Surface movement ground control by means of a GPS–GIS system

Despite the traffic increases at the World's airports, little works have been done on methodologies to improve vehicles and airplanes ground control. This may be leading to reduced safety. Here an integrated system is developed to help guarantee suitable separations of land vehicles and airplanes moving on the airport ground area It can also addressed issues of the optimal use of taxi and runways. The system is composed of global positioning systems hardware, checks on the position of land vehicles and airplanes on the ground in real time, and special-purpose geographical information systems software for the tracking of land vehicles and airplanes within different planning operations.     

College students’ consumer competence: a qualitative exploration

The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate college people's perception of the competence necessary to play the consumer role and of the different socialization agents and processes involved in their consumer learning. Perception of the meaning of consumer competence seems mostly based on characteristics associated to preventive behaviours. If, on the whole, the subjects think they are competent consumers, their perception of other consumers is much less favourable. The mother appears to remain the most influential socialization agent but the father seems to play an increasing role. Young people's consumer socialization process is mainly achieved through communication, observation, and by learning through trial and error. Some of them find that consumer education in high school was useful but boring, and some others didn’t remember having received this education. The need to study further the competence of young adults and to provide consumer education is discussed.     

Factors Associated with the Adoption and Use of Management Accounting Techniques in Developing Countries: The Case of Romania

The purpose of this article is to investigate and analyze through the lens of contingency theory the existence and use of management accounting techniques in Romanian entities, with an in‐depth consideration of the institutional factors characterizing the environment of this country. Using a sample of 109 respondents, we identify factors associated with the existence and use of management accounting techniques in a context where organizational practices are subject to variations, resource and training scarcity, and uncertainty. Our findings indicate that the most important factors are the type of capital and size. The adoption and use of management accounting techniques are mostly associated with the presence of foreign capital as a defining feature of the Romanian environment. However, we find limited statistical support for the importance of the environment and competition, factors usually related to the use of such techniques in other developing countries.     

Enhancing Corporate Accountability for Human Rights Violations: Is Extraterritoriality the Magic Potion?

The United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, resulting from the work of John Ruggie and his team, largely depend on state action and corporate good will for their implementation. One increasingly popular way for states to prevent and redress violations of human rights committed by companies outside their country of registration is to adopt measures with extraterritorial implications, some of which are presented in the article, or to assert direct extraterritorial jurisdiction in specific instances. Some United Nations human rights bodies and non-governmental organisations are clearly supporting the use of extraterritoriality and have argued that international human rights law places an obligation on states to embrace extraterritoriality so as to better control the activities of companies registered on their territories. In this context, the article aims to determine whether extraterritoriality is the magic potion that will help enhance corporate accountability for human rights violations committed overseas. The article explores whether such obligation exists and, beyond this, whether extraterritoriality should be further encouraged.     

Risk Management of Nonstandard Basket Options with Different Underlying Assets

Basket options are among the most popular products of the new generation of exotic options. They are particularly attractive because they can efficiently and simultaneously hedge a wide variety of intrinsically different financial risks and are flexible enough to cover all the risks faced by firms. Oddly, the existing literature on basket options considers only standard baskets where all underlying assets are of the same type and hedge the same kind of risk. Moreover, the empirical implementation of basket‐option models remains in its early stages, particularly when the baskets contain different underlying assets. This study focuses on various steps for developing sound risk management of basket options. We first propose a theoretical model of a nonstandard basket option on commodity price with stochastic convenience yield, exchange rate, and domestic and foreign zero‐coupon bonds in a stochastic interest rate setting. We compare the hedging performance of the extended basket option containing different underlying assets with that of a portfolio of individual options. The results show that the basket strategy is more efficient. We apply the maximum likelihood method to estimate the parameters of the basket model and the correlations between variables. Monte Carlo simulations are conducted to examine the performance of the maximum likelihood estimator in finite samples of simulated data. A real‐data study for a nonfinancial firm is presented to illustrate ways practitioners could use the extended basket option. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 33:299‐326, 2013     

The role of country-of-origin,ethnocentrism and animosity in promoting consumer trust. The moderating role of familiarity

The objective of this study is to present empirical evidence on the extent to which socio-psychological variables (ethnocentrism and animosity) and the reputation of firms associated to a country-of-origin (COO) are related to an important relational exchange factor (trust). Furthermore, the study tests the moderating effects of familiarity. Data were collected from 202 automobile owners in a large Spanish region. Path and multi-group analyses were performed using a structural equation modelling approach. This paper investigates the effects of reputation of firms associated to a COO and animosity on trust, which have not been commonly used as a dependent variable of these concepts before. Moreover, this study explores the moderating role of familiarity. This study supports the view that reputation of firms associated to a COO can safeguard international transactions and create trust in foreign firms, and thus may decrease due to interrelated emotional consumer reactions such as animosity and ethnocentrism.     

RESIDENTS’ PERSPECTIVES OF A WORLD HERITAGE SITE: The Pitons Management Area, St. Lucia

This study examined the factors that influence local community residents’ support for the Pitons Management Area (PMA) as a World Heritage Site and their support for Sustainable Tourism Development. Community Attachment, Environmental Attitudes and Involvement in PMA were hypothesized as independent variables. Results of a structural equation modeling analysis using 319 resident samples suggested that Community Attachment positively influences their support behaviors, and Environmental Attitudes indirectly influence the support behaviors through Perceptions about PMA. Level of Involvement in the PMA was not found to have any significant relationships. The notable lack of involvement of residents presented critical implications for the sustainability of the site.     

TRADE LIBERALIZATION AND FIRM PERFORMANCE: THE CASE OF THAILAND

After the Asian Financial Crisis, Thailand's trade policy has been driven by the proliferation of free trade agreements (FTAs). We use firm‐level data to estimate the effects of reductions in tariffs applied to Thai imports on Thai firms. Reductions in Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) tariffs were associated with increasing firm employment and exports, lower ASEAN‐China import tariffs were associated with increasing firm employment, while lower tariffs from the Japan‐Thailand FTA were associated with reductions in firm employment and increasing likelihood of International Organization for Standardization (ISO) certifications. FTAs were associated with a decrease in firm R&D spending. (JEL F1, F2, F6)     

Mobility and the middle classes: a case study of Manchester and the North West

While much is known about the mobility patterns of the middle classes in London and the South East, far less is certain about middle‐class migration patterns in other regions of the country. Nor has the importance of other regional centres in providing opportunities in the professions and management been acknowledged. This article rectifies these omissions by drawing on research with young professionals employed in Manchester in the North West. It explores the migratory patterns of the ‘migrant’ interviewees. The article will show that the majority of young professionals were ‘migrants’ in having been geographically mobile at some point in their lives. Different types of migrants are identified: (1) those with family affiliations; (2) those with university roots; and (3) those with (seemingly) no connections to the city or the region. These migratory practices are shaped by different factors: namely, the close proximity of family and friends, attractive job opportunities in Manchester, the role of universities in establishing roots and a sense of belonging and, finally, an identification with the North — widely defined and straddling the Pennines. These factors also shaped the residential patterns of the sample. Si l'on connaît l'essentiel des schémas de mobilité des classes moyennes à Londres et dans le Sud‐Est, on a bien moins de certitudes quant aux modèles migratoires de ces populations dans d'autres régions britanniques. Pas plus que n'a été reconnue l'importance d'autres centres régionaux concernant l'offre d'opportunités pour les professions libérales et les cadres. Cet article corrige ces omissions à partir d'une étude réalisée auprès de jeunes diplômés travaillant à Manchester dans le Nord‐Ouest. Il étudie les schémas migratoires des ‘migrants’ interrogés. En majorité, ces jeunes sont des ‘migrants’, car ils ont été mobiles géographiquement à un moment de leur vie. Parmi eux, différents types sont identifiés: ceux qui ont des attaches familiales, ceux qui ont des racines universitaires, et ceux qui n'ont (en apparence) aucun lien avec la ville ou la région. Plusieurs facteurs façonnent ces pratiques migratoires, à savoir: proximité de famille ou d'amis, propositions d'emploi attirantes à Manchester, fonction d'enracinement et de sentiment d'appartenance des universités et, enfin, identification au Nord — selon une définition large s'étendant de part et d'autre des Pennines. D'après l'échantillon, ces facteurs structurent également les schémas résidentiels.