Exploring the Financial Leakages in the Classified Hotels in Jordan: A Managerial Perspective

The study aimed to provide a better understanding of financial leakages in a sample of classified hotels in Jordan in terms of its reasons, its channels, and potential ways to reduce it from hotel managers’ perspective. Eighteen semistructured interviews were conducted with hotel managers. The results showed a high level of awareness regarding financial leakages by hotel managers. Furthermore, the main reasons for financial leakages included: the high cost of energy, the need to import products not produced locally, and the lack of awareness of sustainability practices. The main channels of financial leakages were: importing furniture and electronics, human resources, and food and beverages not produced in Jordan. The study’s main suggestions are to reduce financial leakages, especially energy consumption, and to increase trust in local products.     

Perceptions of tourism revenue sharing impacts on Volcanoes National Park,Rwanda: a Sustainable Livelihoods framework

Tourism revenue sharing (TRS) has become a popular strategy for integrated wildlife conservation and rural development in Africa. In Rwanda, 5% of tourism revenue is invested annually in communities adjacent to protected areas. However, the conservation impact of the TRS strategy has been challenged. Previous studies have revealed structural constraints of TRS, which partially explain TRS shortfalls. The TRS application is complex and needs deeper understanding of both conceptual and structural constraints. In this paper, we examine local perceptions of TRS, and use the Sustainable Livelihoods framework to conceptually understand the livelihood capability, equity and sustainability constraints of TRS at Volcanoes National Park (VNP). Results suggest that TRS has had minimal conservation impact due to acute food insecurity and limited livelihood capabilities among the poorest residents in proximity to VNP. This is exacerbated by several TRS structural constraints, such as the association membership fee requirement for TRS benefits, political influence, poor conservation linkages, and limited participation of the most socially and economically disadvantaged residents in proximity to VNP. This paper recommends restructuring of the TRS decision-making process to ensure consideration of both short-term and long-term conservation goals, wildlife conservation linkages and participation of the most economically disadvantaged residents in proximity to the park boundary.     

Uncovering stakeholders in public–private relations on social media: a case study of the 2015 Volkswagen scandal

While researchers have focused on the nature of interpersonal communication on social media, few have investigated the patterns and structures of interactions among stakeholders engaged in an unexpected event. On September 18, 2015, the United States Environmental Protection Agency issued a notice of violation of the U.S. Clean Air Act to Volkswagen Group of America, Inc., citing Volkswagen’s inappropriate software that circumvented the United States’ emission standards. This research is systemically designed to examine the evolutionary structures of interpersonal issue networks on social media by focusing on the 2015 Volkswagen scandal on social media. The interpersonal network emerged and evolved to build a discourse on issues by stakeholders after the event. By using longitudinal data collected from the Volkswagen USA’s Facebook page between September 17 and 20, 2015, this research tests four hypothesized network structures, which are reciprocity, transitivity, popularity, and activity, which assess the evolution of interpersonal issue networks. The results of exponential random graph models, analyzing 4131 stakeholders, show that interpersonal issue networks on social media have evolved overtime into a set of reciprocal relations and stakeholders transmitting critical information to bystanders. The findings imply that stakeholders who have Volkswagen’s cars and stocks play a critical role in placating the scandal by mutually interacting with diverse bystanders on social media.     

The effectiveness of a permaculture education project in Butula,Kenya

In the 1980s, agricultural development organizations began promoting permaculture, an agroecological approach that emphasizes local autonomy, through training programmes in the developing world. Few assessments have measured the effectiveness of such projects. Here we surveyed and interviewed small-scale farmers to assess the perceived impacts of a Canadian permaculture non-governmental organization’s (NGO) project in Butula, Western Kenya. Two types of projects are evaluated and compared: community projects (CPs) at six primary schools, and an intensive two-week permaculture design certification (PDC) programme. Our results suggest that both PDC and CP participants felt that they had benefited from the projects. However, PDC participants developed a more comprehensive understanding of permaculture, felt empowered and frequently related permaculture to their own traditional cultural values whereas CP participants often misunderstood permaculture, felt frustrated by the limited immediate economic benefits and frequently contrasted permaculture against traditional cultural values. These differences may have occurred because CP participants had fewer opportunities to interact directly with the permaculture teachers, to ask questions, or to clarify points of uncertainty. This study emphasizes the importance of direct, reciprocal communication between NGOs and project participants for fostering feelings of autonomy and competence, thereby strengthening resilient agroecological systems.     

Global competitive conditions driving the manufacturing location decision

Given today's rapidly shifting global competitive conditions—including customer location, natural disasters, currency valuation, labor and transportation costs and availability—many U.S. companies are revisiting decisions about their preferred manufacturing location(s). The purpose of this research is to understand some of the trends that affect whether U.S.-based companies bring their production back to the United States or relocate it to different geographical locations (reshore). The focus is on the key factors that affect companies’ manufacturing location decisions, the importance of these factors, and how the importance has changed over time. Because of the complexity involved in the manufacturing location decision, key risk factors inherent in the manufacturing decision are also assessed. Survey responses from 319 companies that currently manage offshore manufacturing plants are analyzed. Among other insights, this study found that 40% of these companies perceived a trend toward reshoring to the U.S. in their industries. The companies involved in this study also place an increasing importance on where their customers want them to locate, as well as how the location could help expand into new customer markets. These and further results and implications for U.S. manufacturing companies are presented herein.