A discrete-choice experiment to assess treatment modality preferences of patients with anxiety disorder

Aims: The aim of this study was to elicit the preference of patients with an anxiety disorder regarding treatment modalities. Understanding patients’ preferences could help optimize treatment uptake and adherence to therapeutic interventions.

Materials and methods: A discrete-choice experiment was used to elicit patients’ preferences with regard to four treatment characteristics: waiting time until first treatment, intensity of treatment, face-to-face vs digital treatment, and group size. In 12 choice sets, participants were asked to choose between two treatment alternatives. A random parameters logit model was used to analyse the data.

Results: A total of 126 participants, aged 18?years and older, currently or in the previous year in treatment for an anxiety disorder, completed the survey. Respondents preferred short (over long) waiting times, face-to-face (over digital) treatment, individual (over group) treatment and a treatment intensity of one session per week rather than two sessions per week or one session every two weeks. Waiting time and treatment intensity were substantially less important to patients than level of digitalization and group size. Heterogeneity in preference was significant for each attribute, and sub-group analyses revealed this was partly related to education level and age.

Limitations: The convenience sample over-represented the female and younger population, limiting generalizability. Limited information on background characteristics limited the possibilities to explore preference heterogeneity.

Conclusions: This study demonstrated how different treatment components for anxiety disorders affect patients’ preferences for those treatments. There is significant variation in treatment preferences, even after accounting for age and education. Incorporating patients’ preferences into treatment decisions could potentially lead to improved adherence of treatments for anxiety disorders.     

Media generations and their advertising attitudes and avoidance: a six-country comparison

This cross-national survey (N = 5784) examined generational differences in media use, advertising attitudes and avoidance for five media (websites, social media, mobile phones, television, newspapers) in six countries (Germany, Spain, United Kingdom, United States, France, and the Netherlands). The results showed that the net generation and the newspaper generation, but not the TV generation, were clearly distinct in the frequency of their media use in all six countries. For advertising attitudes, generational patterns were visible, however, neither for all media nor in all countries. When generational differences did occur, the net generation was on the positive end, whereas the newspaper generation was usually the most negative. For advertising avoidance, generational patterns were less present and consistent. The findings point out interesting directions for future research. Practical implications for advertisers and media planners are discussed.     

Sudden Stops and Current Account Reversals: Potential Macroeconomic Consequences for South Africa

South Africa is one of the emerging market countries that have received a relatively large amount of foreign capital since the mid‐2000s. In South Africa's case, these inflows were partly used to build the country's foreign exchange reserves, but more particularly to finance continued large current account deficits. During the course of the past two years, however, adverse domestic political developments, combined with the potential negative impacts of the unwinding of quantitative easing policies and the normalising of monetary policy in the United States on emerging markets in general, has raised the spectre of a sharp slowdown in foreign capital flows to South Africa and an associated reversal of the current deficit. This paper explores the potential impact of such a development on macroeconomic conditions in South Africa. The analysis consists of macroeconometric model‐based alternative scenarios backed up by both the international evidence on the impact of such events and South Africa's own history.     

Buy Smart,Time Smart: Are Takeovers Driven by Growth Opportunities or Mispricing?

Excessively high pricing by bidders and targets can be explained by new growth opportunities created by the merger or by irrational overpricing in financial markets. We integrate both explanations through a new decomposition of firm value and investigate whether it is “true” growth value or mispricing that drives takeover waves. We find that “bidders buy smart.” Bidders primarily have high market values because of growth opportunities and overpricing, and select targets that are less overpriced with similar fundamental growth value. Bidders also seem to “time smart.” Takeover activity increases when bidders are more overpriced, in order to cushion against price corrections.     

Whistleblowing and media logic: a case study

Most analyses of whistleblowing are concerned with the whistleblower as an actor or with the act of whistleblowing itself. However, as soon as the whistleblower enters the public arena, a social dynamic emerges of interdependent actors with different responsibilities and different interests.Such a dynamic demands a more comprehensive approach in which the motives of the different actors in the public debate are taken into account.This approach is developed here using an exemplary case of whistleblowing that took place in a Dutch research institute.The intensive media attention damaged both the institute and the whistleblower.In retrospect this could have been avoided.In our analysis we give extra attention to the motives involved and to the inevitability of media logic.In order to avoid unnecessary damage we recommend guidelines to the three basic actors:the whistleblower, the organization and the media.     

South Africa: Macroeconomic challenges after a decade of success1

More than halfway through the decade, the South African economy has done very well. This report asks whether such achievements provide grounds for complacency. In particular it discusses the current account challenge in light of the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (ASGI‐SA) program. Our assessment is that a cautionary note on the need to reduce external imbalances is needed. We provide policy recommendations to minimize the negative impact of a possible sudden stop of capital inflows. On the consistency of ASGI‐SA program, we note that, given South Africa's recent employment and productivity performance a large investment program would be required to deliver the desired growth rates. In our view this imposes a large burden on public investment and on the current account itself.     

Effective Repair in Survey Interviews

In standardized survey interviews with closed-ended questions it quite often occurs that respondents do something else than mentioning their choice from the set of response categories presented together with the question. In these cases their initial response is inadequate and interviewers have to initiate repair activities. By analyzing 804 question–answer sequences, stemming from parts of a survey with elderly people (N=201), we found that 322 (41%) of the initial responses were inadequate. In 74% of these 332 sequences the interviewers made an attempt at repair. Of all repair attempts, 75% were performed correctly, that is, in a nondirective way. Most of the repair attempts (86%) result in an adequate final response of the respondent. The result of the repair activities by the interviewers is that the number of sequences with an adequate response increased from 472 to 688, thus an increase of about 45%. There does not exist ‘one best way’ of repairing. The most important thing is that some repair initiative has to be taken by the interviewer and that the repair is done in a nondirective way.     

Strategic NPV: Real Options and Strategic Games under Different Information Structures

Research summary : Among the most difficult firm strategic choices is the trade‐off between making a long‐term commitment or holding off on investment in the face of uncertainty. To operationalize strategic management theory under demand, technological and competitive uncertainty, we develop a Strategic Net Present Value (NPV) framework that integrates real options and game theory to quantify value components and interactions at the interface between NPV, real options, and strategic games. Our approach results in new propositions clarifying the way learning‐experience conditions, technological uncertainty, and proprietary information interact to tilt the balance in the interplay between wait‐and‐see flexibility and strategic commitment. As such, Strategic NPV adds to our understanding of the conditions where NPV, real options, or strategic thinking are more relevant. Managerial summary : This study develops and elucidates implementation of a new valuation construct, “Strategic Net Present Value (NPV),” that integrates real options and game theory to more accurately portray strategic decisions underlying management theory. Among the most difficult firm strategic choices in capital intensive industries, such as energy, mining, chip manufacturing, and infrastructure development, is the trade‐off between making a long‐term commitment or holding off on investment in the face of demand, technological, and competitive uncertainties. The study provides new insights on the way various conditions, such as learning‐experience effects, technological uncertainty, and proprietary information, interact to tilt the balance in the interplay between commitment and wait‐and‐see flexibility. As such, Strategic NPV adds to our understanding of when NPV, real options, or strategic thinking matter more critically for decision making. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The role of pay secrecy policies and employee secrecy preferences in shaping job attitudes

Although pay secrecy continues to garner attention in human resource management, little research examines how these policies impact employees. Research inconsistently links secretive pay policies to unfavourable outcomes but has yet to consider that employees may have varying attitudes toward these policies. We examine how employee preferences modify the effect that organisational pay secrecy policies have on employee attitudes in a sample of 431 employed adults. To accomplish this goal, we create measures of pay secrecy policies and pay secrecy preferences that each differentiate two facets of pay secrecy: distributive pay non‐disclosure and communication restriction. Polynomial and moderated regression analyses indicated that disparities between employee preferences and organisational pay secrecy policies can reduce job satisfaction and perceptions of informational, interpersonal, and procedural justice under certain circumstances. These results simultaneously highlight the importance of employee attitudes toward pay secrecy policies and the challenges human resource practitioners face in managing employees with diverse preferences.