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.

The patient assignment problem in home health care: using a data-driven method to estimate the travel times of care givers

Abstract: Home health care is one of the recent service systems where human resource planning has a great importance. The assignment of patients to care givers is a relevant issue that the home health care service provider must address before generating the daily routes. The assignment decision is typically made without knowing the visiting sequence, which creates some uncertainties and disparities regarding the effective workload of care givers. However, taking into account travel times in the care giver workload while solving the assignment problem is not straightforward, because travel times can also be affected by clinical conditions of patients and their homes. Providing good travel time estimates that would be used in the assignment decision is the specific topic this paper focuses on. In particular, we propose a data-driven method to estimate the travel times of care givers in the assignment problem when their routes are not available yet. The method, based on the Kernel regression technique, uses the travel times observed from previous periods to estimate the time necessary for visiting a set of patients located in specific geographical locations. The main advantage offered by this technique is the empirical modelling of the travel routes generated by care givers. Numerical results based on realistic problem instances indicate that the proposed estimation method performs better than the average value and k-nearest neighbor search methods and can be successfully used in a two-stage approach that first assigns patients to care givers and then defines their routes.

Cross-Boundary Teaming for Innovation: Integrating Research on Teams and Knowledge in Organizations

Abstract: Teaming across expertise boundaries, within and across organizations, is an increasingly popular strategy for innovation. Although membership diversity expands the range of perspectives that teams can draw upon to innovate, meta-analyses of the team-diversity literature have found weak or inconsistent support for that assumption. These studies also have typically examined effects of team diversity in relatively stable bounded teams, rather than in newly formed temporary groups. Drawing from two streams of research to unpack team diversity, this paper seeks to describe the complexity of cross-boundary teaming, while highlighting factors that may be central to its effectiveness. Past research on team diversity suggests numerous moderators that affect the diversity–performance relationship in teams, while research on knowledge and practice explores the situated activities and logics of diverse experts in great depth. Both streams thus shed light on team diversity, offering complementary insights. We develop a model of cross-boundary teaming that marries these streams and offers human resource management researchers and professionals insights and approaches for helping diverse teams tackle complex problems.

An experimental investigation of the use of brand extension and co‐branding strategies in the arts

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of two different extension strategies, namely brand extension and co‐branding, on consumer attitude toward an extension in the context of the arts.Design/methodology/approach – An experiment was conducted in which the type of extension strategy, as well as other variables identified as potentially having an impact on consumer attitudes, were manipulated.Findings – The results showed that, whatever extension strategy is chosen, the new product should be congruent with the arts organization's activities and should be of low complexity. If these conditions are met, a co‐branding strategy appears to be preferable.Research limitations/implications – Because only two arts organizations were analyzed in this study, i.e. museums and symphonic orchestras, future studies should consider other domains of the arts. New products introduced as brand extensions should be simple and congruent with the business activities of the arts organization. If the product...

Does Age Attenuate the Impact of Pleasant Ambient Scent on Consumer Response

Abstract: A large-scale field survey (n = 592) was conducted in a suburban shopping mall to assess the impact of pleasant ambient scent on consumer spending as a function of shopper age A citrus scent was systematically emitted into the shopping mall (or not) over several weeks, and as shoppers were about to exit the mall, they were intercepted to complete a survey In the survey, respondents reported the amount of expenditures in the mall that day as well as their perceptions of the mall and demographic characteristics, such as age The results indicate that shoppers spent significantly more in the mall with the presence of the pleasant ambient scent, but this result was true only among younger shoppers Theoretical and practical implications of the reduced impact of ambient scent on older persons are discussed

The Costs and Benefits of Reinsurance

Abstract: Purchasing reinsurance reduces insurers insolvency risk by stabilizing loss experience, increasing capacity, limiting liability on specific risks, and/or protecting against catastrophes. Consequently, reinsurance purchase should reduce capital costs. However, transferring risk to reinsurers is expensive. The cost of reinsurance for an insurer can be much larger than the actuarial price of the risk transferred. In this article, we analyze empirically the costs and the benefits of reinsurance for a sample of U.S. property-liability insurers. The results show that reinsurance purchase increases significantly the insurers costs but reduces significantly the volatility of the loss ratio. With purchasing reinsurance, insurers accept to pay higher costs of insurance production to reduce their underwriting risk.