Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Elvira Silva ◽  
Spiro E. Stefanou ◽  
Alfons Oude Lansink
Keyword(s):  
Decision Process ◽  
Production Efficiency ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Production Decisions ◽  
The Core ◽  
Core Questions ◽  
Production Decision ◽  
Considerable Discussion ◽  
Over Time

This chapter focuses on the notion of production and how economists characterize production relationships in the context of the literature, and then presents a brief historical overview of the evolution of economists’ approaches to addressing the concept of time in production decision making. The major directions of production decisions having the potential to drive a dynamic decision process are presented. Being able to measure efficiency allows one to engage in benchmarking a firm against its peers to assess relative performance and obtain an objective reading to the core questions of many decision makers and planners. Productivity and economics performance are topics of high interest and have generated many studies and considerable discussion in economic policy circles across nations. Yet, theoretical and empirical studies focusing on production efficiency typically have ignored the time interdependence of production decisions and the adjustment paths of the firm over time.

scholarly journals HOSPITAL MANAGERS’ NEED FOR INFORMATION ON HEALTH TECHNOLOGY INVESTMENTS

2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (6) ◽  
pp. 414-425 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Mette Ølholm ◽  
Kristian Kidholm ◽  
Mette Birk-Olsen ◽  
Janne Buck Christensen
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Information Needs ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Health Technology ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Core Model ◽  
Informational Needs ◽  
The Core ◽  
Types Of Information ◽  
Assessment Of Evidence

Objectives: There is growing interest in implementing hospital-based health technology assessment (HB-HTA) as a tool to facilitate decision making based on a systematic and multidisciplinary assessment of evidence. However, the decision-making process, including the informational needs of hospital decision makers, is not well described. The objective was to review empirical studies analysing the information that hospital decision makers need when deciding about health technology (HT) investments.Methods: A systematic review of empirical studies published in English or Danish from 2000 to 2012 was carried out. The literature was assessed by two reviewers working independently. The identified informational needs were assessed with regard to their agreement with the nine domains of EUnetHTA's Core Model.Results: A total of 2,689 articles were identified and assessed. The review process resulted in 14 relevant studies containing 74 types of information that hospital decision makers found relevant. In addition to information covered by the Core Model, other types of information dealing with political and strategic aspects were identified. The most frequently mentioned types of information in the literature related to clinical, economic and political/strategic aspects. Legal, social, and ethical aspects were seldom considered most important.Conclusions: Hospital decision makers are able to describe their information needs when deciding on HT investments. The different types of information were not of equal importance to hospital decision makers, however, and full agreement between EUnetHTA's Core Model and the hospital decision-makers’ informational needs was not observed. They also need information on political and strategic aspects not covered by the Core Model.

scholarly journals You are not worth the risk: The ethics of statistical discrimination in organisational selection of applicants

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Vanessa Scholes
Keyword(s):  
Autonomous Agents ◽  
Statistical Data ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Good Reason ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Statistical Discrimination ◽  
Ethical Concerns ◽  
Job Application ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Selection Of

<p>Your job application is rejected unseen because you ticked a box admitting you smoke. The employer screened out applicants who ticked the 'smoker' box, because she had read empirical studies that suggest smokers, as a group, are a higher productivity risk than non-smokers. What distinctive ethical concerns inhere in the organisational practice of discriminating against applicants on the basis of group risk statistics? I argue that risk-focussed statistical discrimination is morally undesirable due to the lack of respect for applicants as unique autonomous agents. However, I argue further that the decision-making context affects the morality of this discrimination. Other things being equal, the morality of statistical discrimination varies depending on the purpose of the organisation, the level of detail in the discrimination, and whether the discrimination is transparent to applicants and includes some benefit for applicants. Because organisations may have good reason to use risk-focussed statistical discrimination when assessing applicants, I present some recommendations for decision-makers to mitigate the lack of respect for applicants as individual agents. Organisational decision-makers can focus on the extent to which the statistical data they use comprise i) factors that feature efforts and achievements of the applicant; ii) dynamic rather than static factors; and iii) data drawn from the applicant’s own history and actions over time.</p>

scholarly journals You are not worth the risk: The ethics of statistical discrimination in organisational selection of applicants

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Vanessa Scholes
Keyword(s):  
Autonomous Agents ◽  
Statistical Data ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Good Reason ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Statistical Discrimination ◽  
Ethical Concerns ◽  
Job Application ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Selection Of

<p>Your job application is rejected unseen because you ticked a box admitting you smoke. The employer screened out applicants who ticked the 'smoker' box, because she had read empirical studies that suggest smokers, as a group, are a higher productivity risk than non-smokers. What distinctive ethical concerns inhere in the organisational practice of discriminating against applicants on the basis of group risk statistics? I argue that risk-focussed statistical discrimination is morally undesirable due to the lack of respect for applicants as unique autonomous agents. However, I argue further that the decision-making context affects the morality of this discrimination. Other things being equal, the morality of statistical discrimination varies depending on the purpose of the organisation, the level of detail in the discrimination, and whether the discrimination is transparent to applicants and includes some benefit for applicants. Because organisations may have good reason to use risk-focussed statistical discrimination when assessing applicants, I present some recommendations for decision-makers to mitigate the lack of respect for applicants as individual agents. Organisational decision-makers can focus on the extent to which the statistical data they use comprise i) factors that feature efforts and achievements of the applicant; ii) dynamic rather than static factors; and iii) data drawn from the applicant’s own history and actions over time.</p>

scholarly journals UNDERSTANDING THE EVOLUTION OF HEALTH SERVICE ACCREDITATION RESEARCH: A LITERATURE REVIEW FROM 2012 TO 2015

RAHIS ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Maria Saut ◽  
Fernando Tobal Berssaneti
Keyword(s):  
Health Professionals ◽  
Recent Literature ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
The United States ◽  
Program Sustainability ◽  
The Core ◽  
Increasing Trend ◽  
Financial Impacts ◽  
Positive Effect ◽  
Over Time

The aim of this study is to investigate the core themes of accreditation research. This paper reviews the literature on accreditation in the last four years and compares the findings to a prior research to analyze the evolution of publication over time. The search identified 90 empirical studies examining either the processes or the impacts of accreditation programs. The articles were classified in nine thematic categories, whereas eight were employed by prior studies, one emerged from this review regarding the accreditation program sustainability (n=10). Publications number increased in the last years. The majority of studies were from the United States (n=35) and Australia (n=14). The findings indicate an increasing trend of international collaboration among researches. In the recent literature, the number of studies indicating positive effect of accreditation is higher than prior reviews. The views regarding financial impacts, survey issues and health professionals are less clear.

The Effects of Decision Time on Perceptions of Decisions and Decision Makers in (Moral) Trade-Off Scenarios

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Katharina Spälti ◽  
Mark John Brandt ◽  
Marcel Zeelenberg
Keyword(s):  
Decision Process ◽  
Decision Time ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Process Information ◽  
Total N ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Financial Gain ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Sacred Values ◽  
Moral Context

People often have to make trade-offs. We study three types of trade-offs: 1) "secular trade-offs" where no moral or sacred values are at stake, 2) "taboo trade-offs" where sacred values are pitted against financial gain, and 3) "tragic trade-offs" where sacred values are pitted against other sacred values. Previous research (Critcher et al., 2011; Tetlock et al., 2000) demonstrated that tragic and taboo trade-offs are not only evaluated by their outcomes, but are also evaluated based on the time it took to make the choice. We investigate two outstanding questions: 1) whether the effect of decision time differs for evaluations of decisions compared to decision makers and 2) whether moral contexts are unique in their ability to influence character evaluations through decision process information. In two experiments (total N = 1434) we find that decision time affects character evaluations, but not evaluations of the decision itself. There were no significant differences between tragic trade-offs and secular trade-offs, suggesting that the decisions structure may be more important in evaluations than moral context. Additionally, the magnitude of the effect of decision time shows us that decision time, may be of less practical use than expected. We thus urge, to take a closer examination of the processes underlying decision time and its perception.

Dualities, Dialectics, and Paradoxes in Organizational Life

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Dynamic Systems ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Organizational Studies ◽  
Organizational Life ◽  
Organizational Processes ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Process Studies ◽  
Convergence And Divergence ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Over Time

Organizational contradictions and process studies offer interwoven and complementary insights. Studies of dialectics, paradox, and dualities depict organizational contradictions that are oppositional as well as interrelated such that they persistently morph and shift over time. Studies of process often examine how contradictions fuel emergent, dynamic systems and stimulate novelty, adaptation, and transformation. Drawing from rich conversations at the Eighth International Symposium on Process Organization Studies, the contributors to this volume unpack these relationships in more depth. The chapters explore three main, connected themes through both conceptual and empirical studies, including (1) offering insight into how process theorizing advances understandings of organizational contradictions; (2) shedding light on how dialectics, paradoxes, and dualities fuel organizational processes that affect persistence and transformation; and (3) exploring the convergence and divergence of dialectics, paradox, and dualities lenses. Taken together, this book offers key insights in order to inform persistent, contradictory dynamics in organizations and organizational studies.

scholarly journals Probability elicitation using geostatistics in hydrocarbon exploration

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
André Luís Morosov ◽  
Reidar Brumer Bratvold
Keyword(s):  
Value Creation ◽  
Decision Process ◽  
Conceptual Models ◽  
Joint Probability ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Hydrocarbon Exploration ◽  
Joint Probability Distribution ◽  
Proof Of Concept ◽  
Geological Information ◽  
Decision Supporting

AbstractThe exploratory phase of a hydrocarbon field is a period when decision-supporting information is scarce while the drilling stakes are high. Each new prospect drilled brings more knowledge about the area and might reveal reserves, hence choosing such prospect is essential for value creation. Drilling decisions must be made under uncertainty as the available geological information is limited and probability elicitation from geoscience experts is key in this process. This work proposes a novel use of geostatistics to help experts elicit geological probabilities more objectively, especially useful during the exploratory phase. The approach is simpler, more consistent with geologic knowledge, more comfortable for geoscientists to use and, more comprehensive for decision-makers to follow when compared to traditional methods. It is also flexible by working with any amount and type of information available. The workflow takes as input conceptual models describing the geology and uses geostatistics to generate spatial variability of geological properties in the vicinity of potential drilling prospects. The output is stochastic realizations which are processed into a joint probability distribution (JPD) containing all conditional probabilities of the process. Input models are interactively changed until the JPD satisfactory represents the expert’s beliefs. A 2D, yet realistic, implementation of the workflow is used as a proof of concept, demonstrating that even simple modeling might suffice for decision-making support. Derivative versions of the JPD are created and their effect on the decision process of selecting the drilling sequence is assessed. The findings from the method application suggest ways to define the input parameters by observing how they affect the JPD and the decision process.

scholarly journals Development of a Shipment Policy for Collection Centers

Mathematics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 1385
Author(s):  
Irais Mora-Ochomogo ◽  
Marco Serrato ◽  
Jaime Mora-Vargas ◽  
Raha Akhavan-Tabatabaei
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Natural Disasters ◽  
Markov Decision Process ◽  
Decision Process ◽  
Necessary Conditions ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Humanitarian Organizations ◽  
The World ◽  
Markov Decision ◽  
Unsatisfied Demand

Natural disasters represent a latent threat for every country in the world. Due to climate change and other factors, statistics show that they continue to be on the rise. This situation presents a challenge for the communities and the humanitarian organizations to be better prepared and react faster to natural disasters. In some countries, in-kind donations represent a high percentage of the supply for the operations, which presents additional challenges. This research proposes a Markov Decision Process (MDP) model to resemble operations in collection centers, where in-kind donations are received, sorted, packed, and sent to the affected areas. The decision addressed is when to send a shipment considering the uncertainty of the donations’ supply and the demand, as well as the logistics costs and the penalty of unsatisfied demand. As a result of the MDP a Monotone Optimal Non-Decreasing Policy (MONDP) is proposed, which provides valuable insights for decision-makers within this field. Moreover, the necessary conditions to prove the existence of such MONDP are presented.

Equality and Equity in Chinese Higher Education in the Post-massification Era: An Analysis Based on Chinese Scholarly Literature

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Qiang Zha
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Bibliometric Analysis ◽  
Chinese Higher Education ◽  
Scholarly Literature ◽  
The Core ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Changes Over Time ◽  
Core Issues ◽  
Over Time

Abstract This paper examines several research questions relating to equality and equity in Chinese higher education via an extended literature review, which in turn sheds light on evolving scholarly explorations into this theme. First, in the post-massification era, has the Chinese situation of equality and equity in higher education improved or deteriorated since the late 1990s? Second, what are the core issues with respect to equality and equity in Chinese higher education? Third, how have those core issues evolved or changed over time and what does the evolution indicate and entail? Methodologically, this paper uses a bibliometric analysis to detect the topical hotspots in scholarly literature and their changes over time. The study then investigates each of those topical terrains against their temporal contexts in order to gain insights into the core issues.

scholarly journals Framing Effects and Fuzzy Traces: ‘Some’ Observations

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah A. Fisher
Keyword(s):  
Framing Effects ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Core Element ◽  
Alternative Interventions ◽  
Trace Theory ◽  
Fuzzy Trace Theory ◽  
The Core ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Lower Bounding ◽  
Central Claim

AbstractFraming effects occur when people respond differently to the same information, just because it is conveyed in different words. For example, in the classic ‘Disease Problem’ introduced by Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, people’s choices between alternative interventions depend on whether these are described positively, in terms of the number of people who will be saved, or negatively in terms of the corresponding number who will die. In this paper, I discuss an account of framing effects based on ‘fuzzy-trace theory’. The central claim of this account is that people represent the numbers in framing problems in a ‘gist-like’ way, as ‘some’; and that this creates a categorical contrast between ‘some’ people being saved (or dying) and ‘no’ people being saved (or dying). I argue that fuzzy-trace theory’s gist-like representation, ‘some’, must have the semantics of ‘some and possibly all’, not ‘some but not all’. I show how this commits fuzzy-trace theory to a modest version of a rival ‘lower bounding hypothesis’, according to which lower-bounded interpretations of quantities contribute to framing effects by rendering the alternative descriptions extensionally inequivalent. As a result, fuzzy-trace theory is incoherent as it stands. Making sense of it requires dropping, or refining, the claim that decision-makers perceive alternatively framed options as extensionally equivalent; and the related claim that framing effects are irrational. I end by suggesting that, whereas the modest lower bounding hypothesis is well supported, there is currently less evidence for the core element of the fuzzy trace account.

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