HEC Montréal

About: HEC Montréal is a education organization based out in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Context (language use) & Vehicle routing problem. The organization has 1221 authors who have published 5708 publications receiving 196862 citations. The organization is also known as: Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales de Montreal & HEC Montreal.

Diffusion of the Digital Health Self-Tracking Movement in Canada: Results of a National Survey.

Abstract: Background: With the ever-increasing availability of mobile apps, consumer wearables, and smart medical devices, more and more individuals are self-tracking and managing their personal health data. Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the diffusion of the digital self-tracking movement in Canada. It provides a comprehensive, yet detailed account of this phenomenon. It examines the profile of digital self-trackers, traditional self-trackers, and nontrackers, further investigating the primary motivations for self-tracking and reasons for nontracking; barriers to adoption of connected care technologies; users’ appreciation of their self-tracking devices, including what they perceive to be the main benefits; factors that influence people’s intention to continue using connected care technologies in the future; and the reasons for usage discontinuance. Methods: We conducted an online survey with a sample of 4109 Canadian adults, one of the largest ever. To ensure a representative sample, quota method was used (gender, age), following stratification by region. The maximum margin of error is estimated at 1.6%, 19 times out of 20. Results: Our findings reveal that 66.20% (2720/4109) of our respondents regularly self-track one or more aspects of their health. About one in 4 respondents (1014/4109, 24.68%) currently owns a wearable or smart medical device, and 57.20% (580/1014) use their devices on a regular basis for self-tracking purposes. Digital self-trackers are typically young or mature adults, healthy, employed, university educated, with an annual family income of over $80,000 CAD. The most popular reported device is the fitness tracker or smartwatch that can capture a range of parameters. Currently, mobile apps and digital self-tracking devices are mainly used to monitor physical activity (856/1669, 51.13%), nutrition (545/1669, 32.65%), sleep patterns (482/1669, 28.88%) and, to a much lesser extent, cardiovascular and pulmonary biomarkers (215/1669, 12.88%), medication intake (126/1669, 7.55%), and glucose level (79/1669, 4.73%). Most users of connected care technologies (481/580, 83.0%) are highly satisfied and 88.2% (511/580) intend to continue using their apps and devices in the future. A majority said smart digital devices have allowed them to maintain or improve their health condition (398/580, 68.5%) and to be better informed about their health in general (387/580, 66.6%). About 33.80% of our sample (1389/4109) is composed of people who do not monitor their health or well-being on a regular basis. Conclusions: Our study shows an opportunity to advance the health of Canadians through connected care technologies. Our findings can be used to set baseline information for future research on the rise of digital health self-tracking and its impacts. Although the use of mobile apps, consumer wearables, and smart medical devices could potentially benefit the growing population of patients with chronic conditions, the question remains as to whether it will diffuse broadly beyond early adopters and across cost inequities. [J Med Internet Res 2018;20(5):e177]

The sponsorship-advertising interface: Is less better for sponsors?

Abstract: Purpose – The objective of this article is to explore the general idea that there is a limit to the extent to which consumers make goodwill assumptions when sponsorship is used in combination with advertising.Design/methodology/approach – An experiment was conducted where the number of different sponsorship activities by the same sponsor (i.e. one or two) in a sport event was varied in the context of an ongoing advertising campaign.Findings – The results show that when brand advertising is used during a sport event, it is more beneficial for the brand to either be the official sponsor of the event or to be the official provider of products that are integrated in the event than to apply these two sponsorship strategies at the same time.Research limitations/implications – Future studies should be conducted with representative samples of consumers and a larger array of sponsored entities such as different sports events, art events, athletes, and cultural organizations. In addition, these studies should incor...

Implicit shift scheduling with multiple breaks and work stretch duration restrictions

Abstract: This paper considers a shift scheduling problem that includes different forms of flexibility in terms of shift starting times, break lengths and break placement. Two particular forms are studied: fractionable breaks and work stretch duration restrictions. Unlike standard breaks, fractionable breaks are not required to be attributed as a whole. They can be divided into fractions of breaks under some conditions. The distribution of breaks within a shift is done with respect to work stretch duration restrictions to ensure a correct mix of periods of work and rest. Two implicit models are proposed. They extend previous work on implicit modeling of break placement to incorporate the concepts of fractionable breaks and work stretch duration restrictions. In this context, we show the merits of using the so-called forward and backward constraints to model work stretch duration restrictions. We also introduce a new formulation of the forward and backward constraints and demonstrate that it considerably reduces the density of the constraint matrix of the two proposed models. Finally, we study the impact of fractionable breaks and work stretch duration restrictions and show that, for some instances, the use of these concepts considerably reduces the workforce size when compared to other traditional approaches.

Market Beta Dynamics and Portfolio Eciency

Abstract: This paper introduces a new estimation for the dynamics of betas. It combines two previously separate approaches in the literature, data-driven filters and parametric methods. Namely, we show how to estimate the parametric beta dynamics by instrumental variables combined with block-sampling - but not overlapping window filters - of data-driven betas. Instrumental variables are needed because of the measurement errorsin empirical betas. We find that, while betas are very strongly autocorrelated, neither aggregate nor firm-specific variables explain much of their quarterly variation. We then compare block-samplers and overlapping window filters using a criterion of economic significance. Namely, we track the out-of-sample performance of portfolios optimized subject to target beta constraints. For target betas of zero, the case of many hedge funds, we show that estimation error results in systematic overshooting of the target beta. These portfolios benefit from the use of medium to long term estimation windows of daily returns.