Tag Archives: Smith

Forecasting the demand for radiology services

Murray J Ct, Marlene A Smith
Health Systems,Vol. 7, Issue 2, Pages: 79-88.
Since the demand for health services is the key driver for virtually all of a health care organisation’s financial and operational activities, it is imperative that health care managers invest the time and effort to develop appropriate and accessible forecasting models for their facility’s services. In this article, we analyse and forecast the demand for radiology services at a large, tertiary hospital in Florida. We demonstrate that a comprehensive and accurate forecasting model can be constructed using well-known statistical techniques. We then use our model to illustrate how to provide decision support for radiology managers with respect to department staffing. The methodology we present is not limited to radiology services and we advocate for more routine and widespread use of demand forecasting throughout the health care delivery system.

A Technical/Strategic Paradigm for Online Executive Education

Marlene A Smith, Susan M Keaveney
Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education,Vol. 15, Issue 1, Pages: 82-100.

This article discusses the development and delivery of online courses for the executive education audience. The goal is to introduce a new framework, the technical/strategic paradigm, that will help educators to identify the pedagogical needs of disparate executive groups and adjust their online course development plans accordingly. We describe how four key elements of online courses (course structure, content-based learning materials, assignments, and learning assessment) should be fashioned in a way …
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Output from Statistical Predictive Models as Input to eLearning Dashboards

Marlene A Smith
Future Internet,Vol. 7, Issue 2, Pages: 170-183.

We describe how statistical predictive models might play an expanded role in educational analytics by giving students automated, real-time information about what their current performance means for eventual success in eLearning environments. We discuss how an online messaging system might tailor information to individual students using predictive analytics. The proposed system would be data-driven and quantitative; eg, a message might furnish the probability that a student will successfully complete the …
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The impact of price discrimination on consumer surplus at popular music concerts

E. Woodrow Eckard and Marlene A. Smith
Economic Letters, Vol. 118, Issue 1, January 2013, Pages 222–224

We estimate consumer surplus gains and losses from concert ticket price discrimination. Fans purchasing low-priced tickets enjoy a surplus gain of about $9.26 per ticket while high-priced ticket buyers suffer a loss of about $17.63 per ticket. We estimate consumer surplus gains and losses resulting from price discrimination. A demand-based model provides the counterfactual uniform price and tickets sold. The sample includes 45 popular music concerts in the U.S. Our results suggest an estimated net consumer surplus loss of about $1.3 million. The dollar loss to high-income fans is more than twice the gain to low-income fans.

Forecasting emergency department arrivals: a tutorial for emergency department directors

Murray J Cote, Marlene A Smith, David R Eitel, Elif Akali
Hospital topics,Vol. 91, Issue 1, Pages: 9-19.

This article is a tutorial for emergency department (ED) medical directors needing to anticipate ED arrivals in support of strategic, tactical, and operational planning and activities. The authors demonstrate our regression-based forecasting models based on data obtained from a large teaching hospital’s ED. The versatility of the regression analysis is shown to readily accommodate a variety of forecasting situations. Trend regression analysis using annual ED arrival data shows the long-term growth. The monthly and daily variation in ED …
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nue Gains from MultiTier Ticket Pricing: Evidence from Pop Music Concerts

E. Woodrow Eckard and Marlene A. Smith
Managerial and Decision Economics, Vol 33, Issue 7-8, Oct 2012, pages 463–473

We provide empirical estimates of the revenue benefits of multi-tier pricing at a major US pop music venue. Our unique sample includes data on the number of tickets sold at every price. Mean revenue gain from multi-tier pricing is estimated to be about $20,000 per show, a 4.2% increase over uniform pricing, although the gains were as high as 21.2% for one performer. We also provide evidence that customer segmentation by income is a likely motive of multi-tier pricing and, for the first time, that the standard assumption of zero marginal cost of additional venue attendees is valid.

Missteps in Multiple Regression Student Projects: Beyond Association-Not-Causation

Marlene A Smith
The American Statistician,Vol. 65, Issue 3, Pages: 190-197.

This article describes common yet subtle errors that students make in self-designed multiple regression projects, based on experiences in a graduate business statistics course. Examples of common errors include estimating algebraic identities, overlooking suppression, and misinterpreting regression coefficients. Advice is given to instructors about helping students anticipate and avoid these common errors; recommended tactics include extensive written guidelines supplemented with in-class active-learning exercises. …
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Artifacts, identification and support for change after an acquisition

Sarah Kovoor-Misra, and Marlene A. Smith
Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 32 Iss: 6, pp.584 – 604

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the extent to which individuals’ identification with a changed organizational artifact is associated with their cognitive, behavioral, and affective support for change in the later stages of a change effort, and the role of contextual variables in mediating these relationships.

Design/methodology/approach – Primarily quantitative with some qualitative data from an online organization that had acquired the non-personnel assets of its competitor.

Findings – The paper finds that: artifacts can be an important part of employees’ perceptions of their organizations; artifact identification is associated with cognitive and behavioral support in the later stages of a change effort; a positive perception of the change mediates between identification and cognitive and behavioral support, and also facilitates affective support; emotional exhaustion is a marginal mediator; and trust towards top managers does not play a mediating role.

Research limitations/implications – Future research could study the factors that influence artifact identification. Studies of support for change must address its various dimensions to more accurately assess support.

Practical implications – During the later stages of change, managers can foster artifact identification, highlight the positives, and reduce emotional exhaustion to ensure support.

Originality/value – This study is one of the first to examine the relationship between artifact identification and support for change in the later stages of a change effort, and the mediating role of contextual factors. In addition, it investigates the multi-dimensional aspects of support for change, an area that has received limited empirical research attention.

Managing Case Discussions in Introductory Business Statistics Classes: Practical Approaches for Instructors

Smith, Marlene A. and Bryant, Peter G.
American Statistician, Vol. 63 Issue 4,  pp. 348-355

Case discussions have become an integral component of our business statistics courses. We have discovered that case discussion adds enormous benefits to the classroom and learning experience of our students even in a quantitatively based course like statistics. As we read about discussion-based methods, we discovered that the literature is mostly silent about the specific challenges of case teaching in statistics courses. This article is an attempt to fill that void. It provides a “how-to” starter’s guide for those interested in incorporating case discussions in statistics courses. It includes resources for background reading, tips on setting up a statistics case discussion course, and examples of four specific case discussions involving statistics topics. An illustrative case and instructor’s notes that can be used on the first day of class are provided as well. Because we have had mixed reactions to conducting case discussions online, we believe that the use of case discussion in distance education statistics courses is a fruitful area for experimentation and research. Although our experience is in the business statistics classroom, this article is also applicable to statistics courses in other disciplines.

Student-to-Student Interaction Revisited: A Case Study of Working Adult Business Students in Online Courses

Kellogg, Deborah L. and Smith, Marlene A.
Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education, Vol. 7 Issue 2, pp. 433-456

Faculty teaching in online environments are universally encouraged to incorporate a variety of student-to-student learning activities into their courses. Although there is a body of both theoretical and empirical work supporting this, adult professional students participating in an online MBA program at an urban business school reported being at best indifferent and often negative regarding these learning activities. A case study was performed to explore how pervasive this attitude was and the possible reasons for it. Through various sources of data and exploration, we discovered that common interactive modalities are not associated with either perceived learning or satisfaction. A content analysis of a data analysis course revealed that 64.5% of responses recalled student-to-student interactivities when responding to a “learned least from” query. We identified three possible reasons for these negative responses: time inefficiency, interaction dysfunction, and flexibility intrusion. We conclude that, although some working professional students probably do learn from student-to-student interactivity, the costs incurred may be too great. If working adult students present a different profile than those students typically represented in academic research and thus have different needs and expectations, we may need to rethink the design of online education delivered to them.

In the Aftermath of an Acquisition: Triggers and Effects on Perceived Organizational Identity

Sarah Kovoor-Misra and Marlene A. Smith
The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science Vol. 44, Issue 4, p. 422-444

This study examines how the POIs of members of an online retail organization were affected after an acquisition. The authors find that (a) POI is more complex than previously understood, and continuity, change and confusion in POI can coexist. (b) The organizational change reactivated previously unresolved POI issues. (c) The structure of POI includes cognitive, affective, and behavioral dimensions, and changes occurred in these dimensions. (d) Top managers and employees who have more interactions with outsiders in their jobs tend to be more confused and make less POI change than employees who primarily deal with internal operations. Finally, (e) the image of the acquired organization and the change strategies used are triggers of POI confusion and/or change in the acquiring organization. This article highlights the experience of individuals in the acquiring organization and suggests that POI is an important lens for understanding and managing organizational changes.

Understanding the impact of test validity and bias on selection errors and adverse impact in human resource selection

Aguinis, Herman and Smith, Marlene A.
Personnel Psychology Vol. 60 Issue 1, p. 165-199

We propose an integrative framework for understanding the relationship among 4 closely related issues in human resource (HR) selection: test validity, test bias, selection errors, and adverse impact. One byproduct of our integrative approach is the concept of a previously undocumented source of selection errors we call bias-based selection errors (i.e., errors that arise from using a biased test as if it were unbiased). Our integrative framework provides researchers and practitioners with a unique tool that generates numerical answers to questions such as the following: What are the anticipated consequences for bias-based selection errors of various degrees of test validity and test bias? What are the anticipated consequences for adverse impact of various degrees of test validity and test bias? From a theory point of view, our framework provides a more complete picture of the selection process by integrating 4 key concepts that have not been examined simultaneously thus far. From a practical point of view, our framework provides test developers, employers, and policy makers a broader perspective and new insights regarding practical consequences associated with various selection systems that vary on their degree of validity and bias. We present a computer program available online to perform all needed calculations.