Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Corporate reputation: disentangling the effects on financial performance

Purpose – Theory has made many assumptions about the consequences of a “good” corporate reputation. The aim of this paper is to provide evidence of the effect of a positive corporate reputation on the firm's future financial performance by means of a more differentiated concept of reputation than the one commonly used in literature.Design/methodology/approach – In contrast to prior research, reputation is conceptualised by means of a two‐dimensional approach. Therefore, two distinct reputational components are hypothesised as affecting financial performance differently. A large‐scale representative survey of 30 of the largest German firms is conducted to gain reputational evaluations of these firms. The overall assessment of reputation is differentiated into a part that is explained by past financial performance and an idiosyncratic part to control for the effect of past performance on today's reputation. Finally, the idiosyncratic effect of reputation on future performance is assessed with an econometric.
Illness Fears in the General Population

Objectives Because relatively little is known about illness fears, we sought to estimate the prevalence, risk factors, and morbidity associated with such fears in the community. Methods We conducted a brief telephone survey of persons aged 40 to 65 years from randomly selected households in the Johnson County, Iowa, area. Respondents were asked whether a series of illness and medical care items made them no more nervous, somewhat more nervous, or much more nervous than other people. Those who reported more discomfort were asked to what extent this interfered with medical care or caused impairment or distress. Information about demographic and health characteristics was also obtained. Results Five hundred persons, 62% of those contacted, responded to the survey. A factor analysis revealed four fear dimensions: illness/injury, medical care, blood/needle, and aging/death. Five percent of respondents reported much more nervousness in relation to at least four of six illness/injury items, 4% indicated that such fears interfered with their medical care, and 5% reported some negative effect on their life. Similarly, 5% of respondents reported much more nervousness in relation to at least two of four medical care items. Illness/injury fears were somewhat more common in persons with lower income and education and in those with medical conditions. Conclusions This survey shows that fears of illness and medical care are common in the general population and indicates that lower socioeconomic status and experience with illness are associated with these fears. The findings also suggest that interference with care occurs among those with the strongest fears.
Untangling demand curves from information effects: evidence from Australian index adjustments

We investigate the impact of the Morgan Stanley Capital International change in index calculation on Australian stocks. We are able to differentiate between a downward sloping demand curve hypothesis and the investor awareness hypothesis. Broadly speaking, the results are consistent with investor awareness at the time of the announcements and downward sloping demand curves at the implementation date.
Financial systems and economic growth in South Africa: a dynamic complementarity test

This study examines the relationship between banks, stock markets and economic growth in South Africa. The study attempts to answer one critical question: are stock markets and banks complementary to one another in the process of enhancing economic growth? The complementarity between the stock markets and banks is examined by including a set of interactive terms in a standard growth model, alongside bank development and stock market development proxies. In order to test the robustness of the results, three proxies of stock market development have been used, namely stock market capitalization, stock market traded value and stock market turnover – against the ratio of bank credit to the private sector, a proxy for bank-based financial development. The economic growth is, however, proxied by real GDP per capita. Using the ARDL-Bounds testing procedure, the study finds that the complementarity between stock market development and bank-based financial development is weak and sensitive to the proxy used to measure stock market development.
A Temporal Sequence Model of Satisfaction and Export Intentions of Service Firms

Abstract A large part of prior research about international performance involves a process of identifying the factors associated with enhanced performance. Such research addresses the relationship between past international strategy and performance. Stages-of-internationalization models, however, suggest that performance at a given stage has implications for the future behavior of exporting firms. Success at an early stage may move firms to more advanced stages. Conversely, failure at an internationalization stage may move firms to less advanced stages or to cease exporting altogether. The purpose of this inquiry is to draw upon for the first time, in a services marketing context, the customer satisfaction literature so as to examine the relationships between export performance, disconfirmation of prior expectations, satisfaction with export performance, the importance of exporting to the attainment of future firm goals, and future export intentions. Thus, it serves to further our understanding of the res.
Sustainability and human resource management: reasoning and applications on corporate websites

The notion of sustainability has moved from a fringe issue towards a topic of increasing interest for management research and business practice. Recently, it has also appeared in the context of managing the corporate human resources. This paper seeks to explore the meaning of sustainability for Human Resource Management (HRM) and the reasoning for and applications of the concept for HRM through an analysis of corporate websites of 50 European multinational enterprises. It is explored how the companies define sustainability and sustainable development, how they justify applying the concept of sustainability, how they link sustainability to managing human resources and which key activities they suggest to manage human resources sustainably. These findings are critically reflected and the paper concludes with recommendations for future research.
Insights Into Wildfire Mitigation Decisions Among Wildland–Urban Interface Residents

In-depth interviews conducted with homeowners in five Colorado wildland–urban interface communities reveal that the homeowners face difficult decisions regarding the reduction of wildfire risk. Rather than seeing risk reduction as straightforward, homeowners appear to be involved in a complex decision-making process with social considerations. The interviews shed light on the social context in which homeowners make wildfire mitigation decisions, participants' perceptions of how the biophysical landscape near their residences affects mitigation, and participants' perceptions of wildfire mitigation options.
Network Board Continuity and Effectiveness of Open Innovation in Swedish Strategic Small-Firm Networks

Increasing adoption of open innovation as an alternative route to research and development necessitates the development of new ways to organize innovation, as well as reassessment of existing ways. Much like traditional corporations that subscribe to the closed innovation paradigm, novel organizational arrangements targeting open innovation, such as small-firm networks, employ boards to effectively manage joint research-and-development activities. These boards are similar yet different from traditional corporate boards; as such, they may have different requirements for proper functioning. We use 5-year longitudinal data on 53 Swedish strategic small-firm networks to investigate how the boards should be organized to help improve the innovative status of network participants. We expand the set of tools available for effective organization of the boards' operations and emphasize the effects of network board continuity (rates of renewal) on network members' innovative performance. We argue that the relationship is curvilinear (U-shaped) and demonstrate that it is more pronounced in larger networks.
The impact of diversity and equality management on firm performance: Beyond high performance work systems

This article demonstrates that a diversity and equality management system (DEMS) contributes to firm performance beyond the effects of a traditional high-performance work system (HPWS), which consists of bundles of work practices and policies used extensively in high-performing firms. A DEMS typically includes diversity training and monitoring recruitment, pay, and promotion across minority or other disadvantaged groups. Our analysis of quantitative data from service and manufacturing organizations in Ireland confirms that HPWS practices are associated with positive business performance and finds specifically that DEMS practices are positively associated with higher labor productivity and workforce innovation and lower voluntary employee turnover. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Internet Technology Use by American Convention and Visitors Bureaus

Adoption and diffusion theories are used to explain key factors affecting the use of Internet technology by American convention and visitors bureaus. Organizational properties, leader characteristics, and technology-activity fit are assumed to determine the extent and length of information technology (IT) use. A survey conducted among American convention and visitors bureaus indicates that bureaus can be classified into five adopter groups (laggards, sophisticated followers, knowledge adopters, early light adopters, and late light adopters), which follow two different paths of technology implementation and use. Bureaus along these paths differ substantially in terms of their use of applications, their perceptions of IT, and the impacts of IT on their activities. Education and knowledge of bureau leaders and the perceived usefulness of IT also affect the bureaus’ potential to become knowledge adopters.
Characterization of response of a dual resonance of an arc-induced long-period grating to various physical parameters

We present, for the first time to our knowledge, results on the characterization of response of a dual resonance observed in the spectrum of a single long-period grating arc-induced in a B/Ge co-doped fiber to different physical parameters. The dual resonance is formed by two overlapping resonances corresponding to coupling of the core mode to symmetric and antisymmetric cladding modes. Therefore, these resonances may behave differently when strain, bending, torsion, or temperature is applied to the grating. We show that the bending, strain, and torsion sensitivities of the two resonances are very different, while the temperature sensitivities are almost the same.
Firm Size and the Impact of Securities Regulation

Using a newly-assembled dataset of 45,220 firms across 46 countries spanning the years 1996–2007, we find incongruent effects of regulation across firm size. We find that public enforcement facilitates small firm security issuance, while private enforcement benefits large firms more than small firms. However, once small firms access equity markets, private enforcement enhances the amount of equity capital raised in domestic markets. Stronger public enforcement gives rise to larger firms raising capital internationally. Comprehensively, results suggest that public (private) enforcement is more (less) consequential to firm-level access to capital than previously believed.
Management of Medically Unexplained Chronic Orofacial Pain: Justification for Behavioural Interventions

Chronic Orofacial Pain (COFP) is currently treated according to a biomedical model, particularly in primary care, where management often involves invasive and irreversible treatments that are not evidence based and do not improve outcomes for patients. Studies have shown that COFP shares a number of risk factors and maintaining features with other medically unexplained conditions/symptoms (MUS), which are associated with psychological, social and behavioural dysfunctions. Evidence from studies of COFP and other MUS suggests that CBT based therapies may be effective in targeting both maintaining and exacerbating features and subsequently improve outcomes for patients. This piece positions COFP as the MUS of dentistry, affording a unique perspective in terms of exploring possible non-invasive management techniques, which should be a priority for future testing.
Managing The Environment

Abstract The literature on network management in the public sector reports positive effects of network activity on agency performance. Current studies show however no differences between specific types of contacts in an agency's environment. The present article adopts an explorative design to study the different types of environmental actors in the networks of nine colleges for nursing studies in the Netherlands. A typology of environmental ties is introduced, and applied to the nine cases. It appears that contacts to different types of actors reflect different levels of ambition in the network management of the colleges. The level of ambition in network management appears to be associated with two indicators for college performance: it is positively associated with diploma rate, and negatively associated with drop-out rates among freshmen. These results are discussed with reference to the current literature in public network management.
Evaluating the network's value creation and its dependence on absorptive capacity and social capital factors

Networks are assumed to enhance small firms' performance and competitiveness. Research indicates that there are various sources of value that could derive from networks, such as cost and time efficiency, quality improvement, flexibility and innovation. However, in most cases these values are associated with a general framework of what Information Communication Technologies (ICT) and network models are supposed to offer to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and their participating actors. Little empirical research has focused on the real value that participating firms can appropriate and create. Based on an empirical study involving SMEs, this paper analyses the value that SMEs can create and/or appropriate by participating in networks and the extent to which value creation depends on factors such as absorptive capability and social capital. This study demonstrates that SMEs can create and appropriate a great deal of value when they become an integral part of network systems. However, factors such as abso.
Did the US Infertility Health Insurance Mandates Affect the Timing of First Birth?

From 1977-2001, 15 US states mandated health insurance providers to offer coverage for infertility treatment. Although the majority of the past literature has studied impacts on older women who are likely to seek treatment, this paper proposes that the mandates may have had a wider impact on the US population. Specifically, it may have given an option for younger women to delay birth since these policies reduced the opportunity cost of having a child in the future. Results suggest a significant delay of 1-2 years in the time of first birth among highly educated white women.
NKp 44 Receptor Mediates Interaction of the Envelope Glycoproteins from the West Nile and Dengue Viruses with NK Cells 1

Dengue virus (DV) and West Nile virus (WNV) have become a global concern due to their widespread distribution and their ability to cause a variety of human diseases. Antiviral immune defenses involve NK cells. In the present study, we investigated the interaction between NK cells and these two flaviviruses. We show that the NK-activating receptor NKp44 is involved in virally mediated NK activation through direct interaction with the flavivirus envelope protein. Recombinant NKp44 directly binds to purified DV and WNV envelope proteins and specifically to domain III of WNV envelope protein; it also binds to WNV virus-like particles. These WNV-virus-like particles and WNV-domain III of WNV envelope protein directly bind NK cells expressing high levels of NKp44. Functionally, interaction of NK cells with infective and inactivated WNV results in NKp44-mediated NK degranulation. Finally, WNV infection of cells results in increased binding of rNKp44 that is specifically inhibited by anti-WNV serum. WNV-infected target cells induce IFNsecretion and augmented lysis by NKp44-expressing primary NK cells that are blocked by anti-NKp44 Abs. Our findings show that triggering of NK cells by flavivirus is mediated by interaction of NKp44 with the flavivirus envelope protein. The Journal of Immunology, 2009, 183: 2610–2621.
Eş Bütünleşme ve Nedensellik Testleri Altında İkiz Açıklar Hipotezi: Türkiye Uygulaması

Ikiz aciklar hipotezi butce aciklari ile cari islem aciklari arasinda bir iliskinin varligini iddia eder Geleneksel Keynesyen ongoru butce aciklarinin cari islemeler aciklarina yol acacagini iddia eder buna karsin Ricardian denkligi hipotezi de butce aciklari ile cari islem aciklari arasinda herhangi bir iliskinin olmadigini iddia eder Bu calismada butce aciklari ile cari islem aciklari arasindaki iliskiyi 1975 2002 donemi yillik verileriyle Engle Granger E G iki asamali es butunlesme yontemi ve Granger nedensellik testiyle Turkiye icin sinanmistir Es butunlesme analizimiz gostermistir ki butce aciklari ile cari islem aciklari arasinda uzun donemli bir iliski vardir Ayrica nedensellik analizinin sonuclarina gore birinci gecikmede butce aciklarindan cari aciklara dogru ucuncu ve yedinci gecikmede de cari aciklardan butce aciklarina dogru nedensellik bulunmustur Anahtar kelimeler: Ikiz Aciklar Es Butunlesme Testi Granger Nedensellik Testi Cari Islemler Butce Acigi
Peak-Load Energy Management by Direct Load Control Contracts

We study direct load control contracts that utilities use to curtail customers’ electricity consumption during peak-load periods. These contracts place limits on the number of calls and total number of hours of power reduction per customer per year as well as the duration of each call. The stochastic dynamic program that determines how many customers to call and the timing and duration of each call for each day is an extremely difficult (NP-hard) optimization problem. We design a scenario-based approximation method to generate probabilistic allocation polices in a reasonable amount of time. Our approach consists of three approximations: deterministic approximation of demand, discretization of the expected demand, and aggregation/disaggregation of the resources. We show the relative information error resulting from the deterministic approximation is [Formula: see text], the discretization error is [Formula: see text], and the aggregation/disaggregation error is [Formula: see text], where n represents the length of the horizon. Finally, we show the total relative error is [Formula: see text]. Our error analysis establishes that our approximation method is near optimal. In addition, our extensive numerical experiments verify the high quality of our approximation approach. The error, conservatively measured, is quite small and has an average and standard deviation of 8.6% and 1.4%, respectively. We apply our solution approach to the data provided by three major utility companies in California. Overall, our study shows our procedure improves the savings in energy-generation cost by 37.7% relative to current practices. This paper was accepted by Chung Piaw Teo, optimization.
Entrepreneurship education and training : insights from Ghana, Kenya, and Mozambique

The report is structured in six chapters and presents key insights from across the case studies along the way. Chapter 1 is the introduction chapter. Chapter two introduces a common framework for EET, drawn from the complementary study, entrepreneurship education and training programs around the world: dimensions for Success (Valerio, Parton, and Robb 2014), in order to provide a common definition and language for a discussion of the diverse universe of EET programs. Chapter three summarizes the economic, political, and cultural contexts as well as the entrepreneurial environments for EET programs across the case-study countries, drawing upon both existing research and the insights of local EET stakeholders. Chapter four summarizes the landscape of programs identified by the case studies according to program type and explores connections with relevant findings from global EET research. Chapter five presents a set of key thematic findings from the qualitative fieldwork. Chapter six concludes with a summary of the cross-cutting findings from the case studies and insights into the implications for policymakers and program designers.
Serum Interferon in First Psychotic Attack

A group of 34 physically healthy young patients, aged 18–27 years at their first psychotic attack, before neuroleptic treatment and admission, were tested simultaneously with 24 age-and sex-matched controls for levels of serum interferon. No statistically significant differences were found between patients and controls. Therefore, no correlation between acute viral infection and schizophrenia was demonstrated.
Functional results of single-lung transplantation for chronic obstructive lung disease.

The feasibility and immediate tolerance of single-lung transplantation were recently demonstrated in patients with severe obstructive lung disease. Since initial reports, hundreds of procedures have been performed worldwide in such patients, but views regarding the results are still controversial. Since few data concerning medium-term functional results are available, we report here our series of 20 patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease who received a single-lung transplant. A group of 16 patients who survived for 6 mo or more form the basis of this report. Current 1- and 2-yr actuarial survival are 75 and 70%, respectively, with 4 perioperative deaths and 2 deaths at 9 and 15 mo after transplantation. Before transplantation the patients were severely obstructive, with a FEV1 of 17 +/- 6% of predicted, a PaO2 of 51 +/- 10 mm Hg, a PaCO2 of 49 +/- 11 mm Hg, and a 6 min walk test of 99 +/- 84 m. A significant functional improvement was observed postoperatively, the patients' FEV1 at 3 mo reached 53 +/- 13%, PaO2 81 +/- 3 mm Hg, and PaCO2 39 +/- 3 mm Hg. The distance covered during 6 min was 587 +/- 147 m at 6 mo. Throughout postoperative follow-up, lung function remained stable in some patients but decreased in others after several mo, this decline related to the occurrence of bronchiolitis obliterans, except in two patients who had airway complications. Impairment in lung function led to retransplantation in four patients, with good clinical results in three patients, one patient dying postoperatively. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)