Determinants of ethnic minority entrepreneurial growth in the catering sector

This paper seeks to evaluate the variables which influence the growth of the Turkish-speaking ethnic minority businesses in the catering sector, in London, UK. The paper reports and analyses the findings of 111 face-to-face structured interviews with Turkish Cypriot, Kurdish and Turkish restaurant business owners. Findings suggest that fluency in English, recruitment through formal recruitment channels, and the high proportion of co-ethnic labour force makes a positive impact on business growth. The paper concludes that these determinants of growth are crucial for the ethnic minority catering entrepreneurs to gain a competitive edge in this customer focused, labour intensive sector.     

Volatility risk and the value premium: Evidence from the French stock market

This paper documents that systematic volatility risk is an important factor that drives the value premium observed in the French stock market. Using returns on at-the-money straddles written on the CAC 40 index as a proxy for systematic volatility risk, I document significant differences between volatility factor loadings of value and growth stocks. Furthermore, when markets are classified into expected booms and recessions, volatility factor loadings are also time-varying. When expected market risk premium is above its average, i.e. during expected recessions, value stocks are seen riskier than their growth counterparts. This implies in bad times, investors shift their preferences away from value firms. Instead they use growth stocks as hedges against deteriorations in their wealth during those times. The findings are in line with the predictions of rational asset pricing theory and support a “flight-to-quality” explanation.     

The changing role of IATA

The air transport industry is currently facing new challenges in virtually every aspect of its daily operations. As the trade association and parliament of the world's scheduled international and domestic airlines, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) is adapting to meet the needs of its 144 members and of the aviation market place. Dr Günter Eser, Director General of IATA, discusses the impact of the changes in relation to deregulation and liberalization; national anti-trust and competition laws; the automation revolution; and IATA's involvement in helping airlines of developing nations to become self-sufficient and to play their full part in the overall pattern of international air transport. Dr Eser describes IATA's role in technical matters; the relationship with travel agents; and the vital topic of security. He concludes that adaptability and versatility are the keynotes of IATA's changing role in the future.     

High shopping mall patronage: is there a dark side?

Shopping malls that provide consumers climatic comfort and freedom from noise and traffic are centers for social and recreational activities as well as shopping. As they grow in number and differ from each other in terms of size and variety, consumer patronage regarding these enclosed retail environments become subject of greater scholarly inquiry. While there are voluminous studies that try to figure out the determinants of mall patronage, there is a lack of interest on its consequences. This study attempts to extend the literature by drawing attention to the dark side of increased mall patronage behavior. High shopping mall patronage level is predicted to be an important stimulator of consumers’ materialism and compulsive consumption orientations. Besides, these effects are expected to be stronger for individuals with hedonic mall shopping motivations than for those with utilitarian mall shopping motivations. Results show that increased mall patronage stimulates materialistic values and compulsive buying tendencies; but these relationships do not show any significant differences among hedonic or utilitarian shopping motivations.