BUSINESS HORIZONS

Applications of Business Analytics in Healthcare
Ward MJ, Marsolo KA and Froehle CM
The American healthcare system is at a crossroads, and analytics, as an organizational skill, figures to play a pivotal role in its future. As more healthcare systems capture information electronically and as they begin to collect more novel forms of data, such as human DNA, how will we leverage these resources and use them to improve human health at a manageable cost? In this article, we argue that analytics will play a fundamental role in the transformation of the American healthcare system. However, there are numerous challenges to the application and use of analytics, namely the lack of data standards, barriers to the collection of high-quality data, and a shortage of qualified personnel to conduct such analyses. There are also multiple managerial issues, such as how to get end users of electronic data to employ it consistently for improving healthcare delivery, and how to manage the public reporting and sharing of data. In this article, we explore applications of analytics in healthcare, barriers and facilitators to its widespread adoption, and how analytics can help us achieve the goals of the modern healthcare system: high-quality, responsive, affordable, and efficient care.
What makes a special issue impactful in ?
Laufer D
Managing organizational ethics: How ethics becomes pervasive within organizations
Martínez C, Skeet AG and Sasia PM
This study analyzes real experiences of culture management to better understand how ethics permeates organizations In addition to reviewing the literature, we used an action-research methodology and conducted semistructured interviews in Spain and in the U.S. to approach the complexity and challenges of fostering a culture in which ethical considerations are a regular part of business discussions and decision making. The consistency of findings suggests patterns of organizational conditions, cultural elements, and opportunities that influence the management of organizational cultures centered on core ethical values. The ethical competencies of leaders and of the workforce also emerged as key factors. We identify three conditions-a sense of responsibility to society, conditions for ethical deliberation, and respect for moral autonomy-coupled with a diverse set of cultural elements that cause ethics to take root in culture when the opportunity arises. Leaders can use this knowledge of the mechanisms by which organizational factors influence ethical pervasiveness to better manage organizational ethics.
The work-from-home trend: An interview with Brian Kropp
Faulds DJ and Raju PS
National response strategies and marketing innovations during the COVID-19 pandemic
Ding AW and Li S
During the COVID-19 pandemic, different nations have adopted a variety of response strategies to fight and contain the new coronavirus. Such national response strategies can be classified into three categories based on their underlying philosophy: strict control with unlimited resources, relentless contribution with limited resources, and rough rationality with limited resources. We discuss the philosophies, characteristics, and performances of the three response strategies and when they should be adopted. We also examine what marketing innovation strategies enterprises should adopt to survive and grow their businesses in both the short and long term. This study provides important strategic implications for national policymakers and enterprises on the use of response strategies as well as marketing innovation tactics and strategies to be used both during and after the pandemic.
Audits and COVID-19: A paradigm shift in the making
Castka P and Searcy C
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the obsolescence and vulnerability of many existing auditing practices. While some progressive practices have been implemented (e.g., remote audits using rudimentary information and communication technologies), a new paradigm is needed not only to account for the risk of repeated lockdowns but also to align practices with the level of digitalization, automation, and use of artificial intelligence in the current business environment. In this article, we argue that the adoption of new technologies requires a fundamental rethinking of how auditing services are delivered. We argue that new technological possibilities have implications for five other auditing elements that enable a shift from the old to the new paradigm of auditing, namely actors, processes, spaces, training and skills development, and services. We explain how nonfinancial audits conducted under the new paradigm are key enablers of a firm's ability to participate and to thrive in a competitive international marketplace.
A $10 million question and other cybersecurity-related ethical dilemmas amid the COVID-19 pandemic
Pawlicka A, Choraś M, Pawlicki M and Kozik R
Cybercrime and cybersecurity are like two sides of the same coin: They are opposites but cannot exist without each other. Their mutual relation generates a myriad of ethical issues, ranging from minor to vital. The rapid development of technology will surely involve even more ethical concerns, like the infamous example of a fitness tracking company allegedly paying $10 million worth of ransom. Every cybersecurity solution, tool, or practice has to be ethical by design if it is to protect people and their rights. To identify the ethical issues that cybersecurity/cybercrime might bring about in the future, we conducted the first broad and comprehensive horizon-scanning study since the COVID-19 pandemic arose. As we began this project, nobody had the slightest idea that the coming months would bring the COVID-19 pandemic, and that the reality we had known was about to change dramatically. As it soon became apparent, the deadly coronavirus brought completely new cybersecurity/cybercrime ethical dilemmas to light, and some of the ones known before were transformed or shifted. This article presents the results of our horizon-scanning study concerning the ethical dilemmas that emerged amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The COVID-19 Virtual Idea Blitz: Marshaling social entrepreneurship to rapidly respond to urgent grand challenges
Bacq S, Geoghegan W, Josefy M, Stevenson R and Williams TA
In response to societal grand challenges, professors have unique opportunities to effect change, repurposing their expertise to deploy relevant, timely, practical, and research-backed knowledge for the betterment of communities. Drawing on scholarship on postcrisis organizing, entrepreneurial hustle, and social entrepreneurship, we provide a firsthand, real-time case description of a three-day "virtual idea blitz" organized in response to the COVID-19 crisis. The event was organized and executed in less than a week and ultimately involved 200 individuals, including entrepreneurs, coders, medical doctors, venture capitalists, industry professionals, students, and professors from around the world. By the end of the weekend, 21 ideas with corresponding pitches were developed in five thematic areas: health needs, education, small businesses, community, and purchasing. We describe how the community was rapidly rallied, and we discuss the key learning outcomes of this spontaneous entrepreneurial endeavor. We provide evidence from participants and mentors that showcases the value of the time-compressed virtual idea blitz in accelerating social entrepreneurial action. We offer practical guidance to academic, community, and professional institutions that would like to replicate or build upon our approach to stimulate the formation of community and to coordinate efforts to thwart the ongoing threat of COVID-19, as well as other societal challenges that might emerge in the future.
Hands-off? Lessons from high-touch professionals about going virtual
Lord Ferguson S, Smith C and Kietzmann J
The COVID-19 crisis has fundamentally changed how many businesses operate and connect with their customers. Previously unheard-of government restrictions and sheltering-in-place requirements forced most professional services to transition to remote delivery methods (e.g., email, telephone, video consults, Shopify storefronts). Providers of low-touch services (e.g., lawyers, accountants) naturally lent themselves to remote delivery; however, those that offer high-touch services, particularly those in healthcare (e.g., doctors, chiropractors, physical therapists), experienced a drastic change in working conditions when going virtual. Despite a long history of resistance to virtual delivery, the pandemic created an unprecedented incentive for these high-touch professionals to experiment with underutilized care models such as telehealth: the provision of healthcare services remotely using telecommunications technologies. We examine the rapid adoption of telehealth during COVID-19 through the coming together or convergence of previously unrelated technologies, spaces, and practices. Our analysis reveals opportunities and challenges associated with going that apply to many other professionals providing high-trust services. Specifically, we offer nine guiding principles for building and protecting and in virtual and hybrid delivery models. This is important given the pace of compounding technology convergences that lie ahead for service professionals.
Privacy lost: Appropriating surveillance technology in China's fight against COVID-19
Liu J and Zhao H
China's unprecedented measures to mobilize its diverse surveillance apparatus played a key part in the country's successful containment of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Critics worldwide believe these invasive technologies, in the hands of an authoritarian regime, could trample the right to privacy and curb fundamental civil and human rights. However, there is little domestic public resistance in China about technology-related privacy risks during the pandemic. Drawing on academic research and a semantic network analysis of media frames, we explore the contextual political and cultural belief systems that determine public support for authorities' ever-expanding access to personal data. We interrogate the longer-term trajectories-including the guardian model of governance, sociotechnical imagination of technology, and communitarian values-by which the understanding of technology and privacy in times of crisis has been shaped. China's actions shed light on the general acceptance of the handover of personal data for anti-epidemic purposes in East Asian societies like South Korea and Singapore.
When gig workers become essential: Leveraging customer moral self-awareness beyond COVID-19
Friedland J and Balkin DB
The COVID-19 pandemic intensified economic reliance on gig workers that perform essential tasks such as health care, personal transport, food and package delivery, and ad-hoc tasking services within the developed and developing world. As a result, workers who provide such services are no longer perceived as low-skilled laborers but as essential workers who fulfill a crucial role in society. These workers' newly elevated moral and economic status increases consumer demand for corporate social responsibility toward this stakeholder group, specifically for practices that increase worker freedom and rewards. We provide algorithmic tools for online labor platforms to meet this demand, bolstering their social purpose and ethical branding while better protecting themselves against potential reputational crises. To do this, we propose a managerial strategy rooted in moral self-awareness theory that leverages customers' self-perceived virtuosity to increase gig-worker freedom.
The new business landscape
Fisher G
Business meetings in a postpandemic world: When and how to meet virtually
Standaert W, Muylle S and Basu A
The COVID-19 pandemic that erupted in 2020 forced businesses across the world to adopt virtual meetings. With many people working from home, software platforms like Zoom and Teams became ubiquitous, but their widespread use also revealed many weaknesses and limitations. While technologies for virtual meetings have existed for decades, these technologies have advanced significantly in recent years, and today range from audioconference facilities to telepresence rooms with high-resolution video and sophisticated virtual presence features. The available alternatives differ significantly in costs, complexity and capabilities, and choosing the most effective technology for each meeting setting is not always easy. This is important, since after the pandemic, virtual meetings will move from being a necessity brought on by the pandemic to being a widely accepted alternative to traditional face-to-face meetings. Consequently, the questions of when and how to meet virtually will become even more significant. In this article, we describe a decision-making framework for choosing when and how to meet virtually, based on matching the appropriate communication capabilities with various meeting objectives and taking into account meeting size and duration. The framework is based on extensive empirical research conducted in partnership with several major U.S. and European companies.
Mindfulness and the challenges of working from home in times of crisis
Toniolo-Barrios M and Pitt L
Many employees unexpectedly were required to work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. With this abrupt change came the challenge of blurred lines between career and personal life. Lacking designated home office spaces, countless individuals had to create improvised work setups in living rooms, kitchens, bedrooms-wherever there was space. Moreover, the closure of schools forced many working parents to attempt productivity while concurrently supervising their children. As a result of these changes, numerous employees have experienced lower work productivity, lessened motivation, increased stress, and poorer mental health. One approach that may help employees going through the challenges associated with working from home is mindfulness. Mindfulness may be particularly beneficial as it can (1) help employees mentally disconnect from work when they need to; (2) improve individuals' attention to work tasks and thereby improve their performance; and (3) allow workers to better manage screen fatigue. In this installment of Work/Life Balance, we elaborate on how mindfulness may help employees deal with these work issues, explain how mindfulness can be cultivated, and provide a list of mindfulness techniques. We also provide a set of recommendations for managers and team leaders responsible for their employees' well-being and productivity.
A study on factors affecting privacy risk tolerance to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in South Korea
Kim MS, Jung Y and Kim J
South Korea has been evaluated as a country that is responding well to COVID-19. The Government of the Republic of Korea discloses where, when, and by which means of transportation people confirmed to have the virus have visited. Although disclosure of movement has contributed to flattening the curve and providing timely medical service, concerns about privacy infringement have also been raised. This article determines what factors influence privacy risk tolerance, looking specifically at threat severity, vulnerability, response efficacy, and response cost. We also provide implications for the preparation of better countermeasures for the government to implement.
Measuring performance during crises and beyond: The Performance Promoter Score
Aguinis H and Burgi-Tian J
Many organizations are curtailing or even abandoning performance management because of difficulties measuring performance and disruptions in performance-based pay due to the COVID-19 crisis. Contrary to this growing and troubling trend, we argue that it is especially important during the crisis to not only continue but also strengthen performance management to communicate a firm's strategic direction, collect valuable business data, provide critical feedback to individuals and workgroups, protect organizations from legal risks, and retain top talent. To do so, we offer a solution to overcome the challenges associated with measuring performance during a crisis. Specifically, we extend and expand upon the well-established Net Promoter Score measure in marketing and introduce the Performance Promoter Score (PPS) to measure performance. We offer evidence-based recommendations for collecting PPS information for individuals, workgroups, and other collectives, computing a Net Performance Promoter Score (NPPS); using multiple sources of performance data, and using PPS for administrative and developmental purposes as well as to provide more frequent performance check-ins. PPS is a convenient, practical, relevant, and useful performance measure during a crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic, but it is also an innovation that will be useful long after the pandemic is over.
Transitioning to a virtual onboarding process during the COVID-19 pandemic: An interview with Kat Judd, Vice President of People and Culture at Lucid
Prince NR
Are your cash-flow tools recession ready?
Mullins J
In good times like those most businesses have enjoyed for the past decade, business owners have typically watched their income statements with pleasure, as year-to-year performance gains have fattened their dividend payouts and increased the valuation of the companies they own and run. All too often in such times, scant attention is paid to what's between the top line and the bottom line of the income statement. Worse, most business owners, in my experience, give little more than a cursory nod to the balance sheet. Why does this matter? When a recession lands on their doorstep with a sudden thud, as it apparently just has, many of these same people will find themselves having sailed too close to the wind, with cash running out and a dearth of tools to help them weather the storm and understand what has gone wrong. But it need not be so, for there are four simple tools to help any business owner answer these four important questions: (1) Where is cash going in my business, and where is it coming from? (2) To what extent are my profit margins improving or declining, and why? (3) To what extent am I effectively managing the cash-flow relationships with my customers and my suppliers? (4) What, if anything, can I do to better manage the cash that flows into and out of my business? If your business is threatened by the COVID-19 pandemic, here are some tools to help it survive.
Business continuity in the COVID-19 emergency: A framework of actions undertaken by world-leading companies
Margherita A and Heikkilä M
The COVID-19 emergency has urged companies to operate in new ways to face supply chain interruptions, shifts in customer demand, and risks to workforce health. The organizational ability to respond to critical contingencies is crucial for business leaders in the perspective of continuing business. In our research, we investigate the actions undertaken by 50 world-leading corporations to respond to the pandemic. Applying content analysis to web pages and social network posts, we extract 77 actions related to 13 sub-areas and integrate these into a five-level framework that encompasses operations, customer, workforce, leadership, and community-related responses. We also describe six illustrative company examples of how the emergency can generate opportunities for creating new value. The study advances the scholarly discussion on the impact of emergencies on business continuity and can help leaders define response strategies and actions in the current challenge.
The normalization of deviance in healthcare delivery
Banja J
Many serious medical errors result from violations of recognized standards of practice. Over time, even egregious violations of standards of practice may become "normalized" in healthcare delivery systems. This article describes what leads to this normalization and explains why flagrant practice deviations can persist for years, despite the importance of the standards at issue. This article also provides recommendations to aid healthcare organizations in identifying and managing unsafe practice deviations before they become normalized and pose genuine risks to patient safety, quality care, and employee morale.
Paradoxes and mysteries in virus-infected supply chains: Hidden bottlenecks, changing consumer behaviors, and other non-usual suspects
Kouvelis P
In the early onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S., consumers experienced surprising shortages of essential goods that appeared to be unrelated to the pandemic: toilet paper, yeast and flour, and meat cuts. The usual explanations-attributing these shortages to demand spikes-often failed to provide an adequate explanation or predicted only temporary shortages. But these shortages ended up being real supply-chain struggles for which the true causes revealed a deeper set of unusual causes. Our detailed analysis of these supply chains identifies overlooked failure factors and hidden causes. We conclude with the profound lessons learned from the pandemic crisis on supply chains and the implied challenges of building resilient supply chains for the future, which require rethinking the relevant systems we plan and optimize. The level of investment required for building firm-specific redundancy of assets and operational flexibility might be prohibitive for any one firm, or their financial stakeholders, to pursue and accept.