Other Business Commons^™

Continuing Development Of An All Payer Health Care System In Maryland, David P. Paul Iii, Taeko Matsumoto, Alberto Coustasse, Lama Mohammed Bakhamis, Mary Lynn Harshbarger

Alberto Coustasse, DrPH, MD, MBA, MPH

The state of Maryland, in collaboration with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, developed the first all-payer system model in the U.S. in 1971, and some 35 years later in response to financial pressures, modernized this program. The focus of the modernized program was to improve overall per capita expenditure, quality of care, and the outcome of Marylanders’ health. This study showed positive change in moving its healthcare delivery model from volume-driven care to value-driven coordinated care. Maryland hospitals have changed their mindsets to achieve the Triple Aim of cost reduction, health improvement, and quality of care improvement for the …

An Analysis Of The Use Of Dogs In Predicting Human Toxicology And Drug Safety, Jarrod Bailey, Michelle Thew, Michael Balls

Jarrod Bailey, PhD

Dogs remain the main non-rodent species in preclinical drug development. Despite the current dearth of new drug approvals and meagre pipelines, this continues, with little supportive evidence of its value or necessity. To estimate the evidential weight provided by canine data to the probability that a new drug may be toxic to humans, we have calculated Likelihood Ratios (LRs) for an extensive dataset of 2,366 drugs with both animal and human data, including tissue-level effects and Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities (MedDRA) Level 1–4 biomedical observations. The resulting LRs show that the absence of toxicity in dogs provides virtually no …

Canada’S Commercial Seal Hunt: It’S More Than A Question Of Humane Killing, David M. Lavigne, William S. Lynn

William S. Lynn, PhD

No abstract provided.

Female Consumer’S Fit Strategies And Fit Perception Of Formalwear Rented Online: Content Analysis, Ellen Mckinney, Eonyou Shin

Ellen C. McKinney

With the advent of Internet technologies, consumers today have extensive opportunities to evaluate products online. Because “consumer reviews, word-of-mouth on the products, could be the most powerful force in the market place” (Silverman, 1997, p. 34), investigating consumer reviews is crucial to understand potential aspects of clothing that consumers may use to evaluate clothing fit. Given that apparel is a highly body-related product, the body-absent online apparel shopping environments is problematic for consumers’ fit problems and sizing inconsistency. Indeed, 62% of women could not find clothing that fit well, and 57% of women did not fit into today’s standard sizes …

Female Consumer’S Fit Strategies And Fit Perception Of Formalwear Rented Online: Content Analysis, Ellen Mckinney, Eonyou Shin

Ellen C. McKinney

With the advent of Internet technologies, consumers today have extensive opportunities to evaluate products online. Because “consumer reviews, word-of-mouth on the products, could be the most powerful force in the market place” (Silverman, 1997, p. 34), investigating consumer reviews is crucial to understand potential aspects of clothing that consumers may use to evaluate clothing fit. Given that apparel is a highly body-related product, the body-absent online apparel shopping environments is problematic for consumers’ fit problems and sizing inconsistency. Indeed, 62% of women could not find clothing that fit well, and 57% of women did not fit into today’s standard sizes …

Female Consumer’S Fit Strategies And Fit Perception Of Formalwear Rented Online: Content Analysis, Ellen Mckinney, Eonyou Shin

Ellen C. McKinney

With the advent of Internet technologies, consumers today have extensive opportunities to evaluate products online. Because “consumer reviews, word-of-mouth on the products, could be the most powerful force in the market place” (Silverman, 1997, p. 34), investigating consumer reviews is crucial to understand potential aspects of clothing that consumers may use to evaluate clothing fit. Given that apparel is a highly body-related product, the body-absent online apparel shopping environments is problematic for consumers’ fit problems and sizing inconsistency. Indeed, 62% of women could not find clothing that fit well, and 57% of women did not fit into today’s standard sizes …

China’S Bear Farming And Long-Term Solutions, Peter J. Li

Peter J. Li, PhD

No abstract provided.

Airline Quality Rating 2015, Brent D. Bowen, Dean E. Headley

Brent Bowen

Take the 2015 Airline Passenger Survey The Airline Quality Rating (AQR) was developed and first announced in early 1991 as an objective method for assessing airline quality on combined multiple performance criteria. This current report, the Airline Quality Rating 2015, reflects monthly Airline Quality Rating scores for calendar year 2014. AQR scores for 2015 are based on 15 elements in four major areas that focus on airline performance aspects important to air travel consumers over the calendar year of 2014. The Airline Quality Rating 2015 is a summary of month-by-month quality ratings for U.S. airlines that are required to report …

Costs, Staffing, And Services Of Assisted Living In The United States: A Literature Review, Amy Kisling, David P. Paul Iii, Alberto Coustasse

Alberto Coustasse, DrPH, MD, MBA, MPH

Assisted Living Facilities (ALFs), which provide a community for residents who require assistance throughout their day, is an important part of the long-term care system in the US. The costs of ALFs are paid either out of pocket, by Medicaid or by Long-Term Care Insurance (LTCI). Monthly costs of ALFs have increased over the past five years on an average of 4.1%. The purpose of this research was to examine the future trends in ALFs in the US to determine the impact healthcare on costs. The methodology for this study was a literature review and a total of 32 sources …

A Business Case For Tele-Intensive Care Units, Alberto Coustasse, Stacie Deslich, Deanna Bailey, Alesia Hairston, David Paul

Alberto Coustasse, DrPH, MD, MBA, MPH

Objectives: A tele-intensive care unit (tele-ICU) uses telemedicine in an intensive care unit (ICU) setting, applying technology to provide care to critically ill patients by off-site clinical resources. The purpose of this review was to examine the implementation, adoption, and utilization of tele-ICU systems by hospitals to determine their efficiency and efficacy as identified by cost savings and patient outcomes. Methods: This literature review examined a large number of studies of implementa­tion of tele-ICU systems in hospitals. Results: The evidence supporting cost savings was mixed. Implementation of a tele- ICU system was associated with cost savings, shorter lengths of stay, …

Sources Of The Persistent Gender Wage Gap Along The Unconditional Earnings Distribution: Findings From Kenya, Richard U. Agesa, Jacqueline Agesa, Andrew Dabalen

Richard U. Agesa

Past studies on gender wage inequality in Africa typically attribute the gender pay gap either to gender differences in characteristics or in the return to characteristics. The authors suggest, however, that this understanding of the two sources may be far too general and possibly overlook the underlying covariates that drive the gender wage gap. Moreover, past studies focus on the gender wage gap exclusively at the conditional mean. The authors go further to evaluate the partial contribution of each wage-determining covariate to the magnitude of the gender pay gap along the unconditional earnings distribution. The authors' data are from Kenya, …

Use Of Smartphones In Hospitals, N. A. Thomairy, M. Mummaneni, S. Alsalamah, N. Moussa, Alberto Coustasse

Alberto Coustasse, DrPH, MD, MBA, MPH

Mobile technology has begun to change the landscape of the medical profession with more than two-thirds of physicians regularly using smart phones. Smartphones have allowed healthcare professionals and the general public to communicate more efficiently, collect data and facilitate the clinical decision making. The methodology for this study was a qualitative literature review following a systematic approach of the smartphone usage among physicians in hospitals. Fifty-one articles were selected for this study based on inclusion criteria. The findings were classified and described into seven categories: use of smartphone in obstetrics, pediatrics, surgery, internal medicine, radiology, and dermatology which were chosen …

Imports, Unionizationandracial Age Discrimination In The Us, Jacqueline Agesa, Richard U. Agesa

Jacqueline Agesa

Past studies of the relationship between competition and racial wages find that domestic competition reduces racial wage discrimination of nonunion workers. This article examines the effects of foreign competition on racial wages of union and nonunion workers utilizing an empirical model which allows for cluster-adjusted SEs by industry. Such a procedure allows independence of observations across industries but not within industries, thereby not overstating the significance of industry invariant controls. In this analysis, clustered SEs prevent the overstatement of the significance of imports as a means to reduce earnings discrimination. We find evidence of a wage premium for nonunion white …

Imports, Unionizationandracial Age Discrimination In The Us, Jacqueline Agesa, Richard U. Agesa

Richard Agesa

Past studies of the relationship between competition and racial wages find that domestic competition reduces racial wage discrimination of nonunion workers. This article examines the effects of foreign competition on racial wages of union and nonunion workers utilizing an empirical model which allows for cluster-adjusted SEs by industry. Such a procedure allows independence of observations across industries but not within industries, thereby not overstating the significance of industry invariant controls. In this analysis, clustered SEs prevent the overstatement of the significance of imports as a means to reduce earnings discrimination. We find evidence of a wage premium for nonunion white …

Forensic Disciplines For Objective Global Strategic Analysis, Dale H. Shao, Lawrence P. Shao, Ralph E. Mckinney Jr.

Ralph E. McKinney

The global nature of investing requires a thorough analysis of the firm to determine the strategic viability of the firm for investment purposes. In addition, businesses are being held more accountable for the statements they make and the actions they take concerning their business. Several forensic disciplines have recently emerged that may supply subjective and objective data that can assist investors in making their final investment decisions and determining if ongoing businesses are truly doing what is in the best interest of their shareholders. Another factor influencing the increase forensic analyses of national and multinational corporations is the increase in …

Myth: Hard Work And Credentials Determine Employment Opportunities

Alev Dudek

Road Rescue Implements A Continuous Process Improvement Framework, John Olson, Paul Savory

John Olson

Continuous improvement programs traditionally focus on making small incremental improvements to a system. Unfortunately, their success can be limited due to the rapid changing environment within which most small companies operate. Improvement efforts should be flexible enough to capitalize on incremental and radical changes to a system. This paper presents a case analysis of how Road Rescue, an ambulance manufacturer, uses a continuous improvement framework to capitalize on both radical and incremental improvement opportunities. Results include a 10% increase in throughput, reduced cycle time of 44%, increased customer satisfaction, and higher quality.

Origins And Development Of The Product Life Cycle Concept, Gregory E. Osland

Gregory E. Osland

Underpinnings and recognition of the product life cycle concept are found in the writings of sociologists, anthropologists, economists, and marketers of the last two centuries. The fashion cycle and advertising spiral are antecedents of the well-known graphic form of the PLC that has been discussed for the last forty years.

Books Are Dead: Long Live Books!, Douglas Pepper, Giuseppina D'Agostino

Giuseppina D'Agostino

Douglas Pepper, VP at Random House Canada and Publisher at Signal/McClelland & Stewart, speaks about the publishing industry and the future of books and reading.

Predicting Financial Distress: A Comparison Of Survival Analysis And Decision Tree Techniques, Adrian Gepp, Kuldeep Kumar

Kuldeep Kumar

Financial distress and then the consequent failure of a business is usually an extremely costly and disruptive event. Statistical financial distress prediction models attempt to predict whether a business will experience financial distress in the future. Discriminant analysis and logistic regression have been the most popular approaches, but there is also a large number of alternative cutting - edge data mining techniques that can be used. In this paper, a semi-parametric Cox survival analysis model and non-parametric CART decision trees have been applied to financial distress prediction and compared with each other as well as the most popular approaches. This …

The Reality Of Digital Currency As A Financial Medium Of Exchange, Dale H. Shao, Lawrence Shao, Ralph E. Mckinney, Duane C. Rosenlieb

Dale H Shao

This paper presents a discussion of the requirements for the long term acceptance of digital currency as a financial medium of exchange through the examination of fundamental criteria associated with common tender and the examination of selected digital currencies. According to the U.S. Treasury, digital currencies are subject to regulation if that digital currency has a substitutive purpose for facilitating exchanging goods and services (Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, 2013). Although governments can place stipulations on currencies, users of common tender, such as digital currencies, expect at least three basic privileges for a digital currency to evolve from conception to realization. …

The Reality Of Digital Currency As A Financial Medium Of Exchange, Dale H. Shao, Lawrence Shao, Ralph E. Mckinney, Duane C. Rosenlieb

Ralph E. McKinney

This paper presents a discussion of the requirements for the long term acceptance of digital currency as a financial medium of exchange through the examination of fundamental criteria associated with common tender and the examination of selected digital currencies. According to the U.S. Treasury, digital currencies are subject to regulation if that digital currency has a substitutive purpose for facilitating exchanging goods and services (Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, 2013). Although governments can place stipulations on currencies, users of common tender, such as digital currencies, expect at least three basic privileges for a digital currency to evolve from conception to realization. …

Titanic: Consuming The Myths And Meanings Of An Ambiguous Brand, Stephen Brown, Pierre Mcdonagh, Clifford J. Shultz

Clifford J Shultz

Myths have come of age in consumer research. In the 22 years since Levy’s inaugural article, the literature has grown at an impressive rate. Yet important questions remain unanswered: What makes some myths especially meaningful to consumers? Why are certain consumer myths more prevalent and less perishable than others? This article argues that ambiguity is an influential factor. Using the RMS Titanic as an empirical exemplar, it unpacks the principal forms of myth-informed ambiguity surrounding “the unsinkable brand.” Predicated on William Empson’s hitherto unsung principles of literary criticism, the article posits that ambiguity in its multifaceted forms is integral to …

‘Concentration Camps For Lost And Stolen Pets’: Stan Wayman’S Life Photo Essay And The Animal Welfare Act, Bernard Unti

Bernard Unti, PhD

In the 1960s, LIFE was America's single most important general weekly magazine, its photo-essay formula catering to a middle class constituency of millions. By the halfway point of that tumultuous decade, readers were accustomed to seeing searing and unpleasant images of a changing nation, one racked by civil unrest and entangled in a bloody war in Southeast Asia. But when LIFE's February 4, 1966 issue landed on newsstands and in mailboxes across the United States, with the cover's warning "YOUR DOG IS IN CRUEL DANGER," tens of millions of readers became acquainted for the first time with another kind of …

The Class B Dealer: Down And Out?, Bernard Unti

Bernard Unti, PhD

The supply of dogs and cats to laboratories by Class B animal dealers has been a contentious matter for decades. The subject engenders heated debate whenever it surfaces, most recently in September 2005 when Senator Daniel Akaka (D-HI) proposed an amendment to the FY 2006 agriculture funding bill to withhold federal monies to research institutions that purchase animals from Class B dealers.

Navigating The Territories Of Indigenous Leadership: Exploring The Experiences And Practices Of Australian Indigenous Arts Leaders, Michelle Evans, Amanda Sinclair

Michelle Evans

This article explores the leadership of Australian Indigenous artists and arts leaders. We advance the idea of ‘territories’ to convey the overlapping contexts in which Indigenous artistic leaders work, and through this framework seek to highlight the embodied ways individuals enact leadership across country and community. Thematic, narrative and discursive analysis of 29 in-depth interviews with diverse Indigenous artists identify four territories and multiple practices of leadership in which our participants engage. The four territories are: authorisation in a bi-cultural world (cultural authorisation and self-authorising); identity and belonging (both fearless and connected); artistic practice (innovative and custodian of cultural values); …

Examining The Regulatory Value Of Multi-Route Mammalian Acute Systemic Toxicity Studies, Troy Seidle, Pilar Prieto, Anna Bulgheroni

Troy Seidle, PhD

Regulatory information requirements for pesticides call for submission of acute systemic toxicity data for up to three different exposure routes (oral, dermal, inhalation) for both active ingredients and formulated products. Similar multi-route testing is required in the European Union and elsewhere for industrial chemicals. To determine the value of acute toxicity testing by more than one route, oral-dermal and oralinhalation concordances among regulatory classifications were examined for large data sets of chemicals and pesticide active ingredients. Across all sectors examined, oral acute toxicity classifications for pure active substances were more severe than those derived from dermal data in more than …

An Evaluation Of The Us High Production Volume (Hpv) Chemical-Testing Programme: A Study In (Ir)Relevance, Redundancy And Retro Thinking, Andrew Nicholson, Jessica Sandler, Troy Seidle

Troy Seidle, PhD

Under the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) High Production Volume (HPV) Challenge Programme, chemical companies have volunteered to conduct screening-level toxicity tests on approximately 2800 widely-used industrial chemicals. Participating companies are committed to providing available toxicity information to the EPA and presenting testing proposals for review by the EPA and posting on the EPA Web site as public information. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and a coalition of animal protection organisations have reviewed all the test plans submitted by the participating chemical companies for compliance with the original HPV framework, as well as with animal welfare guidelines …

Development Of A Model Of Airline Consumer Satisfaction, Erin E. Bowen, Brent D. Bowen, Dean E. Headley

Erin Bowen

Previous research on perceptions, satisfaction, and attitudes regarding the major commercial air carriers in the United States has provided little more than an interesting descriptive “snapshot” of the average air traveler. Building upon 20 years of work with the National Airline Quality Rating, the present study attempts to move beyond basic descriptive information of air travelers to identify attitudinal patterns and relationships in the way consumers at varying levels of travel frequency view the commercial air industry. Development of such a model allows key players the ability to improve their understanding of the prime drivers and perceptions of passenger behavior. …

The Effect Of Synchronous And Asynchronous Participation On Students' Performance In Online Accounting Courses, Keith Duncan, A. L. Kenworthy, Ray Mcnamara

Ray McNamara

This article examines the relationship between MBA students' performance and participation in two online environments: a synchronous forum (chat room) and an asynchronous forum (discussion board) at an Australian university. The quality and quantity of students' participation is used to predict their final examination and course grade performance outcomes. We find that the total quality of students' participation is positively related to final examination performance but the total quantity of students' participation is related to overall course performance. We also find that synchronous engagement with the course (combined quality and quantity) drives these results and has twice the examination and …