Greater Ownership Research Articles

Mobile Applications for Mental Health Providers

Mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets have fundamentally changed the ways in which we interact with information. Far more than communication devices, smartphones and tablets are now indispensable tools in the pocket of healthcare providers. Mobile mental health applications (apps) provide instant access to up-to-date information on prevention, assessment and treatment. Self-help apps allow patients to take greater ownership of their own health and well-being. The past decade has seen an extraordinarily rapid proliferation of mobile medical apps. Though thousands of apps now exist, the challenge for healthcare providers and consumers alike has become sorting through mobile apps for those which provide accurate content delivered in the most user-friendly format. This article will review six mobile apps that can assist healthcare providers and consumers interested in enhancing mental health.

The effect of ownership concentration and composition on dividends: Evidence from Latin America

We analyze a unique data set of publicly traded firms based in six Latin American countries to study the joint effect of ownership concentration and composition on dividend policy. We find that when ownership concentration is high and the largest investor is identified as an individual, firms tend to pay fewer dividends consistent with individual investors extracting benefits from minority shareholders. However, if the largest shareholder is based in a common law country, the dividend paid is significantly higher. Finally, greater ownership by the second largest shareholder decreases firm dividends suggesting the monitoring role of a large shareholder.

Anchoring and Acquisitions

For a comprehensive sample of mergers and acquisitions that involve both public and private targets, we find a reference price effect: acquirers earn higher (lower) announcement period returns when their pre-announcement stock prices are well below (near) their 52-week highs. The reference price effect is not explained by size or valuation levels and is independent of the target-firm offer price anchoring phenomenon documented in Baker, Pan, and Wurgler (2012). Further, the reference price effect is stronger in deals involving greater uncertainty (more volatile acquirers, acquirers followed by fewer analysts, greater relative size, and non-cash payment) and greater individual investor ownership. Consistent with investors exhibiting an anchoring bias, the reference price effect persists for 20 days, but is reversed in the subsequent year. Our results survive a battery of control variables, robustness checks, and falsification tests.

Social Norms and CSR Performance

Some institutional investors (e.g., pensions, universities, and religious, charitable, and not-for-profit institutions) are exposed to social norms and public scrutiny. Prior research indicates that these norm-constrained institutions engage in negative screening and invest less in firms operating in ‘sin’ industries. We examine whether social norms also motivate these institutions to engage in positive screening—where they invest more in firms with better corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance—and CSR-related activism—where they promote improvements in the CSR of existing investees. We find that firms with superior CSR performance have greater ownership by norm-constrained institutions, consistent with positive screening, and we use a natural experiment to establish causality. We also find that increases in the shareholdings of norm-constrained institutions are associated with subsequent improvements in CSR, consistent with activism. Further, we rule out an alternative explanation for our results where the positive screening and activism are ‘profit-driven’ rather than driven by social pressure. Thus, our results suggest that the influence of social norms on stock markets is more pervasive than documented in the prior literature.

Effective Use of Discovery Learning to Improve Understanding of Factors That Affect Quality

Undergraduate business majors are required to take a course in operations management. In this course, a great deal of emphasis is put on developing a good understanding of quality because this is likely to be the only required course that covers this important topic. Quality of output exhibits a great deal of variation. To produce high quality on a sustained basis, sources of variation in quality need to be identified and eliminated or adjusted. A discovery learning activity has been developed and used for over 10 years to help students identify the different kinds of reasons why there is variation in quality of output. Students have greater ownership of such knowledge because they discovered the knowledge. Six pedagogical tips and guidelines are presented to assist instructors improve odds of success in using this effective but difficult pedagogical tool.

The Power of Shareholder Votes: Evidence from Director Elections

In the U.S., votes in director elections are advisory but are often used by shareholders to express dissent. We examine whether these non-binding votes have consequences for directors and report affirmative evidence. Directors facing dissent are more likely to depart boards, especially if they are not lead directors or chairs of important committees. Directors facing dissent who do not leave are moved to less prominent positions in boards. These effects are more pronounced in firms with greater ownership by institutional investors who pose exit threats. Finally, we find evidence that directors facing dissent face reduced opportunities in the market for directors, consistent with the Fama and Jensen (1983) view of the disciplining role of the market for directors. We show that contrary to popular belief, shareholder votes have power and result in negative consequences for directors. We also find that the effects of dissent votes go beyond those of proxy advisor recommendations.

Effect Ownership, Accountant Public Office, and Financial Distress to the Public Company Financial Fraudulent Reporting in Indonesia

This study empirically examine the influence of ownership, accountant public office and the financial distress on fraudulent financial reporting. The variables studied were foreign ownership, family ownership, accountant public office and the financial distress of public companies in Indonesia in 2009 to 2012. The research was conducted by quantitative methods using secondary data. Secondary data comes from a list of cases Bapepam-LK and the annual reports listed companies on the Stock Exchange. This population of study was company listed on the Stock Exchange, and then the samples were taken by purposive sampling criteria the company's corporate criteria sanctioned Bapepam-LK and the sanctions contained elements of fraud, including the non-financial corporate sector and have the data required in this study. At the end, the total sample of 64 companies that the company. This study uses logistic regression statistical tools as the dependent variable is a dummy variable (non-metric), while the independent variable is a variable mixture of metric and non-metric. The results show that the family ownership significantly affect financial reporting fraud but in the opposite direction because of the negative impact. Foreign ownership of a significant negative effect on fraudulent financial reporting. This indicates the greater ownership by the family, the lower the level of financial of fraudulent reporting accountant public office has no effect on fraudulent financial reporting. This occurs because both KAP Big Four and Small Firm have the same standards in Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) in carrying out their duties as auditor. Financial distress negatively affects fraudulent financial reporting.

Predictors of Baby Video/DVD Ownership: Findings from a National Sample of American Parents with Young Children

This study examines demographic and attitudinal predictors of parents reported ownership of baby DVDs among a national sample of US parents with children under age three. Results indicate few associations with demographic variables. Fathers report greater ownership of baby videos/DVDs, and parents with more videos/DVDs report more satisfaction with these products. Parent attitudes toward early childhood education are related to owning more videos/DVDS, while promotion-focused orientation (i.e., propensity to pursue possible rewards when outcomes are uncertain) predicts satisfaction with baby videos/DVDs. Furthermore, results indicate that parents' belief in the educational value of media for young children is a strong predictor of both ownership and satisfaction with these products. In light of the controversy surrounding baby videos/DVDs and growing number and variety of screen media for infants and toddlers, implications of these findings for policy and further research are discussed.

Assessing implementation fidelity and adaptation in a community-based childhood obesity prevention intervention

Little research has assessed the fidelity, adaptation or integrity of activities implemented within community-based obesity prevention initiatives. To address this gap, a mixed-method process evaluation was undertaken in the context of the South Australian Obesity Prevention and Lifestyle (OPAL) initiative. An ecological coding procedure assessed fidelity and adaptation of activity settings, targets and strategies implemented in the second year of four communities. Implementation integrity reflected fidelity and adaptation to local context, whereas efforts resulting in significant deviations from the original plan were deemed to lack fidelity and integrity. Staff implemented 284 strategies in 205 projects. Results show that 68.3 and 2.1% of strategies were implemented with fidelity or adapted, respectively. Overall, 70.4% of all strategies were implemented with integrity. Staff experienced barriers with 29.6% of strategies. Chi-square analyses show statistically significant associations between implementation integrity and strategy type, intervention and behavioural targets. These relationships are weak to modest. The strongest relationship was found between implementation integrity and proximal target. Staff experienced implementation barriers at the coalition, policy, organization, interpersonal and community levels. The greatest range of barriers was encountered working with organizations. To overcome these barriers, staff took greater ownership, invested more time, persisted and allocated more financial resources.

Analyzing mediation in dialogic exchanges in a pre-service second language (L2) teacher practicum blog: A sociocultural perspective

Abstract Utilizing Vygotskian sociocultural theory, this article analyzes how an expert teacher educator mediated a pre-service second language (L2) teacher's requests for assistance and expression of emotional dissonance and uncovers the unique characteristics of the teacher educator's mediation. Responding to the recent call to promote the conceptual understanding of L2 teaching on the part of novices, this study focuses on the pedagogical concepts of teaching that were introduced by the teacher educator. Mediating the teacher's learning, the teacher educator introduced the following concepts: promoting students' greater ownership over their learning, making concrete one's instructional paraphrasing, and situating one's instructional activities. Overall, the following characteristics of the teacher educator's mediation were identified: re-framing the teacher's thinking about teaching toward a more expert understanding of teaching, re-naming the novice's conceptions of teaching through expert discourse, and promoting the teacher's conceptual understanding of teaching through the use of the scientific concepts of teaching. While there exists a considerable body of research on the power of engagement in the narration for teacher learning, this study adds to the existing research by also analyzing the teacher educator's mediation in this context. The significance of this study lies in providing new insights for faculty in teacher education programs who are designing and implementing teacher practicums with the use of dialogic blogs and for researchers who seek to understand how pre-service teachers learn through narration and dialogic mediation in the blog.

Assessing the Potential to Change Stakeholders Knowledge and Practices on Fertilizer Recommendations in Africa

Africa’s fertilizer use averages only 8 kg per hectare per year. Available fertilizer recommenda-tions in Africa are high, and vary between countries. The recommendations are generally out dated, and/or “blanket” recommendations that are not site, or crop specific. Recommendation developed for one crop is often used for another and possibly unrelated crop. CABI and AGRA designed a project whose goal is “to help improve the capacity of National Research Institutions in developing fertilizer recommendations for efficient and profitable fertilizer use in 13 sub-Saharan African countries within the framework of ISFM practices under smallholder farming by the end of March 2016”. Baseline survey conducted in May 2014 targeted scientists, policy makers, extension workers, agro-dealers, fertilizer companies and farmers/farmer organization. Snowballing and convenience sampling techniques were used to get the sample and emails were used to reach the respondents. A total of 416 respondents were targeted but only 219 responded from 12 countries. Out of the 219, 148 were extension workers and researchers. About half (51%) of the scientists are aware of fertilizer optimization tool, and a lesser proportion have used the tool across all countries (31%). Fewer extension workers (31%) were aware of the fertilizer optimization tool and none reported to have used the tool. On average about 5% of the study participants reported that other stakeholders were involved in the development of fertilizer recommendations including farmers, farmer organizations, policy makers, researchers, extension workers, agro dealers, fertilizer companies and donor organizations. Stakeholder involvement was highest in Nigeria at 15%, followed by Ethiopia (13%) and Malawi (10%) but most of the countries reported <5%. There is a general understanding that development of fertilizer recommendations is a multi-stakeholder initiative and therefore need for involving many stakeholders in the development of fertilizer recommendations across Africa that will fosters greater ownership and sustainability.

Barriers to accurate diagnosis and effective management of heart failure have not changed in 10 years

Purpose: To explore changes in health care professionals' views about facilitators and barriers to the diagnosis and management of heart failure, since a previous study in 2003. Methods: Using a phenomenological framework, focus groups were conducted with primary care physicians/general practitioners (GPs) (n=39 in 8 groups), cardiologists (n=4), acute physicians (n=6) and heart failure nurses (n=7). Barriers and facilitators to diagnosis and treatment were explored. Derived themes informed a national survey of left ventricular systolic dysfunction (LVSD) and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). Responses from 494 clinicians across the UK included GPs (50%), consultant cardiologists (20%), heart failure nurses (16%), and acute physicians (11%). Results: From focus groups, three categories contributed to variations in diagnosis and care: uncertainty about appropriate clinical practice; the utility of clinical guidelines; individual preferences and local organisational factors - these replicated 2003 findings. Two new categories were: uncertainty about end-of-life care; uncertain lines of responsibility for care from diagnosis to end-of-life. Of those involved with heart failure diagnosis, there was variability between groups in the use of diagnostic tests. When diagnosing LVSD, 97% of cardiologists, 91% of acute physicians and 41% of GPs used echocardiographic findings. For diagnosing HFpEF, echocardiography use was broadly similarly, but cardiologists also used ECGs (65%) and chest x-rays (64%) more than other groups. Only 5% to 35% of respondents valued natriuretic peptides for LVSD or HFpEF. Confidence with test interpretation underpinned decisions about diagnostic test usage. 96% of nurses and 52%-68% of other groups found clinical guidelines helpful when diagnosing LVSD compared with just 18%-35% for HFpEF. Some GPs did not routinely initiate diuretics (23%), ACEi (22%) or β blockers (38%), based on historical teaching, risk of side effects and the burden of monitoring. There was no consensus about who held responsibility for heart failure diagnosis, management and end-of -life care. Conclusions: Reasons for variability in heart failure diagnosis and management have changed little in the last decade. Issues of variable access to diagnostic tests, delivery of care and a lack of co-ordination persist. The current UK working environment may not to be conducive to greater ownership or engagement with these difficulties. The primary need may be for health services to promote coordinated care, responsibility and training.

Organization of Leadership in Rural Parishes

In Australia, many rural parishes are located in areas of declining population. With decreasing numbers of priests available to serve the Catholic parishes in Australia, and without the options of full lay leadership or ecumenical arrangements used by other denominations, dioceses have been struggling to find solutions. Two case-studies present pictures of parishes in which lay people have taken increased responsibility for parish life. In one case, lay leadership is shared with a priest who has responsibility for four parishes. In the other, lay leaders take full responsibility for a parish and the mass is celebrated by a visiting priest. Benefits have been experienced in that the lay people have taken greater ownership of the parishes and have grown in faith through their responsibilities. Appropriate support and mentoring have been major factors in the success of the new organizational models. Lay leadership is especially appropriate in an age in which faith is understood as owned by the individual.

The foundations of financial inclusion: Understanding ownership and use of formal accounts

Financial inclusion -- defined here as the use of formal accounts -- can bring many welfare benefits to individuals. Yet the authors know very little about the factors underpinning financial inclusion across individuals and countries. Using data for 123 countries and over 124,000 individuals, this paper tries to understand the individual and country characteristics associated with the use of formal accounts and what policies are effective among those most likely to be excluded: the poor and rural residents. The authors find that greater ownership and use of accounts is associated with a better enabling environment for accessing financial services, such as lower account costs and greater proximity to financial intermediaries. Policies targeted to promote inclusion -- such as requiring banks to offer basic or low-fee accounts, exempting some depositors from onerous documentation requirements, allowing correspondent banking, and using bank accounts to make government payments -- may be especially effective among those most likely to be excluded. Finally, the study the factors associated with perceived barriers to account ownership among those who are financially excluded and find that these individuals report lower barriers in countries with lower costs of accounts and greater penetration of financial service providers. Overall, the results suggest that policies to reduce barriers to financial inclusion may expand the pool of eligible account users and encourage existing account holders to use their accounts with greater frequency and for the purpose of saving.

Student academic partners: student employment for collaborative learning and teaching development

During 2008, Birmingham City University (BCU) began to develop approaches to enable students to have a greater ownership of the enhancement of learning and teaching at the university in order to break down some of the real and perceived barriers between students and staff. This work led to the development of the Student Academic Partners scheme which employs students to work in collaboration with staff on educational development projects spanning across the university. At a time when a number of institutions are considering student employment following the HEFCE funded project in 2009, this paper considers opportunities for student engagement in educational development and provides a case study of student employment at BCU as a cross-institutional approach to embedding collaboration between students and staff for learning and teaching development. Locating the scheme within the literature, practice and evaluation, we offer four principles for facilitating an institutional culture of collaborative educational development and evaluate the impact of the investment on students, staff and the institution as a whole.

Point-of-Care Testing in Australia

Point-of-care (POC) testing in community settings in Aus- tralia has rapidly evolved during the past decade. The development of large-scale national and statewide community-based POC testing pro- grams have delivered evidence-based outcomes highlighting the ana- lytical quality, the clinical effectiveness, and (where appropriate) the cultural effectiveness of POC testing. The use of community-based POC testing, particularly in geographically isolated Australian communities, has practical advantages for the patient, the health professional performing POC testing, the treating practitioner, and the community overall. Both patients and device operators have reported statistically significant improvements in satisfaction levels with pathology service delivery fol- lowing the introduction of POC testing for chronic and acute diseases. Point-of-care testing can assist in improving patient outcomes as a result of the treating practitioner taking immediate action on the POC test result. Point-of-care testing fosters and builds a strong sense of community en- gagement by ensuring that the patient is the central focus of the pathology service being delivered and by empowering the health service to have greater ownership and control of the way its pathology service and resultant health information is managed. As POC testing is implemented, progres- sive knowledge transfer and capacity building are critical to ensure the community is empowered with the resources to manage and sustain the program in the long term. Building community capacity to undertake quality-ensured POC testing for routine patient care has flow-on benefits in terms of resilience, preparedness, and response in disaster scenarios.

Business models of public private partnerships in publicly-financed emergency response services

Background The last six years of India’s National Rural Health Mission has witnessed the emergence of a wide variety of public funded, privately managed ambulance services across the states. Today there are over 3850 government financed emergency response ambulances and another 3000 just about to start up, whereas just five years ago there were almost none. States have chosen different models for emergency response systems with varying levels of investments and effectiveness. Objectives of the Study The main objective if this study to analyze the three different business models of Emergency Response Systems that has evolved under NRHM across the country. The study compares the strengthens and weaknesses of each of these models in terms of (1) Coverage, timeliness, prioritization and quality of emergency response (2)Provision of assured cashless transport for pregnant-women and sick-newborn (3)Costs and sustainability of the models(4)Equity of access to these services (5)Outcomes-with respect to the rest of the emergency healthcare chain. Based on the analysis of these models, the possible roadmap to ERS systems in the country and the principles of design that could be used to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of each business-model for the coming five year plan period is also laid down. Methodology The NHSRC published its first evaluation of 108 programme in 2009 and has since conducted three more studies. The first study provided policy makers with a clear description of the program and an objective evaluation of its claims. A document analysis was undertaken to understand the various types of publically financed partnership models across the country. Based on this, three distinct business models of public-private partnership in ERS were identified. To further understand the three business models, three separate case studies in states where they are most mature in terms of design, number of years of running, continuity and efficiency of management. The business models studied includes (a) The “Dial 108” Model Was studied at its most mature site-Andhra Pradesh. Where we chose to study it in three districts, each from one of the three different regions- coastal Andhra, Rayalaseema, and Telengana regions. In addition a qualitative study and secondary data collection in these three districts. Haryana Swasthya Vahan Sewa(HSVS) Model For a district model with assured referral transport(RT) for pregnancy as primary focus, and emergency response as secondary, we studied the HSVS model-the more mature and established amongst the three states-which have opted for this approach (Haryana, Jharkhand & Chhattisgarh). This model was studied in three districts, one each from North, South and west central regions of the State. Janani express Model For a Local Partnerships based model of assured RT, we studied the programme in Nabrangpur, where the model had matured and developed to its best through a considerable brilliance in local innovation and adaptation with a continuity of local leadership. Discussion and Recommendations This study was used by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India to re-define its financing policy, giving states a greater ownership and risk, leading to improved financing and efficiency. The studies call for a more sound financing policy, caution against a provider monopoly and point out that a disproportionate attention to rescue without sufficient attention to the rest of the emergency management provision is counter-productive Legal challenges to existing policies of procurement also referred to evidence from NHSRC studies. Subsequent to this eight more states adopted a more competitive approach to procurement and financing. More new players entered the market. Alternate models have also emerged. Comparison across models in the second generation studies provided inputs into strengths and limitations of each and helped improve designs. This mechanism of evaluation and feedback is essential to ensure constant improvements in effectiveness, efficiency and governance of such a massive public health effort.

A controlled before and after study to evaluate a patient and health professional partnership model towards effective medication reconciliation

Preventable medication errors impact substantially on the Australian healthcare system. Where 'poor communication of medical information at transition points is responsible for as many as 50% of all medication errors', a leading contributor for this type of medication error is lack of consumer knowledge about medicines information. This study was aimed at designing and testing the effectiveness of a consumer-healthcare professional partnership model towards effective medication reconciliation. This model aims to empower consumers about their medicines information, so that they would contribute more effectively to medication reconciliation and thereby minimise medication errors occurring at transition points. Components of this model were informed by qualitative data gleaned from patient opinion surveys, focus group sessions involving nurses, doctors and pharmacists working at the hospital and results of a literature search of medication safety tools. Programme development was informed by health improvement approaches centred on a Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle. Evaluation for effectiveness was conducted within a framework of a controlled before and after study. revealed that there was a 1.4-fold increase in the reporting rate of pharmacists intervention. The study could not demonstrate that the designed intervention was effective in minimising near-misses. However, there is statistically insignificant reduction in errors for patients that were correctly exposed to the intervention. Anecdotal evidence suggests there is utility for a patient population keen to claim greater ownership of their medicines information. Further, we advocate that patient education about medicines and the establishment of a consumer-healthcare professional model occur prior to ward admission.

Portfolio Manager Ownership and Mutual Fund Risk Taking

This paper studies the effect of portfolio manager ownership (i.e., skin in the game) on mutual fund risk-shifting behavior. Previous literature suggests that risk shifting can hurt fund performance and impose costs on fund investors. We find that portfolio manager ownership can mitigate managers’ incentive to engage in such risk-shifting behavior. In particular, using holdings-based risk-shifting measures, we find that portfolio manager ownership reduces both intra-year and across-year risk-shifting activities. Fund investors reward funds with greater managerial ownership with more capital inflows. Overall, our evidence suggests that portfolio manager ownership serves as an incentive alignment mechanism and has important implications to fund investors.

Tourism, Land Tenure and Poverty Alleviation in Fiji

Tourism has been proposed as a sustainable livelihood option for indigenous communities all around the world. In many of these communities poverty rates are high, and assets such as land may be held communally rather than by individuals. This raises the question, seldom discussed in the pro-poor tourism or tourism and development literature, of whether high rates of communal landownership are, in fact, conducive to sustainable and equitable participation of communities in the tourism industry. The authors examined this question using a case study of Fiji, the most successful tourism destination in the Pacific Islands and a country where 87 percent of land is still under communal tenure. Semi-structured interviews with government, private sector and community representatives revealed that the country has a legislative and policy framework through which landowning communities have experienced real benefits in deals negotiated with tourism developers. However, there exists wider tension between the desire to bring benefits to communities, enabling communities to have greater ownership and control over tourism, and a focus on pursuing conventional growth-orientated strategies. There is a clear need for tourism researchers to pay greater attention to communal land tenure systems and the ways in which they offer both impediments, and opportunities, for development and poverty alleviation.