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Typical of most industries, digitisation of healthcare products, services and models of E-Commerce is democratizing the current healthcare system in China while unlocking new previously inaccessible healthcare segments. This monumental convergence of healthcare industry with IT is part of a larger evolution and growth of E-Commerce from simple search portals for purchasing goods and services to more integrated digital marketplace that incorporates personalized experience and informed purchase decision making into online behaviours. The result is the manifestation of a new era of healthcare consumerism, as healthcare customers demand retail-like buying experience. We performed a comprehensive systematic scoping review of published data to identify how E-Commerce is complementing the traditional healthcare delivery system in China. We note that healthcare E-Commerce is facilitating the reconstruction of the healthcare value chain in China and at the same time is helping health facilities to reengineer operations and service processes. Our study highlights the important role E-commerce is playing in the healthcare industry in China.

Since the dawn of humanity, women have acquitted themselves creditably with this responsibility of childbirth even at the peril of their lives. Overtime, the politics, process and social mores that surround pregnancy and birth have evolved along with the growth and maturity of the medical profession, and the art and craft of motherhood. However, the introduction of the universal two-child policy in China without corresponding change in the income and expenditure mix of the maternity insurance schemes in Qinghai province threatens the sustainability of maternal health initiatives for minority ethnic groups in Western China. The analytical model used in this study hybridizes a system dynamics and actuarial model to express the maternity insurance expenditure and income function. The study noted that at the current contribution rate of 0.5%, the maternity insurance fund in Qinghai province will be depleted by the end of 2020 and this can influence catastrophic maternal health crisis in the poorer region. The analysis also shows that if the contribution rate can be raised to 0.75%, the depletion rate of the maternity insurance can be prolonged. We proposed an increase in the current rate of contribution of the maternity insurance fund in Qinghai province; improve investment income for the maternity insurance fund and other reliable sources of sustainable funding.

Typically, Triple Helix relations, between, Higher Education Institutions, Governments and Industry(s) are inferred from patents and research output. Systemic determination of the relationship is because of observations over a period. It is, however, possible to analyze this relation from a system present from the word-go. This then allows for the interaction to be analyzed on the basis of performance and logically gains for participation by all the agents. Several models have been proposed to deduce the Triple Helix Relation and these hold. This paper has however introduced a new dimension to the analysis, by viewing participation from an investor point of view with decision making being of a complex and deductive nature based on the performance of higher education systems or institutions. The TOPSIS supported performance deductions helps synthesis decision solutions that facilitates value determination of performance and its resultant impact on investment gains. Possible future implications for this, are also provided

Environmental health security as a developmental goal is directly linked to environmental quality across the globe. China believes that maintaining an attractive, stable and profitable environmenta...

BackgroundFamily practice and family doctors are critical part of China’s primary healthcare delivery in a constantly evolving society. As the first point of contact with the medical system, family practices require physically and psychologically sound and a well-motivated family doctors at all times. This is because an error can lead to loss of lives as gatekeepers of the medical system. Our study explored the extent to which positive psychological capital promotes higher performance among family doctors.MethodsA questionnaire was used to collect data from family doctors in Shanghai, Nanjing, and Beijing. We applied a structural equation analysis to analyze the causal relationship among the variables.ResultsWe found out that psychological well-being and job involvement significantly influences the performance of family doctors in China. The study also noted that psychological capital moderates the relationship between psychological well-being attainment, job involvement, and performance.ConclusionsStudies have shown that these pressures affect their well-being considerably. For this reason, a healthcare professional who experiences positive emotions affects the total behavior which culminates into performance.

This study aims to discuss the relationship between personal endowment and social welfare on the health status of the rural-to-urban elderly migrants. It constructed the theoretical framework of the health vulnerability of rural-to-urban elderly migrants. The health status of rural-to-urban elderly migrants was divided into three dimensions: physical health, mental health, and social adaptation. A total of 658 rural-to-urban elderly migrants in 12 cities of Jiangsu province were selected as samples for empirical test and analyzed the influence of individual endowments and social welfare on the health status of rural-to-urban elderly migrants and their differences. The result shows that personal ability affects the social adaptation ability of rural-to-urban elderly migrants, and social welfare has a significant influence on the physical and mental health of rural-to-urban elderly migrants. Lacking the learning ability of rural-to-urban elderly migrants in sample areas is the main factor that leads to their low social adaptation ability and the unequal social welfare and public services restricting the physiological and mental health status of rural-to-urban elderly migrants.

Background: The world currently has experienced an unimaginable increase in life expectancy rate (LER). There are many factors that influence LER, including faith and forgiveness. However, an ongoing argument among scholars is whether health insurance is partly ascribed to the historical forces that drive the surge in LER among emerging countries. The study seeks to investigate the long-run effect of universal health insurance on life expectancy rate among 15 selected emerging countries spanning from 2000 to 2015. Methods: Using the panel unit root, panel cointegration, panel fully modified least squares (FMOLS), and employing the Dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS) as a robust check, the study analyzed connections between the study variables. Results: The outcome of the results showed that universal health insurance, physician ratio, healthcare expenditure, and educational factors are positive contributors to increase life expectancy, while economic growth remained negatively significant in the selected emerging economies. Conclusion: This study showed that improved education, increased physician ratio, increasing health expenditures, and universal insurance coverage were correlated with increased life expectancy in emerging economies. In order to promote healthy lives of its citizens, a move toward universal health insurance coverage is suggested since it increase the life expectancy rate among emerging nations

Due to rapid development and population growth in Ghana’s urban and peri-urban areas, most freshwater resources are degrading, directly affecting residents in these vicinities. This study, therefore, evaluates how human activities such as urbanization, farming and industrialization affect the Bonsa River and the health-related quality of life of residents living downstream. The study adopted statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) and partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to assess the data retrieved from the residents living in and around the Bonsa River in Tarkwa Nsuaem, Ghana. The study’s outcome reveals a positive and significant impact of land use change on freshwater resource degradation and poor health-related quality of life of the inhabitants in the catchment area. The study has numerous practical and policy implications for the government, environmental and healthcare industry, and policymakers.

The maternity insurance fund in some provinces in China has accumulated unprecedented deficit levels. This imminent depletion can cause a catastrophic health crisis for maternal health. This study analyzed the post-policy impact of key factors on maternity insurance income inflow and outflow in Jiangsu Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (AR). We applied Pasera’s ARLD model and VECM Granger Causality Test to establish long- and short-term impact of selected factors that determines the income and expenditure of the maternity insurance fund in the two regions based on data from 2011 to 2019. Our results show that the addition of new births due to the universal two-child policy has increased the per capita utilization of the maternity insurance fund in both areas. We further observed that the impact of the maternity insurance contribution rate to the maternity insurance fund decays with time giving a long-run limited impact in both provinces. Thus the positive impact is stronger in the short term, but in the long term, its influence or contribution to stability of the funds reduces. The positive impact of interest from investment in the maternity insurance fund is however insignificant in both provinces, giving a major cause for concern on its role in maternity insurance fund income generation. In the short term, the contribution rate of the maternity insurance fund must be adjusted upward or the payment base expanded to receive additional contribution from all employees to avoid complete depletion of the fund. In the long term, we recommend the need to replenish the maternity insurance funds through proper investment options for the funds. We further recommend the need to look for other sources of funding social interventions based on existing practices in other countries.

Background: Global health crisis continues to drive the dynamics of corporate social responsibility (CSR) across industries with self-perpetuating momentum. From a historical point of view, more than a century of immense corporate fecundity has formed the ecological conditions and shaped current understanding of the effect of public health on CSR. This study sought to examine the extent to which companies are able to balance their business interest with social interest through health-related CSR and how knowledge of them can help explain the potential impact of COVID-19. Method: This study employs a narrative review of current literature; however, the integrative strategy was combined with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) checklist to rigorously select the necessary articles for proper integrative synthesis. Results: We note that in the pursuit of their social responsibility, corporate enterprises struggle to balance the interest of society and their own interest. Genuine CSR activities such as donations are often undermined by unbridled and excessive desire to draw society on themselves to reap economic benefits are largely dominated by the need to advance. There are signals that enterprises might see COVID-19-related CSR as an entry door to increase corporate influence thereby commercializing the pandemic. Conclusions: The impact of COVID-19 on CSR is epochal. There is a moral obligation for enterprises to reform current risk assessments and collaborate more deeply with state agencies to invest in the health and safety inspections at the world place. CSR strategies must be proactive to endure other unknown pandemics with equal capacity to disrupt business operations. Companies must create innovative and regular activities to educate its stakeholders to become more committed to safeguarding future enterprise-based defense mechanism needed to diagnose, protect, treat, and rehabilitate victims and those threatened by pandemics and other emergencies that affect the stability of an organization to reduce its cost and protect revenue.

Despite the positive effect of industrialisation on health and quality of life indicators across the globe, it is also responsible for the release of chemical toxins into the environment. Thus, the pursuit of economic development through industrialisation has equally nurtured numerous environmental disasters with accompanying catastrophic health effects. China is one of the countries with high carbon emissions, but new policy changes have resulted in massive gains in controlling environmental damage while enhancing the environment-related quality of life. This paper combines the six-step integrative review strategy with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) strategy to determine appropriate exclusion and inclusion criteria to explore the available stock of literature. We note that overall pollution in China fell by 10% between 2014 and 2019 whereas the average fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentration of 93 micrograms per cubic meter reduced by 47% by 2019. Beijing exhibited the top 200 most polluted cities in 2019 after recording the lowest PM2.5 ever. All cities that implemented the 2012 Environmental Air Quality Standards reduced the average concentration of PM2.5 and sulfur dioxide by 42–68% by the end of 2018. Improvements in freshwater quality and a decline in water pollution levels were recorded despite increases in economic growth, urbanisation, energy use, trade openness, and agriculture, all of which are major stimulants of pollution. Deterring environmental tariff, tight ecological inspections, closing down of non-compliant producers, heavy investment in environmental control, and the ambitious five year-plan to revitalise renewable energy goals emanating from China’s ecological civilisation masterplan are responsible for these improvements in air and water pollution. China needs to work more aggressively to consolidate the gains already made in order to quicken the actualisation of the ecological civilisation and beautiful China dream.

Despite the positive effect of industrialisation on health and quality of life indicators across the globe, it is also responsible for the release of chemical toxins into the environment. Thus, the pursuit of economic development through industrialisation has equally nurtured numerous environmental disasters with accompanying catastrophic health effects. China is one of the countries with high carbon emissions, but new policy changes have resulted in massive gains in controlling environmental damage while enhancing the environment-related quality of life. This paper combines the six-step integrative review strategy with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) strategy to determine appropriate exclusion and inclusion criteria to explore the available stock of literature. We note that overall pollution in China fell by 10% between 2014 and 2019 whereas the average fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentration of 93 micrograms per cubic meter reduced by 47% by 2019. Beijing exhibited the top 200 most polluted cities in 2019 after recording the lowest PM2.5 ever. All cities that implemented the 2012 Environmental Air Quality Standards reduced the average concentration of PM2.5 and sulfur dioxide by 42–68% by the end of 2018. Improvements in freshwater quality and a decline in water pollution levels were recorded despite increases in economic growth, urbanisation, energy use, trade openness, and agriculture, all of which are major stimulants of pollution. Deterring environmental tariff, tight ecological inspections, closing down of non-compliant producers, heavy investment in environmental control, and the ambitious five year-plan to revitalise renewable energy goals emanating from China’s ecological civilisation masterplan are responsible for these improvements in air and water pollution. China needs to work more aggressively to consolidate the gains already made in order to quicken the actualisation of the ecological civilisation and beautiful China dream.

Background The family doctors’ contract service problem is not about government management alone, but an interaction of a complex social environment. Consequently, the effect of contracted services of family doctors not only depends on policy incentives but also needs to win the participation, acknowledgement, and confidence of community residents. The purpose of this integrative review is to examine whether there is any significant evidence that social capital in the form of social networking groups and other forms of social groups have any positive impact on the acceptance and the effectiveness of family doctors' contractual services. Method Research on qualitative, quantitative and hybrid methods published in peer-reviewed journals on the social capital role in the process of contract service of family doctors were eligible for inclusion. In view of the increasing attention paid to the contract service effect of family doctors during this period, a 10-year time scale was selected to ensure full coverage of relevant literature in the same period. In total, 809 articles were determined in the database retrieval results which were downloaded and transferred to the Mendeley reference application software. Results Twelve articles met the inclusion criteria for this integrative review and the quality of the included studies were assessed using the published criteria for the critical appraisal of quantitative and qualitative research methods. Majority of the articles assessed reported that there was evidence of a positive link between social support, especially a sense of belonging and the presence of regular family doctors. The influencing factors of patients' contract behavior of studies conducted in China were social interaction of social capital, acceptance of the first contact in the community, year of investigation, and exposure to the public. Conclusion The study affirms previous studies that suggest that social resources have the propensity to improve relationship between patients and clients and between doctors and peers for the benefit of the patients and the stability of the overall healthcare system. Through the integration of various social resources family doctor systems accelerate the development of community construction. These social capital (social network groups) can guide residents to use family doctor services to maintain health. Social capital can also help residents have a regular and reliable family doctor.

Background Despite the overwhelming feeling of great happiness, joyful excitement and rituals that heralds the arrival of a child, for too many women (especially in developing countries), child bearing is associated with suffering, ill health and even death. The need to consolidate and support women to procreate in tranquillity has inspired international and domestic agencies to harness the resources at their disposal to protect the health of women especially during pregnancy, child birth and the post-partum period. Methods The study applied a systems dynamic model to selected data to establish the influence of the universal two-child policy in China on maternity insurance fund income. The study also established sensitivity analysis of the appropriate rate of contribution to keep the fund active. Results The study revealed that increases in utilisation rate as results of increase in number of births under the universal two-child policy increased the accumulated deficit of the maternity insurance fund income in the Ningxia-Hui Autonomous Region. At the current rate, the entire fund will be depleted by the end of 2021 unless the contribution rate is increased from 0.5% to 0.75%. Conclusions Maternal health is a “sentinel event” requiring an unprecedented global resource mobilisation to safeguard the future of humanity. Thus maternity insurance schemes in China require new methods of fund raising to keep a sustainable maternity insurance fund in the region. Study also reveals that population reform is not done in isolation but require changes in the fundamental social structures to ensure its sustainability.

BackgroundGlobal health crisis continues to drive the dynamics of corporate social responsibility across industries with self-perpetuating momentum. From a historical point of view, more than a century of immense corporate fecundity has formed the ecological conditions and shaped current understanding of the effect of global health on CSR. The HIV-AIDS, the Opiod, the environmental health, obesity and many other health crises have become a synergistic platform to enhance corporate offer and competitiveness through voluntary support and care for victims. This review therefore revisits the core issues in global health that continues to drive CSR across industries. It seek to establish the driving dynamics of healthcare in CSR engagement, identify its contribution to theory and practice and predict the future pattern as corporate enterprises navigate new CSR strategies through the epochal challenges presented by COVID-19MethodThe procedures and set of activities outlined in the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) flow chart was used to carry out the systematic review.ResultsThe analysis has shown that from time immemorial, global health has played a major role in the development and implementation of CSR among enterprises. The HIV-AIDS pandemic, the environmental health crises are two dominant global health crisis that have shaped and continue to drive CSR activities in numerous work places but COVID-19 presents a deeper challenge for enterprise. These diseases are capable of self-mobilising advocates at the international level, have a grabbing value that reaches the corridors of power in international humanitarian organisations and multinational enterprises.ConclusionsThe impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) on CSR is predicted to be monumental and uncommon. The call for a radical overhaul of health and safety measures in enterprises is now urgent than ever before. There is a moral obligation for enterprises to reform current risk assessments and collaborate more deeply with state agencies to invest in the health and safety inspections at the world place.

Electronic health record (EHR) systems have become a basic need in most health care facilities worldwide. However, little can be said about the developing nations’ use of it. Nevertheless, Ghana is one of the very few countries in Africa to start using EHRs. Nursing is a field that has been substantially influenced by the use of hospital electronic information management systems (HEIMS). More importantly, the successful implementation of any mHealth and EHRs critically depends on user acceptance. Therefore, as nurses in Ghana work at the frontline of the health care system in the country with access to vital records about the patients, it is important to assess what motivates them to use the system. This study applied a non-experimental survey design. An electronic platform questionnaire on smartphones was used to collect data on 660 nurses. Statistically, AMOS structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to examine the research model. “Behavioral intention” (BI) to HEIMS use was significantly predicted by effort expectancy (EE) ( p 2 = .25), EE ( R2 = .311), and BI ( R2 = .397), and all explained 46% of the variance in nurses’ acceptance of HEIMS. Nurses’ acceptance of HEIMS was significantly predicted by PE, EE, and BI. Based on these findings, hospital administrators should put measures in place that will boost the nurses’ confidence in using HEIMS as well as endeavor to adopt and implement a very user-friendly system.

Technology adoption has become a favored strategy in urban water supply systems management to reduce the impact of changes in both climatic conditions and urban population growth. The urban water supply system of Ghana is conventional, with perceived rare use of modern technology. The adoption of water technology innovations by professionals who form part of the key stakeholders of water supply development is supposedly a precondition for improving the urban water supply systems. In the study, the attributes of diffusion of innovation model are applied to predict the intention of professionals' adoption to new water technologies using the structural equation model. The study finds that professionals' intention to adopt water technology innovations are influenced by the relative advantage; complexity and compatibility characteristics. Trialability and observability variables insignificantly influence the adoption of water technologies in the context of Ghana urban water supply system.

This study talks about improving entrepreneurial innovations of small medium hospitality industry (SMHI) in other to sustain it growth in Ghana. Successful stories about SMEs exist but are rare and this causes pauses for concern. Many researchers have established that innovations bring several benefits in countries that are industrialized. Responses from SMHI managers/owners indicate they totally agree small medium hospitality industry is better in relation to one's determination to introduces new service styles and product, good customer service, innovative in selling/ marketing and confidence in trying new service styles. We therefore, recommend management step up their innovative abilities by taking pride in customer needs /customer satisfaction as this will earn small medium hotels new and repeat customers in a highly perishable and competitive business environment.

Background Hospital electronic information management systems (HEIMS) are widely used in Ghana, and hence its performance must be carefully assessed. Nurses as clinical health personnel are the largest cluster of hospital staff and are the pillar of healthcare delivery. Therefore, they play a crucial role in the adoption and assessment of HEIMSs in Ghana. This report sought to assess the “Social Influence” (SI) and “Facilitating Conditions” (FC) that support Nurses’ Acceptance of HEIMS in Ghana using the “Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology” (UTAUT) model. Methods This study applied a non-experimental survey design. An electronic platform questionnaire on smartphones was used to collect data on 660 nurses. Statistically, AMOS Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) version 22.0 was employed to examine the research model. Results “Behavioral Intention” (BI) to HEIMS use was significantly predicted by SI and FC (p 2 = 43.2) and BI (R2 = 0.39.6) with both constructs explaining a total of 51.7% of the variance in nurses’ acceptance to use HEIMS. Conclusion Nurses’ adoption of HEIMS in terms of the UB was influenced by SI and BI, whiles SI and FC had the strongest influence on BI (serving as mediator) of UB to adopt and use HEIMS among the nurses in Ghanaian hospitals.

Upon the attainment of independence many African countries emerged with a new spirit of entrepreneurial governance and domestic industrialization. However with time, most of the state owned enterprises (SOEs) set up have been privatized largely because of mismanagement, huge deficits and operational inefficiencies created by many factors. In all material moments, the objective of divesture of SOEs was to stimulate efficiency, productivity and relieve the state of the huge financial burden they bring. Our study examines the methods of privatization of healthcare technology and equipment SOEs in Africa and their impact on post-divestiture productivity based on cases from Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania and Kenya.We simultaneously collect and model privatization data from International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank relating to Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania and Kenya. These were data submitted to the IMF and World Bank as part of the measures to implement the different forms of economic recovery and structural adjustment programs in the respective countries. Our empirical strategy follows the broader literature in estimating reduced form equations for firm performance as a function of ownership, while trying to account for potential problems of heterogeneity (observed and unobserved) and simultaneity bias. We note the insider/employee shareholding accounted for only 23.6 percent of privatization of healthcare equipments and technology manufacturing enterprises on average while mass privatization program accounts for 18.2 percent of the privatization mode. We note that each of these methods yield positive post divestiture labour productivity. However privatization of healthcare equipment and technology manufacturing enterprises by block sale to outside investors generated the highest form of labour productivity.

This study aims to examine the impact of China's population policy changes on social insurance. Nearly 4 decades ago, China ushered in the 1-child policy as a family planning policy to control the adverse effect of high population growth. The current maternity insurance system in China is designed to fit the operations of the 1-child policy. However, the implementation of the comprehensive 2-child policy can pose a challenge to the sustainability of the current maternity insurance scheme hence the call for reform. The study empanels a novel and comprehensive system dynamic model that incorporates all the related factors that influence the income and expenditure of maternity insurance in the Jiangsu Province. Data are mainly derived from the historical data of the Statistical Yearbook of Jiangsu Province and the National Bureau of Statistics of China. These are used to construct and simulate a system dynamic model to determine a sustainable contribution rate for maternity insurance. In conclusion, if the rate of contribution of the current maternity insurance policy is not increased, the burden of implementing the comprehensive 2-child policy will exacerbate the current deficit balance of the maternity insurance fund. The existing maternity insurance benefits thus cannot be maintained, and women's health will be threatened. In the short term, the study proposes an increase in the rate of premium payment to prolong the life of the maternity insurance. In the long term, there is a need to improve the level of coordination and expand the coverage of maternity insurance.

Background While the demand for health services keep escalating at the grass roots or rural areas of China, a substantial portion of healthcare resources remain stagnant in the more developed cities and this has entrenched health inequity in many parts of China. At its conception, China’s Deepen Medical Reform started in 2012 was intended to flush out possible disparities and promote a more equitable and efficient distribution of healthcare resources. Nearly half a decade of this reform, there are uncertainties as to whether the attainment of the objectives of the reform is in sight. Methods Using a hybrid of panel data analysis and an augmented data envelopment analysis (DEA), we model human resources, material, finance to determine their technical and scale efficiency to comprehensively evaluate the transverse and longitudinal allocation efficiency of community health resources in Jiangsu Province. Results We observed that the Deepen Medical Reform in China has led to an increase concern to ensure efficient allocation of community health resources by health policy makers in the province. This has led to greater efficiency in health resource allocation in Jiangsu in general but serious regional or municipal disparities still exist. Using the DEA model, we note that the output from the Community Health Centers does not commensurate with the substantial resources (human resources, materials, and financial) invested in them. We further observe that the case is worst in less-developed Northern parts of Jiangsu Province. Conclusions The government of Jiangsu Province could improve the efficiency of health resource allocation by improving the community health service system, rationalizing the allocation of health personnel, optimizing the allocation of material resources, and enhancing the level of health of financial resource allocation.

Health care, due to its high upfront costs and centrality to humankind, is often considered ‘different’ and best left outside the domain of markets. But such blanket opposition ignores valid reasons for not dismissing the value markets could bring. Since its inception in 1948 the NHS in England has gradually evolved (and devolved) into a very different being. No longer is it – in the words of health policy analyst Rudolf Klein the ‘secular church’, maintained and presided over by disciples of its founder, Aneurin Bevan. In its current state, the NHS functions on the basis of what has been variously called a ‘quasi’, ‘mimic’ or ‘internal’ market with its own risk levels for investors. For risk managers, at the centre of strong risk management is suitable risk metrics that are constructed using complex mathematical models. This study looks at the three approaches and how they apply in computing VaR. For the three techniques, VaR is defined and the main methodologies. Thereafter, the methods are applied, separately, to the data so as to compute VaR. The results is presented and analysed respectively. Next, we discuss the advantages and disadvantages associated with the three approaches. Furthermore, we will discuss the critical yet complex issues involved with the model accuracies and mapping up of positions related to risk factors and model volatility. The report concludes with a brief summary on the issues pertinent to VaR analysis.

Background While the demand for the health service keeps escalating at the grass root or rural areas of China, a substantial portion of healthcare resources remains stagnant in the more developed cities and this has entrenched health inequity in many parts of China. At its conception, the Deepening Health Care Reform in 2012 China was intended to flush out these discrepancies and promote a more equitable and efficient distribution of health resources. Nearly half a decade of this reform, there are uncertainties as to whether the attainment of the objectives of the reform is in sight. Methods We divided Jiangsu Province into 3 zones according to the level of economic and social development i.e. developed, developing, and undeveloped areas. Using a hybrid of Panel data analysis and an augmented Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), we model human resources, capital inputs of Community Health Centers to comprehensively determine the technical and scale efficiency of community health resources in 3 zones in Jiangsu Province. Results We sampled data and analysed efficiency and productivity growth of 75 Community Health Centers in 13 cities of Jiangsu Province from 2011 to 2015, which shows that a significant productive growth among Community Health Centers between 2011 and 2015. Mirroring the behavior of Community Health Centers, technological progress was the underlying force for the growth and the deterioration in efficiency change was found. This can be credited partly to the Deepening Health Care Reform measures aimed at improving technology availability in health centers in sub-urban areas. The regional summary of the DEA result shows that the stage of economic development and the efficiency performance of hospital did not necessarily go hand in hand among the 3 zones of Jiangsu. Conclusions The government of China in general and Jiangsu province in particular could improve the efficiency of health resources allocation by improving the community health service system, rationalizing the allocation of health personnel, optimizing the allocation of material resources and enhancing the level of health of financial resources allocation.

To survive and prosper in the China, online companies must design their operational platforms to organically adjust to changes in consumer shopping behavior. The study investigated the intrinsic and extrinsic factors that influence the online purchasing behavior of Chinese millennials. A cohort of university students from selected parts of the Jiangsu province provided the sample of study. Consistent with the extant literature, the research confirms that millenials are influenced by several external factors, demographic factors, personal characteristics, and vendor/service/product characteristics and websites qualities when buying online. The economic, socio-cultural, technological, and legal considerations where the main external factors that influences online shopping behavior of Chinese millenials, internet knowledge, concern for security, need specificity and disposition to trust were the main personal characteristics identified. The study also found significant association between vendor services such as real existence of the store, store reputation, store size, reliability, assurance (seals, warranties, news clips) and use of testimonials/reference have association with millennials’ purchasing intention. Similar characteristics were identified for product characteristics, service quality factors and website quality and each of these is statistically significant. Gender was determined to moderate the effect of all the factors on online shopping behavior.

Early accounts of the development of modern medicine suggest that the clinical skills, scientific competence, and doctors’ judgment were the main impetus for treatment decision, diagnosis, prognosis, therapy assessment, and medical progress. Yet, clinician judgment has its own critics and is sometimes harshly described as notoriously fallacious and an irrational and unfathomable black box with little transparency. With the rise of contemporary medical research, the reputation of clinician judgment has undergone significant reformation in the last century as its fallacious aspects are increasingly emphasized relative to the evidence based options. Within the last decade, however, medical forecasting literature has seen tremendous change and new understanding is emerging on best ways of sharing medical information to complement the evidence based medicine practices. This review revisits and highlights the core debate on clinical judgments and its interrelations with evidence based medicine. It outlines the key empirical results of clinician judgments relative to evidence based models and identifies its key strengths and prospects, the key limitations and conditions for the effective use of clinician judgment, and the extent to which it can be optimized and professionalized for medical use.

This study analyzes the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and company’s profitability (CP) in Ghana with the utilization of mixed data, obtained from sixteen (16) firms' audited annual report and financial statements between "2005-2014", filed with the Ghana stock Exchange (GSE) and Register General of companies. We use lagged data from the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) to establish the relationship between CP and CSR. In addition 850 questionnaires were administered to the public for CSR level of awareness data. The data collected are being analyzed by the use of Ordinary Least Square (OLS) for the study. Results from the analysis demonstrated that the selected companies have contributed below ten percent of their yearly profit to support social responsibility programmes. The co-efficient of determination of the findings demonstrates the extracts that the logical variable account for changes or varieties in chosen companies’ profits after tax (PAT) are brought about by changes in corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Ghana. It is then prescribes that regulations and laws to commit companies’ to be apparent, satisfactory consideration ought to be given to social accounting regarding social cost and to agree to the establishment of corporate social responsibility.

Since the 2008 global financial crisis, many African governments are now turning to China for the much needed loans and technical expertise to undertake developmental projects. Meanwhile China and Africa exhibited similar socio-economic conditions some three decades ago; high poverty rates and agrarian dominated economies with very low per capita incomes. However, in the past few years, even as Africa remains at the bottom of global economic rankings, China is progressively emerging as the world’s economic powerhouse. This paper examines the literature on how China’s rural reforms program facilitated the country’s fast economic transformation. The reforms process brought about institutional reforms that brought immense changes in the agriculture sector. The institutional reforms led to an increase in public investment in the area of R & D, irrigation, rural education, road, and electricity, which contributed to the growth in agricultural productivity and rural poverty reduction. It is these interventions brought in by the reforms that resulted in the miracle growth experienced by China.

Ageing is a natural process, which presents a unique challenge for all sections of the society. Further, by the year 2025, almost 75% of this elderly population will be living in developing nations, which already have an overburdened health-care delivery system. Our research integrated the Refined Kano Model with the RAND study to evaluate the value of health service quality offered to the elders as a basis for redesigning the healthcare component of Ghana elderly healthcare policy. Further the study identifies the specific elements of healthcare which are of importance to the elderly as opposed to the general use of the world healthcare which completely buries the specific healthcare challenges that elders in Ghana are suffering from and what they want done about it. The results demonstrate areas in which the healthcare sector in Ghana especially elderly care services is close to meeting elder’s expectations, and areas in which it falls far short of expectations. From a methodological perspective, it can be concluded that the ability of designing elderly healthcare services upon patient satisfaction makes this approach a powerful tool for health service managers and hospital business sector like other sectors

The current global healthcare market requires hospitals to fundamentally and constantly transform the way they function and identify new foundations or avenues to gain or consolidate any competitive advantage. We investigated whether hospitals managed by Protestants (Presbyterian or Calvinist) in Ghana exhibit entrepreneurial capabilities and competencies than hospitals managed by Catholics and Muslims due to the perceived inherent spirit of capitalism in Protestantism (Calvinism). Seventy five religious (mission) health facilities located across Ghana were evaluated for their entrepreneurial orientation with respect to autonomy, innovativeness, risk taking and competitive aggressiveness. The findings established that hospitals in Ghana which are managed by Protestant Churches (Presbyterian) do not differ in the adoption, application and use of entrepreneurial values and practices from those managed by Catholics and Ahmadiyya Muslims. The research contributes to the existing literature that puts the generalizability of Max Weber’s Protestant Ethic notion into dispute. Its novelty lies in the extension of Max Weber’s Protestant Ethic theory to analysing entrepreneurial culture in managing healthcare institutions in a “religious centric” Sub-Saharan African society”

One of the many notable interventions in the healthcare delivery service in Ghana is the adoption and use of medical technology to different aspects of hospital management especially the integrated Hospital Information Systems. These are comprehensive information support systems (medical sensors, scanners, expert systems, patent record management) implemented in most hospitals to integrate and provide rapid information in respect of patients, clinical, ancillary, legal, financial, service processing and other administrative issues. This research integrates each of the major elements from existing models to predict user acceptance, adoption and use of medical ICT in government hospitals in China and Ghana. Data is collected from a tertiary hospital in Ghana and analysed to evaluate a hierarchy of constraints and stimulants to the adoption and use of Medical ICT in government hospitals in Ghana, determines the extent to which cultural values or others can explain differences in the rate of adoption and use of Medical ICT in government hospitals in developing countries and make policy proposals towards amelioration of the problem of medical ICT adoption and use in government hospitals based on research outcome.

Elderly care, or aged care, is the fulfilment of the special needs and requirements that are unique to senior citizens. Because of the wide variety of elderly care found globally, as well as differentiating cultural perspectives on elderly citizens, cannot to be limited to any one practice. Our study evaluates the socio-economic situation of older people in Ghana, as they move into their retirement year. It analyses a comprehensive range of variables that capture the economic status of the elderly, including income, poverty rates, food consumption, housing consumption, nutrition measures, household production, and leisure. Further the study focuses on providing a solid assessment of the economic status of elderly people using comprehensive measures. It also specifically addresses questions regarding the social program participation decisions of the elderly and how public transfers impact their welfare. Following proposal for further studies in existing literature, this study explore the expectations and perception of socio-economic care needs of the elderly in Ghana using Kano’s service quality model as a tool to determine the expectations gap in the current services available for the elderly in Ghana. The study concludes that social welfare has typically had a low priority and the contribution of the family to welfare has largely been neglected. As a consequence, policy-making on how better to harness the energies and resources of the family and the community to resolve the social needs of individuals and groups has barely commenced. Traditional domestic arrangements had intergenerational support built into them; modern arrangements are in the process of destroying this key social welfare feature. Recognizing that this is the case raises the question of how to design intergenerational support back into mainstream social relations so that the elderly are not marginalized and put at risk by the urbanization process.