A model of wine tourist behaviour: a festival approach

The study constructs a temporal model of wine tourist behaviour on the basis of the social psychologist' theory of consumer attitudes and related concepts with regard to past behaviour, satisfaction, perceived value and behavioural intentions. More importantly, this study added two dimensions to this model by proposing that satisfaction and perceived value had an impact on the attendees' intentions (i) to visit a local winery and (ii) to buy local wine products. Using a path analysis approach and data collected from the attendees at a regional wine festival, the study examined the above relationships. The results of this path analysis can be summarised as: (i) past behaviour influenced the intention to revisit and the level of perceived value, but had no effect on the level of satisfaction; (ii) perceived value strongly affected the level of satisfaction; (iii) satisfaction had a strong impact on future intentions to revisit and also an effect on intentions to visit local wineries and to buy local wine products; and (iv) perceived value affected the intentions to revisit the festival and to visit local wineries but did not influence the intentions to buy local wines. It is believed that the results of the present study will be useful to organisers of wine festivals and/or wine tourism developers. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

External funding of major capital projects in the UK Higher Education sector: issues of demand,supply and market timing?

The aim of this paper is to consider the sources of finance used to support major capital expenditure in the UK Higher Education sector and to reflect on any differences between traditional corporate finance theory and practice in the UK university sector. Utilising both HESA data returns and published annual accounts, an in-depth analysis using a logit structure is carried out on data from the top 63 UK universities over the period 2014–2017, to establish the range of funding sources adopted for major capital projects, all set within the context of the UK macro environment and a period of low interest rates. The research also carries out a survey of funders to understand the decision criteria used by lenders active in the Higher Education sector and a survey of university finance directors to determine the use of the funds, the reasons behind past lending decisions and to ascertain likely future demand for finance to fund major capital projects.     

The Lindahl equilibrium in Schumpeterian growth models

The main motivation of the paper is to determine the social value of innovations in a standard scale-invariant Schumpeterian growth model, which explicitly introduces knowledge diffusion over a Salop (Bell J Econ 10(1):141–156 1979) circle. The social value of an innovation is defined as the optimal value of the knowledge inherent in this innovation. We thus have to price optimally knowledge. For that purpose, contrary to what is done in standard growth theory, we complete the markets using Lindahl prices for knowledge. The Lindahl equilibrium, which provides the system of prices that sustains the first-best social optimum in an economy with non rival goods, appears as a benchmark. First, its comparison with the standard Schumpeterian equilibrium à la Aghion and Howitt (Econometrica (60)2:323–351 1992) enables us to shed a new light on the issue of non-optimality of the latter. Second, the Lindahl equilibrium also allows us to revisit the issue of R&D incentives in presence of cumulative innovations. Finally, this benchmark may be a first step to understand how knowledge is exchanged in new technology sectors.     

Consumer decision making,E-commerce and perceived risks

This article studies how adoption and usage behaviour of the Internet and online shopping, respectively influence the preference to use electronic commerce to purchase different types of products. We empirically model the preference for electronic commerce when consumers have to buy different types of products and thus face different types of risks (Cox and Rich, 1964 Cox, D and Rich, S. 1964. Perceived risk and consumer decision making-the case of telephone survey. Journal of Marketing Research, 1: 32–9. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Unlike previous research, we find that consumers who have previously shopped online, display stronger preferences to buy products on the Internet irrespective of the perceived level of product-specific risks of online shopping. This article provides an interesting and novel insight into how both adoption and usage of electronic commerce impact on the attitude and risk perception of buying less predictable (more risky) products on the Internet.     

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.     

Is prior director experience valuable?

Previous studies have investigated the effectiveness of directors in performing their monitoring and advising functions by examining characteristics such as independence, qualifications and professional expertise. In this study, we propose a more direct measure of director effectiveness – prior experience as a director. Using hand‐collected data from Australia, we find that both the depth (number of prior years) and breadth (number of current directorships) of a new appointee’s director experience is valued by shareholders at appointment. In particular, the market reaction is highest for appointees with the most prior director experience (two or more other current directorships in listed companies and four or more years of director experience) and when experienced appointees join less‐experienced boards.     

The Saga of the Directive on Misleading Advertising

After reviewing the legislative history and the current situation regarding the adjustment of member states' laws to implement the European Community's Directive on Misleading Advertising, it is clear that those who plan or hope to influence future regulatory activities can learn significant lessons from the past. Regulation of advertising should be in accordance with economic and social facts and opinions that are relevant to European conditions, indeed to conditions in each member state. All major interested and knowledgeable parties—business, consumer groups and government—should be consulted and involved directly in the process. The advertising business should make efforts to educate others accurately about the nature of advertising, the process of preparing effective and appropriate advertising and advertising's effects on consumers, the economy and society. The advertising business should also develop self- regulatory systems more fully.     

Inference regarding multiple structural changes in linear models with endogenous regressors

This paper considers the linear model with endogenous regressors and multiple changes in the parameters at unknown times. It is shown that minimization of a Generalized Method of Moments criterion yields inconsistent estimators of the break fractions, but minimization of the Two Stage Least Squares (2SLS) criterion yields consistent estimators of these parameters. We develop a methodology for estimation and inference of the parameters of the model based on 2SLS. The analysis covers the cases where the reduced form is either stable or unstable. The methodology is illustrated via an application to the New Keynesian Phillips Curve for the US.