Vlerick Business School

BackgroundPsoriasis a chronic inflammatory skin disease, poses a substantial economic burden on healthcare systems globally. This study examines psoriasis consultations from the provider’s perspective within a dermatology department, aiming to generate detailed cost data to support value-based care. Specifically, it investigates the drivers of consultation-level cost variability, explores opportunities for efficiency, and also estimates one-year treatment costs to inform the development of bundled payment models. The goal is to highlight the importance of patient cost transparency and improving cost structures in chronic disease settings.MethodsUsing Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing (TD-ABC), treatment costs associated with nurses, doctors, and total visits for 127 patients with mild and moderate forms of psoriasis were measured. Financial data was collected in collaboration with the hospital’s financial department. During consultations, nurses and physicians recorded time and patient-related information. Additional or missing details were retrieved from patient medical files. Descriptive analyses assessed mean costs and variability by patient and disease characteristics. Independent variables: therapy type, patient status (new vs. returning), comorbidities, and treatment changes, were stratified to compare cost differences across groups.ResultsMean consultation costs were €55, with a minimum and maximum of €25 and €110. New patients incurred 40% higher costs than returning ones, mainly due to longer interactions with nurses and physicians. Key cost drivers for a total consultation included patient status, personality traits, nurse experience, and therapy switches. Physician consultations were particularly impacted by treatment changes and patient engagement levels. Annual treatment costs varied substantially by medication type: topical treatments averaged €325 per year, systemic treatments €1,353, and biological therapies €11,920, highlighting the significant impact of medication choice on overall expenses.ConclusionsThis study highlighted substantial variability in consultation and yearly treatment costs for psoriasis patients. These findings emphasized the critical need for detailed cost data to optimise departmental workflows, support efficient resource allocation, and inform the design of equitable bundled payment models. Improving cost transparency was shown to strengthen clinical and financial decision-making. Future research was recommended to explore the cost implications of comorbidities and to extend benchmarking efforts across dermatology settings to guide system-wide improvements in care delivery and sustainability.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12913-025-13426-w.

Advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs) are a unique class of biological medicines that are based on cells, genes, or tissues. Searching four databases, this analysis identified 2008 trials that investigated ATMPs and characterised them according to various characteristics, such as the sponsor type and phase of clinical development. This characterisation revealed that the market for ATMPs is maturing in terms of the number of products in development, the diseases being targeted, and the technologies being pursued. This characterisation is meant to help further the discussion on the ever-growing clinical trial landscape of ATMPs and inform healthcare payers.

The school-to-work transition (STWT) is a pivotal period during which young graduates form the anticipatory psychological contract (APC), encompassing expectations of employer inducements (EEI) and intentions of employee contributions (IEC). Using three-wave data collected to test a reciprocal random-intercept cross-lagged panel model (R-RICLPM), this study investigates the dynamic relationships between these dimensions, along with the role of optimism as an antecedent and its link to person-organization (PO) fit. Our findings reveal significant contemporaneous reciprocal effects between EEI and IEC within each time point, indicating mutual reinforcement. Cross-lagged analyses show an asymmetry, with EEI predicting subsequent IEC but not vice versa. Optimism predicts between-person differences in EEI and IEC, with EEI mediating the relationship between optimism and PO fit. However, IEC negatively associates with PO fit, suggesting potential misalignments. This study advances psychological contract theory by modeling APC dynamics, integrating self-regulation theory, and emphasizing optimism's role in fostering successful STWT outcomes.

Historically, cash has been noted for its ease and convenience as a payment instrument; however, contactless payments now rival cash in this regard. Using UK survey data at a time when contactless payments were on the rise but not yet fully adopted, we examine the role of consumers’ financial literacy and trait habitual behaviours as drivers of contactless payment ownership. This unique timing allows us to identify a segment of the population without contactless card ownership; a rare opportunity given the current widespread adoption of the technology. We find that consumers’ financial literacy and proneness to routine behaviour are positively associated with ownership of contactless payment cards. Using propensity score matching techniques, we address the ex-ante heterogeneity between individuals exhibiting different levels of financial literacy, habitual behaviour, and non-random selection issues to show that our results are robust to potential endogeneity issues. Our findings can inform policymakers and banks about the adoption patterns of emerging payment technologies, providing insights that are particularly relevant for future technologies facing early-stage adoption challenges.

Integrating optical sensors into harsh industrial environments poses challenges and limits to the application. This paper discusses the implementation of a LLT (Laser Line Triangulation) sensor in a steel industry use case, designed to measure the straightness of steel bars at very high temperatures, up to 1000-1200 °C. Due to the bar incandescence it is challenging to use the optical instrument, as Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) of the laser line projected onto the inspected object is lower than 2 dB. Both hardware and software solutions are investigated, in particular the choice of a very narrowband filter is selected to remove quite all the other spectral content coming from the bar irradiance. Even though this solution enhances SNR, the narrow band filter blocks the laser irradiance at the edges of the field of view: a reference ruler measured at ambient temperature has shown that 40.3 % of the length of the bar is not detected with respect to the measurement without the narrow band filter. To cope with this issue, a software solution is implemented which consists in the preprocessing of the image with a Region of Interest (ROI) around the laser line. This solution imposes the constraint of repeatable product positioning which has to be assured by the robot which picks up the product for the measurement. Applying the ROI, the Laser Line Extraction (LLE) algorithm detects clearly the laser line, with outliers reduction of 97.5 % with respect to the case without ROI introduction.

We draw from the social psychology literature to introduce an alternative conceptualization of executive narcissism—narcissistic admiration and rivalry. In the context of chief executive officers (CEOs) pitching to investors, we theorize how narcissistic CEOs may use distinct behavioral strategies to pursue status, thereby shaping investor sentiment and ultimately affecting investors’ funding decisions. Using Shark Tank data, we find evidence that narcissistic admiration and rivalry are associated with opposing patterns in new venture funding, as shaped by investor sentiment. Specifically, CEO narcissistic admiration is positively associated with new venture funding by increasing investor sentiment, whereas CEO narcissistic rivalry is negatively associated with new venture funding by decreasing investor sentiment. These results highlight the need to separate narcissistic admiration and rivalry in executive narcissism research and illustrate the underlying mechanisms through which executive narcissism shapes organizational outcomes. Overall, this study provides new insights into two pathways of executive narcissism and offers evidence consistent with the idea that executive narcissism matters in entrepreneurial contexts. Supplemental Material: The online appendices are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2022.17024 .