Online travel purchasing: A literature review

Over the past two decades, there has been an increasing focus on the development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), as well as the impact that they have had on the tourism industry and on travelers’ behaviors. However, research on what drives consumers to purchase travel online has typically been fragmented. In order to better understand consumers’ behavior toward online travel purchasing, this article offers a review of articles that were published in leading tourism and hospitality journals, the ENTER proceedings, and several articles from other peer-reviewed journals, found on the main academic search databases. The antecedents of online travel shopping found are classified into three main categories: Consumer Characteristics, Perceived Channel Characteristics, and Website and Product Characteristics. Finally, this study identifies several gaps and provides some orientation for future research.     

Satisfaction,organizational commitment and future action in charity sport event volunteers

• Charity sport events (CSEs) are a key revenue source for nonprofit organizations (NPOs) with large numbers of volunteers needed for success and cost‐effectiveness. This study explored determinants of CSE volunteers' satisfaction, organizational commitment and intended future actions (CSE, other NPO activity/event volunteering, donating money). Relay for Life volunteers (N = 290) from one Australian state completed a cross‐sectional survey. Significant pathways were found from socializing/enjoyment (β = 0.17), fighting cancer (β = 0.29), financial support (β = 0.21) motives and social norm (β = 0.23) to satisfaction; 52% variance was explained. Age (β = ?0.09), survivorship (β = 0.09), region (β = 0.07), fundraising goal (β = 0.08), advocacy (β = 0.15), financial support (β = 0.25), social/enjoyment (β = 0.23) motives, social norm (β = 0.23) and satisfaction (β = 0.21) were linked with commitment; 63% variance was explained. Paths between satisfaction, commitment and intended future actions (CSE, NPO activity/event volunteering) were significant (βs = 0.17–0.43). Future targets to increase CSE volunteer satisfaction and commitment involve similar (social/enjoyment) and diverse (action‐oriented) motives, with satisfaction and commitment key contributors to future actions supporting NPOs. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

     

How do CEO incentives affect corporate tax planning and financial reporting of income taxes?

We examine how different accounting metrics used to evaluate CEO performance for annual bonuses affect the level of corporate tax planning as well as financial reporting for income taxes. We predict and find that firms using cash flow metrics report lower GAAP and cash effective tax rates (ETR) than firms using earnings metrics. We also find that firms using after-tax earnings metrics report lower GAAP ETRs but similar cash ETRs as firms using pre-tax earnings metrics. Further analyses show that firms using after-tax earnings metrics are more likely to designate foreign earnings as permanently reinvested and have lower discretionary reserves for tax uncertainty. Hence, it appears that both types of firms engage in similar levels of tax planning, but firms evaluating CEOs with after tax-earnings metrics incentivize different financial reporting choices.     

Determinants of the Allocation of Volunteer Time: Church-Related versus Other Non-market Activities

This paper analyzes the relative time allocation decisions of individuals who volunteer time to a religious institution. The most important factor influencing the amount of time spent in church ministry relative to other non-market activities is educational attainment. In general, religious volunteers who are college-educated are significantly more likely to spend relatively more time working in church ministry than devoting time to family responsibilities, engaging in spiritual practices, or volunteering time to civic/community organizations. The presence of school-aged children tends to diminish the relative amount of time spent volunteering in church ministry. The findings of this study suggest church ministry perceived as being child-friendly or strengthening one’s spirituality is more likely to attract relatively greater time commitments from its volunteers.

Employment Policies in the Service Sector: Training in Retail Distribution

This article presents in summary the results of the recent study by the Distributive Trades EDCs Part-Time Employment Group, which focussed attention on the training practices and career opportunities for this major and increasing component of the labour force of retail firms. There is no great certainty or unanimity about the training needs of retail staff, and differences in skill requirements are evident across the various retail trades and diverse organisational structures. Retailing is a dynamic and rapidly changing industry arid employers are not unaware of the training needs associated with labour intense operations yet the training implications of the industry's considerable dependence on part-time workers do not appear to be fully appreciated. In discussing the Report's findings in the context of the ongoing training debate in Britain, it is argued that the corporate strategies of retailers must comprehend the centrality of the training function, if effective use is to be made of all their employees.     

Volunteerism and Virtual Community Business Success: The Case of the Internet Chess Club

Prior work has identified, in piecemeal fashion, desirable characteristics of virtual community businesses (VCBs) such as inimitable information assets, persistent handles fomenting trust, and an economic infrastructure. To date, researchers have lacked convenient settings to collect participant data to gain insight into VCB governance and success factors. In this work, we addressed this gap and studied the Internet Chess Club (ICC), a successful business that offers a rich and accessible data source for the researcher.

We started with an idealized VCB success framework that stressed the key role of the volunteers. We then used an integrated data collection architecture and performed statistical analysis on the ICC members' attitudes and activities. We identified specific attitude and use segments that represent regular member and volunteer subgroups and we show that these segments and their interplay support the framework we advanced at the outset. In our conclusion, we point out the general lessons that can be taken from this case and applied to other VCBs.