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Work environments commonly entail multi-worker production, a regulatory setting, and an overarching managerial structure. Guided by an economic model of individual production, I examine how such elements influence worker performance in the empirical setting of NHL goaltenders, observed over multiple seasons. Results reveal new evidence of positive workplace peer effects but reduced goalie performance in relation to heightened regulation of capital equipment use and turnover in goalies specialized managers, their team goaltending coaches. New goalie coaches do appear to help goaltenders mitigate unfavorable effects of workplace regulation, part of larger evidence illustrating the role of managerial quality in work environments.

This paper aims to identify the factors that affect agricultural producers’ loyalty to brand and dealer, jointly and individually, when buying agricultural capital equipment. A second objective is exploring the influence of one type of loyalty over the other, for which we resort to different settings. Our findings show distinctive determining factors for each type of loyalty, the bi-univocity of these two loyalties, and the necessary farm profile to achieve dual loyalty. Agricultural equipment companies demand this information to target farmers and design marketing strategies to make farmers loyal or disloyal, strengthen their distribution channels, and identify the best communication lines to reach potential and current customers.

PurposeThis study aims to assess the following question: “which information processing approach, formalization or centralization, responds to procurement complexity and how does this affect procurement performance in knowledge-intensive procurements?”Design/methodology/approachThis study draws on a survey of 294 Project Managers with recent experience of knowledge-intensive procurement. It uses AMOS version 21 to perform confirmatory factor analysis and structural modeling to assess the hypotheses.FindingsThe findings suggest that procurement complexity directly encourages formalization and that formalization has significant, positive effects on procurement performance. Centralization, on the other hand, appears not to respond to procurement complexity and has negligible effects on procurement performance.Research limitations/implicationsDrawing on information processing theory, this study highlights the importance of two information management approaches in knowledge-intensive procurement, and that such procurement situations share similarities with new product development and other innovation-rich, team-based activities. Knowledge-intensive procurement situations, therefore, require different information management practices than other types of procurement.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest that procurement complexity directly encourages formalization and that formalization has significant, positive effects on procurement performance. Centralization, on the other hand, appears not to respond to procurement complexity and has negligible effects on procurement performance.Originality/valueThe study is the first to examine information management approaches (formalization and centralization) in knowledge-intensive procurement as responses to project complexity, and as contributors to procurement performance.

Objectives Given adverse health effects of climate change and contributions of the US health care sector to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, environmentally sustainable delivery of care is needed. We applied life cycle assessment to quantify GHGs associated with processing a gastrointestinal biopsy in order to identify emissions hotspots and guide mitigation strategies. Methods The biopsy process at a large academic pathology laboratory was grouped into steps. Each supply and reagent was catalogued and postuse treatment noted. Energy consumption was estimated for capital equipment. Two common scenarios were considered: 1 case with 1 specimen jar (scenario 1) and 1 case with 3 specimen jars (scenario 2). Results Scenario 1 generated 0.29 kg of carbon dioxide equivalents (kg CO2e), whereas scenario 2 resulted in 0.79 kg CO2e—equivalent to 0.7 and 2.0 miles driven, respectively. The largest proportion of GHGs (36%) in either scenario came from the tissue processor step. The second largest contributor (19%) was case accessioning, mostly attributable to production of single-use disposable jars. Conclusions Applied to more than 20 million biopsies performed in the US annually, emissions from biopsy processing is equivalent to yearly GHG emissions from 1,200 passenger cars. Mitigation strategies may include modification of surveillance guidelines to include the number of specimen jars.

Especially since 2012 Chinese companies have acquired stakes as investors and constructors of overseas ports in both high-income and emerging economies. These initiatives play an important role in the construction of a Maritime Silk Road and China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Although a result of many factors, of which Chinese port investments are only one, macro-geographical gravity methods show that distance impedance and increases in the export market potential, export supply capacity and access to imports of these countries drove increases in income per capita. Export supply capacity rose particularly in Southeast Asia and more recently in Sub-Saharan Africa. In difficult times for the world economy, countries in which China invested in overseas port infrastructure saw increases in national export market potential and income per capita, due to reduction in the impedance of distance, while in the case of developing economies export market supply capacity and access to imported capital equipment and intermediate goods improved.

We believe that the rapid and widespread adoption of resuscitative endovascular balloon occlusion of the aorta as well as enthusiasm for catheter-based strategies has led to increased interest in basic endovascular techniques among trauma surgeons. The aim of this article was to describe the most commonly performed endovascular procedures for trauma patients, the basic capital equipment and room set up, and a parsimonious inventory of disposable supplies needed to perform each procedure. Together, these make a standardized trauma-specific endovascular inventory. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Economic/decision, level V.

Replacement of an end-of-life cardiac catheterization laboratory ("cath lab") can pose a significant challenge to a hospital, particularly in single-cath-lab institutions. The disruption in patient care requires innovative approaches to minimize the inconvenience and ensure ongoing quality of care. We describe a unique approach whereby Michael Garron Hospital (MGH) "leased" a cath lab within Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre for a 12-week period during a cath lab replacement project at MGH. The MGH cath lab and patient recovery bay remained a completely separate entity staffed by MGH nurses and physicians, with electronic connection to the home hospital. A total of 420 patients underwent cardiac catheterization with no adverse outcomes while maintaining system efficiency and high patient and staff satisfaction. Cath lab leasing involving two cooperating hospitals is an innovative and safe way to bridge a cath lab replacement.

The theoretical propositions suggest that trade openness leads to a greater economic activity, due to the spread of knowhow and technological transferability. In that framework, it is generally expected that as trade openness increases, economic growth will follow the same trend because of innovation and productivity. Henceforth, establishing the contribution of trade openness to economic growth is of high priority, especially in the case of developing countries such as the Baltic ones. The current paper examines the causal relationship between trade openness and economic growth in the case of three Baltic countries for the period 1990-2020, using the recently developed by Dumitrescu and Hurlin (2012) non-causal Granger test for heterogenous panel data. The findings of the current study suggested that there is a cross-sectional dependence on the model time series between the counties under investigation, which proved that Baltic countries have common factors and common economic links. The theoretical and empirical studies previously conducted, are useful starting points for the discussion on policies which could increase the development of Baltic countries. For the development to be increased, the developmental procedures in the Baltic countries should upload their “development chains”. Such transformation of the “development chains” will be achieved through investments in capital equipment, human capital and innovations by securing a favorable and stable economic climate.