High skills,high growth: Is tourism an exception?

Despite the emphasis placed by growth models on technological progress, recent empirical evidence shows that tourism, a sector widely regarded as low-skill/low-tech and one of the fastest growing industries in the world, may offer a favorable strategy for growth. In addition, in this tourism-led growth literature it is not clear whether human capital plays a role. Using a panel of 72 countries (1980–2005) this study shed new light on the effect of tourism and human capital for economic growth. While our results confirm that the tourism sector indicator is always positive and significant in growth regressions they also show that increased education contributes to growth and that the role of the tourism sector is significantly larger in countries with higher aggregate levels of human capital. Our main results are robust to the inclusion of additional variables, the use of alternative estimators in the regression analysis and the use of different sub-samples. Overall, our results suggest that an increase in human capital endowments is always beneficial, even when the development strategy focuses on the expansion of a (successful) unskilled sector.     

Business Ethics in Canada: Distinctiveness and Directions

This article examines the pressures and players that have shaped business ethics in Canadian corporations, and reports on the status of Canadian corporate social performance in 1995. Business in Canada has not been subject, up to 1996, to a powerful national institutional framework such as the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Consequently, business ethics in Canada have developed primarily in response to broader socio-political and socio-economic factors than in the US, and will probably continue to do so. Interestingly, the issues, policies and practices developed in Canada may provide insights for US corporations as they respond to broadened pressures. Business ethics in Canada, on the other hand, will benefit increasingly from the US experience as pressures grow for national regulation and statutes governing corruption.     

The Concept of “Consumption Corridors” Meets Society: How an Idea for Fundamental Changes in Consumption is Received

Journal of Consumer Policy - The concept of consumption corridors is a concept to guide policy design and policy-making. It suggests applying good life and justice as the primary...     

Store and store format loyalty measures based on budget allocation

In highly competitive environments, such as retail markets, characterized by a growing heterogeneity of demand and the proliferation of new retail formats, cross-shopping behavior between stores and formats is becoming increasingly common. This process makes customer loyalty a key strategic challenge for retailers that want to consolidate their position within the market. To contribute to the analysis and comprehension of this reality, the authors propose and assess different objective indicators of store loyalty, store format loyalty, and intra-format store loyalty based on budget allocation. Specifically, they analyze the role of retail format in observable loyalty patterns in a market. Through an empirical analysis of grocery purchase patterns of a sample of 580 Spanish households, the authors find that diverse objective loyalty indicators based on budget allocations provide very similar information from a practical point of view. They also find that consumers' regular use of various formats (specifically, supermarkets, hypermarkets, and discount stores) for their purchases explain observed disloyalty better than does purchasing in several stores within these formats. The observed patterns reveal that retail formats define differentiated store profiles that relate to the benefits sought in different purchase situations.     

E-service innovation: combining directed and practice-based approaches

This paper aims to contribute to the service innovation literature by analyzing the different phases of e-service innovation in relation to the dichotomic model of practice-based versus directed innovation. In detail, using the case study method, the study investigates the innovation process of an e-service initiative developed by one of the largest universities in Italy and a banking group during the idea generation, design and implementation steps. The study advances service theory by detailing the integration of existing perspectives on service innovation and revealing the coexistence of directed innovation and practice-based changes. Finally, based on the results of this exploratory study, the paper concludes with research propositions.     

Do Agglomeration and Technology Affect Vertical Integration? Evidence from Italian Business Groups

The aim of this paper is to analyse the role of technology and spatial agglomeration in decisions about vertical integration. It starts from the hypothesis that the business group, defined as a set of firms under common ownership and control, is the appropriate unit to delimit the firm’s boundary. We use information drawn from input–output tables to detect the presence of positive inter‐industry exchanges and whether or not activities in a group are vertically related. Accounting for endogeneity problems, we estimate Probit and Linear Probability models to investigate the role of technology and spatial agglomeration on vertical integration decisions empirically. Consistent with property rights theory, our results show that the technology intensity of acquirers matters for backward integration choices and, moreover, that agglomeration plays a role in vertical integration only when it operates jointly with technology.     

电商采纳与农民合作社内部信任

电商采纳使合作社被嵌入进新资源与技术环境之中。在电商情境下,合作社电商采纳通过提升社员与合作社交易忠诚度、增多社员与合作社交易环节来增强合作社内部人际信任;通过增强社员对信息技术的信任、促进合作社推广新型农业技术来增强合作社内部技术信任;通过促进合作社完善制度建设、建立公平机制来增强合作社制度信任。人际信任、技术信任和制度信任构成了合作社稳定的信任"三角架构",建构了合作社内部信任的混合治理机制,其中,技术信任起到调节作用,其在有效促进人际信任向制度信任转化的同时,既能避免人际信任浓度被过分稀释,又能保障在合作社信任结构中制度信任的演进方向。     

The impact of formal processes for market information acquisition and utilization on the performance of Chinese new ventures

The authors examine the performance impact of formal market information processes. Specifically, a theoretical model is developed that hypothesizes that formal processes for market information acquisition and utilization have direct and positive main effects on new venture success and is then tested using a sample of 222 new ventures located in China. Findings indicate that new venture success is positively correlated with the use of formal processes for market information acquisition and use. Moreover, the relative importance of formal processes to the acquisition and use of market information depends on whether the new venture serves an emerging or established market. In particular, the impact of formal processes for information acquisition is higher among new ventures that serve emerging markets. In contrast, the impact of formal processes for information use is higher among new ventures that serve established markets. We present managerial implications of our results. For example, a new venture with a strong market orientation can respond quickly to emerging marketplace needs, and can even seize the advantage from incumbents. If it is in an emerging market, however, the new venture management team should strive to excel at information acquisition; in an established market, it is important for the management team to excel at information utilization.