“Pacific Rim: The forefront of international tourism”: Report on the 1997 conference of the international society of travel and tourism educators (ISTTE)

The 1997 conference of the International Society of Travel and Tourism Educators (ISTTE) was held from October 23–26, 1997 in San Diego, California, USA. More than 150 travel and tourism educators and industry professionals gathered at the Mission Valley Hilton Hotel to attend the society's ninth annual event. Delegates represented over 80 tow‐ and four‐ year colleges and universities, private travel schools, and high school in Australia, Canada, Korea, Japan, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United Sates. Also present were representatives of nearly 30 companies from various sectors of the travel and tourism industry. Special to this year's conference was the theme of “The Pacific Rim: Tomorrow‐Today” —a recognition of the region as the fastest growing inbound and outbound market of international tourism. It was the first time the society chose a region as the center stage of its biggest annual event. It also was the first conference held after the society adopted its present name. At last year's conference in Ottawa, Canada, the Society's Board of Directors recommended, and members voted, to add “International” to its original name to reflect the increasing representation of international membership in the organization. This year's conference was presided over by Dr. Kaye Chon, President of ISTTE and Professor of Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management, University of Houston, USA.     

A Visual Analysis of Destinations in Travel Magazines

This study presents a visual analysis of photographs of six destinations (Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, and Taiwan) published in Chinese travel magazines. The object and subject categories, size, and providers of the photographs are content analyzed. The three most popular object categories were Culture, history, and art; Leisure and recreation; and Physical environment. The dominant subject category was No people. Multiple Correspondence Analysis showed that the different destinations correlated with diverse object and subject categories. All six destinations were portrayed differently in terms of the source and size of the photographs. These findings can be utilized by destination marketing organizations (DMOs) to devise positioning and promotion activities for implementation in the Chinese market.     

Entry decisions of multinational firms: The role of competition threats

How do multinational corporations (MNCs) influence each other's foreign entry decisions? In this paper, I examine the interactions in MNCs' entry decisions by investigating how MNCs respond to competition threats from their multinational competitors. The analysis shows that entry threats anticipated through foreign investment news encourage MNCs to take preemptive actions by entering the same city after the news, while the actual entry of competitors and the anticipated expansion of incumbents discourage more entry. Incumbent MNCs, on the other hand, respond to entry threats by upgrading productivity. The effect of competition threats depends on each MNC's own existing activity and production network within the region. The effect of entry threats increases with the size of threats, measured by the investment value, expected employment and expected output, the influence of the news, the credibility of the news and the local market orientation of the threats. Across industries, MNCs' entry decisions are found to respond to only the actual entry—not anticipated entry—in vertically linked industries. Further, by exploring the time path, I find that MNCs' preemptive entry is only taken before FDI news expires. The main results are robust to IV analyses that explore unique information from news source and news content.     

Multi-regime nonlinear capital asset pricing models

A multiple-regime threshold generalized autoregressive conditionally heteroskedastic capital asset pricing model is introduced. The model captures asymmetric risk through allowing market beta to change discretely between regimes that are driven by market information. Asymmetric volatility and mean equation dynamics are also captured. We confirm the time-varying nature of market risk, in response to changes in the market, and that this discrete time variation can differ across assets. These findings could have important implications for optimizing investment decisions: e.g. in risk assessment, portfolio selection and hedging decisions.     

The dimensions of assortment: A proposed hierarchy of assortment decision making

Abstract

The merchandise assortment plays a fundamental role in retailing; it conveys the positioning of the retailer, and is a key determinant of image and patronage. However, existing literature covering a 50-year period is somewhat fragmented. A key problem with the literature is that it does not distinguish between different levels and dimensions of assortment, causing potential ambiguity in their interpretation in the modern retailing context. The lack of standardised terminology could potentially inhibit future assortment research in, for example, assortment measurement. In reviewing the literature, the critical dimensions of assortment are clarified with conceptual definitions and a hierarchical classification of assortment being proposed. Further, the assortment research is examined, identifying an imbalance between operational and strategic assortment research. As retail assortments expand and saturate, the need for assortment measurement research is argued with associated implications for retail management.     

CHINESE URBAN MATURE TRAVELERS' MOTIVATION AND CONSTRAINTS BY DECISION AUTONOMY

This study investigated trip motivation of 800 Chinese mature travelers residing in metropolitan areas based on travelers' decision autonomy in planning domestic trips. A two‐step cluster analysis was conducted to segment respondents into mutually exclusive groups according to their autonomy on destination selection, financial source, and trip arrangement. An ANOVA was conducted to examine differences on motivation factors among emergent clusters. Moreover, the resultant clusters were differentiated by travel constraints (i.e., health related and socio‐demographic characteristics) using a logistic regression analysis. Significant relationships among mature travelers' trip autonomy, motivation, and constraints contributed to the understanding of urban mature travelers in China.     

Mainland Chinese residents' perceptions and motivations of visiting Hong Kong: Evidence from focus group interviews

Focus groups were employed to identify Mainland Chinese residents' perceptions, motivations and perceived behavioral inhibitors of visiting Hong Kong. Three group discussions were conducted in Beijing and two groups in Guangzhou, with a total of 36 participants. Results showed that Mainland Chinese residents perceived Hong Kong mainly as a shopping destination. Accordingly, their most prominent visitation motivation to Hong Kong was shopping. Other motivations identified from the group interviews were knowledge enhancement, curiosity, family togetherness and kinship enhancement, sightseeing, experiencing different culture and lifestyle, and visiting friends and relatives. In addition to time and money as the most salient perceived behavioral inhibitors, language, complexity of getting travel documents, and improper accommodation supplies were perceived as inhibiting factors for Mainland Chinese residents to visit Hong Kong. Based on the results, implications on destination management and marketing were discussed.     

The Elusive Price Premium for Ecolabelled Products: Evidence from Seafood in the UK Market

Ecolabelling is an increasingly important tool used in the promotion of sustainable forestry and fishery products around the world. Whether the consumer is actually paying a price premium for ecolabelled products is of fundamental importance as it indicates a return on the investment of sustainable practices, providing an incentive for producers to undertake such practices. This article seeks to address the question of whether or not an actual premium is being paid by consumers for ecolabelled seafood by conducting a hedonic analysis of Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)‐certified frozen processed Alaska pollock products in the London metropolitan area in the UK market using scanner data. Regression results show a statistically significant premium of 14.2%. This implies the presence of market differentiation for sustainable seafood and the potential of the MSC’s fisheries certification programme to generate market incentives for sustainable fisheries practices.     

No man is an island: Social and human capital in IT capacity building in the Maldives

In many developing countries, lack of IT skills and human capital impede the potential of IT investments in organizations in developing countries [Lee, J. (2001). Education for technology readiness: Prospects for developing countries. Journal of Human Development, 2(1), 115–151]. This paper draws upon theories of human and social capital, and knowledge, to explain enablers/obstacles for knowledge creation and transfer for IT capacity building in a tourism organization in a developing country – the Maldives. IT capacity building is intimately linked to knowledge and skills at the level of human resource development. Using the Nahapiet and Ghoshal (1998) [Nahapiet, J., & Ghoshal, S. (1998). Social capital, intellectual capital, and the organizational advantage. Academy of Management Review, 23, 242–267] framework for the role of social capital in knowledge creation and transfer, we examine the major issues of IT capacity building for the case organization. We conclude that the role of cognitive capital is the most important for the tourism sector of the Maldives, and may play a vital role in accumulating structural and relational capital, together with appropriate government policies on ICT.     

Restorying a Culture of Ethical and Spiritual Values: A Role for Leader Storytelling

In this paper, we outline some of the connections between the literatures of organizational storytelling, spirituality in the workplace, organizational culture, and authentic leadership. We suggest that leader storytelling that integrates a moral and spiritual component can transform an organizational culture so members of the organization begin to feel connected to a larger community and a higher purpose. We specifically discuss how leader role modeling in authentic storytelling is essential in developing an ethically and spiritually based organizational culture. However, we also acknowledge a potential dark side to leader storytelling. Implications for authentic storytelling research and practice are discussed. An early draft of this paper was presented at the 2004 Academy of Management Conference in New Orleans. Cathy Driscoll received her Ph.D. in organizational behavior and marketing from Queen's University in 1994. Currently, she is an associate professor in the Department of Management in the Sobey School of Business at Saint Mary's University. Prior to coming to SMU, she worked as a project manager and policy advisor with the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy in Ottawa. She has published articles in The Journal of Business Ethics and Business and Society. Margaret McKee is in her fourth year of doctoral studies at the Sobey School of Business. She was recently awarded a two year Doctoral Fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) to conduct her dissertation research. She has taught a variety of management and communications courses at Mount Saint Vincent, Sobey School of Business, and Dalhousie University. Her research interests are leadership and values based organizational cultures.