Research

This paper explores conditions and combinations of conditions that enable healthcare clinics in resource-constrained settings to achieve superior performance, measured by the number of patient visits. We use the context of the North Star Alliance, an independent nonprofit organization that provides access to healthcare such as HIV/AIDS prevention and health treatment services for mobile populations across East, West, and Southern Africa. Using a Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) we found that clinics might achieve superior performance by (1) nurturing intensive relationships with either external or internal stakeholders or (2) using indirect coordination, gaining external resource support and internal information exchange without high costs. 

KEYWORDS: Resource-scarce communities, networks, healthcare, Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA).

In this paper, we empirically explore water provision as one of the grand challenges of present times by examining the effect of public versus private clients in promoting desalination technologies. Based on a population-level data of all desalination projects worldwide from 1950 to 2015, we find that public demand-side promotion of desalination leads to a higher rate of adaption of more sustainable desalination technologies over time. Our models illustrate a public client as two to three times more likely to implement such technology than a private client. Moreover, using an instrumental variable approach, we find this effect is moderated by the institutional development of the countries, with more effective responses in moments of hydric crises (i.e., following droughts) from governments in developed institutional contexts.

KEYWORDS: Water scarcity, droughts, comparative governance, instrumental variable model.

This paper explores the impact of EMR on the healthcare of HIV/AIDS patients in Malawi. Using an staggered differences-in-differences methodology, we show that EMR implementation by Baobab Health Trust led to an increase in the number of patients in care and a gradual reduction in deaths. Field interviews suggest that EMR allowed a better tracing of lapsed patients, and therefore, helped bring more patients back into care. Heterogeneity analysis shows that these results are stronger for patients with a preference for more privacy.   

KEYWORDS: Electronic medical records (EMR), healthcare, HIV/AIDS, development, and staggered differences-in-differences.

This study discusses how environmental, social, and governance (ESG) individual factors can affect firm performance heterogeneously both across and within industries.  We do so by analyzing ESG scores and the profitability of U.S. public corporations in a configurational way.  Through a fuzzy-set QCA application, we identify heterogeneous patterns by which ESG factors combine, leading some firms to superior financial performance compared with their industry peers.  Our approach reveals that different industries have distinct ESG configurations (aka. paths) that lead to higher performance.  Similarly, within the same industry, more than one ESG configuration may be associated with higher profitability.  

KEYWORDS: Nonmarket strategies; Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG); Financial Performance; Industry Heterogeneity; Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). 

Through a combination of text analysis, sentiment analysis, and image processing techniques, we evaluate firm environmental disclosure. Results suggest intertemporally, firms increase the amount of environmental text, with more emotional content (both positive and negative), and higher use of green pixels on their reports. This time trend is particularly prevalent among firms operating in contested areas, such as the Amazon rainforest. Interestingly, while reports become literally “greener,” firm ESG controversies score declines, suggesting a decoupling between reported actions and the true behavior of firms. 

KEYWORDS: Environmental disclosure, greenwashing, non-market strategy, text analysis, sentiment analysis, and image processing.