A relationship maintenance model: A comparison between managed health care and traditional fee-for-service

This article proposes and tests a model of the patient-physician relationship maintenance process. The model is based on constructs from social exchange theory and Rusbult's investment model. A patient's commitment to their relationship with their physician is conceptualized based on a three-component model of commitment. The three components of commitment (affective, continuance, and obligation commitment) are examined in an interpersonal setting. A general model of the patient-physician relationship maintenance process is first tested. Then the model is tested separately on a traditional fee-for-service subsample and a managed health care subsample (HMO, PPO). The results indicate that the relationship maintenance process is different in the traditional fee-for-service group than the managed health care group. Specifically, affective commitment is more important for traditional fee-for-service patients and satisfaction and continuance commitment are more important for managed health care patients.     

A Structural Model for Examining how Destination Image,Perceived Value,and Service Quality Affect Destination Loyalty: a Case Study of Orlando

The primary objectives of this study were to investigate and develop a theoretical relationship among destination image, service quality and perceived value and to empirically test the constructs that are likely to affect tourist satisfaction, which in turn influence revisit intentions and word‐of‐mouth referrals. The results of empirical study indicated that destination image influences service quality and perceived value. In addition, the findings revealed that perceived value has a significant effect on satisfaction and loyalty. These research findings contribute to an extant knowledge in this domain, specifically focused on a family‐oriented destination where it was not studied yet with these relationships. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Why Financial Executives Do Bad Things: The Effects of the Slippery Slope and Tone at the Top on Misreporting Behavior

Journal of Business Ethics - While there is an extensive body of literature about the impact of sharing physical space on ethical consumption, and a growing body of literature that addresses the...     

A model of traveller acceptance of mobile technology

With the growing popularity of mobile technology, mobile communications are becoming an important channel for tourism organisations. This study builds upon a conceptual framework that explains the factors influencing tourist acceptance of mobile devices. To represent the uniqueness of mobile technology acceptance based on an extensive literature review on user technology acceptance, this study proposes two external variables (technology experience and trip experience) and two influential determinants (perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use). These factors together determine user attitudes towards using mobile devices and, consequently, influence user intention and willingness to adopt mobile devices in the tourism context. The results of a confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling showed that trip experience and technology experience positively influenced perceived performance and perceived ease of use, and the factors positively related to travellers' attitudes towards using mobile devices and intention to use them within the tourism context. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Matter over mind: When specific asset investment affects calculative trust in supply chain partnership

This study, using the concept of trust defined as calculative, risk-related, and relationship-based, examines the relationships between bilateral specific asset investments and after-investing trust. The findings indicate that a firm's trust in their supply chain partner is highly associated with both sides' specific asset investments. It also signifies that the replaceability of a respondent firm moderates the positive relationship between the partner's specific asset investment and trust. Our data has proven that the calculative-based trust theory has better explaining power with the transaction cost analysis (TCA) variables than the knowledge-based trust theory.     

Contracts without memory in multiperiod agency models

Settings are considered in which optimal multiperiod contracts can have no memory, i.e., where second period payments do not need to depend on first period outcomes. If contracts have no memory, a repeated agency game can be played myopically; there are no gains to long-term relationships. Conditions on preferences for a no memory contract are presented. In an agency game with moral hazard on the act selection, preference separability and domain additivity imply the existence of a no memory contract. In a setting without moral hazard but with asymmetric information on the outcome, domain additivity implies no memory.     

Investment financing: evidence from Korea

This study examines the relative importance of various forms of capital in financing investments by Korean firms. Our results from the seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) method indicate that, unlike U.S. firms, Korean firms rely substantially on cash holdings to finance investments. These results also suggest that Korean firms use long‐term debt more actively than equity issuance to finance investments. Subgroup analyses show that large firms and Chaebol‐affiliated firms use more long‐term debt but less equity issuance than comparison firms do, suggesting that debt capacity allows firms to reduce the use of equity issuance. However, there is little evidence that financing decisions are driven by information asymmetry. The results from the quantile regression (QR) method suggest that Korean firms tend to use debt capital more than they do equity capital at low and medium levels of investments, while their reliance on equity capital increases at high levels of investments.     

Factors Affecting New Product Success: Cross-Country Comparisons

Although considerable effort has been devoted to identifying the factors that contribute to new product success and failure, plenty of work remains to be done in this area. For example, many studies of this subject focus on companies in specific parts of the world (in particular, North America, Europe, and Japan). It remains to be seen whether the findings from these studies apply to the new product development (NPD) efforts of companies in other regions, let alone on a global basis. Sanjay Mishra, Dongwook Kim, and Dae Hoon Lee address this issue in a study of the factors that contribute to the success or failure of NPD efforts in South Korean firms. To explore the question of whether a global set of success factors can be identified, they compare their findings with those of similar studies conducted in Canada and China. Classifying these countries in terms of stages of economic development (with China and Canada at opposite extremes and Korea in the middle), they expect to find the greatest dissimilarities in their comparisons of China and Canada. Marketing managers from 144 Korean firms provided in formation about 288 successful and unsuccessful products. Their responses indicate that the factors most closely related to new product outcomes in Korea are market intelligence, product-firm compatibility, the nature of the new product idea (for example, whether the product idea was market derived, whether the product specifications were clearly defined by the marketplace), launch effort, and general characteristics of the new product venture (such as the product's innovativeness to the market and its technical complexity). Several of these factors were emphasized in studies of Canadian and Chinese NPD success, though respondents to those studies also highlighted the importance of the product offering and proficiency of formal NPD activities. Contrary to expectations, China and Canada show the greatest similarity among the three countries studied, in terms of the relative importance of the various NPD success factors. On the other hand, China and Korea are more similar in terms of the effects of the variables studied. In other words, if a variable is related to new product failure in Korea, that variable is most likely also related to failure in China. Although some similarities are evident among all three countries, the findings in this study do not point toward a single, global formula for NPD success.     

Sketching: Friend or Foe to the Novice Designer?

Previous research by one of the authors showed that novice designers do not use sketching as a way to generate, develop and communicate design proposals, but move immediately to three-dimensional modelling. Neither do they generate multiple solutions. The follow-up study described here addressed the questions: Does teaching two-dimensional modelling enable Grade 7 pupils to better express their ideas and organize their thoughts? What role does discussion play in pupils' attempts to generate a design proposal? Does the use of contextualising items make a difference to pupils' success with designing? Eight Grade 7 pupils were drawn from each of two classes. One class had received instruction in sketching; the other served as a control group. Each group of eight pupils was divided into single-sex dyads. The eight dyads were videotaped while producing a solution to a common design brief. Analysis of the data has provided insights into the effects of instruction on the proposals produced by pupils. Additionally, their ability to generate, develop and communicate design ideas is enhanced by both the dynamic relationship between pupils' talk and 3D modelling and the way the task is contextualised. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Money Market Reform in Korea and Its Effects on the Overnight Call–Repurchase Agreement Rate

The Korean government implemented money market reform after the global financial crisis, aiming to develop the repurchase agreement (RP, repo) market. In this article, I analyze the reform and its effects on money markets. Results show that the reform strengthened the functionality of the RP market and the monetary policy transmission channel to it. The error correction model indicates that although the adjustments to the equilibrium occurred through the call rate during the global financial crisis, they were processed through the RP rate in later periods. The ability of the RP rate to inform market liquidity conditions has improved.