Internal Board Research Articles

A Game-Theoretic Assessment of Anti-Discrimination Measures in Scientific Collaboration

Abstract Rubin, Hannah, and Cailin O’Connor (2018. “Discrimination and Collaboration in Science.” Philosophy of Science 85 (3): 380–402) introduced a game-theoretic model to examine the dynamics of collaboration and discrimination in academia. They found that small minority groups face higher rates of discrimination in collaboration, despite moral and legal demands for equality. This paper extends their work by assessing the effectiveness of anti-discrimination measures, focusing on German legal provisions for discrimination in the workplace: internal complaints boards and training and organisational measures as mandated by the General Equal Treatment Act. My results show that internal boards are effective in preventing discrimination in initially fair (i.e. non-discriminatory) environments, but fall short in already discriminatory environments. In contrast, training and organisational measures significantly reduce discriminatory behaviour, even where awareness is low. This highlights the importance of proactive anti-discrimination measures.

Empowering physician leaders: UPMC’s breakthrough leadership development programme

In the ever-changing landscape of healthcare management, the role of physician leaders has become increasingly important. Physicians with strong leadership and management skills are well positioned to bring medical expertise to the business side of healthcare, benefiting their organisations immensely. Effective physician leaders also foster a healthier team environment, making a positive impact on their care team and patients. Traditional medical education, while strong in clinical training, typically falls short in adequately preparing physicians for leadership roles. This prompted the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) to launch an internal initiative to support physician leadership development. This case study looks at the journey from concept to successful implementation of UPMC’s inaugural leadership development programme for physicians. It also addresses the challenges of deploying the programme during a global pandemic and the lessons learned from the experience. Through internal surveys, UPMC recognised that physicians wanted professional growth and development opportunities. In 2017, UPMC formed an internal board of physician leaders to identify the specific learning needs of that population. In 2018, UPMC hired individuals dedicated to the creation of a leadership programme for physicians, now branded Physician Leadership Essentials (PLE). Before the programme’s launch, physicians were left to seek development outside the organisation. Following a pilot in 2019, the programme was deployed on a larger scale, starting in January 2020. As of 29 February 2024, 482 participants from various speciality and practice locations participated in 26 rolling cohorts of PLE. Twenty cohorts have completed the programme, resulting in 314 alumni. Today, there are six ongoing cohorts with 139 active participants. The programme exhibits 99.5 per cent favourability and a 92 per cent retention rate. Participants have completed 247 leadership challenge projects. This programme has fostered a culture of growth and development for physicians across UPMC and enhanced cross-functional and cross-departmental collaboration. It has also unlocked some of the untapped leadership talent of physician leaders, increasing not only their effectiveness but also their sense of professional fulfilment and engagement.

The Impact of Executive Board Member Characteristics on Firm Innovation: The Roles of R&D and Organizational Tenure

Much of the current thinking on board composition suggests that the presence of executive directors as internal board members is detrimental to a firm’s innovation. Our intention in this research paper is to grant greater nuance to this relationship. Specifically, we examine whether factors that give an executive director greater knowledge regarding the firm’s innovative capabilities (involvement in R&D and their organizational tenure) act to influence firm-level innovation. Using a dataset of 300 firms from three R&D intensive industries spanning a 6-year period, we find that these two characteristics serve to offset the negative effects of executive directors on innovation. Our findings offer enhanced guidance to scholars and practitioners who are concerned about the presence of insiders on boards of directors.

The lines that divide: Board demographic faultlines and proactive environmental strategy

AbstractManuscript TypeThe manuscript is of an empirical nature.Research Question/IssueThe current ecological crisis requires boards of directors to tackle environmental concerns and manage dependencies with the external environment in highly dynamic conditions. Proactive environmental strategies (PESs) seek to establish alternative and innovative processes and products that create new market opportunities. By mobilizing the notion of board demographic faultlines, we investigate their link with PESs and the influence of the internal board dynamics and environmental factors on this relationship.Research Findings/InsightsThe multilevel regression analysis of a 7‐year sample of UK boards reveals that demographic faultlines hinder their information processing in adopting PESs. The results also show that the negative relationship between demographic faultlines and PESs is attenuated by the social similarity of the CEO and chair in the same subgroup and by the financial materiality of the natural environment.Theoretical/Academic ImplicationsThis study draws on faultline theory to analyze how the structure of board diversity through the alignment of multiple directors' demographic attributes affects board dynamics by creating polarized boards that shape sustainability decisions. This study underscores the disruptive effect of having socially distanced subgroups within the board and the salience of board leaders' social similarity and environmental factors in attenuating their dysfunctional effects.Practitioner/Policy ImplicationsBoard diversity is considered key to improving board decision‐making. By situating our empirical investigation in a country with a corporate governance model that fosters diversity in a dual leadership board structure that has influenced other countries' governance models, this study provides insights for policymakers and market participants on the unintended effects of the global call for board diversity on firms' proactive environmental stance. Our results call for establishing procedures to incentivize board socialization and facilitate directors' information processing.

Do board friendliness and economic development affect firm’s abnormal earnings? An evidence of quantile regression

This study delves into the intricate impact of board social networks and local economic development on abnormal earnings within the financial statements of listed companies in Vietnam. The unique focus lies in internal board linkages, differentiating it from external engagements with other firms. Employing quantile regression, from a dataset encompassing 4449 observations from 241 listed companies in Vietnam, our findings reveal that firms with educational-professional linked managers tend to have low earnings quality at quantiles 0.05 and 0.10 but exhibit better earnings quality at quantiles 0.90 and 0.95. Executives sharing professional ties contribute to more accurate profit reporting at quantiles 0.05 and 0.10, whereas lower quality is observed at quantiles 0.25, 0.50, and 0.75. Executives sharing educational ties contribute to more accurate profit reporting at quantile 0.05 only, whereas lower quality is evident at quantiles 0.75, 0.90, and 0.95. Furthermore, the development of local GDP can enhance corporate financial reporting accuracy at quantiles 0.05, 0.20, and 0.25 but diminishes the quality of financial statements at quantile 0.10. These findings offer valuable insights into the complex interplay between board networks, economic development, and financial reporting quality in the Vietnamese corporate landscape.

Festival Innovation in Times of Crisis

This article examines innovation in times of festival crises from a governance perspective using legitimacy theory. We conduct a case study of Adelaide Festival around three crises based on data drawn from annual reports, festival programs, and media articles from 1960 to 2021. Each crisis raises questions about the need to innovate, whether due to economic concerns or for new approaches to artistic programming, in order to safeguard legitimacy. However, the type of innovation varies based on internal and external environmental factors. Findings reveal tensions ranging from internal board and external stakeholder use of governance mechanisms, depending on the crisis and perceptions around art forms (e. g., elitism and Aboriginality). The findings provide insights on how appropriate use of governance mechanisms can help to balance tensions between maintaining legitimacy and promoting innovation. Innovation, nonetheless, did not reposition the festival in the long run: it remains elitist, compromising artistic vision.

Board faultlines and risk-taking

We use the 2009–2020 data of Chinese A-share non-financial listed companies to explore the impact of board faultlines on corporate risk-taking. The results show that: (1) Board faultlines reduce corporate risk-taking capacity, and mainly manifested as a decline in idiosyncratic risk-taking. (2) The impact of faultlines is primarily driven by faultlines of cognitive characteristics; the impact of faultlines of demographic characteristics is insignificant. (3) Board faultlines influence corporate risk-taking by disrupting internal board order, lowering its monitoring willingness and ability, and reducing investment efficiency. (4) The heterogeneity test results identify four firm-level factors: industry competition, performance pressure, financial risk, and equity incentives, which can activate faultlines.

An empirical investigation of firm performance through corporate governance and information technology investment with mediating role of corporate social responsibility: Evidence from Saudi Arabia telecommunication sector.

This study intended to examine the effect of information technology (IT) investment and corporate governance mechanism on the performance of the Saudi telecommunication sector with mediating role of corporate social responsibility (CSR). A survey method was used to collect data from the targeted Saudi telecom firm. Results show that corporate governance practices, i.e., internal audit, internal audit committee, and internal board size, have a significant and positive relationship with firm performance. Furthermore, IT investment positively affects the performance of Saudi telecommunication firms. Moreover, CSR mediates the relationship among internal audit, internal audit committee, internal board size, IT investment, and firm performance. This study contributes to the body of knowledge regarding IT investment, corporate governance mechanism, corporate social responsibilities, and firm performance of telecommunication firms in emerging markets. Furthermore, this study will help the top management of the telecom firms to improve corporate governance and IT investment, which will be beneficial to enhance firm performance.

Thermal Simulation Analysis of Internal Control Circuit Board of Steering Gear Box Based on COMSOL Three-Dimensional Simulation Software.

The steering gear device includes two parts, a steering gear control circuit and a transmission component. The transmission component includes a ball screw and a motor. During the operation of the steering gear, due to the presence of the steering gear ball screw motor and friction, a certain amount of heat will be generated, which will affect the steering gear control circuit in a confined space. At the same time, the steering gear is inevitable in the actual working process, and will experience a high temperature environment, which will increase the temperature of the internal structure of the steering gear, and due to the difference in thermal expansion coefficients between various materials, stress and strain will occur in the structure, which may cause mismatch or even cracks in the system structure, and the steering gear system cannot work normally. It is necessary to analyze the thermal characteristics of the overall steering gear under multiple factors. Based on this, this paper uses COMSOL three-dimensional simulation software to conduct thermal simulation analysis on the shell of the steering gear containing the control circuit board. The temperature distribution and stress-strain response law of the control circuit board in the box, and the influence of different materials and thickness of the box heat insulation layer on the thermal characteristics of the control circuit are discussed, and then a reasonable thickness and material of the heat insulation layer are obtained for the design of the rudder chassis for reference.

Survey of Adult Patients With Vascular Anomalies Reveals Acute Need of Adult Hematologists-Oncologists to Enter the Field

Background: We have observed that adult patients with vascular anomalies often have limited access to specialists with expertise in vascular anomalies who can coordinate their care and prescribe medications, but evidence-supported statistics needed for advocacy efforts was not available. Methods: An anonymous survey was formulated for adult patients with vascular anomalies, in collaboration with patient advocacy groups. The survey included 50 questions with built-in logic and the entire project received Internal Board Review approval. Results: Two-hundred forty-nine surveys were completed and analyzed. Of the participants still receiving care from a pediatric provider, 97% had no plan for transitioning to an adult provider. Of those no longer able to receive care in a pediatric setting, 34% had abandoned searching for a physician willing to provide care and 45% had no consistent care provider for their vascular anomaly. Sixty percent were seeing providers who had no specific interest or training in VAs. Of all respondents, 35% were evaluated in the emergency room due to VA complications at least once in the past year (8% >3 times) and 28% were admitted to the hospital at least once in the past year due to the vascular anomaly (3% >3 times). Conclusion: We collected evidence-supported documentation that adults with vascular anomalies are not part of an integrated care plan. Adult trained hematology-oncologists are essential and needed to join the dermatology, surgical, and radiology interdisciplinary teams managing this cohort of patients.

Measuring the environmental efficiency of the investment for offshore wind power site in Taiwan

Many of the studies is based on parameters with the requirement of pre-estimation and huge function clause format. But in the proposed method, no pre-estimation is required and there is no need to establish a functional relationship between the described and dependent variables. This research investigates the environmental performance and the factors affecting the environmental performance of offshore wind energy companies in Taiwan using super-efficiency data envelopment analysis (SE-DEA) and Tobit regression model, respectively. SE-DEA model was theoretically used in the first step of analysis, followed by Tobit model in the second step. The study was based on 2019 cross-sectional data obtained from seven locations of Taiwan including Songshan, Taoyuan, Nantou, Zhongzheng, Xinyu, and Changhua. It was found that offshore wind power companies in Taiwan had an average environmental efficiency score of 1.8953, which was very high. Moreover, this performance score could be further increased by improving the factors that affected the efficiency. Such factors included age of company, numbers of internal boards, number of shareholders, research and development, ISO 45,001, government policy, personnel quality, and wind speed. Increase in number of shareholders resulted in higher technical efficiency by a significant level at 1%. When the number of internal boards increased 2.20 %, the efficiency score increased up to 100 %. Amount of research and development factors increased by 12.16 %, the effective score was 100 %, with a 5% prioritization with a positive coefficient front sign. This shows how much the company has research and development relating to offshore wind power. Higher amount of research and development resulted in higher technical efficiency. When I.S.O 45,001 factor increased by 41.94 %, the effective score was 100 %, with a 1% significant level and a positive coefficient front mark. The government policy increased the technical efficiency by a significant level at 1%. When government policy increased to 36.54 %, the efficient score enhanced up to 100 %. The factor quality personnel showed positive signs. Increasing number of qualified personnel enhanced the technical efficiency, with the efficiency level at 25.23 %. The factor wind speed had a positive coefficient, corresponded with the hypothesis. Increase in wind speed leaded to higher technical performance score, with a focus of 5%. When wind speed rose to 2.98 %, the efficiency score increased up to 100 %. The best environmental performance was of Wpd Taiwan Energy Co., Ltd company which had the highest score of 3.2521, while the Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners Association company had the lowest score of 0.9136, indicating the worst environmental efficiency. Inefficient companies can improve their environmental efficiency based on their efficiency scores and ratings in order to be a leading offshore wind power facility in Taiwan.

Making cancer care accessible: The practicality and value of a virtual gastrointestinal tumor board (VTB).

652 Background: Patients with cancer benefit from coordination with multiple subspecialties, often facilitated by discussion at a multidisciplinary tumor board. This enables collaboration on individualized patient plans and offers an opportunity for education. Regrettably, not all physicians have access to a multidisciplinary team, particularly those practicing outside of an academic setting or in underserved areas. Additionally, patients may want a second opinion but are limited by resources to travel to an academic center. A virtual tumor board could be a solution for these patients and physicians. Methods: Expert gastrointestinal (GI) oncology faculty in the US gathered via a virtual tumor board panel to discuss complex cases submitted by oncology providers and trainees. Panels consisted of a moderator and GI specialists from radiology, medical, surgical, and radiation oncology. The purposes of these panels were to test the feasibility of a virtual tumor board, provide expert opinions on complex cases, and create educational content. The panel’s recommendations were shared with the submitting providers within 48 hours and the recordings made available. Afterward, submitting physicians were surveyed to assess their satisfaction with the panel’s discussion and recommendations. Results: From March to June 2021, 4 GI virtual panels were conducted with 5 expert faculty discussing 44 patient scenarios from 14 providers; 12 providers (86%) submitted multiple cases. Surveys were sent to providers with a 50% response rate. Conclusions: Virtual tumor boards are feasible and lead to a high degree of satisfaction among the users. In this small cohort of responders, management of patients changed based on the panel’s recommendations, there was a perception that learning was improved, and the providers’ internal tumor boards’ recommendations were mostly included in the VTB discussion and expanded upon. Respondents felt that the service improved the care of patients and that they would submit future cases to this forum. Additional data from a larger cohort will be more helpful in understanding the impact of this endeavor.[Table: see text]

Does the Federal Open Market Committee cycle affect credit risk?

AbstractThis paper studies the returns of credit default swap (CDS) indices over the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) cycle. We document that the CDS return is significantly higher in even weeks than in odd weeks of the FOMC cycle. The biweekly pattern in the CDS market is not a mere reflection of that in the stock market. A simple trading strategy based on the biweekly pattern yields an annual excess return of 8.8%. This pattern is linked to the resolution of macroeconomic uncertainty by the biweekly schedules of the Fed Reserve internal Board of Governors meetings. We provide further evidence that the Fed affects the CDS market via unexpected information signals and monetary policies that lead to reductions in the risk premium.

Targetable mutations in gastrointestinal malignancies: A comparison of RAS mutant and RAS wild type tumors.

129 Background: KRAS and NRAS (RAS) mutations are considered driver mutations in gastrointestinal malignancies such as colorectal and pancreatic cancer. Our institution obtains broad molecular testing (commercial panels with full exon coverage of at least 300 genes) for all stage IV gastrointestinal malignancies that are reviewed at an internal molecular tumor board (MTB). The MTB subjectively felt there was less benefit from comprehensive molecular testing in RAS mutant tumors and wished to quantify this using standardized analysis according to validated guidelines. Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study of 209 consecutive genomic sequencing results of advanced gastrointestinal malignancies at our institution dating from March 2016 until December 2019. We compared the number of “targetable” mutations in the RAS mutant and wild type (WT) malignancies, as analyzed by an interpretation service according to the Association of Molecular Pathology (AMP) guidelines. A lower AMP score corresponds to a higher level of evidence as a predictive biomarker. We also compared molecular tumor board specific recommendations for each group (excluding recommendations regarding RAS such as EGFR mAbs). Results: There were 134 RAS mutant and 75 RAS WT cases. Alterations with AMP scores of 1A,1B, and 1C were more commonly seen in the RAS WT population 18/75 and 9/134 respectively (24.0% versus 6.7% p-value=0.0004). 39 of 75 cases in RAS WT and 27/134 in RAS mutant (52.0 versus 20.1%, p-value <0.0001) cohort had at least one alteration that was deemed actionable by our institution’s current MTB criteria. Conclusions: Actionable mutations were significantly less common in the RAS mutant versus RAS WT population, and further studies assessing the value of comprehensive genomic testing in RAS mutant gastrointestinal malignancies may be warranted. [Table: see text]

Directors’ Perceptions of Board Effectiveness and Internal Operations

We contribute to the growing literature on the effectiveness of corporate boards by examining the effect of two insights that have been largely unexplored in prior studies that use public data. First, since boards’ responsibilities are wide-ranging, more holistic performance measures may better capture the full range of their duties than specific public actions and outcomes (e.g., disclosure of risk management processes, financial restatements, acquisition returns, CEO turnover). And second, because corporate boards share many characteristics of other types of teams, their effectiveness is likely to be influenced by their internal operations. To examine the performance effects of these insights, we use data from 577 directors of U.S. public firms that responded to a survey we conducted in 2015–2016 and qualitative data from interviews of 75 directors. Our study establishes a strong relation between director perceptions of board performance effectiveness and internal board operations. Further, by highlighting the critical role of internal operations, identifying areas of relative strength and weakness in boards’ effectiveness in various activities, and probing director perceptions of their primary responsibilities, we are able to offer concrete suggestions for future research on board effectiveness. This paper was accepted by Shiva Rajgopal, accounting.

Development of Wireless Sensor Device for Machine English Oral Pronunciation Noise Detection

There is often noise in spoken machine English, which affects the accuracy of pronunciation. Therefore, how to accurately detect the noise in machine English spoken language and give standard spoken pronunciation is very important and meaningful. The traditional machine‐oriented spoken English speech noise detection technology is limited to the improvement of software algorithm, mainly including speech enhancement technology and speech endpoint detection technology. Based on this, this paper will develop a wireless sensor network based on machine English oral pronunciation noise based on air and nonair conduction, reasonably design and configure air sensors, and nonair conduction sensors to deal with machine English oral pronunciation noise, so as to improve the naturalness and intelligibility of machine English speech. At the hardware level, this paper mainly optimizes the AD sampling, sensor matching layout, and internal hardware circuit board layout of the two types of sensors, so as to solve the compatibility problem between them and further reduce the hardware power consumption. In order to further verify or evaluate the performance of the machine spoken English speech noise detection sensor designed in this paper, a machine spoken English training system based on Android platform is designed. Compared with the traditional system, the training system can improve the intelligence of machine oriented oral English noise detection algorithm, so as to continuously improve the accuracy of system detection. The machine English pronunciation is adjusted and corrected by combining the data sensed by the sensor, so as to form a closed‐loop design. The experimental results show that the wireless sensor sample proposed in this paper has obvious advantages in detecting the accuracy of machine English oral pronunciation, and its good closed‐loop system is helpful to further improve the accuracy of machine English oral pronunciation.

Effects of COVID-19 Pandemic on Mental Health and Psychological Well-Being of Italian University Students

Italy was the first European country to implement a national quarantine, with 71 days of total lockdown as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. This study investigated the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health and psychological well-being of a sample of Italian university students. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in the period immediately following the end of lockdown through the administration of a questionnaire on the personal websites of students attending their undergraduate courses at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore.The Patient Health Engagement Scale, the Self-Rating Anxiety Scale, and the Self-Rating Depression Scale were used to assess engagement, anxiety symptoms, and depression symptoms, respectively.The sample size was 501, of whom 35.33% were classified as anxious and 72.93% as depressed, although with a prevalence of mild symptoms. Over 90% of respondents reported understanding the preventive measures of the lockdown despite over 70% suffering from the impossibility of seeing their friends and partners. Over 55% of students would have been willing to contribute much more to facing the pandemic. An increase in the occurrences of anxiety was associated with being female, being students of the Rome campus (Central Italy), suffering from the impossibility of attending university, distance from colleagues, and the impossibility of seeing one’s partner. Performing physical activity reduced such a probability. Borderline risk factors for the occurrence of depression were being a student at the Rome campus and suffering from the distance to one’s fellow students.Funding Statement: No funding was received for this study.Declaration of Interests: All authors confirm that they have no conflicts of interest or competing interests.Ethics Approval Statement: The protocol of the study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli IRCCS and by the Internal Board of the University.

Risk Management Functions and Audit Report Lag among Listed Saudi Manufacturing Companies

This paper examines whether the combination of risk management and functions are associated with report lag. Audit report lag is considered an important aspect of the financial reporting. The financial reports are the main source of information for shareholders through which they make their decisions and it assists in reducing the information asymmetry. As the internal control mechanisms substitute the external ones, the internal board committees formed by the board of directors can reduce the work and, consequently, reduces the report lag. A key is the risk management committee. This paper examines whether the combination of risk management and functions are associated with report lag. We posit that a combination of such functions in one refereed as affects the report delay. Data were obtained from 198 manufacturing companies listed on the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) for the years 2016-2018. A pooled OLS regression analysis shows that a combination of risk management and functions in a stand-alone named audit committee is associated with longer report lag. The outcomes suggest companies should prioritize the establishment of standalone risk management with activities separated from those of committees. © The Author(s).

Strategic Options for More Effective Indigenous Participation in Collaborative Environmental Governance

This research focuses on how Indigenous peoples might participate in collaborative environmental governance initiated by networked nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Fourteen Indigenous and six non-Indigenous board members and partners of Canadian Model Forests were interviewed and discussed seven aspects of collaborative governance affecting Indigenous participation: purpose and vision; decision-making structure(s); roles and responsibilities; engagement; capacity; leadership; and, cultural suitability. Participants described four possible participation structures: external advisory committee; internal board subcommittee; hybrid internal–external advisory board; and internal ad hoc group. Here, design options and implications of each model are considered, offering choices for engagement where NGOs seek to lead collaborative approaches.

‘The Land is in Good Heart’: Flood Mitigation and the Drainage Boards in Cumbria, 1844–1985

Abstract While much research has been done to utilise historic flood data, much more work is required to understand richly nuanced historic human relationships with water qualitatively. This article combines an in-depth oral history interview with a retired Cumbrian Land Drainage and Flood Risk Management engineer, whose career spanned from 1978 to 2011, with the documentary archives of the largely overlooked local Drainage Boards (DBs) and their successors after the Land Drainage Act (1930), Internal Drainage Boards (IDBs). These boards were established across Cumbria and the rest of England from the early nineteenth century to organise the collection of communal drainage rates charged by hectare of land to fund the installation and maintenance of flood prevention infrastructure. The records of these locally-specific, flexible and relatively small drainage boards demonstrate loudly and clearly the benefits of decentralised flood management, able to respond directly to the particularities of their own catchment’s environment, residents, economy, infrastructure, topography and climatic challenges. It is vitally important to listen to the voices contained in the minute books of IDBs because they counterbalance historiographically-dominant narratives of top-down, large-scale infrastructural installations, inflexible centralisation of water governance and the powerlessness and gradual demise of many similarly small-scale, locally rooted and bottom-up organisations. The article argues that these local collectives, while far from being environmentalist, were nevertheless deeply in touch with the landscapes and waterscapes they managed and with intergenerational understanding of and respect for the watery environments within their boundaries. DBs and IDBs developed strong, deep and dynamic relationships with water as it coursed through the Cumbrian landscape. These boards also forged long-term relationships with central government and the Ministry of Agriculture. Those who served on Drainage Boards were regulators and stewards of the English landscape and their archival voices can tell us a great deal about how and why human relationships with water changed over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.