Multiple stakeholders and middle managers: the role of the hotel financial controller

This article explores the key characteristics of the specific stakeholders for one type of middle manager, the hotel financial controller. Eleven semi-structured interviews among financial personnel showed that although some owners require on-going profits and have high expectations of middle managers, others may take a more long-term view and be less demanding. Head offices provide systems and services for the unit, but a lack of efficiency and strategic planning affects the ability of managers to do their job. The middle manager must take a proactive intrapreneurial approach in communicating and implementing corporate strategic decisions within the unit and in managing the multiple stakeholders, but in return requires more guidance, resources and support from senior management.     

Do You See What I See? A Simulation Analysis of Order Bundling within a Transparent User Network in Geographic Space

The Physical Internet (PI) concept presents a radical change with the aim to revert the unsustainable practices that are used for transporting goods. It identifies dedicated freight flows and transforms them into transparent open logistics networks which can be accessed by other users, such as shippers and carriers. In this paper, we test the universal network openness in which the users can tap into the PI network and place orders that will be assigned to the nearest available transport service and consequently delivered to the order sender. The objective of our paper is to investigate the impact of inserting extra service points into existing dedicated freight flows of a service‐driven company. We simulate different transparency levels and routings to new pickup locations and evaluate the impact in terms of altered lead times, covered distances, and fill rates. The novel aspects presented herein are (1) deliveries based on decentralized location detection of the nearest order sender, (2) dynamically changing speed parameters of agents within specific geographic clusters based on their geo‐locations in order to account for congestion levels, (3) more realistic routing strategies that consider the urban layout, and (4) transparent querying of nearest agents in space and time that meet specific conditions such as current ongoing processes, available capacity, and position. Finally, we identify the impact from a general/holistic perspective that emerges once extra orders are assigned to the service‐driven company's fleet.     

Agricultural pricing policy in Kenya

This paper examines Kenya's agricultural pricing policy, its role in the development of key sectors of the agricultural economy during the 1970s and its impact on different classes of producers. Toward this end, the paper describes the process of agricultural price determination in Kenya, and examines trends in real producer price indices for selected crop groupings and by size of holding.The most important finding of the paper is that agricultural pricing policy has been used in Kenya to create incentives for the growth of marketed agricultural production. In addition, the paper shows that the Government of Kenya has also used pricing and marketing policy instruments to achieve its goal of promoting the agricultural development of smallholders, who constitute the dominant mode of agricultural production in Kenya. Significantly, these findings are contrary to the widely accepted notion that pricing policy in developing countries has uniformly been biased in favor of the urban sector and against agricultural producers.     

Employee Voice,Supervisor Support,and Engagement: The Mediating Role of Trust

Developing employee engagement has been one of the major areas of interest in the field of human resource management (HRM), and research identifies the positive effect that engagement has on both employee and organizational performance. However, while research on engagement has been substantial, there have been limited studies on key variables such as supervisor support, voice, and trust. We examined the role of supervisor support and direct voice on engagement experienced by nurses and the mediating role trust plays in those relationships. Data were collected though an online survey of 1,039 Australian nurses and analyzed using structural equation modeling. As hypothesized, results showed that both supervisor support and direct voice are positively associated with employee engagement, and these relationships are mediated by supervisory and senior management trust, respectively. The implications of the results for human resource (HR) practitioners are discussed and include the challenge of resourcing effective direct voice systems and enlisting the support of supervisors in order to impact on the engagement of nurses who are the “front line” of the health sector. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Residents’ opinions on gaming activities and the legalization of soccer betting

Many Asian countries have an active gaming industry yet limited published information about the industry's development, operation, impact, or resident opinions is available. The purposes of this study were to examine residents’ opinions on various forms of gaming and to identify factors influencing their support for legalized soccer betting. Telephone interviews were undertaken with 449 Hong Kong residents. Respondents’ opinions were divided on most gaming issues, including the recently announced authorization of soccer betting. Soccer betting's association with potential economic benefits was the strongest indicator of respondents’ support for its legalization. Soccer betting proponents were generally more supportive of all other forms of gaming activities.     

Divergence in Variety Seeking: An Exploratory Study Among International Travelers in Asia

ABSTRACT

Variety seeking is a tendency in consumer behavior in which the consumer alternates between different makes of the same item in the quest for diversity. Variety seeking and exploratory behaviors help explain tourists’ consumption behavior and choice-making methods. Some studies have focused on the choice of food, restaurants, theme parks, travel activities, or destinations, but only a few have taken place within an international context. In this study, the influence of variety seeking and exploratory buying on travelers’ consumption behavior within an international context is analyzed. In essence, Asian travelers are compared with Western travelers. Several factors, which help explain divergence in variety seeking, are included in the analysis. The results demonstrate that variety seeking and an exploratory tendency have a significant relationship with travelers’ consumption behavior (for both Asian and Western travelers). In general, customers who have a high tendency for variety seeking are less loyal; however, there is no discernible difference between Asian and Western tourists in this regard.     

Doing well by doing good: A quantitative investigation of the litter effect

Corporate social responsibility can prove challenging for traditional businesses as a profit-making agenda may well be in conflict with the wishes and expectations of other stakeholders. Nevertheless, if organizations can align the incentive of better business performance with beneficial outcomes on a wider social and/or environmental level, so called doing well by doing good, conflict ceases between the two aims. This paper investigates a particular global problem within the context of the fast-food industry. Discarded fast-food packaging is the fastest growing type of litter in many Western countries. The paper establishes, by using a quasi-experimental method (n = 1000), that multiple levels of a brand's evaluation are negatively affected when that brand's packaging is seen as litter. This paper also quantifies the financial impact of the litter effect on a company.     

Male Consumer Decision-Making Styles

The neglect of men in consumer decision-making research is lamentable given the clear evidence that they are an important shopping group and are likely to make shopping decisions differently from women. This study addresses the subject of male decision making using Sproles and Kendall's () Consumer Styles Inventory (CSI). All of the original eight traits and four new traits namely; store-loyal/low-price seeking, time-energy conserving, confused time-restricted and store-promiscuity were identified for men. The study also demonstrated the potential of the CSI for segmenting markets as meaningful and distinct groups of buyers with different decision-making styles were identified. The findings suggest that retailers should appeal to their buyers by improving the efficiency of the shopping process and value perceptions when dealing with male shoppers.     

An information-based theory of international currency

This paper develops an information-based theory of international currency based on search frictions, private trading histories, and imperfect recognizability of assets. Using an open-economy search model with multiple competing currencies, the value of each currency is determined without requiring agents to use a particular currency to purchase a country's goods. Strategic complementarities in portfolio choices and information acquisition decisions generate multiple equilibria with different types of payment arrangements. While some inflation can benefit the country issuing an international currency, the threat of losing international status puts an inflation discipline on the issuing country. When monetary authorities interact in a simple policy game, the temptation to inflate can lead optimal policy to deviate from the Friedman rule. The calibrated model can produce a welfare cost of losing international status for the issuing country larger than previous findings, though estimates depend critically on inflation rates and information costs.     

Asymmetrical reaction to US stock-return news: evidence from major stock markets based on a double-threshold model

This paper examines the hypothesis that both stock returns and volatility are asymmetrical functions of past information from the US market. By employing a double-threshold GARCH model to investigate six major index-return series, we find strong evidence supporting the asymmetrical hypothesis of stock returns. Specifically, negative news from the US market will cause a larger decline in a national stock return than an equal magnitude of good news. This holds true for the volatility series. The variance appears to be more volatile when bad news impacts the market than when good news does.