Transparent Environment Research Articles

Navigating the Maze of Data: Promoting Quality and Effectiveness in Allied Health

Background/Aims The allied health service is department based rather than dedicated to a particular ward or specialty and use different data collection modalities to nursing colleagues. This results in allied health data sitting in isolation in multiple systems with no way to integrate data sets. This study aims to support quality improvement initiatives, population health management and innovation in the clinical space, create a transparent environment that seeks to engage staff, challenge assumptions and add value service delivery for patients. Methods The dashboard content was developed through discussions with key stakeholders to identify key performance indicators and appropriate measures before being developed. The dashboard was then presented in a test environment and modified to meet the end user requirements. Findings The dashboard is a highly visual way of displaying information for allied health professionals. Conclusion The dashboard provides knowledge on service development opportunities, supports strategic and clinical decision making, allocates staff and raises the profile of allied health. The dashboard will also meet staff requests with demonstrating what happens to their daily statistical data in an easily viewable method.

Does Asymmetric Information Drive Herding? An Empirical Analysis

The authors explore the relative significance of information and its role in herding formation among investors. They investigate this relationship at 3 scales: the market, investor, and individual stock levels. At the aggregate market level, empirical evidence obtained suggests that a more transparent environment is likely to mitigate the extent of herding intensity, mainly as a result of a decay in non–information-based “intentional” herding. At the investor level, the authors find strong evidence of asymmetric herding between investors with heterogenous information (arbitragers and noise traders). Finally, at the stock individual level, the present results show a positive and statistically significant relationship between herding intensity and 5 firm-specific measures of information asymmetry.

Does Industry Timing Ability of Hedge Funds Predict Their Future Performance, Survival, and Fund Flows?

This paper investigates hedge funds’ ability to time industry-specific returns and shows that funds’ timing ability in the manufacturing industry improves their future performance, probability of survival, and ability to attract more capital. The results indicate that best industry-timing hedge funds in the manufacturing sector have the highest return exposure to earnings surprises. This, together with persistently sticky earnings surprises, transparent information environment in regards to earnings releases, and large post-earnings-announcement drift in the manufacturing industry, explain to a great extent why best-timing hedge funds can generate significantly larger future returns compared to worst-timing hedge funds.

Information‐Processing Costs and Breadth of Ownership

ABSTRACTUsing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's mandate of eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) as a natural experiment, this study investigates whether and how the decreased information‐processing costs brought about by XBRL influence firms’ breadth of share ownership. We find that the XBRL mandate is associated with an increase in the total number of a firm's shareholders. This finding is consistent with the notion that XBRL facilitates a more transparent environment and decreases information‐processing costs, thereby attracting more shareholders in general. More interestingly, we find that while XBRL adoption is associated with an increase in share ownership of individual and non‐U.S. foreign institutional investors, it is associated with a decrease in share ownership of U.S. domestic institutional investors. Further evidence shows that this asymmetric shift in share ownership is more pronounced for more complex firms. Our findings, taken together, suggest that the decreased information‐processing costs brought about by XBRL help firms establish a level playing field by reducing the information disadvantages of individual and foreign institutional investors over domestic institutional investors. Our results are robust to potential endogeneity concerns and alternative research designs.

ATTRACTING AND IDENTIFYING HIGH PERFORMING PROJECT MANAGERS

Construction project managers (PMs) are critical to the execution of successful construction projects, conducting and orchestrating the intricacies of dynamic and complex projects. A large state university was challenged with attracting and retaining PMs in their construction department during a period of rapid university growth and departmental re-organization. The university tried current models for selecting construction PM firms largely based on commodities-based procurement and/or low bid structures and was unsuccessful. A new model was developed that considered and analyzed both the capabilities and qualifications of the individual PMs. The importance of individuals being able to identify their unique capabilities, be accountable for their performance, and operate in a transparent environment are critical concepts within this model. The new model also created an environment of organizational transparency, requiring PMs to measure their performance and the performance of their projects. The model resulted in an overwhelming amount of high quality PMs seeking to join the university. The university initially sought a specific skills set for new PMs, but revised their criteria and future selection processes for hiring future PMs based on the results of this model. Analysis of the PM capabilities, qualifications, and performance are shared as well as lessons learned to refine the model. This model can also be used to identify high performing individuals in other positions or disciplines.

Data for Peace: The League of Nations and Disarmament 1920–40

Based on Article 8 of the League of Nations Covenant, the League pursued a program to reduce and regulate national armaments to promote peace and security among nations. An integral part of the program was compiling and disseminating data on national armaments holdings, arms trade, and natural resources used to make war. The League anticipated that publishing and sharing arms data would contribute to an environment of greater transparency, international trust, and cooperation. There was a genuine belief among many disarmament supporters that data could be used as a tool to influence public opinion and national leaders, and contribute to the League's negotiations for a disarmament agreement. This philosophy of armaments data led to the publication and use of Armaments Year‐Book and Statistical Year‐Book of the Trade in Arms, Ammunition, and Implements of War, representing an approach to disarmament that set a precedent for the United Nations.

Credit Information Sharing and Stock Price Crash Risk: The Role of Information Asymmetry and Bank Regulations

This paper attempts to investigate the impact of credit information sharing on bank-specific stock price crash risk. Using a sample of 1,402 listed-banks in 55 countries for the period 2005-2013, we show that credit information sharing through public credit registries is negatively associated with future crash risk after controlling for other predictors of crash risk. This finding suggests that banks are less likely to experience stock price crash when they share more borrower information through public credit registries. Moreover, the mitigating effect of credit information sharing on crash risk is more pronounced when countries have less transparent information environment and weak regulatory environments in banking sectors. The results are also robust to an alternative crash risk measure, additional control variables, subsample analyses, and an instrumental variable approach.

Redefining Sustainability Through Digital India: A Preview

IDigital describes electronic technology that generates, stores and processes data so that it is stored in a virtual central repository and is easy to access anywhere anytime in addition to creating a transparent environment. Digital India is a dream project of the Indian Government to remodel India as a front-runner in this knowledge based society and empower them through good governance by synchronizing and coordinating in public accountability, digitally connecting individuals and organizations and delivering the government programmes to mobilize the capability of information technology across government departments. This programme will help to make India smart. Today, every nation wants to be highly digitized and this programme strives to provide equal opportunities and benefits to both the user and service provider. The current paper tries to project how digital services will make India smart and more sustainable besides impacting the common citizen.

A comparative study on registration system of real estate between Hong Kong and Mainland China

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to review land/real estate registration practice in Hong Kong, and make an in-depth comparison with Mainland China and finally provide helpful suggestions for the government.Design/methodology/approachResearch methods including document analysis/review and comparative study are used in this paper.FindingsThe main findings focus on the problems existing in the mainland, including narrow query subject, single way of query, limited query time, and lacking of incentive mechanism. Helpful suggestions for real estate registration system in Mainland China are offered based on the comparative study.Practical implicationsThe unified registration system can improve the efficiency of administrative institutions to ensure an open and transparent environment of property right registration, which helps prevent the relevant departments from abusing administrative power and harming the interests of obligees. The findings of this research can serve as a useful reference for policy makers to improve the unified registration system in China.Originality/valueThe registration system/mechanism determines the efficiency and effectiveness of real estate/land market. However, land registration and query in some countries such as Mainland China have institutional problems which hinder the sustained and healthy development of the real estate industry. The value of this paper is to propose constructive suggestions for such countries/regions by comparing and learning from a good model.

How Much is Too Much? Defining the Metes and Bounds of Excessive Pricing in the Pharmaceutical Sector

Excessive pharmaceutical pricing represents one of the most contentious issues in legal and political discourse and has recently gained renewed attention by courts, competition authorities and political forces on both sides of the Atlantic. Balancing the public demand for affordable and accessible health-care with the need for sufficient incentives and a sustainable innovation system in the field of medicines also attracts a great deal of media and scholarly attention. Facing what seems to be a revival of competition law enforcement in this highly sensitive and complex environment, it is of vital importance to keep up to date with the most recent developments. It is further crucial that the necessary debates are taking place within a well-informed and transparent environment that takes into account multiple factors, interests, responsibilities and concerns. This entails inter alia to consider various types of diseases (rare, neglected or blockbuster) treatment outcomes (cure or long dependency), as well as the economic complexities of successful innovation systems and higher societal goals such as sustainability, solidarity and fairness. Only then, will it be possible to devise well-balanced policies and guidelines that allow relevant stakeholders to align their approaches and strategies in order to achieve what society expects from the pharmaceutical innovation system: life-saving new therapies that are safe, efficient and accessible. Against this background, this article depicts and discusses some of the latest cases and the underlying legal-economic and policy considerations. (Less)

Job preferences of agricultural students in Germany – A choice-based conjoint analysis for both genders

Knowledge of the job preferences of agricultural students is essential for the competitiveness of the industry. Yet no study is available in Germany. Other studies mostly used direct questions for the preference measurement, which raises possible concerns about a socially desirable response bias. For this reason, the present study combines a quasi-experiment (choice-based conjoint analysis) and direct questions (Likert scales) to measure the job preferences of 568 agricultural students in Germany and compares the results. In addition to finding gender differences, the study found that ‘income’ and ‘future perspective’ are the most important job characteristics for the job choice of agricultural students, and that they also prefer an increasing ‘work-life-balance’ as well as a ‘rural location’ for their future employer. Insights about job characteristics’ attractiveness lead to a more transparent environment in which employers and (potential) employees make better-informed decisions, resulting in increased job satisfaction, performance and career sustainability.

Analyzing job satisfaction and preferences of employees: the case of horticultural companies in Germany

German horticulture, as well as horticulture and agriculture in other industrialized countries, faces increasing skilled labor shortage. Additionally family run businesses in horticulture and agriculture are lacking a new generation of entrepreneurs, leading to increased structural change. Insights about job attributes attractiveness as well as their impact on job satisfaction lead to a more transparent environment in which employers and employees can make better-informed decisions and redesign the professional environment, resulting in increased job satisfaction, performance and career sustainability. For this purpose, a survey was undertaken from August 2013 to February 2015 through a questionnaire examining the preferences and perception of employees (N=229) regarding job characteristics. The theoretical background of the study is Warr’s vitamin model, which assumes non-linear relationships between job characteristics and job satisfaction. The strongest connections with job satisfaction among employees are with future prospects and conflict between work-andfamily. The study is one of the first of its kind to provide a detailed overview of job satisfaction of different groups of employees in German horticulture.

Incorporating NSQIP into Surgical Morbidity and Mortality Conference Promotes an Environment of Education, Transparency, and Accountability

Incorporating NSQIP into Surgical Morbidity and Mortality Conference Promotes an Environment of Education, Transparency, and Accountability

Identifying unusual commits on GitHub

AbstractTransparent environments and social‐coding platforms as GitHub help developers to stay abreast of changes during the development and maintenance phase of a project. Especially, notification feeds can help developers to learn about relevant changes in other projects. Unfortunately, transparent environments can quickly overwhelm developers with too many notifications, such that they lose the important ones in a sea of noise. Complementing existing prioritization and filtering strategies based on binary compatibility and code ownership, we develop an anomaly detection mechanism to identify unusual commits in a repository, which stand out with respect to other changes in the same repository or by the same developer. Among others, we detect exceptionally large commits, commits at unusual times, and commits touching rarely changed file types given the characteristics of a particular repository or developer. We automatically flag unusual commits on GitHub through a browser plug‐in. In an interactive survey with 173 active GitHub users, rating commits in a project of their interest, we found that, although our unusual score is only a weak predictor of whether developers want to be notified about a commit, information about unusual characteristics of a commit changes how developers regard commits. Our anomaly detection mechanism is a building block for scaling transparent environments.

Antitrust in bilateral monopoly

The existing practice of implementing antitrust law to bilateral monopolies in Russia shows signs of inconsistency. Traditional theoretical approaches differ in their estimations of the characteristics and attainability of equilibrium on such markets, but overall more or less converge on the idea of antitrust regulation of such markets to be unjustified. But approaching the problem in the context of transaction cost economics, taking into account the externalities appearing both upstream and downstream from the bilateral monopoly market in case of a suboptimal result, leads to viewing the antitrust authority as a discrete institutional alternative of internalizing such externalities by creating the incentives to develop a hybrid governance mechanism for transactions between the sides of contractual relationship characterized by sufficiently high switching costs. Taking into account the wide occurrence of bilateral monopolies in the Russian economy, the choice of a uniform approach to regulation is critical in terms of creating transparent legal environment and adjusting companies’ incentives.

The Disposition Effect in Social Trading: Influence of Transparency on Investment Decisions

The wealth-diminishing tendency of investors to forgo loss realization in favor of gain realization, known as the disposition effect, is considerably lower in a transparent trading environment. Using proprietary data from a social trading platform, we analyze individual trades as portfolios become publicly visible in multiple stages. Findings show that the disposition effect diminishes about 35% when trades and holdings are unhidden, and this is robust to alternative explanations. Inter alia, we identify the impact of ‘transparency culture’ on trading behavior through differences between the former West and East Germany in light of the latter’s historical exposure to state surveillance.

Transport fuel demand responses to fuel price and income projections: Comparison of integrated assessment models

Income and fuel price pathways are key determinants in projections of the energy system in integrated assessment models. In recent years, more details have been added to the transport sector representation in these models. To better understand the model dynamics, this manuscript analyses transport fuel demand elasticities to projected income and fuel price levels. Fuel price shocks were simulated under various scenario assumptions to isolate price effects on energy demand and create a transparent environment to compare fuel demand response. Interestingly, the models show very comparable oil price elasticity values for the projected first 10–20years that are also close to the range described in the empirical literature. When looking at the very long term (30–40years), demand elasticity values widely vary between models, between 0.4 and −1.9, showing either continuous demand or increased demand responses over time. The latter can be the result of long response time to fuel price shocks, availability of new technologies, and feedback effects on fuel prices. The projected transport service demand is more responsive to changes in income than fuel price pathways, corresponding with the literature. Calculating the models' inherent elasticities proved to be a suitable method to evaluate model behaviour and its application is also recommended for other models as well as other sectors represented in integrated assessment models.

Analysts’ reputational concerns, self-censoring, and the international dispersion effect

Stocks with higher forecast dispersion earn lower future returns and have a greater upward bias in the mean reported earnings forecast in international markets. Both phenomena are stronger in countries with more transparent information environments, more developed stock markets, stronger investor protection, greater capital openness, and more intense usage of analysts’ earnings forecasts. Using the 1997–1998 Asian financial crisis as a natural experiment, we find that both phenomena become weaker postcrisis in Malaysia, which imposed capital controls, relative to Thailand and South Korea, which opened their financial markets to foreigners. These results suggest that analysts in countries with greater demand for their forecasts and hence greater concerns for reputations are more likely to self-censor their low forecasts, which leads to a stronger dispersion–bias relation and a stronger dispersion effect. The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2016.2642. This paper was accepted by ...

The impact of country-level corporate governance on analyst boldness and performance with target price forecasts

This study investigates the impact of country-level corporate governance on analyst boldness and performance with target price forecasts in Asian markets. Results suggest that analysts working in countries with better corporate governance standards have higher boldness with target price forecasts reflecting higher confidence in a more transparent environment. However, the study fails to establish a consistent relationship between country-level corporate governance and analyst performance with target price forecasts. The positive effects of better country-level corporate governance on analyst target price performance are visible only in the short-term and not at the end of the forecast horizon of one year. Past studies document a positive relationship between analyst accuracy and better corporate governance in western markets; we find partial evidence of the benefits of better country-level corporate governance on analyst target price performance in Asian markets.

Exploring Student’s Motivational Aspects by Developing and Applying a Ubiquitous Digital Serious Game Approach

Digital serious games and game-based learning have contributed to the expansion of new educational paradigms, where the use of computing resources is mixed with traditional ways of teaching. Allied to these advances, the virtual worlds are increasingly being used as tools to motivate students, providing immersion, autonomy and dynamism. This paper shows the development and application, focusing on the latter, of JASPION, a ubiquitous serious game integrated to OpenSim virtual world for computer networks education, which has an adventure narrative style with a storyline inspired in “The Fantastic JASPION” television series, placing the player in the role of a character. Topics of computer networks’ subject from Computer Science degree are contemplated. The ubiquitous features are contemplated by the sensitivity of cognitive style and level of expertise contexts, providing a customized game play profile for different players. The approach seeks to place the student on a transparent learning environment, reflecting aspects of ubiquitous learning, and is applied taking advantage of an assessment carried out by a hybrid method that explores two main instruments: adaptation of a questionnaire (Savi, 2011) and analysis of user’s interaction with the game through the computer screen capture. The results show the existence of motivational signs on students about computer networks discipline, highlighting the game’s potential as an educational tool.