Optimizing the Information Outsourcing Practices of Primary Care Medical Organizations Using Entropy and TOPSIS

As clinics strive to select information technology contractors that meet their particular outsourcing needs, the medical sector urgently needs evaluation criteria for outsourcing to information technology contractors to alleviate unnecessary risks and achieve an excellent performance. Therefore, this work presents an entropy combined technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS)-based decision-making method for clinics to objectively assess the quality of an information technology supplier when outsourcing their medical information needs, as an alternative to previous decision-making approaches based on subjective evaluations. Each sub-criterion for outsourcing vendors is evaluated using the Delphi method. Moreover, results of interviews with experts are integrated with the entropy method to calculate each criterion of an objective evaluation weight for medical information system (MIS) vendors. Furthermore, a TOPSIS-based survey is designed using comparison to effectively respond to MIS outsourcing demand scores for each item. Furthermore, the proposed entropy and TOPSIS-based decision-making method can provide administrators in hospital clinics with a decision-making and evaluation criteria that actively encourage the medical sector to outsource its information technology needs to contractors.     

Measurement equivalence of executives' performance ratings for same‐ and opposite‐gender dyads

The measurement equivalence of performance ratings from different raters is important to establish if researchers and practitioners want to have confidence that raters are using the performance measurement system in the same way. The purpose of the present study was to examine the measurement equivalence of performance ratings from male and female direct reports. Women and men executives from various organizations participated in a multisource assessment process for feedback and development purposes and were rated by both women and men direct reports. The results indicated gender equivalence for direct reports' ratings of men and women executives, meaning that regardless of gender, raters provided ratings using the same psychological metric. The implications and limitations of the study are discussed.     

Strategic operations management decisions and professional performance in U.S. HMOs

Professional service organizations are becoming an increasingly important segment of the service sector in the U.S. but little attention has been paid to the management of these organizations, particularly in relation to technical performance. This paper reports the findings of a survey of managers of Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) which related operations management decisions about organization, workforce management, quality management and planning and control, to clinical process and outcome performance.This research demonstrates that managerial decisions do affect clinical performance in HMOs. These findings have implications for both researchers and practitioners. For researchers, the study provides a framework for future research on the important link between management decisions and technical performance in professional service organizations. For practitioners, this study suggests that technical performance will be enhanced when professional work is appropriately managed.     

Human capital revisited: The role of experience and education when controlling for performance and cognitive skills

Human capital theory predicts that differences in wages arise because of differences in human capital. The latter can be accumulated in two ways: through experience and education. Using matched firm–worker data for the Ghanaian Manufacturing sector we first test whether changes in wages over the life cycle reflect changes in performance, following the methodology of Medoff and Abraham [Medoff, J.L., &; Abraham, K.G. (1980). Experience, Performance, and Earnings. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 95(4), 703-736; Medoff, J.L., &; Abraham, K.G. (1981). Are Those Paid More Really More Productive? The Case of Experience. Journal of Human Resources, 16(2), 186–216]. We find that wage–seniority profiles are independent of performance – a result that holds when controlling for firm fixed effects. Extending the analysis, we include a control for on-the-job-training and find that it does not attenuate the seniority profile, which is also at odds with human capital theory. We do find however that firm characteristics play an important role. Wage–seniority profiles are steeper in large firms, but performance profiles are not, suggesting that the results from Medoff and Abraham are specific to large firms. We then assess the role of education. Our results confirm that education is important for the allocation to job levels. Using data on cognitive ability, we also find that the effect of education on wages is at least partially because it signals cognitive ability. We also find evidence that the returns to education are not related to performance, while the returns to cognitive ability are.     

高职毕业环节中工学结合有效教学评价探析

本文调查分析了高职教育毕业环节中的工学结合教学现状及存在的问题,认为毕业环节有效教学评价应依据开放而多元、以能力为本位等评价原则,并在此基础上建构出一整套适用的高职毕业环节工学结合有效教学评价指标体系。     

Present and future: a trend forecasting and ranking of university types for innovative development from an intellectual capital perspective

In today’s knowledge-based economy, by well intellectual capital (IC) managing to enhance innovative ability and performance has become critical as many nations struggle to gain sustainable competitive advantage. Knowledge, innovation, and IC are at a university’s core. Given its function of cultivating innovative assets, R&D researchers, hi-tech professions and interdisciplinary talent, universities have become a critical factor in building sustainable competitive advantages worldwide. The important role universities play is particularly essential in Taiwan. The hi-tech industry, as the most profitable industry sector, directly impacts the growth of the Taiwanese economy. However, as global competition in higher education becomes fierce, higher education in Taiwan is losing its competitive standing and global market share for students and, additionally, Taiwan is losing its overall competitive advantage in the global economy. Universities today face significantly unbalanced student enrollment numbers and several universities have failed to keep operating from late 2008 to 2009. In order to understand both current and future development trends in higher education and to conquer above difficulties, it has become crucial to understand the manifestation of innovative development with respect to IC for different university types. In this regard, the aim of this study was to explore the rankings of five university types in terms of innovative development from an IC perspective and to provide recommendations for future improvements, taking basic development trends into account. Trend forecasting from Grey Model (GM) was initially used to investigate and forecast current and future Taiwanese birth rates and the basic development trends of five university types. After that, VIKOR was utilized to rank the five university types in accordance with opinions from twenty senior experts with regard to IC. In agreement with the research findings, universities in Taiwan are encouraged to improve their innovative ability from an IC perspective in order to regain a sustainable competitive advantage globally in the future.     

关于中国银行集中度风险的实证研究

本文采用熵值法分析银行业的集中程度。实证结果表明,熵值与银行业的风险是正相关,而熵值与银行集中度是负相关,也就是说银行的集中度越高,风险就越小,银行系统也就越安全。由此可以得出以下结论:开放经济情况下,银行业集中度的提高可以降低风险,尤其是在外部经济不确定的情况下,更应保持金融力量的集中,以此来对抗危机的冲击。     

Understanding higher education fundraisers in the United States

Since their earliest days, the U.S. higher education institutions have relied on philanthropic support to achieve their missions. What began as incidental is now a highly organized process of fundraising that accounts for tens of billions of dollars annually. As institutions' desire for private support grows, so too does the demand for successful fundraising professionals. Drawing on qualitative and quantitative analysis, this survey-based study (n = 508) of U.S. higher education fundraising personnel provides new knowledge and grounds fundraisers' position in historical and contemporary literature about fundraisers and professionalism. The findings highlight notable generational, income, and gender differences within the higher education sector and between higher education and the greater profession. The analysis shows an established knowledge-base and set of learnable skills for higher education fundraisers—which are best applied when combined with particular personal attributes. Although the latter are critically important, without full and fair attention to the former, the occupation is unlikely to garner full professional status. This study highlights, the path forward highlights the complexity of contemporary fundraising, is a reminder that fundraising is relationship- and information-driven, and indicates that select, strategic efforts can further professionalize the field. In particular, fundraisers in the education sector may have special opportunities to advance the professionalization of their occupation.     

Introducing benchmarking in the Czech Republic and Slovakia

Abstract

In many cases the introduction of performance evaluation, performance management and performance financing schemes do not produce the expected results and even create perverse effects. The risks connected with their improper implementation are much higher in developing and transition countries, where the public sector is over-politicized, policy and management capacities are inadequate and resources and experience are limited or often almost absent.

Our study provides basic selected data on the use of benchmarking in public administration bodies in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The findings are clear. In spite of its high potential, benchmarking is not used regularly and properly either in Slovakia or in Czechia. Subjective barriers of its implementation, for example lack of accountability, the rent seeking attitudes of elected politicians and ineffective public services schemes might be most important limits. The situation is slowly improving, but the progress will be naturally limited by territorial fragmentation.     

Combining grey relation analysis and entropy model for evaluating the operational performance: an empirical study

Decision-making on operational performance evaluation is a complex multi-objective problem. Through the combination of grey relation analysis and information entropy, the evaluation results are more objective and reasonable. This paper would introduce entropy into the weighting calculation of the grey relational analysis method for improving the precision. The improved decision model was applied in four notebook computer original design manufacturer companies. The result presented the proposed method is practical and useful. Significantly, the proposed method provides more flexible and objective information in determine the weights vector of the criteria. Also the study result represented that the combined method had certain scientific and rationality. The evaluation model indicates that this method be more reasonable and easier to grasp than other methods. As a result, it is easier to popularize this evaluation method in enterprises.     

Performance Management in Universities: Effects of the Transition to More Quantitative Measurement Systems

The measurement of research and teaching performance is increasingly common within universities, driven probably by the rise of New Public Management (NPM). Although changing over time and varying from country to country, NPM involves the use of private sector methods in the public sector. Traditionally, performance measurement in universities has had a developmental role – helping individuals to improve their (future) performance. However, the new systems seem more judgemental – i.e. seeking to quantitatively evaluate (past) performance. We study performance measurement in two Accounting and Finance groups – one in the Netherlands and one in the UK. In both we see an increasing use of judgemental forms of performance evaluation and, in particular, the use of more quantitative performance measures. The use of these more judgemental quantitative systems is seen to have various effects. Although these systems emphasise objective quantitative measures, they relocate subjectivities (usually at a greater distance from the subject), rather than remove them. This creates uncertainty and anxiety about how the systems are used. There is a danger that the new systems could inhibit creativity in teaching and limit contributions to the world outside the university. Furthermore, they could damage creativity and innovation in accounting research – as researchers play safe in getting the publications they need. As we are both researchers and practitioners in this area, we should be challenging these trends and pointing to the dangers for research (and teaching) in our field.     

A fuzzy service quality based approach for performance evaluation of educational units

Educational unites try to make efficient use of resources to achieve higher service qualities. This paper presents a new hybrid fuzzy approach based on service quality for performance evaluation of educational units. The proposed approach includes four stages: firstly, evaluation and gap analysis of students' expectations and perceptions in the service quality of educational units are performed based on fuzzy SERVQUAL questionnaires. In the second stage, the corresponding weights of dimensions and sub-dimensions of SERVQUAL are determined via fuzzy AHP method. In the third stage, the educational units are ranked using fuzzy TOPSIS method with respect to service quality sub-dimensions. Finally, a fuzzy DEA method is applied to determine the efficiency of educational units based on their service quality ratings. The approach is used for performance evaluation of eight higher education institutes in Iran. The proposed approach increased the accuracy of performance evaluation of educational units based on service quality.     

事业单位职称量化评价研究和应用——以河南省气象部门为例

随着职称评审权限下放,职称评审有向行业全面转移的趋势,职称评审过程公开化呼声不断提高。为了体现管理部门的意志和愿望,客观评价人才,控制同一部门不同单位职称评审通过人员无较大差异,同时克服职称评审的弊端,引入量化评价方法。通过分析多年职称申报情况,总结人才成长的一般规律,设定业绩成果贡献度划分曲线,引入学历学位和专业相关度、年度考核、业务表彰、论文论著、项目成果等多项评价要素,根据部门需求,将评价要素设定不同权重后,构建了职称评审的量化评价办法。近3年的部门职称评审将量化评分作为重要的评审依据,评审结果客观公平,效果突出,量化评价方法在近年来部门人才评价中也起到较好作用。     

Corporate Carbon Strategies in Responding to Climate Change

With climate change emerging as one of the most important issues affecting the business circle, companies have begun considering the carbon issue in their overall strategic positioning. However, few studies have examined the corporate carbon strategies in developing and advanced developing countries, where climate change regulation is extensive and market uncertainty is relatively high. In addition, there has been growing interest among researchers and practitioners concerning the relationship between the carbon strategy and firm performance. This paper presents a framework for identifying the corporate carbon strategy. The cluster analysis of 241 Korean companies indicates six types of corporate carbon strategy: ‘wait‐and‐see observer’, ‘cautious reducer’, ‘product enhancer’, ‘all‐round enhancer’, ‘emergent explorer’ and ‘all‐round explorer’. This study empirically examines whether there are differences between these carbon strategy types in terms of the sector, firm size and firm performance. The results indicate a significant relationship between a firm's carbon strategy and its sector and size but a significant relationship between the carbon strategy and firm performance is not confirmed. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

现代信息技术在高等教育领域中的应用——以“多媒体技术及应用”课程为例

当今信息时代,高等教育的教学质量问题成为教育界关注的重点和热点,混合式学习方式逐渐被教师和学者认同。以"多媒体技术及应用"课程为例,通过分析目前高校课程教育现状,合理改革教学模式、建设网络课程、制定良好的教学活动实施策略并改革课程考核方式,以此来构建合理的混合式教育模式,供研究者进行交流与探讨"多媒体技术及应用"课程的教学。     

Education,job satisfaction and gender in Kuwait

This study explores the relationship between education (level and field) and job satisfaction among Kuwaiti women employees in the Kuwaiti private banking sector. The analysis is focused on the responses of the female employees to their own jobs as indicated by their level of job satisfaction. Specifically, the research involved a stratified sample of the Kuwaiti women employees in the whole private banking sector in Kuwait. This study differs from previous investigations of job satisfaction in two principal ways: in dealing with the private sector (rather than the more common public sector in studies of the Middle East) and in taking into account education (level and field) in the privatesector work setting. The major findings of this research indicate that a much broader approach towards increasing satisfaction than focusing on the job itself is required. The study shows that the respondents' education background is of substantial importance in affecting job satisfaction.     

The contribution of research and innovation to productivity

This paper examines the impact of investment in research and innovation on Australian market sector productivity. While previous studies have largely focused on a narrow class of private sector intangible assets as a source of productivity gains, this paper shows that there is a broad range of other business sector intangible assets that can significantly affect productivity. Moreover, the paper pays special attention to the role played by public funding for research and innovation. The empirical results suggest that there are significant spillovers to productivity from public sector R&D spending on research agencies and higher education. No evidence is found for productivity spillovers from indirect public funding for the business enterprise sector, civil sector or defence R&D. These findings have implications for government innovation policy as they provide insights into possible productivity gains from government funding reallocations.     

Creativity strategy selection for the higher education system

As one of the major developing locations that are playing a critical role in determining the national competitive advantage to accomplish the Taiwanese national goal of becoming a Republic of Creativity (ROC) and a kingdom of innovation, Taipei County has started to become a highlighted issue by both researchers and practitioners. Because a higher education system is at the core of generating innovation in a nation, how to prompt the creativity of higher education system in Taipei County has been one of the top concerns for the Taipei County government. Therefore, the aim of this study is to select critical creativity strategies that were developed by the Taipei County government for the higher education system to implement creativity improvement and enhancement. Based on the results, the most effective creativity strategy is Creative Intelligence. The higher education system in Taipei County is encouraged to improve and enhance creativity in accordance with the results so as to enhance the Taiwanese innovation level and fulfill the Taiwanese national goal of efficiency.     

A conceptual model of public sector corporate entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship has been conceptualized as a process that can occur in organizations of all sizes and types (Burgelman, Academy of Management Review, 8, 32–47, 1983; Miller, Management Science, 29, 770–791, 1983; Gartner, Academy of Management Review, 10, 696–706, 1985; Kao, Entrepreneurship, creativity and organization, 1989). This paper develops a conceptual model of public sector corporate entrepreneurship. The proposed model is intended to depict the main antecedents that relate to corporate entrepreneurship within the public sector and the impact of corporate entrepreneurship on public sector organizational performance (growth, development and productivity), as well as factors influencing its continuous performance. Following discussion of the model’s contents, the potential value for researchers and those engaging in public sector corporate entrepreneurship are described.