MOOCs in tourism and hospitality: a review

ABSTRACT

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have grown significantly and globally in less than ten years. However, practices and research in tourism and hospitality MOOCs remain nascent. This study proposes the MOOC Components Framework with six groups of course components: scaffolding, lectures, networking, collaboration, assessment, and affirmation. Drawing on this framework and a case study method, the study analyses 18 tourism and hospitality MOOCs from higher education institutions. The results highlight that: tourism and hospitality MOOC offerings lack diversity; the forum is the preferred communication tool; social media are comparatively underused; the discontinuity of MOOC instructors needs attention; and finally, littless multilingual support is available.     

Gender Diversity in the Boardroom and Risk Management: A Case of R&D Investment

Increasing gender diversity in the boardroom has been promoted as a way to enhance corporate governance and risk management. This study empirically examines whether boards with more female directors play a role in reducing R&D risk. We first show that female directors help to reduce the positive relationship between R&D investment and future performance volatility. We then report that firms with more gender-diverse boards exhibit a lower adverse effect of R&D on the cost of debt. These results are robust to endogeneity analysis, alternative measures of gender diversity and risky investment, and other sensitivity tests. Overall, our results suggest that female directors improve board effectiveness in risk management with respect to R&D investment.     

Once were farmers: Occupation, social mobility, and mortality during industrialization in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, Quebec 1840–1971

We study men's adult mortality and longevity by socio-occupational status during industrialization in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, Quebec. Data were extracted from the BALSAC database (Université du Québec à Chicoutimi), which comprehensively traces the demographic history of the region since the beginning of the French Canadian settlement in 1840 up to the early 1970s. Using five occupational classes and controlling for year, age at marriage, urban/rural residence, and literacy, we found no evidence for the emergence of a socioeconomic gradient in mortality. At least until the early 1970s, mortality in the region is the lowest for farmers and appears to be driven by occupational risk rather than fundamental social causes.     

Empirical tests of canonical nonparametric American option‐pricing methods

Alcock and Carmichael (2008, The Journal of Futures Markets, 28, 717–748) introduce a nonparametric method for pricing American‐style options, that is derived from the canonical valuation developed by Stutzer (1996, The Journal of Finance, 51, 1633–1652). Although the statistical properties of this nonparametric pricing methodology have been studied in a controlled simulation environment, no study has yet examined the empirical validity of this method. We introduce an extension to this method that incorporates information contained in a small number of observed option prices. We explore the applicability of both the original method and our extension using a large sample of OEX American index options traded on the S&P100 index. Although the Alcock and Carmichael method fails to outperform a traditional implied‐volatility‐based Black–Scholes valuation or a binomial tree approach, our extension generates significantly lower pricing errors and performs comparably well to the implied‐volatility Black–Scholes pricing, in particular for out‐of‐the‐money American put options. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 30:509–532, 2010     

Book Reviews

Book reviews in this article: GOOD INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS John Purcell BRITAIN IN DECLINE Andrew Gamble ENGLISH CULTURE AND THE DECLINE OF THE INDUSTRIAL SPIRIT, 1850–1980 Martin J. Wiener MONDRAGON—AN ECONOMIC ANALYSIS Henk Thomas and Chris Logan THE RULE OF LAW T. Corfield     

book reviews

Book reviews in this article: EXPLORING PARTICIPATION Paul Bate and lain Mangham WORKERS' PARTICIPATION IN DECISIONS WITHIN UNDERTAKINGS International Labour Office WORK PATTERNS Derek L. Bosworth and Peter J. Dawkins POWER AND POLITICS IN ORGANIZATIONS Samuel B. Bacharach and Edward J. Lawler DEMAIN, QUELS SYNDICATS? H. Landier CFDT LE RÉVE ET LA VIE J. C. Poulain     

Industrial relations law commentary

The commentary, a new feature of the IRJ, aims to keep readers informed of major developments in the law affecting industrial relations. To set the scene for forthcoming issues, Karl Mackie examines the nature of the legal role in the British industrial relations system.     

Hal Hill Steps Down—and up. Head of the Indonesia Project,ANU, 1986–98 Editor of BIES, 1990–98

Hal Hill is known as an eminent authority on the Indonesian economy. He is an astonishingly productive scholar. He continues as an imaginative and highly successful head of the ANU's Indonesia Project and Editor of its journal. He is constantly sought after abroad as Visiting Professor, participant in conferences and contributor to research projects (June 1997).