Purchasing: a necessary partnership

According to a recent survey published in Hospital Purchasing News, a Mcknight Medical Communications publication, the average hospital in the United States spent $16.7 million, not including equipment purchases, in 1994. This represents an increase of 41.6 percent over the amount spent in 1990, $11.8 million. The hospital's objective of having year-end revenues exceed expenses largely depends on the ability to purchase materiel at the best price, not necessarily the lowest cost. This goal can be achieved by partnering with suppliers and customers (hospital administrative and surgical staff, as well as patients) through open communication and trust. Reducing costs by a percent on the dollar could return $167,000 to the average hospital. Partnering can assist in achieving these savings!     

Human Resource Management and Corporate Performance in the UK

The relationship between HRM and performance was explored in 366 UK companies using objective and subjective performance measures and cross‐sectional and longitudinal data. Using objective measures of performance, greater use of HRM is associated with lower labour turnover and higher profit per employee but not higher productivity. After controlling for previous years’ performance, the association ceases to be significant. Using subjective performance estimates, there is a strong association between HRM and both productivity and financial performance. The study therefore confirms the association between HRM and performance but fails to show that HRM causes higher performance.     

Accounting for Government Activities in Australia: The State of the Budgets

More considered answers are needed in Australia to key questions about accounting for and managing the role of government. The need for such answers is highlighted by the move to negative net debt and by the underlying fragility of the economy, as well as by the financial cost of election commitments. After a discussion of relevant theoretical and empirical issues, a fiscal strategy for Australia is proposed, as a way of rebuilding the nation's diminished physical, knowledge and social capital in a framework consistent with the most rigorous demands of financial management.     

Proof of concept processes in UK university technology transfer: an absorptive capacity perspective

Successful research commercialisation within the university domain is predicated upon basic research being developed into technology that will attract funding, ultimately resulting in entities such as University spin-out companies or licensing arrangements. This development process involves considerable risk and uncertainty and may require substantial resources to fund early stage operations while returns are uncertain. Hence there is a need to explore risk-minimisation approaches relating to proving the potential for development while concurrently allocating resources in an incremental manner. This paper focuses on the development of the Northern Ireland Proof of Concept (PoC) process within a University Science Park Incubator (USI) as a particular approach to addressing these challenges inherent in the United Kingdom University technology transfer. Furthermore, Absorptive Capacity has emerged in the literature as an appropriate theoretical framework or lens for exploring the development and application of new technology. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to explore the PoC process within a USI as a means for improving the commercialisation of University technology transfer using an Absorptive Capacity perspective. A multiple case analysis of PoC applications within a UK university is described. From the findings it emerges that Absorptive Capacity influencing factors such as levels of R&D investment, prior knowledge base and integration of stakeholder and technology planning all impact on PoC outcomes. In addition a number of process improvement areas for PoC are identified in relation to the influencing factors within the Absorptive Capacity framework.     

Thinking pink? Consumer reactions to pink ribbons and vague messages in advertising

Many brands partner with causes in their advertising campaigns. Consumers appreciate that the brands they purchase participate in activities that contribute to a society’s well-being. This study uses copy-testing techniques to evaluate the number and types of thoughts and brand attitudes in the presence and absence of cause-related messages. Individuals saw an ad for one of two products. None of the ads stated the brand’s financial support to the cause, which is representative of many messages today. People viewing the Dansko ads with the pink ribbon generated significantly fewer thoughts than those viewing the ad without the pink ribbon. For the Fitbit ads, more thoughts were generated for the ad with the pink ribbon than the ad without the pink ribbon. The Fitbit ad with the pink ribbon and support message generated fewer positive and negative thoughts but more neutral thoughts that questioned the brand/cause relationship. Attitudes toward the brand did not vary based on the presence or absence of the pink ribbon. People who saw ads with the pink ribbon displayed more positive attitudes toward the brands’ commitment to society and misestimated the brands’ contributions to the cause.     

An Analysis of Data Quality: Professional Panels,Student Subject Pools,and Amazon's Mechanical Turk

Data collection using Internet-based samples has become increasingly popular in many social science disciplines, including advertising. This research examines whether one popular Internet data source, Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk), is an appropriate substitute for other popular samples utilized in advertising research. Specifically, a five-sample between-subjects experiment was conducted to help researchers who utilize MTurk in advertising experiments understand the strengths and weaknesses of MTurk relative to student samples and professional panels. In comparisons across five samples, results show that the MTurk data outperformed panel data procured from two separate professional marketing research companies across various measures of data quality. The MTurk data were also compared to two different student samples, and results show the data were at least comparable in quality. While researchers may consider MTurk samples as a viable alternative to student samples when testing theory-driven outcomes, precautions should be taken to ensure the quality of data regardless of the source. Best practices for ensuring data quality are offered for advertising researchers who utilize MTurk for data collection.     

Oil prices and world inflation

In this paper we attempt to address the nature of the causal relationships between oil prices and U.S. inflation. We use a procedure developed by Granger to assess “causality” or, more precisely stated, “informativeness.” Our results confirm that higher oil prices have increased the U.S. WPI. Our results also support OPEC's contention that their price increases have in part been a result of worldwide inflation.