Lessons from Sweden’s first large-scale implementation of Six Sigma in healthcare

The Skaraborg Hospital Group (SkaS) has implemented a variety of quality management initiatives in the last 20 years in accordance with its strategy of excelling at quality development to fulfill the needs and expectations of its patients. One such initiative is Six Sigma, which has contributed to more than 40 completed improvement projects. Using an action research approach, this article describes the lessons that were learned from the first 22 Six Sigma projects, completed between 2006 and 2008 and having a success rate of 75%. We further describe how these insights have contributed to other ongoing quality improvement activities at SkaS. In particular, the paper presents some key points not earlier described in other Six Sigma healthcare applications.     

What Drives Fraud in a Credence Goods Market? – Evidence from a Field Study

This paper investigates the impact of competition on an expert firm's incentive to defraud its customers in a credence goods market. Controlling for the competence of car repair shops, their financial situation, and reputational concerns, we use and complement the data set from a nationwide field study conducted by the German Automobile Association that regularly checks the reliability of garages in Germany. We find that more intense competition lowers a firm's incentive to defraud its customers.     

An appreciation of contemporary settlement morphology

This paper uses interpretive structural modelling as a heuristic tool for exploring the complexity of human settlements. It attempts to integrate ideas from general systems theory, policy sciences, and the science of human settlements (ekistics) into a paradigm of inquiry that is particularly suited to the investigation of alternative futures for human settlements. In recognising the diversity and complexity of perceptions, it adopts a particular morphology and suggests how interpretive structural modelling can be used to explore relationships among sets of relevant elements.     

An empirical test of a correspondence model of expatriate managers' work adjustment

We develop and empirically test a model of expatriate managers' work adjustment. In this model we relate the fit between work-related abilities and needs of expatriate managers as well as the fit between the job requirements of, and incentives associated with, an international assignment to the level of expatriate managers' work adjustment. We test this model with data gathered by means of an electronic survey among 118 German expatriate managers. The empirical findings largely support our theoretical model. The paper enhances our understanding of expatriate managers' work adjustment and its antecedents and contributes to the theoretical and empirical basis of research into expatriate management.