Hotel Efficiency Analysis from the Customer’s Point of View in Romania: A Stochastic Production Frontier Approach

The purpose of this article is to measure the efficiency of hotel units in Romania from the customers’ point of view and to identify factors that explain the differences in efficiency between hotel units. A stochastic production frontier is estimated together with a technical inefficiency model using cross-sectional data from 622 hotel units in Romania. The results show that the average efficiency is high. However, there are significant differences between hotels in different regions and with different star ratings. The most influential factor affecting efficiency is the online visibility of a hotel unit on social media platforms and on travel planning sites. The study’s results offer insight for hotel decision-makers to be able to improve the perception of hotel efficiency by taking appropriate action to meet customer needs.     

The influence of entrepreneurs’ immigrant status and time on the perceived likelihood of exporting

We contribute in this paper to the scant literature on the factors and conditions influencing the development of different perceptions of potential international opportunities for immigrant and native entrepreneurs in the pre-internationalization phase. Specifically, we investigate what factors influence the perceived likelihood entrepreneurs have of exporting. Building on entrepreneurial intentions and opportunity-based entrepreneurial processes, we propose a cognitive account of perceived likelihood of exporting based on entrepreneurs’ perceptions of the desirability and feasibility of export opportunities. We investigate how the immigrant status (i.e., individual characteristics) and time (i.e., contextual factors) influence the relationship between the desirability and feasibility of exporting, and entrepreneurs’ perceived likelihood of exporting. We employ an experimental design on a matched-pair sample of 108 native and immigrant entrepreneurs in domestic technology-based firms. The results are a unique account of the cognitive antecedents of the perceived likelihood of exporting under different temporal conditions, comparing immigrant and native entrepreneurs. We discuss theoretical and practical implications.

     

Executive flight simulator as a learning tool in new companies’ resource planning based on the balanced scorecard

In many cases, a deficient strategic planning in new companies has led entrepreneurs to take inadequate initial decisions that, in the long term, reflect consequences in the failure of many new businesses. The objective of this article is to propose an executive flight simulator, which will help to identify and evaluate the different development strategies for resources of a new manufacturing company, under the four perspectives of the balanced scorecard, educating the user on the impact that these would have in the main performance indicators. The simulator is designed utilizing the focus of system dynamics to be used didactically in master's degree programs in administration, by entrepreneurs or in executive development programs.     

Job Search and the Measurement of Unemployment in South Africa

We interrogate the distinction between searching and non‐searching unemployment in South Africa using data from the first national panel survey that tracks the individual. In particular, we test whether the non‐searching unemployed display a weaker commitment to the labour market than the searching unemployed, and we investigate what counts as search activity. We find that over the panel, the search status of the unemployed does not predict their subsequent employment status, a result that is robust also for subsamples that vary by age cohort, gender and location. Moreover, social networks are the most important job‐finding strategy of the employed. These findings challenge the exclusion of the non‐searching unemployed from the measure of “genuine” work seekers.     

The impact of peer ratings on cooperation: The role of information and cost of rating

In this study, we experimentally analyze the effectiveness of payoff‐irrelevant peer‐to‐peer ratings as a cooperation enforcement device in a finitely repeated public goods game setting. We run two treatments that differ in the amount of information on own and others' received rating points provided to the players, whereas, in a third treatment, we analyze peer approval when assigning ratings to others is costly. In particular, we wonder whether, even under anonymity and in the absence of reputational concerns, (a) players rate others' contribution decisions in the expected direction and (b) the peer rating mechanisms under study foster cooperation and welfare. Our findings reveal that, in the two costless rating treatments, peer rating concerns lead to higher contributions and efficiency, compared to our control. Introducing a small fixed cost for assigning rating points results in a very high percentage of subjects deciding not to rate others' behavior, so that cooperation cannot be enforced.     

State-owned banks in the market for corporate control

We study the pre-deal characteristics of state-owned banks acquiring other companies, relative to their private counterparts. We build a unique international data-set of 3682 deals in the years 2003–2013. Econometric results highlight that those state-owned banks that are acting as acquirers have an ex-ante performance similar to their private benchmarks. The results are driven by the role of development banks. This new finding points to the recent evolution of some types of contemporary state-owned financial players.     

Imports,Exports and the Firm Product Scope: Evidence From Turkey

By exploiting an original firm‐product level dataset for Turkish manufacturing, ‐way trading on firm product scope and innovation in a multiple treatment setting. Our evidence points at the prominent role of exporting, while no effect is found for importing only. Nonetheless, we corroborate existing evidence on the virtuous nexus between the two international activities and add to the literature by showing that joint firm involvement in exporting and importing fosters product innovation and quality upgrading.     

Do the EU countries import at the same price? The case of coffee

The establishment of the Economic and Monetary Union was expected to determine price convergence in the market of the European Union, leading to the equilibrium theorized by the law of one price. This article investigates prices convergence in the coffee market among European importers. Coffee is not only a tradable and traded good, but also one of the most valuable traded commodities. We account for different qualities of coffee in a hedonic regression model, which isolate and remove the effects of factors that might affect price dispersion. Adjusted import prices result to be significantly different between European Member States, and do not support the hypothesis of a deepening European market integration.     

Structural change and blurred sectoral boundaries: assessing the extent to which knowledge-intensive business services satisfy manufacturing final demand in Western countries

This paper focuses on the vertical integration of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) into manufacturing sectors, using a subsystem approach to input–output analysis. It aims at correctly assessing the process of structural change that has occurred in the four main European countries (France, Germany, Italy and the UK) over time (1995–2005). It does not focus on KIBS sectors per se, but on their function as carriers and sources of knowledge which influences the performance of sectors, value chains and clusters across industries and within countries. The analysis shows that KIBS’ contribution to satisfying the final demand of manufacturing is in general largely underestimated; that KIBS vertical integration into manufacturing has increased over time in all the countries investigated except the UK; and that the extent to which manufacturing sectors outsource to KIBS is significantly affected by their technological intensity.