Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Small Business Strategies for Information Technology Implementation in Developing Countries

Small Business Strategies for Information Technology Implementation in Developing Countries by William Kwabiah MS, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Kansas, 2010 BS, University College of Management Studies, Accra, 1992 Doctoral Study Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Business Administration
The Growth Patterns of General Medical Achievement.

This longitudinal study investigates the growth of medical achievement as a multilevel process and emphasizes the structure of the growth. Subjects were students in all 15 U.S. osteopathic medical schools, a total of 1,060 (78 percent of the 1987 osteopathic cohort). Students took appropriate portions of the National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners' 3-part series of examinations in 1989, 1991, and 1992. Results indicate a substantial overall gain in medical achievement, with an achievement increase of 18 percent over the 3 years. Results also provide empirical evidence of discontinuity among the preclinical, clinical, and residency phases of medical education. Some of the schools had statistically zero, or negative growth, but there were substantial positive gains during clinical education for students in other schools. Institutional differences have sustained effects on student achievement growth both during and after medical school. An appendix discusses hierarchical linear modeling of the growth in general medical knowledge. One table and four figures present study data. (Contains 7 references.) (SLD)
Debt Financing, Agency Cost and Firm Performance: Evidence from India

This empirical investigation attempts to enquire into the relationship among debt financing, agency cost and performance of Indian manufacturing firms. The study tries to document the impact of debt financing on firm performance in two different phases of panel data estimations. In the first phase, the study enquires the effect of debt on firms’ profitability measured by ‘return on equity’. The second phase tries to empirically explain the reason behind such impact by introducing agency cost. Considering the manufacturing firms traded in the BSE 200 Index from 2009–2016, the study documents a significant and negative effect of debt on firm performance. The magnitude of debt is also found to be positively affecting the agency cost measured by ‘general and administrative expenses’. So the negative effect of debt on firm performance is reinforced and justified as debt is also found to elevate the agency costs for the firms.
Ownership Hierarchy and Cash Holding: A Study From Pakistan

This study aims to investigate the impact of the ownership hierarchy on the retention of cash. Ownership structure has dissimilar from each organization as some firms have surplus cash holdings and some firms have fewer cash holdings. This study examines the pattern of shareholding in Pakistan and its consequences on holding of cash. Trade-off theory, peaking-order theory, and agency theory have already hashed out the sensation between cash holding and ownership structure. Fixed Redundant likelihood test, Hausman Test and Panel Data Regression model are used to compute the final results. This study involves 74 non-financial firms to investigate the prime effects. The data have been taken from the biggest database of Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) 100 index Pakistan and company financial reports from the period 2006 to 2017. Significant findings of this paper are based on two different research questions. First, how the pattern of shareholding has an impact on the decision of cash holding? Second, how the boundaries of the firm affect cash holding? These findings imply that cash holding and ownership structure are a vital element of the firm’s financial policy. This paper concludes that there is a negative and substantial relationship between cash holding and the pattern of shareholdings and the boundaries of the firm have an imperative effect on the holding of cash.
Adoption of Social Media by Small-and Medium-sized Healthcare Enterprises

Social media such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter can affect the way healthcare providers deliver their services. As low-cost tools, their use by small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the healthcare sector could deliver competitive advantages. Several studies have shown that these tools are still underutilized by companies in this segment. Thus, the objective of the present study was to investigate which factors lead to the adoption of social media by SMEs in the healthcare sector in Brazil. To this end, a model for the adoption of organizational innovation was used in a causal study. A survey was conducted with 211 healthcare SMEs. The data analysis method was structural equation modeling (SEM), and SmartPLS 2.0 M3 software was used for the analyses. The results showed that both the perceived characteristics of the social media and the characteristics of the adopter are factors that contribute to the adoption of these media by the enterprises. Environmental influences were shown to not be relevant for the adoption of the media by the enterprises in the sample.
CEREBRAL FUNCTIONING IN OFFSPRING OF SCHIZOPHRENICS A Possible Genetic Factor

For years many authors have reported finding neurological deficits in adult schizophrenic patients and have claimed the existence of some constitutional neurological substrate in schizophrenia. The concept of schizophrenia as a neurological disease has been common in Europe, but in the United States interest in this aspect of the disease has often been overshadowed by keen concern regarding the various psychodynamic aspects of family life, particularly the mother-child relationship. Most recently a view of schizophrenia as the result of an interaction between genetic-constitutional and environmental factors has become popular. Kraepelin thought that dementia praecox was due to a metabolic disorder and that neurological components could be found. Thus he (1925) demonstrated that his patients showed much poorer performance in various work tasks. Over the years many authors have gone on investigating the psychomotor aspects of schizophrenia, and a number of studies have indicated that some degree of inferior psychomotor integration is common among schizophrenics. This work has been reviewed by King (1954), whose own research has also revealed a disturbance in various motor functions among schizophrenic patients. Disturbances in vestibular reactivity have been reported by Argyal & Blackman (1940), and in EEG activation, by Fedio, Mirsky, Smith, & Parry (1961). Mirsky (see Rosenthal, 1963) stated that in both nonfocal epilepsy and schizophrenia "there is a common symptom of inability to engage in sustained attentive
HEINEKEN Flexbrewery: Analysis of the impact of small batches on the supply chain and simulation of different replenishment strategies

The last years craft beer is becoming more and more popular. Heineken responses to this trend in different ways. The last gap in this strategy is offering local brands to the market. In order to do so they have to reduce their batch size. This research looked into the impact of smaller batches on the supply chain. The first conclusion is that local brands also need to follow a make to stock strategy to fulfil customer demand. Then three alternatives in inventory management were simulated to make a trade off between service level and cost. The final conclusion is that a it seems best to keep safety stock for fast movers and no safety stock for slow movers, but it depends on how service level is valued.
Establishment of Integrated Accounting Information Systems in an Emerging Market-Problems and Barriers

This research study is aimed to investigate barriers and problems of establishment process of integrated accounting information systems (IAIS) in the universities of an emerging market (Iran) in order to facilitate their establishment. The research population includes Iranian state universities’ CFO and his/her deputy, as well as IT specialists involved in the process of establishment of IAIS in those universities in 2016 and 2017. The required data was collection using a questionnaire designed and developed by the researchers in accordance with the literature (there was no standard questionnaire). The collected data was analyzed at three levels "Total population (Population) ", "CFO or Deputy" (Managers) and "IT Specialists"(Specialists). The results at “Population " level show that the most important problem is related to” design and establishment of the IAIS" and problems related to “project analysis and risk” and “plan” are the least important. Other problems are “employees“, “culture”, “managers”, “and level of information technology and information systems in the university”. From the Managers and Specialists’ point of view problems related to "design and establishment of IAIS” have the most importance. This case study would be of value to regulators, senior managers, system analysts, university authorities especially CFOs and IT managers, and researcher especially in developing and emerging markets.
Using Data Envelopment Analysis to Measure the Technical Efficiency of Public Hospitals in Turkey

In the study, it was targeted to increase the efficiency of business by identifying the performance and efficiency levels of 1533 public hospitals in 81 provinces of Turkey by means of data envelopment analysis and, in addition to this, identifying the problems of units causing disruptions; it was aimed to sort out these problems by suggesting solutions. The data obtained from health businesses, in which application was performed, were checked; their efficiency degrees were assessed; and analysis results were obtained. These results obtained from the study were used in the improvement studies that are going to be carried out to increase the efficiency of or remove the deficiencies of hospitals, in which application is performed. According to the results obtained, the technical efficiencies of 1533 businesses being active in 81 provinces and presenting similar health services were measured by means of data envelopment analysis and it was identified that 775 of these hospitals that are present in 36 provinces worked efficiently, and that 758 of them that are present in 45 provinces did not work efficiently.
Role of magnetic resonance cholangiography in biliary complications of orthotopic liver transplantation Ruolo della colangiografia a risonanza magnetica nelle complicanze biliari del trapianto ortotopico di fegato

Purpose. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of magnetic resonance cholangiography (MRC) in the detection of biliary complications following orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). Materials and methods. Seventy-eight transplant patients with clinically suspected biliary complications were evaluated with 1.5-T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) using a surface coil. All patients were imaged with the following sequences: axial T1-weighted and axial and coronal T2-weighted, 2D spin echo (SE) breath-hold radial cholangiography, and coronal 3D single-shot turbo spin echo (SS-TSE) with respiratory triggering. Patients with negative MRI underwent clinical and sonographic followup. When biliary complications were present, diagnostic confirmation was obtained by endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) (n=13), percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography (PTC) (n=20), ultrasonography (n=10) or computed tomography (CT)
Determinants of Customer Satisfaction in Pakistan Telecommunication

Customer satisfaction is a fundamental marketing construct over the last three decades. It the past a less attention was given to the customer satisfaction as companies gave more importance to attract new customers than retaining the existing customers. However presently companies focus on the customer satisfaction especially in the service producing companies and set it as high priority operational goals. Thus, this study is an effort to identify the factors influencing the customer satisfaction in Pakistan telecommunication industry along with the mediating role of the service quality. A well-structured questionnaire was distributed among the customers of four leading telecommunication companies operating in Pakistan. Results showed that switching cost have significant negative influence on the customer satisfaction that means that if a company have higher switching cost barriers people are hesitate to use their services. Because of these barriers people think that if in future they want to move to other services they need to bear not only economic cost but also the social cost. Thus, customer hesitate to use such services that have higher switching cost. This study is important for the practitioners as well. As this study gives them idea how they can satisfy their customer and what things they supposed to do to retain the customers for the long run. They must invest more and more in their customer relationship management department to fix out their customer problems on spot and to utilized that data to make things better to make it sure that such kind of problems will not face by the rest of the customers. The study concluded that if companies have focus on the better customer relationship management, their service quality is getting more and more better that ultimately satisfy the customer and keep them for long time period.
Back to the Beginning: Does Investor Diversification Affect the Firm's Cost of Equity?

We test whether the diversification of marginal investor affects the underlying firm’s cost of equity. We use institutional investor holdings data to identify the marginal investor. Compared with individual investors, institutional investors are more likely to be the marginal investor, given their trading size and sophistication. We measure institutional investor diversification as the goodness of fit of a benchmark asset pricing model with respect to the investor portfolio returns. We find that firms with less diversified investors have a higher cost of equity and lower real investment. A zero-cost equity portfolio sorted by institutional diversification generates a Carhart alpha of 0.52% (equally-weighted) or 0.73% (value-weighted) per month during the period 1981-2013. These findings are not driven by firm size, idiosyncratic volatility, institutional ownership, liquidity, investor stock selectivity, or behavioral biases. Collective evidence leans toward the market incompleteness explanation (Merton, 1987).
Net deferred tax assets and the long-run performance of Initial Public Offerings

On average, firms’ going public severely underperform compared to the market, a phenomenon which is widely known in the literature as IPO underperformance. Though there is no generally accepted theory on the reasons, information asymmetries and the scarcity of information on the issuers is generally considered to contribute to the phenomenon. Accounting data provided by issuers in the offering prospectuses is mostly backward-looking information that is of limited use in forming expectations of future performance. This problem becomes even more pressing, given the increasing fraction of loss firms among IPOs. Net deferred tax assets (NDTA), however, are a balance sheet item that can be expected to include forward-looking information on future earnings. Reporting under IFRS, firms may recognize NDTA only to the extent, that positive income will be available in future periods. We, therefore, expect NDTA to be positively associated with the long-run performance of IPOs. Investigating a sample of firms going public in Germany between 2005 and 2015, we find that NDTA are positively associated with long-run stock price performance. The association is particularly strong among loss firms. Our findings are relevant especially to investors, who regularly have difficulties valuing loss firms. We show that firms which recognized NDTA perform much better in the aftermarket than those that do not have NDTA on the balance sheet. The most important lesson to be learned is that IPO firms that did not recognize NDTA will likely be very poor investments.
PENGARUH REMUNERASI DEWAN DIREKSI, LEVERAGE DAN EFEKTIVITAS KOMITE AUDIT TERHADAP KUALITAS LABA DENGAN UKURAN PERUSAHAAN SEBAGAI VARIABEL MODERASI

The purpose of this research is to determine the influence of director remuneration, leverage, and audit committee effectiveness on earnings quality with size of company as moderating variable. The independent variables in this model are director remuneration, leverage, audit committee effectiveness, and size of company. The dependent variable is earnings quality. Dependent variable measured with Quality Earnings Ratio (QER). Data for this research were obtained by the company's financial statement and annual report and the Indonesia Stock Exchange’s website (BEI). Sample that used in this research are 39 companies listed on the BEI for the period 2013-2017. The sampling technique used was purposive sampling method. This research uses moderating multiple regression analysis. An analytical tool that used to analyze the hypothesis is SPSS 21.The result of this research shows that director remuneration has positive influence on earnings quality. Leverage has positive influence on earnings quality. Audit committee effectiveness has positive influence on earnings quality. The size of company has no influence on earnings quality. The size of company is proven not to strengthen the positive influence of director remuneration, leverage, and audit committee effectiveness on earnings quality.
Effects of complete products on consumer judgments

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to seek to understand better how consumers judge multiattribute products that are perceived as either more or less complete in terms of feature coverage in a category. Complete products are used to reduce the need of developing and managing expansive and expensive line‐extension portfolios.Design/methodology/approach – The research used an experimental method and conducted two studies to test hypotheses derived from the marketing literature.Findings – It is found that more complete multiattribute products are preferred to less complete alternatives. This preference for more complete products remains under larger competitive product assortment, but is reduced under smaller assortment. With a higher price level and larger assortment, the preference is substantial. However, under the conditions of lower price level/larger assortment, higher price level/smaller assortment, and lower price level/smaller assortment, the preference is again reduced.Research limitations/implicat.
Identity relevant possessions

ABSTRACT Consumers rely on possessions to construct their identity. Yet, literature lacks a coherent organizing structure to understand the multiple ways consumers rely on possessions to construct their identity. This article addresses this issue by synthesizing current and prior research to identify the multiple ways possessions become identity relevant to consumers. Current findings report on video ethnographic accounts of possession biographies, discussing 594 possessions solicited from 57 participants. The identified themes outline five main sources of elevated self-possession identity relevance: internal management, impression management, activity facilitation, personal preference satisfaction, and self-communication. In addition to broadening the scope of sources or drivers of possession identity relevance that can facilitate the development of novel consumer-product relationships, three product positioning strategies for managers are offered: (1) staging possessions for future resourcing, (2) positioning possessions as activity proxies, and (3) promoting products as multipurpose. The research concludes by offering suggestions for future research.
Could cost sharing sustain the Ghana National Health Insurance Scheme?

ABSTRACT This paper estimates the effect of cost sharing on the sustainability of the Ghana National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) from the point of view of enrollment, utilization, and financing. We use data from a nationwide survey to estimate the retention of subscribers and propensity to utilize the scheme's benefit package under a cost sharing policy. The estimates from the survey are used together with data on the Ghana NHIS, to estimate the patronage, and financial status of the Ghana NHIS had cost sharing been introduced. The result indicates that a 5% cost sharing rate would have kept the scheme in surplus between 2007 and 2015. In addition, the 5% cost sharing rate would have led to virtually no change in enrollment and would have reduced utilization rate by about 15%. It is also found that women have higher enrollment and utilization of health insurance than men under cost sharing.
Does eco-innovation lift firm value? The contingent role of institutions in emerging markets

PurposeDrawing on the literature of eco-innovation and institutional theory, this research aims to answer two fundamental questions: Does eco-innovation improve or harm firm value in emerging markets? and How institutional environments moderate the relationship between eco-innovation and firm value? We explicate the regulatory, normative and cognitive pillars of institutions, manifested as regulation intensity, environmental agency pressure and public pressure, respectively.Design/methodology/approachFor this study, a cross-sectional panel data set was assembled from multiple archival sources, including data coded from the corporate annual reports and social responsibility reports, statistical yearbooks, China Stock Market Financial Database (CSMAR) and other secondary sources. A hierarchical regression method was used to test the hypotheses. The data comprised 88 firms sampled over four years. The model using feasible generalized least squares (FGLSs) to control heteroscedasticity in errors due to unobserved heterogeneity was estimated.FindingsEmpirical findings from a data set compiled from multiple archival sources reveal that both eco-product and eco-process innovation negatively relate to firm value. The interactions between eco-innovation and regulation intensity, environmental agency pressure and public pressure are positively related to firm value.Originality/valueFirst, this study extends the literature of eco-innovation by investigating the impact of eco-innovation on firm value. Contrary to the conventional anecdotal evidence of the beneficial effect of eco-innovation, it was found that eco-innovation relates negatively to firm value. Second, this study develops and tests an institutional contingent view of eco-innovation by accounting for the moderating role of regulatory, normative and cognitive pressures.
Machine Learning Based Prediction of Crash Severity Distributions for Mitigation Strategies

In road traffic, critical situations pass by as quickly as they appear. Within the blink of an eye, one has to come to a decision, which can make the difference between a low severity, high severity or fatal crash. Because time is important, a machine learning driven Crash Severity Predictor (CSP) is presented which provides the estimated crash severity distribution of an imminent crash in less than 0.2ms. This is 63 ⋅ 10 times faster compared to predicting the same distribution through computationally expensive numerical simulations. With the proposed method, even very complex crash data, like the results of Finite Element Method (FEM) simulations, can be made available ahead of a collision. Knowledge, which can be used to prepare occupants and vehicle to an imminent crash, activate and adjust safety measures like airbags or belt tensioners before of a collision or let self-driving vehicles go for the maneuver with the lowest crash severity. Using a real-world crash test it is shown that significant safety potential is left unused if instead of the CSP-proposed driving maneuver, no or the wrong actions are taken. 