Improved consumer addressability in electronic markets allows vendors to send focused promotional messages to specific customers, facilitating a targeted advertising approach that we call “narrowcasting”. We characterize a rational consumer’s market participation decision and identify a narrowcasting firm’s optimal targeting decision when buyers face nontrivial search costs. In the special case...

BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT Many countries are giving patients a more active role in health care, on both the individual and collective level. This study focuses on one aspect of the participation agenda on the individual level: self-management. The study explores self-management in practice, including the implications of the difficulties encountered. OBJECTIVE To gain insight into the complexity ...

Purpose – This paper seeks to promote an understanding of gender effects on retirement plan participation as a function of fund assortment size. Design/methodology/approach – A decision simulation was conducted among 349 US adults whose task was to invest in a hypothetical 401(k) retirement plan. The number of mutual funds offered for investment was varied and the effects on the incidence and e...

The adoption of smart grid systems has been accelerating around the world, with many pilot projects initiated throughout the developed world. However, there has been a lack of studies quantifying appliance level economic benefits that are available to the end consumers. Through coupling historical market information with an agent based residential load model, this study has quantified the econo...

INTRODUCTION Much of the most vital activism of the post-1989 environmental movement in Hungary addresses the development of consumer culture and the expansion of transnational corporations in East-Central Europe. In actions against McDonald's conquest of the urban landscape and the ubiquitous presence of advertisements for transnational corporations, activists contrast cherished notions of dec...

Compared to the conventional grid, the smart grid requires active participation of consumers to improve the quality and reliability of power delivery. Advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), commonly known as the smart meter, which has the capability of supporting various functions beyond that of recording energy usage, will facilitate this expected increase in consumer participation. Another p...

BACKGROUND Clinical practice guidelines provide an evidence-based approach to managing single chronic conditions, but their applicability to multiple conditions has been actively debated. Incorporating patient-preference recommendations and involving consumers in guideline development may enhance their applicability, but further understanding is needed. OBJECTIVES To assess guidelines that in...

AAMC COMMENTS ON SECTION 223 LIMITS/ FINAL LIMITS RELEASED FIRST CONCURRENT BUDGET RESOLUTION PASSED BY CONGRESS MAJOR HEALTH DEREGULATION BILL INTRODUCED IN HOUSE SENATE HEARINGS HELD ON ASSISTANCE TO FINANCIALLY DISTRESSED HOSPITALS COMBINED CATASTROPHIC/ CONSUMER CHOICE BILL INTRODUCED MEDICARE POLICY ON JOINT NURSING EDUCATION COSTS REVERSED REVISED MEDICARE HOSPITAL CONDITIONS OF PARTICIPA...

This qualitative study assessed clients' participation in organizational decision making in a public long-term psychiatric hospital. Numerous examples were found in which clients meaningfully participated in the decision-making process and achieved favorable policy changes. Three means of involving clients were found to be especially useful: (1) using a consumer council, (2) involving clients i...

Data for discrete ordered random variables are often characterised by “excessive” zero observations. Traditional ordered probit models have limited capacity in explaining the preponderance of zero observations, especially when the zeros may relate to two distinct situations of non-participation and infrequent participation (or consumption), for example. We propose a zero-inflated ordered probit...