Strategic Timing Research Articles

Data Breach Announcements and Stock Market Reactions: A Matter of Timing?

Although firms’ announcement of data breaches can lead to reputational or operational damages, extant research suggests that stock markets are relatively unresponsive to such announcements. We investigate whether markets’ unresponsiveness can be explained by firms strategically timing the announcement to coincide with busy days in the media, thereby reducing attention and, ultimately, attenuating market reactions. We leverage novel data on data breach announcements in the United States between 2008 and 2018 and create a measure of busyness in the trade press—news pressure—based on the Wall Street Journal. To investigate, we conduct two complementary studies. In Study 1, we employ an instrumental variable approach to assess whether announcements coincide with days of predictably high news pressure. We find that this is the case. On days with a one-standard-deviation-higher predictable news pressure, 4.44% more data breaches are announced (or approximately 19.024 data records). Strategic timing is more prevalent for breaches that are severe, that have firm-internal causes, and that leak healthcare data or credentials. In Study 2, we utilize a stock market event study to assess market reactions conditional on news pressure on the announcement day. We find that data breach announcements are associated with negative market reactions, yet these are attenuated by higher news pressure on the announcement day. If news pressure is on its empirical mean (respectively, one standard deviation above), we estimate a median decline in market capitalization of $347 (respectively, $85) million. We conclude that firms’ strategic timing might explain inconsistent findings in prior work. This paper was accepted by Chris Forman, information systems.

Equilibrium in a Queueing System with Retrials

We find an equilibrium in a single-server queueing system with retrials and strategic timing of the customers. We consider a set of customers, each of which must decide when to arrive to a queueing system during a fixed period of time. In this system, after completion of service, the server seeks a customer blocked in a virtual orbit (orbital customer) to be served next, unless a new customer captures the server. We develop, in detail, a setting with two and three customers in the set, and formulate and discuss the problem for the general case with an arbitrary number of customers. The numerical examples for the system with two and three customers included as well.

Strategic real time framework for healthcare using fuzzy C-means systems

Strategic real time framework for healthcare using fuzzy C-means systems

The influence of the agents’ personal qualities on the exogenous formation of Stackelberg leadership in a collective action model

Within a mathematical modelling framework, we analyse conditions that prevent a self-governed collective from breaking out of an inefficient Nash equilibrium and attaining Pareto-preferable outcomes. It is assumed that by each member’s individual efforts aggregate income is created being equally distributed among members of a collective. Effort invested by each agent is complementary, i.e. increased effort by any individual agent increases marginal income produced by any other agent. Each agent’s goal is to maximize their own individual gain. We propose a model built for the collective income function with constant income elasticity per each agent’s effort that abides to the condition of decreasing returns. All members of the collective wield identical influence on the size of the income. Within a timingdecisions mechanism, each member of the collective faces the dilemma: whether to deploy an active strategy i.e., put in their effort during the first time period, or opt for a follower’s strategic timing and invest their effort during the second time period. The follower’s strategy yields greater gains, but only when some other agents choose the active strategy. In the event that not a single active agent appears, the entire collective falls into the trap of inefficient Nash equilibrium. We show that as the number of active agents grows, cumulate gains increase for all members of the collective. Maximum gains obtainable by a follower exceed the highest gain of an active agent, and are received only if the follower is the last agent remaining. It follows, therefore, that this maximum winner must be a risk-taking, egotistic optimist.

Narrative Adoption and Strategic Timing of Disclosure

Narrative Adoption and Strategic Timing of Disclosure

Media Attention and Strategic Timing in Politics: Evidence from U.S. Presidential Executive Orders

AbstractDo politicians tend to adopt unpopular policies when the media and the public are distracted by other events? We examine this question by analyzing the timing of executive orders signed by U.S. presidents over the past four decades. We find robust evidence that executive orders are more likely to be signed on the eve of days when the news is dominated by other important stories that can crowd out coverage of executive orders. This relationship only holds in periods of divided government when unilateral presidential actions are more likely to be criticized by Congress. The effect is driven by executive orders that are more likely to make the news and to attract negative publicity, particularly those on topics on which president and Congress disagree. Finally, the timing of executive orders appears to be related to predictable news but not unpredictable ones, which suggests it results from a deliberate and forward‐looking PR strategy.

Planning pharmaceutical manufacturing networks in the light of uncertain production approval times

In the light of shortening product life cycles and growing competition, supply chain efficiency has become a priority for researching pharmaceutical companies. Improving capacity management through dynamic product (re-)allocations is a widely acknowledged lever to achieve significant efficiency gains. However, product allocations in the pharmaceutical industry are subject to a specific source of uncertainty. Any facility that is to manufacture a given product for the very first time requires a production approval from regulatory authorities. The duration of the approval process is highly uncertain and can delay the completion of product allocations by several years. This implicitly affects decisions about outsourcing to contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs) who play an essential role in pharmaceutical supply chains (PSCs). Outsourcing is typically based on long-term contractual agreements and thus should be considered in a strategic time frame. To address these issues, we develop a two-stage stochastic MILP model for PSC network design under demand and approval time uncertainty. More specifically, we focus on the secondary manufacturing stage, which comprises all processes converting active pharmaceutical ingredients into finished drug products. A numerical study based on a real-life case of a global pharmaceutical company is presented to validate the applicability of our approach. The results show that approval times drive optimal allocation strategies and may induce different degrees of decentralization at upstream and downstream manufacturing stages. Furthermore, they are guiding make-or-buy decisions while uncertain demands mainly affect global capacity provisioning.

Sleep Quality in Acute Brain Injury Rehabilitation: Impressions of Nurses Working the Night Shift

<h3>Research Objectives</h3> To capture the impressions of rehabilitation nurses working on the night shift with regard to factors that may be impacting sleep among inpatients with acquired brain injury. <h3>Design</h3> Cross-sectional. <h3>Setting</h3> Web-based survey of inpatient rehabilitation nurses. <h3>Participants</h3> Responses from 138 nurses across the United States were analyzed. Females comprised 88.4% of the sample. Years of experience as a nurse ranged from 1 to 35 years (M=8.9, SD=9.6). <h3>Interventions</h3> Not applicable. <h3>Main Outcome Measures</h3> A brief online survey was conducted to examine the frequency of encountering patients with a variety of sleep related issues. Two open-ended questions were included to capture additional qualitative information regarding sources of sleep disruption and nursing practices that can improve sleep quality. <h3>Results</h3> 83% of nurses said that they "often" or "always" encountered patients with at least one symptom of insomnia (trouble falling asleep at the beginning of the night, problems staying asleep throughout the night, or waking up too early and unable to go back to sleep). 77.1% of respondents endorsed noise as the most frequent source of sleep disruption, citing noise from staff, other patients, visitors, and electronics (monitors, call bells, intercom systems). With regard to potential solutions to improve sleep, over half of the sample identified practices that described the organization of care delivery, with 27% of the sample describing a practice of "clustering care." Other practices involved strategic timing of interventions and coordination with other staff members to avoid multiple disruptions. <h3>Conclusions</h3> Sleep is frequently disrupted in inpatients with brain injury due to both internal and external causes. Strategies to reduce noise and organizing the timing of night nursing care may help minimize environmental disturbances while providing necessary interventions. <h3>Author(s) Disclosures</h3> The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Barrett's Epithelium to Esophageal Adenocarcinoma: Is There a "Point of No Return"?

Background: Esophageal adenocarcinoma (EA) arises from Barrett’s epithelium (BE), and chronic gastroesophageal reflux disease is considered the strongest risk factor for disease progression. All BE patients undergo acid suppressive therapy, surveillance, and BE removal by surgery or endoscopic ablation, yet the incidence of EAC continues to increase. Despite the known side effects and mortality, the one-size-fits-all approach is the standard clinical management as there are no reliable methods for risk stratification.Methods: Paired-end Illumina NextSeq500 RNA sequencing was performed on total RNA extracted from 20-week intervals (0, 20, 40, and 60 W) of an in vitro BE carcinogenesis (BEC) model to construct time series global gene expression patterns (GEPs). The cells from two strategic time points (20 and 40 W) based on the GEPs were grown for another 20 weeks, with and without further acid and bile salt (ABS) stimulation, and the recurrent neoplastic cell phenotypes were evaluated.Results: Hierarchical clustering of 866 genes with ≥ twofold change in transcript levels across the four time points revealed maximum variation between the BEC20W and BEC40W cells. Enrichment analysis confirmed that the genes altered ≥ twofold during this window period associated with carcinogenesis and malignancy. Intriguingly, the BEC20W cells required further ABS exposure to gain neoplastic changes, but the BEC40W cells progressed to malignant transformation after 20 weeks even in the absence of additional ABS.Discussion: The transcriptomic gene expression patterns in the BEC model demonstrate evidence of a clear threshold in the progression of BE to malignancy. Catastrophic transcriptomic changes during a window period culminate in the commitment of the BE cells to a “point of no return,” and removal of ABS is not effective in preventing their malignant transformation. Discerning this “point of no return” during BE surveillance by tracking the GEPs has the potential to evaluate risk of BE progression and enable personalized clinical management.

The Challenges of Universal Health Insurance in Developing Countries: Experimental Evidence from Indonesia’s National Health Insurance

To investigate barriers to universal health insurance in developing countries, we designed a randomized experiment involving about 6,000 households in Indonesia who are subject to a government health insurance program with a weakly enforced mandate. Time-limited subsidies increased enrollment and attracted lower-cost enrollees, in part by reducing the strategic timing of enrollment to correspond with health needs. Registration assistance also increased enrollment, but increased attempted enrollment much more, as over one-half of households who attempted to enroll did not successfully do so. These findings underscore how weak administrative capacity can create important challenges in developing countries for achieving widespread coverage. (JEL D82, G22, H51, I13, I18, O15)

A survey of queueing systems with strategic timing of arrivals

Consider a population of customers, each of which needs to decide independently when to arrive to a facility that provides a service during a fixed period of time, say a day. This is a common scenario in many service systems such as a bank, lunch at a cafeteria, music concert, flight check-in and many others. High demand for service at a specific time leads to congestion that comes at a cost, for examlple, for waiting, earliness or tardiness. Queueing theory provides tools for the analysis of the waiting times and associated costs. If customers have the option of deciding when to join the queue, they will face a decision dilemma of when to arrive. The level of congestion one suffers from depends on others, behavior and not only that of the individual under consideration. This fact leads customers to make strategic decisions regarding their time of arrival. In addition, multiple decision makers that affect each other’s expected congestion call for noncooperative game-theoretical analysis of this strategic interaction. This common daily scenario has prompted a research stream pioneered by the ?/M/1 model of Glazer and Hassin (Eur J Oper Res 13(2):146–150, 1983) that first characterized an arrival process to a queue as a Nash equilibrium solution of a game. This survey provides an overview of the main results and developments in the literature on queueing systems with strategic timing of arrivals. Another issue is that of social optimality, namely the strategy profile used by customers that optimizes their aggregate utility. In particular, we review results concerning the price of anarchy (PoA), which is the ratio between the socially optimal and the equilibrium utilities.

A timed activity protocol to address sleep-wake disorders in home dwelling persons living with dementia: the healthy patterns clinical trial

BackgroundSleep-wake disorders occur in most persons living with dementia and include late afternoon or evening agitation, irregular sleep-wake rhythms such as daytime hypersomnia, frequent night awakenings, and poor sleep efficiency. Sleep-wake disorders pose a great burden to family caregivers, and are the principal causes of distress, poor quality of life, and institutionalization. Regulating the sleep-wake cycle through the use of light and activity has been shown to alter core clock processes and suggests that a combination of cognitive, physical, and sensory-based activities, delivered at strategic times, may be an effective mechanism through which to reduce sleep-wake disorders.MethodsA definitive Phase III efficacy trial of the Healthy Patterns intervention, a home-based activity intervention designed to improve sleep-wake disorders and quality of life, is being conducted using a randomized two-group parallel design of 200 people living with dementia and their caregivers (dyads). Specific components of this one-month, home-based intervention involve 4 in-home visits and includes: 1) assessing individuals’ functional status and interests; 2) educating caregivers on environmental cues to promote activity and sleep; and 3) training caregivers in using timed morning, afternoon, and evening activities based on circadian needs across the day. The patient focused outcomes of interest are quality of life, measures of sleep assessed by objective and subjective indicators including actigraphy, subjective sleep quality, and the presence of neuropsychiatric symptoms. Caregiver outcomes of interest are quality of life, burden, confidence using activities, and sleep disruption. Salivary measures of cortisol and melatonin are collected to assess potential intervention mechanisms.DiscussionThe results from the ongoing study will provide fundamental new knowledge regarding the effects of timing activity participation based on diurnal needs and the mechanisms underlying timed interventions which can lead to a structured, replicable treatment protocol for use with this growing population of persons living with dementia.Clinical trial registrationClinicaltrials.gov # NCT03682185 at https://clinicaltrials.gov/; Date of clinical trial registration: 24 September 2018.

Managing for the Distant Future: A Research Agenda for the Fight Against Climate Change

As it is becoming clear that companies must be much more consequential in the fight against climate change, we need to know more about how organizational actors navigate in this fight. Although international institutions and climate agencies have warned about the implications of climate change for decades, it is only recently that companies are making more specific commitments that reach into the distant futures, such as to become carbon neutral by 2030 (e.g. Apple, Google, Microsoft, P&G), 2040 (e.g. Amazon), or 2050 (e.g. BP, Dow). For most companies this implies that they have to overcome pressure from short-term performance and go well beyond their habitual strategic time horizons into unknown territories. This symposium brings together experienced scholars discussing how we may study and conceptualize the challenges that confront managers, as they begin to integrate concerns for distant future climate change into their ongoing solutions.

Unexpected distractions and investor attention to corporate announcements

We investigate how unexpected distractions affect investors' reactions to corporate earnings announcements. We use a daily news pressure (DNP) index as a proxy for the presence of potential investor distraction. Since breaking news captured by this index is largely unpredictable and unrelated to investors' valuation decisions, our research design offers a unique opportunity to examine investor attention in the absence of strategic timing of announcements by managers. Using overall trading volume and Google searches as measures of investor attention, we find that investors are susceptible to distractions in their reactions to earnings announcements. We further find that DNP measures a form of distraction that affects retail but not institutional investors. Furthermore, in contrast to prior research that employs predictable measures of distraction, we find that price reactions to earnings announcements are not affected by unexpected distractions. Our results reveal that unexpected distractions reduce the attention of retail investors to earning announcements, but do not necessarily lead to observable pricing effects.

The Functions of Continuous Processes in Contemporary Electronic Dance Music

This article discusses the functions of continuous processes in contemporary electronic dance music (EDM), providing an analytical framework for discussing their structural and aesthetic roles in this repertoire. Continuous processes are musical gestures with continuous changes to musical parameters, rather than discrete, “step-by-step” ones. Examples include pitch slides (glissandos), crescendos, fade ins, accelerandos, and filter sweeps. Continuous processes in this repertoire are created with “continuous controllers” such as sliders and knobs, or are programmed into tracks with “automation curves.” Functionally, continuous processes often provide sonic instructions for dancers. They can be used by creators at strategic times to provide ornamentation, orientation (often accompanied by intensification or de-intensification), or disorientation (usually in breakdown sections). This article adds to existing analytical scholarship by drawing attention to the many roles of continuous processes in EDM, and showing how they contribute to the emotional waves experienced when listening to this music.

Understanding lead-time implications for financial performance: a qualitative study

PurposeThe purpose of the study is to describe the implications of strategic lead times (SLTs) for return on investment (ROI).Design/methodology/approachThis study was part of an interactive research project and is based on the logic of theory application leading to theory building. It uses a multiple case study with five holistic single cases. Empirical data (ED) have mainly been collected from interviews and focus groups.FindingsThe length of and uncertainty in SLTs have implications for companies' financial performance. These implications vary in strength and can be either direct or indirect. These findings are incorporated into a framework on SLTs' implications for ROI.Research limitations/implicationsThe presented array of SLTs' implications for ROI could be further investigated, focussing on their strength. Additionally, it would be interesting to substantiate the findings in the context of environmental and social sustainability (i.e. the triple bottom line).Practical implicationsThe findings offer practitioners a rich description and understanding of SLTs' actual implications for financial performance in terms of ROI. This knowledge can support practitioners in analysing supply chain designs based on financial performance.Originality/valueUsing a combination of a relative financial performance measure (ROI) and a set of SLTs (systems perspective), this study focuses on SLTs' actual implications for ROI. The findings provide evidence that different sections of a supply chain can have different implications for revenue, cost and investment (i.e. the three absolute measures related to ROI).

Dynamic alteration in miRNA and mRNA expression profiles at different stages of chronic arsenic exposure-induced carcinogenesis in a human cell culture model of skin cancer

Chronic arsenic exposure causes skin cancer, although the underlying molecular mechanisms are not well defined. Altered microRNA and mRNA expression likely play a pivotal role in carcinogenesis. Changes in genome-wide differential expression of miRNA and mRNA at 3 strategic time points upon chronic sodium arsenite (As3+) exposure were investigated in a well-validated HaCaT cell line model of arsenic-induced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC). Quadruplicate independent HaCaT cell cultures were exposed to 0 or 100 nM As3+ for up to 28-weeks (wk). Cell growth was monitored throughout the course of exposure and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) was examined employing immunoblot. Differentially expressed miRNA and mRNA profiles were generated at 7, 19, and 28-wk by RNA-seq, followed by identification of differentially expressed mRNA targets of differentially expressed miRNAs through expression pairing at each time point. Pathway analyses were performed for total differentially expressed mRNAs and for the miRNA targeted mRNAs at each time point. RNA-seq predictions were validated by immunoblot of selected target proteins. While the As3+-exposed cells grew slower initially, growth was equal to that of unexposed cells by 19-wk (transformation initiation), and exposed cells subsequently grew faster than passage-matched unexposed cells. As3+-exposed cells had undergone EMT at 28-wk. Pathway analyses demonstrate dysregulation of carcinogenesis-related pathways and networks in a complex coordinated manner at each time point. Immunoblot data largely corroborate RNA-seq predictions in the endoplasmic reticulum stress (ER stress) pathway. This study provides a detailed molecular picture of changes occurring during the arsenic-induced transformation of human keratinocytes.

A comparative study of progressive carbon taxation strategies: impact on firms’ economic and environmental performances

Governments all over the world adopted different forms of progressive carbon taxation strategies (for example concave, convex and linear for respectively Swedish, French, and Canadian government). These progressive strategies provide companies with different degrees of flexibility to adapt their decisions to the new environmental regulations and reduce their carbon emissions without compromising their profit. However, no existing work has compared the impact of each progressive legislation on the optimal decisions of the supply chain, its profit, and its environmental performances. In this paper, we contribute to the literature by developing four multi-period technology selection models under different forms of progressive carbon taxes. We analytically determine the optimal strategic investment timing decision under each taxation strategy. We then develop a carbon tax assessment method using multi-criteria analysis techniques to compare the efficiency of each carbon taxation form in reducing carbon emission and maximising the Supply Chain (SC) profit. We prove that the earliest green investment decision and the decision of not investing in green depend on the target carbon tax rather than the taxation form. We show that government decision about the suitable taxation form should be based on the performance of the available green technologies.

107 Raised Without Antibiotics, Lessons Learned

Abstract Smithfield Foods has initiated Raised Without Antibiotics (RWA) programs into its vertical integration model in the past. This opportunity to drive change to meet a growing demand provides an unique ability to analyze approaches to raising swine in a setting where multiple entities are tied to the success of a program and maintaining a focus of animal welfare, traceability and financial responsibilities are a must. There is a wide range of housing and resources used for industry RWA programs across those that implement such practices. Smithfield Foods program was performed in conjunction with its company-owned sow farms weaning to contracted grower bases in conventional wean-to-finish barn settings within the Midwest making it a multi-entity managed approach. Therefore, a full-package view is mandatory for the success of a RWA program and takes into account many current industry research approaches as well as fulfilling basic husbandry parameters. A focus too heavily on one will alter the ability to achieve program goals. The focus in the most recent success of the RWA program provided by Smithfield Foods included beginning with high health pig sources sourcing robust offspring, utilizing strategic vaccines and timing to combat potential obstructive issues, specific biosecurity plans, optimal environment uniformity, nutrition and water quality focuses and individual pig awareness throughout the entirety of the pig’s time in the program. Over 400,000 pigs were placed into Smithfield Foods RWA Program. The outcome of implementing the multi-faceted approach of securing the basic animal husbandry, along with newer industry knowledge and research, led to only 1.53% individual pigs needing to be taken off of the program due to requiring an antibiotic treatment and the remaining pigs within the program having high success in financial returns with competitive company growth performances.

Deciphering the association between HIV-specific immunity and immune reconstitution.

Numerous observational studies have reported elevated risk of cardiovascular disease, chronic lung disease, infections and cancers among people living with HIV (PLWH) compared to non-HIV infected individuals [1,2]. The association between HIV infection and increased risk of these non-AIDS related comorbidities is strongest for viraemic individuals as highlighted by two pivotal randomized trials, the Strategies for Management of Antiretroviral Therapy (SMART) study and Strategic Timing of Antiretroviral Treatment START study [3,4].