All posts by Business School

Health Management

Creating Organizational Support for Change

O’Connor, Edward J.
Physician Executive Vol. 32, Issue 3, p. 76-78

The article discusses some organizational systems and structures that would support physicians executives and medical staff in implementing changes. The authors argue that traditional relics may hinder changes required in order to meet the demands of today’s environment. In order to respond effectively to these demands, health care organizations must update tools and mechanisms such as budgeting, feedback, reward/compensation, clinical guidelines, and employee selection, training and retention.

Information Systems

The Role of Reputation Systems in Reducing Online Auction Fraud

Gregg, Dawn G. & Scott, Judy
International Journal of Electronic Commerce Vol. 10 Issue 3, p. 97-122

Online auctions are one of the most profitablesuccessful types of e-businesses; however, online auctions also provide an avenue for unscrupulous sellers to perpetrate fraud. Online auction fraud is currently the most frequently reported crime committed over the Internet. This research investigates whether online reputation systems are a useful mechanism for potential buyers to avoid fraudulent auctions. Content analysis of complaints posted in an online auction reputation system is used to improve our understanding of online auction fraud and the role of reputation systems in documenting, predicting, and reducing fraud. Results of this study show that the number of fraud allegations found in an online reputation system significantly exceeds the number of fraud allegations made through official channels. It also demonstrates that recent negative feedback posted in an online reputation system is useful in predicting future online auction fraud. Finally, results of this study suggest that experienced online auction buyers are in a better position to use using reputation system data to avoid potentially fraudulent auctions.

Health Management, Management

Building the relationships required to influence others

O’Connor, Edward J. & Fiol, C. Marlena
Physician Executive Vol. 32, Issue 2, p. 68-69

A large, successful, multispecialty group practice held a spaghetti dinner. Physicians cooked spaghetti, served spaghetti, cleaned up and took a bit of ribbing. The people they were serving were their employees. The communication from the physicians was clear: All year long you serve us. Tonight we wish to serve you. We appreciate what you contribute. What have you done recently to express your appreciation, strengthen relationships and build the foundation for successfully influencing your people?

Uncategorized

More bang for your audit buck

Dee, Carol Callaway and Hillison, William
Journal of Corporate Accounting & Finance Vol. 17, Issue 4, p. 17 – 23

You should expect more from an audit than just assurance that your firm is complying with the requirements of the Securities and Exchange Commission, creditors, or others. Here’s how to gain more from your audit – and perhaps even reduce the fee.

Management

The Legal/Regulatory/Policy Environment of Cyberforensics

Bagby, J.W. and Ruhnka, J.C.
Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law Vol. 1, Issue 2, p. 39-67

This paper describes a cyber-forensics course that integrates important public policy and legal issues as well as relevant forensic techniques. Cyber-forensics refers to the amalgam of multi-disciplinary activities involved in the identification, gathering, handling, custody, use and security of electronic files and records, involving expertise from the forensic domain, and which produces evidence useful in the proof of facts for both commercial and legal activities. The legal and regulatory environment in which electronic discovery takes place is of critical importance to cyber-forensics experts because the legal process imposes both constraints and opportunities for the effective use of evidence gathered through cyber-forensic techniques. This paper discusses different pedagogies that can be used (including project teams, research and writing assignments, student presentations, case analyses, class activities and participation and examinations), evaluation methods, problem-based learning approaches and critical thinking analysis. A survey and evaluation is provided of the growing body of applicable print and online materials that can be utilized. Target populations for such a course includes students with majors, minors or supporting elective coursework in law, information sciences, information technology, computer science, computer engineering, financial fraud, security and information assurance, forensic aspects of cyber security, privacy, and electronic commerce.

Marketing

Customer perceptions of service dimensions: cross-cultural analysis and perspective

Cunningham, Lawrence F., Young, Clifford E., Lee, Moonkyu & Ulaga, Wolfgang
International Marketing Review Vol. 23, Issue 2, p. 192-210

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a study that examined how customers in the USA, France, and Korea perceived and classified a set of 13 services based on multidimensional scaling (MDS).
Design/methodology/approach – A MDS framework was used to map service classifications and actual services in the USA, Korea and France. Results from each country were then compared to the other two countries to determine similarities and differences.
Findings – Results from this research suggest that there are two underlying dimensions that explain approximately 80 percent of the total variance in service perceptions and classifications. Underlying dimensions of the classifications across the three cultures were virtually identical. Differences among the countries were based on relative positioning of classifications and/or services on the underlying dimensions.
Research limitations/implications – Evidence from diverse cultures implies that consumers perceive services in a somewhat simplistic, two-dimensional fashion rather than the complex set of classifications proposed by researchers. Although the complex classifications may be of use to service providers in organizing the delivery of services, the presentation and positioning of those services is along a much simpler framework in the minds of customers.
Originality/value – This is the first time consumer-based perceptions of services have been examined systematically across cultures using a MDS approach.

Health Management, Management

Creating readiness and involvement

O’Connor, Edward J. & Fiol, C. Marlena
Physician Executive Vol. 32, Issue 1, p. 72-74

Innovation is critical to long-term success in today’s health care environment. Change is accelerating, competition increasing and access to information expanding. Many health care providers try to ignore these changing demands while continuing to practice past behaviors. Others react by leaving the profession in order to avoid having to make the required adjustments. Neither strategy contributes much to generating the innovation required to effectively deliver care in today’s environment.

Information Systems

Efficient allocation of online grocery orders

Scott, C.H. & Scott, Judy
International Journal of Productivity and Quality Management Vol. 1, Issue 1/2, p. 88-102

Despite some initial setbacks, the online grocery business is viable and growing. In this paper, we discuss the industry’s value proposition, its business models, the various quality issues faced by an e-grocer and the trade-offs faced in the selection of a highly efficient fulfilment strategy. Brick and click grocers usually choose fulfilment from stores rather than distribution centres. However, store fulfilment is vulnerable to congestion and ‘trolley rage’ when pickers of online orders get in the way of traditional shoppers. We propose a management science model for efficient allocation of online grocery orders. The model shows the impact of delivery budget and overall utilisation on store congestion. Contrary to current practice, which typically allocates orders to the nearest store, our model shows the optimal solution. Practitioners can use the model to prevent customer dissatisfaction while researchers will find this study provides a basis for future model extensions and fine-tuning.

Health Management, Management

Focusing Your People: The Power of Entrepreneurial Thinking.

O’Connor, Edward J. & Fiol, C. Marlena
Physician Executive Vol. 32, Issue 1, p. 18-33

The article presents information on the focused entrepreneurial thinking to provide quality medical care and strong financial health. Entrepreneurial focus is the key ingredient that may mean the difference between surviving and thriving as an organization. A physician executive needs to encourage taking the steps required to ensure that one’s reward must support the organization’s people’s commitment to quality, safety, and contribution. People throughout health care organizations often do not judge the potential of values and visioning processes.

Management

The impact of contextual self-ratings and observer ratings of personality on the personality-performance relationship

Engel-Small, Erika A., and Diefendorff, James M.

Journal of Applied Social Psychology, Vol. 36, Issue 2,  Pages 297-320

The present study examined two possible ways of increasing the predictive validity of personality measures: using observer (i.e., supervisor and coworker) ratings and work-specific self-ratings of the Big Five personality factors. Results indicated that among general self-ratings of the Big Five personality dimensions, Conscientiousness was the best predictor of in-role performance, and Agreeableness and Emotional Stability were the best predictors of extra-role performance. Observer ratings of personality accounted for incremental variance in job performance (in-role and extra-role) beyond that accounted for by general self-ratings. However, contrary to our expectations, work-specific (i.e., contextual) self-ratings of personality, generally did not account for incremental variance in job performance beyond that accounted for by general self-ratings.

Management

Electronic Data Discovery: Integrating Due Process into Cyber Forensic Practice

John W. Bagby and John C. Ruhnka
Journal of Digital Forensics Security and Law Vol. 1, Issue 1, p. 5-18

Most organizations and government agencies regularly become engaged in litigation with suppliers, customers, clients, employees, competitors, shareholders, prosecutors or regulatory agencies that nearly assures the need to organize, retain, find and produce business records and correspondence, e-mails, accounting records or other data relevant to disputed issues. This article discusses some high visibility cases that constrain how metadata and content is routinely made available to opposing parties in civil litigation, to prosecutors in criminal prosecutions and to agency staff in regulatory enforcement litigation. Public policy, as implemented in the rules of evidence and pretrial discovery, restrict electronic data discovery (EDD) as it becomes a predominant and potentially costly pre-trial activity pivotal to modern litigation. This article discusses these constraints while identifying opportunities for the interdisciplinary activities among litigators, forensic experts and information technology professionals.

Information Systems

Auction Advisor: Online Auction Recommendation and Bidding Decision Support System

Gregg, Dawn G. & Walczak, Steven

Decision Support Systems, Vol. 41 Issue 2, pp. 449-471

Online auctions are proving themselves as a viable alternative in the C2C and B2C marketplace. Several thousand new items are placed for auction every day and determining which items to bid on or when and where to sell an item are difficult questions to answer for online auction participants. This paper presents a multi-agent Auction Advisor system designed to collect data related to online auctions and use the data to help improve the decision making of auction participants. A simulation of applied Auction Advisor recommendations and a small research study that used subjects making real purchases at online auctions both indicate that online auction buyers and sellers achieve tangible benefit from the current information acquired by and recommendations made by the Auction Advisor agents.

Information Systems, Marketing

Modeling online service discontinuation with nonparametric agents

Walczak, Steven & Parthasarathy, Madhavan
Information Systems and E-Business Management Vol. 4, Issue 1, p. 49 – 70

The internet and world wide web are an increasingly important resource, both as a market and as an information source, to both individual users and business entities. An estimated 120 million active web users exist in the United States alone. Access to these electronic marketplaces and information sources is accomplished through either a direct internet connection or through a service provider. Internet service providers (ISPs) enable internet and web access for most of these users either via dial-up modems (62.2 percent), or DSL connections (17 percent). Customers of ISPs frequently switch or discontinue service. The model selection perspective is used to extend previous work in this area through the development of a multi-agent system with neural network wrappers. The nonparametric (neural network) agents identify over 92 percent of those users that either stop or change service, which is a 15 percent increase over previous models.

Management

Revisiting the within-person self-efficacy and performance relationship

Richard, E. M., Diefendorff, J. M., & Martin, J. H.
Human Performance Vol. 19 Issue 1, pp. 67-87.

In response to recent debate regarding the direction of the relationship between self-efficacy and performance (Bandura & Locke, 2003; Vancouver, Thompson, Tischner, & Putka, 2002; Vancouver, Thompson, & Williams, 2001), the present investigation examines the within-person relationships between self-efficacy and performance over time in two different learning contexts. Study 1 examines the relationship using exam performance in a classroom context, and Study 2 examines the relationship using a computerized learning task in a lab setting. Both studies find a significant, positive within-person relationship between performance and subsequent self-efficacy. However, both studies fail to find the positive relationship between self-efficacy and subsequent performance predicted by social cognitive theory. Future research directions aimed at resolving the debate are discussed.

Health Management

American Hospital Firms and the Burgeoning Chinese Private Health Market

Gifford, B. and Wood, D.
Advances in Healthcare Management Vol. 5, p. 101-115

Globalization of previous term health next term care services is becoming an alternative or complementary strategy for some U.S. previous termhealthnext term care organizations due to increased competition, a stagnant previous termhealthnext term care market, and nationally imposed cost constraints in the U.S. Additionally, entrepreneurial U.S. firms may see globalization as an opportunity to promote their services in new countries with increasing demand for advanced technological services. If an ambitious American previous termhealthnext term care firm decides to globalize its product or service lines, what might be some of the primary strategies it would use to enter an international market? To investigate this question, this chapter considers the strategies of two American firms that have entered the Beijing and Shanghai markets since 2000. We conducted numerous telephone conversations and interviews with executives of these firms in an attempt to understand their market entry and early development strategies. These firms’ market entry strategies range from “greenfield” operations, where the hospital does little to change its corporate and managerial style from what it uses domestically, to a “glocalization” strategy, where the firm is quite sensitive to fitting into the Chinese culture and being accepted by the Chinese government. The strategic challenges for international hospital organization developments in China are many, but the potential rewards from becoming among the leading firms in a large nation with an expanding economy are tremendous. What we learn from the experiences of enterprising American hospital firms in Chinese may well portend the future for international developments by many other American-based previous term health next term organizations.

Health Management, Management

Resistance to Patient Safety Initiatives

O’Connor, Edward J. & Fiol, C. Marlena
Physician Executive Vol. 31 Issue 6, pp. 64-67

The article discusses how majority of medical errors are preventable through better systems, including the use of information technology, avoidance of similar sounding drugs and standardization of evidence-based protocols. Though the technology and systems critical to patient safety are available, medical errors continue in many health systems and limited progress has been made toward patient safety objectives. Resistance often blocks the implementation of needed changes. Open communication among people with different perspectives is a key requirement for minimizing this human barrier to improved patient safety outcomes.

Uncategorized

Executive compensation and risk: The case of internet firms

Dee, Carol Callaway, Lulsegeda, Ayalew and Nowlin, Tanya S.
Journal of Corporate Finance Vol. 12, Issue 1, p. 80-96

A major prediction of agency theory is that there is a trade-off between risk and incentive compensation. Aggarwal and Samwick (1999) [Aggarwal, R., Samwick, A., 1999. The other side of the trade-off: the impact of risk on executive compensation. Journal of Political Economy, 107, 65–105.] directly test and find results consistent with agency theory—pay-performance sensitivity is decreasing in risk. However, Prendergast, 2002 and Prendergast, 2000 [Prendergast, C. 2002. The tenuous trade-off between risk and incentives. Journal of Political Economy 110 (5), 1071–1102; Prendergast, C. 2000. What trade-off risk and incentives? The American Economic Review 90 (2), 421–425.] offers a number of reasons why the sensitivity of pay to performance can be higher in risky environments. We use data from a sample of Internet firms for 1997–1999 to provide empirical evidence on these competing arguments regarding the relation between risk and CEO compensation. Consistent with Aggarwal and Samwick (1999), our results show that pay–performance sensitivity declines with increases in variance in a base model. After controlling for size, we find that pay–performance sensitivity is positively related to risk, consistent with the theoretical predictions in Prendergast, 2002 and Prendergast, 2000. However, sensitivity tests in later periods show that the Aggarwal and Samwick (1999) results are more robust to changes in the economic environment.

Management

Are emotional display rules formal job requirements? Examination of employee and supervisor perception

Diefendorff, J.M., Richard, E.M., & Croyle, M.H.
Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology Vol. 90 Issue 6, pp. 1256-1264.

This study explored whether emotional display rules are perceived by part-time employees and their supervisors as formal job requirements. Results showed that display-related behaviors were thought to be required activities (i.e., in-role) by the majority of the sample, and employees and supervisors generally agreed in this perception. Job-based differences in interpersonal requirements predicted the extent to which employees and supervisors categorized display-related behaviors as required, with more interpersonal requirements being associated with greater in-role categorization. Job-based differences in interpersonal requirements also predicted the level of agreement between employees and supervisors in categorizing display-related behaviors as in-role or extra-role. Finally, job satisfaction and job involvement predicted the extent to which employees categorized emotional display behaviors as being required in their jobs, with more satisfied and more involved individuals rating emotional display behaviors as in-role at a higher rate than less satisfied and less involved individuals

Business Analytics, Information Systems, Marketing

Perceived risk and e-banking services: An analysis from the perspective of the consumer

Cunningham, Lawrence F.; Gerlach, James; and Harper, Michael D.
Journal of Financial Services Marketing Vol. 10 Issue 2, pp. 165-178.

Abstract This research investigates the premise that purchasing e-banking services is perceived to be riskier than purchasing traditional banking services. Unlike previous studies on perceived risk that typically focused on the relationship of perceived risk and information search, this exploratory study examines the dynamics of perceived risk throughout the various stages of the consumer buying process. A survey of 159 respondents reveals a risk premium for e-banking services that follows a systematic pattern throughout the consumer buying process. When viewed as a dynamic process, perceived risk for e-banking services shows more radical changes in risk levels than traditional banking services. The analyses indicate that financial risk drives the risk premium while psychological, physical and time risk play ancillary roles as risk drivers at certain stages of the consumer buying process. A major implication of this study is that there is a risk premium for e-banking services and the risk premium permeates all stages of the consumer buying process. Risk mitigation strategies are addressed.