INRM (influential network relation map) revealed that the first dimension to be improved upon and adjusted should be security, followed by effort expectancy, performance expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, hedonic motivation and habit. The DANP influential weights suggested that habits were the most important dimension, followed by hedonic motivation, while performance expectancy was the least important. According to the results of the gap analysis, the first dimension that required improvement was performance expectancy, followed by effort expectancy, facilitating conditions, security, social influence, habits and hedonic motivation. It is expected that the findings of this study can serve as a reference for consumers selecting FDPs to better satisfy their dining needs. The novel model is discussed in terms of theoretical, practical and managerial implications.     

Critical factors characterizing consumers’ intentions to use drones for last-mile delivery: Does delivery risk matter?

Uncrewed Aerial Vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, has become popular in military and recreational circles. Although their usage in commerce is relatively low, a continuous rise in commercial use, especially for last-mile delivery, in the future is anticipated. Consequently, there is a necessity for a greater understanding of consumers' readiness to accept the latest technological application to increase knowledge, business, and managerial practice. Specifically, this study aims to investigate consumers’ intentions to deploy drones for last-mile delivery. The study applies the social cognitive theory and the model of goal-directed behaviour. It investigates the effect of outcome expectancy, lifestyle compatibility, perceived self-efficacy, consumer attitude, and the desire of usage for delivery drones among European millennial consumers. Additionally, it examines whether delivery risk moderates the influence of attitude and desire to use delivery drones. The authors discovered that the aforementioned are positively related to consumer attitude. Consumer attitude as such is positively associated with the desire and intention to use this method of delivery. Furthermore, the intention to use drone delivery is positively influenced by the desire for this delivery, outcome expectancy, and lifestyle compatibility. These findings indicate the importance of desire and lifestyle compatibility as predictors. At the theoretical level, the results support the perspective that social cognitive theory, together with the model of goal-directed behaviour, is an adequate framework to account for consumer intentions.     

Role of delivery options in basis convergence

The corn futures contract, traded on the Chicago Board of Trade, provides sellers with delivery options about the timing of delivery, the location of delivery, and the grade to be delivered. These options presumably have values that can vary from one delivery month to the next. The joint values of the timing and location options are estimated for each delivery month for the years 1989 through 1997. These estimates are then used in regression models to determine the degree to which they influence basis variability on the first day of the maturity month. Econometric models are also developed to see if the estimated implicit options values are useful in improving the forecasts of basis convergence over the 2‐month period prior to maturity. The results suggested that variation in the delivery options values in the corn futures contract does indeed help explain basis variability on the first day of maturity. An option‐value variable, based on estimated values two months prior to maturity, resulted in occasional, small improvements (from a statistical point of view) in the precision of forecasts. The existence of delivery options increases basis variability at maturity, but it is difficult to use this information to improve forecasts of basis convergence. One limitation of the analysis is that the Chicago cash market had few transactions per day during the sample period, and hence the reported spot prices may be inadequate for making high‐quality estimates of the options values. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 22:783–809, 2002     

The normalization of deviance in healthcare delivery

Many serious medical adversities result from violations of recognized standards of practice. Over time, even egregious violations of standards of practice may become “normalized” in healthcare delivery systems. This article describes what leads to this normalization and explains why flagrant practice deviations can persist for years, despite the importance of the standards at issue. This article also provides recommendations to aid healthcare organizations in identifying and managing unsafe practice deviations before they become normalized and pose genuine risks to patient safety, quality care, and employee morale.     

Service quality delivery in a cross-national context

Consumption of a broad range of services ranging from tourism to hospitality by an increasingly global mix of customers, especially from the new millennium of the emerging middle class, is creating an interesting challenge for service providers. What are the macro-environmental (cultural, historical, economic, political etc.) influences on service culture and on service quality delivery? Drawing on the expectancy-disconfirmation theory, this qualitative study provides insights on profound macro-environmental drivers of attitudes towards service quality delivery from a cross-national context. Based on comparative, country-based industry insights that highlight employee attitudes from advanced and emerging markets, we discuss the impact from a cross-national service quality delivery perspective. By examining comparative country contexts in growing service sectors, as in hospitality and tourism, we develop and present a conceptual model of cross-national service quality delivery.     

Consumer acceptance of delivery drones in urban areas

The concept of drone usage for commercial purposes by retailers worldwide is still in its early stages, and unheard of in Pakistan. Moreover, research on consumer perceptions regarding commercial drones in Pakistan and around the world is very sparse. The purpose of this paper is to gauge the level of acceptability and concerns Pakistani consumers may have in accepting the drone delivery technology. This study offers new insights that retailers and delivery companies can use to penetrate target markets in early stages. The authors have executed a quantitative analysis through the means of a survey. A sample of middle‐ and upper class residents of two cities in Pakistan was selected on which purposive sampling technique was applied. A total of 307 responses were collected and these responses were analysed in SPSS. Various analysis techniques were applied including Cronbach’s alpha, the Pearson correlation analysis, regression analysis and cluster analysis. The results show that consumers in Pakistan perceive privacy issues as a primary concern in relation to drone delivery. The results also throw light on the profile of consumer segments that can be targeted by retailers who may desire to use the drone delivery technology in the near future. Using these findings, retailers using the drone delivery mechanism can address consumer’s fears and ambiguities. Retailers can resolve consumer concerns by designing pro‐privacy parameters in the initial service design stage and the infrastructure deployment of drones.     

Let's reach all of the market for health administration education: design, development, and delivery issues in distance delivery

Web-based distance learning is an up and coming form of education. Web-based education delivered via a Web browser through the Internet has been found to be less expensive, more efficient, and sometimes more effective than classroom training. In the distance learning environment, the traditional "lecture and chalkboard" classroom pedagogy is completely absent. The virtual classroom becomes an "active learning" environment in which students, while utilizing technology, are able to discuss health administration concepts, analyze cases, work exercises, and discuss and share these interactively with both the instructor and fellow classmates. This method of Health Administration Education encourages students to learn from each other and promotes the open exchange of ideas and experiences. It does not require working students to put their careers on hold while they continue their studies. In this paper, we explore the opportunities and challenges of delivering web-based Health Administration courses via the Internet. Included is a discussion of the design, development, and delivery of a distance learning, web-based Health Administration Education system.     

A secondary market metaphor for content delivery networks

A Secondary Market (SM) mechanism is used to allow the exchange of unused resources between Origin Servers (content-generating entities) that claim and reserve resources from Content Delivery Networks (CDNs). Using a Predictive Reservation Scheme, network and disk resources are being monitored through well-established techniques (Kernel Regression Estimators) in a given time frame. We show that the SM mechanism significantly improves the efficiency and robustness of our Predictive Reservation Scheme by allowing fast exchange of unused resources between the Origin Servers (CDN Clients), either by implementing socially optimal practices or by allowing automatic electronic auctions at the end of day (EOD) or at shorter time intervals. Therefore, all the involved players (including the CDN itself) benefit from the rationalized use of CDN resources.     

Differentiation value through services in a manufacturer's delivery chain

The delivery of industrial goods includes various possibilities for service business. Previous research has concentrated on third-party logistics (3PL) providers' perspective on service opportunities. This study takes the manufacturer's perspective in inter-organizational relationships and investigates the potential for differentiation value though services associated with the delivery of industrial goods. Field observation was carried out on three high-volume construction component deliveries, to uncover differentiation value drivers and the emergence of service opportunities in a manufacturer's delivery chain. The results complement earlier 3PL-centered goods delivery research by showing that the manufacturer's unique product and process competences, and activities in the delivery chain drive differentiation value, enable new service opportunities. The findings, thereby, draw attention to manufacturers and their competences as sources of added-value service in the delivery of industrial goods. Manufacturing firms have various options for differentiation and centrality in the inter-organizational network through cooperation with third parties. The results reveal that third parties can be hidden sources of added customer value in the goods delivery chain. The differentiation value for different firms in the industrial goods' delivery chains can emerge when firms begin to develop and offer services to each other, and therefore a proactive and in-depth analysis of their customers' differentiation-oriented value hierarchies is required.     

The effects of educational delivery methods on knowledge retention

In today's dynamic learning environment, educational delivery methods have become increasingly diverse. Using a unique opportunity to assess three types of course delivery—face-to-face, interactive television (iTV), and purely online delivery—the authors look at both initial knowledge acquisition and the retention of this knowledge. The results indicate that the online class outperformed the face-to-face and iTV sections on the initial performance evaluation; however, knowledge retention was greater in the face-to-face and iTV sections. The authors' findings suggest that diverse educational delivery methods provide unique benefits to students, but these benefits vary in relation to immediate learning outcomes and knowledge retention.     

Efficiency of service delivery systems in large commercial banks

This article provides novel empirical evidence on the cross-sectional variation of the productive efficiency of large banks relative to their service delivery systems. The analysis is conducted using data drawn from a sample of 118 large U.S. commercial banks for the years 1989 through 1991. The analysis reveals that centralized service delivery systems increase bank costs significantly. In no case was it found that centralized service delivery systems reduce costs, as is often envisioned by proponents of centralization. It is also found that centralized back-office operations tend to reduce costs significantly and are consistent with the existence of scale economies in bank back-office operations. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Constructing conceptual models for knowledge capture and delivery systems

Appropriate conceptualization of the nature of entities and relationships in a problem domain is a key prerequisite to the successful design of computerized decision aids for business, especially those developed for more than one idiosyncratic user. The need for a reliable conceptual model is particularly acute in the design of decision support systems that must function in problem‐solving situations with no existing theoretical framework or where theory and practice differ considerably.

This paper presents an interative procedure for developing a reliable conceptual model by testing the “fit”; of successive revisions of the model against a collection of “think‐aloud”; verbal problem‐solving protocols of people with experience in the domain. The model is revised each time until it is verifiably and consistently accurate. Such a procedure, it is argued, is more objective and reliable than intuition or traditional knowledge engineering and requires considerably less experimental data collection and analysis than more elaborate empirical model development procedures.

The feasibility of this procedure is illustrated by using it to construct a conceptual model for a computer‐based system that seeks to capture knowledge used during project planning and deliver it for use during project control.     

从提升企业社会责任分析快递业的品牌建设

快递业是生产企业、流通企业、消费者相互联系的重要环节,具有广泛的社会影响力,需要承担相应的企业社会责任进行快递企业的品牌建设。本文试剖析国内快递业承担社会责任存在的问题,并借鉴国际知名快递品牌的经验,从提升企业社会责任的角度来分析快递业的品牌建设策略。     

Privatization in East Germany: The delivery of an economy

Soon after the re-unification of East and West Germany, the West German government chose to swiftly privatize the businesses of its former neighbor. To oversee this process, the government set up an independent agency, the Treuhandanstalt, which did its work from July 1990 to December 1994. In that time, thousands of businesses were converted to private ownership, and jobs were secured for 1.5 million employees. Von der Heyden discusses the efficacy of the project, its successes and failures, and how applicable the German model may be for other governments seeking a complete privatization of their countries' assets.