Book Reviews

This paper explores the ways in which tourism development has resulted in new and competing forms of territoriality in the Peruvian Andes. In a predominantly subsistence economy, the income opportunities offered by tourism have intensified conflicts relating to territorial control. Analysis focuses on a dispute between the direction of the Lake Titicaca National Reserve and the Uros, an indigenous group living within the Reserve. Both have attempted to enforce their authority over the Reserve’s territory in order to control tourism flows and revenues. The Uros strive for the establishment of their own Communal Reserve, creating a new territorial division based on ethnic criteria. The elaboration of contradicting tourism use plans has created multiple normative frameworks used by both parties to support their claims for authority over the contested territory.     

E-Shopping Patterns of Chinese and US Millennials

A conceptually based taxonomy of 22 distinct forms of e-shopping vehicles is proposed. A modification of the UTAUT and UTAUT2 models is introduced to explain how vehicles are interrelated in regard to consumer reliance upon them for their e-purchasing. A survey of over 1,000 millennial university students, 697 Chinese and 306 US, revealed strong support in both samples for the hypothesized six dimensional pattern underlying consumer vehicular reliance. Further, differences between Chinese and US samples lay not in the nature of the dimensions, but rather in the strength of reliance upon each dimension. Thus, the study demonstrates the utility of the concept/measure of shopper vehicular reliance, VPR (Vehicle Purchasing Reliance) for both practitioners and scientists. In cross-national comparisons, observed differences between samples in strength of reliance supported four of five hypotheses predicated on previously established national distinctions a) in trust and b) in the cultural value of individualism-collectivism.     

An evaluation of the red-light camera programme in the city of Dammam,the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

This study evaluated the effectiveness of red-light cameras in Dammam, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Two methods were used to assess changes in crash risk at the intersections at which the red-light camera programme had been operating. Geospatial analysis was used to visualize trends in road crash density over the geographical region of Dammam and a pre--post-camera crash analysis was undertaken. The distribution of injury crashes was greater than that of crashes which included property damage, the latter of which was concentrated around central Dammam. The five red-light cameras installed in 2012 were located outside areas of high-crash and injury density, and the total number of crashes reported in the three-month periods after installation was double that before the cameras were installed. This increase in the number of crashes also occurred at the five comparison sites (without red-light cameras), indicating a null effect. The findings from this study are contrary to previous evaluations of speed management programmes associated with red-light cameras. The study highlights the challenges in obtaining data for such research and illustrates that a reliance on overt, fixed camera's to manage speed is unlikely to deliver significant reductions in road trauma.     

Transaction services and SME internationalization: The effect of home and host country bank relationships on international investment and growth

Building on the argument put forward by North and Wallis (1994) that the transaction sector enables economic growth by lowering the costs of transacting, we investigate how internationalizing firms’ host and home country bank relationships affect their international specific investments and growth. Banks provide payment, liquidity, and risk management services, which are essential to international business relationships, yet little is known about how banks affect international business relationships. In a sample of 255 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), we find that host and home country bank relationships affect the dependent variables differently. We contribute to the literature by explicating the role and effects of banks in international business relationships. Our findings have implications for understanding transaction services in international business as well as the choices made by their customers.     

Does food advertising influence children’s food choices? A critical review of some of the recent literature

Food advertising to children is an issue that is at the centre of debate and the purpose of this paper is to critically examine the claims and the evidence. Several issues are examined: the child’s understanding of advertising, the content of advertising to children; food choices in families, children’s food choice and behaviour, and the effect of advertising on food choice. Major conclusions are the following: that children understand the function of advertising from the age of 8–9 years, although there are limitations on how effectively they apply this knowledge; that the content of advertising to children has remained relatively unchanged for 25 years; that children play an active role in food choice in families; that children’s dietary preferences and habits are well-established before advertising is understood; and that advertising’s role in children’s food choices and preferences is multi-factorial and complex.