The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted every aspect of life and continues to affect individuals and organizations in ways no one anticipated. In an attempt to cope with alternative lifestyle patterns, many companies have formulated products and services to mitigate behavioral adjustments. Specifically, the healthcare industry has increased efforts to cope with the ramifications of this infectious disease. A focus on creating and distributing at-home testing has become a priority as companies attempt to expedite the approval, production and commercialization of tests. This paper addresses the dynamics of producing, distributing, and evaluating at-home medical tests.

Childhood health affects both future health and skill accumulation, giving rise to disparities in human capital. I estimate flexible production functions of health, cognition and socio-emotional skill between 9 months-14 years of age that capture dynamic relationships between past stocks of human capital, parental human capital and household investments. Using multiple measures of inputs and a latent factor structure, I find that health development is highly self-productive and influenced by parental health, but that skills affect its development in late childhood. Health is important for cognitive development at key early and late stages, and excluding it overstates cognition's role in skill accumulation. Simulations show that interventions aimed at improving the health of children or their parents lead to improvements in health and skills at 14.

Using over four decades of British micro data, this paper looks at how the narrowing gender employment gap stalled in the early 1990s. Changes to the structure of employment between and within industry sectors impacted the gap at approximately constant rates throughout the period, and does not account for the stall. Instead, changes to how women's likelihood of paid work was affected by their partners' characteristics explains most of the gap's shift in trend. Increases in women's employment when they had children or achieved higher qualifications continued to narrow the gap even after it had stalled overall.

The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly impacted the budgets of college athletic departments at all levels. In response, some institutions have elected to eliminate specific team sports. This study examines how student-athletes respond when their schools announce the intent to eliminate their sports. The NCAA transfer portal can be used to identify the responses of affected student-athletes. For the team eliminations made in Spring/Summer 2020, the affected student-athletes tended to enter the NCAA transfer portal to attempt to find a new school to meet their athletic and academic goals. The actions were taken even though most schools announce the intent to honor the scholarships of affected student-athletes even with the elimination of their sports. Over 40% of NCAA Division I and II student-athletes receive partial or no athletic aid. These students are paying tuition and fees while competing in their sports. As schools study the possible elimination of team sports, they must be mindful to consider the total cost of eliminating a sport and not simply the reduction in the athletic budget. The presence of partial scholarships may make it advantageous to continue such sports to retain those student-athletes and the tuition and fees they pay.

The day after winning the 2016 NCAA College World Series, Coastal Carolina moved from the Big South Conference to the Sun Belt Conference. This move required a ‘step-up transition’ in Football from Football Championship Series (FCS) to Football Bowl Series (FBS) competition. This transition will require increased investment in student scholarships, facilities, and travel. And, the University must increase its average paid attendance for home football games by 50% more than its former stadium capacity. Researchers in the business school updated an earlier study of student attendance at collegiate athletic events in order to provide value-added and impactful information to assist athletic administrators. By including both measures of importance and satisfaction (i.e. performance) with aspects of attending athletic events, it is possible to assess whether issues important to students in attending athletic events are producing the desired customer satisfaction.

This study examines the issue of prestige sensitivity among Millennials in China and the United States. Specifically, this study examines the phenomenon to see if differences exist among Millennials between these two countries. Furthermore, the investigation is expanded to examine possible gender differences. The results are somewhat mixed. While the scale used was both reliable and valid within each country, it did not meet the standard of metric equivalence between cultures, and is thus not valid for cross-cultural comparisons between China and the United States. In addition, some Millennials were found to seek status via high prices in both cultures.

The Total Change reflects unadjusted amounts for the two years.The Real Change reflects the change after adjusting the second year for the respective HEPI.The Inflationary Change is caused by the increase in the HEPI. 2006

Thrift Stores can be viewed as conversion mechanisms; that is, they accept merchandise from DONORS and then re-sell the merchandise to BUYERS. These are often separate and distinct groups. The challenge for Thrift Store operators is to separately appeal to each group as a place to donate and a place to shop for merchandise. This study profiles the donors and buyers for Thrift Stores so that store and organizational leadership can better develop marketing strategies to reach these distinct groups.

This article gives advice based on a recent summit on pension reform held by Meridian Business Support. One of the key messages of the panel discussion was that businesses must plan ahead in order to deal with the pending changes.

The Charleston area offers a rich mix of historical, cultural, educational, social, and natural entertainment options for visitors. This paper examines the possibility of price bundling of area attractions to offer a lower price to area visitors. Two options are advanced: Targeted Selections and Broader Selections. Finally, market-specific factor influencing implementation are discussed.

This study examined the relative importance that school principals attach to aspects of their role as marketing managers for their schools and their relative satisfaction with their efforts to date. The study included 60 principals from two school districts. Findings suggest that principals are aware of the importance of marketing in today’s increasingly complex marketplace for education. These leaders may not always use marketing jargon or even marketing models to guide them. Still, they are active marketing managers. The sample group is somewhat satisfied with their marketing performance to date but acknowledged areas for improvement.

Agricultural tourism has allowed farmers to reach new consumers, cultivate new revenue streams, educate the public regarding their work, and to preserve their way of life. Today, many farmers are going beyond the traditional hayride or pick-your-own orchards to include attractions and amusements. They have transformed the category, even prompting a new name, agri-tainment (agricultural entertainment). In the process, the family farm has become a destination itself. The rationale behind their development along with the consumer interest in experiencing such tourism venues is discussed.

An increasing number of service organizations are developing thrift stores (or, second hand stores, charity shops) to raise resources to support their mission-directed activities. Such stores seek donated merchandize...sell it ...and use the proceeds to support their service efforts. The purpose of the study is to examine the processes by which thrift store donors: (a) determine that donation of pre-owned merchandize is desirable, (b) get information about competing donation outlets, and (c) select which organization(s) are appropriate for their particular merchandize donation. A web survey was administered to assess these processes. The results will allow organizations to critically evaluate their existing thrift store practices against donor preferences in the interest of continuous improvement. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.