Recognizing Risk in Human Capital Investments: A Real Options Approach to Strategic Human Resource Management

An issue that has not yet been explored in the field of strategic human resource management (SHRM) is that of managing the ‘risks’ involved in human capital management of the firm. We address this issue using the real option theory framework. We argue that certain HR practices manage risk and generate opportunities for the firm by creating \u27options\u27 for its human capital management. These HR options help ensure stability of returns from human capital and thus sustain competitive advantage. Different types of HR options and the role of certain HR practices in creation of these options are discussed

Options for Human Capital Acquisition

An \u27options\u27 view of human capital acquisition explains value creation through timedeferred, sequential, path-dependent investment choices and addresses gaps in the resourcebased theory explanation of the relationship between human resources and competitive advantage. Firms will invest in options for human capital, using alternative employment arrangements like temporary/contractual/part-time workers and internships, or by outsourcing the work, when uncertainty associated with human capital is high and investments in human capital are largely irreversible. We discuss various options for skills and employees, two interrelated components of human capital. These are flexibility options, options to wait or defer, options to abandon, learning options, and switching options. The opportunity cost of not having options is quantifiable, which makes the real options approach valuable for strategic HRM decisions

Big data analytics of labor cost over thirty years

Businesses need to analyze labor cost so that they understand what components of businesses affect the amount of resources spent on employees. Interpreting this will help make managerial decisions in adjusting costs of production and develop new strategies regarding investing in workers. Labor cost can vary due to many factors such as employee numbers, assets, liabilities, sales, and debt. In this study, I analyzed labor cost in relation to other firm characteristics, using a large panel data set over thirty years with over 24,000 firm-year observations. I used two different statistical software, R and SPSS and the results are compared. Results show that they both give the same output when running a multivariate regression. Both software are powerful enough to analyze large datasets; however the form of input data and treatment of missing values, matter in determining which one is more efficient. Managers and practitioners can use business analytics with big data to draw conclusions and make important managerial decisions. Future study should include big data analysis using more complex analytical techniques

Organizational risk and capital investments: A longitudinal examination of performance effects and moderating contexts

Researchers in strategic management and finance agree that organizational risk (i.e., variations in firm returns) should influence capital investments decisions. However, the risk capital investments relationship remains scantily explored. In this study we examine three issues: 1) How does organizational risk affect decisions about capital investments from a longitudinal perspective?, 2) Do organizational risk and decisions about capital investments jointly influence firm performance?, and 3) Is this relationship contingent on organizational context? The analysis of pooled cross-sectional time-series data for 1,284 U.S. firms over a period of 12 years shows that organizational risk and variation in capital investments are related, but the extent of their relation depends on the organizational context. In addition, firms that face greater organizational risk and are more flexible in their capital investments outperform firms that are less flexible. Overall, this longitudinal study provides support for a behavioral contingency approach to understanding capital investments decisions by showing that the link between organizational risk and firm performance is dependent on the flexibility in capital investments decisions

A Network Analysis of the Asia-Pacific and Other Developed Stock Markets: Pre and Post Global Financial Crisis

This paper examines the volatility spillover and connectedness between Asia-Pacific, US, UK, and eurozone stock markets. A spillover index is built using forecast error variance decomposition in a vector autoregression framework and the spillover index is used to build network diagrams. It shows evidence of how the increase in risk transfer (volatility spillover) between the markets led to the global financial crisis and of the higher level of connectedness since. Network diagrams show the direction and strength of the connectedness. The network strength estimation enables us to understand the risk associated with connectedness across the markets in the event of a trigger and its influence in portfolio management decisions of international funds. The Chinese market appears to be the most insulated, while the South Korean, Hong Kong, and Singapore stock markets dominate in terms of risk transfer. The US, UK, EU, Singapore and Hong Kong are the top five volatility spillover recipient markets, both during pre and post global financial crisis periods. We find the market size to be irrelevant in the determination of the level of connectedness, whereas the role of geographical proximity cannot be ruled out. The findings are relevant to multinational investment strategies and in understanding the relative risk of investment in the Asia-Pacific region

Detection of Double-Nuclei Galaxies in SDSS

It is now well established that galaxy interactions and mergers play a crucial role in the hierarchical growth of structure in our universe. Galaxy mergers can lead to the formation of elliptical galaxies and larger disk galaxies, as well as drive galaxy evolution through star formation and nuclear activity. During mergers, the nuclei of the individual galaxies come closer and finally form a double nuclei galaxy. Although mergers are common, the detection of double-nuclei galaxies (DNGs) is rare and fairly serendipitous. Their detection is very important as their properties can help us understand the formation of supermassive black hole (SMBH) binaries, dual active galactic nuclei (DAGN), and the associated feedback effects. There is thus a need for an automatic/systematic survey of data for the discovery of double nuclei galaxies. Using the Sloan digital sky survey (SDSS) as the target catalog, we have introduced a novel algorithm "Gothic" (Graph-bOosTed iterated HIll Climbing) that detects whether a given image of a galaxy has characteristic features of a DNG (ASCL entry 2707). We have tested the algorithm on a random sample of 100,000 galaxies from the Stripe 82 region in SDSS and obtained a maximum detection rate of 4.2% with a careful choice of the input catalog

The effects of flexibility in employee skills, employee behaviors, and human resource practices on firm performance

The components of human resource (HR) flexibility and theirpotential relationship to firm performance have not been empirically examined. The authors hypothesize that flexibility of employee skills, employee behaviors, and. HR practices represent critical subdimensions of HR flexibility and are related to superior firm performance. Results based on perceptual measures of HR flexibility and accounting measures of firm performance support this prediction. Whereas skill, behavior, and HR practice flexibility are significantly associated with an index of firm financial performance, the authors find that only skill flexibility, contributes to cost-efficiency

Utilization of ASHA services by the pregnant women of rural Tripura, India

Background: India’s National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) introduced Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) at the community level. Their vital role is to promote antenatal care and increase the utilization of the existing health services. The objectives were to find out utilization of ASHA services by the pregnant women and to study its determinants in rural area of Tripura, India.Methods: A community based cross-sectional study was conducted during February – April 2015 using a validated interview schedule among 306 recently delivered women residing in Mohanpur block of Tripura, chosen by multistage sampling.Results: Utilization rate of ASHA services by pregnant women was found to be 89.7%. Pregnancy registration rate was 95% and 90% of these registrations were facilitated by ASHA. Adequate antenatal check-up rate facilitated by ASHA was 76.69%. Regarding Iron and Folic Acid prophylaxis, 67.88% of the adequate recipients were facilitated by ASHA. For laboratory tests, 80.23% of the women were motivated by ASHA. About 90% of the study women have heard about Janani Suraksha Yojona (JSY) scheme from ASHA and 70% of them got the benefit through ASHA. Literacy, parity, community, economic class, home visit by ASHA and family decision maker were identified as the significant determinants of utilization of ASHA services by the pregnant women.Conclusions: Utilization rate of the ASHA services by the pregnant women needs improvement. Apart from IEC activities, active home visits by ASHA, empowering couples to make their own fertility decisions, improvement in female literacy etc. may enhance utilization of ASHA services by this community which will intern enhance maternal health care utilization.

A Rare HBV Subgenotype D4 with Unique Genomic Signatures Identified in North-Eastern India –An Emerging Clinical Challenge?

BACKGROUND/AIMS: HBV has been classified into ten genotypes (A-J) and multiple subgenotypes, some of which strongly influence disease outcome and their distribution also correlate with human migration. HBV infection is highly prevalent in India and its diverse population provides an excellent opportunity to study the distinctiveness of HBV, its evolution and disease biology in variegated ethnic groups. The North-East India, having international frontiers on three sides, is one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse region of the country. Given the paucity of information on molecular epidemiology of HBV in this region, the study aimed to carry out an in-depth genetic characterization of HBV prevailing in North-East state of Tripura. METHODS: From sera of chronically HBV infected patients biochemical/serological tests, HBV DNA quantification, PCR-amplification, sequencing of PreS/S or full-length HBV genomes were done. HBV genotype/subgenotype determination and sequence variability were assessed by MEGA5-software. The evolutionary divergence times of different HBV subgenotypes were estimated by DNAMLK/PHYLIP program while jpHMM method was used to detect any recombination event in HBV genomes. RESULTS: HBV genotypes D (89.5%), C (6.6%) and A (3.9%) were detected among chronic carriers. While all HBV/A and HBV/C isolates belonged to subgenotype-A1 and C1 respectively, five subgenotypes of HBV/D (D1-D5) were identified including the first detection of rare D4. These non-recombinant Indian D4 (IndD4) formed a distinct phylogenetic clade, had 2.7% nucleotide divergence and recent evolutionary radiation than other global D4. Ten unique amino acids and 9 novel nucleotide substitutions were identified as IndD4 signatures. All IndD4 carried T120 and R129 in ORF-S that may cause immune/vaccine/diagnostic escape and N128 in ORF-P, implicated as compensatory Lamivudine resistance mutation. CONCLUSIONS: IndD4 has potential to undermine vaccination programs or anti-viral therapy and its introduction to North-East India is believed to be linked with the settlement of ancient Tibeto-Burman migrants from East-Asia

Altered networks in bothersome tinnitus: a functional connectivity study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The objective was to examine functional connectivity linked to the auditory system in patients with bothersome tinnitus. Activity was low frequency (< 0.1 Hz), spontaneous blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) responses at rest. The question was whether the experience of chronic bothersome tinnitus induced changes in synaptic efficacy between co-activated components. Functional connectivity for seed regions in auditory, visual, attention, and control networks was computed across all 2 mm³brain volumes in 17 patients with moderate-severe bothersome tinnitus (<it>Tinnitus Handicap Index: average </it>53.5 ± 3.6 (range 38-76)) and 17 age-matched controls.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In bothersome tinnitus, negative correlations reciprocally characterized functional connectivity between auditory and occipital/visual cortex. Negative correlations indicate that when BOLD response magnitudes increased in auditory or visual cortex they decreased in the linked visual or auditory cortex, suggesting reciprocally phase reversed activity between functionally connected locations in tinnitus. Both groups showed similar connectivity with positive correlations within the auditory network. Connectivity for primary visual cortex in tinnitus included extensive negative correlations in the ventral attention temporoparietal junction and in the inferior frontal gyrus and rostral insula - executive control network components. Rostral insula and inferior frontal gyrus connectivity in tinnitus also showed greater negative correlations in occipital cortex.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These results imply that in bothersome tinnitus there is dissociation between activity in auditory cortex and visual, attention and control networks. The reciprocal negative correlations in connectivity between these networks might be maladaptive or reflect adaptations to reduce phantom noise salience and conflict with attention to non-auditory tasks.</p