Accessible tourism and sustainability: a discussion and case study

This paper explores the concept of accessible tourism and its links with triple-bottom-line (TBL) sustainability. Accessible tourism is reviewed through some of its central features including dimensions of access, universal design and the nexus between ageing and disability. The TBL is then examined to better understand the financial, environmental and social considerations that arise from accessible tourism. The research design used in this explorative research incorporated a case study approach, where a business case study instrument was developed. Methods included a Delphi group, review of management information systems, in-depth interviews with key informants, observation and participant observation. The study results revealed that rather than accessible tourism being a single construct, it forms one critical dimension of a series of interrelated, overlapping and interdependent business arrangements that extend beyond the business entity through a series of social networks within the destination region. It is argued that to properly satisfy the accessible tourism market, a more sophisticated understanding of accessible destination experiences is needed by tourism operators. The case study illustrates the considerable size and multi-niche markets served by accessible tourism destinations, the good fit between accessible tourism and TBL sustainable tourism, and the need for further research.     

Strategic Human Resource Management as Ethical Stewardship

The research about strategic human resource management (SHRM) has suggested that human resource professionals (HRPs) have the opportunity to play a greater role in contributing to organizational success if they are effective in developing systems and policies aligned with the organization??s values, goals, and mission. We suggest that HRPs need to raise the standard of their performance and that the competitive demands of the modern economic environment create implicit ethical duties that HRPs owe to their organizations. We define ethical stewardship as a model of governance that honors obligations due to the many stakeholders and that maximizes long-term organizational wealth creation. We propose that if HRPs adopt an ethical stewardship framework and the qualities of transformative leaders, they will be more aware of their ethical duties to their organizations and more effective in helping their organizations to create increased wealth, achieve desired organizational outcomes, and establish work environments that are more satisfying to employees.     

Investing in Research and Education versus Commodity Programs: Implications for Agricultural Productivity

The long-term impact of research, education, and various government support programs on U.S. agricultural productivity was analyzed using an error correction model. Results indicate that the proposed reduction in commodity program expenditures (e.g. 1996 Farm Bill) is unlikely to reduce agricultural productivity. Results suggest that shifting public funds from commodity programs to education and research would raise U.S. agricultural productivity. Our estimates of long-term rates of return to public research are lower than those from most previous, perhaps due to our improved model specification, but are high enough to justify continued public investments to raise productivity.     

Stock-market efficiency in thin-trading markets: the case of the Vietnamese stock market

This article reviews developments in the Stock Trading Centre (STC) in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, the main stock market in the country, since its start in 2000. It presents information about developments in the number of stocks traded, trading activity and stock-price developments. This article focuses on the question whether the market is weak-form efficient. An important element of the investigation concerns the possible bias of the results caused by the thin trading that characterizes the STC. Stock-market returns are corrected for this. The main conclusion is that the STC is not efficient in the weak form.     

Post earnings announcement drift and the roles of drift-enhanced factors in New Zealand

This study examines the profitability of trading on analyst forecast-based earnings surprises during the post announcement period in the New Zealand stock market over the period 1994 to 2008. The results show that a post earnings announcement drift (PEAD) anomaly exists in the New Zealand equity market. A hedge strategy of going long the top quintile of earnings surprise stocks and short the bottom quintile of earnings surprise stocks can generate more than 6% excess return in the 60 days following the earnings announcement. I further test the association between PEAD and several control variables and find that PEAD is increasing in 1) earnings surprise defined relative to past earnings, and 2) the level of arbitrage risk. Interestingly, I do not find evidence of a positive relation between PEAD and revenue surprise after controlling for earnings surprise as documented in the United States (Jegadeesh and Livnat, 2006). There is also no evidence that the 2002 Disclosure Reform in the New Zealand Stock Exchange reduced the magnitude of PEAD.     

An Empirical Study of Business-to-Business Electronic Marketplace Usage: The Impact of Buyers' E-Readiness

This study addresses critical questions regarding the extent of business-to-business electronic marketplace usage for purchasing, and the degree and impact of buyers' e-readiness on the range of electronic marketplace usage. The data from a Web-based survey of 359 purchasing professionals in the United States suggests that buyers with more experience in using information technology, the Internet to facilitate purchasing, and information systems for enhancing supply chain management would more likely use electronic marketplaces for purchasing. This study has significant theoretical implications because it confirms the important role of e-readiness in the electronic marketplace usage model. The practical implications of this study are also discussed.     

Direct and indirect effect of depression in adolescence on adult wages

It is well recognized that a depressive mental state can persist for a long time, and this can adversely impact labour market outcomes. The aim of this article is to examine the direct association between depression status in late-teenage years and adult wages, as well as the indirect association, operating through accumulated education, experience and occupation choice. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 data, we find adolescent depression is associated with a wage penalty of around 10–15%, but its mechanics are very different for males and females. For males, about three quarters of the wage penalty is through the direct channel, whilst for females the indirect effect channel is dominant. The indirect channel is driven by lower accumulated education, mostly because depression discourages further study post high school. These results are important because they imply that the association between adolescent depression and wages is stronger than has been estimated in previous cross-sectional studies.     

Regulation by Prices, Quantities, or Both: A Review of Instrument Choice

Choosing appropriate policy instruments is an important partof successful regulation. Once objectives are agreed and suitabletargets adopted, policy-makers can employ command-and-controlregulation and/or economic instruments, and choose between fixinga price or a quantity. This paper examines the relative advantagesof price, quantity, and hybrid instruments according to: theirefficiency under uncertainty; the trade-off between crediblecommitment and flexibility; implementation; international considerations;and political economy. Various illustrations of the theory areprovided, with two detailed applications to climate change andtransport policy, specifically congestion and ‘safetypricing’. Footnotes ¹ E-mail address: cameron.hepburn{at}economics.ox.ac.uk