IT'S A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL: INTERNET ACCESS AND INSTITUTIONAL QUALITY

Using a panel of up to 114 countries covering the years 1990 through 2010, we estimate the effect of Internet use on changes in countries' Economic Freedom of the World (EFW) scores. The point estimates suggest that the marginal effect is generally positive. However, starting from above‐average EFW scores (>7.7 out of 10; examples in 2010 include the UK, Switzerland, and Hong Kong) the marginal effect turns negative. Taking this interaction into account, the marginal effect is positive and statistically significant for countries starting at initial EFW scores of around 6 or less. Examples of countries with 2010 EFW scores near this threshold include China, Nigeria, and Pakistan. We discuss mechanisms that potentially generate this conditional relationship between Internet use and institutional change. (JEL O10, O43, P48)     

Valuing Core Deposits

While the financial crisis has brought to the fore valuation of bank assets, equally important to a bank’s long-term health is the quality of its deposits. This paper employs bank-specific data on total and retained balances to value so-called core deposits: checking and savings and money market accounts. The empirical results indicate that core deposits have considerable value to financial institutions, often dramatically more than regulators have allowed. The empirical results also indicate that the value of core deposits varies substantially by institution. For some institutions the value of core deposits approaches the total value of the institution. I am grateful to Rob Battalio, Tom Cosimano, Dave Hutchison, Bill McGuire and seminar participants at the University of Notre Dame for their comments on earlier drafts. I am particularly grateful to an anonymous referee whose suggestions substantially improved the paper. Any remaining limitations are entirely my responsibility.     

Trade Associations: An Appropriate Channel for Developing Sustainable Practice in SMEs?

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), particularly the micro-enterprise, dominate the tourism industry numerically, and play a key role in delivering quality experiences to the tourist. Yet research by Hillary (2000) suggested that SMEs from all the economic sectors are responsible for around 70% of total industrial pollution. Strategic papers for the tourism sector in the United Kingdom refer to the promotion of emerging trade association activity in influencing SMEs' environmental behaviour. This paper examines the results of a postal survey of United Kingdom trade associations to assess their role in developing sustainable practice amongst SME tourism businesses. Responses from 17 national trade associations with a tourism-related membership coverage of around 12,500 SMEs suggested that only a small minority regarded meeting environmental criteria or signing up to an environmental code of conduct as compulsory requirements of membership, whereas there was more activity for different types of voluntary initiative, often through the aid of partnerships. Overall, there was less leadership from trade associations than was seemingly portrayed in the strategic documents.     

A Balanced Scorecard for State U's Facilities Management Division?*

This case introduces students to building and implementing a balanced scorecard (BSC) in a setting with which they are familiar — cleaning, maintenance, management, and construction of a university's buildings and grounds. Students are asked to construct or critique a BSC for the facilities management division of a university. This may lead to a discussion of the causal linkages implied in the BSC and how one would implement a BSC in a governmental setting.     

The Coffee Pot: A management control exercise

Managers use management control systems to actively steer their organizations towards strategic success. The Coffee Pot is a short, in-class exercise that provides a hands-on opportunity for students to diagnose and solve an organization’s management control issues using Simons’ Levers of Control Framework. The exercise features a chain of coffee shops, a business most students should be familiar with, and asks students to discuss why the new CEO is having trouble improving her firm’s performance, even after she has introduced a winning strategy.     

A comparison of national and international aggregate supply and demand var models: The United States,Japan and the European economic community

Zusammenfassung Ein Vergleich von nationalen und internationalen VAR-Modellen mit Angebots- und Nachfrageaggregaten: USA, Japan und Europ?ische Wirtschaftsgemeinschaft. - Es wird gezeigt, da\ für nationale Volkswirtschaften und auch für supranationale Gebilde vektorautoregressive Modelle konstruiert werden k?nnen, die Ergebnisse liefern, welche mit einem theoretischen Rahmen für Aggregate des Angebots und der Nachfrage in Einklang stehen. Energiepreise sind in allen Modellen einigerma\en wichtig, aber Geldangebot und Zinsen sind in dem EWG-Modell ziemlich unbedeutend. Natürlich kann dieses Ergebnis auf die Unterschiede zwischen der EWG, den USA und Japan zurückzuführen sein oder auf die Aggregation innerhalb des EWG-Modells. Trotzdem stimmt dieses Ergebnis mit den theoretischen Erwartungen überein, wonach alle Volkswirtschaften gemeinsamen weltweiten Angebotsschocks gegenüberstehen, aber - bei manipulierten floatenden Wechselkursen - eine gewisse monet?re Unabh?ngigkeit besitzen.

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Resumen Comparación de modelos autoregresivos de oferta y demanda agregada nacionales e internacionales: EE.UU., Japón y la Comunidad Económica Europea. - Se demuestra que los modelos VAR pueden ser construidos para economias tanto nacionales como supranacionales con resultados consistentes con el marco teórico de oferta y demanda agregadas. Los precios de energia tienen una cierta importancia en todos los modelos; la oferta monetaria y las tasas de interés no son importantes en el modelo para la CEE. Sin embargo, este resultado es consistente con expectativas teóricas segiín las cuales todas las economias enfrentan shocks de oferta globales comunes, pero disponen de un cierto grado de independencia monetaria en el marco de una flotatión administrada del tipo de cambio.

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Résumé Une comparaison entre des modéles VAR nationaux et internationaux d’offre et demande agrégée: les E.U., le Japon et la CEE. - Les auteurs demontrent que les modéles vecteurautorégressifs peuvent etre construits pour des économies nationales aussi bien que supranationales et que ces modeles produisent des résultats qui s’accordent avec le cadre théorique de l’offre et de la demande agrégée. Les prix d’énérgie sont importants dans tous les modéles jusqu’a un certain point, mais la masse monétaire et les taux d’ interet sont moins importants dans le modéle CEE. Naturellement, ce résultat peut etre expliqué par les différences entre la CEE et les E.U. et le Japon ou par l’agrégation dans le modéle CEE. Cependant, ce résultat est consistant avec des expectatives théoriques car toutes les économies sont confrontees avec des chocs d’offre communs globaux mais disposent de quelque independance monétaire grace au systéme de changes flottants dirigés.

     

The demand for Mi’kmaw cultural tourism: Tourist perspectives

This paper examines survey findings of tourist interest in Mi’kmaw cultural tourism in Nova Scotia. The results indicate a high interest in Mi’kmaw cultural tourism activities even though most tourists had not participated in Aboriginal tourism before. Further results indicate that tourists’ age, education and place of origin influence their level of interest in particular Mi’kmaw cultural tourism activities. Older tourists had lower interest in activities that required more time and physical activity whereas more-educated tourists had higher interest in participating in particular Mi’kmaw cultural tourism activities. Also, international tourists had the greatest interest in Mi’kmaw cultural tourism, especially activities that involved greater contact with the Mi’kmaw hosts.     

The Roles of Justice and Customer Satisfaction in Customer Retention: A Lesson from Service Recovery

Customers complain because they want to be treated fairly by the company when a service failure occurs. The role of perceived complaint justice and its relation to customer satisfaction has been discussed and researched. However, a static view is mostly adopted in previous literature. We argue that satisfaction is cumulative and both prior satisfaction and post-recovery satisfaction should be looked at in relation to complaint justice in the context of service recovery. This study attempts to fill the gap by investigating the mediating role of justice in the relationship between prior satisfaction and post-recovery satisfaction (both with the recovery and with the organization) and examining the mediating role of post-recovery satisfaction in the relationship between the dimensions of justice and customer retention. Hypotheses were tested using a sample of 200 customers that had service failure experience at Chinese restaurants in Hong Kong. Justice dimensions (distributive justice, procedural justice, and interactional justice) were found to fully mediate the relationship between prior satisfaction and satisfaction with recovery. All dimensions, except the interactional justice, were also found to be partial mediators in the relationship between prior satisfaction and post-recovery satisfaction with organization. Findings also revealed the mediating roles of two post-recovery satisfaction variables in transferring the justice dimensions into behavioral intention, with the two variables playing almost opposite roles. Discussion and recommendations are provided for future development and improvement in building long-term relationship with customers.     

Participant sport in the commercial sector

This article examines the ways in which climbers negotiate their leisure activity within a social context. It is suggested that the wider social context is one of rationalized society, whereby efficiency and growth have become ends in themselves. Although climbing is depicted as a ‘free area’ in which climbers attempt to achieve a relative freedom from this society, the encroachment of rationalized society into the activity means that climbers find themselves both divided and besieged. The response of a group of traditional climbers in Australia has been to develop some symbolic behaviours that signify resistance to mainstream society. However, these behaviours have themselves become rigid and oppressive, and their chief protagonists as alienating as the rationalized society that they wish to resist. Whether this society emerges as a ‘metaphor of resistance’ or as a ‘metanarrative of oppression’ is dependant upon its members retaining their capacity as moral subjects, rather than existing in unquestioning obedience to these rules.