Likelihood Of Clients Research Articles

Gender mismatch and bias in people‐centric operations: Evidence from a randomized field experiment

AbstractResearch at the interface of operations management (OM) and gender bias has mostly focused on operational outcomes such as hiring decisions on behalf of the employer (or firm). Largely overlooked is how the design of operational processes exacerbates (or diminishes) the amount of gender bias exhibited on behalf of the customer in a people‐centric operations environment. In this study, we conduct a randomized field experiment with a partner firm to assess gender mismatch and bias in client‐consultant exchanges. The experimental design enables us to examine gender bias within dyadic exchanges when there are gender matches (female client‐female consultant or male client‐male consultant) or gender mismatches (female client‐male consultant or male client‐female consultant). We find that reporting the consultant's gender significantly increases the client's likelihood of leaving more and higher reviews, increases the clickthrough rate on recommended products, and that the effect is stronger for females than for male consultants. We also provide support for the heterogenous effects of client experience depending on the gender (mis)match in client‐consultant exchanges, including whether the prior effects hold when there is gender masking or manipulation (e.g., reported female consultant when actually male). Our findings offer important theoretical contributions and practical implications for OM scholars and managers.

Financial Distress and Audit Report Lags: An Empirical Study in Korea

This study examines the association between a firm’s financial distress and audit report lags. Through this analysis, we intend to reveal whether auditors consider theclients’ financial distress when performing external audits. This study employs 2,786 firmyear observations from 2011 to 2018. The sample of this study consists of companies listedon the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the Korea Securities Dealers Automated Quotation (KOSDAQ). We perform OLS regression analysis to test our hypothesis. The OLS regression analysis is conducted through the SAS and STATA programs.We find that there is a significant and positive association between financial distress andaudit report lags. The audit report lags increase as the likelihood of clients’ financial distress increases. The results indicate that audits take different amounts of audit effort whenauditors consider financial distress as a business risk when they conduct audits. In otherwords, we provide evidence that auditors increase the amount of audit effort when thelikelihood of clients’ financial distress is high. In the absence of studies on how externalauditors respond to audited firms' financial distress, this study analyzes whether externalauditors change their audit efforts by assessing the audited firms' financial distress. Second, the empirical result that external auditors actually follow the guidelines related tobusiness risk and financial distress specified in the Korean Auditing Standards supportsthe effectiveness of the business risk-related regulations specified in the Korean AuditingStandards

Ingredient bundles and recipe tastings in food pantries: a pilot study to increase the selection of healthy foods.

The present study examined the effect of ingredient bundles (i.e. measured ingredients with recipes) and recipe tastings as a strategy to increase the selection of healthy, target foods (kale, brown rice and whole-wheat pasta). Each of the three conditions was tested once per week for three weeks. The conditions were: Treatment 1 (T1), recipe tastings only; Treatment 2 (T2), ingredient bundle plus recipe tastings; and Control, no intervention. A food pantry in Bridgeport, CT, USA.ParticipantsFood pantry clients. Controlling for family size and intervention week, the likelihood of clients in T2 (n 160) selecting at least one target item compared with the Control group (n 160) was 3·20 times higher for kale, 4·76 times higher for brown rice and 7·25 times higher for whole-wheat pasta. Compared with T1 (n 128), T2 clients were 2·67 times more likely to select kale, 7·67 times more likely to select brown rice and 11·43 times more likely to select whole-wheat pasta. No differences between T1 and the Control group were found. Findings suggest that innovative, nudging strategies such as ingredient bundles may increase appeal of foods and encourage pantry clients to select healthier options.

Conflict of Interest, Disclosure and Vertical Relationships: An Experimental Analysis

Vertical integration in providing financial products and advice is not uncommon. We conduct an experiment in which a financial advisor recommends to a client one of two potential assets to purchase and an asset purchase price. In one setting, the players’ incentives are aligned. In another, a conflict of interest exists with the advisor's remuneration favouring one particular asset. We find that conflict influences the advisor's asset recommendation away from the asset that would better serve the client. Disclosure of that conflict, however, influences neither the advisor's asset recommendation nor, more surprisingly, the client's likelihood of rejecting that recommendation.

Did the 2005 Deferred Prosecution Agreement Adversely Impact KPMG's Audit Practice?

SUMMARYWe examine the consequences of misconduct in a Big 4 firm's nonaudit practice for its audit practice. Specifically, we examine whether KPMG's audit practice suffered a loss of audit fees and clients and/or a decline in factual audit quality following the 2005 deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) with the Department of Justice for marketing questionable tax shelters. We find little evidence that the DPA adversely impacted KPMG's audit practice by way of either audit fees or the likelihood of client gains/losses, suggesting little or no harm to KPMG's audit reputation. We also find that the DPA had no effect on the firm's factual audit quality, even for those audit clients that dropped KPMG as their tax service provider. Collectively, our findings suggest that there was no spillover effect from the DPA to KPMG's audit practice.Data Availability: All data are publicly available.

Healthcare professionals, substance use and adverse childhood experiences

Background Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) are a predictor to medical and mental health conditions, including substance use disorders. The ACE study, conducted by Kaiser Permanente and Center for Disease Control and Prevention, links childhood trauma to health and social consequences. [1,2] Peer Assistance Services, Inc., a Colorado nonprofit organization, implements Peer Health Assistance Programs (PHAP), for licensed healthcare professionals who have substance use and/or mental health disorders affecting public safety. The objective is to better understand the characteristics of clients living with substance use and/or mental health conditions, and to improve outcomes, PHAP identified characteristics of clients with an ACE score of 4 or higher. The likelihood of clients underreporting ACE scores was also studied.

An Evaluation of Clients’ Fraud Reasoning Motives in Assessing Fraud Risks: From the Perspective of External and Internal Auditors

Abstract The auditor's accuracy in conducting fraud risk assessment continues to be the most critical task. The reason is the effectiveness and efficiency of an audit depends on auditor's ability to accurately assess the existing audit risks ( Jones, 2004 ). Applying to that, Malaysian Approved Standards on Auditing AI 240 on “Fraud and Error”, provides recommendation to auditors in assessing the client's likelihood of fraud risks based on the three elements of fraud triangle concept; opportunity, pressure and rationalization. Ideally, this audit standard highlighted the importance of auditors’ to evaluate these elements as it will assist them to understand their clients’ fraud reasoning motives and thus, properly assess the potential fraud risks that might be occurred. Based on the risk assessment, the auditors are required to plan the audit procedures in order to detect any material misstatement that may lead to fraud or error. In this study, as established in the ISA240, the fraud triangle concept has been used to examine the direct and interaction effect of the following fraud risk factors: (1) internal control system (opportunity); (2) pressure and; (3) type of auditors (internal and external auditors) on fraud risk assessment. An experimental research approach is adopted by sending a set of case scenarios to 129 auditors, comprises of both internal and external auditors. The respondents were required to complete two different case scenarios, where the level of internal controls and pressures were being manipulated; high and low. The results showed that there are significant relationships between each risk factors and fraud risk assessment. Furthermore, the results of the interaction effects (combination of two variables) also show significant effect on fraud risk assessment. The findings of this study may provide insights into the auditors’ judgment in assessing fraud risk. It is also could be beneficial to the auditors to increase their awareness of the importance to understand their client's fraud motives during fraud risk assessment task and thus, improve the audit quality.

Clinical writing: Additional ethical and practical issues.

The recommendations by Sieck (2011, Obtaining clinical writing informed consent versus using client disguise and recommendations for practice, Psychotherapy, 49, pp. 3-11.) are a helpful starting point for considering the ethical issues involved in the decision to seek or not to seek informed consent from clients before writing about them. Sieck makes a compelling case for the idea that there are circumstances in which the most ethical choice would be to engage in clinical writing about a client without seeking informed consent, but instead disguising the client's identity. The present response raises a number of questions not considered in the article by Sieck. First, how should one disguise a case? Moreover, how should one assess whether the disguise is sufficient to preserve confidentiality while not distorting the clinical material to the point that the material is no longer useful to the field? Second, how can we estimate the likelihood of clients reading clinical writing, particularly in the age of the Internet? Given that psychologist-authored blogs that include reference to clinical material are beginning to emerge, it is crucial that we engage in a much deeper dialogue about the ethics of clinical writing. Third, how does the presentation of clinical material influence public perceptions of psychotherapy and confidentiality? If these public perceptions, in turn, could influence the likelihood of seeking psychotherapy, might these attitudes be important to consider in ethical thinking about clinical writing? Finally, where do we draw the line between clinical writing and single case study research (which requires informed consent)?

Advance care planning in participative social work practice

O planeamento antecipado de cuidados (acp) comporta processos que permitem descobrir e registar as preferências pessoais relativas a cuidados e tratamentos em situações futuras bem como diferenciar esta planificação da planificação profissional de cuidados a dirigir a um dado indivíduo. Desenvolvido a partir da aplicação de cuidados paliativos sustentados pela gravação das decisões dos doentes referentes à recusa antecipada de tratamento, prevenindo situações de incapacidade cognitiva no final da vida, os processos de acp alargaram-se, recentemente, aos cuidados de saúde e cuidados de protecção social prolongados. Este processo tem como objectivo envolver clientes, famílias e outros cuidadores informais no sentido de se prepararem para pensar antecipadamente acerca das exigências de situações de necessidade de cuidados difíceis. A investigação demonstra que esse processo aumenta a satisfação dos clientes com os serviços e amplia a probabilidade de se verem alcançadas as escolhas de clientes e famílias. O acp é um avanço importante na teorização do serviço social relativamente às questões específicas da prestação de serviços de longa duração, quando o papel destes serviços se perspectivava apenas focalizado na gestão e coordenação dos casos. Este processo, fortalece, também, a participação dos clientes na tomada de decisão sobre os serviços sociais a adequar à sua situação.

Therapist behavior as a determinant for client noncompliance: A paradox for the behavior modifier.

G. R. Patterson and M. S. ForgatchOregon Social Learning Center, Eugene, OregonThe immediate impact of therapist behavior on client noncompliance was examinedin two studies. Observation systems describing client and therapist behavior wereused to code videotaped therapy sessions. In the first study, the therapist behaviorsteach and confront were associated with significant increases in the likelihoodof client noncompliant reactions. Therapist behaviors facilitate and supportwere followed by reliable decreases in client noncompliance. In the second study,the therapist behaviors teach and confront were manipulated in a series ofsingle-subject ABAB reversal designs. The experiment demonstrated that changesin therapist behaviors produced increases in client noncompliance.For the present studies, noncompliance waspresumed to be a ubiquitous behavior for chil-dren and adults alike. It is paradoxical thatcertain situations (e.g., parent training) de-signed to help the client may actually stimulatethe client to work against the therapist. Anal-yses of videotaped parent training sessions byChamberlain, Patterson, Reid, Kavanagh, andForgatch (1984) showed that the average rateof parent noncompliant behavior was .17 re-sponses per minute during the initial stages oftreatment. This increased significantly to morethan .30 responses per minute during the mid-stages of treatment. These findings led to thehypothesis that therapists' efforts to changeparent behavior may function as an importantdeterminant for parent noncompliance duringtreatment. The present studies tested this hy-pothesis.