Showing papers on "Quality (business) published in 1979"

Mail and telephone surveys : the total design method

Abstract: Develops a theoretically based system guided by principles of social exchange and administration that ensure high quality surveys at low cost. Presents step-by-step procedures and shows why each step is important. Contains many examples and, where appropriate, contrasts acceptable and unacceptable procedures.

Quality Is Free: The Art of Making Quality Certain

Abstract: Do things right in the first place, and you won't have to pay to fix them or do them over. Whether you manage a large plant or run your own small business, applying this simple principle of quality control will boost your profits and your career. "Quality Is Free" sets forth easy-to-implement programs, using actual case histories to demonstrate just how well quality control works, and providing important tools for success.

Quacks, Lemons, and Licensing: A Theory of Minimum Quality Standards

Abstract: I consider markets with asymmetric information. As suggested by Akerlof, quality deterioration in such markets may take place. I show that this is a general phenomenon. Minimum quality constraints ...

Price as an Indicator of Quality: Report on an Enquiry

Abstract: I. Introduction It is generally accepted that price may enter into the determination of consumers' choice in two ways: as an indicator of cost and as an indicator of quality. Contemporary demand theory rests heavily on the first of these two functions while the second tends to be treated as if it were an exceptional and anomalous phenomenon, to be mentioned only in order to be dismissed as unimportant. Indeed, it is of considerable analytical convenience to ignore price as a quality indicator, because if this is not done, the utility function of the individual must be formulated so as to incorporate an additional set of independent variables, namely the prices of all the commodities in the market. The problem is not intrinsically insoluble but it leads to difficulties which can be avoided simply by denying the relevance of this aspect of price.

Academic Sponsorship and Scientists' Careers.

Abstract: Scientists' academic sponsors might influence their students' careers through the quality of training they provide and through their ability to transmit to their students a professional status and other ascriptive advantages. Using data for a probability sample of doctoral chemists, this study explores the effects of scientists' Ph.D. departments and several characteristics of their doctoral sponsors on their scientific productivity and positions over their first postdoctoral decade. Sponsorship appears to play a vital role in the chemists' careers. Their sponsors' productivity affected sample members' predoctoral productivity, and the calibre of their Ph.D. department affected their postdoctoral productivity. Although measures of the quality of their training did not affect the setting (university versus other employer) of the chemists' jobs, two measures of their sponsors' professional stature were consequential. These results suggest ascriptive effects of doctoral sponsorship, independent of the effects of sponsors' performance, the calibre of the Ph.D. department, and the chemists' own productivity.

Toward Strategic Intelligence Systems

Abstract: There has been a dramatic increase in the use of strategic planning tools in the past decade. Since the quality of strategic planning will be greatly impacted by the quality of the information inpu...

Nonverbal Communication Between Patients and Medical Practitioners

Abstract: Proper health care necessitates face-to-face interaction between health providers and their patients. This direct contact is important for two sets of reasons: the provider must assess the special quality and intensity of the patient's symptoms, emotions and pain; and the provider must create positive expectations, provide emotional support, and enlist the patient's cooperation with treatment. Regarding medical diagnosis, patients are often unable or unwilling to describe precisely and completely what is wrong with them. Regarding medical treatment, a number of factors make kind words and verbal prognoses from practitioners insufficient to communicate the expectations essential to “placebo” effects and the sense of commitment known to be therapeutic to a distraught patient. Effective nonverbal communication—through touch, facial expression, voice tone, etc.—is essential for successful patient-practitioner interaction. Major aspects of nonverbal communication that are of direct relevance to health care have been studied scientifically but have not yet been systematically utilized. Promising areas of application are reviewed in this paper.

First principles of cost-effectiveness analysis in health.

Abstract: Cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) can help individual medical care providers and health policy makers to determine the most beneficial uses of limited resources. It includes 1) defining the scope and target population of the program to be analyzed 2) computing the net monetary costs of the program 3) determining the net health effects 4) applying the appropriate decision rule and 5) delineating the possible effects of analytic imprecision through sensitivity analysis. Cost- effectiveness analysis is valuable in choosing among alternative programs of preventive and curative health. Examples show how CEA has been applied to identify the appropriate number of screening tests to be used in detecting colon cancer and to measure the effectiveness of mobile coronary care units in a community in extending lives. The cancer screening example indicated the importance of focusing on the incremental effects of additional expenditures; that is examining what is achieved by devoting additional resources to retests of each patient. This perspective compares marginal costs to marginal benefits or effectiveness. It shows that the dollars used for 1st 2nd and 3rd tests per patient are much more cost effective than those spent on subsequent tests. Another example--an analysis of mobile coronary care units--shows how their effects in extending life value judgments about the quality of impaired health and the discounting of future benefits are combined to obtain a cost-effectiveness ratio relating the resources expended to the benefits gained by this program. Results of CEA may be used in deciding how to allocate funds among programs according their cost-effectiveness ratios. Important difficulties encountered in cost- effectiveness analysis as well as in alternative decision-making methods are insufficient available data concerning costs and values and problems in quantifying and in incorporating the values of health care to consumers and society. Cost-effectiveness analysis responds to these difficulties through the use of sensitivity analysis and by providing an explicit framework for organizing information about program effectiveness and values. (authors modified)

Diagnosing Power Quality-Related Computer Problems

Abstract: Total reliance on sensitive electronic systems for such important functions as data processing, communications, and process control is now a way of life in our commercial, industrial, and governmental activities. This development has necessitated a new concern toward the quality of the electric power supply. Intermittent power disturbances, capable of disrupting electronic equipment are inherent to both commercial and industrial power systems. Any disruption causing downtime and financial loss, power-related or otherwise, is likely to precipitate a study to determine appropriate corrective actions. Unfortunately, analyzing the cause and effect of power disturbances can be difficult, particularly when sophisticated computer systems are involved. The ultimate purpose is to assist the electronic equipment users in reducing power-related downtime.

Social support in crisis: Quantity or quality?

Abstract: It is suggested that individual differences in reactions to crises depend in part on the variations in social support available to the individual in crisis. A model of the quality of support is derived from research on the effectiveness of interpersonal helping processes. It is predicted that the availability of sources of potential help will be unrelated to crisis outcome, but that the quality of support received will be a determinant of outcome. Different methods of combining measures of the quality of support given by different sources are considered. Data from a controlled trial of crisis interventior, with males hospitalised for treatment of road injuries are used to test the predictions and compare the different scoring methods. The results confirm the predictions that source availability is unrelated to outcome, that source quality is related to outcome, and that crisis intervention has a highly significant effect on the reported quality of support received. Problems in determining the causal direction of the relationships found are discussed, and it is concluded that most probably coping behaviour and support influence each other and jointly determine outcome. It is argued that skills in conveying genuine respect and understanding to people in crisis appear to be lacking among professional care givers and inadequate in many individual's social networks. Action to change this situation is recommended, and the measurement methods reported in the paper offered as a basis for further research, as no other simple generally applicable method has been published with data to substantiate its validity.

Equilibrium and Adverse Selection

Abstract: A common characteristic of a large class of markets is that one side of the market is more informed than the other about the properties of one of the goods being traded. In some instances, this presents no serious problem. If the informed agents deal on a regular basis with the less-informed agents (for example, local grocers, barbers), there may be little incentive for the informed agents to take advantage of their superior information. In other cases, the problem may be avoided if it is profitable for specialists (or some government agency) to provide the information at a relatively low cost (for example, credit agencies, Consumer Reports). Frequently, however, these kinds of market responses provide at best a partial reduction in the informational asymmetry. There may still be substantial benefits to the less-informed agents from acquiring more information. How the market will respond under these circumstances has been the focus of much recent research. Most of the attention, however, has been directed at examining the possibility that a signalling convention will emerge. The essential idea is that sellers of high quality products may choose contracts or invest in observable characteristics which distinguish their products from those of lower quality. Although I believe that signalling is an important and pervasive phenomenon, the conditions necessary for effective signalling to emerge may not always be satisfied. It is important, therefore, that we understand how the allocation of goods is affected in the absence of signalling, when the only variable that agents may use to distinguish quality is the price. This paper provides an overview of some of my recent research on this question. My investigation begins with a welfare analysis of the Walrasian equilibrium. Specifically, the question is whether or not it is necessarily desirable for trade to take place at a price which clears the market. My analysis indicates that it is not. Under some conditions, it may be possible to make every agent in the market better off simply by raising the price. Besides generating some obvious policy implications, this result also suggests that the Walrasian equilibrium may not always be the appropriate equilibrium concept for this model. In a market with homogeneous goods, it is generally argued that independently of how the prices are set, as long as there is a large number of buyers and sellers, competitive pressures will force the price toward a stable Walrasian equilibrium. When an adverse selection problem appears, however, the possibility that some buyers may prefer a price higher than the one which clears the market casts some doubt as to whether such pressures will still be present. It is no longer obvious that the market will clear or even that all trade will take place at a single price. These points can be conveniently illustrated using George Akerlof's model of the used car market. There is a set of cars of varying quality q distributed over an interval [ql, q2] with densityf (q). Each agent in the economy has an identical utility function u(c, q; t) = c + tq where c is consumption of other goods, q is the quality of car he consumes, and t is a parameter equal to his marginal rate of substitution of car quality for consumption. (If an agent does not consume a car, q may be set equal to zero.) The set of agents can be divided into two subsets, those that initially own exactly one car and those that own none. Each owner has the same utility parameter, t = 1; for the nonowners, however, t is distributed continuously over some interval [tl, t2] with density h(t). As long as each owner can directly identify the quality of his own car, the supply curve will have the usual positive slope. A utility maximizing owner with a car of quality q will sell at price p if and only if q _ p. As the price rises, therefore, more cars will be supplied. If *Department of economics, University of Wisconsin. This research was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant SOC-77-08568.

Advertising, Consumer Information, and Product Quality

Abstract: This article analyzes a monopolist's quality and advertising policies and evaluates their social optimality. Our model considers a rational, though not fully informed, consumer who holds prior perceptions about aspects of quality, which determine his purchase pattern. These quality perceptions constitute the product's goodwill. Differences between expected and experienced quality lead to reevaluation of expectations. Monopolists affect these perceptions, and hence build up goodwill, by advertising and quality attribute variations. These affect consumer welfare directly and indirectly by their informational content. We find that advertising may profitably mislead, at least in the short run. Although the welfare effects of a monopolist's quality and advertising policies are not generally determinate, even when information is untrue, we are able to evaluate the welfare determinants of advertising policy from an objective standard and to specify some of the conditions under which advertising is socially excessive.

Individual and institutional variables which may serve as indicators of quality of medical care.

Abstract: This article is a critical review of empiric studies, in the medical care literature of the past two decades, that investigated associations between characteristics of physicians and medical care institutions and some measure of the quality of medical care given by them. The intention is to identify those characteristics of physicians and medical care institutions which can be considered the best indicators of the quality of performance to be expected, given the present state of knowledge. The analysis discusses 18 such characteristics but derives a list of 14 which appear to be the best choice of indicators on which further research might focus. It would be possible to design a survey instrument based on these characteristics, which, if upheld by empiric testing, could serve as a crude assessment tool for third parties needing to make quality comparisons between medical care institutions.

Price-Quality Correlations for Packaged Food Products

Abstract: Prior investigations have indicated that relationships between price and product quality are considerably weaker for non-durables than for durables. Among non-durables, packaged food products frequently have exhibited the poorest correspondence between price and quality. This study, utilizing data from Consumers Union, analyzes the relationships between price and a measure of product quality for 679 brands in forty packaged food product classes over a fifteen year period. The study generally confirms earlier preliminary conclusions that the correlation between quality and price for packaged food products is near zero. In addition, the findings indicate that convenience foods, particularly frozen foods, display the poorest correspondence between price and product quality with more than 43 percent of all frozen food product classes exhibiting negative relationships between price and product quality. Some possible explanations for these findings and their implications for public policy are advanced.

Must---A Multiple Solutions Technique for Balancing Single Model Assembly Lines

Abstract: Research on single-model assembly line balancing has produced several good algorithms for solving large problems. All these algorithms, however, generate just one solution to the balancing problem. With these, line designers wishing to investigate alternative station combinations of work elements are forced to do so manually. This paper concerns an algorithm MUST which generates alternative solutions of equal quality for single-model assembly line balancing problems. The method is based on the Mansoor-Yadin algorithm and in its optimum seeking form, MUST generates all existing optimal balances in a single pass. Three heuristics, used singularly or together, are introduced for solving the larger balancing problems. These are designed to produce about 100 different balance solutions of equal quality at each pass. MUST has been successfully used in balancing assembly lines having up to 140 work elements with widely differing precedence structures. A comparison of this method with MALB, one of the most efficient known heuristic methods, results in MUST dominating or equalling MALB in every case. Reasonable computation times average 125.4 sec.---IBM 370/168 and core usage are achieved through the use of advanced computation methods. The need to explore alternative station combinations may arise in several ways---for example, the line designer may prefer but not require that certain work elements be allocated to a common station either because of: access to materials handling and storage facilities, service availability e.g., compressed air lines, use of common tools or operator skills, etc. Alternatively, minor adjustments to the line may be required between adjacent stations in order to alleviate conditions at one station which exhibits excessive variability in its performance times. The generation of multiple solutions of equal efficiency adds a new dimension to the quality of balancing effectiveness, enabling the line designer to select the alternative that best suits his requirements.

A disaggregate store-choice model of spatial decision-making

Abstract: Empirical testing of a decision model yields insights concerning the ways in which shoppers process information about grocery stores. Confirming hypotheses from the literature on consumer preferences, the results show that respondents are primarily concerned with quality and price of merchandise and that behavior is directly linked to derived utility measures. Clustering of the subjects discloses subtle differences among consumer groups in their approaches to evaluating the attributes of grocery stores.

Time-Compressed Speech in Radio Advertising:

Abstract: It is now possible, using electronic techniques, to speed up a radio commercial without a perceptible change in general voice quality. Results of experiments reported here suggest that radio advert...

Social Science and School Desegregation: Did We Mislead the Supreme Court?

Abstract: During the deliberations prior to its school desegregation decision in 1954 the Supreme Court had before it a Social Science Statement on the effects of segregation and desegregation. This article reassesses the quality of that Statement 25 years later. Key points in the Statement are compared to the results of subsequent research. Some points, e.g., no negative effect on the school achievement of white students, have been supported. Others, e.g., improvement in black self-esteem, are difficult to evaluate due to inconsistent and uninterpretable research findings. Still others, e.g., more favorable racial attitudes, cannot be compared to the research findings because desegregation was not carried out in accord with conditions that were specified as conducive to the outcomes predicted in the Statement. Much research effort has been wasted in the study of school desegregation conducted under conditions unknown to the investigator. In order to avoid such waste in the future it is suggested that investigators...

Whatever Happened to Psychiatry? The Deprofessionalization of Community Mental Health Centers

Abstract: The authors describe the dichotomy in the concept of community mental health centers. One view regards the community mental health center as a service provider for underserved populations, and another holds that it is an agent of social change. Deprofessionalization of community mental health centers has resulted from this lack of clear purpose, curtailment of funds, and conflicts over authority, service delivery, and control of the centers. Deprofessionalization has led to a decline in the number of psychiatrists in community mental health centers and a potentially negative impact on the quality of patient care.