An Investigation of Market Orientation (MO) and Tourism Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises’ (SMEs) Performance in Developing Countries: A Review of the Literature

This paper aims to build a structured literature review of the field of market orientation and its impact on tourism small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) performance in developing countries. This literature review will present a comprehensive survey of market orientation (MO) published articles to facilitate good understanding of MO. It serves as an archive and aims to help the scholars and practitioners to explore, analyse, and develop a clear understanding about the different research points and methodologies implemented in previous studies related to MO and its impact on tourism SMEs’ performance. The paper systematically reviews and categorizes the published literature implementing a three-stage methodology, and thereafter analyzes and reviews this literature methodologically. The review covered many areas and identified some factors that drive/hinder market-oriented activities within tourism SMEs. Furthermore, suggestions have been made to understand more thoroughly how market orientation influences tourism SMEs performance in developing economies. A research gap in the area of market orientation and tourism SMEs performance in developing countries was identified. The study provides great benefits for owner-managers, government policy makers, scholars, and educators by clarifying the concept of market orientation and its relationship with performance in the context of tourism SMEs.     

An empirical study of accountability: delegation of responsibility and external disclosure in some Swedish companies

There are increasing requirements for disclosure of future-oriented information, segmental reporting and information about financial risk management, i.e. information traditionally used internally in the management control process. The increasing influence of transnational corporations has contributed to pressure for wider accountability. An empirical study encompassing six transnational companies has been made. The research results suggest that information disclosed about goals for the group and outcome values for segments does not necessarily reflect how the company is managed. For industrial operations there appears to be a clear relationship between organization structure and goal parameters. None of these goal parameters and only certain outcome values for these parameters are disclosed which makes it difficult for external users to find out how the industrial operations are managed. For the financial activities there is no goal parameter used which is related to the goal for the group. Choice of organization structure and risk policy seems to influence disclosure. A lack of clear definitions and guidelines for futureoriented information makes difficult the comparison of what is disclosed with what it is required to disclose. The research results suggest the benefit of dealing with both management accounting and financial accounting when studying accountability.     

Einzelbesprechungen

Ohne ZusammenfassungÜbersetzt von Hans Fried, Wien.     

Einzelbesprechungen

Ohne ZusammenfassungAus dem Italienischen übersetzt von M. St. Braun, WienAus dem Russischen übersetzt von A. GerschenkronAus dem Italienischen übersetzt von Erich Allina     

A constraint-free approach to optimal reinsurance

Reinsurance is available for a reinsurance premium that is determined according to a convex premium principle H. The first insurer selects the reinsurance coverage that maximizes its expected utility. No conditions are imposed on the reinsurer's payment. The optimality condition involves the gradient of H. For several combinations of H and the first insurer's utility function, closed-form formulas for the optimal reinsurance are given. If H is a zero utility principle (for example, an exponential principle or an expectile principle), it is shown, by means of Borch's Theorem, that the optimal reinsurer's payment is a function of the total claim amount and that this function satisfies the so-called 1-Lipschitz condition. Frequently, authors impose these two conclusions as hypotheses at the outset.