Opting Out of Public Insurance: Is It Socially Acceptable?

The privatization of social services is being increasingly discussed. The market of social services is often characterized by market failures, like informational asymmetries, externalities, distributional problems, which all justify public intervention. But the quality of services provided by public authorities or by private insurers in the context of health insurance is different and could be observable. The public reimbursement of health care is often conditional on rules, like the choice of the physician or the hospital, that induce a disutility of using social insurance instead of private insurance. An alternative solution to a complete privatization is to allow some individuals to opt out. We can imagine that the government allows and even in some cases favors part of the population leaving the public health insurance system. We analyze the situations where the opting out is welfare improving. We then study the optimal policy depending on the characteristics of the economy considering a Rawlsian criterion.     

Innovation strategy and the patenting behavior of firms

This paper investigates whether firms’ innovation strategies affect their patenting behavior, as measured by both the probability of having a patent portfolio and the number of active patents held. Three main dimensions of an innovation strategy are taken into account: the relative importance of basic research, applied research and development work in total R&D activities, the product or process orientation of innovation efforts, and the extent to which firms enter into collaborative R&D with other institutions. The major findings can be summarized as follows: (1) taking into account the various dimensions of an innovation strategy turns out to approximate the patenting behavior of firms better than the traditional Schumpeterian hypotheses related to firm size and market power; (2) there is a positive relationship between the patent portfolio of firms and an outward-oriented innovation strategy characterized by R&D partnerships with external organizations - scientific institutions and competitors in particular; (3) process-oriented innovators patent less than product-oriented innovators; (4) a stronger focus on basic and applied research is associated with a more active patenting behavior; (5) firms that perceive high barriers to innovation (internal, risk-related or external barriers) have smaller patent portfolios; (6) the perceived limitations of the patent system do not significantly influence the patenting behavior, suggesting that firms patent for other strategic reasons than merely protecting innovation rents.     

The prospect of online communication in the event of a disaster

In modern society, enormous amounts of information are instantly exchanged, and topics shift rapidly. People desire and share information to foster a sense of membership in their societies. The trend of Internet communication is present in many types of groups. During the circumstances of disasters, the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake and Tsunami and Typhoon Haiyan (local name, Yolanda) in the Philippines in 2013, social networking services (SNS) constituted a considerably effective method for sharing/exchanging information about the significance of the disaster, confirming family members’ and friends’ whereabouts, locating shelters, relief, food and goods rationing, and so on. Not only did individuals seek/provide information, but government agencies also utilized the social media channels to communicate with the public. Hence, developing and adopting communication in a virtual space were considerably effective for decision-makers in providing emergency services. This study examined SNS users’ accounts based on discretionary decisions during two major disasters: the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami in 2011 and Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines in 2013. In the case of the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami in 2011, government agencies and NPOs actively utilized SNS functions, whereas the mass media distributed information during Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines in 2013.     

Not all international assignments are created equal: HQ-subsidiary knowledge transfer patterns across types of assignments and types of knowledge

Drawing on 50 semi-structured interviews in a case study of a Belgian multinational and its foreign subsidiary in Poland, we develop new insights into how using different types of international assignments (long-term expatriation, short-term expatriation, short-term inpatriation) allows a HQ-subsidiary dyad to transfer different types of knowledge (declarative, procedural, axiomatic, relational), both from and to HQ, during and after the assignment. We show how each type of assignment acts as a unique knowledge transfer channel, and why it is critical that HQ-subsidiary dyads use an appropriate combination and sequence of international assignments reflecting their specific knowledge transfer needs.     

Local stakeholders’ perception of muddy flood risk and implications for management approaches: A case study in Alsace (France)

The inventory of muddy floods in France indicates that the occurrence of these events seriously increased in the North West and the East of the country. Muddy floods triggering can largely be explained by physical characteristics such as a hilly topography, soils prone to crust, and/or heavy rainfall in spring. Although the physical processes are well known by now and despite increasing information about the need of mitigation measures, no significant reduction of these disasters has been registered. Therefore, this should be explained by factors others than scientific reasons or technical knowledge acquisition difficulties.     

The changing rationale for governance choices: Early vs. late adopters of global services sourcing

Research Summary: This article studies how the logic of firm governance choices varies as a function of the time of adoption of particular sourcing practices. Using data on the diffusion of global business services sourcing as a management practice from early experiments in the 1980s through 2011, we show that the extent to which governance choices are affected by process commoditization, availability of external service capabilities, and past governance choices depends on whether firms are early or late adopters. Findings inform research on governance choice dynamics specifically in highly diverse and evolving firm populations. Managerial Summary: This article considers how firms have chosen delivery models in global services sourcing decisions over time. Based on comprehensive data, we make two major observations. First, we find that firms that began with global services sourcing early, invested mainly in their internal sourcing capacity, while outsourcing only simple tasks to external providers, whereas firms that started later invested more in their capability to outsource various services to increasingly sophisticated suppliers. Second, we find that initial investments in internal or external sourcing capabilities have a strong effect on future choices of delivery models. This explains why, even today, firms vary greatly in how they implement global sourcing decisions, and it suggests that newcomers should learn from their own peer group rather than from highly experienced firms.     

Debt, deficits and finite horizons: The stochastic case

We introduce aggregate uncertainty and complete markets into Blanchard's (1985) perpetual youth model. We derive a simple expression for the pricing kernel that can be used to close a variety of equilibrium models in which the set of agents changes over time.     

Employee performance management culture and system features in higher education: relationship with employee performance management satisfaction

Little is known about the satisfaction with employee performance management systems in higher education institutions. In this study, we contribute to this field by focussing on the alignment features of employee performance management systems, on communication related to these systems and on control tightness in the academic unit. An important contribution to the literature is the adoption of an integrated approach to employee performance management in higher education institutions. Employee performance management system features and satisfaction result from a survey to which 589 employees of a Flemish University contributed. Separate estimations are done for different tenure types of academics. The estimation results show that a higher level of internally consistent employee performance management systems, more communication and tighter control are associated with higher academic employee performance management satisfaction. The study also reveals that employee performance management satisfaction depends on the tenure type, suggesting that a diversified employee performance management policy should be considered in universities.