Web-based permission marketing: Segmentation for the lodging industry

Permission marketing is becoming an important tool in maintaining relationships with travelers via the Internet. Its growing importance can be seen in tourism marketing, specifically in the lodging industry. With an increase in industry use, the effectiveness of this technique needs assessment. This paper initiates this process by examining current methods used to collect contact information for the purpose of permission marketing. Three segments of the market are identified and compared based upon their willingness to supply contact information. Significant differences were found in socio-demographics, online habits, trip characteristics, and website design preferences. Implications for lodging marketers are presented and future research topics are discussed.     

Cultural Consonance in Leisure,Leisure Satisfaction,Life Satisfaction,and Self-Rated Health in Urban Taiwan

The purpose of this study threefold: to determine whether a shared cultural model of the importance of a set of leisure activities to a good leisure life existed in urban Taiwan, the degree to which cultural consonance in leisure mediates the relationship between leisure constraints and leisure satisfaction, and the degree to which leisure satisfaction affects life satisfaction and self-rated health. Results indicate that a cultural model of the importance of leisure activities to a good leisure life existed among sample members. Second, higher levels of self-reported participation in leisure activities that are culturally agreed upon as more important for a good leisure life are more strongly associated with leisure satisfaction than are activities culturally agreed upon as less important. Finally, leisure satisfaction strongly predicts both life satisfaction and self-rated health.     

Theory of Virtue Ethics: Do Consumers’ Good Traits Predict Their Socially Responsible Consumption?

Drawing upon the theory of virtue ethics, this study builds a decision tree predictive model to explore the anticipated impact of good traits (i.e., virtuous and personality traits) on socially responsible consumption. Using R statistical software, we generate a classification tree and cross-validate the model on two independent datasets. The results indicate that the virtuous traits of self-efficacy, courage, and self-control, as well as the personality traits of openness and conscientiousness, predict socially responsible purchase and disposal behavior. Remarkably, the largest segment of socially responsible consumers in the study (41 %) scored high in self-efficacy and openness. This result suggests that marketers should focus on these good traits when creating advertisements to encourage sustainable consumption. Our study contributes to enhancing knowledge about the social and psychological aspects of the sustainability movement and provides a new analytical approach to predicting socially responsible consumption.     

An Empirical Study of Volatility in Seven Southeast Asian Stock Markets Using ARV Models

This paper investigates the volatility persistence, volatility variability from day to day and transmission of volatility in seven Southeast Asian stock markets from 1980 to 1991 using the ARV approach. We found strong evidence that shocks to volatility are persistent in Taiwan. Moreover, the Stock Exchange of Thailand Daily Index has the strongest interday volatility fluctuation. Instantaneous causality of volatility among six of the seven markets (except Seoul) was discovered. Besides, there is significant volatility spillover effect from Hong Kong to Taiwan, Malaysia to Singapore and Singapore to Malaysia in the period 1980 to 1991.     

Primary school students' interests in STEM careers: how conceptions of STEM professionals and gender moderation influence

International Journal of Technology and Design Education - This study assessed elementary school students’ conceptions of STEM professions and its potential influence on STEM career interest,...     

Effects of the matching fund program on IPO and bankruptcy of SMEs in Korea

Most small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Korea struggle in financing R&D. Thus, the Korea Core Industrial Technology Investment Association (KITIA) was established to implement a matching fund program (MFP) to help SMEs with this undertaking. Applicant firms to the MFP are reviewed first based on their technology levels and are required to attract financing from venture capitalists (VCs), before receiving funds from the MFP. This paper, based on KITIAs MFP applicant data from 2001 to 2004, evaluates the performance of the MFP in terms of the success rate of funded SMEs’ initial public offerings (IPOs) and bankruptcy rates in relation to those SMEs that could not attract matching funds. Propensity score matching was used to eliminate selection bias from the data in order to assess the actual treatment effect of the MFP. According to the result of logistic regression applied to the matched data, MFP apparently did not have significant effects on IPO success and bankruptcy. This implies that MFP needs to allow VCs more time to evaluate SMEs covering qualitative aspects as well. It is expected that this change of structure can provide better performance of MFP in terms of IPO success and bankruptcy of matched SMEs.