Incentive Travel: A View from the Top

Meetings, incentives, conventions, and exhibitions are an important segment of the hospitality and tourism industry. The extant study focuses on the incentives or incentive travel. While incentive travel has existed for decades it is a relatively under-researched sub-field of hospitality. The goal of this article is to examine the current state of incentive travel, how it has changed over the past few years, and how it is likely to change in the future. Rather than examine every aspect of incentive travel, this research only looks at “buyers” of incentive travel rather than users or recipients and obtains data only from top-level corporate executives. Thus, the results are of the highest level and highest caliber. It was found that companies have been using incentive travel for decades and find it to be an effective employee motivator and as an incentive to sell product. It also builds morale and relationships.     

The market microstructure of central bank intervention

How quickly do central bank intervention operations impact the foreign exchange market? And, do intra-daily market conditions influence the effectiveness of central bank interventions? This paper uses high-frequency intra-daily data to examine the relationship between the efficacy of intervention operations and the “state of the market” at the moment that the operation is made public. The results indicate that some traders typically know that the Fed is intervening at least 1 h prior to the public release of the information in newswire reports. Also, the evidence suggests that the timing of intervention operations matters—interventions that occur during heavy trading volume, that are closely timed to scheduled macro announcements, and that are coordinated with another central bank are the most likely to have large effects.     

Reduce product counterfeiting: An integrated approach

There is substantial interconnection between the reduction of product counterfeiting and quality management. This article seeks to demonstrate how integrating anti-counterfeiting initiatives into quality management strategies can reduce risk in the supply chain. We explore issues pertaining to product counterfeiting, the practical application and constraints of anti-counterfeiting initiatives within the supply chain, and the intersection of anti-counterfeiting initiatives with quality management programs. Gaps in current management strategies to address these issues are identified, and a potential remedy to address these deficiencies is proposed. Practical suggestions regarding the application of quality principles to offset counterfeiting should reduce risk in the supply chain.     

Post-Soviet Pension Systems,Retirement, and Elderly Poverty: Findings from the Kyrgyz Republic

MOCT-MOST: Economic Policy in Transitional Economies -     

Politicising the study of sustainable living practices

ABSTRACT

In studies of consumption, social theories of practice foreground the purchasing and use of resources not for intrinsic pleasure but rather in the routine accomplishment of “normal” ways of living. In this paper, we argue that a key strength of theories of practice lies in their ability to expose questions of power in the construction of normality, but that this has been largely overlooked. Since practice theories are leveraged in understanding urgent questions of climate change, we use ethnographic data of a sustainable community in England to examine the normative dimension of sustainability. Using Michel Foucault's approach to practice, we elucidate the social technologies operating in the community that govern sustainable practices in the absence of a singular cultural authority. We illustrate how shared understanding guiding normative sustainable practice was negotiated and maintained through collective ethical work, the paramount importance of interpersonal harmony, and the continual formation of ethical subjects.     

INCOME DISTRIBUTION, SOVEREIGN DEBT, AND PUBLIC INVESTMENT

We develop a political economy model of sovereign debt that shows that income inequality leads to popular pressures on the government to use foreign debt to finance a redistribution of income at the expense of productive public investment. Recognizing this fact, international lenders impose credit ceilings with the consequence that developing country borrowers invest less and grow slower.     

AIDS Home- and Community-Based Waivers: Effects on Use of Services,Expenditures, and Survival

State Medicaid home- and community-based waiver programs for persons with AIDS (PWAs) were implemented with the expectation that PWAs would use these services in lieu of more expensive hospital-based care. If so, Medicaid spending per PWA should decline, and program costs fall. We analyze Florida Medicaid claims data for PWAs from December 1995 through December 1997 to determine how participation in the waiver program affects the use of inpatient services, the receipt of antiretroviral combination therapies (available to Medicaid recipients throughout the study period), monthly expenditures, and survival of PWAs. We find that waiver participants are more likely to receive combination therapies but less likely to use hospital-based care than nonparticipants; white men and sicker patients are more likely to join the waiver program than other eligible PWAs; monthly expenditures for waiver participants are 52% lower than for nonparticipants; and waiver participation does not affect survival.     

Applying Hedonic Pricing Models and Factorial Surveys at Parker Pen to Enhance New Product Success

Walking the path from new product concept to successful commercialization is a tightrope act. Product developers must carefully balance a variety of factors, including predictions of consumer price sensitivity as well as which combination of product attributes will be most valued by the intended market. A well-chosen mix of analytical tools can enhance a firm's chances of accurately predicting market demand. Chuck Tomkovick and Kathryn E. Dobie describe how the integration of two product attribute assessment techniques–hedonic pricing models and factorial surveys–allows product designers to more accurately gauge price sensitivity and market receptivity to new product designs. They also describe how these analytical tools were used to improve decision-making in product development at the Parker Pen Company, and they discuss the role these tools can play in facilitating the transition from concept to commercialization. Hedonic price analysis is an econometric method for determining the value purchasers place on attributes of existing products. In product development, factorial surveys are used to identify the value members of the target market place on new product concepts and prototypes. When used in combination with identified hedonic prices, the responses to a factorial survey allow product developers to predict consumer willingness-to-pay for various combinations of new product attributes. Following development of prototypes for two new product lines, product developers at the Parker Pen Company used hedonic pricing models and factorial surveys as a means for reducing demand uncertainty and for clarifying what consumers were willing to pay for various combinations of product attributes that were under consideration. The integration and use of these techniques involved a five-step process of target market identification, product attribute identification, hedonic price estimation, administering of the factorial survey, and determination of consumer willingness-to-pay. The results of these analyses allowed Parker Pen to better focus product development efforts on those design elements for which test market customers indicated both demand and willingness-to-pay. The Parker Pen Company found hedonic pricing and factorial surveys useful for predicting both the rate and the degree of change in consumers' marginal utility for specific product attributes. The usefulness of these techniques also extends beyond the early stages of new product conception. These techniques are helpful in the development and implementation of dynamic new product marketing mix strategies, including such elements as product design, pricing, channel selection, and promotion.