Search results

Waiting is associated with pain and stress that leads to frustration. However, consumer narratives may help cope with the stress associated with such waiting. This study aims to understand consumer waiting behaviours within online communities.

Data was gathered following a netnographic approach from a Facebook brand community (FBC) by downloading and archiving the threads related to members’ waiting behaviours. This resulted in 91 pages of data, with 438 individual comments and 179 distinct threads.

The data revealed that members of the sampled FBC exercised waiting behaviour. The authors confirm that waiting for a product is associated with both negative outcomes (frustration, boredom, etc.), but positive ones (create stronger ties with the brand and fellow members, etc.). Members of the FBC exhibited reduced consumer anxiety and stress during the waiting period.

This study found 13 waiting behaviours within the FBC and supports the idea that new value-creating behaviours are noticed within the context of FBCs.

This study focuses on waiting within a goods-based context (waiting to be served has been examined predominantly within the service sector). The study explored the behaviours of consumers who use social media to complain about extended waiting periods to receive the product along with other consumer reactions to these waiting crowds to reduce the emotional pain associated with such delays.

La espera se asocia con el dolor y el estrés, lo que lleva a la frustración. Sin embargo, el relato de otros consumidores puede ayudar a hacer frente al estrés asociado a dicha espera. Este trabajo busca entender el comportamiento de espera de los consumidores dentro de las comunidades online.

Los datos fueron recopilados siguiendo un enfoque netnográfico de una comunidad de marca en Facebook (CMF) mediante la descarga de mensajes; sólo los hilos relacionados con los comportamientos de espera de los miembros fueron descargados y archivados. Esto resultó en 91 páginas de datos con 438 comentarios individuales y 179 hilos distintos.

Los datos revelan que en Facebook se dan comportamientos de espera. Confirmamos que la espera de un producto no sólo está asociada a resultados negativos (frustración, aburrimiento, etc.), sino también a resultados positivos (crear lazos más fuertes con la marca y los compañeros). Además, se comprueba que los miembros de la CMF reducen la ansiedad y el estrés del consumidor durante el período de espera.

Este trabajo encuentra 13 comportamientos de espera dentro de una CMF

Este trabajo se centra en la espera dentro del contexto basado en los bienes (la espera para ser atendido ha sido examinada principalmente dentro del sector de servicios). Además, no sólo nos centramos en los consumidores que utilizan los medios sociales para quejarse de una espera más larga en la recepción del producto, sino también en la reacción de otros consumidores a estas esperas para reducir el dolor emocional asociado a dicho retraso.

In this paper we discuss the potential role capital markets will play in health care restructuring. According to theory, agency costs, asymmetric information and strategic interactions cause the cost of capital for nonprofit entities to slope upward. Freestanding nonprofits are particularly disadvantaged in this regard. We conclude that some organizational forms will be less viable due to problems of capital access. Empirical work examines the capital structure of nonprofit entities. Our results indicate that chain hospitals are able to access more debt, both taxable and tax-exempt, than freestanding hospitals. Capital markets also associate for profit market presence with capital risk. We conclude that freestanding hospitals are at a relative disadvantage is accessing capital markets.

This paper aims to assess the impact of the training program on fish traders in building awareness about formalin abuse in food items.

Primary data was collected from the fish traders in Bangladesh by using simple random sampling technique. Binary logistic regression was used to assess the opinions of the fish traders about training in building awareness of formalin abuse.

This study showed that the training of the fish traders played a positive role in improving their awareness level of formalin abuse.

Enhancement of both training and educational support could be an effective strategy in preventing formalin abuse in food.

This study helps in assessing the opinions of the fish traders about the effectiveness of the training programs in building awareness of formalin abuse.

Effective handling of negative word of mouth in the social media has dramatic impact on customer retention, deflects potential damage and improves profitability. Although marketers enact various defensive strategies to combat such negative publicity, consumers are increasingly acting on behalf of marketers and new value creating behaviors are noticed within virtual brand communities. The purpose of this paper is to explore the kind of consumers’ defensive behaviors present within Facebook brand communities (FBCs).

A netnographic approach guided the data collection. Data were gathered by downloading messages; only the threads related to member’s defensive behaviors were downloaded and archived. This resulted to 34 pages of data with 418 individual comments and 6,257 words in total.

Data reveals that defensive behavior is practiced within Facebook, noticing that more diverse types of defensive behaviors are practiced in high involved products. Also, defensive behaviors are more prevalent within utilitarian rather than hedonic brands.

This study suggests that marketers should be open to engage and empower consumers to fulfill the role of defending the brand within brand communities first.

This work adds to previous literature on handling complaints in social media by analyzing how devoted consumers may defend the brand against negative remarks done by other consumers in FBCs. This study not only confirms that defensive behaviors are apparent within the eight FBCs considered, but also investigates possible differences between high and low involved brands and also utilitarian and hedonic brands.

Hospital‐acquired infection (HAI) poses important health and financial problems for society. Understanding the causes of infection in hospital care is strategically important for hospital administration for formulating effective infection control programs. The purpose of this paper is to show that hospital length of stay (LOS) and the probability of developing an infection are interdependent.

A two‐equation model was specified for hospital LOS and the incidence of infection. Using the patient‐level data of hospital discharge in the State of New Jersey merged with other data, the parameters of the two equations were estimated using a simultaneous estimation method.

It was found that extending the LOS by one day increases the probability of catching an infection by 1.37 percent and the onset of infection increases average LOS by 9.32 days. The estimation indicates that HAI elongates LOS increasing the cost of a hospital stay.

The findings imply that studies on cost of HAI that do not properly control for the simultaneity of these two variables, will result in a biased estimation of cost.

The study produces quantitative estimation of the extent of interdependency of hospital LOS and the probability of catching an infection.

Long‐term care is getting more attention these days due to its impact on the growth of overall healthcare cost. With the implementation of the Medicare Part D prescription drug plan, the incentives and payment dynamics have changed the long‐term care market. This paper seeks to focus on the pharmaceutical market in the long‐term care space and to identify a few characteristics for the stakeholders' strategies.

The study used the IMS data sets, complemented by the information and statistics available in the literature to isolate the long‐term care market with regard to pharmaceutical products, its characteristics and dynamics.

The analysis showed that the market for pharmaceutical products in the long‐term‐care space is characterized by a couple of therapeutic classes, concentrated in a rather few geographical area in the USA. The traditional institutional based care is declining but the home health care use is increasing.

Access to the IMS data makes the findings of the study unique. Given the government sponsored prescription drug plan for the elderly is expanding, it will be of significant value to document the impact of the Part D plan on the overall healthcare cost in a dynamic long‐term care market.

The purpose of this paper is to show the link between the comparative effectiveness research (CER) and the interest in developing drugs for rare disease by the pharmaceutical industry. Total healthcare spending is on the rise without having a corresponding better health outcome. As such, with the growing role of government in healthcare, measuring and demonstrating value is beginning to expand beyond the private sector to metrics applied in the public sector. A modern approach to comparative effective research began its rapid rise in the USA when the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 allocated $1.1 billion for CER. This paper analyzes the implication and impact on the pharmaceutical industry.

The paper reviews the basic definitions of CER and its areas of strength and weakness. It used real examples of drugs to show the impact of the Reinvestment Act of 2009 on the rise of orphan drugs.

The study shows that the act encouraged the development of orphan drugs, mainly because of the low budget impact due to a smaller patient base. Provisions of the Affordable Care Act provide incentives for such rare disease indications, as no one can be denied coverage with pre-existing conditions.

The study is limited by the number of available rare drugs and the ongoing process of implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

The study shows the cost-effective method of treating medical conditions.

Development of orphan drugs opens up access to care for many patients at a cost-effective price.

This paper shows the link between the CER and the interest in developing drugs for rare disease by the pharmaceutical industry. It also brings out the possible implication of the Affordable Care Act on the pharmaceutical industry with respect to its strategies for drug development and drug portfolio.

The low-income groups in developing nations need microcredits to support their family needs. As banks avoid providing microcredits due to high costs, microfinance institutions are the last resort for this segment of society. The cost of borrowing for the borrowers is indeed high. However, these microfinance institutions play a significant role in financial inclusion. In Muslim countries where financial inclusion takes a hit as a portion of society does not want to indulge in usury transactions, Islamic microfinance institutions play a vital role. In this chapter, the focus is on the Islamic microfinance institutions and their role in achieving the objectives of Shari'ah (maqasid al-Shari'ah) along with the fulfillment of goal of financial inclusion. A case study of Akhuwat Foundation found that the institution offers different interest-free microcredit products along with free healthcare and clothing to the needy segment of society. In this way, not only that the financial inclusion is achieved but also the objectives of Shari'ah are fulfilled. The study provides key facts to the academia and microfinance industry in achieving financial inclusion and fulfilling maqasid al-Shari'ah altogether, in which the banking sector is lacking.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze mergers and acquisitions (M&A) focusing on the US pharmaceutical industry in the period 1981‐2004. This industry is chosen because it is global, it engages intensively in M&A which it uses to both complement and substitute for early stage research, and because the potential abnormal returns to blockbuster drugs are substantial. It is assumed that if abnormal returns to M&A exist in the short and long run, this is the industry to find them.

The study examines short‐term abnormal returns separating mergers from acquisitions and US‐based from foreign‐based M&A targets. It examined 405 mergers and acquisitions during 1981‐2004 to address the issues of our research.

Evidence of short and long‐term abnormal returns, as well as accounting and efficiency effects are found for acquisitions but not for mergers. However, the tests do suggest that mergers with US‐based targets are not value destroying. It is also found that there are differences as to the effects of acquisitions of foreign‐based, as opposed to US‐based targets.

Taken in total, the results provide support for the view that in the pharmaceutical industry, acquisitions of US‐based companies have a positive impact on wealth creation for company shareholders.

The present study deals with the growth performance of export (X), ­import (M), and economic growth (Y) in India over the period 1970–1971 to 2016–2017 as well as tariff (TR) for the period 1990–2017 by employing the methodology of one-time endogenous structural break suggested by Zivot and Andrews (1992). Also, an attempt has been taken to examine the direction of causality between the above-mentioned trade-related variables and economic growth using Granger Causality Test. Results of estimation reveal that all the variables converge toward a stationarity process having constant variability overtime. There exists structural break in the year 1996, 2006, 2008, and 2010, respectively, for economic growth, tariff, imports, and exports. Bidirectional causality is found running from economic growth to tariff and from tariff to economic growth. But there is unidirectional causality from imports to tariff, imports to exports and from exports to tariff.