Consumer behaviour and the purchasing of dental services: Influences on selection and evaluation of health care services

This paper examines the process of interaction between consumers and providers of dental services in terms of the key selection and evaluation criteria employed by consumers. Focusing on the United Kingdom, it examines the impact of changes in both pricing and provision on the utilisation and evaluation of dental services. Based on a questionnaire survey of dental patients, in the context of the evolving body of literature concerned with consumer behaviour in respect of services, the paper attempts to improve the current understanding of the key factors shaping consumer choice in respect of professional services. Specifically, it argues that the highly complex nature of professional services impacts on patterns of consumer behaviour, resulting in the relationship between the individual service professional and the consumer being the focus of consumer evaluation. This in turn has significant implications for the effective marketing of such professional services.     

Self-Employment and Job Satisfaction: Investigating the Role of Self-Efficacy, Depression, and Seniority

Are self‐employed workers more satisfied with their jobs compared to wage and salary workers? Using The National Survey of Families and Households: Wave I, 1987–1988, and Wave II 1992–1994 several expectations are evaluated in this article. First, self‐employed persons should enjoy higher job satisfaction than others. Second, a portion of the association between job satisfaction and self‐employment should be explained by higher levels of self‐efficacy and by lower levels of depression among the self‐employed compared to others. Third, self‐employment veterans are a select group and should be different systematically from self‐employment newcomers with respect to reported job satisfaction. Findings offer support for the first and second arguments above but not the third. Post‐hoc analysis suggests that among the newly self‐employed, the association between job satisfaction and self‐employment depends on both the quantity and quality of time invested in the business. Implications of these findings and directions for further research are discussed.     

Self-Efficacy Toward Service, Civic Participation and the Business Student: Scale Development and Validation

This paper presents the development andvalidation of new measurement tools to exploreself-efficacy toward service and toward civicparticipation. We developed and administereda survey to 851 students in an AACSB-accreditedcollege of business at a comprehensive publicuniversity located in the Midwest. Traditionalscale development methodologies plusconfirmatory factor analysis and simultaneousfactor analysis in several populations wereused to analyze both a primary sample and aholdback sample. Results strongly support thevalidity and reliability of the surveyinstrument. Future use for the instrumentincludes verification of the effectiveness ofpedagogies designed to increase self-efficacytoward service and motivation for civicparticipation in business students.     

Ethics in Information Technology and Software Use

The emerging concern about software piracy and illegal or unauthorized use of information technology and software has been evident in the media and open literature for the last few years. In the course of conducting their academic assignments, the authors began to compare observations from classroom experiences related to ethics in the use of software and information technology and systems. Qualitatively and anecdotally, it appeared that many if not most, students had misconceptions about what represented ethical and unethical behaviors in these realms. Clearly, one can argue that if college students are uncertain about what constitutes appropriate and inappropriate behavior then this uncertainty will be carried forward into their workplaces upon graduation. Furthermore, if their workplaces don't provide ethics training as a component of a new employee orientation program, one can project a potential for unintentional violations and infringements of copyrights and law in the field. This study was conducted among graduate and undergraduate students to gain insight into their attitudes, perceptions and understanding of some of the relevant ethics issues. A questionnaire of 11 statements was employed that described ubiquitous but most likely unethical (or surely dubious) behaviors in the prevailing business and academic environments. Each respondent was asked to evaluate each statement twice (once for “self” and once for “colleague”) on a five-option highly ethical (5) to neutral (3) to highly unethical (1) scale. The statements were worded such that lower instrument score was associated with higher ethical responses. The questionnaire's two-part structure was designed to solicit honest answers. The encouraging learning from this study was that the overall sample and its various sub-samples did not consider any of the eleven behaviors to be “ethical” or “highly ethical.” It was also encouraging to note that the overall sample and all sub-samples considered “highly unethical” those behaviors associated with personal privacy or property or outright theft. This indicated that moral judgment and probity prevail. The discouraging learning was that behaviors associated with the use of enterprise property were viewed as “neutral” i.e., neither “ethical” nor “unethical.” These findings suggested confusion and lack of clarity and definition around workplace deportment as it regards ethics in software and information technology use. The current study suggests that additional research needs to be conducted to define and clarify the issues, which in turn can form the basis for programs to rectify or at least ameliorate the situation.     

Contract modifications and the basis behavior of live cattle futures

The purpose of this study was to assess the basis behavior of the Live Cattle Futures contract at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) before and after the 1995 contract changes. Additionally, an alternative method of basis calculation utilizing weighted mean futures prices versus settlement futures prices was compared to determine which method provides a better representation of the basis level. Within a regression model with heteroskedascity error framework, we found that the level of nearby basis in the period after June 1995 has shifted lower and the average monthly open interest of net commercial long positions has substantially increased after the contract modifications. These empirical results are consistent with the notion that more long activity entered the market in response to the contract modifications. Additionally, an alternative (new) measure of basis calculation (cash price minus weighted mean futures price) produced similar results to two other commonly used measures. In conclusion, the 1995 contract changes have neither increased nor decreased the volatility of live cattle basis. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 24:557–590, 2004     

CROSS‐DOCKING AND ITS IMPLICATIONS IN LOCATION‐DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS

Cross‐docking replaces traditional warehousing, enabling continuous flow of items without storage. Here we model location‐distribution networks, that include cross‐docking facilities, to obtain the latter's impact on the supply chain. We formulate optimization models to minimize total cost in three multi‐echelon networks, each model generalizing the preceding one. The first includes a single manufacturer, one product type, and multiple customers. Cross‐docks are to be located between origin and destinations. Besides solving optimally, a tool for quantitative analysis of direct‐shipment decisions is developed. The second model considers more than one product: We determine a cost‐effective sequence of items for indirect shipment (via cross‐docks). Finally, in a network with multiple origins, optimal solutions are obtained for 40 medium‐sized and larger examples.     

Explaining Firm Employment Growth: Does Location Matter?

This paper addresses the question to what extent the location of a firm can be regarded as having an influence on the performance of a firm as measured by employment growth. While in theory it is widely acknowledged that `location' should be considered as a relevant growth determinant, empirical research has so far mainly focused on firm-internal factors. The question raised in this paper is empirically verified by means of an econometric model based on a data set of circa 35,000 establishments located in the northern part of the Netherlands during the period 1994–1999. The model includes several measurements of location characteristics like the population level and growth, employment growth, spatial specialisation and cluster indicators, type of enterprise zone, and accessibility while controlling for firm-associated factors such as size, age, and business activity. Based on the fact that we find several significant coefficients we conclude that `location matters' but that the effect differs by type of economic activity.     

THE SQUARED ORNSTEIN-UHLENBECK MARKET

We study a complete market containing J assets, each asset contributing to the production of a single commodity at a rate that is a solution to the squared Ornstein-Uhlenbeck (Cox-Ingersoll-Ross) SDE. The assets are owned by K agents with CRRA utility functions, who follow feasible consumption/investment regimes so as to maximize their expected time-additive utility from consumption. We compute the equilibrium for this economy and determine the state-price density process from market clearing. Reducing to a single (representative) agent, and exploiting the relation between the squared-OU and squared-Bessel SDEs, we obtain closed-form expressions for the values of bonds, assets, and options on the total asset value. Typical model parameters are estimated by fitting bond price data, and we use these parameters to price the assets and options numerically. Implications for the total asset price itself as a diffusion are discussed. We also estimate implied volatility surfaces for options and bond yields.