Leadership,power and racism: lifeguards’ influences on Aboriginal people’s experiences at a Northern Canadian aquatic facility

Using a Foucauldian and postcolonial lens, this case study examines the ways in which leadership styles used by lifeguards and supported by the structure, rules and regulations at a northern Canadian swimming pool influenced Aboriginal people’s experience of the facility. Participant observation, semi-structured interviews and a focus group were used to identify the ways in which Eurocentric lifeguard training, exercises of power, institutional racism and an absence of cultural competency can intersect to influence Aboriginal people’s use of a local pool and their considerations of lifeguarding as a potential employment opportunity. On the basis of these findings, the study suggests that the development and implementation of anti-discriminatory policies and procedures for swimming pools and the inclusion of cultural competency teachings in lifeguard training are necessary measures to enhance Aboriginal people’s experiences at northern swimming pools, to foster opportunities to become lifeguards and to augment Euro-Canadian lifeguards’ capacity to maintain a safe and welcoming aquatic environment in a cross-cultural context.     

Native American casino marketing on the web

The Internet and its component, the World Wide Web (WWW or Web), as well as the casino industry grew tremendously in the United States in the past decade. While there are various estimates about the future size of the Internet and the casino market, all agree that the two will continue to grow substantially. However, very few studies have discussed Internet use within the casino industry. This study reviewed 58 Class III Native American casino web sites. Content areas analyzed included introduction to the casino organization, local destination attractions, food and beverage services, accommodations, entertainment and recreation facilities, maps and directions to casinos, links to related commercial and regulatory agency web sites, and user friendliness. Web site features were evaluated based on marketing mix and principles.     

The Image of Taiwan as a Travel Destination: Perspectives from Mainland China

This study presents the perceived and projected image of Taiwan as a travel destination from perspectives from Mainland China. The perceived image of Taiwan was examined by interviewing 28 Mainland Chinese; the projected image of Taiwan was investigated by analyzing articles in China's most popular travel magazines. The different types of images of Taiwan among visitors, nonvisitors, and travel magazines were compared. The projected image changed notably after the opening of Taiwan's tourism to travelers from Mainland China. The results of this study could help destination marketing organizations to assess their marketing strategies for the Mainland Chinese travel market.     

Service Fairness,Consumption Emotions,Satisfaction, and Behavioral Intentions: The Experience of Chinese Heritage Tourists

Drawing on the cognitive appraisal theory and the justice theory from the marketing and tourism literature, this study attempts to illuminate the embedded impact of tourist experience on overall satisfaction and behavioral intentions in a cognitive-affective-behavioral framework. The findings suggest that service fairness is an antecedent of consumption emotions (positive and negative) that, in turn, influence satisfaction and behavioral intentions in the context of Chinese natural heritage tourism. Notably, the results highlight the mediating role of tourists’ consumption emotions. This article concludes with a discussion of the theoretical and practical implications to heritage tourism researchers and managers.     

A review and comparison of medical expenditures models: two neural networks versus two‐part models

This paper compares the two‐part model (TPM) that distinguishes between users and non‐users of health care, with two neural networks (TNN) that distinguish users by frequency. In the model comparisons using data from the National Health Research Institute (NHRI) in Taiwan, we find strong evidence in favor of the neural networks approach. This paper shows that the individuals in the self‐organizing map (SOM) network clusters can be described as several different forms of frequency distributions. The integration model of SOM and back propagation network (BPN) proposed by this paper not only permits policymakers to easily include more risk adjusters besides the demographics in the traditional capitation formula through the adaptation and calculation power of neural networks, but also reduces the incentives for cream skimming by decreasing estimation biases.     

An integrative model of customers' perceptions of health care services in Taiwan

As the health care service gets more competitive, health care practitioners and academic researchers are increasingly interested in exploring how patients perceive the quality and value of their care before building up their satisfaction levels and generating behavioural intentions. Drawing some theories from marketing and health care service literature, this study tries to propose an integrative model of customers' perceptions of health care services based on the established relationship among four key constructs (service quality, perceived value, satisfaction, and behavioural intentions). Structural equation modelling is then used to validate the model. As Taiwan's universal health insurance offers every citizen equal financial access to all health care providers, Taiwan offers a good opportunity to study how the patients' perception model is structured. The findings reveal both perceived quality and value as antecedent variables in this model illustrating direct and indirect paths from perceived quality and value to patient satisfaction and behavioural intentions.     

The role of customer values in accepting information technologies in the public information service sector

Many government agencies have outsourced their information systems to software vendors. Firms in the information service industry have to realize the needs of customers in the public sector. This study investigated the causal relationship between users' perception and information technology acceptance. Empirical results suggest that the perceived value of users plays an important and mediating role in the causal relationship among social influence process, cognitive instrumental process, and intention to use.     

Enhancing the commitment to service quality through developmental and rewarding systems: CSQ consistency as a moderator

This research integrated value congruence and person–environment fit theories into a validation of the effects of developmental and reward-based interventions on frontline service employees' commitment to service quality (FLSE CSQ). Based on a dyad survey conducted in 36 Starbucks stores in Taipei, the results reveal that formal training, coaching and rewards have positive relationships with FLSE CSQ. Moreover, FLSE CSQ is positively related to job satisfaction, commitment to the organisation, job performance and organisational citizenship behaviours (OCBs). The associations of development interventions and rewards with FLSE CSQ and the relationships of FLSE CSQ with job performance and OCBs are significantly stronger when the consistency of CSQ is high.     

Performance assessments of Taiwan’s financial holding companies

This paper uses Risk-Adjusted Return on Capital (RAROC) to assess the performance of 14 financial holding companies (FHCs) in Taiwan. RAROC value indicates a firm’s performance after considering the market risk effect, and gives a better measurement of the firm’s operational productivity than traditional methods. We use the full valuation methods to calculate Value at Risk (VaR) as the market risk measurement for economic capital. According to the New Basel Capital Accord, the market risk of Internal Model should be adjusted, and the Bank for International Settlement suggests using the backtest to select the best full valuation method for estimating adjusted VaR. Therefore, this paper evaluates the best market risk model, and assesses and compares the performance for each firm before and after its merger and acquisition into the FHC. Overall, we find weak evidence that the performance of 14 FHCs increased over time.     

Demand for dairy products in the EU

In the EU dairy sector, given the remaining high protective tariffs and the quota system, the main factor that drives dairy product market prices is the demand. This paper evaluates the development of demand in the EU and presents estimates of consumption trends and forecasts for the future as well as estimates of elasticity with respect to prices and income in two major EU consumer countries: France and Italy. We use two methods to estimate the development of demand for dairy products, one based on a multi-stage demand system and another based on a single trend equation. The two methods generally lead to the same qualitative results but trend projections are larger using the demand system approach which is based on a shorter data period. This difference is thus partly explained by the fact that high trend projections are not sustainable over a long period. The results show a decreasing consumption of butter and fluid milk and an overall growth in protein and fat consumption. Nevertheless, the increase in fat consumption should be more moderate than the consumption of protein. The results also show that the demand for dairy products is relatively price inelastic but is more sensitive to changes in income (especially for butter and cheese categories). As shown by the use of a partial equilibrium model of dairy markets, the likely impact of the CAP reform strongly depends on the development of demand for dairy products in the EU. More research effort on demand analysis is therefore crucial in order to assess the impact of reforms or trade negotiations more accurately and effectively.