Because the Balanced Budget Act (BBA) of 1997 requires implementation of a Medicare prospective payment system (PPS) for hospital outpatient services, the authors evaluated the potential impact of outpatient PPS on rural hospitals. Areas examined include: (1) How dependent are rural hospitals on outpatient revenue? (2) Are they more likely than urban hospitals to be vulnerable to payment reform...

Rural businesses often face substantial hurdles in participating in today’s economy. Many rural businesses are small and find it difficult to marshal the resources needed to compete in the new digital economy. And remoteness often hinders many rural businesses as they try to gain access to the capital, infrastructure, and technology needed to operate in today’s global and instantaneous marketpl...

The majority of rural population in Iran has limited access to agricultural information. However, bridging the digital gap between urban and rural areas has been a major challenge for authorities in Iran. Using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for poverty reduction and for the economic empowerment of poor women and men in rural areas have been experienced world wide. Tele-centers ...

A key issue for strategic ICT use concerns the levels of awareness within firms of the value and opportunities created by the use of this technology. With the Internet offering access to global flows of information, it is often argued that buyers have an increased opportunity to compare firms and products, and that even small firms are now operating in a global marketplace. However, the uneven ...

home business is one of the best fields of women's economic activity and considered as an important strategy for job creation, particularly for rural women. nonetheless many barriers avoid addressing rural women to these businesses. the main purpose of this study was to analyze the most important barriers for trends of rural women and girls to home businesses. the statistical population of...

BACKGROUND Despite an increase in the supply of dental practitioners in Australia in recent years, there remains an unequal distribution of dental practitioners with more dental practitioners working in city areas. This is in part due to difficulties in attracting and retaining dental practitioners to rural practice. The aim of this study was to investigate the attitudes of Australian dental pr...

The wide urban–rural economic gap, particularly in developing countries, has led to various problems. To lower the participation of rural communities digital business ecosystems is being viewed as a promising approach. this end, we use design science research methodology present reference architecture smartness platform that facilitates emergence smarter ecosystem. This ecosystem embodies chara...

The success of Silicon Valley and the information economy in Ireland suggest that rural regions have the potential for e-business development. However, the successes of these two cases were not the result of technology alone. In this study, the researchers explored societal issues in the form of relevant policies and regional culture in San Joaquin Valley to investigate their influence on e-bus...

limited access to financing from venture capitalists. Of this situation, there is widespread evidence and agreement. There is not, however, agreement as to the principal reasons why entrepreneurs in rural areas have difficulty in acquiring equity capital for new business start-ups and expansions. On the one hand, some suggest (e.g., Florida and Kenney, 1988) that few venture capital investments...