Throwing space back in: a tale of Indian fishermen,ICT and travel behavior

A suite of agent-based models is designed seeking to replicate and expand the findings of a case study examining the effects of introducing cell phones in a regional fisheries market in southern India. The remote availability of market price information led to economic benefits but also longer average travel distances for the fishermen. Our work generalizes these findings, highlighting the role of space and developing scenarios that involve different configurations for the markets and different assumptions about information-gathering strategies. Here we focus on the development of the model as a tool for exploring behavioral adaptations of ICT-using, utility-oriented travelers in different spatio-temporal contexts.     

Undergraduate students' attitudes towards food shopping and attitudes to time

The objectives of the study are to identify the dimensions underlying two constructs (students' attitudes to food shopping and students' attitudes to time), to use these dimensions to identify student segments and to profile them in terms of the construct dimensions, shopping behaviour and students' characteristics. The study employs a web‐based questionnaire. The useable sample was 744 full‐time undergraduate students at Newcastle University. Results indicated that there are six and seven dimensions underlying attitudes to food shopping and attitudes to time respectively. Three student segments are identified with different attitudes to food shopping, attitudes to time, shopping behaviour and students' characteristics. The implication for marketers is that the student market should not be considered en masse, but that segmentation, targeting and positioning is an appropriate strategy for food retailers to adopt.     

Volunteerism and Virtual Community Business Success: The Case of the Internet Chess Club

Prior work has identified, in piecemeal fashion, desirable characteristics of virtual community businesses (VCBs) such as inimitable information assets, persistent handles fomenting trust, and an economic infrastructure. To date, researchers have lacked convenient settings to collect participant data to gain insight into VCB governance and success factors. In this work, we addressed this gap and studied the Internet Chess Club (ICC), a successful business that offers a rich and accessible data source for the researcher.

We started with an idealized VCB success framework that stressed the key role of the volunteers. We then used an integrated data collection architecture and performed statistical analysis on the ICC members' attitudes and activities. We identified specific attitude and use segments that represent regular member and volunteer subgroups and we show that these segments and their interplay support the framework we advanced at the outset. In our conclusion, we point out the general lessons that can be taken from this case and applied to other VCBs.     

Health Outsourcing/Backsourcing

Abstract

Since outsourcing throughout the 1980s and 1990s, many healthcare organizations are reconsidering their outsourcing decision and backsourcing. This research explores the reasons and outcomes of the outsourcing/backsourcing decision using a case study approach of two cases in Australia and Italy. Findings indicate that the outsourcing decision was cost-driven alongside a desire to increase workforce flexibility. However, backsourcing occurred due to cost increases, a lack of control and lack of workforce flexibility. On the positive side, contracting was shown to provide the host organization with the opportunity of learning from the contractor in updating skills and practices, and management techniques.     

Management letter comments: Their determinants and their association with financial reporting quality in local government

The issuance of management letters (MLs) as part of financial statement audits is a long-standing practice; however, previous studies of MLs are few and no previous research has tested the utility of MLs empirically. This paper reports a study of MLs issued by independent CPA firms pursuant to audits of Florida general purpose local governments. We investigate the determinants of ML comments, finding that such comments are influenced by auditee characteristics and auditor tenure but not by auditor specialization, a proxy for audit quality. Further, we explore the relationship between MLs and financial reporting quality. We observe a negative relationship between first-year ML comments and assessed financial reporting quality. When lagged one year, first-year ML comments bear a positive relationship with financial reporting quality. The absence of ML comments is positively associated with financial reporting quality. Our results suggest that MLs are beneficial to auditees. As such, our study should be interesting to policymakers, users of financial reports, auditees, and auditors.     

Evolve and integrate: a new imperative for ambulatory care

A highly evolved ambulatory care delivery system possesses four key attributes: high-quality care, exceptional levels of access, outstanding patient and staff satisfaction, and cost-effective delivery of care. Such a system seeks to ease management of the patient care continuum by delivering as many services as possible under one umbrella. High-quality, cost-effective care is achieved through improved care coordination and cost management, resulting from a tight connection between physicians and hospitals and between inpatient and outpatient settings. Improved access is an important means to improving patient satisfaction.     

Taxing Super

Australia's taxation arrangements for retirement saving are among the most complicated in the world. It is almost unique in applying taxat all three possible points in the retirement saving cycle: contributions, earnings and benefits. Starting from the proposition that the 'best' pension tax is to tax benefits under the personal income tax, this paper proposes a 'withholding tax' arrangement which would have impacts on individual contributors equivalent to a benefit tax, while altering the time profile of tax collections to address cash-flow concerns on the part of the revenue authorities. Simulations are presented to show that individual contributors benefit from the proposed reform, and that equity across contributors in different wage bands is broadly maintained.     

Entering Eastern European markets : Lessons from Kmart

Kmart completed its purchase of 13 stores in the Czech Republic and Slovakia in May/June 1992. Using interviews conducted in June 1993 with directors of Kmart-Czech Republic and Slovakia and a vice director of its major Prague competitor, Kotva, this paper analyzes the strategies Kmart is using to position itself in Eastern Europe for both retail sales and product acquisition and distribution. Four lessons to be learned from Kmart were identified: (1) internationalize what you do well; (2) know your customers by listening to them and adapting to their needs; (3) be flexible and change if a strategy does not work; and (4) balance short-and long-term gains.     

An empirical investigation of the cross sectional determinants of lease use

This paper examines the determinants of cross-sectional variation in lease ratios. Results indicate that leases substitute for debt and that relative lease use is negatively related to the size of the lessee. Leased assets, as a fraction of total assets, are negatively related to the financial strength of the lessee. Relative lease use is positively related to the lessee's level of non-debt tax shields, and some support is found for a negative relationship between leasing and the tax rate. Additionally, asset factors, as proxied by industry, provide most of the explanatory power of the model.     

The Political Economy of Intellectual Property Treaties

Intellectual property treaties create two types of obligations:for national treatment of foreign inventors and for certainharmonized protections. I investigate both the incentive tojoin such treaties and the incentive to harmonize. As comparedto an equilibrium in which the countries' policy makers makeindependent choices, harmonization will generally strengthenprotections. This analysis recognizes that public sponsorshipis sometimes an efficient alternative to intellectual property.However, there are no institutions to harmonize public spending,and there are no international mechanisms to repatriate thespillovers it generates. As a consequence, there may be toolittle public sponsorship and too much intellectual property.A country's inclination to strengthen harmonized protectionswill depend both on its innovativeness (positively) and on thesize of its domestic market (negatively).