Objective: To examine spillovers from a federal policy, managed care market, and community perspective. Data Sources/Study Setting: We studied spillovers from a federal policy and managed care market perspective using the Health Care Utilization Project’s (HCUP) State Inpatient Database (SID). American Hospital Association (AHA) data, Interstudy Commercial Managed Care, and Area Health Resource File (AHRF). Medicare Advantage county-level payment schedules originate from CMS. We examined community uninsurance spillovers using 2011-2015 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), the Area Health Resource File (AHRF), and the Small Area Health Insurance Estimator (SAHIE). Study Design: Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and difference-in-difference regression analyses were used to examine a federal policy spillover on hospital readmissions. We used OLS and instrumental variable (IV) estimation to examined Medicare Advantage (MA) spillovers on Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) hospital readmissions. We used logistic regression to examine community uninsurance spillovers on the privately insured. Principal Findings: After the HRRP, Medicare FFS saw a decrease in 30-day preventable condition- and all-cause readmissions. Medicare Advantage saw a positive spillover after the HRRP. MA market penetration has no effect on Medicare FFS hospital readmissions. High community uninsurance rates are associated with less access to behavioral health related outpatient/office-based and prescription utilization. Conclusions: HRRP had a positive spillover on MA hospital all-cause readmissions. MA market penetration has no effect on Medicare FFS readmissions. High levels of community uninsurance are associated with poorer access to outpatient/office-based and prescription behavioral related services.

Between 2010 and 2014 there was a 25% increase in international visitors to the United States, which signifies an opportunity for leaders and managers with a global mindset to take advantage of the opportunities derived from globalization to increase competitive advantage. However, some organizations have not prepared executives and managers to operate in a global environment, which can lead to business failure. The purpose of this multicase study was to gain an understanding of what global mindset strategies hotel executives developed to increase competitive advantage. The target population consisted of the general managers, directors of sales, and directors of catering from 3 full-service hotels at two international airports in the United States who have developed and deployed successful strategies reflecting a global mindset. Porter's 5 forces model served as the conceptual framework for this study. Data sources for this study included semistructured interviews, company websites, advertisements, franchise disclosure documents, and observations. Based on coding interview transcripts, creating mind maps using software, and methodological triangulation of the data, 3 themes emerged: leverage brand resources, personalize services, and leverage staff diversity for service delivery. The implications of this study for positive social change include the potential to create a multiplier effect starting with increased staffing due to increased business volume and profits. The potential increase in competitive advantage may also help hotels prosper and help to ensure funds are available for the hotels to remain contributing businesses for local communities' tax revenues to benefit citizens.

Small business owners play a leading role in the United States economy by creating jobs. However, small businesses have a high failure rate, with approximately 50% going out of business during the first 5 years. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the competitive advantage strategies that owners of small businesses used to sustain their businesses longer than the first 5 years. A sample of 6 small service industry business owners in Houston, TX that have been in business for 5 years or more participated in semistructured interviews. Additional data were collected from company documents and the review of artifacts related to small business success and longevity. Entrepreneurship theory provided the conceptual framework for the study. Member checking enhanced the credibility of the interpretations of the participant responses. Data were analyzed using Yin's 5 stages of coding: compiling, disassembling, reassembling, interpreting, and concluding the data. From the data analysis, 3 themes were revealed: financial capital, marketing and competitive advantages, and great customer service. Findings of this study might help owners of small businesses to ensure business growth, increase revenues, and stimulate job creation.

Developmental age differences were studied between a group of Head Start children and a group of preschool children attending the Utah State University Child Development Laboratory. The Lowenfeld Mosaic Test was used to make distinctions between the child whose developmental age was below his age in years. The results were compared to the four-year and five-year chronological age level of the Armes and Ilg scoring criteria. Although behavior in response to the Mosaic test developed in the same way for both the disadvantaged children and the advantaged children, the products or Mosaic designs of the disadvantaged children were less mature and developed more slowly. It was fairly evident from the data that the Utah State University children responded at a more mature level than the Head Start Children. The data seemed to substantiate the fact that there was a difference in maturity of design between all the males and all the females treatment of patterning the Mosaic.

Significant levels of interest and organisational spending on information and communication technologies (ICT's) have triggered debate as to whether these investments are worthwhile. While there has been some acknowledgement that investments result in positive returns, little is known about how ICT's may lead to competitive advantage. This thesis starts to inform this gap, by investigating how ICT's are combined with other organisational resources in the context of an exemplar organisation. The resource based view (RBV) is used as a framework to guide this study. The RBV is an appropriate lens to guide this research due to its focus on resources and capabilities as sources of advantage. This research employs an interpretive case study design based in an organisation with a long history of innovation and success with regard to ICT's. A grounded integrated model of advantage is presented based on two distinct groupings of integrated capabilities: lifecycle and embedded foundational capabilities. The integrated model of advantage, along with key actions outlined to support such capabilities, provides researchers and practitioners with a new way of understanding ICT based advantages. In essence, this research demonstrates how the total ownership of ICT's, within the case studied, presents a potential advantage. The advantage is realised through the combination of capabilities and the inclusive approach to ICT development employed in the case organisation. The research finds support from propositions of the RBV, in that the model demonstrates sources of advantage are based on organisational capabilities which are valuable, firm specific, and socially complex. As such, the integration of capabilities evident in the integrated model of advantage is a likely source of sustained competitive advantage. This means advantages gained from the integration of capabilities are not easily imitated or competed away. Furthermore, advantages have an even greater potential to be a source of sustained advantage than any single resource or capability. The research has important implications for theory and practice. While many individual sources of advantage have been empirically examined, this research provides one of the first in-depth case studies which identify integrated capabilities. Understanding such sources of advantage will help practitioners better understand and protect key organisational capabilities to sustain or extend competitive advantages.

This thesis examines the influence of market, learning, and entrepreneurial orientation as sources of competitive advantage in fast-growth SMEs. It is taken that these three factors synergistically comprise an organization's business orientation, enhancing marketing capabilities and firm performance. In Australia, these firms tend to be emerging enterprises, usually less than 10 years of age, and comprise approximately 10% of all SMEs, contributing substantially to national revenue. Two studies (Study 1 and Study 2) were incorporated, utilizing a sequential explanatory design, which is characterized by undertaking quantitative data collection and analysis (path modelling), prior to conducting qualitative research (case studies/causal network modelling). Study 1 reveals that business orientations are significant antecedents to marketing capabilities. Accordingly, firms leverage advantages associated with a business orientation to strengthen their marketing capabilities. While superior marketing capabilities are important drivers of performance, these capabilities also mediate relationships between business orientation and performance. Without such capabilities, it appears that firm market, entrepreneurial and learning orientations provide little value to attainment of desired performance objectives. Fast growth SMEs invest in maintaining sound relationships with distributors and developing superior products/services for positional advantages. However, only product/service development capabilities contribute significantly to firm performance. Although Relationship Capabilities are related positively with Shared Vision (learning orientation) and Proactiveness (entrepreneurial orientation), this marketing capability dimension displays nonsignificant relationshi ps with performance measures. This finding suggests that even though FGF employees might have sound relationships with distributors/retailers, Relationship Capabilities are not a direct contributor to subjective measures of firm profitability, ROI, ROE, customer satisfaction, new product success, and overall marketing effectiveness, confirming that positional advantage does not necessarily lead to enhanced firm performance. In addition, marketing research, marketing management, marketing communications, and pricing are nonsignificant contributors within the context of the present hypothesized model. Study 2 extends the hypothesized model originating from Study 1. Based on an inductive analysis of case studies, qualitative findings reveal four significant qualities specific to these organizations: Leadership/CEO characteristics, human resource practices, organizational culture, and organizational climate. These characteristics can be regarded as intangible resources associated with fast-growth firms. These attributes appear to be significant antecedents to business orientation, marketing capabilities, customer value, and firm performance. Customer value features prominently. This model is also nonrecursive: firm performance sends a signal to potential employees and customers, impacting human resource related issues such as staff motivation, rewards, and recruitment. Successful firms tend to attract highly talented employees because potential staff want to be associated with winning enterprises. Information generated and disseminated from the renewal process adds new knowledge to superior organizational r esources, making the process nonrecursive. Perhaps, more importantly, Study 2 reveals that fast-growth companies seem to have an uncanny ability to remain ahead, preventing competitors from surreptitiously entering their markets. It might sound as a cliché, however, but these organizations appear to possess a commitment to customer centricity for at least some period of time, retaining customers by developing new products which continue to serve current customers as they change what they value.

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Business. / This thesis examines the concept of differential advantage and its relevance to the formulation of marketing strategy. It compares the model of market share determination, based on the possession of differential advantages in marketing mix variables, with one based on the concept of marketing effort. The two models are examined using data on new passenger car registrations collected from Idaps and Paxus1 respectively, media spend from Bruce Tart and Associates, and later AIM Data2, car dealerships from the Telecom Yellow Pages, and car models and new passenger car prices from Wheels Magazine, for the period 1983 to 1993. The above data was corroborated, where possible, by means of authoritative sources in the motor car industry in Australia. The theory of market share determination, based on share of marketing effort is an attractive one. This thesis finds that the relationship between market share3 and share of marketing effort is positive, consistent and statistically significant. It confirms the place of marketing effort as a model of market share determination in the marketing literature. Differential advantage is an index of competitive activity that is calculated by subtracting concurrent market share from share of marketing effort. The proposition, advanced by Cook and Rothberg (1990), is that increasing amounts of differential advantage are positively related to increasing levels of market share. This thesis does not support this proposition. At an overall level of analysis, the relationship between market share and differential advantage is a negative one. Only when a subset analysis is done, for small car makers, is there a weak but statistically significant and positive relationship between market share and differential advantage. The overall negative relationship between market share and differential advantage may be explained in part by the economic uncertainty of a boom and economic recession during the period under consideration in this thesis. A further possible explanation is that the data may not have captured fully the relationship between market share and differential advantage. The data examined the relationship between market share and differential advantage with only four independent variables. A larger number of independent variables, or different ones, may have described the relationship more effectively. Such data was not available. A more fundamental conclusion that is supported by this thesis is that successful competitive strategy simply does not require share of marketing investments to be greater than concurrent market share. The place of differential advantage in the formulation of marketing strategy is questioned. This thesis supports the value of competitive marketing effort in the formulation of marketing strategy.

<p>Nowadays, the European airline market is characterized by two major different airline business models; the full service airlines and the low cost airlines. Secondary, appeared for the first time in 1985 in form of the Irish low cost carrier Ryanair. In recent days, the European low cost market stands out through its growth potential and high competitiveness. Therefore, startup companies aiming to join the wave of success as well as insolvency of newly established airlines are part of the daily occurrence. The challenge, that established low cost airlines are faced with, is to create competitive advantages against new entrants and direct competitors under the circumstances of environmental changes. In addition to the described problem a model was developed in order to picture the situation. This paper aims to provide an answer to the specific question: How do low cost airlines use relationship marketing in order to enhance, maintain and attract new customers? The second step is to figure out how those tools affect the airlines generic strategy. The purpose of this study is to find out how low cost airlines in Europe deal with tools of relationship marketing and what are the effects those tools have on generic strategies. This thesis is based on a case study within the European low cost airlines market, with a special focus on three airlines: Ryanair, EasyJet and Air Berlin. These questions are addressed using information obtained in interviews with respondents from the airlines that were recently conducted in Brussels and Bremen by personal interviews and additionally by telephone interviews and email contact. The results show that relationship marketing tools are used in a different extent by the airlines. The authors could not find evidence that using relationship marketing tools is the single solution to compete more successfully than without. It is further argued by the authors that RM is just one aspect strengthening the generic strategy in order to gain sustainable competitive advantage.</p>

This dissertation addresses three topics on the implications of firm behaviors in creating and adopting knowledge of production, choosing international location for production and market access, and using informative advertising in a market competition with multidimensional product characteristics. The first study investigates the empirical evidence of local knowledge spillovers in Indonesian medium and large manufacturing industry. The second study looks at the link between the patterns of trade revealed comparative advantage and net inward foreign direct investment in five developed countries: France, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The third study seeks to determine the effects of informative advertising in a market with two-dimensional, vertically differentiated products. The results of the first study show that the extent of knowledge spillovers depends on both geographical and technological proximities. In addition, the extent of knowledge spillovers seems to depend on sector-specific characteristics and the presence of foreign investment. The results of the second study reveal a significant role of comparative advantage in determining inflows of foreign direct investment in developed countries, especially in the services industry. Finally, the results of the third study show that with informative advertising, the firm with the 'better' product will charge a higher market, have a larger market share, and advertise more. In addition, even when advertising leads to higher market prices, the full-prices that the consumers must pay are still lower than in the case of no advertising. / Graduation date: 2004

Many explanations of competitive advantage view place as a secondary factor. Organizational studies models tend to be considered aspatially, yet most are inherently geographic. It is important to consider the impact that geography has on the success or failure of an individual firm or a sector. This dissertation examines how location impacts the US farm machinery industry through an empirical analysis of Porter’s Theory of Competitive Advantage. Contributing to this empirical test are other bodies of literature including models for headquarters and research and development siting, product life cycle theory, industry life cycle theory, and green technologies as a driver of competitive advantage. The US farm machinery industry is composed of three firms: Deere and Company, Case New Holland, and the Allis-Gleaner Corporation. Theory-elaborating case study methodology, informed by archival data, publically available documents, trade show reconnaissance, and plant tours, coupled with map and content analysis allows for a deeper understanding of how geography impacts competitive advantage in the sector. Comparing findings from these geographic case studies to Porter’s results led to a new understanding of competitive advantage for mature manufacturing in a globalized economy. Previous analysis found Porter’s single diamond, which focuses on local conditions for competitive advantage, most appropriate for explaining mature industries in advanced market economies. This study found, however, that as mature industries increasingly pursue a global focus, a double diamond model, which takes into account both local and global conditions for competitive advantage, is more appropriate, even in an advanced economy. This research also found that, much like second-tier cities are desirable for headquarters and research and development siting, second-tier countries (that can provide high-skill labor at lower prices) are increasingly attractive for manufacturing operations. The need for modifications to product life cycle theory that take into account the impact of these countries as well as the effects of nationalism on manufacturing decisions in mature economies were also uncovered by this dissertation. This research demonstrates the continued importance of place to understanding competitive advantage, not only in the US farm machinery industry, but generally for mature manufacturing as a whole.