A Study on the Travel Patterns of Physically Disabled People

The main objective of this paper is to highlight the travel patterns and experiences of people with a physical disability. To understand better the travel needs of people with a physical disability, it is useful to examine how travel patterns differ across demographic variables. The method chosen for the empirical data collection was a self-completed web-based questionnaire, which was answered by a total of 596 physically disabled people. The data obtained were evaluated using frequency, percentage, arithmetic average, t-test, chi-square and factor analysis. The research findings reveal that people with physical disability in different demographics groups differ in their travel patterns.     

Halal tourism: travel motivators and customer retention

This research was designed to identify halal-friendly travel motivation factors and unearth their role in Muslim customer retention process in Korea. Qualitative and quantitative procedures were used to achieve research objectives. A comprehensive structural model was developed to distinguish the role of all proposed indicators. Our results revealed that halal-friendly travel motivations are significantly associated with customer return on investment and satisfaction, and that such relationships contribute to improving customer retention. The effectiveness of higher-order structure of halal-friendly travel motivations was demonstrated. The formation of Muslim customers’ post-purchase decisions was significantly moderated by the sense of belonging to a tourist destination.     

International franchising decision-making: An application of stakeholder theory

Stakeholder theory is used to provide a frame of reference to examine the decision-making process involved in international franchising agreements. An international hotel group was selected as a case. Previous studies focus on investigations of the franchising process after the decision to engage has been taken and contracts duly exchanged. The analysis presented here focuses on the pre-contracting level: on selection and recruitment. The findings emphasise the importance of managing business cultural incompatibility between potential partners and the franchisor and within the franchising company itself.     

Performance implications of capital structure: evidence from quoted UK organisations with hotel interests

The objective of this article is to foster research on the relationship between capital structure and corporate performance with hotel companies. Using data collected from 43 UK quoted organisations which possess an interest in owning and managing hotels, Modigliani and Miller's (1958 Modigliani, F and Miller, MH. 1958. The Cost of Capital, Corporation Finance and the Theory of Investment. American Economic Review, 48(No.3): pp.261–97 [Google Scholar]) capital structure irrelevancy theorem is tested. Empirical analysis revealed no significant relationship between the level of debt found in the capital structure and financial performance. These results are consistent with Modigliani and Miller's theorem. Results also highlight that low levels of returns on equity are a feature of the sample. This latter point appears to an important issue for hotel investment, as hotel companies are continually looking to raise external finance to fund expansion. The findings of the study suggest that Chief Financial Officers of the sample organisations need to identify novel ways of expanding the business without increasing the levels of debt. The article concludes by providing examples of how some Chief Financial Officers are responding to the challenges of capital structure.     

Exploring the relationship between the human resource management practices and growth in small service firms

This paper seeks to evaluate the relationship between the growth and the human resource management (HRM) practices of small service firms in catering to professional services and the retailing sectors in the UK. The paper reports and analyses the findings of 196 face-to-face structured interviews with small service business owners. Findings suggest that employee empowerment contributes to the sales growth of small firms in the different sectors of the service industry. The study also shows that employee training and recruitment through formal channels contribute to the sales growth of firms operating in the catering sector. This paper argues that contextual variables – the extent of the competition and the availability of the workforce – have a bearing on the HRM practices employed by small service businesses.     

The export-output growth nexus in Japan: a bootstrap rolling window approach

The purpose of this article is to examine the export–output nexus in Japan by taking into account the time variation in the causal link with bootstrap Granger non-causality test and rolling estimation. The data used cover the seasonally adjusted real export and real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the 1957:1–2009:1 period. Standard Granger causality tests indicate no causality between export and real GDP series. On the contrary, full sample-modified Granger causality tests based on bootstrap, which are applicable irrespective of integration–cointegration properties of the data, indicate a bi-directional causal link between exports and real GDP. Accordingly, export growth should be an important factor behind Japan’s high-economic growth in the last three decades. Using parameter stability tests, we show that these results are not uniform for different sample periods and results vary due to structural changes. Using bootstrap rolling window estimation, we find that there is a positive bi-directional predictive power from the mid 1970s to the late-1980s between the series, while from the late 1990s to 2009 there is a positive predictive power only from export growth to output growth.     

Switching costs and screening efficiency of incomplete contracts

We study the role of switching costs in a dynamic buyer-seller relationship where quality is not contractible and the sellers retain private information about their quality-relevant abilities. In this environment buyer switching costs increase the seller's bargaining power in negotiations for the second contract, but they also induce the seller to improve quality during the first ontract, in signalling his type. The overall effect is to enhance efficiency and ncrease the buyer's welfare. This beneficial effect stems from the link between quality, the buyer's posterior beliefs, and ex post distribution of bargaining power as a function of the switching cost. JEL Classification: L14
L'auteur étudie le rôle des coûts de commutation dans une relation dynamique acheteur-vendeur où la qualité de la prestation ne peut être partie du contrat, et où les vendeurs peuvent rationner l'information quant à leurs compétences à livrer un produit de qualité. Dans ce contexte, les coûts de commutation de l'acheteur accroissent le pouvoir de marchandage du vendeur dans la négociation du second contrat, mais ils peuvent aussi inciter le vendeur à améliorer la qualité au cours du premier contrat pour signaler ses compétences à l'acheteur. L'effet global est d'améliorer l'efficacité et d'accroître le bien-être de l'acheteur. Cet effet bénéfique émerge du lien entre la qualité, les croyances de l'acheteur a posteriori, et la répartition du pouvoir de négociation ex post en tant que fonction des coûts de commutation.     

Sustainable reputations with rating systems

In a product choice game played between a long lived seller and an infinite sequence of buyers, we assume that buyers cannot observe past signals. To facilitate the analysis of applications such as online auctions (e.g. eBay), online shopping search engines (e.g. BizRate.com) and consumer reports, we assume that a central mechanism observes all past signals, and makes public announcements every period. The set of announcements and the mapping from observed signals to the set of announcements is called a rating system. We show that, absent reputation effects, information censoring cannot improve attainable payoffs. However, if there is an initial probability that the seller is a commitment type that plays a particular strategy every period, then there exists a finite rating system and an equilibrium of the resulting game such that, the expected present discounted payoff of the seller is almost his Stackelberg payoff after every history. This is in contrast to Cripps, Mailath and Samuelson (2004) [5], where it is shown that reputation effects do not last forever in such games if buyers can observe all past signals. We also construct finite rating systems that increase payoffs of almost all buyers, while decreasing the seller?s payoff.     

Law Enforcement and Legal Presumptions

We compare two alternative legal presumptions, one more pro-defendant than the other, with the objective of reducing bureaucratic corruption to any target level at minimum social costs, broadly defined to include law enforcement costs, trial costs, and verdict error costs. In the absence of collusion possibilities between law enforcers and offenders, presumption of innocence involves lower social costs for low corruption targets while presumption of guilt has a cost advantage for high corruption targets. Allowing for collusion enlarges the corruption range over which the presumed innocence rule will dominate. However, there are two possible exceptions to this outcome, namely, if the government's law enforcement budget is limited and if the offenders can be penalized only up to a maximum permissible limit. In each of these cases, presumption of guilt may become the cost-effective rule. J. Comp. Econ., December 2001, 29(4), pp. 722–748. Bilkent University, Bilkent 06533, Ankara, Turkey; and Department of Economics and Finance, Birkbeck College, University of London, 7-15 Gresse Street, London W1T 1LL, United Kingdom. © 2001 Elsevier ScienceJournal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: D73, D78, K41, K42.     

An exploratory study of characteristics and attributes of Turkish entrepreneurs: A cross-country comparison to Irish entrepreneurs

There has been limited research on entrepreneurship in Turkey. Given the fact that globalization has rapidly been increasing, that foreign direct investment is spreading throughout the world, and that more and more foreign investors are seeking partners in emergent markets such as Turkey. One important reason for the interest in Turkish entrepreneurs is because they have many characteristics that are similar to entrepreneurs in Western markets. Even if there are many differences between Western entrepreneurs and Turkish entrepreneurs, it would be valuable to compare the characteristics of Turkish entrepreneurs with others. Moreover, a few cross-cultural studies have examined the similarities among entrepreneurs in various nations. Ireland and Turkey have many striking similarities despite varying cultural backgrounds. Hence, this empirical research was undertaken to investigate the characteristics and attributes of Turkish entrepreneurs and compare them to Irish entrepreneurs. The research design in this study focused on 161 Turkish entrepreneurs who were randomly selected from a list (obtained from local Chamber of Commerce) and interviewed using a structured questionnaire. The questions assessed relevant areas, such as demographic and business information, motivations, entrepreneurial characteristics, business problems, personality characteristics, and management skills. Information on the Irish entrepreneurs was incorporated from a published study. Overall, in terms of entrepreneurial characteristics, Turkish entrepreneurs displayed surprisingly similar characteristics to the Irish. The implications of this study are discussed along with some recommendations.