Understanding hospital quality: the case of cumulative and balanced quality

A more precise way to conceptualize and operationalize hospital quality is needed to increase hospitals’ productivity. This paper investigates how hospitals’ conformance quality (CQ) and experiential quality (EQ), in terms of their combined magnitude (i.e. their interaction) and relative balance (i.e. the absolute difference between them) impact hospital productivity. First, we explore the impact of both the ‘combined dimension of quality’ and ‘balance dimension of quality’ on hospital productivity. Second, we investigate quality dominance to analyze its impact on productivity when CQ is greater than EQ, and vice versa. Secondary data (January 2015 to December 2015) were collected from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and American Hospital Directory (AHD) for US acute care hospitals. The results provide strong empirical support for the benefit of minimizing the gap between the two types of quality. In addition, the results suggest that considering quality dominance (experiential vs. conformance) might be useful in shedding light on the inherent tension that exists when firms are forced to allocate resources to provide different types of quality simultaneously.     

Design and valuation of debt contracts

This articles studies the design and valuation of debt contractsin a general dynamic setting under uncertainty. We incorporatesome insights of the recent corporate finance literature intoa valuation framework. The basic framework is an extensive form game determined bythe terms of a debt contract and applicable bankruptcy laws.Debtholders and equityholders behave noncooperatively. The firm'sreorganization boundary is determined endogenously. Strategic debt service results in significantly higher defaultpremia at even small liquidation costs. Deviations from absolutepriority and forced liquidations occur along the equilibriumpath. The design tends to stress higher coupons and sinkingfunds when firms have a higher cash payout ratio.     

The influence of activity importance and similarity on perception of recreation substitutes

Abstract

This study examines how substitutes are selected for a fly‐angling and camping recreation activity. Results show that although people choose substitutes similar to their intended activity, the degree of similarity between substitute and original is unrelated to perceived quality of substitute. Also, both the quality of a substitute and the number of available substitutes are inversely related to the importance of an activity's attributes. The lack of a relationship between activity/substitute similarity and quality of the substitute poses problems for application of the substitutability concept.     

Resolving Cross-cultural Ethical Conflict: An Empirical Test of a Decision Tree Model in an Educational Setting

The authors have previously developed and described a decision tree model for addressing cross-cultural ethical conflicts. The model is intended to provide an ethically sound yet pragmatic tool for decision makers facing such situations. This paper presents the results of an empirical test of the model in an educational setting with a sample of business students. Students trained to use the model demonstrated significantly more flexibility and appropriateness in their decisions on case scenarios than those who were not trained. The implications for use of the model in educational settings and recommendations for future research are discussed.     

Asymmetric Information,Asset Allocation,and Debt Financing

We analyze a signaling game where firms' financing announcements convey private information about their prospects but a moral hazard problem exists in that managers may suboptimally invest. Consequently, the attempt to address an asymmetric information problem exacerbates moral hazard. The equilibrium recognizes both imperfect information problems. Additionally, the firm must determine how to allocate funds between two technologies differing in cash flow timing and managerial accessibility. We define an above-average firm's comparative advantage as that technology which is most dominant relative to a firm with lesser prospects and show that the resultant equilibria follow the lines of the firm's comparative advantage. Finally, we show that separation may be achieved costlessly, i.e., with no explicit signaling cost.     

Combining value and price to make purchase decisions in business markets

The authors investigate how purchasing managers combine information about product offerings' values and prices to make purchase decisions. The results of two field studies show that managers do not regard monetarily-equivalent changes in value and price to be the same. Using reference-dependent theory, the authors show that, rather than a single utility function, separate functions for value and price appear to underlie purchasing managers' decisions. The authors also address means of inducing managers to choose higher-valued, higher-priced product offerings.     

Forecast combinations under structural break uncertainty

This paper proposes two new weighting schemes that average forecasts based on different estimation windows in order to account for possible structural change. The first scheme weights the forecasts according to the values of reversed ordered CUSUM (ROC) test statistics, while the second weighting method simply assigns heavier weights to forecasts that use more recent information. Simulation results show that, when structural breaks are present, forecasts based on the first weighting scheme outperform those based on a procedure that simply uses ROC tests to choose and forecast from a single post-break estimation window. Combination forecasts based on our second weighting scheme outperform equally weighted combination forecasts. An empirical application based on a NAIRU Phillips curve model for the G7 countries illustrates these findings, and also shows that combination forecasts can outperform the random walk forecasting model.     

On the asymptotic optimality of the LIML estimator with possibly many instruments

We consider the estimation of the coefficients of a linear structural equation in a simultaneous equation system when there are many instrumental variables. We derive some asymptotic properties of the limited information maximum likelihood (LIML) estimator when the number of instruments is large; some of these results are new as well as old, and we relate them to results in some recent studies. We have found that the variance of the limiting distribution of the LIML estimator and its modifications often attain the asymptotic lower bound when the number of instruments is large and the disturbance terms are not necessarily normally distributed, that is, for the micro-econometric models of some cases recently called many instruments and many weak instruments.     

Riding the Third Wave Implications of Biotechnology for the Canadian Seed Crop Industry

Biotechnology is causing dramatic changes in the seed industry on a national and global level. Further, the delivery of technology through seed is affecting all aspects of crop production. Coined the Third Wave of Development, it is a drive to meet specific end use traits through biotechnology. In light of this, the industry is seeing increased integration between all those involved in the chain of production. Adapting to this new environment creates significant challenges for the industry, including regulatory, international, handling, and structural.
As the Canadian seed industry changes dramatically to meet the specific needs of end users, there has been an increase in strategic alliances between both handling and seed companies to accommodate identity preserved production. There has also been an increase in mergers and acquisitions, as R&D companies attempt to marry novel trait developments with good germplasm and seed production expertise.
Yet, this is only the beginning as the integration of the seed industry with other aspects of the crop inputs sector applies even more pressure to integrate the agri-food industry right from plant breeding through to end use.