Audit education role in decreasing the expectation gap

The need for change in the accounting and audit profession is a topic discussed and accepted by both regulators and accounting professionals. The authors aimed to investigate whether audit education has an effect on the existence of the audit expectation gap. To achieve this objective, they administered a survey on students, used as proxies for different categories of stakeholders. The results highlight that audit education is impactful in covering the audit reasonableness gap, thus more action in this direction is necessary.     

Information Asymmetry Determinants of Sarbanes-Oxley Wealth Effects

We investigate the roles of information asymmetry and governance in the wealth effects associated with passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) for a sample of 1,158 firms. For events suggesting adoption of stringent reform legislation, we find more (less) favorable abnormal returns (ARs) for firms with high (low) information asymmetry and for firms with weak (strong) governance. More favorable effects could result from expected improvements for firms with high information asymmetry or weak governance. Firms with positive ARs experience information asymmetry reductions post-SOX, indicating the market was able to discern the firms that would most benefit from the legislation's passage.     

HIPAA's privacy rule: what is it, and how does it affect you?

This article discusses the implications for stakeholders of the privacy rule under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, on which the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services first released guidance on July 6, 2001. Although guidance will continue to evolve, the authors urge organizations to initiate the implementation of policies to ensure compliance by the actual effective date of 2003. (Small health plans have until 2004 to comply.)     

Foreign subsidiary perspectives on the mechanisms of global HRM integration

Often in connection with the integration‐responsiveness dilemma, research on HRM in multinational corporations (MNCs) speaks more to explaining the appearance of HRM practices in foreign subsidiaries than to the mechanisms through which such practices are globally integrated. Accordingly, and adopting a subsidiary perspective, the present study has two main aims. The first is to identify the key mechanisms of global HRM integration, how they are used and by whom, and the second is to investigate the factors that explain their usage. The study uses qualitative data from 40 personal interviews conducted with general managers and the most senior HR personnel across 20 Finnish‐owned subsidiaries in China. Based on the contingency view of organisations, explanations for mechanism usage are attributed to certain internal characteristics of the subsidiaries and to the Chinese institutional environment.     

Antitrust Policy: The Impact of Revenue Penalties on Price

The paper examines the impact on a firm’s price when it faces the possibility of an antitrust investigation and associated potential revenue penalty. As well as presenting a general model of antitrust intervention, an illustrative example reflecting the provisions of the 1998 UK Competition Act is offered, the example being developed to explore the implications of the probability of antitrust intervention and punishment increasing non-linearly as a firm’s profit rises.     

Innovation failure in the eye of the beholder: towards a theory of innovation shaped by competing agendas within higher education

This paper examines a case of perceived innovation failure in higher education, a service dominated by conflicting institutional logics of professionalism and markets. Through a mixed methodology investigating student attitudes to, and behaviour around, technological innovation, the paper makes a contribution to the public service innovation literature by focusing on duality in innovation outcomes. This is suggestive of an innovation typology in public services: professionalism-driven and consumerism-driven innovation.     

EQ-5D health utilities: exploring ways to improve upon responsiveness in psoriasis

Aims: To determine if EuroQoL 5-Dimension Health Questionnaire (EQ-5D) health utility scores were able to discriminate among different levels of improvement in psoriasis severity following therapy.

Materials and methods: Data were from three placebo-controlled phase 3 ixekizumab studies (UNCOVER-1, UNCOVER-2, and UNCOVER-3) with patients who had baseline Dermatology Life Quality Index scores >10 (DLQI >10). Psoriasis severity (Psoriasis Area and Severity Index [PASI]), general health utility (EQ-5D), and psoriasis-specific utility (EQ-PSO, UNCOVER-3 only) were assessed. EQ-5D-5L utility scores were generated using the England EQ-5D-5L value set, a crosswalk applied to the EQ-5D-3L United States (US) and United Kingdom (UK) value sets, and a regression-based exploratory scoring function for the EQ-PSO (UK). Analysis of variance was used to estimate change in EQ-5D-5L from baseline to Week 12 per PASI improvement level: PASI <50, PASI 50 to <75, PASI 75 to <90, PASI 90 to <100, and PASI 100. Missing data were imputed using the last observation carried forward method. Value sets for the UK, England, and the US were applied.

Results: In total, 2085 patients across UNCOVER-1, UNCOVER-2, and UNCOVER-3 had baseline DLQI >10 and available utility scores. At Week 12, mean EQ-5D utility scores increased with increasing PASI improvement levels (p?n?=?645; PASI 90 to <100: 0.141, PASI 100: 0.200; adjusted p?=?0.043).

Limitations: EQ-5D-5L index-based scores have limited ability to differentiate among psoriasis patients at the highest PASI improvement levels.

ConclusionsL Adding psoriasis-specific EQ-PSO dimensions to the EQ-5D may enhance responsiveness to improvement in skin clarity at the highest PASI levels, and, therefore, generate utility scores that better reflect treatment benefit in cost-utility models.     

Long-term cost-effectiveness of home versus clinic-based management of chronic heart failure: the WHICH? study

Background: The cost-effectiveness of a heart failure management intervention can be further informed by incorporating the expected benefits and costs of future survival.

Methods: This study compared the long-term costs per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) gained from home-based (HBI) vs specialist clinic-based intervention (CBI) among elderly patients (mean age = 71 years) with heart failure discharged home (mean intervention duration = 12 months). Cost-utility analysis was conducted from a government-funded health system perspective. A Markov cohort model was used to simulate disease progression over 15 years based on initial data from a randomized clinical trial (the WHICH? study). Time-dependent hazard functions were modeled using the Weibull function, and this was compared against an alternative model where the hazard was assumed to be constant over time. Deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analyses were conducted to identify the key drivers of cost-effectiveness and quantify uncertainty in the results.

Results: During the trial, mortality was the highest within 30 days of discharge and decreased thereafter in both groups, although the declining rate of mortality was slower in CBI than HBI. At 15 years (extrapolated), HBI was associated with slightly better health outcomes (mean of 0.59 QALYs gained) and mean additional costs of AU$13,876 per patient. The incremental cost-utility ratio and the incremental net monetary benefit (vs CBI) were AU$23,352 per QALY gained and AU$15,835, respectively. The uncertainty was driven by variability in the costs and probabilities of readmissions. Probabilistic sensitivity analysis showed HBI had a 68% probability of being cost-effective at a willingness-to-pay threshold of AU$50,000 per QALY.

Conclusion: Compared with CBI (outpatient specialized HF clinic-based intervention), HBI (home-based predominantly, but not exclusively) could potentially be cost-effective over the long-term in elderly patients with heart failure at a willingness-to-pay threshold of AU$50,000/QALY, albeit with large uncertainty.     

Scale of harvesting by non-industrial private forest landowners

We examine the intensity of harvesting decision by non-industrial landowners at the lowest price offer they deem acceptable, using a multiple bounded discrete choice stated preference approach that draws upon and connects two subfields of forestry, one identifying characteristics of landowners important to past harvesting or reforestation decisions, and another proposing how landowners evaluate price offers for forest harvesting decisions. Variables important to harvest intensity choices when the landowners find an acceptable price have only been considered for those landowners who actually have participated in harvesting markets, whereas here we examine the behavior of these individuals as well as those who are on the margin (i.e., have not harvested at prevailing current or past market prices). We show that harvest intensity depends critically on the extent of urbanization, indicated by the presence of structures on a parcel as well as forested tract size, along with landowner characteristics such as absenteeism and length of ownership. The results are useful for understanding the timber management behavior for a majority of landowners who may not harvest at prevailing prices, but may participate should prices reach a level acceptable to them, where this level is determined by individual preferences for standing timber resources.