Rating tourism and hospitality journals

This paper reports on the findings of a global study of tourism and hospitality academics asking them to rate their collective literature. The study adopted a peer assessment method, using a snowball sample to maximize response rates. Overall, 70 tourism and hospitality journals were assessed (40 tourism and 30 hospitality) by 314 tourism and 191 hospitality experts. The study revealed that tourism and hospitality community, collectively, rates its journals in a clear hierarchy based on a combination of awareness and perceived quality rating.     

Effects of Economic Shocks on Children's Employment and Schooling in Brazil

This paper uses longitudinal employment survey data to analyze the impact of household economic shocks on the schooling and employment transitions of young people in metropolitan Brazil. The paper uses data on over 100,000 children ages 10-16 from Brazil's Monthly Employment Survey (PME) from 1982 to 1999. Taking advantage of the rotating panels in the PME, we compare households in which the male household head becomes unemployed during a four-month period with households in which the head is continuously employed. Probit regressions indicate that an unemployment shock significantly increases the probability that a child enters the labor force, drops out of school, and fails to advance in school. The effects can be large, implying increases of as much as 50% in the probability of entering employment for 16-year-old girls. In contrast, shocks occurring after the school year do not have significant effects, suggesting that these results are not due to unobserved characteristics of households that experience unemployment shocks. The results suggest that some households are not able to absorb short-run economic shocks, with negative consequences for children.     

Specialization, Transaction Efficiency, and Firm Size: Empirical Evidence

The paper provides some empirical evidence for the relationship between average firm size and the relative transaction efficiency and per capita income as hypothesized by Liu and Yang in Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 42(2) (2000):145–65. The empirical data of 11 industries in Hong Kong from 1982 to 1999 are found to be broadly consistent with the predictions of Liu and Yang.     

Schooling as a Lottery: Racial Differences in School Advancement in Urban South Africa

This paper analyzes the large racial differences in progress through secondary school in South Africa. Using recently collected longitudinal data we find that grade advancement is strongly associated with scores on a baseline literacy and numeracy test. In grades 8-11 the effect of these scores on grade progression is much stronger for white and coloured students than for African students, while there is no racial difference in the impact of the scores on passing the nationally standardized grade 12 matriculation exam. We develop a stochastic model of grade repetition that generates predictions consistent with these results. The model predicts that a larger stochastic component in the link between learning and measured performance will generate higher enrollment, higher failure rates, and a weaker link between ability and grade progression. The results suggest that grade progression in African schools is poorly linked to actual ability and learning. The results point to the importance of considering the stochastic component of grade repetition in analyzing school systems with high failure rates.     

An exploratory study of gambling motivations and their impact on the purchase frequencies of various gambling products

The global gambling industry is huge and gambling has become a leading leisure activity in many countries. Although research on gambling is extensive, many gaps remain. The objective of this exploratory study was to examine how motivations for regular gambling varied by the forms of game played. Using data collected by the U.S. National Gambling Impact Study Commission, the study found that regular gamblers were motivated to gamble to win and to fulfill their sense of excitement/challenge for some gambling products like lottery, racetrack betting, and casinos. For others, such as bingo and card room games, they were motivated to gamble more for social reasons. The findings have important implications to marketers and public policy makers. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Coping with an emerging market competition through strategy-human resource alignment: case study evidence from five leading Japanese manufacturers in the People's Republic of China

This paper documents how PRC-based Japanese affiliates can align their human resource management (HRM) policies and practices with their business strategies based on in-depth interview surveys of the five leading Japanese manufacturers in China. In particular, using a multiple-informant research design to interview both top and human resource managers in each site, the study has attempted to clarify the strategic fit between the business strategies pursued and HRM practices adopted in China. Our interviews with top management for each affiliate revealed three types of business strategies that the PRC-based affiliates adopt to gain competitiveness in the Chinese market. Separate interviews with HR managers further clarified that affiliates' HRM efforts are aligned with the strategy each affiliate is pursuing. The findings are used to suggest several hypothesized relationships between the particular strategies pursued and the HRM practices adopted in China. Furthermore, this study has provided some important insights as to how the choice of affiliate-level business strategies in China affects the ‘hybridization’ processes of the HRM policies and practices used in the cross-national business environment.     

Residents’ perspectives of a newly developed ecotourism project: an assessment of effectiveness through the lens of an importance–performance analysis

Understanding the perceived importance and performance of various components of ecotourism to residents living in the area it is undertaken is crucial to the overall success of an ecotourism development project. This study examines residents’ perceptions of the importance and performance of ecotourism components (i.e. environmental conservation, economic wellbeing, promotion of local arts and culture, local participation, and fair share of resources), including overall ecotourism development, at the Gaurishankar Conservation Area (GCA) – a recently implemented ecotourism development project in Nepal. This study also examines the effect of socio-demographic, economic, and psychological factors on a perceived gap between the importance and the performance of ecotourism components. Findings suggest that the ecotourism development project at the GCA should concentrate on improving the economic wellbeing of residents, and on overall ecotourism development. Findings also suggest that residents’ inclusion in benefit-sharing mechanisms was associated with a reduced perceived gap between the importance and performance of ecotourism components. A comparison among different geographical segments of residents indicated that the perceived gap between importance and performance varies across different locations.