Purchase management of medical supplies is a critical and important process that affects the services provision quality. Nonetheless, it is facing a growing pressure to provide visibility and traceability of the purchase, to reduce fraud, to improve flexibility and to ensure communication between everyone involved. Currently, private health institutions in Peru choose to implant different software products within the same company with restricted visibility access to other concerned parties and based on information from a single source. A new alternative is Blockchain technology, since it provides a single source of shared truth to all participants and ensures that the information cannot be altered, thus offering high levels of transparency that, together with IoT technology, creates not only visibility about where things are, but also traceability, showing the current state of things. / Revisón por pares

The purpose of this study was to establish a predictive model of the factors that contribute to the decision-making process when purchasing denim by 13- to 19-year-old adolescents living in the U.S. The researcher created an online survey through Qualtrics and administered it to an opt-in panel of adolescents, through Centiment. There were 460 survey responses collected. Important denim attributes to respondents included comfort and fit, price, durability, and body perception. Significant predictors that increased respondents’ intention to purchase denim jeans included intrinsic attributes-appearance of fabric on the body, cognitive attributes, tighter fit, and purchased denim in the last three months. Significant predictors that decreased respondents’ intention to purchase denim jeans included if the price was increasingly more than $40 and gender. The information gathered in this study could help manufacturers focus on what adolescents consider important in denim jeans and adjust production and marketing strategy as needed. Future research should determine which attributes were contributing to the significance of intrinsic attributes-appearance of fabric on the body and cognitive attributes. Another future research study could conduct the research with physical examples of denim jeans present.

This study investigates Dynamic Purchasing Systems’ (DPS) supplier perspectiveand frameworks’ supplier perspective. DPSs were introduced in to the Swedish 2016procurement laws and few studies have been conducted looking into the procedurein a logistical view. Preferred customer theory was used to help understand thedifferences between the two procedures and how much they align with the previousliterature. Two methods were incorporated into the study. The first is that fiveinterviews were conducted with service suppliers. Three Technical service suppliers,one Professional Service supplier, and one legal consultant. The second is that asurvey was distributed to the suppliers of Luleå Municipality to understand thebroader population’s opinion. Some of the literature agreed with the findings fromthe interviews. Both the interviews and the survey showed that there were mixedopinions on the procedure. Further, the evaluation of the submitted tenders seemedto be a large point of which all the interviewees agreed should be based on quality,the size of the call-off was also a point that seemed to sway how well received theprocedure would be, which is similar to previous studies. Finally, the placement of aneed in the Kraljic Matrix could also impact the perspective of the procedure due tothe results that the position would have on how the technique is implemented.

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Advance care planning is a conversation about personal values, future treatment choices, and designation of a surrogate decision-maker, that someone has in advance of a health crisis. Most existing studies on advance care planning have taken place outside of home health among populations with HIV/AIDS, cancer, dementia, and end stage renal disease. The U.S. home health population is living longer with chronic conditions such as pulmonary and cardiovascular illnesses, and hospitalization is a poor outcome. In 2016, Medicare implemented the Home Health Value-Based Purchasing Model, in which reimbursement rates for agencies in 9 regionally representative states were dependent on quantitative measures of quality performance. Part of the program was a process-level mandate requiring agencies to report on advance care planning. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship of home health advance care planning protocols with hospitalization rates. Descriptive and regression analyses were conducted on survey data of protocols and agency data of demographics and outcomes. Statistical significance was found in the positive correlation between advance care planning protocols and hospitalization. Recommendations are made for broadening the scope of evaluation of quality in home health to include goal-concordant care and transitions to appropriate services.

This study examined whether situational variables influence members of the buying center when deriving an evoked set in an organizational buying scenario. Buyclass, risk, and power were the focus of the study. This study examined the process organizations go through when deriving evoked sets and the role situational variables played in that process. This process was examined within the context of organizational buying scenarios. The organizational buying process is different from the consumer buying process. The organizational buying process includes a series of incremental steps. A decision or decisions are made at each step. The first step in the decision process is the recognition of a problem and the formulation of a set of potential solutions. This initial group of solutions is an evoked set. Organizational buying decisions are made by a collection of people within the organization. These individuals interact through the phases of the purchase process making the necessary decisions. This group is called a buying center. The buying center is influenced throughout the buying process by a number of variables. This study focused on three situational variables: buyclass, risk, and power. However, other variables were revealed. A proposed model for understanding the organizational buying process was constructed and presented in the literature review section (Chapter Two). This model incorporated situational variables in the overall buying process. While the study was conducted within the context of the proposed model, the proposed model was not tested. The proposed model may provide context for future studies in the area of organizational marketing. The research questions and propositions suggested in Chapter One were examined within the context of the hospitality industry. Specifically, this dissertation has studied how situational variables influenced buying centers within associations while the buying centers were formulating evoked sets while searching for an annual convention site. The sample for the study was drawn from associations headquartered in Washington, D.C. / Ph. D.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

This dissertation reports on a initial assessment of Anderson’s Reward/Measurement (R/M) Model of organizational buying behavior. The R/M Model rests on the fundamental proposition that individuals’ organizational buying behavior is determined largely by the reward and measurement system which exists in the organization. This research is a test of the model’s major assertion: the behavior of organizational buying process participants is determined to a substantial degree by their corresponding reward/measurement systems. The research was conducted in three phases. Phase one was the development of an instrument to operationalize the experimental design. A buying game booklet incorporating a descriptive purchasing scenario with hypothetical vendors and five buying tasks was used. Respondents were allocated rewards (in the form of points) based on their vendor choice in each trial within each buying task. Phase two consisted of a pilot test of the experiment using students as subjects. Phase three was the conduct of the experiment using industrial buyers as subjects. The experimental procedure consisted of a two-group, two factor mixed design, with repeated measures on one factor. The independent variable was the consistency or inconsistency between the stated organizational purchasing objectives, and the objectives for which rewards were given. The dependent variables were vendor choice (measured by subjects’s responses to a forced-choice question), and subjects’ vendor preferences and behavioral intentions (assessed by responses on seven-point semantic differential rating scales). Statistical techniques used to analyze the data included: (1) chi-square analyses, (2) analysis of variance tests, (3) Tukey’s multiple comparison tests, (4) inter-item correlation matrices, and (5) Cronbach’s alpha tests. Generally, the hypotheses and consequently the R/M Model’s major assertion were supported by the results of the data analyses. Specifically, the research revealed that subjects: (1) preferred vendors which allowed them to achieve organizationally-mediated rewards, (2) intended to select vendors which would allow them to achieve organizationally-mediated rewards, and (3) for the most part, chose vendors which allowed them to achieve organizationally-mediated rewards. The dissertation concludes by discussing contributions and implications for both the theorist and the practitioner. In addition, limitations of the study are cited and suggestions for future research are proposed. / Ph. D.