Market segments based on the dominant movement patterns of tourists

This paper presents an innovative method for tourist market segmentation-based on dominant movement patterns of tourists; that is, the travel sequences or patterns used by tourists most frequently. There were three steps to achieve this goal. In the first step, general log-linear models were adopted to identify the dominant movement patterns, while the second step was to discover the characteristics of the groups of tourists who travelled with these patterns. The Expectation–Maximisation algorithm was then used to partition tourist segments in terms of socio-demographic and travel behavioural variables. The third step was to select target markets based upon the earlier analysis. These methods were applied to a sample of tourists, over the period of a week, on Phillip Island, Victoria, Australia. A significant outcome of this research is that it will assist tourism organisations to identify tourism market segments and develop better tour packages and more efficient marketing strategies aligned to the characteristics of the tourists.     

Educating for Sustainable Fashion: Using Clothing Acquisition Abstinence to Explore Sustainable Consumption and Life Beyond Growth

This paper reports outcomes from a research study whereby fashion-oriented students experienced life where the ability to acquire new clothing was removed. Students volunteered to participate in this experiential learning challenge, titled the Fashion Detox: to abstain from clothing acquisition for 10 weeks and reflect about the experience. This learning experience was characterized by barriers to sustainable consumption, chief among them a range of temptations prompted by inescapable merchandising and marketing strategies, compulsive tendencies, and envy of those who could consume with impunity. Students also indicated many benefits to abstaining from acquisition, such as creativity and self-regulation. This teaching and learning experiment has important implications for the challenges faced by educators who must engage fashion-oriented students in sustainability topics and how these may be navigated.     

Extending beyond borders: Multinational companies and the international management of labour

The paper investigates the potential consequences of MNCs' globalizing strategies for the management of labour, drawing on findings from a survey of employee management among MNCs operating in the UK. It finds clear evidence of transnational forms of management organization, including in the personnel sphere. But it also underlines that moves to globalism are uneven. Structures and policies to develop international management teams were found primarily among certain types of MNC. Most striking was the extent to which MNCs are actively engaged in the management of non-managerial employees at international level. Seven out of every ten companies monitored labour performance across sites in different countries. The broader significance of this finding lies in the business decisions which flow from the use of such information. As MNCs develop continental production strategies, pressures on local workforces, keen to attract future investment, for performance improvements are likely to intensify. These developments pose considerable challenges for labour which remains primarily local and national in its organizational focus.     

Social irresponsibility in management

Previously published research suggested that the typical manager may be expected to harm others in his role as a manager. Further support for this was drawn from the Panalba role-playing case. None of the 57 control groups in this case were willing to remove a dangerous drug from the market. In fact, 79% of these groups took active steps to prevent its removal. This decision was classified as irresponsible by 97% of the respondents to a questionnaire. Because the role exerts such powerful effects, an attempt was made to modify subjects' perceptions of their role so that managers would feel responsible to all of the firm's interest groups. Some subjects were told that board members should represent all interest groups; other subjects were placed on boards of directors where the different groups were represented. Subjects in both groups also received information on the impact of the decisions upon stockholders, employees, and customers. The percentage of irresponsible decisions was reduced under these conditions as only 22% of the 116 groups selected the highly irresponsible decision.     

Drivers of clothing disposal in the US: An exploration of the role of personal attributes and behaviours in frequent disposal

Clothing products remain important in today's consumer culture, but the sustainability of that consumption is questionable, as it often leads to excess waste. The purpose of this study was to explore the drivers of clothing waste, and to investigate the influence of demographic factors and personal attributes on disposal frequency. An online survey was conducted to over 500 men and women in the US from three different generational cohorts. The survey investigated fashion trend sensitivity, shopping frequency, quality and price consciousness as well as demographic factors, utilizing 5‐point Likert scales. On the basis of literature, seven hypotheses were developed. Correlational analysis, independent t‐test and one‐way analysis of variance were conducted to test the hypotheses. Results indicate that fashion trend sensitivity, fashion shopping frequency, higher incomes, younger age groups and being female are all positively correlated with frequent clothing disposal. Interestingly, quality consciousness was positively correlated to frequent clothing disposal, while price consciousness was negatively related to clothing disposal frequency. This study contributes to the literature by providing a more specific examination of the drivers of frequent clothing disposal and providing empirical evidence to support previous exploratory studies.     

Optimal forest harvest age considering carbon sequestration in multiple carbon pools: A comparative statics analysis

We present an analytical model for determination of the economically optimal harvest age of a forest stand considering timber value, and the value of carbon fluxes in living biomass, dead organic matter, and wood products pools. Through comparative statics analysis, we find that consideration of timber value and fluxes in biomass carbon increase harvest age relative to the timber only solution, and that the effect on optimal harvest age of incorporating fluxes in the dead organic matter and wood products pools is indeterminate.We also present a numerical example to examine the magnitudes of these effects. In general, incorporating the dead organic matter and wood products pools have the effect of reducing rotation age. Perhaps more interestingly, when initial stocks of carbon in dead organic matter or wood products pool are relatively high, consideration of these pools can have a highly negative effect on net present value.     

Multiproduct Price Regulation Under Asymmetric Information

We discuss the regulation of a multiproduct monopolist when the firm has private information about cost or demand conditions. The regulator offers the firm a set of prices from which to choose. When there is private information only about costs, the firm should always have a degree of discretion over its pricing policy. When uncertainty concerns demand, whether discretion is desirable depends on how demand elasticities vary with the scale of demands. If a positive demand shock is associated with a reduction in the market elasticity, discretion is good for overall welfare; otherwise it is not.