Revisiting incubation performance: How incubator typology affects results

Relevant literature has discussed incubator versus nonincubator firm performance and the characteristics of different types of incubators. However, it has not considered assessing performance individually by archetype. We studied company performance in four archetypal incubators. Performance measures used fall into five categories drawn from literature: a) firm growth b) participation in R&D programs c) Input R&D d) Output R&D e) Employment generation cost. We find there are significant differences in three of the five performance categories among incubator types. We assess the performance of each one by determining whether the objectives for which each was created are met. Private, basic research and University archetypes meet their objectives. Regional development archetype does not.     

Does a Common Currency Promote Countries’ Growth via Trade and Tourism?

The main aim of this study is to contribute to the debate on the effects of a common currency. In particular, the impact of a common currency on growth via trade and tourism is explored for a panel dataset which includes 179 countries as destination and 30 OECD countries as origin over the period 1995–2006. This research contributes to previous work in three ways: (i) tourism is included as an additional channel for a common currency to promote growth; (ii) the heterogeneity of countries is addressed by dividing the sample into three groups of countries by income; and (iii) up‐to‐date data including the case of the euro are considered. The results obtained suggest that a common currency strengthens economic growth by promoting not only international trade but also tourism.     

Measurement of the efficiency of football teams in the Champions League

In the case of football it could be argued that the purpose of clubs is to win the competitions in which they participate. However, the assessment of football clubs from the efficiency would be relevant in judging whether the results have been obtained without waste. The chosen sample is football teams who played in the Champions League from 2003 to 2007 and the method of calculating the efficiency will be both the traditional version of the DEA as well as the version proposed by Andersen and Petersen (1993), which allows discrimination among efficient units. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Assessing financial reporting comparability across institutional settings: The case of pension accounting

The drive for comparability of financial information is to enable users to distinguish similarities and differences in economic activities for an entity over time and between entities so that their resource allocation decisions are facilitated. With the increased globalisation of economic activities, the enhanced international comparability of financial statements is often used as an argument to advance the convergence of local accounting standards to international financial reporting standards (IFRS). Differences in the underlying economic substance of transactions between jurisdictions plus accounting standards allowing alternative treatments may render this expectation of increased comparability unrealistic. Motivated by observations that, as a construct, comparability is under-researched and not well understood, we develop a comparability framework that distinguishes between four types of comparability. In applying this comparability framework to pension accounting in the Australian and USA contexts, we highlight a dilemma: while regulators seek to increase the likelihood that similar events are accounted for similarly, an unintended consequence may be that preparers are forced to apply similar accounting treatment to events that are, in substance, different.     

Tourist preferences for rural house stays: Evidence from discrete choice modelling in Spain

Although the appeal of rural houses for tourists lies mainly in the natural surroundings and their intrinsic rural characteristics, there are other factors which are also important such as their size, type of building, quality of equipment, services and activities offered. To evaluate the tourists' preferences for these potential or effective attributes, a stated preference experiment was conducted in the Northwest area of the Region of Murcia and the data are analysed using discrete choice modelling methodology. Consistent specifications for multinomial logit and mixed logit models that consider variations in tastes within tourists' preferences are found. The results could be of use to promoters and owners of rural houses when planning marketing and promotional campaigns or when taking effective investment decisions.     

ASEAN’s intra-regional tourism demand to Thailand

This paper presents an overview of intra-regional tourism in ASEAN at the beginning of the challenging times that will come with the constitution of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). Thailand is chosen as the destination country and the other nine countries are selected as origin. After presenting ASEAN’s intra-regional tourism, the study develops a model of long-run demand. The coefficients are estimated by a time-varying parameters method considering the potential presence of structural breaks, and its implication. The results present and discuss the implications of income, own price, and cross price elasticities. As concluding recommendations, this study suggests that while the region should take advantage of the expansion of the Asian markets due to economic growth and liberalization of ASEAN since 2016, it should use different policies in each origin market.     

Segmenting and Profiling the Portuguese Festival-Goers Through the Most Ancient Form of Music Retailing: The Music Festivals

This article intends to segment and profile the festival-goers in Portugal, and through a mixed mode survey of 657 Portuguese citizens using latent segments models, a three-segment solution was achieved: music lovers, 53%; networkers, 33%; and tourists, 14%. The majority of the festival-goers, the music lovers, consider Optimus Alive the most memorable festival because of the music and these results should be conveniently used for music retailing purposes. The model identified the demographic factors that contributed the most to the solution, and according to each segment, several recommendations to festivals organizations are presented.     

Influence of the EU CAP on terrain morphology and vineyard cultivation in the Priorat region of NE Spain

After the GATT agreements in 1986, which removed the existing external protection on wine market, and with demand developing towards a qualitative level, the European wine sector has been subjected to a continuous transformation to accomplish that main objective. To give producers the chance to bring production into line with market developments and to allow the sector to become permanently competitive, the European Commission established the Council Regulation (EC) No. 1493/1999) on the common market organization in wine, later adopted in the 2003 CAP reform. Among other measures, this regulation finances the restructuring of a large part of present vineyards by adopting new farming systems (EC Council Regulation No. 1227/2000), supporting actions as soil preparation, which includes land levelling and terracing. Traditional vineyard areas in Mediterranean mountain environments, with subsistence agriculture and farming systems based on man and animal labour, have taken advantage of the new market opportunities in the wine sector and of this policy as well, and have changed to a market-oriented farming strategy. It has involved the construction of terraces on hillslopes using heavy machinery with the objective of crop mechanization, which has supposed important changes in soils and landscape. An example of this situation is the Priorat region (Catalonia, NE Spain), where vineyards have been cultivated on hillslopes by human and animal labour since the 12th century. Since the early 1990s the region has been undergoing major changes arising from new wine market opportunities and later by vineyard conversion and restructuring EU policy, which subsidizes up to 50% of the cost. In this paper we consider two aspects of the changes that modern farming systems are causing in the region: (a) land use changes after the coming into practice of the EU vineyard restructuring policy and (b) terrain morphology changes due to land terracing and related geomorphological effects. The results show high terracing rates (22.6–36.1 ha year⁻¹) in the study period (1998–2006), accompanied by huge land movements (a cutting rate of about 5475 m³ ha⁻¹). Bad design of terraces has led to the collapse of benches and borders, affecting about 3.5% of the newly planted area. These effects question the suitability of the EU CAP for vineyard restructuring in Mediterranean mountain environments, revealing that although farmers comply with environmental protection requirements, CAP support is not accomplishing the objectives for which was conceived: the protection of the environment by the reduction of impacts of the agricultural activities.     

The Size and Structure of the World Mutual Fund Industry

This paper analyses the mutual fund industry for 20 countries using a new database of more than 50,000 mutual funds. The results suggest that more developed industries provide more benefits to investors as they diversify more internationally, charge lower annual charges and present more product sophistication. The results also have important policy implications by emphasising the role of competition and contestability in industry development. Fewer barriers to entry are positively associated with a larger industry, and concomitantly with more efficiency in terms of returns and fees.     

Mandatory Adoption of IASB Standards: Value Relevance and Country-Specific Factors

The objective of this study is to investigate if the value relevance of European-listed companies increased after the mandatory application of International Accounting Standards (IAS)/International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and how the value relevance of accounting information prepared under IAS/IFRS is shaped by the specific factors of the country in which companies are domiciled. Results show that the value relevance of financial information during the period companies applied mandatory IAS/IFRS is higher than for the period during which they applied local accounting standards. We also found that countries where accounting and tax are clearly separated show more relevant accounting information. Finally, we found that companies from countries with more legal and public enforcement mechanisms disclose less relevant accounting information under IAS/IFRS.