Models of care in outpatient cancer centers

While rapid changes in the treatment of cancer have been driven by research-based evidence, innovations in cancer care delivery have lagged behind that seen in cancer treatment. A literature review and ten semi-structured interviews were conducted to identify models of care in the ambulatory oncology setting to be adopted by a comprehensive cancer center. Four models were identified from the literature review but none were widely recognized or adopted by administrators. Findings suggested some common themes that should be included in an optimal model of care. These themes are in support of the burgeoning efforts seen in the promotion of interprofessional education and practice for quality improvement. Unique challenges related to the contextual factors in the ambulatory oncology settings suggest quality improvement interventions should be tailored to meet the specific needs of the care facility and its workforce.     

Efficiency,Profitability, and College Football: do Bettors Overrate the Major Conferences in Interconference Play?

This article tests the efficient market hypothesis and the profitability of a simple betting strategy in college football. All games are examined that have a point spread for inter-conference matches involving a Power Five/Automatic Qualifying team from September 2003 through January 2016. The tests reject the efficient market hypothesis for these matchups, with a large subset of matches driving this result. The betting strategy evidence suggests it is nonrandom but it is not particularly profitable for the entire sample. However, there is evidence that betting on certain conferences to cover the point spread (win the bet) results in profitable returns over the period.

     

Exploring the pension ‘X factor’ for generation Y men

In order to reduce state dependency in retirement, current UK pension policy automatically enrols employees into workplace pensions. A key component of success is preventing workers opting-out of the workplace scheme. However, Australian research examining auto-enrolment policy indicates that young men prioritise enjoying life over retirement saving. This article seeks to inform financial services marketing within the new pension auto-enrolment context through examining attitudes towards retirement and pensions among young men in the United Kingdom. Qualitative data is gathered from five dyadic interviews, thematic analysis reveals salient issues of widespread mistrust, negative perceptions of retirement and limited knowledge of auto-enrolment coupled with confidence in future earnings and a desire for greater control. The article concludes with implications for pensions communications planning.     

Price Discovery in the Treasury‐Bill When‐Issued Market

When‐issued (i.e., forward) trading in T‐bills yet to be auctioned provides a unique environment for examining price discovery. Because T‐bills are auctioned in a sealed‐bid process, when‐issued traders cannot observe the spot market price. Yet the forward price must ultimately converge on the auction outcome price. Our results indicate that traders in the when‐issued market “discover” the ultimate auction price. Little evidence is found that standard order flow variables contribute to price discovery. Instead, the ability to observe a few trades with relatively small volume in the when‐issued market is sufficient to discover the auction price resulting from the sealed‐bid process.     

Understanding sales force automation outcomes: A managerial perspective

Despite the growing importance and potential of sales force automation (SFA), failure rates for SFA implementations have been reported to be as high as 55-80%. Given the growth of SFA programs, the potential effectiveness and efficiency SFA can bring to the sales force, and the magnitude of SFA failures, it is surprising that relatively few studies have addressed this important and timely topic. Many of the early studies have focused on the adoption and diffusion/infusion of SFA programs from an information technology perspective. The results of these studies have been inconclusive in explaining SFA implementation failures. The purpose of this study is to add to our understanding of SFA failures by investigating a broader set of implementation factors than those typically included in acceptance of technology studies. We conducted in-depth personal interviews with executives from three global organizations who were responsible for SFA initiatives in their firm. Results from the in-depth analyses yield recommendations and a proposed model to assist managers in the implementation of their SFA as well as getting their salespeople to “buy-in” to the SFA, and ultimately reduce SFA failures.     

On the DuPont analysis in the health care industry

Prior research documents that the DuPont components of return on net operating assets (profit margin and asset turnover) represent an incremental source of information about the operating characteristics of a firm and are useful tools for market participants (Soliman, 2008). We find that the informativeness of DuPont components about future profitability is reduced in the healthcare setting, relative to an all-industry sample. Moreover, to the extent that DuPont components are useful for market participants, we show that profit margin is more persistent than asset turnover for US for-profit health care providers, which contradicts the results documented in prior literature that considered all industries. We argue that the special features of the health care industry (i.e. heavy regulation, unique operational characteristics) affect the information content of accounting signals obtained based on financial statements.     

Firm values and sovereign wealth fund investments

We analyze the impact of sovereign wealth fund (SWF) investments on firm values and provide evidence consistent with the tradeoff between the monitoring and lobbying benefits versus tunneling and expropriation costs of SWFs as blockholders. The data show significant positive (negative) returns to announcements of SWF investments (divestments). The returns are non-monotonic, first rising (falling) and then falling (rising) with the share sought (sold) for investments (divestments). Moreover, we find that SWFs are often active investors. Slightly more than half of the target firms experience one or more events indicative of SWF monitoring activity or influence.