Government bailouts and default risks of a duopoly: strong bank versus weak bank

A duopolistic loan market includes a strong bank without the problem of early closure that opts out of government bailouts and a weak bank with this problem that participates in the bailout programmes of distressed loan purchases and direct equity injections. A direct implication of our framework is that the strong bank’s equity will be priced as a standard call option, while the weak bank’s equity will be priced as a down-and-out call option. We find that an increase in either bailout (i.e. distressed loan purchases and direct equity injections) directly decreases the weak bank’s default risk but indirectly increases the strong bank’s default risk. Accordingly, either bailout contributes to banking stability since the indirect positive effect insufficiently offsets the direct negative effect, giving an overall negative response of default risks to an increase in either bailout. Higher competition by shifting to quasi-competition from collusion increases banking stability under either bailout. Our analysis suggests that competition is aligned with the regulatory objective of improving stability.     

The Determinants of Honeymoon Destination Choice—The Case of Taiwan

The purposes of this study were to identify the attributes that determine the attractiveness of a honeymoon destination and to determine the influential variables that affect the destination choice of honeymooners. The results indicated that “safety,” “excellent quality of accommodation,” and “reasonable travel cost” were the three most important attributes determining the attractiveness of a honeymoon destination. Significant differences in perceptions of destination attributes exist across groups of different sociodemographic and traveling characteristics of potential honeymooners. Two sociodemographic variables (i.e., age, monthly income), two traveling characteristics (i.e., length of trip, travel budget), and three destination attributes (i.e., “excellent quality of accommodation,” “nightlife entertainment,” “good place for shopping”) are the significant determinants for classifying Taiwanese potential honeymooners by their destination choices. The findings of this study provide useful information for destination marketers in their efforts to segment the target market precisely and develop promotion campaigns effectively.     

The Relationships Between Casino Quality,Image, Value,and Loyalty

This research builds on the idea that casino customers’ subjective, global judgments of service quality are shaped by experience of its specific attributes, and examines how casino customers form their evaluative attitudes toward the casino experience in the Macau context. Using the data collected from 525 Macau casino customers, we first identify four casino quality dimensions; namely, supporting facilities, staff service, diversity, and equitableness. We then test and validate a proposed model for the structural relationships between casino image (as a consequence of the four quality dimensions), value, and loyalty. In particular, value is shown to be a mediator of the relationship between image and loyalty from the perspective of casino customers. The results of our study can show Macau casino operators what constitutes customers’ casino experiences and aid them in enhancing their image, perceived value, and customer loyalty toward casinos.     

Bank Loan Supply in the Financial Crisis: Evidence from the Role of Political Connection

We investigate the changes in bank loan supply during the 2007–2008 financial crisis, with particular focus on the influence of political connections. We demonstrate that although political connections can help firms obtain lower loan rates during the precrisis period, such benefits disappear in the postcrisis period. Moreover, the loan acceptance ratio for politically connected firms is enhanced in the postcrisis period, especially for the politically connected firms with high risks. Evidence reveals that the focus of the benefits for politically connected firms is more likely to shift from the loan rate to the loan acceptance ratio during the postcrisis period.     

Corporate Governance,Product Market Competition,and the Wealth Effect of R&D Spending Changes

This article examines whether corporate governance and product market competition interact to affect the profitability of corporate research and development (R&D) investments. Firms announcing R&D spending changes experience positive and significant wealth effects, and these effects are mainly driven by good‐governance firms. Investors appear to view announcements of R&D spending changes undertaken by firms with stronger shareholder rights as evidence of value creation. Moreover, the favorable wealth effects are stronger for good‐governance firms in noncompetitive industries than in competitive industries, supporting the argument that good governance substitutes for product market competition.     

Position matters when we stand together: a linguistic perspective on composite brand extensions

Composite branding extensions, wherein two existing brands ally themselves to create a composite brand name and enter a different product category, have become a common way to introduce a new product. An important managerial issue is deciding how to position the two brand names within the expression to communicate this alliance to consumers. Drawing on linguistic theories, this research explores how consumers may interpret different composite brand expressions relative to the positions of the two brand names in the expressions. We find that the brand in the initial position of most expressions is perceived as more closely associated with, and more responsible for the extension product than the other brand in the alliance. This perceived responsibility is also influenced by the perceived relative brand strengths, or the marketing abilities of both brands.     

Culinary tourism strategic development: an Asia‐Pacific perspective

Many destinations view their food and cuisine as a market niche. Operating within the Asia‐Pacific perspective, this study analyzed the key success factors in culinary tourism based on resource‐based theory in seven benchmark countries to identify the structure of promotional strategic development in culinary tourism. The methodology primarily involved in‐depth interviews and document analyses. The results identified four key success factors: (i) identifying and effectively using culinary tourism resources; (ii) evaluating governmental principles for promoting culinary tourism; (iii) adopting marketing strategies to promote culinary cultural sectors; and (iv) constructing educational environment for culinary culture and tourism. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Place Attachment and Tourism Marketing: Investigating International Tourists in Singapore

The notion of place attachment has been evidenced impactful on enhancing the performance of tourism marketing. However, the theoretical development of place attachment characterizes obvious diversities. The current study integrates and reconfigures these diversities to propose the Strategic Management of Place Attachment model. According to the model, a comprehensive attachment‐nurturing foundation is constituted by holistic tourist experience, which contains emotional pleasure, cognitive stimulation, psychological growth, self‐expressiveness and communal awareness. Place attachment, nurtured upon such foundation, converts into a powerful driver of the tourist's revisit behavior. Noteworthy insights and implications are provided to put the notion of place attachment to best use for tourism marketing. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Group heterogeneity and the economic effect of farmer organisation participation: Empirical evidence from Taiwan

We explore the effects of different farmer organisations on smallholder farmers' economic performance. The average treatment effect of switching between different farmer organisations is examined. In addition, based on the premise that a higher level of social capital is accumulated through participation in multiple farmer organisations, we also investigate how the economic consequences of farmer organisation membership vary with the intensity of participation. Our conceptual model explicitly includes social capital to provide a micro-foundation and a theoretical justification for the linkage between farmer organisation participation and the economic outcome. This indicates that participating in different types of farmer organisations is beneficial for farm households only when the returns from social capital investment outweigh the time cost of participation. Our empirical results suggest that membership of farmer organisations that are more homogeneous in terms of member specialty and similarity in production and marketing activities results in a significant increase in farm sales revenue and net returns. This result supports the view that technological proximity accentuates knowledge spillovers within the farmer organisations, and thus leads to better economic outcomes. In line with the prediction of the theoretical model, the average treatment effect of participation is found to increase with the number of organisations that farmers belong to. Moreover, results from the quantile regression provide empirical evidence supporting increasing returns to social capital accumulated through participation in several farmer organisations.