The social implications of new technology: an unpredictable future

Here the authors summarise the responses to new technology by employers, trade unions and governments from an international perspective and they identify the emerging trends on job displacement, workforce adjustment and new skill requirements in Western industrialised countries.     

Exploring the psychological foundations of ethical positions in marketing

While demographic variables may ease the exploration of marketing ethics, psychological variables may provide more insight into individual differences in making ethical judgments. This article uses path analysis to explore relationships among cognitive style as measured by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Forsyth's ethical ideologies, and perceptions of moral judgments about ethical behaviors in marketing. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

An Examination of Substitution among Monitoring Devices: The Case of Internal and External Audit Expenditures

Much of the agency literature assumes that various monitoring devices are partial substitutes in reducing total agency costs. In particular, internal and external auditing often are characterized as monitoring devices that should be partial substitutes. We argue that reliable evidence of this relation is lacking because prior studies using cross-sectional archival data have not carefully considered the implications of microeconomic theory of substitution for the models estimated. Our analysis leads to a reexamination of the relation using time-series data. We find no evidence that systematic substitution of internal for external auditing (or vice versa) occurred during the period 1989–1993. Further analysis indicates that the relative prices of internal and external auditing inputs did not change during the period. Therefore a necessary condition for substitution to occur did not exist. Although we do not detect substitution with our sample, the analysis and methodology we develop contribute to the literature by enhancing researchers understanding of substitution among monitoring methods.     

Technology and values: problems and options

Science, technology and industry have come to form a positive feedback system of accelerating change, greatly extending the political choice and load carried by the democratic process, and having a potentially massive impact on culture and values. Three possible options are considered for dealing with this situation: limiting research, limiting dissemination, and reforming social institutions and culture. Only one aspect of the third option is considered, ie, the development of an appropriate epistemology to deal with the interaction of science, technology and values. The expansionist claim that science itself is developing to explain the sources of ethics, and will increasingly subsume the traditional areas of social science and the humanities has its problems. The views of the scientific restrictionist, Sir Geoffrey Vickers, a member of the Futures Advisory Board who died recently, deserve wider attention.     

Building a case for using technology: health literacy and patient education

The interplay of a mobile population can affect the quality of patient outcomes and the economics of health care delivery significantly. Helping patients with limited English proficiency understand the basics of self-care for optimal health will continue to be a challenge in the delivery of the highest quality nursing care. Becoming familiar with high-quality, peer-reviewed, and reliable health education materials and Web sites is the responsibility of every health care provider so that patients receive culturally and linguistically appropriate resources to support healthy lifestyles and choices.     

The Challenges Faced by Reporting Entities on Their Transition to International Financial Reporting Standards: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

This study explores the challenges of implementing International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) at the organisational level. Based on interviews with experts with aggregated experience relating to the transition projects of over 170 reporting entities, this paper highlights the main challenges in delivering a successful implementation of IFRS. The findings show that the problems faced in implementation include lack of education and training, securing executive-level support, identifying and responding to the wider business-related implications of the transition, and issues with capturing the necessary information for reporting under IFRS.This paper complements the existing literature and offers a qualitative alternative to considering the transition to IFRS, offering insight into the organisational context of IFRS implementation. These insights are useful not only from a historic perspective, but also for organisations and regulators in the many jurisdictions where IFRS is permitted but not required, where more reporting entities will voluntarily move to IFRS-based reporting in the future. More broadly, they are also applicable to the challenges faced in implementing new and significantly revised IFRSs.     

Consumers in the Knowledge-Based Economy (KBE): What creates and/or constitutes consumer vulnerability in the KBE?

We reflect on the issues which emerged from an interdisciplinary workshop held under the aegis of the Institute for Advanced Studies (IAS), Lancaster University in April 2006 about the Knowledge-Based Economy (KBE). The workshop addressed the question: What creates or constitutes consumer vulnerability in the KBE within the context of financial services? Discussion revolved around four themes: Firstly, setting debates about KBE in a historical context; secondly, identifying the disciplinary perspective for constructing the consumer (e.g., economic, legal); thirdly defining vulnerability without encompassing more than 70% of the population; and finally evaluating the government’s role in consumer welfare and education in the KBE. Directions for future research were identified.     

Ethical Context, Organizational Commitment, and Person-Organization Fit

The purpose of this study was to assess the relationships among ethical context, organizational commitment, and person-organization fit using a sample of 304 young working adults. Results indicated that corporate ethical values signifying different cultural aspects of an ethical context were positively related to both organizational commitment and person-organization fit. Organizational commitment was also positively related to person-organization fit. The findings suggest that the development and promotion of an ethical context might enhance employees' workplace experiences, and companies should consider adopting ethical policies that support principled conduct, punish unethical actions, and increase individual perceptions of an ethical company environment.     

Healthcare utilization and costs associated with treatment for opioid dependence

Objective: Opioid use disorder (OUD) can be managed with medication assisted therapy (MAT) (methadone [MET], buprenorphine [BUP], or extended-release naltrexone [XR-NTX]) or counseling alone (non-pharmacological therapy [NPT]). The objective of this study was to evaluate healthcare resource utilization and costs associated with XR-NTX compared with alternative treatments for opioid dependence.

Methods: Adults with a diagnosis of opioid dependence who initiated treatment with XR-NTX, BUP, MET, or NPT between January 1, 2011 and December 31, 2014 were identified in the Truven Health MarketScan Commercial administrative claims database. Healthcare resource utilization, costs (inpatient [IP], emergency department [ED], outpatient [OP], and pharmacy) and adherence were evaluated for each cohort during 12-month baseline and follow-up periods.

Results: A total of 29,235 patients were included in the analysis; 1,041, 20,566, 745, and 6,883 received XR-NTX, BUP, MET, and NPT, respectively. Patients in the XR-NTX cohort were significantly younger and had more comorbidities compared with the other cohorts. Patients in the XR-NTX group had the largest percentage decrease in IP and ED utilization and costs from baseline to follow-up. OP and pharmacy costs increased significantly from baseline to follow-up for all cohorts. Overall, there was no significant change in total healthcare costs for the XR-NTX group, whereas the costs increased significantly for other groups (BUP?=?+43%, MET?=?+47.7%, NPT?=?+38.8%).

Conclusions: Healthcare resource utilization and costs increased from baseline to follow-up in BUP, MET, and NPT patients, whereas patients receiving XR-NTX experienced no such increase. This analysis suggests there may be economic value in the use of XR-NTX for OUD.