The nexus between sustainable practices in hotels and future Gen Y hospitality students’ career path decisions

This study explored tertiary hospitality students’ attitudes and overall perceptions about green and sustainable practices; and how these may impact their future career paths in the hotel industry. A thematic analysis with data from 12 semi-structured interviews with students in a hotel management school in Australia was used to identify patterns and interpretive themes. Results revealed positive attitudes among Generation Y hospitality students towards working in a green and sustainable hotel environment. Implications highlight the need for sustainability education in the curriculum of tertiary education providers and strong emphasis on sustainability practices in employee training programs. The results also suggest possible impacts of sustainability practices in recruiting and hiring in the hospitality industry and how this may affect future hospitality employees and leaders.     

Catching up on competitors: how organizations can motivate employees to work harder

The paper is an attempt to explain why some organizations are more competitive than others in terms of their human resources. It establishes under what circumstances some employees exert extra effort beyond the level required to keep their job and to get promotion by exploring the role of motivational forces that may complement the calculative considerations as suggested by expectancy theory. In a multivariate analysis proxies for five motivational mechanisms were tested, based on need theory, positive work disposition, intrinsic motivation, behavioural commitment as implied by organizational roles and social exchange theory. It emerged that all of them make their own contribution to the explanation of extra work effort.     

Betriebe lernen Ältere schätzen

Durch die demographische Entwicklung nimmt der Anteil der ?lteren Arbeitskr?fte stetig zu, w?hrend das Erwerbspersonenpotenzial insgesamt langfristig sinkt. Die Unternehmer müssen daher immer mehr ?ltere Arbeitnehmer neu einstellen. Hier k?nnte es aufgrund verschiedener Anforderungen zu Problemen kommen. Die Autorin untersucht die Besch?ftigungschancen ?lterer beispielhaft in sechs hessischen Regionen.     

The price normalization problem in imperfect competition and the objective of the firm

Summary. General equilibrium models of oligopolistic competition give rise to relative prices only without determining the price level. It is well known that the choice of a numéraire or, more generally, of a normalization rule converting relative prices into absolute prices entails drastic consequences for the resulting set of Nash equilibria when firms are assumed to maximize profits. This is due to the fact that changing the price normalization amounts to altering the objective functions of the firms. Clearly, the objective of a firm must not be based on price normalization rules void of any economic content. In this paper we propose a definition of the objective of a firm, called maximization of shareholders' real wealth, which takes shareholders' demand explicitly into account. This objective depends on relative prices only. Real wealth maxima are shown to exist under certain conditions. Moreover, we consider an oligopolistic market and prove the existence of a Nash equilibrium in which each firm maximizes the real wealth of its shareholders. Received: July 10, 1997; revised version: July 27, 1998     

Public Debt,Terms of Trade and Welfare: The Role of Capital Production Shares,External Balances,and Dynamic (In)efficiency

In view of still large external imbalances across the world economy and dramatically risen public debts in major advanced economies, this paper reconsiders the relationship between public debt, the terms of trade and welfare in a two-good, two-country overlapping generations model with technological differences across countries. We find that the terms of trade effect of a public debt shock depends only on international differences in capital production shares and the dynamic (in)efficiency of the world economy. As in a model with similar capital production shares, domestic welfare rises and foreign welfare decreases when Home has a positive external balance and the Golden Rule holds. Under dynamic efficiency, welfare decreases in the debt-expanding, net foreign creditor country if she has a relatively smaller capital production share, and if the welfare effect through the accumulation channel is negative. In contrast, under dynamic inefficiency she can increase her welfare by debt expansion.     

The effectiveness of anti-leakage policies in the European Union: results for Austria

With the third trading period of the EU emissions trading scheme (EU ETS) starting in 2013, the system of allocating emission allowances will significantly change: In contrast to the previous two trading periods, auctioning of the allowances should now be the rule rather than the exception. Accompanying this policy change, concerns over competitiveness of energy intensive, trade exposed sectors as well as over limited environmental effectiveness via the channel of carbon leakage, have regained prominence. In this paper, we thus explore the impacts of potential EU policies to counter losses in international competitiveness and carbon leakage from the perspective of Austria. Based on numerical simulations with a computable general equilibrium model, we evaluate three policy options: an input subsidy for carbon allowances (thus reflecting the planned partially free allocation mechanism in the third EU ETS phase), a subsidy for domestic production, and an export rebate based on sectoral CO₂ costs. Our results show that each policy has the potential to support domestic production in exposed sectors relative to a full auctioning scenario and thus increase competitiveness. However, none is imperatively effective at reducing Austria’s net carbon emissions: while the carbon trade balance is improved and hence leakage declines, the tradability of emission permits within the EU ETS allows CO₂ emissions from Austria’s ETS output to increase. A cost benefit analysis indicates that the two policies promoting domestic output and exports are more cost effective than the CO₂ input subsidy.     

Experienced technology teachers’ teaching practices

International Journal of Technology and Design Education - Teachers’ teaching practice plays a key role in the learning process of pupils, and for teaching to be successful, teachers must...     

Municipalities and regions in locational competition — New economic considerations

Locational competition has intensified in recent years in the wake of globalisation as well as the general development towards a knowledge- and service-based economy. In this context, newer economic analyses point to a shifting of the locational factors considered relevant for success in local and regional competition. With respect to these fundamental changes, it is becoming increasingly relevant to ask how local and regional development processes must be constructed in order for municipalities and regions in modern industrial countries to maintain the positions they have already achieved.