Impact of star and movie buzz on motion picture distribution and box office revenue

This study contributes to research on the impact that consumer buzz has on movie distribution and box office success by examining the impact of buzz generated about the individual stars and about the movie itself. The results indicate that movie buzz is instrumental in boosting box office revenue throughout the theatrical release, not just in the later run, as has been suggested in previous studies. Star buzz can enhance box office receipts during the opening week and can contribute to the public's anticipation of the movie pre-release. However, early buzz can have a negative impact on revenue during subsequent weeks if the movie fails to resonate with the audiences. Model simulations reveal that, even for poorly received films, the overall impact of star buzz is positive because the initial revenue boost normally outweighs the later decline. Thus, this study empirically demonstrates the positive impact of star buzz on revenue, which helps shed light on the long-standing debate regarding the importance of star participation in the success of a movie.     

Injury count model for quantification of risk of occupational injury

Reduction of risk of occupational injuries is one of the most challenging problems faced by industry. Assessing and comparing risks involved in different jobs is one of the important steps towards reducing injury risk. In this study, a comprehensive scheme is given for assessing and comparing injury risks with the development of injury count model, injury risk model and derived statistics. The hazards present in a work system and the nature of the job carried out by workers are perceived as important drivers of injury potential of a work system. A loglinear model is used to quantify injury counts and the event-tree approach with joint, marginal and conditional probabilities is used to quantify injury risk. A case study was carried out in an underground coal mine. Finally a number of indices are proposed for the case study mine to capture risk of injury in different jobs. The findings of this study will help in designing injury intervention strategies for the mine studied. The job-wise risk profiles will be used to prioritise the jobs for redesign. The absolute indices can be applied for benchmarking job-wise risks and the relative indices can be used for comparing job-wise risks across work systems.     

Boosting the Employment Rate of Older Men and Women

European countries need to expand employment among older individuals. Many papers have examined this issue from different angles. However, very few seem to have considered its gender dimension properly, despite evidence that lifting the overall senior employment rate requires significantly raising that of women older than 50. The key issue examined by this paper is whether employers are willing to employ more older workers, in particular older women. The answer depends to a large extent on the ratio of older individuals’ productivity to their cost to employers. To address this question we tap into a unique firm-level panel of Belgian data to produce robust evidence on the causal effect of age/gender on productivity and labour costs. We take advantage of the panel structure to identify age/gender-related differences from within-firm variation. Moreover, inspired by recent developments in the production function estimation literature, we address the problem of endogeneity of the age/gender mix, using a structural production function estimator (Olley and Pakes in Econometrica 64(6):1263–1297, 1996; Levinsohn and Petrin in Rev Econ Stud 70(2):317–341, 2003) alongside IV-GMM methods where lagged value of labour inputs are used as instruments. Our results indicate a small negative impact of larger shares of older men on the productivity-labour cost ratio. An increment of 10%-points of in their share causes a 0.17–0.69%-point contraction. However, the main result is that the equivalent handicap with older women is larger, ranging from 1.3 to 2.0%-points. This is not good news for older women’s employability. And the vast services industry does not seem to offer working conditions that mitigate older women’s disadvantage, on the contrary.     

Spirituality and corporate social responsibility: an empirical narrative from the Balinese tourism industry

The emerging body of knowledge has indicated the positive relationship between spirituality and corporate social responsibility (CSR), yet our understanding of how spirituality can play a role in CSR in general, and in tourism in particular, remains limited. This research takes a qualitative case study approach to the role of spirituality-inspired CSR by providing an empirical investigation of tourism businesses in Bali, Indonesia, where the Hindu based Tri Hita Karana philosophy drives its cultural identity. A total of 20 qualitative interviews and two focus groups were conducted with Bali tourism stakeholders including businesses, government, community and NGOs. The findings show that spirituality plays an important role in CSR in Balinese tourism in three dimensions, namely (1) as a key element of the broader social and cultural context to create a conducive external environment for CSR; (2) as a CSR driver to inspire business leaders; and (3) as a complement to CSR governance, though with limitations. This research contributes to the literature by providing an empirical narrative that demonstrates strong multi-layered links between spirituality and CSR and the implications for tourism destinations in spirituality-oriented cultures.     

The Price-Quality Relationship—Revisited

Using price data collected in Indianapolis and Lafayette, Indiana, rank order correlations between price and quality were computed. These were compared to correlations based on price data obtained from the publications of consumer product testing organizations. It was found that price-quality correlations based on the price data furnished by consumer product testing organizations may not reflect price-quality correlations for specific markets. A second finding of the study suggests the existence of variability across store types with respect to price-quality correlations.     

Types and Amounts of Information Used by Efficient Consumers

This paper describes a research methodology which assesses the efficiency of consumer decision-making based on the types and amounts of informational cues used. A simple operational method is used to classify consumers into three levels of consumer efficiency based on how well they perform in assessing the optimal choice. The information chosen by perfectly efficient consumers, or those scoring at the maximum level of efficiency, is examined for indicators of optimal information seeking and decision-making techniques.     

Book of Intdernational Economics Affairs: MULTINATIONAL ENTERPRISES — A CONTINUING SAGA

AMERICAN MULTINATIONALS AND AMERICAN INTERESTS, by C. Fred Bergsten, Thomas Horst and Theodore H. Moran ALTERNATIVES TO THE MULTINATIONAL ENTERPRISE, by Mark Casson THE ECONOMICS OF MULTINATIONAL ENTERPRISE, by Neil Hood and Stephen Young     

The economic and poverty impacts of maize research in West and Central Africa

This article assembles the results of three multicountry surveys on variety performance and adoption patterns to measure the impacts of maize research in West and Central Africa from 1981 to 2005, and uses cost data since 1971 to compute social rates of return on public investments in maize research in the region. Adoption of modern varieties increased from less than 5% of the maize area in the 1970s to about 60% in 2005, yielding an aggregate rate of return on research and development (R&D) investment of 43%. The estimated number of people moved out of poverty through adoption of new maize varieties rose gradually in the 1980s to more than one million people per year since the mid 1990s. Over half of these impacts can be attributed to international maize research at IITA and CIMMYT. The article concludes with a discussion of strategic options to enhance the impacts of maize research in the region.