Managerial Gaps in e-Banking Quality Drivers: An Empirical Assessment

Providing quality service to the customer is a main issue for e-banking. The extant literature on e-services has preferentially examined quality factors as perceived by customers. On the other hand, quality depends on the managerial perceptions about quality drivers and the decisions that would follow from these perceptions. According to SERVQUAL - the most known service quality model - any gaps between management’s and customers’ perceptions would affect the experienced quality and then the customer satisfaction. The aim of this paper is to explore how bank managers perceive quality drivers for e-banking through a preliminary empirical survey

Do costs matter in ASP sourcing decisions?

This paper on Application Service Providers investigates why organizations select an ASP as a form of IS sourcing. To achieve this, we set the ASP within the context of literature on Neoclassical and Resource-Based View (RBW) theories. The results revealed that costs matter little in ASP sourcing decisions. The ASP is chosen not simply as a cost reducing alternative, but moreover, when companies detect an IS gap. Our study presents some managerial implications that affect both customers and ASPs.Este artículo sobre los proveedores de servicios de aplicación investiga por qué las organizaciones seleccionan una ASP (una plataforma que desarrolla y aporta servicios de aplicación), como una forma de fuente de IS (sistema de información). Para conseguir esto, ponemos la ASP en el contexto literario sobre teorías neoclásicas y Resource-Based View (RBW) – un marco de gestión que debate que recursos deben utilizar las empresas para tener una ventaja competitiva. Los resultados revelaron que los costes no tienen tanta importancia en las decisiones de la ASP. Esta última se elige no solo como una alternativa de reducción de costes, pero además, cuando las empresas detectan una brecha de IS. Este estudio presenta algunas implicaciones gerenciales que afectan a ambos, clientes y ASPs

The path towards discovering PMO: an exploratory analysis of the Italian banking sector

Directly acting on Project Management practices, PMO provides companies with help to innovate, reaching competitive advantage and growth in the long run, ceteris paribus, and attempts to reduce uncertainty. Even though PMO is a more consolidated practice in some countries, the phenomenon has lately been introduced in Italy, and it is still evolving. Not all organizations and not all individuals clearly understand the potential of PMO, and its role is often limited to simple Project Management in its strict meaning, while areas for improvement are many and varied. The paper analyses the status of PMO through a survey conducted inside the Italian banking sector, trying to frame the role of PMO, throwing light on its importance for a company as a whole, and not just for a single project. A discussion of the results and future work concludes the paper

The path towards discovering PMO: an exploratory analysis of the Italian banking sector

Directly acting on Project Management practices, PMO provides companies with help to innovate, reaching competitive advantage and growth in the long run, ceteris paribus, and attempts to reduce uncertainty. Even though PMO is a more consolidated practice in some countries, the phenomenon has lately been introduced in Italy, and it is still evolving. Not all organizations and not all individuals clearly understand the potential of PMO, and its role is often limited to simple Project Management in its strict meaning, while areas for improvement are many and varied. The paper analyses the status of PMO through a survey conducted inside the Italian banking sector, trying to frame the role of PMO, throwing light on its importance for a company as a whole, and not just for a single project. A discussion of the results and future work concludes the paper

Introduction to the Minitrack on Blockchain and Fintech

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Investigating factors influencing local government decision makers while adopting integration technologies (IntTech)

The emergence of innovative and revolutionary Integration Technologies (IntTech) has highly influenced the local government authorities (LGAs) in their decision-making process. LGAs that plan to adopt such IntTech may consider this as a serious investment. Advocates, however, claim that such IntTech have emerged to overcome the integration problems at all levels (e.g. data, object and process). With the emergence of electronic government (e-Government), LGAs have turned to IntTech to fully automate and offer their services on-line and integrate their IT infrastructures. While earlier research on the adoption of IntTech has considered several factors (e.g. pressure, technological, support, and financial), inadequate attention and resources have been applied in systematically investigating the individual, decision and organisational context factors, influencing top management's decisions for adopting IntTech in LGAs. It is a highly considered phenomenon that the success of an organisation's operations relies heavily on understanding an individual's attitudes and behaviours, the surrounding context and the type of decisions taken. Based on empirical evidence gathered through two intensive case studies, this paper attempts to investigate the factors that influence decision makers while adopting IntTech. The findings illustrate two different doctrines - one inclined and receptive towards taking risky decisions, the other disinclined. Several underlying rationales can be attributed to such mind-sets in LGAs. The authors aim to contribute to the body of knowledge by exploring the factors influencing top management's decision-making process while adopting IntTech vital for facilitating LGAs' operational reforms

Evaluation on the Use of Italian High-Speed Rail to Support Transportation Network for Transplantation Activities

Abstract Background One of the main activities connected with transplantation is the rapid and timely transportation of patients, medical teams, and human organs from donation to transplantation centers under the compliance of national guidelines and principles of quality, performance, and safety. High-speed transportation on a railway network is becoming relevant both in terms of performance and extensiveness of the service. Methods and Objectives Our study explores the feasibility of adopting a high-speed rail network for the transportation of those organs with large cold ischemia time and those less influenced by transportation-related perturbations (ie, temperature, speed, vibrations), assessing savings and relative performance improvement. In this study, only kidneys have been considered; the transplantation database has been integrated with the national high-speed railway network and timetables. A function is implemented that allocates to air transportations those records with 1 of the 2 ends situated on islands, remote regions, and abroad, while rail transportation is preferred where constraints on capacity and compliance with cold ischemia time are met. Road transportation is still feasible for those records involving 2 adjacent regions and for intraregional transportation. Results The opportunity of integrated road-rail transportation in place of air or all-road transportation allows users to lower generalized costs and reduce driven distance for personnel and vehicles allocated to a regional transplantation center's fleet and staff. Savings in fleet and staff usage can serve to improve the performances at the local level. Conclusions The knowledge and analysis of transportation alternatives for human organs with less stringent safety and preservation criteria allow a more efficient allocation of resources both at the local and national level—without compromising quality and reliability of the system

Management of Acute Kidney Injury and Extracorporeal Blood Purification Therapies During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Italian SIN-SIAARTI Joint Survey (and Recommendations for Clinical Practice)

Background and aim: The novel coronavirus disease 2019 remains challenging. A large number of hospitalized patients are at a high risk of developing AKI. For this reason, we conducted a nationwide survey to assess the incidence and management of AKI in critically ill patients affected by the SARS-CoV-2 infection. Methods: This is a multicenter, observational, nationwide online survey, involving the Italian Society of Nephrology and the critical care units in Italy, developed in partnership between the scientific societies such as SIN and SIAARTI. Invitations to participate were distributed through emails and social networks. Data were collected for a period of 1 week during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: A total of 141 responses were collected in the SIN-SIAARTI survey: 54.6% from intensivists and 44.6% from nephrologists. About 19,000 cases of COVID-19 infection have been recorded in hospitalized patients; among these cases, 7.3% had a confirmed acute kidney injury (AKI), of which 82.2% were managed in ICUs. Only 43% of clinicians routinely used the international KDIGO criteria. Renal replacement therapy (RRT) was performed in 628 patients with continuous techniques used most frequently, and oliguria was the most common indication (74.05%). Early initiation was preferred, and RRT was contraindicated in the case of therapeutic withdrawal or in the presence of severe comorbidities or hemodynamic instability. Regional anticoagulation with citrate was the most common choice. About 41.04% of the interviewed physicians never used extracorporeal blood purification therapies (EBPTs) for inflammatory cytokine or endotoxin removal. Moreover, 4.33% of interviewed clinicians used these techniques only in the presence of AKI, whereas 24.63% adopted them even in the absence of AKI. Nephrologists made more use of EBPT, especially in the presence of AKI. HVHF was never used in 58.54% of respondents, but HCO membranes and adsorbents were used in more than 50% of cases. Conclusion: This joint SIN-SIAARTI survey at the Italian Society of Nephrology and the critical care units in Italy showed that, during the COVID-19 pandemic, there was an underestimation of AKI based on the "non-use" of common diagnostic criteria, especially by intensivists. Similarly, the use of specific types of RRT and, in particular, blood purification therapies for immune modulation and organ support strongly differed between centers, suggesting the need for the development of standardized clinical guidelines

SP854EVALUATION OF SUITABILITY OF KIDNEY FOR TRANSPLANT. HISTOMORPHOMETRIC ANALYSIS

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Toward a better definition of EPCAM deletions in Lynch Syndrome: Report of new variants in Italy and the associated molecular phenotype

BackgroundInherited epimutations of Mismatch Repair (MMR) genes are responsible for Lynch Syndrome (LS) in a small, but well defined, subset of patients. Methylation of the MSH2 promoter consequent to the deletion of the upstream EPCAM gene is found in about 1%-3% of the LS patients and represents a classical secondary, constitutional and tissue-specific epimutation. Several different EPCAM deletions have been reported worldwide, for the most part representing private variants caused by an Alu-mediated recombination.Methods712 patients with suspected LS were tested for MMR mutation in our Institute. EPCAM deletions were detected by multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA) and then defined by Long-Range polymerase chain reaction (PCR)/Sanger sequencing. A comprehensive molecular characterization of colorectal cancer (CRC) tissues was carried out by immunohistochemistry of MMR proteins, Microsatellite Instability (MSI) assay, methylation specific MLPA and transcript analyses. In addition, somatic deletions and/or variants were investigated by MLPA and next generation sequencing (NGS).ResultsAn EPCAM deletion was found in five unrelated probands in Italy: variants c.556-490_*8438del and c.858+1193_*5826del are novel; c.859-1430_*2033del and c.859-670_*530del were previously reported. All probands were affected by CRC at young age; tumors showed MSI and abnormal MSH2/MSH6 proteins expression. MSH2 promoter methylation, as well as aberrant in-frame or out-of-frame EPCAM/MSH2 fusion transcripts, were detected in CRCs and normal mucosae.ConclusionAn EPCAM deletion was the causative variant in about 2% of our institutional series of 224 LS patients, consistent with previously estimated frequencies. Early age and multiple CRCs was the main clinical feature of this subset of patients