Sustainable Tourism: Ethical Alternative or Marketing Ploy?

While tourism is often seen as a welcome source of economic development, conventional mass tourism is associated with numerous negative effects, such as the destruction of ecological systems and loss of cultural heritage. In response to these concerns, a term that has surfaced recently is, sustainable tourism. This article attempts to define sustainable tourism and asks the question of whether this new term is an acceptable criteria or is merely a marketing ploy to attract the morally conscious tourist. Paul Lansing is a professor of Business Administration at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He received a J.D. Degree and a Graduate Degree in International Business. Paul De Vries received an M.Sc BA, in Strategic Management from the Rotterdam School of Management, RSM Erasmus University.     

Can economic bonus programs jeopardize service relationships?

Research findings on the impact of economic bonus programs on service relationships are contradictory. While some studies find positive effects of economic bonus programs on customer’s relational behavior, other studies demonstrate negative effects. Building on self-determination theory, Dholakia (J Market Res 43(2):109–120, 2006) points at a possible explanation for these conflicting results, arguing that economic marketing programs have negative effects on self-determined customers when the program is perceived as controlling by them. By testing the effect of four different kinds of economic bonus programs on loyalty in an experimental setting using a nationwide representative sample of 768 participants, this research is the first that provides empirical evidence that economic bonus programs can indeed endanger service relationships by reducing customer’s self-determination. Implications of our findings for the abundance of economic bonus programs offered to service customers these days are highlighted.     

Consumer-Driven Healthcare: Information,Incentives, Enrollment,and Implications for National Health Expenditures

We highlight the importance of information for consumerdriven healthcare (CDHC), describe barriers, display data on adoption rates and product features, and use a new health modeling approach to investigate the potential impact on national healthcare expenditures. We conclude with an assessment of the prospects for CDHC as a revolution of information, competition, and market orientation; and we discuss potential pitfalls, including concern regarding vulnerable populations. While the jury is out on the ultimate effects, enrollment in CDHC programs— while still small—is growing rapidly; utilization and costs for subscribers appear to be moderating; and creative benefit structures emphasize health promotion alongside previously unseen cost consciousness. JEL Classification I11     

The combined effects of dependence and relationalism on the use of influence in marketing distribution systems

This study uses data from the automotive replacement tire industry to test the proposition that dependence and relationship structure interact to determine frequency of influence-strategy use in distribution systems. The findings support the expectation that dependence is positively associated with recommendations, information exchanges, promises, requests, legal pleas, and threats. However, increases in dealer dependence increase the use of requests, legal pleas, and threats only in systems characterized by trivial levels of relationalism.The authors would like to express their gratitude to John Burnett, Robert Dwyer, Jule Gassenheimer, and Allen Wilhite for their helpful comments on this project.     

Investigating the recall inhibition effect: A test of practical considerations

Alba and Chattopadhyay (1985, 1986) have demonstrated that having consumers think about a familiar brand can interfere with the retrieval of competitive brand names, including those that might otherwise be considered for purchase. However, their research is silent about two issues of pragmatic importance. First, is it possible to inhibit retrieval of the consumer's preferred brand? Second, can an unfamiliar brand evoke recall inhibition? Our findings indicate that recall inhibition does not extend to the preferred brand. Our findings further suggest that recall inhibition can be induced by cueing consumers with an unfamiliar brand name, but that such inhibition is less pervasive than evoked by a highly familiar brand name.     

A Cross-Cultural Examination of the Endorsement of Ethical Leadership

The western-based leadership and ethics literatures were reviewed to identify the key characteristics that conceptually define what it means to be an ethical leader. Data from the Global Leadership and Organizational Effectiveness (GLOBE) project were then used to analyze the degree to which four aspects of ethical leadership – Character/Integrity, Altruism, Collective Motivation, and Encouragement – were endorsed as important for effective leadership across cultures. First, using multi-group confirmatory factor analyses measurement equivalence of the ethical leadership scales was found, which provides indication that the four dimensions have similar meaning across cultures. Then, using analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests each of the four dimensions were found to be universally endorsed as important for effective leadership. However, cultures also varied significantly in the degree of endorsement for each dimension. In the increasingly global business environment, these findings have implications for organizations implementing ethics programs across cultures and preparing leaders for expatriate assignments. Christian J. Resick is Assistant Professor of Industrial and Organizational Psychology at Florida International University. His research is aimed at understanding how people interact with and influence various aspects of their work environments, including cultures, climates, leaders, and teammates along with the implications for various aspects of organizational behavior. A particular focus of Christian’s work examines ethical leadership and the critical linkages between leadership and organizational ethics. He received his Ph.D. from Wayne State University. Paul J. Hanges is a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Maryland and the head of the Industrial/Organizational Psychology program in the department. He is an affiliate of the Cognitive Psychology program and the R. H. Smith School of Business. Paul’s research focuses on three topics (a) social cognition, leadership, and cross-cultural issues; (b) personnel selection, test fairness, and racial/gender discrimination; and (c) research methodology. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Applied Psychology and The Leadership Quarterly and is a fellow of the Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology and the American Psychological Association. Marcus W. Dickson is Associate Professor of I/O Psychology at Wayne State University in Detroit. His research generally focuses on issues of leadership and culture (both organizational and societal), and the interaction of those constructs. He is a former Co-Principal Investigator of the GLOBE Project, and his work has appeared in Journal of Applied Psychology, Applied Psychology: An International Review, and The Leadership Quarterly, among others. Jacqueline K. Mitchelson is a doctoral candidate in Industrial and Organizational Psychology at Wayne State University. Her current research areas are leadership, organizational culture, individual differences and work-family conflict.     

SME internationalization and performance: Growth vs. profitability

Lu and Beamish (2001) examined the effect of two internationalization strategies, exporting and foreign direct investment (FDI), on SME performance (ROA). We extend this research by examining the differential effects of these strategies on two other dimensions of SME performance: growth and ROS. We develop and test four sets of hypotheses using a sample of 164 Japanese SMEs. We find that exporting activity has a positive impact on growth, but negative impact on profitability. FDI activity has a positive relationship with growth, but a U curve relationship with profitability. Exporting activity has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between an SME’s FDI activity and firm growth, a negative moderating effect on the relationship between an SME’s FDI activity and firm profitability. An SME’s age when it starts to make FDIs has a negative moderating impact on the relationship between FDI and firm growth and profitability.