Direct and Indirect Brand Comparisons, Message Framing and Gender Effects in Advertising

With increased competition between brands in many product categories, companies may often use brand comparisons. The purpose of this research was to survey UK consumers (where comparisons are legal and frequently used) to examine the impacts of direct and indirect comparative advertising, message framing, and gender for their individual and joint impact on consumer response to advertising for analgesic painkillers. Research shows that the type of brand comparison, how comparisons are framed (prevention vs promotion) and the gender of the target market has significant effects on consumer response to messages (measured through claim believability, brand beliefs, attitude certainty and perceived ad fairness). Differences in the impact of advertising are noticeable according to what particular response is measured. Managerial implications in terms of advertising competitive strategies are highlighted

Different Market Methods for Transferring Financial Risks in Construction

A goal of risk management in construction is to minimize risk exposure and the total cost of risk for a project. To this end, there are a variety of market mechanisms available for transferring risk and/or the financial consequences of a risk realization (e.g., transfer the financial consequences of a risk to an insurance company or use contractual non-insurance risk transfers such as hold harmless agreements to allocate financial responsibility to another party). Unique characteristics of construction risks are examined along with a discussion of which of these risks are insurable and which are not. The advisable risk handling mechanism to use (insurance, non-insurance transfer, retention or self-insurance, or some other technique) is provided Both the construction firm and its client must anticipate potential undesirable event occurrence with initial project planning, and build both downside risk protection and resilience into its risk management strategy. Future emerging technological advances and their impact on construction risks are discussed

Improving Arts Management/Marketing Efficiency: Optimizing Utilization of Scarce Resources to Produce Artistic Outputs

Purpose This longitudinal research examines US symphony orchestra sector organizations to determine individual efficiencies in allocating resources (donations, governmental/private funding, etc.) for desirable outputs (concerts, educational programs, community outreach). It provides researchers and managers with a tool for identifying, assessing and mitigating organizational inefficiencies. Design/methodology/approach This study assesses relative efficiencies in performing arts organizations using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), a widely-used nonparametric data-intensive benchmarking technique that determines an optimal “production frontier” of best-practice organizations among their peers and assesses their abilities to turn multivariate inputs into multivariate desired outputs. Findings This analysis highlights efficiency differences in a wide range of orchestras in converting available resources into performance-related outputs. It provides individual arts organizations with useful results for developing practical benchmarks to achieve organizational efficiency improvement. Research limitations/implications: This study provides constructive benchmarking guidance for improving efficiencies of relatively-inefficient organizations. Future analysis can expand the scope to utilize a two-stage DEA model to provide more specific guidance to arts organizations. Practical implications: This pragmatic analysis enables arts/culture institutions to assess their organizational efficiencies and identify opportunities to optimize resources in producing social outputs for their target markets. Social implications: Efficiency improvements enable performing arts organizations to provide additional artistic/social services, with fewer resources, to larger audiences. Originality/value This research demonstrates the abilities of DEA analysis to assess both a sector and its individual organizations to determine efficiencies, identify sources of inefficiencies and assess longitudinal efficiency trends

Social Support and Technology Use and Their Association With Mental and Physical Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic Among Asian Americans: The COMPASS Cross-sectional Study

BACKGROUND: The global COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately affected Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) and revealed significant health disparities with reports of increased discrimination and xenophobia. Among AAPIs, the pandemic exacerbated their social, linguistic, and geographic isolation. Social support may be especially important for AAPIs given the salience of collectivism as a cultural value. Another mechanism for support among AAPIs was technology use, as it is generally widespread among this population. However, older adults may not perceive the same benefits. OBJECTIVE: We examined social support and technology use and their relationships with mental and physical health outcomes through the COVID-19 pandemic among AAPIs. METHODS: Data were drawn from the COVID-19 Effects on the Mental and Physical Health of AAPI Survey Study (COMPASS) for the time period of October 2020 to February 2021. COMPASS was a cross-sectional, multilingual, national survey conducted online, by phone, and in person with AAPI adults who were ≥18 years of age, in collaboration with academic and community partners in the United States. Data were analyzed using multivariable linear regression using the outcome variables of mental and physical health with various predictors such as social support and technology use. We tested for interactions specific to age and ethnicity. RESULTS: Among 4631 AAPIs (mean age 45.9, SD 16.3 years; 2992/4631, 63.1% female), we found that (1) increased social support was associated with better physical health, (2) total social support was positively associated with better mental health, (3) higher technology use was associated with poorer mental health and inversely associated with poorer physical health, (4) the association of technology use with mental health was weaker among those with low social support (vs those with high social support), (5) adults younger than 60 years old (vs ≥60 years old) were more negatively affected with social support and mental health, and (6) Korean Americans appeared to be a high-risk group for poor physical health with increased technology use. CONCLUSIONS: Our paper identified mental and physical health needs along with supportive therapies observed among AAPIs during the pandemic. Future research on how social support can be leveraged, especially among AAPIs younger than 60 years old, and how various types of technology are being utilized are important to guide the recovery efforts to address both mental and physical disparities across communities as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic

aPRIDIT Unsupervised Classification with Asymmetric Valuation of Variable Discriminatory Worth

Sometimes one needs to classify individuals into groups, but there is no available grouping information due to social desirability bias in reporting behavior like unethical or dishonest intentions or unlawful actions. Assessing hard-to-detect behaviors is useful; however it is methodologically difficult because people are unlikely to self-disclose bad actions. This paper presents an unsupervised classification methodology utilizing ordinal categorical predictor variables. It allows for classification, individual respondent ranking, and grouping without access to a dependent group indicator variable. The methodology also measures predictor variable worth (for determining target behavior group membership) at a predictor variable category-by-category level, so different variable response categories can contain different amounts of information about classification. It is asymmetric in that a “0” on a binary predictor does not have a similar impact toward signaling “membership in the target group” as a “1” has for signaling “membership in the non-target group.” The methodology is illustrated by identifying Spanish consumers filing fraudulent insurance claims. A second illustration classifies Portuguese high school student’s propensity to alcohol abuse. Results show the methodology is useful when it is difficult to get dependent variable information, and is useful for deciding which predictor variables and categorical response options are most important

Process of diffusing cancer survivorship care into oncology practice

The LIVESTRONG Centers of Excellence were funded to increase the effectiveness of survivorship care in oncology practice. This study describes the ongoing process of adopting and implementing survivorship care using the framework of the diffusion of innovation theory of change. Primary data collection included telephone interviews with 39 members from the eight centers and site visits. Organizational characteristics, overall progress, and challenges for implementation were collected from proposals and annual reports. Creating an awareness of cancer survivorship care was a major accomplishment (relative advantage). Adoption depended on the fit within the cancer center (compatibility), and changed over time based on trial and error (trialability). Implementing survivorship care within the existing culture of oncology and breaking down resistance to change was a lengthy process (complexity). Survivorship care became sustainable as it became reimbursed, and more new patients were seen (observability). Innovators and early adopters were crucial to success. Diffusion of innovation theory can provide a strategy to evaluate adoption and implementation of cancer survivorship programs into clinical practice

Adult cancer survivorship care: experiences from the LIVESTRONG centers of excellence network

The objectives of this study were to characterize survivorship models of care across eight LIVESTRONG Survivorship Center of Excellence (COE) Network sites and to identify barriers and facilitators influencing survivorship care

Copy number variant discrepancy resolution using the ClinGen dosage sensitivity map results in updated clinical interpretations in ClinVar

Conflict resolution in genomic variant interpretation is a critical step toward improving patient care. Evaluating interpretation discrepancies in copy number variants (CNVs) typically involves assessing overlapping genomic content with focus on genes/regions that may be subject to dosage sensitivity (haploinsufficiency (HI) and/or triplosensitivity (TS)). CNVs containing dosage sensitive genes/regions are generally interpreted as â likely pathogenicâ (LP) or â pathogenicâ (P), and CNVs involving the same known dosage sensitive gene(s) should receive the same clinical interpretation. We compared the Clinical Genome Resource (ClinGen) Dosage Map, a publicly available resource documenting known HI and TS genes/regions, against germline, clinical CNV interpretations within the ClinVar database. We identified 251 CNVs overlapping known dosage sensitive genes/regions but not classified as LP or P; these were sent back to their original submitting laboratories for reâ evaluation. Of 246 CNVs reâ evaluated, an updated clinical classification was warranted in 157 cases (63.8%); no change was made to the current classification in 79 cases (32.1%); and 10 cases (4.1%) resulted in other types of updates to ClinVar records. This effort will add curated interpretation data into the public domain and allow laboratories to focus attention on more complex discrepancies.The ClinGen Dosage Sensitivity (DS) Map provides evidenceâ based assessments of the haploinsufficiency and triplosensitivity of genes/genomic regions. We identified 251 clinical copy number variants (CNVs) in ClinVar that overlapped known DS genes/regions but were not interpreted as â likely pathogenicâ or â pathogenic;â these were sent back to their original laboratories for reâ evaluation. Of the 246 that were reâ evaluated, 63.0% resulted in updated classifications, showing that the ClinGen DS Map can be an effective initial step in CNV classification discrepancy resolution.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146425/1/humu23610_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146425/2/humu23610.pd