Showing papers on "Quality (business) published in 2010"
01 Jan 2010
6,109 citations
TL;DR: This paper pointed out that the "quality" of earnings is a function of the firm's fundamental performance and suggested that the contribution of a firms fundamental performance to its earnings quality is suggested as one area for future work.
Abstract: Researchers have used various measures as indications of "earnings quality" including persistence, accruals, smoothness, timeliness, loss avoidance, investor responsiveness, and external indicators such as restatements and SEC enforcement releases. For each measure, we discuss causes of variation in the measure as well as consequences. We reach no single conclusion on what earnings quality is because "quality" is contingent on the decision context. We also point out that the "quality" of earnings is a function of the firm's fundamental performance. The contribution of a firm's fundamental performance to its earnings quality is suggested as one area for future work.
2,633 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors point out that the quality of earnings is a function of the firm's fundamental performance and suggest that the contribution of a firms fundamental performance to its earnings quality is suggested as one area for future work.
2,140 citations
TL;DR: A list from A to Z of twenty-six proposals regarding what a “good” QCAbased research entails, both with regard to QCA as a research approach and as an analytical technique are presented.
Abstract: As a relatively new methodological tool, QCA is still a work in progress. Standards of good practice are needed in order to enhance the quality of its applications. We present a list from A to Z of twenty-six proposals regarding what a “good” QCAbased research entails, both with regard to QCA as a research approach and as an analytical technique. Our suggestions are subdivided into three categories: criteria referring to the research stages before, during, and after the analytical moment of data analysis. Th is listing can be read as a guideline for authors, reviewers, and readers of QCA.
975 citations
25 Jul 2010
TL;DR: This work presents algorithms that improve the existing state-of-the-art techniques, enabling the separation of bias and error, and illustrates how to incorporate cost-sensitive classification errors in the overall framework and how to seamlessly integrate unsupervised and supervised techniques for inferring the quality of the workers.
Abstract: Crowdsourcing services, such as Amazon Mechanical Turk, allow for easy distribution of small tasks to a large number of workers. Unfortunately, since manually verifying the quality of the submitted results is hard, malicious workers often take advantage of the verification difficulty and submit answers of low quality. Currently, most requesters rely on redundancy to identify the correct answers. However, redundancy is not a panacea. Massive redundancy is expensive, increasing significantly the cost of crowdsourced solutions. Therefore, we need techniques that will accurately estimate the quality of the workers, allowing for the rejection and blocking of the low-performing workers and spammers.However, existing techniques cannot separate the true (unrecoverable) error rate from the (recoverable) biases that some workers exhibit. This lack of separation leads to incorrect assessments of a worker's quality. We present algorithms that improve the existing state-of-the-art techniques, enabling the separation of bias and error. Our algorithm generates a scalar score representing the inherent quality of each worker. We illustrate how to incorporate cost-sensitive classification errors in the overall framework and how to seamlessly integrate unsupervised and supervised techniques for inferring the quality of the workers. We present experimental results demonstrating the performance of the proposed algorithm under a variety of settings.
957 citations
TL;DR: This article showed that the quality of earnings reported by politically connected firms is significantly poorer than that of similar non-connected companies, and that lower quality reported earnings are associated with a higher cost of debt only for the non-politically connected firms in the sample.
Abstract: We document that the quality of earnings reported by politically connected firms is significantly poorer than that of similar non-connected companies. Our results are not due to firms with ex-ante poor earnings quality establishing connections more often. Instead, our results suggest that, because of a lesser need to respond to market pressures to increase the quality of information, connected companies can afford disclosing lower quality accounting information. In particular, lower quality reported earnings is associated with a higher cost of debt only for the non-politically connected firms in the sample.
824 citations
TL;DR: The results show that IS service quality is the most influential variable in this model (followed by information quality and system quality, thus highlighting the importance of IS servicequality for organizational performance), and the structural equation model exhibits a good fit with the observed data.
Abstract: Increased organizational dependence on information systems drives management attention towards improving information systems' quality. A recent survey shows that ''Improve IT quality'' is one of the top concerns facing IT executives. As IT quality is a multidimensional measure, it is important to determine what aspects of IT quality are critical to organizations to help Chief Information Officers (CIOs) to devise effective IT quality improvement strategies. In this research, we model the relationship between information systems' (IS) quality and organizational impact. We hypothesize greater organizational impact in situations in which system quality, information quality and service quality are high. We also hypothesize a positive relationship between system quality and information quality. We test our hypotheses using survey data. Our structural equation model exhibits a good fit with the observed data. Our results show that IS service quality is the most influential variable in this model (followed by information quality and system quality), thus highlighting the importance of IS service quality for organizational performance. This paper contributes theoretically to IS success models through the system quality-to-information quality and IS quality-to-organizational impact links. Implications of our results for practice and research are discussed.
767 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the Delphi technique has been used to identify and qualify potential expert panelists according to objective guidelines and select appropriate parameters of the study such as the number of panelists, number of rounds, type of feedback, and measure of consensus.
Abstract: Construction engineering and management CEM researchers often rely on alternative research techniques when traditional methods fail. For example, surveys, interviews, and group-brainstorming techniques may not be appropriate for research that involves confounding factors and requires access to sensitive data. In such an environment, the Delphi technique allows researchers to obtain highly reliable data from certified experts through the use of strategically designed surveys. At present, the Delphi method has not seen widespread use in CEM research. This is likely due to variation among studies that implement Delphi in CEM research and ambiguity in literature that provides guidance for the specific parameters associated with the method. Using the guidance in this paper, the reader may: 1 understand the merits, appropriate application, and appropriate procedure of the traditional Delphi process; 2 identify and qualify potential expert panelists according to objective guidelines; 3 select the appropriate parameters of the study such as the number of panelists, number of rounds, type of feedback, and measure of consensus; 4 identify potential biases that may negatively impact the quality of the results; and 5 appropriately structure the surveys and conduct the process in such a way that bias is minimized or eliminated.
664 citations
TL;DR: The quality of French OpenStreetMap data is studied to provide a larger set of spatial data quality element assessments, and raises questions such as the heterogeneity of processes, scales of production, and the compliance to standardized and accepted specifications.
Abstract: The concept of Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) has recently emerged from the new Web 2.0 technologies. The OpenStreetMap project is currently the most significant example of a system based on VGI. It aims at producing free vector geographic databases using contributions from Internet users. Spatial data quality becomes a key consideration in this context of freely downloadable geographic databases. This article studies the quality of French OpenStreetMap data. It extends the work of Haklay to France, provides a larger set of spatial data quality element assessments (i.e. geometric, attribute, semantic and temporal accuracy, logical consistency, completeness, lineage, and usage), and uses different methods of quality control. The outcome of the study raises questions such as the heterogeneity of processes, scales of production, and the compliance to standardized and accepted specifications. In order to improve data quality, a balance has to be struck between the contributors' freedom and their respect of specifications. The development of appropriate solutions to provide this balance is an important research issue in the domain of user-generated content.
631 citations
TL;DR: A review of the theoretical and empirical literature on quality disclosure and certification can be found in this paper, with a particular focus on healthcare, education, and finance, and the empirical review covers quality measurement, the effect of third-party disclosure on consumer choice and seller behavior as well as the economics of certifiers.
Abstract: This essay reviews the theoretical and empirical literature on quality disclosure and certification. After comparing quality disclosure with other quality assurance mechanisms and describing a brief history of quality disclosure, we address two sets of theoretical issues. First, why don't sellers voluntarily disclose through a process of "unraveling" and, given the lack of unraveling, is it desirable to mandate seller disclosure? Second, when we rely on certifiers to act as the intermediary of quality disclosure, do certifiers necessarily report unbiased and accurate information? We further review empirical evidence on these issues, with a particular focus on healthcare, education, and finance. The empirical review covers quality measurement, the effect of third-party disclosure on consumer choice and seller behavior, as well as the economics of certifiers. (JEL D18, K32, L15, M31)
604 citations
26 Sep 2010
TL;DR: It is argued that the new ways of measuring coverage and serendipity reflect the quality impression perceived by the user in a better way than previous metrics thus leading to enhanced user satisfaction.
Abstract: When we evaluate the quality of recommender systems (RS), most approaches only focus on the predictive accuracy of these systems. Recent works suggest that beyond accuracy there is a variety of other metrics that should be considered when evaluating a RS. In this paper we focus on two crucial metrics in RS evaluation: coverage and serendipity. Based on a literature review, we first discuss both measurement methods as well as the trade-off between good coverage and serendipity. We then analyze the role of coverage and serendipity as indicators of recommendation quality, present novel ways of how they can be measured and discuss how to interpret the obtained measurements. Overall, we argue that our new ways of measuring these concepts reflect the quality impression perceived by the user in a better way than previous metrics thus leading to enhanced user satisfaction.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the relationships between three determinants of quality dimensions (predictors): food, service, and physical environment), price (moderator), and satisfaction and behavioral intention (criterion) in quick-casual restaurants.
Abstract: This study examined the relationships between three determinants of quality dimensions (predictors: food, service, and physical environment), price (moderator), and satisfaction and behavioral intention (criterion) in quick-casual restaurants. Despite the importance of foodservice quality, academics and managers know relatively little about how the combined effects of quality (food, service, and physical environment) elicit customer satisfaction which, in turn, affects behavioral intention. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis with interactions showed that quality of food, service, and physical environment were all significant determinants of customer satisfaction. In addition, perceived price acted as a moderator in the satisfaction formation process. Finally, the results indicated that customer satisfaction is indeed a significant predictor of behavioral intention. The findings may provide restaurateurs with a guideline for enhancing customer satisfaction and behavioral intention level.
TL;DR: In this paper, a game-theoretic model predicts that resource rents lead to an increase in corruption if the quality of the democratic institutions is relatively poor, but not otherwise.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors exploit both price and quantity information to estimate the quality of products exported to the United States, and use this variation to explain the heterogeneous impact of low-wage competition on US manufacturing employment and output.
Abstract: Prices are typically used as proxies for countries' export quality. I relax this strong assumption by exploiting both price and quantity information to estimate the quality of products exported to the United States. Higher quality is assigned to products with higher market shares conditional on price. The estimated qualities reveal substantial heterogeneity in product markets' scope for quality differentiation, or their "quality ladders". I use this variation to explain the heterogeneous impact of low-wage competition on US manufacturing employment and output. Markets characterized by relatively short quality ladders are associated with larger employment and output declines resulting from low-wage competition. Copyright , Wiley-Blackwell.
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate the capital structure choices that firms make in their initial year of operation, using restricted-access data from the Kauffman Firm Survey Contrary to many accounts of startup activity, the firms in our data rely heavily on external debt sources such as bank financing, and less extensively on friends and family-based funding sources This fact is robust to numerous controls for credit quality, industry and business owner characteristics.
Abstract: This paper investigates the capital structure choices that firms make in their initial year of operation, using restricted-access data from the Kauffman Firm Survey Contrary to many accounts of startup activity, the firms in our data rely heavily on external debt sources such as bank financing, and less extensively on friends and family-based funding sources This fact is robust to numerous controls for credit quality, industry, and business owner characteristics The heavy reliance on external debt underscores the importance of well functioning credit markets for the success of nascent business activity
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01 Jan 2010
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors introduce the Promise, the education explosion, and the quality revolution, and present a new opportunity for a new generation of teachers and students. But they do not discuss the future of education.
Abstract: 1. Introduction 2. The Promise 3. The Education Explosion 4. The Quality Revolution 5. Intellectual Arbitrage 6. Digital Taylorism 7. War for Talent 8. High Skills, Low Wages 9. The Rat Race 10. A New Opportunity Notes References Index
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on the use of qualitative interviews in research studies, arguing that with a growing array of theorizations of the qualitative interview, researchers must demonstrate the quality of their work in ways that are commensurate with their assumptions about their use of interviews.
Abstract: Within the field of qualitative inquiry, there has been considerable discussion of how ‘quality’ might be demonstrated by researchers in reports of studies. With the growth in the application of qualitative methods in social research, along with the proliferation of texts available to qualitative researchers over the last four decades, there has been increasing diversity in how quality has been demonstrated in reports. In this article, I focus on the use of qualitative interviews in research studies, arguing that with a growing array of theorizations of the qualitative interview, researchers must demonstrate the quality of their work in ways that are commensurate with their assumptions about their use of interviews. I sketch a number of possibilities for how qualitative interviews might be theorized, and show the different ways in which quality might be demonstrated from each perspective. I propose this typology as one means by which novice researchers might begin to work through design decisions involved...
TL;DR: For example, the authors found that customers who are empowered to select the products to be marketed show stronger demand for the underlying products even though they are of identical quality in objective terms (and their subjective product evaluations are similar).
Abstract: Companies have recently begun to use the Internet to integrate their customers more actively into various phases of the new product development process. One such strategy involves empowering customers to cooperate in selecting the product concepts to be marketed by the firm. In such scenarios, it is no longer the company but rather its customers who decide democratically which products should be produced. This article discusses the first set of empirical studies that highlight the important psychological consequences of this power shift. The results indicate that customers who are empowered to select the products to be marketed show stronger demand for the underlying products even though they are of identical quality in objective terms (and their subjective product evaluations are similar). This seemingly irrational finding can be observed because consumers develop a stronger feeling of psychological ownership of the products selected. The studies also identify two boundary conditions for this “e...
TL;DR: In this paper, a comprehensive model to quantify disaster resilience of systems that is defined as the capability to sustain functionality and recover from losses generated by extreme events is presented. And the model combines loss estimation and recovery models and can be applied to critical facilities (e.g. hospitals, military buildings, etc.).
Abstract: This paper presents a comprehensive model to quantify disaster resilience of systems that is defined as the capability to sustain functionality and recover from losses generated by extreme events. The model combines loss estimation and recovery models and can be applied to critical facilities (e.g. hospitals, military buildings, etc.), as well as utility lifelines (e.g. electric power systems, transportation networks, water systems etc.) that are crucial to the response of recovery processes, decisions and policies. Current research trend leads toward the definition of complex recovery models that are able to describe the process over time and the spatial definition of recovery (e.g. meta-models for the case of health care facilities). The model has been applied to a network of hospitals in Memphis, Tennessee. The resilience framework can be used as a decision support tool to increase the resilience index of systems, such as health care facilities, and reduce disaster vulnerability and consequences.
TL;DR: It is concluded that the meat industry needs to invest in and embrace an innovation agenda in order to be sustainable and utilise emerging scientific knowledge and take a more proactive role in setting out a research agenda.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined whether quality dimensions have an impact on perceived value, which, in turn, affects satisfaction and loyalty, in the context of the Punggi Ginseng festival.
TL;DR: One of the major findings of this study is that although less perceived risk may lead to a favorable perception of web service quality, it does not necessarily translate to customer satisfaction, or positive behavioral intentions.
TL;DR: In this article, the effects of electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) on consumer consideration and choice of an experience product were examined in a realistic online shopping environment.
TL;DR: Here the various ways in which the concept of quality is currently applied are considered, and it is shown that subtle differences in intended meaning have very important consequences when the goal is to draw evolutionary inferences.
Abstract: In studies of population ecology, demography and life history evolution, among-individual differences in traits associated with survival and reproduction are often attributed to variation in 'individual quality' However, often intuitive quality is rarely defined explicitly, and we argue that this can result in ambiguity about what quality actually is Here we consider the various ways in which the concept of quality is currently applied, and show that subtle differences in intended meaning have very important consequences when the goal is to draw evolutionary inferences We also propose a novel approach that is consistent with all current ecological uses, but also allows the concept of quality to be integrated with existing evolutionary theory
TL;DR: In this article, a review examines research on retention and turnover of teachers of color, focusing on new teachers because they leave at disproportionately high rates, finding that teachers of colour are more likely than Whites to work and remain in hard-to-staff urban schools with high proportions of students from low-income and nondominant racial and cultural communities.
Abstract: Given calls to diversify the teaching workforce, this review examines research on retention and turnover of teachers of color, focusing on new teachers because they leave at disproportionately high rates. Reviewing 70 studies, the authors found that (a) recent national studies identify turnover rates for teachers of color are now higher than those for White teachers; (b) policy-amenable school-level conditions related to financial, human, social, and cultural capital can affect retention; (c) teachers of color are more likely than Whites to work and remain in “hard-to-staff” urban schools with high proportions of students from low-income and nondominant racial and cultural communities; and (d) factors affecting the retention of teachers of color can contribute to staffing urban schools with quality teachers, including teachers’ humanistic commitments, innovative approaches in the professional preparation of teachers of color, and the presence of multicultural capital in schools.
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TL;DR: Hail et al. as discussed by the authors developed a conceptual framework for the analysis of potential costs and benefits from adopting IFRS in the United States, and showed that the decision to adopt IFRS mainly involves a cost-benefit tradeoff between recurring, albeit modest, comparability benefits for investors, recurring future cost savings that will largely accrue to multinational companies, and one-time transition costs borne by all firms and the U.S. economy as a whole.
Abstract: This article is Part I of a two-part series analyzing the economic and policy factors related to the potential adoption of IFRS by the United States. In this part, we develop the conceptual framework for our analysis of potential costs and benefits from IFRS adoption in the United States. Drawing on the academic literature in accounting, finance and economics, we assess the potential impact of IFRS adoption on the quality and comparability of U.S. reporting practices, the ensuing capital market effects, and the potential costs of switching from U.S. GAAP to IFRS. We also discuss the compatibility of IFRS with the current U.S. regulatory and legal environment as well as the possible macroeconomic effects of IFRS adoption. Our analysis shows that the decision to adopt IFRS mainly involves a cost-benefit tradeoff between (1) recurring, albeit modest, comparability benefits for investors, (2) recurring future cost savings that will largely accrue to multinational companies, and (3) one-time transition costs borne by all firms and the U.S. economy as a whole, including those from adjustments to U.S. institutions. In Part II of the series (see Hail et al. 2010), we provide an analysis of the policy factors related to the decision and present several scenarios for the future evolution of U.S. accounting standards in light of the current global movement toward IFRS.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss some of the main variables involved in public perception of drinking water quality, including risk perception, attitudes towards water chemicals, contextual cues provided by the supply system, familiarity with specific water properties, trust in suppliers, past problems attributed to water quality and information provided by media and interpersonal sources.
TL;DR: MIQE aims to restructure to-day's free-for-all qPCR methods into a more consistent format that will encourage detailed auditing of experimental detail, data analysis and reporting principles, an important requisite for the maturing of qPCRs into a robust, accurate and reliable nucleic acid quantification technology.
TL;DR: In this article, the impact of the geographic distribution of R&D activity on the quality of innovation was examined through an analysis of patent data from 100 firms in the global semiconductor manufacturing industry.
Abstract: I examine the impact of the geographic distribution of R&D activity on the quality of innovation. Through an analysis of patent data from 100 firms in the global semiconductor manufacturing industr...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors evaluate how bus users perceive the quality of their public transport service and find that the perception of quality varies according to the available information, and that there tends to be more criticism towards variations in overall quality until the users are stimulated into thinking more deeply about other influential variables.