Tourism and rural development in Maputaland: A case‐study of the Kosi Bay area

There is often a vast difference between the needs of the tourism industry and tourists on the one hand and of the local inhabitants of developing tourist destination areas — especially in Third World, rural settings — on the other hand. This article describes some of the problems associated with tourism development in general and discusses tourism development in terms of the psychological saturation effects it can have on local inhabitants. The authors state that tourism could enhance the development of rural areas on an ecologically and economically viable basis, and improve the quality of life of the rural black. They further state that it is possible to reconcile the needs and demands of locals and those of tourism through adequate planning and the development of effec‐tive intra‐ and intercultural communication systems. Using the Kosi Bay area of the Maputaland region in northern Natal as a case‐study, specific suggestions are offered about ways in which this process of need reconciliation can be built into tourism plan‐ning and into the development of a meaningful infrastructure for tourism.     

Costly information production and optimal capital structuring: Theory and implications for finance and accounting

By considering a broad class of securities offerings that we termcapital structurings, a firm can always avoid pooling with firms whose prospects are poorer. This result implies that firms need not indulge in costly information gathering, hoping thereafter to signal to investors. One application allows us to describe a new theory of capital structurings, in which firms choose their capital structure not (as in traditional capital structure signaling theory) to signal privately known prospects, but rather to signal that no (productively useless) investigation of prospects has been pursued. A second application addresses the issue of the impossibility of informationally efficient capital markets: firms are capable of establishing conditions under which investors will recognize informational efficiency. The authors wish to acknowledge helpful comments by participants in seminars at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and the Univeristy of Tsukuba. Particular thanks go to Adam Brandenburger and an anonymous referee. Naturally, any remaining errors are the responsiblity of the authors. C.J.J. is on leave at the Council of Economic Advisers. This article reflects the opinions of the authors and not that of the Council of Economic Advisers. Much of the work for this article was conducted while E.H.R. was on leave at the Institute of Socio-Economic Planning at the University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305, Japan.     

Shaping Union and Gender Identities: A Case Study of Women-Only Trade Union Courses

In the context of efforts to revitalize unions and the acknowledged need to widen participation within trade unions, this paper argues that women‐only trade union education acts as a vehicle for increasing women's participation and for improving their experiences of unions. Drawing on a qualitative research study of women‐only courses in two large male‐dominated British trade unions, the findings indicate that such courses provide the conditions for women to question, reinforce or transform their social identities and thereby can lead to greater union identification and participation.     

Women and IT contracting work—a testing process

This paper explores the career and work experiences of a little researched group: highly skilled women IT contractors. It considers their reasons for entering the IT field, including the decision to become contractors. It demonstrates the complexity of power and influence of IT contractors and the resilience of the gender order in IT work.     

The Early Mobilization of Women Union Leaders — A Comparative Perspective

This article explores the initial reasons for union joining of women who became union leaders in the UK and the USA by drawing on concepts from mobilization theory and the literature on women and unions. The comparative study demonstrates similarities and differences in early mobilization influences on UK and US women with respect to family, ideology, instrumentality and injustice. Informed by the women and unions literature, the article critiques mobilization theorists for failing to problematize the term ‘injustice’ and underplaying the importance of ideology which are shown to be gendered and racialized and located in time and place.     

Trade Liberalization and the Relative Wages for More-Skilled Workers in Costa Rica

A prominent argument regarding the effects of trade liberalization on the dispersion of wages in LDCs is that trade liberalization should lower the relative demand for more-skilled workers by inducing between-sector shifts towards sectors intensive in unskilled labor. Based on a disaggregating, nonparametric approach that imposes little structure on the data, the paper presents evidence that trade liberalization in Costa Rica led to an increase in relative demand. Other findings are consistent with the "skill-enhancing-trade hypothesis," whereby trade liberalization induces an acceleration of physical capital imports, which raises relative demand through capital–skill complimentarily.     

The Commodification of Race in Singapore: The Customer Service Implications of the Other-Race Effect on Tourism and Retailing

This paper examines the phenomenon known as the other-race effect, which is the ability to recognize the faces of those of one race, easier than the faces of those from another race. Typically, the race that is easier to recognize is the individual's own race, and most previous research has focused on this type of comparison. This study, though, analyzes the ability of Chinese Singaporeans to recognize the faces of people of color versus White faces in a customer service context, and compares those results with the ability of White subjects in the United States to recognize the same faces. This approach is particularly applicable to the Asia Pacific region. Tourism accounts for a significant part of the regional economies, and marketers are becoming more sensitive to the changing needs of the multicultural marketplace where inter-racial interactions between customers and service providers in retailing and tourism are on the rise. Results of the research indicate evidence of the other-race effect. Asians who were more exposed to people of color than to Whites, recognized Black faces better than White faces. The results are interpreted based on the theoretical premise that people are better at recognizing faces of races for which there is a higher level of interaction, exposure, and familiarity.     

Stage of the organizational life cycle and competition as mediators of problem perception for small businesses

An empirical study based upon a sample of 645 small businesses assesses the relationship that life cycle stage and level of competition exhibit with the problems perceived to constrain small business strategic planning. Problems have been identified as either internal (cash flow) or external (competition); they have further been classified as either situational or core problems. Among the most prevalent problems reported by decision makers are customer contact, market knowledge, marketing planning, location, and adequacy of capital. A total of 16 problem areas were identified. Traditional wisdom offers the scenario where problems faced will vary as the organization progresses through the life cycle. Much of this research refutes conventional wisdom in that level of competition was determined to have more of an impact on problem perception.     

Retrenchment remains the foundation of business turnaround

In the preceding article, Barker and Mone raised questions about the methodological adequacy of an article that we published in 1992 in this journal. After careful consideration of their ‘replication’ and reassessment of our work, we reached surprising conclusions. First. Barker and Mone failed to accurately represent many major elements of our study. Second, viewed independently, their conclusions can be attributed to unusual and selectively applied operational definitions, disregard for company-specific and industry contexts, and exclusive reliance on secondary data. Nevertheless, their results also add strong support for the emerging theory of a two-stage turnaround process involving retrenchment and recovery, as modeled by Robbins and Pearce (1992).