Strategic groups in hotel industry： Empirical evidences

The Serra da Estrela Tourism Region （SETR）, gifted of unique landscape conditions, of singular natural resources, filled with culture and history, has become an attractive leisure and recreation region. Considering its tourism potential, we have seen a development of the tourism activities on that region, making necessary a study of the presence of derivative offering components, mainly on the tourism hotels level. Considering the crucial strategic role that this activity has on the region, and since there are only a few follow-up studies of the activity development, the present research aims to contribute for the knowledge of the relevant tourism hotels units reality in the SETR. In this sense, the authors intend to analyze the different strategies that are being taken in the region, by this sort of companies and, to identify the existence （or not） of company groups that carry on similar strategies--strategic groups. To reach such goals, an empirical study was developed, based upon the information obtained from the statistical analysis of questionnaires applied to the hotels unit＇s managers. The results allowed concluding that the hotels units enforce combined strategies, instead of a single specific strategy. It was also possible to identify the existence of different strategic groups that use similar competitive strategies. From this process, it also resulted that the companies that operate in this sector consider that strategy assumes a determinative role for the success of their activity.     

The impact of corporate governance to the economic value added listed company in BEI 2003-2004

The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of Corporate Governance （CG） to the performance of the firm measured by Economic Value Added （EVA）. This research uses 64 samples for the year 2003-2004. The CG index is taken from the research of Siagian, Siregar and Rahadian （2006） and the EVA taken from ＂A hundred value creators companies＂ published by SWA Magazines in 2004-2005.
By grouping samples based on its mean, this research finds that samples in high CG index group have higher EVA than samples in low CG index group. The mean equality test shows the significant relation for this evidence.
Using simple and multiple regression method, CG index has positive and significant effect on EVA. This research uses sales growth, leverage, size, and age of the firm as control variables in multiple regression method. Consistent with research hypothesis, all control variables have positive and significant effect on EVA.
This research also investigate the effect of each component of CG index to EVA. ＂Equitable treatment of shareholders＂ and ＂disclosure and transparency＂ have positive and significant effect on EVA, but ＂right of shareholders＂, ＂role of stakeholders＂, and ＂responsibility of the board＂ do not have significant effect to EVA.
The sensitivity analysis is also done to investigate the effect of CG index to the performance of the firm if ROA and ROE were used as proxy of performance. The result shows that CG index has positive and significant effect to those various performance mesurement. Based on its coefficient, CG index is superior in affecting ROE more than EVA and ROA.     

The effectiveness of flyer advertising employing TMS： Key to scientific automobile sales innovation at Toyota

In this paper, the author shows the effectiveness of flyer advertising utilizing as a core technology Toyota Marketing System （TMS）. TMS is part of new JIT, which contributes to constructing a Toyota Sales Marketing System （TSMS）. This new TSMS is key to scientific automobile sales innovation at Toyota group dealers in Japan. This study describes the ＂flyer advertising effect＂, the ＂day of the week effect＂, and the ＂new car effect＂. Employing the Science SQC approach, these effects are acknowledged among those on the front lines of automobile sales as having a high level of investment efficiency and resultant customer traffic.     

Neuroeconomics and business psychology

To determine parameters of the frontal power of executive integration for application in business, this paper reviewed neuroeconomic neuroimaging research and discussion in relation to business psychology. The results are that limbic system （L） is a centre of primary consciousness based on a mesolimbic dopamine system serving the client in the brain stem with adaptive feedback as well as generating cognition and emotions towards Neocortex in a reciprocal autonomic balance. The power of concentration （C） is a tripartite executive integrating emotions and cognition： Prefrontal analysis by semantic recollection from temporal （R） lobe is based on episodic memories. Volition in the medial prefrontal cortex （c） controls both cognitive prediction （R＇c） and emotions （L/c） for a balanced integration as a neural root of economic reasoning. An intuitive visuospatial Parietal sketchpad （I） integrates hippocampal episodic memory mismatches complementary to the cognitive prediction function. Chronic stress limiting the capacity of C is indicated by baseline serum cortisol. The conclusion is that the neuroeconomic model enables （1） operation of the theorem of economic man as an economic-bio-educational complex. Other business applications comprise, （2） a neural foundation of transactional analysis （TA） to improve corporate collaboration and management, （3） a combined health promotion/human resource development program based on simple training techniques as physical exercise, medical meditation and neurolinguistic programming （NLP）, i.e., for weight regulation.     

Economic sanctions and trade diversions in Sudan

The latest episode of the armed conflict between Northern and Southern Sudan erupted in 1983 and ended with the signing of the ＂Comprehensive Peace Agreement （CPA）＂ in 2005. The CPA allows for a referendum on independence for South Sudan in 2011. A similar scenario is possible for Darfur, where an armed conflict broke out in 2003 over demands for greater decentralization and development in the region. The peace agreement between the central government and the Eastern Sudan region continues to be fragile, and the risk of escalation of across the border spillovers of conflicts with Uganda and Chad persists. The U.S., EU, among other global players, is putting pressure on the Khartoum government to change its policies. Economic sanctions are among the tools used by the U.S. government while encouraging others follow suit. This paper investigates the response of the Sudanese economy to eliminating trade flows with the EU in the first phase and with East-Asian countries in the second. It discusses the changes in the macro-indicators, trade variables and welfare measures that would result. Moreover, it assesses the potential trade diversion and resource reallocation due to sanctions in each phase. To simulate these scenarios, detailed economic databases for Sudan, EU, East-Asian region, MENA, COMESA and the rest of the world are needed. For this purpose, GTAP Africa database and the standard GTAP model are employed. The 57 sectors of Africa database are aggregated to ten sectors including： grains and crops, livestock and meat products, mining and extraction, processed food, textiles and clothing, light manufacturing, heavy manufacturing, utilities and construction, transport and communication and other services. Moreover, the database regions are aggregated to six including Sudan, the EU, East Asia, MENA, COMESA and the Rest of the world. Results show that Sudanese trade reallocates to Asia in the first phase and to COMESA and MENA regions in the second. Sanctions exact a devastating toll on the Sudanese economy： GDP declines, trade shrinks and welfare deteriorates. The deterioration in the country＇s trade is mainly in the imports side, which justifies an improvement of the country＇s balance of trade, while welfare losses are derived by a deteriorated terms of trade and allocative efficiency.     

Revisiting output-price relations in East Asia

Why slower growth and high inflation can occur concurrently, while in other cases growth can be non-inflationary？ Why did aggregate demand policy sometime fail to work, given an orthogonal shock？ This study ponders on these queries by estimating the aggregate supply and aggregate demand curves in four East Asian countries. Applying the Structural Vector Auto-Regression （SVAR） with the restrictions a-la Blanchard and Quah, it is revealed that while the AD and AS curves in most cases follow the textbook definitions, in some countries the AS curve is so fiat that demand expansion would have been effective to stimulate growth, and supply-based policies would be more desirable to control prices. We also found that during the crisis the supply shock played a more significant role in the price fluctuations, suggesting that focusing on AD management alone was not the best approach to take.     

Estimates regarding demographic developments in Romania by quantitative and qualitative assessments

The enlargement of the European Union and the liberalization of the labour market will substantially influence the demographic indicators in New Member States. The paper aims to identify and synthetically present some factors of influence which triggered by the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century a series of characteristics defining the changes of the demographic model and structure of population on age brackets. Romania＇s population lost in the period 1992-2007 about 1250 thousands persons, which represents more than the population increase effort by restrictive policies （abortion prohibition） during the period 1977-1992. Also, this paper presents the most important factors that determine the demographic decline beginning in the last decade of the 20th century, both at national and regional levels. For Romania, another phenomenon is represented by the demographic dregs due to the emigration of the feminine population of fertile age. The increase of the share of female population in the emigration flows became more noticeable in the period 2002-2007. Supposing that from those women who migrate, less than 2/3 are going to give birth to children abroad, （1.3 represents the fertility rate at present）, we can estimate, for example, that during the period 2000-2007 Romania has lost more than 69,099 persons. The paper presents some theoretic considerations on the Markov-type model, and the results obtained by using it for studying the development of demographic indicators in Romania, and their forecasting as well.     

Creative Destruction as Economic Pattern of Europe＇s Small-Scale Audiovisual Media Markets and Minority-Language Film Industries

The small cinematography model as well as its incorporation into creation of the European digital space emerges as a paradigm of the creative destruction phenomenon in the way that Sombart spoke about and, afterwards, Schumpeter disseminated it seven decades ago. Working from this perspective, the University of Santiago de Compostela （USC）＇ audiovisual research group has been looking for the barriers the small cinema in original version must overcome and has even tested some of its findings in different geopolitical areas such as Lusophony,     

Comparative study of the inducement of US subprime mortgage crisis and symptom of real estate in China

Since the essence of US subprime mortgage crisis just lies in the bank credit crisis caused by bubbles bursting of real estate market, some questions are really worthy of our deep reflection, such as whether there are bubbles existing in Chinese real estate market, whether there is crisis implied in Chinese real estate industry and financial crisis, as well as the difficulties that Chinese real estate is facing and the extent to which its difficulties might overshadow it. Therefore, based on the comparative study of the inducement of US subprime mortgage crisis and symptom of real estate in China, this paper illustrates the inducement of US subprime mortgage crisis and relevant symptom that Chinese real estate industry is facing, and further dialyzes a series of warnings brought to Chinese real estate.     

Relationship marketing in health organizations and its effect on customer loyalty

This study was carried out to determine the role of relationship marketing in health organizations with regard to providing customer loyalty and to evaluate the views of patients related to relationship marketing activities. In this study, a questionnaire was applied to 371 patients in Kadlk0y Universal Hospital, which is a private hospital in Istanbul. As a result of the correlation analysis between the satisfaction level from hospital and customer loyalty, it was seen that there is a medium level positive relation between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. The important implications of this study can be stated as follows： Keeping existing patient is significant as much as gaining new patient, the variables being effective for providing customer loyalty can show difference from one patient to another, the image of health organization is significant for providing customer loyalty, and customer loyalty can be acquired by making continuous communication with patients.     

The relationship between national saving and domestic investment in economy of Iran

In this paper, the relationship between national savings and domestic investment is examined in order to determine the degree of international capital mobility in Iran＇s economy over the sample period （1959-2007）. To this end, first the savings and investment correlation as postulated by Feldstein and Horioka was revisited using the recently developed bound testing approach （ARDL）. Amongst the key results, was a significant and robust positive association between the ratio of gross domestic investment to gross domestic product and the ratio of national savings to gross domestic product. Next, the coefficient of ECM derived from the ARDL test showed that the speed of adjustment in the estimated models was relatively high and has the expected significant and negative sign. The results indicate that deviation from the long-term path was corrected by approximately 63 percent over the following year. In addition, the savings-investment correlation relationship is examined in terms of an error correction model in order to gain some insight into the degree of capital mobility. The results show that savings and investment are to a great extent co-integrated. In other words, there is a significant long-run relationship between savings and investment in the Iranian economy. Also, the long-run relationship between these variables shows a low degree of capital mobility in Iran, because government policies have had no considerable effect on the savings-investment gap in Iran. The empirical findings suggest that liberalizing both the exchange rate system and interest rates and facilitating capital flow would increase international capital mobility.     

Creative Batik Motif Design Based on Local Cultural Art and Natural Environments

Local arts, culture, and natural environment of Indonesia had their own uniqueness. They might be explored to help and to develop batik industry in Indonesia, especially in motif aspect. It was necessary to help craftsmen to create new and innovative batik products. The study was conducted as an effort to motivate batik craftsmen in developing batik industry through production of creative and unique batik motives. First study question： What are artistic motives of local arts and culture of natural environment of Yogyakarta and Central Java able to give distinct and characteristically local styles？ Second was how to create creative batik inspired by local arts and natural environment.     

Entrepreneurship of SMEs in the framework of globalization

Currently, in Europe, 98.9 percent of all enterprises are small and medium size enterprises （SMEs） which employ 52 percent of all employees. This means that l.1 percent of all enterprises employ 48 percent employees, among whom the multinationals have the biggest and most global influence. But the biggest number of new jobs is provided by the micro-enterprises which employ 23 percent employees. In central and eastern European countries, SMEs are rather a recent feature, but in terms of numbers they are coming close to figures of most development countries of EU. How entrepreneurial are these new SMEs？ How innovative are they, including undertaking appropriate development？ This paper discusses two issues： （1） Improving SMEs＇ competitiveness by becoming sustainable enterprises to requisitely, holistically meet requirements in social/business environments; （2） Improving business by helping SMEs＇ members understand/implement ＂sustainable-enterprise ethics＂. The SMEs＇ future of SMEs depends very much on their innovating of individual/organizational values, culture, ethics and norms.     

Enhancing direct regional agro-aqua tourism entrepreneurial marketing by farmers＇ market or community supported agriculture in small and medium agro marketing enterprises in Malaysia

The purpose of this study is attempting to examine the feasibility application of the concept of enhancing the Direct Regional Agriculture, Aquaculture and Tourism Entrepreneurial Marketing （DRAATEM） and the Small and Medium Agro Marketing Enterprises （SMAMEs） in Malaysia. This collaborative marketing concept will solve the local agro-aqua and tourism fraternities＇ plight where they are constantly preyed by the marketing scavengers or middleman and the possibility of entrepreneurial ventures by the farmers themselves. The methodology used is to determine the feasibility of Direct Regional Agro-Aqua and Tourism Entrepreneurial Marketing （DRAATEM） in SMAMEs that comprising local farmers in agriculture, aquaculture and its association, Ministry of Agriculture （agencies including district agriculture department, irrigation department, FAMA） and Tourism Industry （local tourist agencies and operator）. Local agro-aqua farmers＇ demographic factors （gender, race, academic level, knowledge and experiences of agro and aqua） will also examine to determine the feasibility of Direct Regional Agro Aqua Tourism Entrepreneurial Marketing concept. This study found that, there is a significant difference among factors stated with the enhancing of Direct Regional Agro Aqua Tourism Marketing Entrepreneurial concept in the Small and Medium Agro Aqua Tourism Marketing Enterprise management. The initiatives and eagerness to be successful in this concept depend on the inter-relatedness and collaborative of the tri-party of agro-aqua and tourism fraternities which constitute to the improving of their income, livelihood and generate national economy. In addition, the leadership quality of local farmer＇s cooperative, networking facility and agro-aqua knowledge are another three essential factors found to be the strong fundamental of improving the income and livelihood of local farmers. The implication of this study is upgrading of farmers income and livelihood minus the role of middleman by enhancing Direct Regional Agro-Aqua Tourism Entrepreneurial Marketing concept which is a pivotal role in managing agro sector effectively. This could contribute since agriculture is considered as the third engine of growth in the Malaysian economy. The devised models could be used to achieve the goal. As well as to provide further groundwork to assist existing and would be agro managers; entrepreneurs or agro-agencies to upgrade farmers＇ income and generate country＇s economy by enhancing Direct Regional Agro-Aqua Tourism Entrepreneurial Marketing （DRAATEM） concept in Small and Medium Agro Marketing Enterprises （SMAMEs）.     

Real exchange rates and U.S./Korean bilateral trade

This study examines the impacts of the real exchange rate on the bilateral trade between the U.S. and Korea using a highly disaggregated data set. In doing so, we estimate real exchange rate elasticity for 59 exported commodities （SITC two-digit classification） and 48 imported commodities （also SITC two-digit classification）. Furthermore, we classify commodities according to their attributes in order to examine whether commodity attributes influence the exchange rate elasticity of exports and imports. According to this study＇s results, there have been large changes across those commodities that are ranked as being top contributors to U.S. exports to and imports from Korea for the time periods before, during, and after the Korean financial crisis. Commodity attributes are shown to influence the exchange rate elasticity but are not always consistent with the a priori expectations.     

Establishment of Strategic Quality Management Performance Measurement Model ＂SQM-PMM＂： Key to successful implementation of Science TQM

The Strategic Quality Management--Performance Measurement Model （SQM-PMM） was established to enhance the key elements of successful Science TQM, a new quality management principle proposed by the author. The validity of SQM-PMM as a measurement methodology to ensure future management results through strategic quality management was verified.     

Toward successful IC foundry venturing

The goal of this research is to analyze the evaluation criteria used by integrated circuit （IC） designers when selecting foundry service providers. With an MCDM model considering the aspects of technology, production, customer service and support, and manufacturing location, we interviewed managers and experts of Taiwan＇s IC design firms, using the AHP survey with 16 attributes, to determine the areas of top concern with respect to foundry evaluation criteria. In this study process technology has been found to be the most significant evaluation criterion in view of competitiveness in the customer market.     

An asymmetric and DCC analysis of two stock markets returns＇ volatility： An evidence study on the Hong Kong and Japan＇s stock markets

This paper discusses the model construction and the association between the Hong Kong and the Japanese stock markets. The data period is from January 4, 1999 to December 30, 2005. This paper also utilizes student＇s t distribution to analyze the proposed model. The empirical results show that the bivariate asymmetric-GARCH （1, 2） model with a dynamic conditional correlation （DCC） seemed to be appropriate in evaluating the relationship between them. The empirical result also indicates a positive relation between the Hong Kong and the Japanese stock markets returns. The average estimation value of DCC coefficient equals to 0.5196, which implies that these two stock markets＇ return volatility had synchronized influence on each other. In addition, the empirical results also show that the Hong Kong and the Japanese stock markets have an asymmetrical effect. Based on the idea of the good and bad news, the explanatory ability of proposed model is better than the model of the bivariate GARCH with a DCC.