Ethical Decision-Making in Family Firms: The Role of Employee Identification

Journal of Business Ethics - The ethical behavior prevalent in an organization often determines business success or failure. Much research in the business context has scrutinized ethical behavior,...     

PUBLIC DECISION GUIDES FOR WATER RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT IN WESTERN CANADA1

The concern of the paper is public river basin development in Western Canada. It attempts to set forth public decision guides and objectives in development of water resource policy. Operational formulations that are useful in public natural resource development and management are considered. Cet article traîte du développement des bassins fluviaux publiques au Canada Ouest. Les auteurs tâchenl de formuler les indications ?opinion publique el les objectifs qui peuvent servir de guides pour arriver à une politique pour le développement des ressources ?eau. Les formulations opérationnelles qui sont utiles dans le développemenl et le ménagement des ressources nalurelles publiques sont aussi considérées.     

Inflation und Schuldenabbau

The European Central Bank (ECB) recently announced its willingness to do whatever is needed to save the euro. This has raised the question whether such a role of the ECB must lead to higher rates of infl ation. Under current recessive macroeconomic conditions in the eurozone, the ECB’s expansionary monetary policy will not lead to higher infl ation. On the contrary, there is a serious danger of defl ation. Higher infl ation would likely occur only if a permanent stabilisation function were assigned to the ECB. Yet historical examples show that mistakes can be made. During the stagnation in Japan, US economists heavily criticised the Bank of Japan’s timid monetary policy response. But in some sense, current Fed policy seems to be a direct copy of that strategy, caused by uncertainty about the proper communication channel. An infl ation tax could help to bring down the mounting public debt in the wake of the fi nancial crisis, but higher wealth taxes have more transparent distributional effects.     

Fertility and child mortality in Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana.

This article summarizes a 1994 World Bank working paper on methodological issues and a study of the determinants of child mortality and fertility in Ghana and the Cote d'Ivoire. Data were obtained from the 1985, 1986, and 1987 Cote d'Ivoire Living Standards Survey and the 1987-88 and 1988-89 Ghana Living Standards Survey. Both surveys entailed two-stage, self-weighted stratified samples. The study sample included women who had at least one birth 5 or more years before the survey. The conceptual framework distinguishes between endogenous and exogenous variables affecting fertility. The statistical approach relies on parallel reduced-form techniques. Model I assumes that all explanatory variables are exogenous. Model II excludes husbands' characteristics and household composition. Model III assumes that excluded model II factors are exogenous and likely to affect child mortality and fertility. Findings indicate that economic resources of households, maternal education, access to markets, and food prices were associated with child mortality in Ghana. Sanitation in both countries affected child survival only for less educated mothers. Urban residence in Ghana particularly benefitted uneducated mothers. In Cote d'Ivoire, household assets were not a significant predictor of child mortality. When child mortality is treated as exogenous in fertility model I, only 4-15 fewer child deaths were associated with a reduction of only one birth. Local health programs and environment explained little of the variation in child mortality in both countries. Women's education was strongly related to fertility declines in both countries. Assets and maternal health were positively related to fertility in Cote d'Ivoire and negatively related in Ghana. Findings suggest that the negative effects of household assets on fertility apply in urban subsamples among older women in each country. The authors conclude that economic growth must occur simultaneously with increased levels of female education and urbanization.     

The Contribution of Small and Medium Enterprises to Economic Development in Ukraine and Belarus: Some Policy Perspectives

The paper considers the development of small and medium enterprises (SME) in two transition economies where market reforms have been slow (Ukraine and Belarus), focusing specifically on the role of government in the process. Empirical data from a study on SMEs and economic development in Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova are used to consider the contribution of SMEs to different aspects of transformation whilst data from a second project are used to show the support needs of SMEs.Following the introduction, which summarises the aims and methodology, the second section presents brief profiles of the context for SME development in each country. Part 3 summarises some of the main empirical findings, focusing on those aspects that have potential policy significance, specifically with respect to employment, innovation, and market orientation, whilst the fourth section considers survey evidence of the support needs of SMEs. The final section draws out the main policy implications of the findings, whilst also setting out an agenda designed to increase the contribution of SMEs to economic development in the future.On the whole, the empirical results demonstrate that some SMEs have developed in Belarus and Ukraine despite the actions of governments, although the number of private enterprises per capita remains small and their qualitative characteristics often reflect the difficult operating conditions. As a result, their contribution to economic and social change is less than it could be, mainly due to an unstable environment and an institutional context that has yet to establish the framework conditions for sustainable private sector development. In terms of policy priorities, the survey data suggest that reform of the distorted legal and financial infrastructures that exist in these countries is the highest priority need.     

The influence of trust perceptions on German tourists’ intention to book a sustainable hotel: a new approach to analysing marketing information

ABSTRACT

This study examined the relationship between German tourists’ trust perceptions and their intention to book a sustainable hotel, pioneering a new quantitative approach to sustainable tourism marketing. Data came from 300 respondents who participated in an online survey. Respondents were given a digital brochure to read containing information about a “fictitious” three-star beach hotel in Portugal, before completing a questionnaire that measured inter alia their intention to book this sustainable hotel. Both individual “general trust” (perception of others’ trustworthiness) and “specific trust” towards the fictitious hotel in the brochure were measured. The survey also evaluated respondents’ perceptions about the usefulness of the information in the brochure. Multiple regression analysis of the data indicated that general trust, trusting the hotel and perceived usefulness of the brochure were positively and significantly related to booking intentions. An interaction between general trust and perceived usefulness was also observed. This means that the higher the perception rate about the brochure's usefulness, the higher general trust was for booking intentions and vice versa. The practical implications of the results suggest that tourists could be motivated to book a hotel if its sustainability attributes and amenities were communicated in a trust inspiring way in marketing material.     

The Future of Advertising or Whatever We're Going to Call It

In this opinion piece, the author speculates on the future of advertising. Arguing that the challenge of predicting the future lies mainly in the lack of an acceptable definition of the field, the author solves that problem by developing a set of postulates to create boundaries for the theory and practice of the discipline. The postulates of the present discipline are used as the base from which the future might evolve. Three scenarios are proposed for the future of advertising: (1) creeping incrementalism, (2) reversal of buyer/seller roles, and (3) reinvention of the field. The author suggests that those scenarios will develop and play out based on the developmental speed and acceptance of the various technologies identified.     

Discovering India's three levels of luxury consumption: An exploratory research to find a conceptual framework

Luxury marketing research has moved from functional product attributes to a ‘democratized’ view in emerging economies. This seems to be based on the development of interactive and digital communications. Luxury research studies have historically focused on the brand's and marketer's perspectives. Thus, little attention has been given to the consumer's view of what we consider to be the individual drivers, i.e., the ‘inner and outer self’ and how that impacts luxury consumption. This paper presents a framework of luxury and self, using concepts such as interdependent or outer, independent or inner, and a new concept of ‘digital self’. These appear as three levels of luxury consumption, i.e., conspicuous, individual, and interactive. The interdependent self is influenced by the external motives and leads to conspicuous luxury behavior. Individual self is affected by internal motives and thus influences individual luxury consumption. Digital self affects the networks of motive and relationships and thereby impacts interactive luxury consumption and behavior.     

Fostering entrepreneurship in distressed urban neighbourhoods

During the last decade entrepreneurship research has focused increasingly on spatial aspects of entrepreneurship. Many systematic studies have been conducted on the national or regional scale, although other geographical scales—cities and their single districts and neighbourhoods—have drawn less attention. In this context, the paper aims, firstly, at identifying spatial success factors of entrepreneurial activities and their promotion at the local scale. Secondly, the paper aims at contributing to the development of a conceptual frame at the interface of entrepreneurship research, urban and economic geography, and regional economics. Empirically, the paper draws on results from explorative case studies in two distressed urban areas.