Investigating the interplay among the Olympic Games image,destination image,and country image for four previous hosts

ABSTRACT

This research tested the triangular relationships among country image, destination image, and Olympic Games image using a quasi-experimental design on an online platform. One month before the 2016 Olympics in Brazil, four groups of respondents were randomly assigned to a country context to rate their perceptions of one of the following host countries: England, United Kingdom (UK), Greece, Brazil, or Russia. Brazil's image was measured again one month after the Olympic Games. Comparison of groups showed that England had the strongest country image while Brazil and Greece had stronger destination images, and Russia had the lowest score in both domains. The Olympics image was stronger than both Russia’s country and destination images. Theoretical, managerial, and methodological implications are discussed.     

Exploring Fijian's sense of place after exposure to tourism development

Tourism, Fiji's largest foreign exchange earner, is growing rapidly. Remote and less developed villages in Fiji's Yasawa archipelago are experiencing some of the greatest tourism growth and impacts on residents' sense of place. This paper uses photo elicitation to address the meanings that residents attach to their “place” (i.e. villages). Photo elicitation provides residents with a “visual voice” and gives researchers insights into the social or cultural characteristics of the village believed to be integral to sustainability. The results indicated that residents value the Fijian village and way of life, the culture and history associated with traditions, and also new technology and its impact on daily life. They also spoke of the importance of protecting the physical environment as central to the continued maintenance of their traditions and lifestyle as well as tourism. These findings would not have been apparent had traditional methods been used to capture the meanings of sense of place. They lend support for the notion that sense of place is multidimensional, and make evident factors that must be considered by planners and marketers in the development of sustainable products and services.     

OPTIMAL INVESTMENT IN CREDIT DERIVATIVES PORTFOLIO UNDER CONTAGION RISK

We consider the optimal portfolio problem of a power investor who wishes to allocate her wealth between several credit default swaps (CDSs) and a money market account. We model contagion risk among the reference entities in the portfolio using a reduced‐form Markovian model with interacting default intensities. Using the dynamic programming principle, we establish a lattice dependence structure between the Hamilton‐Jacobi‐Bellman equations associated with the default states of the portfolio. We show existence and uniqueness of a classical solution to each equation and characterize them in terms of solutions to inhomogeneous Bernoulli type ordinary differential equations. We provide a precise characterization for the directionality of the CDS investment strategy and perform a numerical analysis to assess the impact of default contagion. We find that the increased intensity triggered by default of a very risky entity strongly impacts size and directionality of the investor strategy. Such findings outline the key role played by default contagion when investing in portfolios subject to multiple sources of default risk.     

IMC in digitally-empowering contexts: the emerging role of negotiated brands

In current digitally-empowering contexts, the Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) paradigm may have lost its ‘original’ customer-centric focus. Drawing on service-dominant logic, the paper examines the changes to IMC when multiple sources of consumer power emerge as central in the value creation process. This change in the focus of IMC likely enables the emergence of negotiated brands, i.e. brands that focus on a marketplace where traditional marketer-created brand value may be replaced by buyer and seller co-created value. The paper argues that this novel type of brand structure represents an appropriate managerial response to multidimensional IMC approaches. As that occurs, four key issues (community-centric orientation, emergent strategy, hybrid communication mix, reciprocity-based assessment) emerge which lead to a number of research questions in the planning and execution of marketing communications in today’s digitally-empowered contexts. All these issues clearly highlight the consumers’ contributions to brand value co-creation, by reaffirming the ‘original’ outside-in perspective of IMC.     

Martin Grosky and Sally Sheard, eds. Financing Medicine: The British Experience since 1750

To what extent is a society responsible for providing healthcare to its members? What is the best manner for funding a sustainablehealth care system? This new volume of loosely connected essaysattempts to answer these lofty questions through close examinationof critical moments within the British medical experience overa 225 year period. The works are arranged chronologically and by subject, tracingthe     

Consumer Acceptance of Interactive Media in Service Marketing Encounters

This study considers a number of factors that could influence consumer acceptance of interactive information systems in complex service marketing situations. Further, it investigates the potential relevance of various theoretical perspectives to research involving new communication media such as videotex and teletext. Technical characteristics of the medium, which determine its degree of interactivity, are found to affect user perceptions of the medium's ‘personalness' or ‘social presence’. Characteristics of both the medium and the user are found to affect consumer acceptance of an interactive medium in a financial services setting.     

How do Universities Make Progress? Stakeholder-Related Mechanisms Affecting Adoption of Sustainability in University Curricula

This paper develops a theoretical model to explicate stakeholder-related mechanisms that affect university adoption of sustainability in curricula. This work combines stakeholder and institutional theories so as to extend both. By examining change in the university context wherein there is confusion about sustainability adoption, this research adds to previous institutional theory focusing on strongly contested practices, primarily in the for-profit firm setting. Sustainability is a transformational challenge and may be adopted reactively or proactively. Also, stakeholder theory is extended in a mixed profit and non-profit context. Propositions suggest how the extent of embeddedness affects an organizations’ selection of stakeholders, consequently affecting the type of adoption. This facilitates a greater understanding of why two competing definitions of stakeholders may operate. Moreover, extrinsic and intrinsic motivations are discussed as affecting adoption in different ways. A responsible leader organization is newly defined and intrinsic motivation is proposed as underlying its choice of the widest set of stakeholders leading to broad, proactive adoption.     

Are they playing by the same rules? A consumer gifting classification of marital dyads

This article sets out a research program that examines the dynamics of gifting behavior of long-term committed dyadic relationships—married couples. Our research considers the findings of a study in which the reported gifting behavior of couples reveals two gifting rulebooks; the first rulebook consisting of a set of symbolic communication rules, and a second rulebook consisting of economic exchange rules. Most importantly, we develop a consumer gifting classification of marital dyads. Finally suggestions are offered for future research and implications are drawn for marketing strategy.     

Corporate Motives for Social Initiative: Legitimacy, Sustainability, or the Bottom Line?

This article presents results of exploratory research conducted with managers from over 500 Norwegian companies to examine corporate motives for engaging in social initiatives. Three key questions were addressed. First, what do managers in this sample see as the primary reasons their companies engage in activities that benefit society? Second, do motives for such social initiative vary across the industries represented? Third, can further empirical support be provided for the theoretical classifications of social initiative motives outlined in the literature? Previous research on the topic is reviewed, study methods are described, results are presented, and implications of findings are discussed. The article concludes with the analysis of study limitations and directions for future research.     

Using flexible schedules in the managerial world: The power of peers

Reports indicate that managers fail to take advantage of flexible work schedules to integrate work and life demands. A survey was conducted of approximately 1,000 managers who had three alternative schedule options: flextime, part‐time work, and leave of absence. Managers who were women or who had work group peers who were schedule users were more likely to use each schedule. Managers' productivity concerns were highest for flextime, then leaves, and least for part‐time work. Organizational cultural change can occur if managers take the lead in their work groups to use flexible schedules in order to remove social barriers. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.