From Experience: Demystify Creativity, Enhance Innovation

Creativity need not be a chance occurrence. The authors of this article believe there is a technology that facilitates creativity. It is a technology that can be learned and applied and managed. They describe the specific steps that they followed in helping a group of R&D professionals learn, apply, and manage the creative processes in the lab. It is a story of practical steps that dealt with the everyday realities of managing in a large corporation.     

The Shifting of FHA Discount Points: Actual Vs. Expectations

This study extends the earlier studies by Zerbst and Brueggeman (Z&B) and Colwell, Guntermann and Sirmans (CGS) with regard to the shifting of FHA discount points by the seller to the buyer in the form of a higher selling price. The study extends the earlier studies by reducing the estimation problems of the CGS model and further developing the Z&B model to incorporate expected discount points built into the asking price. The results presented indicate that 100% of the points are not being shifted. Reasons for the less-than-full shifting are given.     

A Global Approach to Identifying Expert System Applications in Compensation Practice

This paper reports the results of a study to determine the most cost-effective expert system application for the compensation practice of a large employee benefits consulting firm. The purpose of the expert system would be to help assure quality and consistency in practice and to assist in the training of less experienced experts. The study utilized a questionnaire to solicit input from experts in several locations. The questionnaire included a comprehensive listing of firm compensation tasks. Evaluation characteristics selected for the study emphasized business-related characteristics. Because of adverse economic circumstances in the consulting firm, the decision concerning an initial expert systems application was deferred.     

Familial Risk for Exceptional Longevity

One of the most glaring deficiencies in the current assessment of mortality risk is the lack of information concerning the impact of familial longevity. In this article we update estimates of sibling relative risk of living to extreme ages using data from more than 1700 sibships, and we begin to examine the trend for heritability for different birth-year cohorts. We also build a network model that can be used to compute the increased chance for exceptional longevity of a subject, conditional on his or her family history of longevity. The network includes familial longevity from three generations and can be used to understand the effects of paternal and maternal longevity on an individual's chance to live to an extreme age.     

Property price effects of a national wildlife refuge: Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge in Massachusetts

The amenity value of proximity to a National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) in central Middlesex County, Massachusetts is estimated and compared to the values of proximity to five other open space types, including agricultural land, cemeteries, conservation land, golf courses, and sport/recreation parks. A hedonic model is used to explore the relationships among residential property values and proximity to these distinct types of open space. Open space characteristics in the empirical model include measures of continuous distance from each property to the nearest open space of each type and an index describing the diversity of open space types within neighborhoods of 100 and 1000 meters around a home. Results reveal that a property located 100 meters closer to the NWR than a neighboring property has a price premium of $984. Further, proximity to the NWR is valued more than proximity to agricultural land, cemeteries, and conservation land. No significant differences are found among the values of proximity to the NWR, golf courses, and sport/recreation parks.     

Stakeholder Forces of Socially Responsible Supply Chain Management Orientation

This project investigates salient stakeholder forces of socially responsible supply chain orientation (SRSCO) in the apparel and footwear sector focusing on fair labor management issues. SRSCO was conceptualized as a composite of internal organizational direction and external partnership for a creation and continuation of fair labor conditions throughout the supply chain. Primary stakeholders identified were consumers, regulation, industry, and media. A total of 209 mail survey responses from sourcing managers of U.S. apparel and footwear companies were analyzed. Two dimensions of SRSCO were confirmed: internal direction and external partnership. Consumer and industry peer pressures were found significantly related to internal direction, while industry peers and media were significantly related to the external partnership. Regulation was not significantly related to either internal direction or external partnerships. Lack of regulation forces to govern labor issues and roles of consumers, industry peers, and media in promoting fair labor management are discussed in this article.     

Healthcare resource utilization and direct medical costs associated with index and recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection: a real-world data analysis

Abstract

Aims: This study aimed to evaluate all-cause economic outcomes, healthcare resource utilization (HRU), and costs in patients with Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) and recurrent CDI (rCDI) using commercial claims from a large database representing various healthcare settings.

Materials and methods: A retrospective analysis of commercial claims data from the IQVIA PharMetrics Plus database was conducted for patients aged 18–64 years with CDI episodes requiring inpatient stay with CDI diagnosis code or an outpatient medical claim for CDI plus a CDI treatment. Index CDI episodes occurred between 1 January 2010 and 30 June 2017, including only those where patients were observable 6 months before and 12 months after the index episode. Each CDI episode was followed by a 14-d claim-free period. rCDI was defined as another CDI episode within an 8-week window following the claim-free period. HRU, all-cause direct medical costs and time to rCDI were calculated over 12 months and stratified by number of rCDI episodes.

Results: A total of 46,571 patients with index CDI were included. Mean time from one CDI episode to the next was approximately 1 month. In the 12-month follow-up period, those with no recurrence had 1.4 inpatient visits per person and those with 3 or more recurrences had 5.8. Most patients with 3 or more recurrences had 2 or more hospital admissions. The mean annual, total all-cause direct medical costs per patient were $71,980 for those with no recurrence and $207,733 for those with 3 or more recurrences.

Limitations: The study included individuals 18–64 years only. A stringent definition of rCDI was used, which may have underestimated the incidence of rCDI.

Conclusions: CDI and rCDI are associated with substantial healthcare resource utilization and direct medical costs. Timing of recurrences can be predictable, providing a window of opportunity for interventions. Prevention of multiple rCDI appears essential to reduce healthcare costs.     

Cause-Relating Marketing: The Effects of Purchase Quantity and Firm Donation Amount on Consumer Inferences and Participation Intentions

A conceptual model for a cause-related marketing (CRM) campaign, which examines the effects of purchase quantity and firm donation amount on consumer perceptions of the firm (i.e., firm motive and corporate social responsibility) and participation intentions, is developed and tested in three separate studies. In Study 1, we find the positive effect of firm donation amount on participation intentions was fully mediated by consumer inferences about the firm and the negative effect of purchase quantity on participation intentions was only partially mediated by these inferences. In Study 2, and consistent with the persuasion knowledge model, we demonstrate that the effects of purchase quantity on firm inferences and subsequent participation intentions are moderated by consumer participation effort where higher participation requirements (e.g., mail-in proof-of-purchase) yield more negative purchase quantity effects. We extend the model in Study 3 to incorporate multiple exchange mechanisms and find that although purchase quantity does affect participation intentions by social exchange, the effects of purchase quantity are primarily the result of the economic exchange. Recommendations for the design of cause-related marketing campaigns and for future research are discussed.     

Hospital Costing: Experience from the VHA

The government administered Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is the largest integrated health care system in the USA. As health care dollars are becoming tighter nationwide, VHA faces the dual challenge of achieving cost reductions and improving quality, while operating in an increasingly competitive marketplace. This places new demands on cost accountability within the agency. This paper identifies the cost accounting procedures currently used by VHA as it responds to internal budgetary curtailment and to external competitive pressures. Understanding the different costing approaches taken by the organization along with their associated problems offers lessons of interest to financial managers within and outside VHA.