HEC Montréal

About: HEC Montréal is a education organization based out in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Vehicle routing problem & Corporate governance. 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.

Cost-minimization analysis of a telehomecare program for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Abstract: A cost-minimization analysis was performed on a telehomecare program for patients with a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The research was quasi-experimental and included a control group. We compared the effects and costs of care provided to a group of 19 patients under a telehomecare program to a comparable group of 10 patients receiving regular home care without telemonitoring. Our results clearly indicate that there were fewer home visits by nurses and hospitalizations for patients in the experimental group. However, these patients made more telephone calls than patients in the control group, although this difference was not statistically significant. Of utmost importance, the cost-minimization analysis yielded positive results. Indeed, telemonitoring over a 6-month period generated $355 in savings per patient, or a net gain of 15% compared to traditional home care. Our study confirms the findings of previous studies that analyzed the efficacy of telemonitoring for patients with COPD. Patients were found to easily accept the idea of using the technology, and the telehomecare program demonstrated significant clinical benefits. Financial advantages of the program could have been more pronounced had it not been for the cost of technology that effectively erased a good portion of the savings.

Ethics, Diversity Management and Financial Reporting Quality

Abstract: This article proposes and empirically tests a theoretical framework incorporating Reidenback and Robin’s (1991) conceptual model of corporate moral development. The framework is used to examine the relation of governance and business ethics, as proxied by diversity management, with financial reporting quality, as proxied by the magnitude of earnings management. The level of diversity management (DM) and governance quality are measured in accordance with the ratings of Jantzi Research (JR), a leading provider of social and governance research for institutional investors. This DM score is part of an index developed by JR that investment managers use to integrate DM criteria into their investment decisions. As expected, a negative relation between corporate DM development and FRQ is found while controlling for other factors known in the governance and accounting choices literatures to affect earnings quality. Despite some caveats presented in conclusion, this study contributes to the ethics, governance and financial reporting literatures by studying the dynamics between governance and ethics in the prevention of earnings management.

Using Copulas in Hydrology: Benefits, Cautions, and Issues

Abstract: This paper discusses the bivariate modeling of extreme tails of correlated hydrological random variables. We take a copula approach and model the dependence structure independently of the marginal distributions. We apply results from the classical extreme value theory to choose marginal distributions for excesses of high thresholds and consider six copula families to capture the dependence structure of these excesses. While copulas can differ somewhat in the degree of association that they provide, differences in which part of the distribution this association is more pronounced can be substantial. We discuss certain pertinent properties of copulas and give some insight to assist the practitioner in their selection. We examine the effects of model misspecification and the impact of the chosen method of estimation, targeting the estimated quantities frequently used by hydrologists. A simulation study shows not only the dangers of improper copula selection, but also the possible benefits of using a bivariate approach to estimate univariate quantities. We apply the methodology to the study of low-flow events and analyze two Canadian hydrometric data sets.

Global connectedness and local innovation in industrial clusters

Abstract: In today’s knowledge economy, clusters are a key driver of a country’s competitiveness. Yet a cluster’s technological base is now more than ever influenced by constituent firms’ actions to tap into distant knowledge sources. Drawing on a social network perspective, and distinguishing between horizontal versus vertical organization-based linkages, we explore the effects of a cluster’s connectedness to foreign locations on its innovation performance. We show that improvements in horizontal and vertical connectedness both stimulate a cluster’s innovation performance, but that their relative effects vary across cluster types. Innovation in knowledge-intensive clusters disproportionately benefits from enhancements in their constituent firms’ horizontal connectedness to foreign knowledge hotspots. Innovation in labor-intensive clusters mostly gains from stronger vertical connections by their firms to central value chain players abroad. We discuss the implications of our findings for research on global knowledge sourcing and cluster upgrading.