‘Sustainable transport choices’ in consumer shopping: a review of the UK evidence

In the UK, as elsewhere in Europe, government policy aims to reduce the use of private cars for consumer shopping trips. One major instrument of policy aims to ensure that new retail development is located in places accessible by all transport modes. This paper reviews the effectiveness of this and other such policies through analysis of survey evidence relating to routine shopping behaviour in the UK. It appears that these policies are likely to have little impact upon shopping travel, given the advantages to the consumer of private car use. However, demographic trends and increasing use of the Internet for food shopping are likely to stabilize or even reduce the use of private cars in the future.     

Segmenting the Business Traveler Based on Emotions,Satisfaction, and Behavioral Intention

As travel is part of their work, business travelers are assumed to be focused on carrying out a work‐related task, rather than feeling emotionally stimulated during their trip. Due to this belief, there is limited research on consumer emotions within this segment of the travel market. However, not only is business travel an experience and therefore it involves emotions, but many business trips have a strong leisure component and business travel decision making is often emotionally charged. This paper segments the business travel market based on emotions, satisfaction, and behavioral intention. Using a sample of 400 managers in small‐ and medium‐sized companies, the study demonstrates that the relationship between emotions and satisfaction is not unidirectional as far as business tourism is concerned. For two of the four segments, the valence of emotions translated into an opposite level of satisfaction/intention. The segments were found to differ in personal and trip‐related variables.     

Experimental analysis of consumer channel-mix use

Today's consumers have access to multiple consumer distribution channels. To remain competitive, retailers must offer different contact points to consumers. This empirical study examines channel-mix use decisions for 352 online customers' holiday booking preparations. A scenario based experimental approach studies consumer channel-mix use by channel and decision context attributes. The study models effects of time pressure, expected expenditure, channel quality, and access costs on the use of eight channel options, including traditional and online options. Over one-half of respondents use multiple channels to decide trip booking; however, most travelers book trips using the channel they initially investigated for information. Results show expected expenditure does not influence channel use; however, overall cost affects the booking's timing. Time pressures force respondents to visit a travel agent or collect additional brochures to quickly complete the purchase. Results suggest brochures fulfill an important support role.     

Business Regulations and Private Domestic Investment in Africa

In this article, the author seeks to complement the perception-based studies by utilizing the objective measures from the Doing Business project to analyze the relationship between business regulations and private domestic investment in Africa. He reports evidence that reforms in business regulations affecting contract enforcement, tax administration, firm entry, labor markets, and the private sector as a whole positively affect private domestic investment in Africa. These findings are important for assisting policy makers in creating a business regulatory environment that promotes domestic private investment and thereby encourages economic growth in Africa.     

Give everyone a prize? Employee stock options in private venture-backed firms

This study examines employee stock options in private entrepreneurial companies. I focus on private U.S. venture-backed firms because they are renowned for the intensity and organizational depth of their stock option grants. Contrary to simple stereotype, however, I show that 27% of U.S. venture-backed firms do not grant stock options to all employees. I seek to explain this by theorizing that the economic and legal settings in which venture-backed companies exist lead to both costs and benefits from the use of stock options to attract, compensate, incent, monitor, and retain certain employees, and that sometimes the costs exceed the benefits. I test the theory by determining whether variation in the organizational depth to which venture-backed firms grant employee stock options can be explained by proxies for these economic and legal costs. Such proxies include the fraction of employees who are in technical positions; the degree of flatness in the firm's organizational structure; its proximity to other venture-backed companies; the number of patents it has been granted; and the fraction of equity held by venture investors. The results support the theory and thereby imply that venture-backed firms grant employee stock options in an economically sophisticated manner.     

New business models in online hotel distribution: emerging private sales versus leading IDS

This article deals with online hotel distribution. Its purpose is to investigate the private sales formula, which has recently emerged as a new business model. Two case studies are presented: Expedia, a leading internet distribution system (IDS), and Voyage Privé, a private sales Website. The study highlights the main features of the private sales formula by means of a cross-case comparison between the two travel Websites. The article ends with some final remarks on the main strengths and weaknesses of the formula as compared to the leading IDS in the online travel market.     

Development and Growth of the Business Class

Abstract

Air travel is forecasted to be a strong growth market for the 90s. An annual growth rate of over 4% is being predicted until the end of the century. Comprising 20% of the seats and 40% of the overall revenues, the business travel segment had assumed an important strategic focus within the airline industry. This study looks at the competitive issues involved in meeting the demands of the business traveler, especially in the light of the changing relationships between those who supply the product, those who distribute, and those who use it. With corporate America along with the rest of the world continuing to do more business, but with less travel, this study looks at some of the changes that the airline industry can implement to lure business travelers back. Finally, a model is proposed, which the airlines can use to adopt to the changing needs of the market.     

To Go Or Not To Go? Ethical Perspectives on Tourism in an ‘Outpost of Tyranny’

For many years, the actions of Myanmar’s military government have provoked domestic discontent and strong condemnation overseas. The government is encouraging tourism in an attempt to legitimize its actions whilst generating valuable foreign currency. However, a number of organizations are urging people to avoid travel to Myanmar and thus prevent the military junta from obtaining the hard currency and global legitimacy it needs to survive. In this article, the ethical arguments for and against tourism in Myanmar are discussed, and for the first time the ethical perceptions of tourists themselves are explored. The study applied the Multidimensional Ethics Scale to a group of 376 Myanmar visitors, finding that respondents were generally in favor of tourism in Myanmar, but were uncomfortable with the ethical implications of their visit. Simon Hudson is an Associate Professor in the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary. He has a marketing degree from Brighton, England, an MBA from California, and a PhD from Surrey, England. Prior to working in academia, he spent several years working in the tourism industry in Europe, and six years running his own business. Dr Hudson has published numerous journal articles and book chapters from his work, and has three books to his name; Snow Business, Sport & Adventure Tourism and Tourism & Hospitality Marketing.     

A Comparative Analysis of Managerial Adaptation to Privatization

ABSTRACT

Economic analysis on emerging economies of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has shown a flourishing private sector coexisting with shrinking state enterprises fueling speculation that growth would come from the new private sector. In this view, it is important to (1) assess the private sector which continues to grow and is vital to the process of emerging new market economies; and (2) account for the current place of entrepreneurship and assign its role in the process of systemic transformation which takes place in the economies of the CEE. Based on interviews and models on en-trepreneurship, the paper analyzes how the entrepreneurs' behavior is influenced by government regulation, credit terms, taxation, long-term and short-term financing options, level of infrastructure, and preferences to small business, and how entrepreneurs' consequent behavior can in turn influence the working system itself. The goal is to show that the emerging small business sector of the post-Communist Hungarian economy fulfills important material and ideological functions. The paper concludes that the Hungarian entrepreneurship is an independent vehicle for economic growth and bringing about the emergence of capitalist forms of economic production in the post-Communist Hungarian economy.     

The institutional determinants of private equity involvement in business groups—The case of Africa

This study examines the governance attributes of post-IPO (initial public offering) retained ownership of private equity in business group constituent firms in contrast to their unaffiliated counterparts, in 202 newly listed firms in 22 emerging African economies. We adopt an actor centered institutional-theoretic perspective in rationalizing institutional voids and the advantages of maintained governance by both business angels (BA) and venture capital (VC) private equity. Our findings reveal private equity retain higher post-IPO ownership in business group constituents compared to unaffiliated firms and that this is inversely moderated in the context of improving institutional quality – where this is particularly strong in case of foreign VC as opposed to domestic VC or BA. Our result adds to the literature on multifocal corporate governance mechanisms and the institutional determinants of private equity investment.     

This We Remember: Consuming Representation via the Web Posting of War Photographs

Consumers are increasingly searching for beautiful memories. Memory is not solely the work of the mind retrieving a “true” past. People represent their unique past to (re)construct their identity and seek social links with others who share the remembered events. Through visual analysis of the web posting of war photographs by Vietnam veterans, this paper explores how people consume representations in remembering, reconstructing identities and building a mnemonic community. The analysis suggests that individual remembering is nested within collective remembering. A conceptual framework viewing remembering as mediated action helps to explain how consumers use representations in remembering. This process is carried out not only by individuals but also by cultural institutions. American Vietnam veterans use consumer products including private photographs, movies, books, travel trips and the Internet as tools to assist in the on‐going process of remembering. They add their own voice into the social representation system to create representations that further express who they are and to connect with their community. The constructed memory shapes consumers' present. This in turn modifies their representation of their pasts which become involved in changing the larger social representation system.     

Guanxi,political connections and resource acquisition in Chinese publicly listed private sector firms

In this study, we examined the role of guanxi as entrepreneurs’ resource-obtaining mechanism in private sector firms, using a data-set of 184 publicly listed firms in China. We found that guanxi indeed played a positive role that helped private sector firms gain easier access to resources. We also found that guanxi exerted even a greater positive effect on private sector firms’ resource obtaining compared to entrepreneurs’ political participation, due to being the lifeblood of business conduct and social interaction in Chinese culture.     

Transport Behavior: A Role for Social Marketing

SUMMARY

This article discusses travel behavior widely acknowledged to be a significant source of pollution: the use of private transport commonly referred to as the automobile. While this behavior can be tackled in a number of ways, this article presents an overview of key issues inhibiting a voluntary change in behavior among automobile users. These topics were identified based upon qualitative research data that was gathered from a number of UK households. The research methodology adopted different social marketing collateral in each of the households during the period of research. While weaknesses are identified in the marketing collateral, the research concludes that social marketing in itself cannot persuade people to make significant changes in their travel behavior. There are deeper issues at work for commuters that need to be more fully understood by the transport research community. The value of social marketing instead may lie as an effective channel of communication that can be utilized by designated authorities in delivering important transport messages to commuters and private transport users at large.     

A Model of Household Grocery Shopping Behavior

The shopping trip to the grocery store is one of the most basic elements of consumer behavior. The authors seek to provide an understanding of the factors that account for variations in shopping behavior across households. They present a model of shopping behavior that assumes that households seek to minimize the travel cost associated with shopping and the cost of holding goods in inventory. As in the classic EOQ model, observed shopping behavior reflects the manner in which households balance these costs while meeting their consumption needs. A number of propositions derived from the model are tested using data on shopping trips made by households over a one-year period. The results support the model and indicate that the relationship between household characteristics and shopping behavior can be fairly complex: for some households shopping may have a recreational aspect while for others it may compete directly with wage-earning activity.     

Romanticism and wanderlust: An effect of personality on consumer preferences

This study investigates the role of romanticism versus classicism in determining consumer preferences among various types of vacation trips. Specifically, it proposes a personality index intended to measure romanticism versus classicism (RC) and reports an experiment that supports both the reliability of the proposed a priori RC Index and its validity in moderating the utilities of two travel features (risk and warmth) as determinants of travel preferences. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Ethical issues confronting travel agents

This article provides an overview of current and prospective ethical issues facing commercial (as opposed to leisure) travel agents. Industry wide ethical issues include conflicting pressures from suppliers and clients, competency requirements for agents and misleading advertising and sales claims (vaporware in industry jargon). Issues with travel suppliers include calculation and payment of commissions, fare loopholes, frequent flyer plans and the use and abuse of benefits directed to individual employees. Issues with corporate clients of travel agents include hidden preferred carriers or suppliers, client pressure to use fare loopholes and hidden relationships with corporate travel consultants. Future issues include protecting client privacy, free riding, and divergent international business practices. Thomas W. Dunfee is the Kolodny Professor of Social Responsibility at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. His current research interests focus on social contract theory and business ethics and on developing ethical standards for business transactions. He has published articles in the Business Ethics Quarterly,the Journal of Business Ethics,the Business and Professional Ethics Journal,and the Journal of Social Philosophyin addition to a variety of business and legal journals. He has consulted to a number of corporate clients and to several trade associations.Bruce M. Black is founder and president of McCord Travel Management. Since founding the company in 1980, he has led its growth to one of the 30 largest travel management firms in the United States, with annual sales of more than $100 million. Black is one of the inaugural members of the University of Illinois at Chicago Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame and is on the board of the International Theatre Festival of Chicago. He is also active in the exploration of a variety of industry related issues on behalf of the Super Regional Group of agencies.     

The Use of Secondary Data in Business Ethics Research

The relatively recent increase in empirical research conducted in business ethics has been accompanied by a growing literature which addresses its present shortcomings and continuing challenges. Particular attention has been focused on the difficulties of obtaining valid and reliable primary data. However, little or no attention has been paid to the use of secondary data. The aim of this paper is to stimulate the interest of business ethics researchers in using secondary data, either as a substitute or complement for primary data, bearing in mind both the benefits and shortcomings of doing so. It is suggested that secondary data not only offer advantages in terms of cost and effort, as conventionally described in research methods books, but also that in certain cases their use may overcome some of the difficulties that particularly afflict business ethics researchers in the gathering of primary data. In order to help business ethicists respond to this call for greater consideration of the potential offered by secondary data, the wide variety of forms that such data may take is indicated and a number of themes regarding their use discussed.     

Managerial Views of Corporate Impacts and Dependencies on Ecosystem Services: A Case of International and Domestic Forestry Companies in China

A line of research is emerging investigating the private sector impacts and dependencies on critical biodiversity and ecosystem services, and related business risks and opportunities. While the ecosystem services narrative is being forwarded globally as a key paradigm for promoting business sustainability, there is scarce knowledge of how these issues are considered at managerial level. This study thus investigates managerial views of corporate sustainability after the ecosystem services concept. We analyse interviews conducted with 20 managers from domestic and international forestry companies operating with a plantation-based business model in China. Content analysis was employed to analyse the data, with a focus on four key areas: (1) interviewee familiarity with the ecosystem services concept; (2) their views of corporate dependencies and impacts on ecosystem services; (3) related business risks and opportunities; and (4) viability of existing instruments and practices that can be employed in detecting and addressing business impacts and dependencies on ecosystem services. Through an inductive approach to the empirical findings, we refined a framework that holds operational value for developing company response strategies to ecosystem services impact/dependence assessment, ensuring that all issues are addressed comprehensively, and that related risks and opportunities are properly acknowledged.     

The impact of gender in marketing communications: the role of cognitive and affective cues

Turkey This paper explores the role of gender in the processing of the marketing communications messages of travel agencies operating in the Turkish domestic tourism market. The study focuses on the family holiday information search process and particularly investigates how wives and husbands respond to different marketing communications messages and why. By the use of focus group studies and interviews with tourists it is established that, although there are similarities between wives and husbands in terms of their responses to various advertisements, the underlining reasons are different. While husbands make their decisions through the use of heuristic devices, such as the credibility of the sender and the attractiveness of the sender and or message, wives make their decisions based on the content of the cognitive and affective cues provided in the marketing communications messages. The research also points out that there is a large potential for improving the marketing communications messages of travel agencies operating in the Turkish domestic tourism market.     

Government Contracts and Contractor Behavior

The U.S. government embraces the concepts of privatization and market competition, but the realm of contracting shows that it has not always been able to put its principles into practice. Although the contracting system is supposed to be open and competitive, in recent years the government has often awarded contracts with little or no competitive bidding, has chosen to award mostly cost-plus type contracts that force the government to assume more of the risk, and lacked efficiency in monitoring and overseeing private contractors. While the number and value of contracts have increased, the workforce to oversee these contracts has been reduced, preventing the government from adequately enforcing compliance with the contractors, and the government has not made use of past performance evaluations in its contracting system. Private contractors that do business with the U.S. government are for the most part well-established firms with ample resources and inside contacts; many contracts are still being awarded on preferential treatment and to the larger and well-established contractors.