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People with severe persistent mental illness pose a significant challenge to managed care organizations and society in general. The financial costs are staggering as is the community impact including homelessness and incarceration. This population also has a high incident of chronic comorbid disorders that not only drives up healthcare costs but also significantly shortens longevity. Traditional case management approaches are not always able to provide the intense and direct interventions required to adequately address the psychiatric, medical and social needs of this unique population. This article describes a Medicare Advantage Chronic Special Needs Program that provides a Medical Home, Active Community Treatment, and Integrated Care. A comparison of utilization and patient outcome measures of this program with fee for service Medicare found significant reduction in utilization and costs, as well as increased adherence to the management of chronic medical conditions and preventative services.

Applicable to both undergraduate and graduate courses in managing technology or sustainability.

Technology strategy.

Business Model evaluation.

Sustainable technologies.

In this case study, gas and electric utility holding company Southern Company has embarked on an ambitious experiment to learn more about energy usage at a household level, as well as community scale microgrids. Every minute, 62 homes in Reynolds Landing upload appliance and electrical outlet level data to Southern Company. How can Southern Company use this vast amount of data to promote energy efficiency? Are microgrids a key to creating a more sustainable and resilient energy future? At a higher level, how can microgrids impact or change traditional power generation business models like those used by Southern Company?

1. To explore why companies develop technologies that are counter to current business models.

2. To understand how new technology can lead to new business models for existing businesses.

3. To understand the drivers of company led R&D.

4. To discuss “technology push” applications. Where technology is developed and then a market or markets are sought.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

Two parts here. The first is looking at sustainable energy solutions such as solar farms and micro-grids. The second is this case challenges students to ask how this research helps the 45% of consumers making less than $40,000/yr.

CSS 11: Strategy.

The initial motivation for photoplotting artwork was increasing accuracy requirements. Photoplotting requires translating a design to digital form before creating the artwork. Present CAD and interactive graphics systems are making increased use of this data base to generate a larger percentage of the documentation required to manufacture a PC board. Computer aided manufacturing such as numerically controlled drilling and component insertion is another feature of today's CAD systems. Future systems will not only increase the merger of CAD/CAM, but also address the ordering of components, cost analysis and many other associated functions in the design and manufacturing of PCB's. Every company producing PCB's should be able to evaluate interactive graphics and determine if and when CAD would be cost‐effective.

Over the past few years innovation has become a major subject of discussion in the press, academia, the halls of government and corporate offices.

The movement of workers to act in a desired manner has always consumed the thoughts of managers. In many ways, this goal has been reached through incentive programs, corporate pep talks, and other types of conditional administrative policy, However, as the workers adjust their behaviour in response to one of the aforementioned stimuli, is job satisfaction actualized? The instilling of satisfaction within workers is a crucial task of management. Satisfaction creates confidence, loyalty and ultimately improved quality in the output of the employed. Satisfaction, though, is not the simple result of an incentive program. Employees will most likely not take any more pride in their work even if they win the weekend getaway for having the highest sales. This paper reviews the literature of motivational theorists and draws from their approaches to job satisfaction and the role of motivation within job satisfaction. The theories of Frederick Herzberg and Edwin Locke are presented chronologically to show how Locke’s theory was a response to Herzberg’s theory. By understanding these theories, managers can focus on strategies of creating job satisfaction. This is followed by a brief examination of Kenneth Blanchard and Paul Hersey’s theory on leadership within management and how this art is changing through time.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a unified theoretical framework that explains farm capital structure choice.

The framework accommodates different credit access scenarios and heterogeneous risk profiles of borrowers. It recognizes that the costs of capital are endogenously determined, reflecting the degree of credit risk and accessibility to credit markets. Based on the proposed model and the comparative statics derived thereof, the paper empirically tests the impacts of different factors on capital structure choice.

Based on the theoretical framework, the paper derived the impacts of different factors on capital structure choice using comparative statics. Results suggest that the potential determinants of capital structure have varying effects at different ranges of leverage. Empirical evidence supports the theoretical model.

Despite all of previous work on various aspects of farm capital structure choice, a framework that encompasses each of the different assumptions and scenarios is still lacking. The theoretical model integrates credit risk models and accommodates endogenous cost of capital, providing a comprehensive framework for studying farm capital structure choice and its determinants. The results provide insights that could help policy makers and lenders develop effective instruments to manage, monitor, and influence the financial leverage of farms at different quantiles of debt ratio.

Social security is one of the most significant political‐economic issues in America. It is loaded with controversy and is of deep concern to millions of Americans, both the elderly, who have been receiving benefits since they became payable in the late 1930s, and also younger people, who are deeply concerned and troubled about two problems. The first has to do with the increasing costs, that is, the amount of the so‐called “contributions” being required in order to finance social security. Their second worry grows out of their decreasing confidence in the social security system. Will benefits be available to them when they reach age 65? Is the system sound? Is it bankrupt? If not now, is it likely to go broke?

It is well known that internal rate of return (IRR) and net present value (NPV) rankings of mutually exclusive investments are sometimes inconsistent. This inconsistency, when it occurs, requires decision makers to choose between the two ranking methods. The purpose of this paper is to deduce sufficient conditions for consistent IRR and NPV investment rankings of mutually exclusive investments.

Deductive reasoning is used to obtain the sufficient conditions required for consistent rankings of mutually exclusive investments.

There are different sufficient conditions (methods) that can be used to resolve inconsistent IRR and NPV rankings. However, the different methods do not necessarily produce the same consistent rankings. In particular, different size adjustment methods and reinvestment rate assumptions can produce different IRR and NPV consistent rankings. This paper suggests the appropriate criteria for selecting a particular method for ranking mutually exclusive investments.

Like all deduced models, the results apply only to the set of assumptions and preconditions adopted in the model. Furthermore, the application is to ranking mutually exclusive investments.

There is probably no other issue in the capital budgeting literature that has generated more attention and debate than the consistency (or lack thereof) between IRR and NPV rankings. This paper summarizes conditions that can be followed to resolve the conflict which should have near universal interest to those working in the capital budging area. This paper offers alternative methods for obtaining consistent IRR and NPV rankings which can be used to improve investment ranking decisions. The particular method used should depend on the decision environment. Guides for choosing the appropriate ranking method are described in the paper.

Significant decisions, projects, and investments are evaluated using either IRR or NPV methods. This paper shows that existing evaluation methods can lead to sub-optimal investment choices and provides an improved framework that facilitates better investment choices. Lacking an understanding of the sufficient conditions for IRR and NPV consistency – means that resource allocations have been made to investments and projects that are not optimal.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the results are this paper have not been published nor are they available elsewhere. That said, this paper builds on important earlier work which is carefully cited and credited.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a theoretical understanding of experiences of crisis management among municipal leaders.

A total of 16 chief officers and three politicians from three different municipalities were interviewed concerning experiences of dealing with a severe storm. Data were analyzed by a grounded theory approach.

Data analysis generated a model. Central to the model is an evaluation sphere, which reflects tension between everyday circumstances and crisis needs, between assessments of legislation and practices as a support or hindrance, and assessments of human vulnerability versus coping resources. Manager characteristics, the societal context within which the event occurred, and crisis characteristics all influence this evaluation sphere. Particular stressors include the fact that the leaders themselves were personally affected by the storm, the difficult decisions and assessments that had to be made, the uncertainty of the situation and the timing, soon after the tsunami. Crisis management, decisions and actions can be seen as formed from the evaluation sphere and the influencing factors.

The paper has a small sample and limited representativeness. Generalizability of the model should be tested in other crisis events.

The model can be used as a tool to design exercises and as a guideline for authorities, in providing preparedness and crisis support.

The paper provides a theoretical model highlighting the complex evaluations underlying managers' decisions and actions in real‐ life situations.