Search results

This paper aims to examine the impact of a board-level governance bundle (i.e. size, independence, expertise, meetings, gender diversity and multiple directorships) on the non-financial performance of National Health Service (NHS) hospitals – and, separately, by hospital type (i.e. trusts hospitals and foundation trusts hospitals).

A logit regression for panel data is used for a sample of 128 NHS trusts and foundation trusts across England from 2014 to 2018. The data was hand-collected from NHS hospitals’ annual reports and Care Quality Commission reports. The cancer waiting time target (i.e. 62-day cancer referral and treatment target) is used to measure non-financial performance.

The main findings for NHS hospitals indicate that multiple directorships positively and significantly affect non-financial performance. However, board expertise and gender diversity have a negative and significant influence. When the sample is partitioned, the results remain the same for the NHS foundation trusts hospitals. For NHS trust hospitals, except for multiple directorships having a positive and significant effect, all remaining governance attributes have an insignificant impact.

The findings have implications for policymakers and practitioners as they move to implement measures to improve hospital performance against the cancer waiting time targets in the English NHS.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine the impact of corporate governance on cancer waiting time targets in public hospitals. Overall, this paper contributes to the corporate governance literature, especially in the context of public hospitals, and has significant practical and theoretical implications.

Off-Site Construction (OSC) has received much government and public attention during and after COVID. Building Information Modelling (BIM) is an initiative discussed widely to promote OSC implementation. Although many policy promotions have been published, there are many challenges to implementing BIM and OSC in real life and questions of whether they really offer value to healthcare design professionals. This research aims to investigate BIM and OSC to understand their commonalities and differences of challenges by collecting empirical evidence from China’s healthcare construction.

This exploratory research adopted a mixed method with a questionnaire survey and interviews. A total of 261 questionnaires were received (with 183 valid), followed by 31 semi-structured interviews.

This research reveals that although both OSC and BIM face similar adoption challenges and suspicious attitudes in real-life projects, their challenges’ connotations and reasons are different. OSC faces scepticism for its customisation costs and technical constraints, while BIM is seen as limited in utility and complex to integrate. Highlighting these as socio-technical challenges, the research advocates for an integrated framework to effectively implement OSC and BIM, addressing both technical and collaborative needs in healthcare construction.

This research examines OSC and BIM within the context of healthcare construction, a focus that is relatively underexplored. The research provides a juxtaposition of the perceived and practical challenges of adopting these technologies, revealing a gap between the industry’s expectations and the current capabilities of OSC and BIM, thereby contributing to the development of modern methods of design in healthcare.

The purpose of this paper is to examine patient engagement in remote consultation services, an increasingly important issue facing Healthcare Operations Management (HOM) given the significant expansion in this and other forms of telehealth worldwide over the last decade. We use our analysis of the literature to develop a comprehensive framework that incorporates the patient journey, multidimensionality, antecedents and consequences, interventions and improvement options, as well as the cyclic nature of patient engagement. We also propose measures suitable for empirical assessment of different aspects of our framework.

We undertook a comprehensive review of the extant literature using a systematic review approach. We identified and analysed 63 articles published in peer-reviewed scientific journals between 2003 and 2022.

We conceptualise patient engagement with remote consultation across three key aspects: dimensions, process, and the antecedents and consequences of engagement. We identify nine contextual categories that influence such engagement. We propose several possible metrics for measuring patient engagement during three stages (before service, at/during service and after service) of remote consultation, as well as interventions and possible options for improving patient engagement therein.

The primary contribution of our research is the development of a comprehensive framework for patient engagement in remote consultation that draws on insights from literature in several disciplines. In addition, we have linked the three dimensions of engagement with the clinical process to create a structure for future engagement assessment. Furthermore, we have identified impact factors and outcomes of engagement in remote consultation by understanding which can help to improve levels of adoption, application and satisfaction, and reduce healthcare inequality. Finally, we have adopted a “cyclic” perspective and identified potential interventions that can be combined to further improve patient engagement in remote consultation.

This chapter reflects on a media studies project exploring Sylvia Plath poetry on Tumblr. The project ultimately resulted in excess digital data, with no conventional publications or research outputs. Now writing 10 years after data collection, I take a storying approach to explore the original research concerns and the research process, thereby locating a reconfigured ‘research event’ that draws together various biographical, social, political and historical factors. I reflect on my evolving understanding of ‘research’, discussing early teaching experiences and postgraduate pathways that partly structured a particular relationship to research. This serves to bridge a discussion about the challenges of the initial process over a decade ago, including the uncomfortable pairing of inexperience among aspiring researchers and institutional pressures to publish. I then discuss the theoretical perspectives that inspire and, in retrospect, offer clarity for the project, given the amount of time passed since data collection and the synergistic relationship between the storying approach, poststructuralist thought and story-focused methodologies. I argue that Tumblr provides unique opportunities for identity negotiation, aesthetic appreciation, data extraction and commodification, which highlights both the creative agency of digital aesthetic curation and self-work, as well as the importance of algorithmic transparency. I also contend that engaging with excess data led to methodologically and theoretically useful insights, challenging assumptions about the temporality of usable data and the ever-changing relationship between art, technology and freedom.

Purpose: The primary purpose is to discuss the productivity and digitalisation interaction at the theoretical level, analyse the productivity and digitalisation differences between the European Union (EU)-14 and EU-13 countries, and evaluate the digitalisation impact on the manufacturing sector labour productivity of the EU countries.

Need for study: The average added value created per capita in new EU countries (EU-13) is one-third lower than in old EU countries (EU-14). To increase productivity, manufacturing companies must adapt to modern trends and take advantage of industrial digitisation opportunities. Digitisation can improve production efficiency, reduce costs, and improve product quality, allowing continuous monitoring and analysis of production data, enabling informed decisions and faster problem-solving.

Methodology: Analysis of scientific literature, comparing viewpoints, insights, and conclusions. The empirical study includes calculating rates of change of indicators, differences between EU-14 and EU-13, and structural analysis. The impact of digitisation on the productivity of EU countries is studied by creating a correlation matrix and using regression analysis: ordinary least square models.

Findings: EU-13 countries are behind EU-14 in labour productivity and manufacturing digitalisation. Digitalisation positively impacts productivity per employee. A faster increase in digitisation, industrial robot use, and e-commerce sales could significantly increase productivity in EU-13, reducing productivity differences between countries.

Practical implications: This study highlights the need for policy promoting digitisation innovation, particularly in EU-13 countries, to be implemented by both national and EU-based economic development and regional and cohesion institutions.

The purpose of this study is twofold. Firstly, the authors have conducted a systematic investigation considering the historical pandemic periods (1991–2021) over 30 years to identify critical factors and business failure phenomenon during pandemics to explore “what”, “why” and “how” factors contributing to business failure during the COVID-19 pandemic and secondly identified interlinks of these factors to explain the phenomenon of business failure strategically through various quantitative models.

Firstly, the critical factors were identified through previous literature and systematically reported in accordance with the PRISMA guidelines. To remove any bias in critical factor selection, Delphi method was employed. In the second phase, m-TISM approach was adopted to understand the interrelationships of the factors to develop the hierarchy levels. Lastly, MICMAC analysis was also done to evaluate the driving and dependence powers of the critical factors. For implementation of the stated methodology, expert opinion was collected to assess the critical factors based on their knowledge and experience. A total of seven experts were involved in this study.

Two major takeaways from the results of phase one were that “external environmental changes” was at the highest level and had the highest driving power as well as the lowest dependence power, while “inappropriate marketing techniques” was at the lowest level and had the highest dependence and lowest driving powers.

The ever-developing digital technologies act as a synonym to innovation and are shaping up to be the key to future-proofing any industry. However, before one can move towards developing effective strategies to mitigate any business disruptions, there is a need to assess the causes of business failures in the first place which is a major managerial implication identified through this study.

This paper can be considered as the first few studies to conduct a systematic investigation considering the historical pandemic periods (1991–2021) over 30 years to identify critical factors and business failure phenomenon during pandemics to explore “what”, “why” and “how” factors contributing to business failure during the COVID-19 pandemic and secondly identified interlinks of these factors to explain the phenomenon of business failure strategically through various quantitative models.

This study aimed to determine the factors affecting consumers’ perceptions and intention to purchase home meal kit services (HMK), a convenient home-cooked meal option, considering the moderating effects of monetary restriction, through the lens of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB).

This cross-sectional study used an online, self-administered survey to collect data from 374 US adults. Results were tested for variable associations via multiple linear regression and moderation analyses.

HMK adoption intention was positively associated with attitude and subjective norms but negatively associated with perceived behavioural control. Consumers’ HMK attitude demonstrated a significant positive relationship with food safety concerns and perceived time constraints. Income and financial constraints were significant moderators of the associations between TPB determinants and HMK intention. The findings emphasised the possibility of using HMK as a foodservice option for time-challenged consumers with food safety concerns.

This study addressed the limited research on HMK, a competitive meal option that foodservice businesses could implement to boost revenue. The study establishes the contribution in understanding the motivators and barriers that potentially affect consumers’ HMK behaviour through the lens of TPB. The results expand the scope of the TPB application in food-related research, providing a deeper understanding of antecedents and other factors on consumers’ HMK behavioural attitudes. Understanding this information will enable practitioners to develop strategies that meet consumers’ concerns when embracing this service to promote HMK.

This paper analyzes the impacts of COVID-19 and related policies on airport short-run costs and decomposes the percentage changes in total and average variable costs between pre-COVID-19 and COVID-19 periods. Data for the analysis are a panel of 50 medium and large US airports from 2012 to 2021. COVID-19 measures include COVID-19 cases and deaths. COVID-19-related policies include state-level face mask and COVID-19 vaccine mandates. Based upon a short-term multi-output translog cost function with three positive outputs (departures, non-aeronautical revenue, and workload), three associated negative attributes (delay, congestion, and air pollution), COVID-19 measures and policies, the analysis has three main conclusions: (1) A 1% increase in COVID-19 cases leads to a 0.077% increase in total operating costs. State-level face mask and COVID-19 vaccine mandates increase total operating costs by 15.9% and 16.8%, respectively; (2) COVID-19 and related policies increase airport total operating costs through contractual services costs; and (3) the cost decomposition finds that a 1 million increase in COVID-19 cases results in a 109% increase in average variable costs, while the time/technological progress effect leads to a decrease of 87% compared to the pre-COVID-19 period. Face mask and vaccine mandates increase the average variable costs by 8.91% and 4.19%, respectively. The positive output total effects range from 3.46% to 7.99%. The effects of input prices and negative attributes are relatively small.

People with intellectual disabilities are at a significantly higher risk than the general population for experiencing a wide range of adverse and potentially traumatic events. This paper aims to explore the incidence of experiences of lifetime trauma across this population in one Forensic Intellectual Disability Service. Risk management recommendations and psychological risk formulations were also examined for their consideration of traumatic experiences.

Risk assessment reports (n = 39) were reviewed for evidence of traumatic experiences and the consideration of trauma in patient risk formulations and risk management treatment recommendations.

Trauma was rated as present or partially present in 84.6% (n = 33) of risk assessment reports reviewed. None of the patients had received a post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) diagnosis. Recommendations regarding trauma were identified in 39.4% (n = 13) of the risk assessment reports where trauma was rated either “present” or “partially present”.

Findings suggest a need for diagnostic tools to be used to measure trauma symptoms and potential cases of PTSD to best support needs of patients. Trauma-focused interventions should also be considered. Further investigation is needed to clarify the disparity between the consideration of trauma in formulations and treatment recommendations.

This study highlights the different traumatic experiences that forensic patients across three settings have been exposed to during their lifetimes.

After the financial crisis of 2007–2008, the financial service industry realized that the world’s worst financial catastrophe had been caused by an age of easy money and lax monitoring. This realization led to pressure on regulators to overhaul the financial system during the Great Depression. Banks were required to make sure they implemented a variety of endogenous risk-minimization mechanisms and assume accountability for verifying the stability of the financial scheme. Innovative financial technology (FinTech) solutions arose in this more regulated environment to address – or, as one would argue, avoid – risks that arose during the financial crisis. The goal of this chapter is to examine the possible challenges and opportunities of incorporating FinTech into Islamic finance. Four services are provided by Islamic FinTech: finance, payments, advisory, and compliance. The traditional financial system is being recolonized by Islamic FinTech. FinTech adoption in Islamic finance could lead to greater financial inclusion, the solution to emergencies like COVID-19, and the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for a sustainable national economy. However, there could be obstacles associated with this acceptance in the form of risk, investment, and regulatory issues. In order for FinTech companies to be innovative and address social issues that conventional financial institutions fail to address, authorities must provide a market whereby these companies can thrive without having to be acquired by major banks or focus their innovation solely on meeting the demands of these banks. Furthermore, they need to be explicit about the regulations' applicability to FinTech companies, especially with regard to how to strike a balance between being a technology company and a financial institution.