For-profit Research Articles

A Pregnancy and Postnatal RCT Among Women With Gestational Diabetes Mellitus and Overweight/Obesity: The PAIGE2 Study.

This study examined the influence of a pregnancy and postnatal multicomponent lifestyle intervention for women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and overweight/obesity from 6 weeks to 12 months postnatal. The primary outcome was weight at 12 months. Secondary outcomes included change in body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC) and fasting plasma glucose (FPG). The study involved 235 pregnant women with GDM and BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2 during pregnancy. Intervention components included an educational session, activity tracker (Fitbit), monthly phone calls, weekly motivational text messages, 12-week voucher for a commercial weight management organization and anthropometric, biochemical, and clinical measurements taken at 6 weeks, 6 months, and 12 months postnatal. The control group received routine local maternity care. A mean weight change of -2.0 (SD 7.1) kg was observed in the intervention group compared with -0.6 (SD 8.0) kg in the control group, difference -1.4 (95% CI -4.4, 1.5) kg from 6 weeks to 12 months postnatal, but this was not statistically significant (P = .34). Neither were significant differences obtained for any secondary outcomes: BMI -0.6 (-1.6, 0.5) kg/m2, WC -1.0 (-5.1, 3.2) cm and FPG 0.07 (-0.15, 0.29) mmol/L. This lifestyle intervention among women with overweight/obesity and GDM resulted in a statistically nonsignificant 1.4 kg greater weight loss compared with routine care at 12 months postnatal. Further research is needed to understand how the different components of this lifestyle intervention might be better applied to elicit more successful results.

How do social enterprises respond operationally to conflicting demands? A resource-based view

PurposeSocial enterprises live in the limbo between social and market objectives, posing many operations management challenges. This study extends the discussion of operational priorities, which has focused on purely for-profit organisations, to the context of social enterprises by exploring, from a resource-based perspective, which resources and operational priorities are most important to them and how they are used to respond to conflicting demands.Design/methodology/approachMultiple case study research was carried out involving five Portuguese social enterprises, representative of the main sectors in which social enterprises operate in Europe. Ten semi-structured interviews with directors and other high-ranking respondents were conducted, and content was analysed to gather evidence on the key resources and operational priorities pursued by social enterprises. Cross-case conclusions were drawn, resulting in theoretical propositions and a conceptual framework.FindingsFindings suggest that social enterprises rely on intangible resources and combine different operational priorities, which may vary throughout their lifecycle. Community engagement has emerged as a specific operational priority, in addition to those already reported in the manufacturing and services literature. To balance conflicting demands, most social enterprises studied combine innovation with community engagement or customer focus.Originality/valueThe study contributes to the development of knowledge about the operations strategy in the specific context of social enterprises, an organisational model that has not been systematically addressed in the operations management literature, and brings the discussion of operational priorities into the social enterprise field, thus strengthening the link between these two fields.

Political burden of local government and land insider trading in major Chinese cities

ABSTRACT Chinese local governments transfer political burdens through land trading. One key example of this practice is the requirement for for-profit organizations to bid on land when undertaking public welfare projects. By analysing comprehensive data on public welfare project development in major Chinese cities, we conducted regression analyses and endogeneity tests to explore whether there is a causal relationship between the political burdens faced by for-profit organizations and their land trading priorities, with a focus on insider trading characteristics. Our findings reveal that, even in marketized transactions, the land designated for public welfare projects tends to have lower prices and bidding premiums, reflecting key insider trading traits. Price priority is more apparent among private developers, indicating higher compensation for political burdens, while premium priority is more evident among government-controlled enterprises due to increased paternalism.

Why and when physical cleanliness increases tourists’ payments under pay-what-you-want pricing: the mediating role of moral self-regard and the moderating role of regulatory focus

The pay-what-you-want pricing scheme has been frequently employed by nonprofit and for-profit tourism organizations. While this voluntary payment format can foster inclusivity by making tourism accessible to a larger population, one urgent challenge these institutions face is how to increase consumer payment to sustain both social and economic sustainability. The present work proposes a novel solution, that is, leveraging consumers’ actual or vicarious experience of physical cleanliness. Through two questionnaires and three experiments, this work demonstrates that physical cleanliness significantly boosts payment magnitude under pay-what-you-want. Importantly, this research identifies consumers’ regulatory focus as a vital boundary condition. Specifically, the positive cleanliness effect occurs among promotion-focused people but disappears among prevention-focused individuals. Besides, this study reveals that moral self-regard is the underlying mechanism driving the positive cleanliness effect. Theoretically, the current study presents a new perspective to understanding determinants of tourists’ voluntary payment decisions by investigating their embodied experience of physical cleanliness. It adds new insights to the sustainable tourism literature by addressing both social and economic sustainability through increased payments under pay-what-you-want pricing. Practically, the research findings provide destination managers and tourism providers with valuable guidance on how to boost people’s voluntary payments.

Ethical, Legal, and Practical Concerns Surrounding the Implemention of New Forms of Consent for Health Data Research: Qualitative Interview Study.

In Europe, within the scope of the General Data Protection Regulation, more and more digital infrastructures are created to allow for large-scale access to patients' health data and their use for research. When the research is performed on the basis of patient consent, traditional study-specific consent appears too cumbersome for many researchers. Alternative models of consent are currently being discussed and introduced in different contexts. This study explores stakeholder perspectives on ethical, legal, and practical concerns regarding models of consent for health data research at German university medical centers. Semistructured focus group interviews were conducted with medical researchers at German university medical centers, health IT specialists, data protection officers, and patient representatives. The interviews were analyzed using a software-supported structuring qualitative content analysis. Stakeholders regarded broad consent to be only marginally less laborious to implement and manage than tiered consent. Patient representatives favored specific consent, with tiered consent as a possible alternative. All stakeholders lamented that information material was difficult to understand. Oral information and videos were mentioned as a means of improvement. Patient representatives doubted that researchers had a sufficient degree of data security expertise to act as sole information providers. They were afraid of undue pressure if obtaining health data research consent were part of medical appointments. IT specialists and other stakeholders regarded the withdrawal of consent to be a major challenge and called for digital consent management solutions. On the one hand, the transfer of health data to non-European countries and for-profit organizations is seen as a necessity for research. On the other hand, there are data security concerns with regard to these actors. Research without consent is legally possible under certain conditions but deemed problematic by all stakeholder groups, albeit for differing reasons and to different degrees. More efforts should be made to determine which options of choice should be included in health data research consent. Digital tools could improve patient information and facilitate consent management. A unified and strict regulation for research without consent is required at the national and European Union level. Obtaining consent for health data research should be independent of medical appointments, and additional personnel should be trained in data security to provide information on health data research.

Filling the theoretical gap: Analyzing the nature of platform profits by integrating the rent perspective and Marxian circulation theory

The significant increase in profits generated by platforms has sparked considerable debate regarding the nature of this income. These discussions center on two perspectives: the value-creating perspective suggests that their profits result from new forms of exploitation in the platform economy, while the rent perspective argues that the platforms extract and transfer value from other value-creating activities. While the latter perspective acknowledges that platforms do not directly engage in value creation, it fails to analyze their functions from the standpoint of Marxian circulation theory. Viewed from this standpoint, platforms represent a new form of commercial capital that propels circulation. Through their capacity to collect and process user behavior data, they attain a higher level of centralization than traditional commercial organizations, and extract value created by productive activities.

ЦИФРОВИЗАЦИЯ УСЛУГ ПОЧТОВОЙ СВЯЗИ НА ПРИМЕРЕ РАЗВИТИЯ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОЙ ЭЛЕКТРОННОЙ ПОЧТОВОЙ СИСТЕМЫ

In this article, the authors consider the digitalization of postal services in the Russian Federation as an innovative process at the level of the state email system of Russian Post JSC. The authors analyze the history and legal basis for the creation of the federal postal organization JSC Russian Post - a state electronic mail system that provides legally significant communication for participants in city circulation, authorities and other organizations and citizens of the Russian Federation. The object of the study is the state electronic postal system, which has the status of an information system for the organization of federal postal services. The object of research is dozens of digitalization of the postal services sector as one of the phenomena of proactive state regulation of innovative development. The authors set themselves a scientific task - to analyze the creation and development of legally significant communications between participants in urban circulation, authorities and organizations and citizens of the Russian Federation. The purpose of the study is to analyze the creation of a state electronic postal system and the development of digitalization of postal services in the Russian Federation, to study the innovativeness of this system for communication between the state, business and the population of the world. For the author’s purposes, digitalization of the postal sector is considered as an object of innovative development. Complexes of decisions of governing bodies at different levels, regulations, data on the implementation of individual decisions, as well as the principles of functioning of the state e-mail system were studied, their continuity was noted and further development was noted. Qualitative and quantitative indicators of the education system are presented, reflecting its relevance among participants in information interaction. Based on the results of the analysis, the authors proposed ways to ensure the correct fundamentals of the functioning of the state e-mail system. The article substantiates the introduction of the state e-mail system as an effective mechanism of communication between government authorities, commercial and government organizations and citizens. These recommendations of the authors can be applied when developing proposals for improving the state e-mail system of JSC Russian Post, used to assess the effectiveness of state regulation in the area under consideration.

Концептуальный подход к проведению аудита финансовой (бухгалтерской) отчетности

The article substantiates the need to develop an audit methodology, which includes strategies and plans, of an economic entity of any industry based on a conceptual approach, which determines the basis on the basic principles and concepts of preparing financial (accounting) reporting, including according to the rules of which jurisdiction the reporting is compiled. Particular attention is paid to the main aspects of the conceptual approach to conducting an audit of financial (accounting) statements. A matrix of conceptual foundations for the formation of a methodology for auditing a commercial organization (jurisdiction: Russian Federation) is proposed. The presented matrix is a comprehensive model and can be used as a combination of various financial reporting concepts. This model is very flexible and can be tailored to the specific wishes and needs of organizations in the design of audit procedures. When accepting an audit engagement (ISA 210), the auditor studies the conceptual framework of financial reporting and compares the purpose and objectives of the audit engagement received and the statements submitted for preliminary examination. The emphasis is on the importance of the auditor understanding the business model of the business entity. At the stage of preliminary work on accepting the audit assignment, the importance of assessing the complex geopolitical situation and the influence of the external environment on the activities of the audited entity is emphasized. To assess the possibility of accepting a new assignment or continuing to perform an assignment that is at the stage of full-fledged work, it is necessary to develop risk assessment criteria and the purpose of assessing each criterion depending on the assessment of the degree of risk of the audited entity in the external environment.

ИННОВАЦИОННЫЕ ИНСТРУМЕНТЫ УПРАВЛЕНИЯ ФИНАНСОВОЙ УСТОЙЧИВОСТЬЮ ОРГАНИЗАЦИЙ И ЭФФЕКТИВНОСТЬ ИХ ПРИМЕНЕНИЯ

in this article, the authors consider innovative tools for managing the financial stability of commercial organizations. The definition of financial stability is given, its role in ensuring the financial security of the enterprise is determined. The key ways and methods of assessing the financial stability of an enterprise are being studied. The possibilities of using innovative tools for managing the financial stability of commercial organizations are analyzed and their possible effectiveness for implementation at enterprises of the metallurgical industry is determined.

Invention Withholding in Commercial Organizations

Invention Withholding in Commercial Organizations

Design and Development of AI based Wiring Harness Simulator for Pigtail Wiring Harness Development in Electrical Checkout System (ECOS)

Electrical Checkout System (ECOS) tool validates electrical loads by quantifying their resistance in a typical production line of a commercial vehicle manufacturing organization. Model specific pigtails needs development for connecting the ECOS equipment with commercial vehicles in production. Conventional manual approach is used for Pigtail ECOS harness design and development which is both time-consuming and prone for errors. This project is related to the accelerated design and development of pigtail ECOS harness utilizing the power of Artificial Intelligence in analyzing the input wiring diagrams spanning multiple sheets in PDF format and accurately identify the wire loads. The AI provides the result in the form of tabulated spreadsheets consisting the data of wiring loads and pin details. Through this project the lead time for harness design and development is reduced significantly

Accounting statements of budgetary organizations: features of methodological approaches to the composition of statements and the formation of a balance sheet

The article studies methodological approaches to the composition of accounting (financial) statements and the disclosure in them of information about the financial position of budgetary organizations in the system of Russian regulatory documents on accounting. A comparison is made of the requirements for the composition of financial statements and the content of the balance sheet of Russian budgetary organizations with the regulations for the composition of financial statements and the content of the balance sheet of Russian commercial organizations. In addition, the requirements for the composition of financial statements and the content of the balance sheet in the system of Russian accounting standards are compared with the regulations on the composition of accounting (financial) statements and the content of the report on the financial position of public sector organizations in the system of international financial reporting standards for public sector organizations. Significant differences are revealed in the methodological approaches to the composition of reporting and the content of the balance sheet in the systems of accounting standards under consideration. Discursive issues regarding aspects of the research carried out are substantiated, and possible ways to solve them are argued.

Diving into the Digital Landscape: Assessing the Quality of Online Information on Neonatal Jaundice for Parents.

Hyperbilirubinemia is a common condition in newborns. While mild cases of jaundice are common and typically resolve spontaneously, severe hyperbilirubinemia can lead to serious neurologic complications if left untreated. With the constant adaptation of guidelines, clinical management has significantly improved, and treatment has become routine for pediatricians. However, for parents of affected children, managing the condition is not routine. In today's digital age, parents often seek additional information by accessing a wide range of medical resources on the internet. While this can be empowering, it also presents challenges, as the quality and accuracy of online medical information can vary widely. Therefore, we analyzed the current quality of information on jaundice found on the internet by parents. A simulated internet search (using the Google search engine) was conducted from a layperson's perspective using German ("Neugeborenes Gelbsucht", "Baby Gelbsucht") and English ("jaundice newborn", "jaundice baby") search terms. Subsequently, the quality of the search results was assessed by two independent neonatologists based on the DISCERN Plus Score, HONcode certification, and the JAMA criteria. Websites targeting non-medical laypersons exhibited significant variability in quality. Notably, the content of English websites was superior to that of websites in the German language. The majority of English sites were predominantly institutional, whereas most German sites were commercially oriented. Although information on jaundice is readily accessible online for non-medical individuals, there were notable differences in quality based on language and significant variability in the quality of information warranting attention from healthcare professionals. Furthermore, German websites providing information on jaundice were often hosted by commercial organizations. We propose that pediatric societies engage in developing and maintaining organization-based medical information to improve online resources for parents.

Charter school reform in Abu Dhabi: policy borrowing, translation and frenemies

ABSTRACT This research investigates the implementation of charter schools in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the effects of this policy change on education workers. Operation by for-profit education management organisations shifts the government policy on UAE national students, changing the education governance of the government system to be more like that of local international schools. This research aimed to understand the reform based on the experiences of charter school administrators, schoolteachers, charter operator managers, and other stakeholders. The main findings relate to policy translation, policy mobilities, and the complexity of the relationship between for-profit school operators and the government regulator. The importance of this research is understanding how a government school system can be subsumed by an entirely private, for-profit education system.

Balanced Scorecard: A Literature Review to Trace its Trajectory in the Public Administration Domain

ABSTRACT The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) has been a strategic and performance management tool for 30 years, initially for for-profit organizations but later adopted by other types. This study reviews its use by public administration scholars, analyzing articles from the Web of Science database with bibliometric tools and Artificial Intelligence for lexical and semantic analysis. The analysis concluded that BSC is mainly used in local government for performance management and measurement. The study enhances theoretical understanding by exploring BSC’s application in the public sector, its effectiveness, distinctions from for-profit use, and identifying areas for further research.

Improving the internal control system in the digital economy

Subject. This article examines the problems faced by the internal control systems of economic entities in the context of the digital economy, and it searches for potential solutions to improve the efficiency and adaptability of these systems. Objectives. The article aims to substantiate the areas for improving the internal control system in the context of digitalization. Methods. For the study, we used a systems approach, comparison, systematization, and data generalization. Results. Based on the analysis of the problems associated with the improvement of control procedures in the context of the digital economy, the article offers recommendations for the phased implementation of digital transformation in the internal control system of a commercial organization, and it identifies digital technologies that can help in the successful implementation of each of the identified stages. Conclusions. By implementing digital transformation, organizations can streamline internal control processes by automating manual and repetitive tasks, thereby increasing efficiency and reducing the likelihood of errors. Using advanced analytics, organizations can make data-driven decisions, detect fraudulent activity, and streamline internal controls in real time.

Disclosure of information about risks in ESG reporting of commercial organizations as a factor in increasing information transparency of the business ecosystem

Disclosure of information about risks in ESG reporting of commercial organizations as a factor in increasing information transparency of the business ecosystem

How to Keep Millennial Social Network Users Active? Millennial Social Network Usage on Mobile Devices Across Cultures

ABSTRACT Despite the continuous upsurge in the use of social networks by consumers and marketers, the empirical research investigating their economic value in different cultures still lags. This study develops an extended Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) model that includes trust in the social network community, perceived enjoyment, and Hofstede’s cultural factors (masculinity/femininity, power distance, individualism/collectivism, and long-term objectives). Using survey methodology across three countries (Kuwait, Tunisia, and Italy), data is analyzed using a structural equation model. The results of this study empirically extended the TRA model by including the significant impact of perceived enjoyment and attitude on the use of Facebook across different cultures. Trust in the social network community and its impact on the use of Facebook was only significant in Arab culture and not European culture. Hofstede’s factors moderate the relationship between subjective norms and usage of Facebook, and their impact is varies across different cultures. The study highlights the differential impact of cultures on social network use and the importance of understanding the type of culture the business is targeting. Commercial organizations should guide their marketing efforts to manage their marketing differently across cultures to enhance their consumer engagement.

The potential of public organizations in creating conditions of healthy aging for sustainable demographic development of the Russian regions

The article considers issues of potential of public organizations to develop conditions for healthy aging in order to ensure sustainable development of Russian regions differing in their socio-economic, socio-cultural and demographic characteristics. It is established that individual approach is to be applied in developing and implementing measures, since elderly Russians constitute very heterogeneous social demographic group, characterizing by differences in age, health condition, social, economic and professional status, life motivation, family/single/nursing type of residence, etc. It is indicated that work will require time, financial expenses and labor costs. The achievement of sustainable development of Russian regions depends on ability and readiness of regional and municipal authorities, public and commercial organizations and entire population. It is determined that age-related stigmatization and ageism can not be overcame through decisions made by persons of power. No less significant is public opinion, determining position of employers, physicians, teachers and other specialists on whom healthy longevity of population depends. The conclusion is made that present demographic changes are a predictor of development of position of state authorities and public opinion that needed attention is to be paid to promoting of healthy aging, to expending necessary financial, infrastructural, informational and human resources. Only in this case Russian regions can count on social dividends that will follow preliminary comprehensive investments into developing conditions for healthy aging of local residents.

The metamorphoses of denationalization of 1993. Report-I. The market fight for medications import

In the history of the Russian pharmaceutical market the year of 1993 became the year of formation of rules of market relations and changing under them of market landscape. The significant segment of state-centralized purchases moved under responsibility of regional authorities and their health care authorities. At that, powers of three former state organizations being occupied with purchases of imported medications were distributed between new state companies of Ministry of Health and commercial organizations and firms that entered pharmaceutical market. This diversity rather soon gave rise to competitive fight for budget funds and experiments of Government with market regulation. The traces of these clashes and attempts to make market regulated can be found in Ministry of Health archives and journal publications. The Report I reveals circumstances of entrance of Ministry of Health into market relationships and its acquisition of market player identity.