What makes hybrid insourcing successful: A new public–private partnership model for social welfare services

Outsourcing has been a key policy tool for delivering a range of social services, and regarded as more effective than insourcing or direct government provision. At the same time, it has also caused many delivery issues such as principal‐agent problems, a lack of policy coordination, and poor‐quality welfare services. While the pendulum continues to swing between insourcing and outsourcing, we aim to propose a new public–private partnership model called the “hybrid insourcing model” and examine which factors influence the performance of the model. In South Korea, around 2010, the local government in Namyangju City was the first to implement the “Hope Care Center model,” a kind of hybrid insourcing model, which has been praised for its innovation and widely emulated by central and local governments. Our analysis utilizes data collected between December 2017 and January 2018 from public sector employees and civilian staff in Namyangju and a comparable city, A. From this, we draw a number of implications, both for theory and for policy. We argue that, for public–private partnerships, active cooperation and equality are the biggest factors in contributing to positive performance. These work alongside leaders with a clear vision and with employees' positive attitude.     

Multi-objective optimization in partitioning the healthcare system of Parana State in Brazil

Motivated by a proposal of the local authority for improving the existing healthcare system in the Parana State in Brazil, this article presents an optimization-based model for developing a better system for patients by aggregating various health services offered in the municipalities of Parana into some microregions. The problem is formulated as a multi-objective partitioning of the nodes of an undirected graph (or network) with the municipalities as the nodes and the roads connecting them as the edges of the graph. Maximizing the population homogeneity in the microregions, maximizing the variety of medical procedures offered in the microregions, and minimizing the inter-microregion distances to be traveled by patients are considered as three objective functions of the problem. An integer-coded multi-objective genetic algorithm is adopted as the optimization tool, which yields a significant improvement to the existing healthcare system map of the Parana State. The results obtained may have a strong impact on the healthcare system management in Parana. The model proposed here could be a useful tool to aid the decision-making in health management, as well as for better organization of any healthcare system, including those of other Brazilian States.     

劣势耐用品厂商的产品质保期与质保服务投入策略研究

在实际中，消费者购买耐用品时均同时获得厂商提供的质保服务，由于产品质保服务影响着消费者的产品使用效用，因此耐用品定价、质保期和产品质保服务投入是影响厂商利润的主要因素。考虑双寡头市场环境下，建立微分博弈模型讨论单位产品质保服务投入和产品质保期对双寡头厂商均衡价格的影响。结论表明双寡头厂商的单位产品质保服务投入越高、质保期越长，均衡价格越高；但单位产品保服务投入与质保服务对消费者效用影响系数的关系影响着竞争对手在均衡价格的变化趋势；劣势的低质量厂商可以通过增加单位产品质保服务投入策略或延长质保期的策略实现在均衡下与高质量厂商以同等价格销售耐用品，但劣势厂商增加单位产品质保服务投入策略要优于延长质保期策略。最后，利用数值分析进一步验证了所得结论的有效性。     

网络环境下服务科学与创新管理研究展望

基于网络环境的服务发展与创新已成为经济发展的新引擎。本文在分析网络环境下服务特征基础上，探讨了其对服务科学与创新管理研究的影响。结合我国社会经济发展对现代服务快速增长的需求，本文提炼了服务科学研究的三类基本科学问题，包括服务价值的内涵与度量，服务资源的要素及其价值生成，和服务关系的界定与形成问题；提出了服务与创新管理的四个重要研究领域，即：服务生态系统的形成与演化，服务资源要素的组织与协调，服务的关联与融合和社会服务运作管理问题。在四个重要研究领域的进一步分析中，论文以一个异质数据服务资源的组织与融合为例，描述了服务资源组织与协调的一个具体问题，说明了已有研究方法解决该问题的困难，和未来该问题研究需要关注的重点；另以平台服务中基于价值和关系的服务定价问题为例，说明服务关联与融合研究的挑战及其未来研究的努力方向。     

产品服务供应链的“双重收益共享”合作机制

产品与服务融合缓解了"供需错位"矛盾，使得产品服务供应链探索成为"供给侧结构性改革"下供需结构性匹配的重要路径。本文刻画产品服务视角下供应链组织结构的本质特征，构建产品服务供应链合作模型，探讨合作机制下"帕累托改进"区间存在性，揭示合作机制对产品服务供应链效率的作用机理。核心研究发现：供应链多元化组织结构加剧收益分配冲突，并导致服务规模与供应链效率"倒挂"现象，而合作机制下"双重收益共享"合作模型能提升产品服务供应链效率。     

Spatial Distribution of Flood Risk and Quality of Spatial Management: Case Study in Odra Valley,Poland

This article presents methodological solutions aimed at presenting the spatial distribution of flood risk and quality of spatial management (land use), indicating both those areas used reasonably and those requiring modification. The purpose was to identify key risk areas and risk‐free areas from the point of view of human security and activity on the floodplains, based on the examples of the vicinities of Wroclaw and Raciborz in the Odra Valley, Poland. Due to recent climate change, Poland has suffered the effects of severe flooding (e.g., 1997, 2001, 2010). The analyses conducted were motivated by the European Parliament and Council's recently implemented Directive 2007/60/WE, as well as by the demand for studies for local spatial planning. The analysis indicates that reasonably developed areas do not account for the majority of those studied, making up 36% of the Wroclaw area and 15% of the Raciborz area.     

基于修正UTAUT模型的农信社手机银行使用行为研究——以福建省农户调查数据为例

基于UTAUT模型,引入感知风险、替代软件等2个变量进行修正,构建农信社手机银行使用行为影响因素研究模型,并运用结构方程模型、Bootstrap中介检验、多群组分析等方法对福建省农户调查数据进行实证分析。研究发现:(1)感知易用性显著正向影响农信社手机银行使用意愿;感知风险和替代软件显著负向影响农信社手机银行使用意愿;社会影响对农信社手机银行使用意愿影响不显著。(2)便利条件和使用意愿显著正向影响农信社手机银行使用行为;农信社手机银行使用行为影响因素由大到小依次为便利条件、替代软件、感知风险、感知易用性。(3)教育在感知易用性对农信社手机银行使用意愿影响中具有调节作用。据此提出,应进一步增强操作的便利性以优化业务办理效率,增强信息的安全性以降低软件使用风险,增强软件的特色性以降低软件可替代性,增强软件的易用性以优化便捷使用体验,从而优化农村金融服务供给,助推农村经济发展。     

Permanently online and permanently connected: Taiwanese university students’ attachment style,mobile phone usage,and well-being

Taiwan has been the top country worldwide in terms of its adoption and use of mobile phones. This study explores the permanently online (PO) and permanently connected (PC) phenomenon in mobile phone use among Taiwanese university students. It seeks to determine whether attachment styles are a distinctive factor that influences PO and PC (POPC) behavior and leads to various levels of well-being. The results of this study provide initial evidence that Taiwanese users highly depend on their mobile phones for PC and PO activities but perceive that being permanently connected causes interpersonal stress. Although the findings showed that all styles were positively associated with PO, only the secure and anxious styles predicted PC. Regarding mobile phone activities, the avoidant attachment style was not associated with any activities, the secure attachment style was positively associated with online and voice communication as well as information-seeking activities, and the anxious attachment style was associated only with voice communication. Furthermore, attachment styles lead to various levels of interpersonal stress through PO and PC behavior. The anxious style interacts with PO on interpersonal stress. This study provides evidence that attachment style is a significant antecedent of POPC and its consequences in mobile phone usage.     

Maternity waiting homes in times of crisis: Can current models meet women’s needs?

BackgroundMaternity waiting homes (MWHs) located close to birthing facilities are a conditional recommendation by the World Health Organisation, based on very low-quality evidence that they contribute to improvements in maternal or perinatal health outcomes. In addition, several studies suggest that more vulnerable women are less likely to use them. Yet significant investments continue to be made in building and running MWHs within conflict-affected and under-resourced health systems.AimsWe critically examine the literature to shed light on the challenges and opportunities provided by MWHs during health emergencies and in conflict situations.Findings and discussionMWHs are difficult to utilise during crises because they require women to be away from home, are often designed as dormitories, can lack security and be over-crowded. Some MWHs have been adapted during situations of political conflict to incorporate birthing and broader reproductive health care, thereby improving the availability of care away from over-burdened health facilities. How MWHs are adapted during times of crisis may provide insights into what systems of care are more appropriate in meeting women’s needs more broadly.ConclusionThe current global pandemic is an important time to reflect on whether MWHs are meeting the needs of a diverse range of women, in times of stability and during emergencies, and engage in genuine dialogue with women about the kinds of maternity care they want. We need to co-create those systems now so that they are more resilient during the inevitable crises we will face in the future.     

国际航运中心航运服务信息整合研究

以航运高端服务为特征的伦敦和以航运基本服务为标志的新加坡、汉堡等国际航运中心都具有完善的航运服务信息整合能力,本质上也是国际航运信息整合中心。与发达国家相比,上海在国际航运中心航运信息整合范围、信息平台集成水平、权威信息发布和政策自由度等方面存在明显差距,未来需要尽快明确整合路径、落实保障措施。