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1 – 10 of over 4000Sameer Kumar, Michael McCalla and Eric Lybeck
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effectiveness of employee wellness programs on employee engagement and the reduction of employee health care costs. The intent of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effectiveness of employee wellness programs on employee engagement and the reduction of employee health care costs. The intent of the analysis is to explain the typical costs associated with these programs and the potential benefits to the employer and employee.
Design/methodology/approach
Due to the paucity of academic literature on the operational impact of employee wellness programs, a case study utilizing an internal company's resources and employee survey were also used to examine business questions related to the efficacy of such programs in businesses.
Findings
The results of the employee survey showed that there is a correlation between eating a balanced diet and being more productive at work. Also, there is a link between being in good physical health, potentially because employees participate in the wellness program, and being productive at work. On the other hand, it was also found that employees who do not eat a very balanced diet, do not like the company's wellness plan and are not convinced that it would make employees more productive.
Practical implications
For a company designing its wellness program, it should tap information through an employee survey on how many employees have each of the significant risk factors for using medical services and determine which risk factors to target in its wellness program.
Originality/value
An operational framework is presented to determine when employer‐sponsored wellness programs are appropriate for employers to offer. Detailed discussion and analysis given on employee wellness programs from both the employer and employee perspective to determine if these programs can be justified and recommended to organizations who do not currently participate will help protect many vulnerable employees and improve organization productivity.
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This paper aims to propose a framework for marketing to the sandwich generation (SG) shopper, an influential and growing demographic in the marketplace.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to propose a framework for marketing to the sandwich generation (SG) shopper, an influential and growing demographic in the marketplace.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper draws from research in business, sociology, health care and industry sources that have studied the SG. It proposes a marketing framework to create value for SG shoppers and their families, in multiple ways.
Findings
SG members seek to meet at least four major kinds of needs across their intergenerational families: financial management, social support, health care and wellness. Businesses can help them more efficiently bridge those needs by including certain enablers in their offerings: human resource benefits to manage health and associated costs, resource allocation tools to manage financial and social support needs across different lifespans, time management tools to integrate social support needs with wellness outcomes and technology/services that help meet health and wellness needs across the family.
Practical implications
Managers can attract SG members and their families to their offerings by keeping in mind three rules of thumb: help them recover their most scarce resource: time; capitalize on age-friendly adjustments in the marketplace; and innovate with universal design in mind.
Originality/value
To the author’s knowledge, this is the first application of existing knowledge on the SG to a marketing framework that addresses key SG customer concerns.
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Dibya Nandan Mishra and Rajeev Kumar Panda
This research examines the role of a therapist’s attributes, namely, expertise, sociability, likability and mind-set similarity, in building trust, satisfaction and commitment…
Abstract
Purpose
This research examines the role of a therapist’s attributes, namely, expertise, sociability, likability and mind-set similarity, in building trust, satisfaction and commitment amongst visitors in Indian wellness resorts and hotels.
Design/methodology/approach
The text mining approach was adopted to collect a large corpus of 3,94,373 online reviews from TripAdvisor, Google Reviews and hotels.com. Reviews were taken from 1,677 resorts and hotels that deal in spa and wellness care across India. This study uses unsupervised Naïve Bayes classification and n-gram lexical TF-IDF vectorizer method to classify and find the sentiment of the reviews shared by the visitors of the wellness resorts. Additionally, multiple linear regression is performed to understand the impact of the therapist’s identified attributes on the visitor’s relationship quality.
Findings
The research found positive sentiment towards the therapist’s likability, and visitors seemed satisfied with the overall wellness service. The sentiment towards trust and commitment is low. The study also found significant links between likability and expertise in building the relationship quality between the therapist and the visitors. The expertise of the therapist enhances visitors’ trust and willingness to return. The therapist’s likability nature helps in increasing visitor satisfaction.
Research limitations/implications
This study helps to understand the service personnel's level of relationship with the customer in hospitality services. Further, the study empirically verifies the important factors that build relationship quality in Indian wellness services.
Practical implications
The present study argues the need for greater clarity in understanding the customer perception of the services provided by wellness therapists in Indian wellness resorts and hotels. The study guides hotel managers to perform training of wellness therapists to improve customer satisfaction. Using the findings of the current study, managers can prioritize therapists’ attributes and realign their core strategies and provide satisfying wellness services to customers.
Originality/value
This study demonstrates the essential qualities a therapist should develop to enhance the relationship with the resort visitors and foster trust, commitment and satisfaction. The study goes a step further by using a vast database of online data for deep insights into the visitor’s view and the use of machine learning for amplifying results.
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Loveleen Gaur, Anam Afaq, Gurmeet Singh and Yogesh Kumar Dwivedi
The hospitality industry experienced an unanticipated challenge from the COVID-19 pandemic. However, research in this area is scarce. Accordingly, this study aims to unfold a…
Abstract
Purpose
The hospitality industry experienced an unanticipated challenge from the COVID-19 pandemic. However, research in this area is scarce. Accordingly, this study aims to unfold a three-angled research agenda to intensify the knowledge advancement in the hospitality sector. It proposes a theoretical framework by extending the protection motivation theory (PMT) to explain the guest’s intent to adopt artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics as a protective measure in reaction to COVID-19.
Design/methodology/approach
The research is centered on outlining the pertinent literature on hospitality management practices and the guest’s transformed behavior during the current crisis. This study intends to identify a research agenda based on investigating hospitality service trends in today’s changing times.
Findings
The study sets out a research agenda that includes three dimensions as follows: AI and robotics, cleanliness and sanitation and health care and wellness. This study’s findings suggest that AI and robotics may bring out definite research directions at the connection of health crisis and hospitality management, taking into account the COVID-19 crisis.
Practical implications
The suggested research areas are anticipated to propel the knowledge base and help the hospitality industry retrieve the COVID-19 crisis through digital transformation. AI and robotics are at the cusp of invaluable advancement that can revive the hotels while re-establish guests’ confidence in safe hotel practices. The proposed research areas are likely to impart pragmatic lessons to the hospitality industry to fight against disruptive situations.
Originality/value
This study stands out to be pioneer research that incorporated AI and robotics to expand the PMT and highlights how behavioral choices during emergencies can bring technological revolution.
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Judi Allyn Godsey, Tom Hayes, Clinton Schertzer and Robert Kallmeyer
Nurses have been called to be leaders in the transformation of health care and to help improve health-care access for the nation’s most vulnerable populations. However, to lead…
Abstract
Purpose
Nurses have been called to be leaders in the transformation of health care and to help improve health-care access for the nation’s most vulnerable populations. However, to lead health-care transformation, the profession of nurses must first see themselves as leaders. Unfortunately, nursing has been described as lacking cohesiveness and failing to communicate a consistent brand image. No empirically tested quantitative tools exist to measure the brand identity of nursing, making it difficult to assess where the profession stands in regard to the mantel of leadership. The purpose of this study was to develop empirically sound instruments which could measure nurses’ perceptions of their professional brand image. A total of three scales were developed and then tested: The Nursing Brand Image Scale, Nursing’s Current Brand Position Scale and Nursing’s Desired Brand Position Scale.
Design/methodology/approach
The factor structure and internal consistency reliability of each scale were examined following survey administration to a national sample of registered nurses. Principal component analyses were used to explore the factor structure of each scale. Item reduction was achieved through examination of the loading of items across the factors and the impact of the item on internal consistency reliability.
Findings
Respondents to the survey were nursing alumni who received a baccalaureate or master’s degree in nursing at a private, mid-western university, and nursing faculty affiliated with a private, collegiate network (n = 286). For all scales, principal component analysis showed no inter-item correlations >0.9 or <0.1. The Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin measure for sampling adequacy was high and Bartlett’s test of sphericity was significant (p < 0001). The internal consistency reliability of each of the three scales was good to excellent. Current brand position mean scores were highest for the factor “caring advocates for patients/public”, and lowest on “influential leaders”. The most desired brand position mean scores were highest and rated similarly for factors “influential leaders” and “patient-centered caregivers”.
Originality/value
This study provides strong preliminary evidence for the factor structure and internal consistency reliability for each of the three scales and represents an important first step toward quantitatively measuring the brand image of nursing. However, results suggest there is work to be done if nursing is to formulate and adopt a brand image that consistently reinforces their role as leaders. Further testing of the scales with other nursing populations, the general public and with larger sample sizes is recommended.
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This chapter considers how mental health care is done in and by digital culture in the UK. The author examines how treatments for anxiety and depression operate in today’s…
Abstract
This chapter considers how mental health care is done in and by digital culture in the UK. The author examines how treatments for anxiety and depression operate in today’s technosocial age of smartphone hegemony. Smartphones, the author argues, offer valuable insight into contemporary health and wellbeing precisely because they are emblematic of the neoliberal production logics, knowledge claims and modes of address that structure this moment in digital culture history. The author also shows how this moment is the outcome of key shifts in computing hardware, software, and content. Empirically, this research focusses on mapping Britain’s terrain of smartphone interventions for anxiety and depression. Working from a dataset of 635 apps, the author develops a four-part framework for understanding products and services in this crowded marketplace relative to an app’s (1) intended audience; (2) communicative affordances; (3) business model; and (4) therapeutic approach. Through this framework, the author proposes the notion of me apps to codify the individualised, commercialised, and desocialised mode of address enacted by most of the apps in the dataset. The author shows that the ideology of me apps, and the modes of address they employ, frame mental illness as an individual problem and regard treatment as an individual endeavour. The end of the chapter considers the possibility of an alternative vision for designing technologies of mental wellbeing.
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Anoosha Makka and Cecile Nieuwenhuizen
This paper aims to explore the perceptions of multinational enterprises (MNEs) representing four key economic sectors in South Africa regarding what the most important national…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the perceptions of multinational enterprises (MNEs) representing four key economic sectors in South Africa regarding what the most important national corporate social responsibility (CSR) priority issues are for the country. This paper also investigates whether MNEs in South Africa are overwhelmed by the number of CSR issues in the country.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative research approach was used. Thirty eight semi-structured telephone interviews were conducted with CSR practitioners at MNEs in the banking and finance, manufacturing, mining and services sectors. Data were analysed by means of qualitative content analysis.
Findings
The majority of participants in this study indicated that the top three CSR priorities for South Africa in order of importance are education, training and skills development; building and developing local communities and health care and wellness. Another significant finding was that MNEs indicated that there are too many CSR issues in South Africa.
Research limitations/implications
The results of this study highlight the need for South Africa to develop a national CSR index which clearly articulates the top CSR priorities of the country. This study explored the views of MNEs from four economic sectors of the South African economy. This study can be expanded to incorporate other sectors.
Practical implications
The findings of this study provide guidelines to MNEs and firms about the key CSR priorities for the country.
Originality/value
As far as can be ascertained, this is the first study that seeks to identify the key national CSR priority issues for South Africa from the perspective of MNEs operating in the country. This study determines whether MNEs in South Africa are overwhelmed by the number of CSR issues that they are confronted with.
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K.R. Pillai, Soundarya Nallavalli and Christina Immaculate
Healthcare is traditionally considered an indispensable service in both personal and social points of views. In this regard, healthcare-seeking behaviour is driven by utilitarian…
Abstract
Purpose
Healthcare is traditionally considered an indispensable service in both personal and social points of views. In this regard, healthcare-seeking behaviour is driven by utilitarian orientation, given its existential value. But this trend is changing, as the propensity to avail (un)necessary healthcare services is burgeoning with changing lifestyle and practices. From the supply point of view, the market appears to be relentless in enforcing propensity to seek healthcare. The service providers, generally, create unnecessary needs and aspirations, taking undue advantage of the prospects’ over-conscious health concerns and overzealous longing for wellness. This study aims to find whether utilitarianism or hedonism is the prominent paradigm of healthcare-seeking behaviour in the onset of changing preferences and lifestyles and supply-driven market forces.
Design/methodology/approach
The study followed an empirical approach to accomplish the aim of research. Subjects for the study constitute sample respondents in the age of 18-60 years, who were identified on inspection. A structured questionnaire, drawn upon literature, was used to elicit information.
Findings
The study offered new insight into the basic psychological motive for healthcare-seeking. The results have empirically validated the pre-eminence of a hedonic attribute of consumer behaviour in healthcare-seeking.
Practical implications
The outcome of the study has implications for healthcare providers to tailor-make their future products and services and for governing bodies to design suitable policy guidelines.
Originality/value
The study explores the emerging trends in health-seeking behaviour.
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Mallika Srivastava and Madhur Raina
The overall purpose of this empirically validated research paper is to determine factors that impact the success of using social media channels by consumers for salvaging health…
Abstract
Purpose
The overall purpose of this empirically validated research paper is to determine factors that impact the success of using social media channels by consumers for salvaging health-care information by integrating constructs of the information system (IS) success model, e-health service quality and perceived usefulness during pre- and post-COVID settings.
Design/methodology/approach
Online survey responses of 243 consumers for study 1 and 184 consumers for study 2 were validated using factor analysis to understand consumers’ attitudes toward social media use. Constructs from existing literature and theories have been extracted to develop the proposed model, which has been empirically validated through statistical tests. A paired-samples t-test was also conducted to compare the customer satisfaction mean of pre- and post-COVID conditions; and word of mouth (WOM) for pre- and post-COVID conditions.
Findings
The outcome of this study supports that service quality and information quality conclusively influence customer satisfaction of consumers for health-care information among respondents pre COVID, and service quality, perceived usefulness and information quality conclusively affect customer satisfaction of consumers for health-care information among respondents post COVID. Furthermore, the e-health service quality contributes noteworthy in shaping the consumers’ satisfaction with social media usage for study 2 and information quality for study 1. A paired-samples t-test revealed that the two groups behaved significantly differently for customer satisfaction and WOM in the two groups.
Research limitations/implications
At prima facie, this study has a geographical limitation for the sample size. The respondents for the online research were from the urban suburb of Bengaluru, India. The data collection has not focused on any precise social media channel.
Practical implications
Identification and comprehension of constructs that influence consumer satisfaction related to social media usage for health-care information can assist health-care managers in developing appropriate strategies for consumers to maximize social media usage. Moreover, this study provides an insight into the consumer’s perception of using social media channels for seeking health-care information.
Originality/value
This study recommends an empirically validated model for the success of social media in a consumer setting for the health-care scenario. This research is a unique attempt that inspects social media satisfaction by adapting constructs from existing theories of the IS success model, e-health service quality and perceived usefulness.
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The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of rural older veterans in the US and discuss how the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is increasing access to health care…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of rural older veterans in the US and discuss how the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is increasing access to health care for older veterans in rural areas.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a descriptive paper summarizing population and program data about rural veterans.
Findings
VA provides a variety of health care services and benefits for older veterans to support health, independence, and quality of life. With the creation of the Veterans Health Administration Office of Rural Health (ORH) in 2006, the needs of rural veterans, who are on average older than urban veterans, are receiving greater attention and support. ORH and VA have implemented several programs to specifically improve access to health care for rural veterans and to improve quality of care for older veterans in rural areas.
Originality/value
This paper is one of the first to describe how VA is addressing the health care needs of older, rural veterans.
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