Performance Evaluation Literature Research Articles

OSA diagnosis goes wearable: are the latest devices ready to shine?

Since 2019, the FDA has cleared nine novel obstructive sleep apnea (OSA)-detecting wearables for home sleep apnea testing, with many now commercially available for sleep clinicians to integrate into their clinical practices. To help clinicians comprehend these devices and their functionalities, we meticulously reviewed their operating mechanisms, sensors, algorithms, data output, and related performance evaluation literature. We collected information from PubMed, FDA clearance documents, ClinicalTrial.gov, and web sources, with direct industry input whenever feasible. In this "device-centered" review, we broadly categorized these wearables into two main groups: those that primarily harness Photoplethysmography (PPG) data and those that do not. The former include the peripheral arterial tonometry (PAT)-based devices. The latter was further broken down into two key subgroups: acoustic-based and respiratory effort-based devices. We provided a performance evaluation literature review and objectively compared device-derived metrics and specifications pertinent to sleep clinicians. Detailed demographics of study populations, exclusion criteria, and pivotal statistical analyses of the key validation studies are summarized. In the foreseeable future, these novel OSA-detecting wearables may emerge as primary diagnostic tools for patients at risk for moderate-to-severe OSA without significant comorbidities. While more devices are anticipated to join this category, there remains a critical need for cross-device comparison studies as well as independent performance evaluation and outcome research in diverse populations. Now is the moment for sleep clinicians to immerse themselves in understanding these emerging tools to ensure our patient-centered care is improved through the appropriate implementation and utilization of these novel sleep technologies.

Performance evaluation using multi-stage production frameworks: Assessing the tradeoffs among the economic, environmental, and social well-being

Aiming to achieve sustainable development, a constantly growing number of countries have strived to promote economic growth while simultaneously mitigating environmental degradation and maximizing social welfare. However, despite the importance attributed to social well-being in contemporary discourse, its role has not received much attention in the performance evaluation literature. We propose a novel, multi-stage framework based on three dimensions of performance allowing us to assess the tradeoffs between the economic, environmental, and social efficiency in 28 OECD member countries from 2000 to 2019. We construct several scenarios representing policymakers' preferences by altering the weights assigned to the different performance pillars, allowing us to assess the environmental and social repercussions of economic growth. Our findings suggest that policies promoting relatively balanced growth patterns can offer opportunities for higher performance across all three pillars. At the same time, prioritizing development along any single dimension can trigger a relatively significant drop in progress in terms of the other two pillars. We also demonstrate that the sustainable development potential has varied across time and space. Comparisons suggest that the European OECD member countries have outperformed their non-European counterparts in terms of the economic performance, health outcomes, life expectancy, and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Our results can provide policymakers with insights into strategies for promoting economic growth that account for sustainable development objectives.

The Effect of Performance Measure Comparability and Discriminability on Measure Discontinuance

ABSTRACT This study investigates the effect of performance measure characteristics―comparability and discriminability―on performance measure discontinuance. Relative performance evaluation using comparable information offers a means of filtering out common shocks and capturing the subordinates’ own performance relative to that of peers. In addition, a measure’s ability to discriminate good from poor performance is important in the incentive contract. We show that since subordinates have an incentive to put effort into the comparable and discriminable performance measures, the superior is more likely to retain performance measures with greater comparability and discriminability. Using a large sample of performance evaluation data from 15 state-owned enterprises in South Korea over the period 1985–2021, we find that comparable and discriminable performance measures are less likely to be discontinued. Our study contributes to the performance evaluation literature by identifying two measure characteristics that influence the evolution of performance measures.

Mechanical and thermal stability of Bulk Metallic Glass alloys identified as candidates for space mechanism applications

Extraterrestrial environments expose engineering components to severe operating conditions for extended durations. Challenges of extreme temperature changes and high vacuum are being met by careful selection of available materials or by development of novel high-performance materials and processes. Bulk Metallic Glasses (BMGs) are amorphous alloys that exhibit very high strengths, hardness, strain energy storage, corrosion resistance, and the capacity for thermoplastic formability, and are of interest in space engineering design. Using criteria driven by the requirements of specific space-based mechanisms, BMG alloys were selected from the literature for processing and performance evaluation. Alloys particularly suited for gearing applications and flexure-based compliant mechanisms were identified and standard test specimens produced. Four Zr-based BMG alloys were selected for analysis: Zr53Al16Co23.25Ag7.75, Cu47Zr46Al5Y2, Zr49Ti1.96Cu37.24Al9.8Y2, and Zr60Ti2Nb2Al7.5Ni10Cu18.5, with compositions in at.%. Presented in this work are the results of compression testing, fatigue testing, and differential scanning calorimetry; previous results of wear and hardness testing have been presented elsewhere. A maximum space service temperature of 400 °C is considered. The alloys exhibited significant differences in processability and thermomechanical performance. The alloy Zr49Ti1.96Cu37.24Al9.8Y2 exhibited the best overall performance for gearing applications; and Zr60Ti2Nb2Al7.5Ni10Cu18.5 was the best alloy for compliant flexures.

Enterprise financial strategy and performance management analysis based on principal component analysis

Abstract Under the condition of social and economic growth rate continues to slow down, enterprises put forward environmental protection policies from the perspective of long-term development of resource construction, and enterprises will face more and more competitive pressure. If an enterprise wants to break through its own development bottleneck and become one of the enterprises drafting national standards in the industry, it must have a comprehensive understanding of its financial strategy and performance management program. This paper studies using the principal component analysis (pca), after consulting relevant financial performance evaluation literature, based on an enterprise’s financial performance data for principal component analysis, will have access to financial performance evaluation results ranking and scoring, not only can be found that there were problems, also will use modern management theory to replace the traditional financial performance evaluation methods, Give priority to scientific and comprehensive financial indicators for performance evaluation, so as to put forward effective solutions to help enterprises to clarify their own competitive pressure and market positioning.

Is there a boutique asset management premium? Evidence from the European fund management industry

There exists evidence in the performance evaluation literature that mutual funds that are manufactured by large asset management groups with large “fund families” benefit from economies of scale in terms of marketing, distribution and resourcing that accrue from the larger organisation. In this paper, we examine the performance of funds that are managed by “boutique” asset managers that tend to be small and which tend to offer a more focussed fund range. Using European mutual fund data, we find evidence to suggest the existence of a boutique asset management premium. This premium is particularly pronounced in the European Mid/Small Cap and the Global Emerging market fund sectors, where we find it to be both economically and statistically significant, a finding that is robust to the factor model used to calculate alphas. These results suggest, in particular, that if an investor is looking to invest in a European Mid/Small Cap or in an Emerging Market equity fund, then they should give serious consideration to investing with a Boutique fund manager.

Port performance evaluation and selection in the Physical Internet

Maritime ports are an integral part of global trade and the supply network system. An upcoming paradigm for innovation in this system is that of the Physical Internet (PI). This highly advanced way of shipping will present a very different logistics environment with respective challenges for maritime ports. For those investing in or operating port systems, it is important to understand whether different service quality aspects will be important in this future system, compared to today. Our paper deals with the port performance evaluation and selection problem. Although it has been studied extensively in a contemporary context, there has been no exploration of the criteria and preferences of decision-makers in the future shipping environment of the PI. Our objective is to define these criteria and explore their weighting in this new context. We propose two distinct autonomous decision-makers for port performance evaluation and selection in the PI: intelligent containers and vessels. We identify future port performance evaluation and selection criteria, and analyse their weighting based on an expert survey, complementing the extant literature on port performance evaluation and selection, and the PI. We use the Bayesian Best-Worst Method (BWM) to derive weights for the criteria. We find that, compared to the current port performance evaluation and selection literature, in a first stage in the modelling of intelligent agents’ performance preferences, subtle differences in weights mark the step from the present towards the PI. Partly, this is reassuring for port authorities as they can manage largely the same set of performance indicators to be attractive for both decision-makers. However, the results also show differences between agents, with an increased importance of, in particular, Level of Service, Network Interconnectivity, and Information Systems.

Impact of employee pro-organizational unethical behavior on performance evaluation rated by supervisor: a moderated mediation model of supervisor bottom-line mentality

PurposeThe topic of employees’ unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB) has attracted more and more interest in both practice and academic fields. However, previous studies have mainly investigated the antecedents of UPB and little research has discussed the outcome variables. This study aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the effect mechanism of UPB on employee performance evaluation rated by a supervisor through a leader-member exchange (LMX) and the moderating role of supervisor bottom-line mentality (BLM).Design/methodology/approachThis study used a sample consisting of 304 employees and 96 supervisors in several manufacturing firms in China. The authors used hierarchical linear modeling to test the hypotheses, as this was cross-level research. In addition, this paper also uses Mplus7.4 to test the moderating effects of supervisor BLM on the indirect effects between the UPB and performance evaluation by a moderated path analysis.FindingsThe results confirm that UPB is positively related to performance evaluation rated by supervisors. Additionally, the mediating effect of LMX in the relationship between UPB and performance evaluation is successfully demonstrated. Furthermore, supervisor BLM cross-levelly moderates the relationship between UPB and LMX, as well as moderates the mediation effect of LMX on the correlation between UPB and performance evaluation.Research limitations/implicationsThe primary contribution of this research is building a cross-level model for the effect of UPB on followers’ performance evaluation scored by the supervisor and thereby extending the nomological networks of both UPB and performance evaluation literature. Another contribution the study makes to the literature is that it provides a new perspective to understand how UPB relates to followers’ performance evaluation.Originality/valueThis is the first study about how and when UPB predicts followers’ performance evaluation rated by the supervisor.

Prediction of implementing ISO 14031 guidelines using a multilayer perceptron neural network approach.

The purpose of this study was to model the link between the implementation of ISO 14031 and ISO 14001. This study connects ISO 14031’s guidelines as independent variables to a dependent variable expressed by the ISO 14001 certification situation of industrial organizations based on the judgments of environmental managers in Saudi Arabia. Applying the quantitative approach using a survey with 596 responses from organizations functioning in 30 economic activities, a multi-layered neural network was trained to examine the relationship between standards and predict whether the organization is ISO 14001 certified in addition to testing the developed network on a group of collected cases. The results demonstrated the ability of the network to classify the organization’s certification status by 94.00% according to the training sample and its ability to predict 91.00% of the test sample, with an overall prediction efficiency of 91.30%. This work provides insights and adds to the environmental performance evaluation literature providing a neural network model based on ISO 14031 guidelines that can be extended to include other international standards such as ISO 9001. This study supports the merging of ISO 14001 with ISO 14031 into a binding standard.

Is there a Boutique Asset Management Premium?

There exists evidence in the performance evaluation literature that mutual funds that are manufactured by large asset management groups with large “fund families” benefit from economies of scale in terms of marketing, distribution and resourcing that accrue from the larger organisation. In this paper we examine the performance of funds that are managed by “boutique” asset managers that tend to be small and which tend to offer a more focused fund range. Using European mutual fund data, we find evidence to suggest the existence of a boutique asset management premium. This premium is particularly pronounced in the European Mid/Small Cap and the Global Emerging market fund sectors, where we find it to be both economically and statistically significant; a finding that is robust to the factor model used to calculate alphas. These results suggest in particular, that if an investor is looking to invest in a European Mid/Small Cap or Emerging Market equity fund, then they should give serious consideration to investing with a Boutique fund manager.

The Evaluation of the Lucky Component of Open-End Fund Performance Based on Bootstrap Method

Since the establishment of the first open-end fund in 2001, the development of China’s fund industry has never stopped. In the development process of nearly 20 years, people pay attention to the problems related to the fund, which are always the same in many fund products, how to identify the value of investment, which can make investors’ investment income optimal, and how to evaluate the fund’s performance. It is very important to evaluate the return of the fund. But in fact, the performance of the open-end fund is mainly affected by the fund manager and the fund’s own luck. The evaluation of the fund needs a more complete and comprehensive consideration. Based on some fund performance evaluation literature at home and abroad, this paper studies the large-scale stock fund in China, divides the sample database into index fund and active fund, and observes the influence of fund’s luck component on their performance respectively, and uses three models to fit, in order to consider the different ways of market interpretation of different models Different explanations of fund performance luck. The bootstrap method is used to simulate the effect of luck component of fund performance. Based on the four-factor model of Carhart, the sustainability of fund performance is considered by alpha ranking method. According to the empirical situation of the two kinds of funds, this paper analyzes the technical situation of the fund managers and the actual impact of fortuitous factors on the fund performance level, and then puts forward relevant suggestions for the participants of the fund market.

A Comprehensive Survey on Multi-hop Wireless Networks: Milestones, Changing Trends and Concomitant Challenges

With remarkable advancements in the fields of global satellite based navigation systems and wireless communication networks, there is a tremendous increase in the number of mobile device users throughout the globe. Each day, new arduous projects and applications utilizing mobile devices are evolving, with a prime motive to deploy wireless multi-hop networks into the real world. As these networks are, in general, deployed in extreme environmental conditions their performance evaluation is a matter of great concern and demands rigorous analysis. Several models, simulators, testbeds and visualization tools have evolved in the last two decades for analyzing the characteristics of these wireless multi-hop networks. In this paper, first we discuss a number of models and the changing trends of research along with the associated challenges. Then, we discuss several simulators, emulators, testbeds and real world projects implementing such networks. Besides, we also discuss an important aspect of wireless multi-hop networks, i.e., reliability and identify various imperative metrics from the literature for performance evaluation of such dynamic networks.

A skeptical appraisal of the bootstrap approach in fund performance evaluation

AbstractIt has become standard practice in the fund performance evaluation literature to use the bootstrap approach to distinguish “skills” from “luck”, while its reliability has not been subject to rigorous statistical analysis. This paper reviews and critiques the bootstrap schemes used in the literature, and provides a simulation analysis of the validity and reliability of the bootstrap approach by applying it to evaluating the performance of hypothetical funds under various assumptions. We argue that this approach can be misleading, regardless of using alpha estimates or their t‐statistics. While alternative bootstrap schemes can result in improvements, they are not foolproof either. The case can be worse if the benchmark model is misspecified. It is therefore only with caution that we can use the bootstrap approach to evaluate the performance of funds and we offer some suggestions for improving it.

Review of New Trends in the Literature on Factor Models and Mutual Fund Performance

In this paper we provide critical review of recent developments in the mutual fund performance evaluation literature. The new literature centres around two main themes: enhancing explanatory power of the standard Fama-French-Carhart factor models by augmenting them with different factors and altering standard models to account for presence of non-zero alphas in passive indices used as fund benchmarks. The latter includes the literature providing solutions for scenarios in which those benchmarks do not match fund objectives. We find that in the plethora of suggested ‘missing’ factors, not one can be universally used to explain all anomalies or price all stocks. We also find that new models that adjust a fund’s standard Carhart alpha for alpha of its benchmark or for commonalities in its peer–group, provide additional information on fund performance to that given by the standard models. Specifically, these models give account of fund’s relative performance - to the benchmark or the peer-group, which is of use to investors.

Efficient Cache Management for Network-Coding-Assisted Data Broadcast

Network coding has been proven to be an effective technique in improving the performance of data broadcast systems. Previous studies have shown that the performance of network-coding-assisted data broadcast systems is highly related to client cache contents. In this paper, we investigate the cache management problem in network-coding-assisted data broadcast environments with the objective of minimizing the overall response time. We formulate the problem and prove that it is NP-hard. Furthermore, we derive a probabilistic model to analyze the decoding probability to give insight into the importance of the cache management scheme. On this basis, we propose a decoding-oriented cache management scheme, which is called decoding-oriented least recently used (DLRU), which incorporates decoding information in making cache replacement decisions. In addition, since individual clients may observe the global data access pattern from encoded packets broadcast by the server, we loosen the cache admission control policy and allow clients to cache decodable and potentially useful data items that are not currently being requested. Based on this idea, we further propose a variant scheme, which is called DLRU with cache partitioning (DLRU-CP), which couples the cache partitioning policy to DLRU. We build a simulation model and implement the most competing alternative solutions in the literature for performance evaluation. The simulation results conclusively demonstrate the superiority of the proposed schemes in terms of reducing the request response time in network-coding-assisted data broadcast systems.

Between mission and revenue: measuring performance in a hybrid organization

PurposeThis paper aims to contribute to the literature concerning performance measurement tools which allow a balanced control of both social goals and financial performances in a hybrid organization.Design/methodology/approachThis paper shows the result of an action research project performed within a hybrid organization in Northern Italy. The tool and the main indicators it should reflect were selected cooperating with the management and stakeholders, and the project was brought on by following Lewin’s (1947) three-stage approach (freezing, moving and, unfreezing).FindingsThe paper shows how a useful tool for measuring social and financial performances has to be driven by the stakeholders’ needs and has to take into consideration the organizational mission.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to the performance evaluation literature, as it focuses on a hybrid organization with an action research approach which contributes to bridging the gap between research and practice.

Evaluating the sustainable performance of corporate boards: the balanced scorecard approach

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop a method for evaluating the sustainable performance of corporate boards using the balanced scorecard approach. Also, the paper aims to determine the need and relevance of the proposed method in the evaluation process by testing the differences in the relative importance of the proposed method measures on a sample of the Egyptian manufacturing companies.Design/methodology/approachData were collected using a questionnaire list and personal interviews with three different population samples: board members, managers of manufacturing companies and financial analysts in brokerage firms. The Wilcoxon signed rank test was used to test the degree of approval on the related questions, and the Kruskal–Wallis test was used to test the differences among the responses of the three samples.FindingsThe results of the statistical analysis indicate that there is a need for companies to have an effective tool to evaluate the board performance, and that the proposed method is a suitable tool for the evaluation. Also, the results indicate that there are differences in the relative importance of the performance measures among the three samples.Research limitations/implicationsThe exploratory study focused on a sample of manufacturing companies only. Accordingly, service companies and financial institutions are outside the scope of this research. There was difficulty in accessing a sample of shareholders; instead, this sample was replaced by a group of financial analysts in brokerage firms.Practical implicationsThe proposed method adds to the performance evaluation literature with regard to measuring and evaluating the performance of boards. The study provides an empirical evidence of the need to use the balanced scorecard in the board evaluation and its relevance for the evaluation process. It provides a short guide to the most important performance measures to be used in the evaluation process of the company’s board of directors.Originality/valueFew studies have focused on evaluating the performance of the board of directors using the balanced scorecard. This study is an important attempt to evaluate the sustainable performance of the board of directors using the balanced scorecard by taking into consideration the corporate social responsibility perspective. The proposed board’s balanced scorecard provides a useful tool to evaluate the performance of boards using objective, specific and clear measures.

On the timing of managed funds’ industry exposure

An important source of performance for active managers is industry weighting, yet this is neglected by the performance evaluation literature. Most market timing studies are conducted at a broad level, assessing exposure to equities as an asset class. This paper investigates the ability of US equity fund managers to time industry performance. The results indicate that, as a group, the funds exhibit no timing skills, with positive timing as frequent as negative timing. There is a subset of funds however, that appear to have strong forecasting abilities, correctly timing industries that are otherwise poorly timed by most fund managers. General timing ability is weakest in the Finance, Cyclical Services and Information Technology industries, while Consumer Goods industries show the best timing results.

Performance measurement systems in auditing firms

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate challenges facing auditing firms in designing and measuring their performance and discusses why and how the balance scorecard (BSC) could support the auditing firms overcome such challenges. The paper contributes to the existing literature by identifying the peculiarity of the auditing firms in designing and implementing performance measurement systems including the need for sound and advanced information systems, subjectivity embedded in measuring customer satisfaction, growth and success of the firms and restrictions imposed by regulations and auditing standards for the provision of non-audit services which may increase the firms’ revenues and profits to help maintain high-quality outputs. Also, the paper provided evidence for the use of non-financial measures in service industry in particular for customers and finance. The unique dilemma in the auditing firms to provide services to satisfy customers yet maintaining distance and independence from them represent an important research question requiring investigation and study. Design/methodology/approach – A review of the literature for performance evaluation in general and in particular BSCs in service industries was made to identify challenges facing auditing firms when measuring their performance. Data were collected using case study approach; two auditing firms, one of the Big 4 and a medium size auditing firm with international affiliation operating in the Egyptian market were selected. Interviews, document analysis and participant observations were used in the analysis of each firm performance measurement system. Findings – The paper suggests that major challenges face auditing firms in measuring their performance mainly the size of the firm and its affiliation with international auditing firm, the qualification and experience of partners and audit managers needed for the design and implementation of a BSC or similar performance measures, the resources required for the introduction of such performance measure and the peculiarity of the auditor and client relationship with the need to maintain independence and confidentiality while providing high-quality services. Although both auditing firms being studied have formal performance measurement systems, they differ in their degree of comprehensiveness. In particular, the performance measurement system of the larger firm is more elaborate than that of the smaller one and both place more emphasis on qualitative measures such as learning and growth and internal business processes than financial measures. Research limitations/implications – Overall, the results have implications for understanding the performance measurement process of auditing firms in general and in particular in an emerging economy such as Egypt. The identification of the challenges facing auditing firms in measuring their performance and how the implementation of BSC can help partners and employees to overcome those challenges will add to the literature for performance evaluation in service companies. Future research should be carried to compare and assess differences between the behavioural aspects of performance measures in auditing firms and possible application of BSC in such firms and those used in services industry. Also, the practicality of implementing a BSC measures for different auditing firms should be investigated further in future research. Originality/value – The research among the first to investigate the challenges facing auditing firms in designing and operating a performance measurement system and to discuss, using case studies, how a BSC could support the auditing firms to overcome such challenges. Further, the research provides insights into performance measures in auditing firms in developing economies like Egypt which are sparse since most studies have been conducted in developed economies. Also, the paper enriches the literature of performance measurement systems in service rather than the manufacturing sector especially for medium and small size firms.

In the quantitative automata zoo

Quantitative model checking and performance evaluation deal with the analysis of complex systems that must not only satisfy correctness requirements, but also meet performance and reliability goals. Models of such systems therefore need to represent the necessary quantitative information about probabilistic decisions, real-time phenomena, or continuous dynamics. At the same time, nondeterminism needs to be properly captured as in classical verification, so as to enable abstraction and compositional modelling. These aspects span a large spectrum of automata-based quantitative models which have been studied in the verification and performance evaluation literature. In this paper, we embark on a guided tour through this zoo of quantitative models. Starting from the basic formalisms of labelled transition systems and also Markov chains, we look at how timed and hybrid automata add real-time aspects as well as continuous dynamics, and we study extensions that provide for behaviour governed by discrete and continuous probability distributions. For each of the automata models, we outline its definition, provide a small illustrative example, summarise its expressive power, and survey available formal analysis techniques as well as selected practical applications.