Contagious diseases and tourism: a systematic review based on bibliometric and content analysis methods

Quality & Quantity - The present study examines the existing knowledge and intellectual structure on contagious diseases and tourism to map the development of the concept through collaborative...     

Land-use changes, forest/soil conditions and carbon sequestration dynamics: A bio-economic model at watershed level in Nepal

A dynamic bio-economic model has been used at watershed level in Nepal to analyze the land-use changes, forest and soil conditions and their resultant impacts on carbon (C) sequestration. Planning horizon of the model extends over a period of 25 years. The objective function is maximization of the sum of discounted net income flows from agriculture, livestock and forestry productions; imputed value of leisure and labour hiring out activities subject to annual constraints on land, labour and capital availability along with the fulfilment of minimum cash and consumption requirements. The seven scenarios analyzed by the model are: business as usual (BAU), reduction in population growth rate from 2 to 1.5% p.a., increased prices of major crops by 10 and 20%, reduction in emigration of active labour force from the watershed from the current rate of 20–15 and 10%, and increase in discount rate from 5 to 10%. The results indicate that reduced labour emigration rates and increase in the prices of major crops lead to expansion of cultivated area and shift from one land use to the others. Land clearing becomes more severe with decline in labour emigration rate. Up to 10% increase in the prices of agricultural crops does not have noticeable effect on total land clearing. Increase in discount rate leads to less land clearing, more biomass harvesting and higher net C sequestration as compared to the BAU scenario. Assuming a C price of 10 USD per MgC and 5% discount rate, the net present value of C sequestration for the first 25 years is estimated at 1.83 mill USD in the BAU scenario, varying from 0.16 mill USD to 2.26 mill USD, as respectively the lowest and highest values for the seven scenarios analysed. A reduction in population growth and maintenance of current rate of off-farm employment are suggested for slowing down the expansion of cultivated land area, and thereby reducing the forest/soil degradation and C emissions. This in turn would enhance the income potential from C sequestration.     

Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility and Orphan Drug Development: Insights from the US and the EU Biopharmaceutical Industry

In recent years, the biopharmaceutical industry has seen an increase in the development of so-called orphan drugs for the treatment of rare and neglected diseases. This increase has been spurred on by legislation in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere designed to promote orphan drug development. In this article, we examine the drivers of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities in orphan drug markets and the extent to which biopharmaceutical firms engage in these activities with a strategic orientation. The unique context of orphan drugs constitutes a research opportunity to test the applicability of existing theoretical perspectives on CSR and strategic CSR. Using Schwartz and Carroll’s (Bus Ethics Q, 13(4):503–530, 2003) three-domain approach to CSR and the literature on strategic CSR as a theoretical background, we employ a combination of semi-structured interviews and a quantitative website content analysis to study practices of biopharmaceutical firms in the United States and European Union. Our findings show that both US- and EU-based companies engaged in orphan drugs development perceive their involvement as a responsible business activity beyond the economic dimension of CSR. However, for the majority of these companies their CSR activities do not qualify as strategic according to the criteria established in the literature. We also find significant differences between larger and smaller firms in their use of CSR. Based on these findings, we make several suggestions regarding orphan drug legislation and other measures that might help firms exploit strategic CSR benefits.     

Impact of international entry choices on the nature and type of innovation: Evidence from emerging economy firms from the Indian bio-pharmaceutical industry

As emerging economy multinational enterprises (EMNEs) enter foreign countries in search of new markets, seeking to expand their knowledge bases, research on the type and nature of innovation activity is needed to address the impact of EMNEs’ choices related to international expansion. Building on prior literature on entry mode and location choices, as well as on organizational learning, we argue that how and where an EMNE expands internationally will impact the nature of its innovation. We carry out empirical analysis on a sample of 167 Indian bio-pharmaceutical firms for the period from 1997–2017. Our findings suggest that greenfield ventures foster innovation in core technologies, while cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) foster innovation in non-core technologies. In addition, locating subsidiaries in high income countries encourages product innovations, while locating in low income countries encourages process innovations. Our findings contribute to the growing literature on differences in learning outcomes of EMNE internationalization.     

Emotional Information Management: Concept development and measurement in public service announcements

Research on emotion as information in persuasive communication and ad response has created a need for a measure of individual abilities in the management of emotional information. Previous measures (e.g., emotional intelligence measures) lack adequate validity and reliability for use in persuasion and advertising contexts. Four studies iteratively refine a parsimonious Emotional Information Management scale that corresponds to theoretical dimensions of the construct and interrelationships between those dimensions—recognition of emotion, regulatory processes of optimistic utilization and management of emotions, as well as cognitive and emotional empathy. Reliability and construct validity are demonstrated, and scale norms are established. Although gender does not affect recognition of emotions or cognitive empathy, females exhibit greater emotional empathy ability, whereas males exhibit greater emotion regulation ability. Measuring emotional information management should contribute to greater understanding of responses to emotion‐laden or emotion‐eliciting persuasive communication (e.g., public service announcements). ©2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Managing healthcare waste for sustainable environmental development: A hybrid decision approach

Healthcare waste management (HCWM) has become the most concerned issue for hospitals to enhance their environmental performance while reducing the waste disposal costs. The present study aims to standardize the evaluation criteria for the stakeholders to ensure sustainable environmental development by safe disposal of infectious healthcare waste (HCW). The present study applied the fuzzy-Delphi method to scrutinize the criteria identified from the literature and experts' opinions and resulted in 20 subcriteria under the following six main dimensions: experience, relationship, environmental factors, technology and qualification, economic factors, and firm's capabilities. Further, this study proposed a hybrid approach based on analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) under fuzzy environment to analyze the importance and interrelationships of these listed criteria. The study also showed that the experts have given approximately 70% weightage to three main criteria: firms' capabilities, economic factors, and technology and qualification. The implications of the study would help the healthcare administration and Pollution Control Boards to prepare check sheets for recording HCWM practices and, hence, contribute to sustainable environmental development in an efficient way. Understanding the prioritized cause-group criteria would further protect hospitals' environment from the spread of infection caused by the HCW in the long run.     

Market competition and the distributional consequences of mobile phones in Canada

The aim of this paper is to better understand how competition based telecommunication policies function as a mediating variable in the distribution of socio-economic consequences of mobile phones using the case of Canada. Many observers characterize the Canadian market as being uncompetitive, and argue that this lack of competition has affected Canadians in terms of access. Thus, even though almost all Canadians have access to land-line services, mobile phone penetration is still relatively low. This could be relevant as mobile services are more likely to include data and other advanced applications. As it is, access is influenced by age, income, and education. Gender is also relevant particularly with the use of more advanced devices and services. The urban and rural divide is of concern particularly where remote communities can benefit from having mobile phones. In addition, the lack of effective competition can negatively affect the competitiveness of domestic businesses relative to foreign competitors. One of the implications of the Canadian policy towards mobile phones is that while its approach was to limit regulation (regulatory forbearance) in order to develop competitive markets, those markets did not necessarily emerge. Regulatory forbearance thus contributed to a particular pattern of distributional consequences. This article argues that competition needs to be aligned with the overall goals of telecommunications policy. To do this, a country needs to define not what degree of competition is required but rather under what circumstances government intervention is needed. It might be satisfactory to have only few players in one national context but not in another. Defining the scope of intervention is perhaps most related to the tasks of identifying benefits and costs of access and how these are distributed.     

Distress financing of out‐of‐pocket health expenditure in India

In the absence of a universal health insurance mechanism, the increasing burden of out‐of‐pocket (OOP) health expenditure has become a growing concern in India. To cope with the cost of illness, people use either their savings and income, or they have to rely upon distress means of finance such as depletion of household assets, borrowings from banks and moneylenders, and contributions from family and friends. This paper analyses the changes that have taken place in the incidence and covariates of distress financing in India by using data from National Sample Survey Organisation for the years 2004 and 2014. Results indicate that during this period the incidence of distress sources as a means to finance OOP health expenditure has hovered around 50%. Further, the results reveal a significant socioeconomic gradient in the incidence of distress financing. Socioeconomic and health‐related covariates significantly impact the likelihood of distress financing as a means to cope with OOP health expenditure. The results indicate the need for government action to formulate a comprehensive plan through an increase in public spending on health care that will improve the quantity and quality of the public health‐care system and enhance the scope of health insurance in India.     

The impact of high-quality firm achievements on shareholder value: Focus on Malcolm Baldrige and J. D. Power and associates awards

Marketing managers face increasing pressure to justify any strategic action with financial metrics that facilitate comparative evaluations with alternative options. Using event study method, the authors focus attention on the impact of high-profile quality achievement awards on the stock prices of the award-winning firms. Two types of awards are investigated: the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) and J. D. Power and Associates Awards (JDPAA). Previous event studies found no major impact of MBNQA announcements on the stock price of MBNQA winners; in contrast, this study’s results show that these awards generate significant shareholder value for MBNQA winners. With respect to the JDPAA, the authors— analyses did notfind any such impact in the Automotive, Travel, and Finance categories. Multiple regression analyses suggest that firms with higher amounts of intangible assets are more likely to create shareholder value. Implications of the results for different decision horizon perspectives are derived. Siva K. Balasubramanian (siva@cba.siu.edu) is the Henry J. Rehn Professor of Marketing in the College of Business Administration at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. His research investigates the impact of marketing strategies on shareholder value, new product diffusion, marketing communications, and methodological issues in measurement. His publications have appeared in theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Consumer Research, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theInternational Journal of Research in Marketing, theJournal of Advertising, theJournal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, theJournal of Consumer Affairs, Review of Agricultural Economics, theJournal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, AgBioForum, and theBritish Food Journal. Ike Mathur (imathur@cba.siu.edu) is a professor of finance at Southern Illinois University (SIUC). He has served as interim dean for the College of Business and chair of the Department of Finance, all at SIUC. He is the author or coauthor of more than 100 articles and 14 books. He has published in theJournal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, the Journal of Banking and Finance, theJournal of International Money and Finance, theJournal of Futures Markets, Economic Letters, the Journal of International Business Studies, the Journal of Business Research, theJournal of Business, theJournal of Advertising, theJournal of Advertising Research, and the Journal of Macromarketing. He serves on the editorial board of a number of journals and is the editor of theJournal of International Financial Markets, Institutions & Money, and theJournal of Multinational Financial Management. Ramendra Thakur (ramendra@siu.edu) is an assistant professor at Utah Valley State College. His research interests are in customer relationship management, e-commerce, high-tech marketing, and marketing models. He has published in theMarketing Management Journal, the International Journal of E-Business Research, and theJournal of Website Promotion. In addition, his scholarly works have been published in several national and international conference proceedings. He is also on the editorial board ofIndustrial Marketing Management.     

Political Economy of Conditional Aid in a Federal Economy

This paper employs a political economy approach to model the joint determination of national and subnational sectoral protection in an open federal economy. Political interactions between special interest groups and policymakers as well as economic interrelationships between federal and state government policies are analyzed. The model is applied to study the effects of conditional financial assistance on policy‐making in the aid‐receiving federal economy. We find that policy‐based financial assistance to the federal government tends to reduce the extent of distortions resulting from the federal government policy. However, if federal and state government policies are strategic substitutes, state government induced policy distortions would increase, thereby detracting from the effectiveness of conditionality in reducing overall policy distortions in the recipient economy.