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Gastronomy is considered a vital resource and is a key component of a memorable tourism experience. Some studies have explored memorable gastronomic experience (MGE) but have been unable to provide a comprehensive overview of the topic. The purpose of this research is to advance knowledge in relation to MGE. The Q-methodology of research synthesis (QMRS) was applied to identify MGE dimensions and support qualitative and quantitative approaches within the research process. The findings of the study contribute to a greater understanding of MGE by providing a conceptual model.

This paper provides an assessment of how Maltese healthcare performance compares against that of other selected EU countries. The study analyses a chosen set of key performance indicators (KPIs) re...

Water companies are regional monopolies in the UK, and subject to quinquennial price reviews to ensure customers receive value for money. This paper documents the application and evolution of state...

Maintenance flexibility has been promoted as a value driver for long-term public–private partnerships (PPPs). However, the value and risk associated with this value driver have not been properly quantified in the Value for Money (VfM) assessment literature. To bridge the gap, a novel stochastic modelling methodology is proposed to characterize the complex interactions among the lifecycle cost (LCC), performance deterioration and maintenance strategies. Four different maintenance strategies are designed to emulate the practice in the traditional and PPP delivery methods. The LCC includes the direct maintenance cost, user cost, residual value, and payment deduction, the last three often being neglected in VfM assessments. Simulation-based optimization and dynamic programming analysis are used to determine the probability distributions of the LCC and the VfM. A hypothetical highway PPP project under an availability payment model is selected as a case study. The results show that maintenance flexibility is indeed able to reduce the LCC for the private party. However, this private efficiency, if not properly regulated, could cause a reduced asset residual value and an increased user cost, making the public party worse off. In addition, for all potential maintenance strategies, the public sector is found to retain significant lifecycle cost risk, largely in the form of user cost.

Whole life costing plays an essential role in ensuring value for money, not only in the construction stage but also in the duration of the asset’s life. This study investigates the level of awarene...

Global strategists suggest to deploy a value for money strategy both in emerging and developed markets. This study uses reviews from 24,926 airline passengers across 29 countries, and investigates ...

Anti-competitive activities, like bid-rigging, undermine the main objectives of public procurement, such as value for money and efficiency in the procurement process. The magnitude of the problem i...

This study investigates the changing discourses of the value of degrees in prospectuses between 1976 and 2013, chosen due to the massification of higher education and use of the particular ...

Background The Grazax Asthma Prevention (GAP) trial has recently demonstrated significant reductions in the odds of asthma symptoms or medication use in patients treated with SQ® grass SLIT-tablet relative to placebo, both in combination with allergy and asthma pharmacotherapy. The objective of the present analysis was to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of SQ grass SLIT-tablet relative to placebo in children with AR from the perspective of a German healthcare payer. Methods A cost-utility model was developed in Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA, USA) to evaluate the cost-utility of SQ grass SLIT-tablet in combination with pharmacotherapy versus pharmacotherapy alone in patients with AR. Transition probabilities were derived from the GAP trial, and costs were taken from a real-world insurance database analysis. Future costs and effects were discounted at 3% per annum, and extensive deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analyses were performed. Results Over a 10-year time horizon, the base case analysis showed an increase in overall treatment costs of €897 per child being treated with SQ grass SLIT-tablet relative to pharmacotherapy alone. The increased treatment costs were accompanied by an improvement in patient quality of life of 0.10 quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) yielding an ICER of €8978 per QALY gained, falling well below a willingness-to-pay threshold of €17,800 per QALY gained. The base case results were insensitive to changes in all individual model parameters. Discussion Improvements in quality of life with the SQ grass SLIT-tablet would be accompanied by only a modest increase in costs over a 10-year time horizon, with the SQ grass SLIT-tablet therefore representing excellent value for money from the German healthcare payer perspective.

Johannes Pöhlmann,1 Roberta Montagnoli,2 Giusi Lastoria,3 Witesh Parekh,4 Marie Markert,5 Barnaby Hunt1 1Health Economics, Ossian Health Economics and Communications, Basel 4051, Switzerland; 2External Affairs-Region Europe, Novo Nordisk SpA, Rome IT00144, Italy; 3Medical Advice, Novo Nordisk SpA, Rome IT00144, Italy; 4European HEOR, Nova Nordisk Ltd, West Sussex RH6 0PA, UK; 5Global Market Access, Novo Nordisk A/S, Søborg DK-2860, DenmarkCorrespondence: Barnaby HuntHealth Economics, Ossian Health Economics and Communications GmbH, Bäumleingasse 20, Basel CH-4051, SwitzerlandTel +41 61 271 6214Email hunt@ossianconsulting.comObjective: Italian treatment guidelines for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) target good glycemic control but acknowledge the associated risk of hypoglycemia. Unlike traditional antidiabetic therapies, modern treatment options such as fixed-ratio combinations of basal insulin and glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists are associated with improved glycemic control, reduced body weight and low risk of hypoglycemia. The cost-effectiveness of the fixed-ratio combinations of basal insulin and glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists IDegLira and iGlarLixi was assessed for Italy in patients with T2DM uncontrolled on basal insulin, to evaluate how short-term clinical benefits translate into long-term health economic outcomes.Methods: The IQVIA CORE Diabetes Model was used to project clinical and economic outcomes over patient lifetimes. Treatment effects were sourced from an indirect treatment comparison. The analysis captured direct medical costs (expressed in 2017 Euros) from the perspective of the Italian National Health Service (NHS) and patient-related quality of life. Sensitivity analyses were performed.Results: IDegLira was associated with gains of 0.09 life years and 0.13 quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) relative to iGlarLixi, due to a lower cumulative incidence and delayed onset of diabetes-related complications. IDegLira was associated with an incremental cost of EUR 930 over patient lifetimes, leading to an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of EUR 7,386 per QALY gained.Conclusion: Over the lifetime of patients with T2DM uncontrolled on basal insulin, IDegLira was associated with improved clinical outcomes at higher costs relative to iGlarLixi. At a willingness-to-pay threshold of EUR 30,000 per QALY gained, IDegLira was considered to be cost-effective versus iGlarLixi from the perspective of the Italian NHS.Keywords: cost-effectiveness, fixed-ratio combination, IDegLira, iGlarLixi, Italy, type 2 diabetes

Many governments have recognised the socio-economic importance of broadband. The market often provides a broadband connection but when this does not occur governments have stepped in. Throu...

Value for Money (VfM) is increasingly a funding requirement for UK aid. This article builds on research around different VfM approaches to highlight the challenges faced by the sector in ap...

The start of 2019 has seen universities in the United Kingdom come under increasing pressure to demonstrate that their courses offer value for money to the growing number of students who move throu...

The research explored the approaches used by government agencies (as client organizations) to drive occupational health and safety (OHS) performance improvements in publicly funded infrastr...

Public private partnerships (PPP) procurement instruments have been very popular tools for developing projects around the world. This is largely due to their success in bringing quality, efficiency...

This paper examines the possibilities and limitations in pursuing value for money (VfM) in public procurement. There is ambiguity about the VfM concept and the methods that public procurers should ...

In the face of reduced public funding of science and increased demands for ‘value for money’, academic researchers find themselves hard pressed to produce relevant research and demonstrate their ut...

This study examines major cafe experience attributes and their impacts on customers’ attitudinal and behavioural outcomes in the New Zealand cafe industry. Based on an extended model of the consump...

Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) is an important financing scheme to deliver value for money in infrastructure procurement. To mitigate its financial risk, the private sector often asks for a minimum t...

The fiscal efficiency of Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects has been subject to much debate since PPP proliferated in Korea since 1997. The paper aims to determine the fiscal efficiency of t...

Introduction: Demonstrating the value for money of orphan and ultra-orphan medicinal products is a challenge for every pharmaceutical company.Methods: A regulatory and pharmacoeconomic study was pe...

Internationally, public-private partnerships (PPPs) have become an increasingly common part of government infrastructure programmes. The public sector comparator (PSC) is the key quantitative test ...

This review aimed to assess evidence on effectiveness and value for money of cash-based humanitarian assistance. We followed standard procedures for review of (quasi) experimental studies and adapted procedures for studies reporting costs, cost-effectiveness, cost–benefit or cost–utility of unconditional cash transfer, conditional cash transfer and voucher programmes in humanitarian settings. Of 4094 identified studies, only five met effectiveness review inclusion criteria. These five, plus five others, met cost review inclusion criteria. Although limited conclusions about comparative effectiveness and value for money can be drawn from this review, findings do provide important insights for consideration in design and evaluation of programmes in crisis-affected settings.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the effects of the institutional environment on project outcomes in order to contribute to the accumulating accounting literature on P3s. Based on an empi...

10 May 2017Tolled roads in Australia have been around now for over 25 years (excluding bridge crossings) and have created camps of supporters and dissenters. Have they delivered value for money (to...

The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) administers the Better Energy Homes scheme to provide a financial incentive for home owners to engage in energy efficiency retrofits. This study analyses data from the scheme and Building Energy Rating data for participants to the scheme to examine the value for money achieved by households. In addition, this research identifies which retrofit combinations provide greatest value for money, in terms of energy efficiency gains, for the grant provider. We utilize an error-in-variables approach to model the variation in benefits accruing to households of varying characteristics. We find that household and grant provider surplus can be maximized in the short term by retrofitting less energy efficient and larger homes, timber or steel frame homes and houses rather and apartments. The types of retrofits leading to the greatest surplus for both household and grant provider include cavity wall insulation paired with either a boiler with heating controls or...

This paper assesses how retail firms in Ghana pursue positioning activities. Overt observations, face-to-face interviews with staff, managers and mall intercept methods provide an insight into the positioning strategies of firms in the retail sector. We adopt an empirically based and generic consumer-derived typology of positioning strategies to obtain the results. The findings revealed that the dominant strategies are “service,” “value for money,” “attractiveness,” “reliability,” “top of the range,” selectivity, and “brand name.” The emphasis placed on each of these positioning strategies varies from firm to firm.

Three strategic theoretical concepts – design, planning and positioning – are examined for their relevance to the business context of Ghana. For design, the Ghanaian culture on respect for elders and authority is argued to be partly responsible for the ‘accepting’ nature of subordinates. Formal planning by organisations is mostly found with large companies and multinationals due to the influence of parent organisations. Firms seek to position on service reliability, value for money, branding, social responsibility and others. The paper contributes to knowledge and practice in African business by developing propositions around which organisations can achieve competitive advantage in the Ghanaian business setting during the application of the strategic concepts discussed.

Governments throughout the world are turning to public‒private partnerships (PPPs) as a means of providing new infrastructure. The decision to adopt a PPP over conventional government procurement is usually based on a value for money (VfM) appraisal, but this analysis is conducted differently in different countries. This article describes the correct way to conduct VfM analysis if the goal is to minimize the present value of the costs to the Treasury and if the goal is to maximize social welfare. It then compares the documented methodologies of nine specialist PPP units. It identifies four ways in which these methodologies depart from either of the correct approaches, and shows how each departure favors the PPP option. Finally, it shows how the UK approach might be augmented to determine the best value to society.

Public sector organizations, including local government (LG) entities, continue to resort to value for money (VFM) audit to enhance performance and accountability. Based on the analysis of the consolidated reports on the annual performance-based Functional Organizational Assessment Tool (FOAT)—VFM audit—in Ghana to determine the efficacy of VFM on performance, this article argues that VFM audits constitute a significant public management tool that could enhance LG performance. However, the FOAT reports, like most VFM audits, only provide quantitative evidence, which fails to capture the qualitative or other relevant explanatory factors behind the recorded performance improvement.

In public management a key driver of effectiveness is value for money (VfM). This paper argues that the VfM concept suffers from conceptual ambiguity, and thus ethical implications arise when VfM is used to legitimize public buying decisions. A conceptual framework, which clarifies properties and boundaries of VfM, is proposed. Empirical data collected from public employees involved in public procurement in Ireland and a perceptual map of subjective meaning and impact of VfM are discussed. While the conceptual framework is broadly supported, it highlights different interpretations of VfM and distinguishes those employees who dent the VfM pinata from those who break it. The implications of the research in this paper include a need for more debate concerning the usefulness of the VfM concept.

Almost weekly, we see proposals to build light rail in many cities, and Australian cities are no exception. It is also quite marked how absent any serious consideration of bus rapid transit (BRT) a...

Performance management or PM has been promoted as a tool to transform government. Claims that PM will enable governments to “do more with less,” “increase efficiency,” provide “value for money,” and make “rational budget decisions” abound. Has PM helped city governments in the United States cope with the effects of the 2007–2009 Great Recession? Theory suggests that PM can provide the informational and analytical foundation necessary for city officials to implement comprehensive but conflictive budget-cutting and revenue-raising strategies. By facilitating deep expenditure cuts and tax increases, PM can indirectly influence budget deficits. Using data from a national survey of city governments and multiyear audited financial reports, the empirical analysis shows that PM cities favored what are essentially decremental responses to fiscal crises that lead to marginal changes in revenues and expenditures. Not surprisingly, there is no evidence that PM influences the size and change in budget shortfalls.

Understanding which elements are important when perceiving the goodness of a ship is crucial. Traditional driving factors, such as cost and value for money, have been augmented by additional ones, such as environmental issues and increasing risks associated with a rapidly changing commercial and regulatory environment. In this paper, we propose ways for these new elements to be incorporated in the perception of a value robust ship. We use complex systems engineering theory to classify these elements in five aspects: structural, behavioural, contextual, temporal and perceptual. Emphasis is given to the last aspect, linking the perception of a value robust design with rational decision-making, and incorporating the uncertainty and inherent lack of perfect information and agreement in the process. An extended definition of mission concept is combined with epoch-era analysis as proposal to incorporate and quantify the perception of value robustness in the early stages of maritime design.

This paper analyses the processes, outcomes and tensions of a cross-sectoral collaborative venture involving several organizations with multiple logics and is based on empirical evidence from a collaborative ‘Empty Homes’ project. While, paradoxically, multiple logics are a basis for the partnership's existence (for example ‘value for money’ and local community benefit) to achieve these different aims simultaneously, its other aims or logics at times conflicted, resulting in intra-partnership tensions. Hence we offer novel insights into the practical aspects of collaboration at a local level and on multi-organizational relationships.

Health economic evaluations of health technologies such as medicines, medical devices, diagnostics, etc. still receive increasing attention throughout the world.Indeed, “value for money” assessment...

The Westminster Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is considered to be one of the most effective and important parliamentary committees. Devolution in the late 1990s resulted in the establishment of separate public accounts committees in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. This paper examines the effectiveness of the Northern Ireland PAC. Given the consociational nature of devolved government in Northern Ireland, and the potential for sectarian politics, the PAC has adopted an independent and non-partisan approach. Weaknesses identified in the study include a tendency to dwell on detail, and over-reliance on the Northern Ireland Audit Office. However, despite these weaknesses the committee has proven to be highly effective.

This paper examines the motivations for and performance of public–private partnerships in Ireland. PPPs were first used in the early 2000s in response to the urgent infrastructural needs of the rapidly growing Irish economy. Since the global financial crisis, the use of PPPs has been driven by the desire to deliver economic stimulus by means of off-balance-sheet financing. PPPs have made an appreciable contribution to public investment in Ireland. However, there is a scarcity of data on the performance of PPP in terms of delivering value for money (VFM). This paper questions the reliability of official data that generally indicates PPP has succeeded in delivering superior VFM compared to traditional procurement methods.

Public–private partnerships (PPPs) are used to accelerate infrastructure development in both developed and developing countries. This paper critically elaborates and discusses two operational motorway concessions in Croatia. Multiple case study research results showed that poorly prepared PPP deals may have an adverse effect on subsequent operating performance of concession contracts in terms of achieved value for money and risk-return allocation. Instead of structuring projects as bundled, design–build–finance–maintain–operate contracts, it is more beneficial, from the public point of view, to enter into separate contracts for construction and operation, i.e. asset related service provision.

Public–private partnerships (PPPs) have become an increasingly popular way for governments to procure for their citizens certain public services. Supporters argue that the private sector can provide services more efficiently while critics complain that the long-term contracts involved reduce governments’ ability to adapt to changing needs. This paper shows that the optimal choice between a PPP and traditional public procurement depends on a number of factors, including the likelihood that changes will be necessary, the productivity of non-contractible effort exerted by private sector partners, and the bargaining power of government vis-a-vis private parties. It also shows that this choice may depend on whether the government’s objective is to maximize “value for money” or to maximize total social surplus.

There is increasing evidence that the portion sizes of many foods have increased and in a laboratory at least this increases the amount eaten. The conclusions are, however, limited by the complexity of the phenomenon. There is a need to consider meals freely chosen over a prolonged period when a range of foods of different energy densities are available. A range of factors will influence the size of the portion size chosen: amongst others packaging, labeling, advertising, and the unit size rather than portion size of the food item. The way portion size interacts with the multitude of factors that determine food intake needs to be established. In particular, the role of portion size on energy intake should be examined as many confounding variables exist and we must be clear that it is portion size that is the major problem. If the approach is to make a practical contribution, then methods of changing portion sizes will need to be developed. This may prove to be a problem in a free market, as it is to be expected that customers will resist the introduction of smaller portion sizes, given that value for money is an important motivator.

Regulation criteria for licensing pharmaceuticals and medical devices (MDs) are asymmetric. This has affected the type, quantity and quality of the evidence produced in support of MDs. This paper has three objectives: to examine the reasons behind the current licensing criteria for MDs; to identify key methodological challenges associated with pre- and post-market evaluation of MDs and to assess the extent to which existing methods for the economic evaluation of pharmaceuticals can be applied to the evaluation of MDs. The belief that MDs cannot be properly evaluated stems from a combination of historical events and complexities in implementing rigorous RCTs in this field. Existing challenges to conduct sound economic evaluation of MDs have begun to be addressed in medical research using mixed research methods. While more challenging to implement, robust evaluations of therapeutic MDs can and need to be carried out to safeguard individual's wellbeing.

In more recent times, education and training in public administration have become very important because the public service is expected by the citizens to provide value for money spent. In developi...

This study expands on previous studies by examining the purchasers’ criteria choice of automobile in the Ghanaian market and establishing the factors that influence the purchase and estimating the choice of brand. The study examined 1,130 automobile owners. Data was collected on 20 automobile attributes considered important when purchasing an automobile. The preliminary result of the research show that five major factors— interior, safety, value for money, modernity, and economy—influence consumers to purchase a particular automobile. Conclusion can be drawn that a relationship exists between the influencing factors and the brands of automobiles purchased by respondents.

In October 2013, the Royal Mail (RM) was sold by the UK government through a public share offering. This was the largest privatization by value since the 1990s. The RM is facing competition in its core letters and parcels businesses and the coalition government concluded that its future best lay in the private sector with access to the private capital market. This study contrasts this privatization with large privatizations in the 1980s and 1990s. Significant differences are identified in terms of post-privatization gains to investors, the attitude towards marketing of the shares to the public, the preferential share scheme for employees and the treatment of pension liabilities. This privatization is shown to be particularly poor value for money for British taxpayers.

Programs serving orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) have become increasingly complex over the last decade, necessitating programs to collect more information to ensure adequate management. Programs are also facing greater pressure to demonstrate an interest in understanding impact and value for money, which is similarly leading to changes in the ways programs collect information and the types of information collected. In order to gather such information and contain costs, governments and programs are collecting increasing amounts of information at every interaction with program beneficiaries. This has led to a high burden on those providing, gathering, and inputting information and low data quality overall.In this paper, we present a framework for categorizing different information needs for OVC program management and evaluation. The purpose of this framework is to support OVC program staff and donors to more clearly define information-collection strategies based on the information needed, why it is ne...

The evolution of store formats and the resultant consumers’ cross-shopping behavior has been the prevalent trends in Indian food and grocery retailing. More recently, however, the growing incidence of cross-format shopping—defined as consumers shopping regularly at each of two or more types of grocery retail outlets—has become a subject of research, as it is regarded as a necessary evil associated with concentric retail growth. The aim of the article is to identify factors influencing consumers’ cross-format shopping in relation to four retail formats—kirana stores, convenience stores, supermarkets, and hypermarkets. Furthermore, it investigates the impact of identified factors on repatronage behavior relative to four types of retail outlets. The mall intercept survey method was used to collect data from 1,040 adult food and grocery consumers. Results from exploratory factor analysis and zero-order correlation matrix indicate that value for money, value for time, shopping situations, shopping mot...

The purpose of this study was to contribute to the knowledge of how manufacturer brands choose and can choose to defend themselves vis-a-vis introduction of private brands by retailers. The study adopts the same research approach as a Dutch empirical study (Verhoef, P. C., E. J. Nijssen, and L. M. Sloot. 2002. “Strategic Reactions of National Brand Manufacturers Towards Private Labels – An Empirical Study in the Netherlands.” European Journal of Marketing 36 (11/12): 1309–1326) that tested and rejected large parts of the original and well-known conceptual framework by Hoch (Hoch, S. J. 1996. “How Should National Brands Think About Private Labels?” Sloan Management Review 37 (2): 89–102) consisting of six manufacturer strategies to defend against private brands. This study is based on the Swedish market, a more typical market compared with the Dutch market characterized by high innovation level and high penetration of private brands. The study builds on a combination of qualitative and quantitative interviews with brand managers at 100 manufacturers in the Swedish Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) market. The results support Hoch's original conceptual framework concerning appropriate defence strategies for manufacturer brands. However, the two differentiation strategies – value for money and new and improved – are seen as one category of the strategies, which creates a simpler and more distinct structure to the framework. The results show that it is the largest and the leading manufacturers that choose this strategy. The lower the penetration of private brands, the larger the share of manufacturers that choose this strategy. The study gives a more nuanced picture concerning the motives behind the strategies and also concerning the differences between how manufacturers act depending on size and market share.

The pressure for publicly funded museums and galleries in the UK to effectively express their ‘value for money’ in order to advocate for their continued public subsidy is arguably greater than ever. Taking the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) as a case study, this research aims to contribute to the execution of such advocacy through considering one model that museums and galleries could utilise in order to conduct their own small-scale valuation study. Arguing that contingent valuation can give primacy to the value perceived by those who contribute to public subsidies through their taxation, the results suggest that the NGS return a consumer surplus of £3,567,703. Although this surplus is primarily predicated on the benefits it provides to users as individual consumers, in arriving at their valuation, participants also factored in the societal and economic benefits they value as citizens.

In the context of scaled-up funding for climate change adaptation, it is more important than ever to guarantee value for money of adaptation interventions. Robust monitoring and evaluation (M&E) ensures that the prospective benefits of interventions are being realized and it helps to improve the design of future projects and programmes. This paper is the first empirical assessment of M&E frameworks used by development cooperation agencies for projects and programmes with adaptation-specific or adaptation-related components. It analyses documents for 106 projects across 6 bilateral development agencies. The analysis finds that Result Based Management, the Logical Framework Approach and the accompanying logframe are the most common M&E approaches used for adaptation. In applying these approaches, the long-term perspective of most adaptation initiatives means that it is particularly important to clearly differentiate between outcomes, outputs and activities. In addition, M&E frameworks for adaptation should ...