Favorable Recommendations Research Articles

Crowdfunding performance, market performance, and the moderating roles of product innovativeness and experts' judgment: Evidence from the movie industry

AbstractReward‐based crowdfunding (CF) has emerged as a method to solicit funds for innovative projects. Yet, little is still known about the ability of reward‐based CF to act as a signal in the eyes of future consumers, and thus boost the future market performance of new products that innovators intend to commercialize using the campaign funds. In addition, scant research has clarified the boundary conditions that can magnify or weaken the efficacy of this CF signal. Given the relevance of reward‐based CF for supporting innovation, understanding when the CF campaign performance works as an effective signal is of great interest, especially in business settings characterized by high product quality uncertainty. By using the movie industry as a setting, we contribute to fill this gap. Specifically, we argue that the positive effect of the reward‐based CF performance is moderated by two important factors influencing consumers' purchase decisions: the degree of product innovativeness and the expert judgment about the product. Elaborating on the effects of product innovativeness, we posit that this product feature should moderate the positive relationship between CF and subsequent market performances in an inverted U‐shaped fashion. Favorable expert recommendations, on the other hand, should weaken the efficacy of the CF performance as a signal. Results from a sample of 1059 new movies (of which 152 released in theaters) confirm these predictions and offer several remarkable implications for innovators.

Study protocol for a phase 1, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study to investigate the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of ascending topical doses of TCP-25 applied to epidermal suction blister wounds in healthy male and female volunteers

IntroductionTCP-25 gel is intended for use in treatment of wound infection and inflammation. Current local therapies for wounds have limited efficacy to prevent infections and there are no wound treatments...

The Relationship Between RMB Internationalization and Sino-US Trade

As China is the largest exporting economy, the rapid internationalization of RMB does impact on the trade structures of many countries. As the United States is China’s most significant trading partner, the factors influencing Sino-US trade cannot be neglected. As a result, in order to widen the study findings in the field of RMB internationalization, this article applies multiple regression analysis to completely evaluate the influence of RMB internationalization on Sino-US trade. The paper demonstrates that RMB internationalization increases both Chinese imports and Chinese exports to the United States, but has a greater impact on exports than imports. Our preliminary results make favorable recommendations for achieving RMB internationalization and benign interactions in Sino-US trade.

Does corporate governance affect financial analysts' stock recommendations, target prices accuracy and earnings forecast characteristics? An empirical investigation of US companies.

This paper investigates how corporate governance quality affects the analyst’s stock recommendations, forecast efficiency and target price accuracy on New York Stock Exchange. In particular, as corporate governance is often uncertain and ambiguous to investors, expert financial advisors may use transparent corporate governance information to set their recommendations and improve the level of accuracy of their earnings forecasts. According to agency and signaling theories, good governance mechanisms aim to mitigate agency conflicts and boost corporate transparency. Thus, we argue that they can serve as mediators during the forecasting process and we expect a strong significant relationship between the effectiveness of corporate governance mechanisms and analyst activity. Five hypotheses are tested with a large sample of 154 US market firms over a 17-year period (2004–2020). Our empirical findings point out some special features of US stock markets. We find evidence that analysts tend to issue favorable recommendations, more accurate, less dispersed and more optimistic earnings forecasts for most well-governed firms. Furthermore, we show that higher-quality governance transparency is an important determinant of financial analysts’ behavior in the USA. The results also indicate that higher-quality governance appears valuable with financial analysts during pre- and post-crisis period, while it is not generally detected in COVID-19 times. However, we report the weakness of analysts’ outputs–governance quality for small firms. Thus, our findings cast doubts over the corporate governance-based analyst practices of US small and unaffiliated firms. The main implication of these findings is to improve understanding of how investors’ behavioral characteristics affect the transmission mechanism of information in money market and capital market prices. This paper has important implications for the decision making of financial analysts and investors by requesting firms to significantly improve their information environments in the good and bad times. It also offers insights into how firms establishing good corporate governance mechanisms can help the analysts to predict future stock prices.

How Incongruence Between Managers’ Tone of Voice and Word Sentiment Influences Security Analysts

Maintaining favorable analyst recommendations is important to organizations and their management, as these recommendations provide stakeholders with expert opinions about organizations’ well-being. Hence, there is a strong impetus for managers to prevent analysts downgrading their organization. In verbal communication, such as in earnings calls, managers not only try to influence analysts via the words that they use, but also via the tone in which they speak (i.e., paraverbal communication). Paraverbal communication is both an extra channel of information for analysts, and a strategic tool managers may use to exert influence. On the one hand, management wants to signal trustworthiness through congruency in their communication, but on the other hand is inclined to offset negative information by speaking positively, or downplay expectations by using a negative tone when discussing positive information. Leveraging several state-of-the-art Natural Language Processing algorithms, using earnings calls’ audio and textual data, we analyze the incongruence in managers’ communication. We find that paraverbal communication affects analysts’ recommendations and show which paraverbal strategies characterize organizations that are least likely to get downgraded. Our study therefore contributes to the literature on corporate communication, demonstrating the importance of verbal tone in managing the relationship with market intermediaries (analysts). Furthermore, this is one of the first studies in management that utilizes audio data quantitatively.

To Highlight or Not to Highlight: Costs of Environmental Sustainability

With the popularity of corporate environmental sustainability, management scholars have started to call attention to the cost of sustainability pursuit. While corporate sustainability brings about many benefits, implementation is costly. Most firms do not report environmental costs separately from other costs, but some firms do. We explore what drives firms to report environmental costs and how such reporting affects external evaluations such as analyst recommendations. We suggest and find that firms are more likely to reveal environmental costs separately for the purpose of highlighting the costs associated with their sustainability pursuit when faced with conflicting pressure from shareholders for sustainability. We further find that firms that report environmental costs separately generally receive less favorable analyst recommendations and forecasts than those who do not. This effect is mitigated by a greater share ownership from short-term institutional investors.

Market access for medicines treating rare diseases: Association between specialised processes for orphan medicines and funding recommendations

Access to medicines treating rare diseases (‘orphan medicines’) has proven challenging due to high prices and clinical uncertainty. To optimise market access to these medicines, some healthcare systems are implementing specialised pathways and/or processes during marketing authorisation (MA) and/or health technology assessment (HTA). Comparing one setting where these medicines are classed as “orphan” (Scotland) to another where they considered “non-orphan” (Canada), this study aims to explore whether the presence of specialised pathways and processes at MA and HTA levels is associated with more favourable funding recommendations and faster time to market access. A matched sample of 116 medicine-indication pairs with MA approval from 2001 to 2019 in Europe and Canada was identified, and publicly available sources were used for data extraction. Descriptive statistics were used for data analysis. All medicines were commercially marketed in both countries, except one instance in Scotland. In Scotland, more orphan medicines (68.1%) had a favourable HTA recommendation than in Canada (60.4%), while Canada issued more negative HTA recommendations (20.7%) than Scotland (15.5%). Low levels of agreement on HTA recommendations and the main reasons driving recommendations were found between settings. In both countries, medicines with specialised MA approval were less likely to receive negative HTA recommendations than medicines with standard MA. Time to market access was faster in Canada than Scotland, though medicines with specialised MA approval had slower timelines than medicines with standard MA approval in both countries. However, it is unclear whether the presence of orphan designation and HTA specialised processes alone could result in favourable funding recommendations without accounting for other healthcare system-related factors and differences in the decision-making processes across settings. Holistic approaches and better alignment of evidentiary requirements across regulators are needed to optimise access to orphan medicines.

Selective acceptance of acute whiplash guidelines: a qualitative analysis of perceptions of health professionals in Australia

Purpose To explore health professionals’ acceptance of the guidelines for acute whiplash associated disorders (WAD), and to identify barriers and facilitators to adherence. Materials and methods Qualitative descriptive study involving focus group discussions among health professionals who treat people with WAD in primary and secondary care settings in New South Wales and Queensland, Australia. Twenty-eight health professionals (physiotherapists = 19; chiropractors = 6; osteopaths = 3) participated in six semi-structured focus group discussions that were held in independent offices in Sydney and Brisbane, Australia between September and December 2015. Discussions were audio recorded and verbatim, de-identified transcripts produced. Thematic analysis was conducted using an inductive approach to identify commonly held beliefs. Results Acceptance of guideline recommendations appeared to be influenced by factors related to the guideline itself, practitioner and practice characteristics, and patient-related factors. Specifically, acceptance was hindered by conflicting belief systems, ambiguity in guideline recommendations, and patient characteristics and expectations. Conclusions Practitioners demonstrated a positive attitude towards the use of the guidelines in general; however, in some cases, acceptance of key recommendations appeared selective. Future guideline revision and implementation might focus on explaining the underlying principles of the guidelines, providing more detailed recommendations, and involving strategies that challenge inconsistent beliefs and promote informed decision-making. IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION Selective acceptance of guideline recommendations in favour of those not requiring practice change may present a challenge for the implementation of evidence-based practice in the management of whiplash. Participants demonstrated variable, sometimes polar attitudes to guideline key messages and recommendations. Guideline developers need to focus more strongly on changing practitioner beliefs and attitudes, as well as better explaining the underlying principles of the guidelines, and providing more detailed recommendations.

Scratch‐RL: A preference‐driven adversarial reinforcement reasoning framework over knowledge graphs for explainable recommendation of Scratch

Nowadays, Scratch, as a widely-used educational programming platform, has gathered a huge number of programming users all over the world. Facing massive programming resources, how to make satisfactory programming recommendations has attracted increasing attention, especially on explainable recommendations. Existing Scratch recommendation systems overlook to provide why a project is recommended, which prevents users from making better decisions and trusting in the system. To resolve this problem, we design the Scratch-RL, an explainable reinforcement learning framework over knowledge graphs for Scratch recommendation. First, we devise a preference-driven Actor-Critic network to simulate users' local preferences and explore the potential interested projects along the reasoning paths. In the Actor-Critic network, we elaborate a preference state function, a preference-based reward function, and a preference-conditional action pruning strategy for the agent. Then, we leverage a directive discriminator network to help evaluate the correctness of recommendations from the agent and return an extra guidance reward accordingly. A high guidance reward is given when the agent generates correct recommendations, which guarantees that the agent quickly and accurately comprehends the preferences of users. Finally, we jointly train the Actor-Critic network and the discriminator, when the whole training is done, the reasoning paths are taken as the interpretability of the recommendations. Extensive experiments on both the Scratch data set and public data set show that, Scratch-RL obtains favorable recommendation results compared with the state-of-the-art models.

Interactive influence of work–life balance benefits, employee recommendation, and job attributes on employer attractiveness and job pursuit intentions: two experiments

Drawing on signaling theory (Spence 1978), we propose that communicating work–life balance benefits offered along with favorable employee recommendations and valued job attributes could be construed as signals organizations deliberately use to influence potential applicants' perceptions of employer attractiveness and enhance job pursuit intentions. We test these ideas in two experiments. In study 1, using carefully constructed vignettes to manipulate work–life balance (WLB) benefits, employee recommendation, and job attributes in a 2 × 2 × 2 between-subjects design and with data gathered from 320 Indian MBA students, we found support for the direct and interactive effects of these variables on employer attractiveness. In study 2, using a 3 × 2 × 2 between-subjects design and data from 360 Indian MBA students, we examined the influence of three different alternative work arrangements, a form of WLB benefit, and how such benefits interact with employee recommendations and job attributes to influence job pursuit intentions. We discuss implications for theory, research, and practice.

Qualitative Investigation of Customer Delight and Terrible Hospitality Experiences

The purpose of this research is to examine various incidents relating to both delightful and terrible hospitality experiences in the hotel industry, using a qualitative research design. Critical incident analysis is conducted on data collected from 167 respondents in major tourist destinations of India. An open-ended questionnaire is developed for conducting in-depth interviews. Results reveal 16 interpersonal and 8 non-interpersonal factors responsible for customer delight and terrible experiences, affecting a consumer’s revisit intention and favourable recommendations. Some of the interpersonal factors include attractive voice, quick response and well dressed. The non-interpersonal factors are related to cleanliness, interiors, food and other physical evidence. A few critical limitations and future research directions are suggested. Some decisive implications for industry practitioners are also discussed. This study promotes interpersonal interactions between employees and customers by facilitating the effective use of technology. Society will also benefit from the effective implementation of such technology in the service industry. To the best of the author’s knowledge, no research has explored delightful and terrible customer experiences within the Indian hospitality industry.

Compositional Analysis of Four Kinds of Citrus Fruits with an NMR-Based Method for Understanding Nutritional Value and Rational Utilization: From Pericarp to Juice.

Citrus is one of the most important economic crops and is widely distributed across the monsoon region. Citrus fruits are deeply loved by consumers because of their special color, fragrance and high nutritional value. However, their health benefits have not been fully understood, especially the pericarps of citrus fruits which have barely been utilized due to their unknown chemical composition. In the present study, the pericarp and juices of four typical varieties of citrus fruits (lemon, dekopon, sweet orange and pomelo) were analyzed by NMR spectroscopy combined with pattern recognition. A total of 62 components from the citrus juices and 87 components from the citrus pericarps were identified and quantified, respectively. The different varieties of the citrus fruits could be distinguished from the others, and the chemical markers in each citrus juice and pericarp were identified by a combination of univariate and multivariate statistical analyses. The nutritional analysis of citrus juices offers favorable diet recommendations for human consumption and data guidance for their potential medical use, and the nutritional analysis of citrus pericarps provides a data reference for the subsequent comprehensive utilization of citrus fruits. Our results not only provide an important reference for the potential nutritional and medical values of citrus fruits but also provide a feasible platform for the traceability analysis, adulteration identification and chemical composition analysis of other fruits.

Digi-HTA, assessment framework for digital healthcare services: information security and data protection in health technology – initial experiences

It is well-known that security issues in medical devices, services and applications have potentially catastrophic consequences. To avoid compromising patient data or information systems, it is essential that healthcare services and products meet the relevant information security and data protection requirements. For these reasons, the Digi-HTA assessment includes information security and data protection assessment domains. The outcome of the Digi-HTA process is a recommendation that decision-makers can use during the procurement process. We present results and experiences from the first assessments made in the Digi-HTA process. We have assessed six products so far and multiple assessments are in progress. The results indicate that healthcare product manufacturers have found the process useful, and usually, the manufacturers have had to improve the security of their product during the Digi-HTA process to get a favourable recommendation for their product. The assessment processes have taken longer than expected due to shortcomings and ambiguities in the provided self-assessment forms, and due to feedback cycles and meetings prompted by assessment findings. Of the six assessed products, four received a green light in information security and data protection, whereas two have received a yellow light due to issues that were not fixed during the process. In addition to shortcomings in adhering to best practices, we have also found exploitable security issues.

Evidence-Informed Update of Argentina's Health Benefit Package: Application of a Rapid Review Methodology.

Argentina has a fragmented healthcare system with social security covering almost two thirds of the population. Its benefit package-called compulsory medical program (PMO; by its Spanish acronym Programa Médico Obligatorio)-has not been formally and widely updated since 2005. However, laws, clinical practice guidelines (CPGs), and a high-cost technology reimbursement fund complement it. Our objective was to comprehensively review such a PMO and propose an update considering the corresponding complementary sources. We followed four steps: (i) identification of health technologies from the current PMO and complementary sources, (ii) prioritization, (iii) assessment through rapid health technology assessment (HTA), and (iv) appraisal and recommendations. We evaluated three value domains: quality of evidence, net benefit, and economics, which were summarized in a five-category recommendation traffic-light scale ranging from a strong recommendation in favor of inclusion to a strong recommendation for exclusion. Eight hundred fifty technologies were identified; 164 of those, considered as high priority, were assessed through rapid HTAs. Those technologies mentioned in laws and CPGs were mostly outpatient essential medicines, whereas those from the reimbursement system were mostly high-cost drugs; of these 101 technologies, 50percent were recommended to be kept in the PMO. The other 63 (identified by the Superintendence of Health Services, technology producers, and patients) were mostly medical procedures and high-cost drugs; only 25percent of those resulted in a favorable recommendation. A methodology based on four clearly identified steps was used to carry out a comprehensive review of an outdated and fragmented benefit package. The use of rapid HTAs and a traffic-light recommendation framework facilitated the deliberative evidence-based update.

Stay Humble and Fly High: The Roles of Subordinate Voice and Competitive Work Context in the Linkage Between Leader Humility and Career Success

This study examines the relationship between leaders’ humility and their career success. We propose that humble leaders are more likely to occupy central positions in their subordinate teams’ voice networks where they improve their own performance and gain favorable reward recommendations. We also argue that in seemingly disadvantageous competitive work contexts, humble leaders become more central in the team voice network and increase their career prospects. We found support for these hypotheses in a multisource field study of 116 supervisors, 461 subordinates, and 34 shop managers from a Chinese company and in a vignette-based experiment with 233 working adults. Theoretical and practical implications for career success, leader humility, and voice literature are discussed.

Psychological determinants of users’ adoption and word-of-mouth recommendations of smart voice assistants

Individuals are increasingly using Smart Voice Assistants (SVA) to derive functional, hedonic, and symbolic benefits. SVA adoption is in the nascent stage and we have little knowledge about what drives SVA usage. Following the ‘attitude shapes behavior’ approach, this study examines the role of hedonic and utilitarian attitudes on SVA usage and word-of-mouth (WOM) recommendations. The study also investigates five antecedents (playfulness, escapism, anthropomorphism, visual appeal, and social presence) to both attitudes. Through an online survey of 360 respondents, the study suggests that playfulness and escapism positively influence hedonic attitude. On the other hand, anthropomorphism, visual appeal, and social presence determine utilitarian attitude. Further, utilitarian attitude has a stronger impact (vs. hedonic attitude) on SVA usage and WOM recommendations. The findings reveal that individuals who perceive SVA as a symbol of high prestige (vs. low prestige) are less likely to relate playfulness to hedonic gratifications. In contrast, people attributing prestige to SVA are more likely to use it as an escape route from everyday life. These findings contribute to the growing literature on SVA adoption and offer insightful recommendations to various stakeholders to increase the likelihood of SVA adoption and generating favorable WOM recommendations.

Clinical Management of Adult Patients with COVID-19 Outside Intensive Care Units: Guidelines from the Italian Society of Anti-Infective Therapy (SITA) and the Italian Society of Pulmonology (SIP).

IntroductionThe Italian Society of Anti-Infective Therapy (SITA) and the Italian Society of Pulmonology (SIP) constituted an expert panel for developing evidence-based guidance for the clinical management of adult patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outside intensive care units.MethodsTen systematic literature searches were performed to answer ten different key questions. The retrieved evidence was graded according to the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation methodology (GRADE).Results and ConclusionThe literature searches mostly assessed the available evidence on the management of COVID-19 patients in terms of antiviral, anticoagulant, anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, and continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP)/non-invasive ventilation (NIV) treatment. Most evidence was deemed as of low certainty, and in some cases, recommendations could not be developed according to the GRADE system (best practice recommendations were provided in similar situations). The use of neutralizing monoclonal antibodies may be considered for outpatients at risk of disease progression. For inpatients, favorable recommendations were provided for anticoagulant prophylaxis and systemic steroids administration, although with low certainty of evidence. Favorable recommendations, with very low/low certainty of evidence, were also provided for, in specific situations, remdesivir, alone or in combination with baricitinib, and tocilizumab. The presence of many best practice recommendations testified to the need for further investigations by means of randomized controlled trials, whenever possible, with some possible future research directions stemming from the results of the ten systematic reviews.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40121-021-00487-7.

Human Papillomavirus Vaccination Knowledge, Barriers, and Recommendations Among Healthcare Provider Groups in the Western United States.

This study compared human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination occurrences on the same day as provider recommendations at clinics in the Western United States stratified by healthcare provider groups. In addition, the relationships between provider groups' perceived challenges associated with HPV vaccination, HPV vaccination knowledge, HPV recommendation practices, and same-day HPV vaccinations and recommendations are described. Eligible participants included pediatric healthcare providers and staff with influence on patient/parental-level decisions regarding HPV vaccination. Participants filled out a 40-question survey. Results for study participants (N = 99) showed providers reported a higher number of challenges limiting HPV vaccination, higher HPV vaccination knowledge, and more favorable HPV vaccination recommendation practices compared to other healthcare team members (OTM) suggesting providers may have a better overall understanding of the HPV vaccination climate than OTMs. Clinics should examine OTMs' training, expectations, and opportunities to increase the frequency and strength of HPV vaccination recommendations to adolescent patients and parents.

Comment to the New York Senate Committee on Consumer Protection in Connection with Its Pending Consideration of the Twenty-First Century Antitrust Act (S.933)

Modern antitrust laws (including the federal antitrust laws and the antitrust laws of other states, as well as the cognate laws of numerous other jurisdictions around the world) generally include provisions that limit unilateral business conduct that may create, protect, or extend monopoly power by unreasonably exclusionary practices. In contrast, New York’s main antitrust law, the Donnelley Act of 1899, contains no such provision. The GAI recognizes that adding such a provision to the Donnelley Act is an intended objective of S.933. There are several serious questions, however, raised by key aspects of S.933. Specifically, while S.933 §3 adopts a prohibition on monopolization similar to that found in Section 2 of the Sherman Act, 15 USC § 2, it also includes a prohibition on “abuse of dominance.” S.933 provides limited information regarding the definitions of “dominance” and “abuse.” Rather, S.933 delegates very broad discretion to define these terms to the New York Attorney General (subject to a specific form of legislative veto). This approach presents a number of serious risks and uncertainties. For reasons explained more fully below, the Committee should consider withholding any favorable recommendation on S.933 so long as it contains the abuse-of-dominance provision.

Role of Communication, Influence, and Satisfaction in Patient Recommendations of a Physician

As per the India Brand Equity Foundation, by 2022, India’s healthcare market is expected to reach US$372 billion. While exponential growth in the availability of private hospitals has been recorded in the past few years, many hospitals are not able to attract enough patients due to poor quality of services, unavailability of skilled healthcare workers, and unethical medical practices. These issues were painfully exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Patients rely on recommendations from friends and relatives to select a physician or hospital. This study undertakes a customer-oriented view of patients to explore patients’ perceptions of physicians’ communication and how it influences the recommendation of a physician. For the study, data are collected from 626 patients spread across three cities of North India. We find that physician communication leads to favourable recommendations, and the patient’s perceived influence and satisfaction play an important role in this process. The physician should display empathy and compassion while communicating to patients, which helps build a favourable perception of the physician. This leads to a higher level of satisfaction with the healthcare provider. Furthermore, the study also examines the effects of socio-demographic variables, such as patient’s income, patient’s gender, and physician’s gender. People with high (vs low) income are more satisfied with physician communication, whereas people with low (vs high) income are more likely to recommend a physician. Interestingly, female patients are more satisfied with a physician’s communication skills than males. Aligned with the patriarchal society, patients show more acceptance of male (vs female) doctors, but in contrast, patients are more likely to recommend a female (vs male) doctor. So, we recommend that healthcare providers ensure that patients get sufficient time to spend with their physicians to discuss problems and not ‘rush’ the patients to improve revenues.