The perceived impact of risks on travel decisions

The recent phenomena of infectious diseases, natural disasters and terrorist attacks have imposed an unprecedented threat to the global tourism industry. This paper reports on a study that investigated the perceived probability of occurrence, magnitude of threat and efficacy of official media on major types of risks from 1304 international travellers. The study also examined the perceived usefulness of a set of measures that aims to strengthen the confidence of travellers. This paper should provide tourism practitioners and policy‐makers an updated view from the perspective of travellers, which in turn, can assist the formulation of risk management strategies, an area that has long been of interest to tourism researchers and practitioners. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A practical guide to social networks

Saying that networks are important is stating the obvious. But harnessing the power of these seemingly invisible groups to achieve organizational goals is an elusive undertaking. Most efforts to promote collaboration are haphazard and built on the implicit philosophy that more connectivity is better. In truth, networks create relational demands that sap people's time and energy and can bog down entire organizations. It's crucial for executives to learn how to promote connectivity only where it benefits an organization or individual and to decrease unnecessary connections. In this article, the authors introduce three types of social networks, each of which delivers unique value. The customized response network excels at framing the ambiguous problems involved in innovation. Strategy consulting firms and new-product development groups rely on this format. By contrast, surgical teams and law firms rely mostly on the modular response network, which works best when components of the problem are known but the sequence of those components in the solution is unknown. And the routine response network is best suited for organizations like call centers, where the problems and solutions are fairly predictable but collaboration is still needed. Executives shouldn't simply hope that collaboration will spontaneously occur in the right places atthe right times in their organization. They need to develop a strategic, nuanced view of collaboration, and they must take steps to ensure that their companies support the types of social networks that best fit their goals. Drawing on examples from Novartis, the FAA, and Sallie Mae, the authors offer managers the tools they need to determine which network will deliver the best results for their organizations and which strategic investments will nurture the right degree of connectivity.     

Evaluation in Design-Oriented Research

Design has been recognized for a long time both as art and as science. In the sixties of the previous century design-oriented research began to draw the attention of scientific researchers and methodologists, not only in technical engineering but also in the social sciences. However, a rather limited methodology for design-oriented research has been developed, especially as to the social sciences. In this article we introduce evaluation methodology and research methodology as a systematic input in the process of designing. A designing cycle is formulated with six stages, and for each of these stages operations, guidelines and criteria for evaluation are defined. All this may be used for a considerable improvement of the process and product of designing.     

The people who make organizations go--or stop

Managers invariably use their personal contacts when they need to, say, meet an impossible deadline or learn the truth about a new boss. Increasingly, it's through these informal networks--not just through traditional organizational hierarchies--that information is found and work gets done. But to many senior executives, informal networks are unobservable and ungovernable--and, therefore, not amenable to the tools of management. As a result, executives tend to work around informal networks or, worse, try to ignore them. When they do acknowledge the networks' existence, executives fall back on intuition--scarcely a dependable tool--to guide them in nurturing this social capital. It doesn't have to be that way. It is entirely possible to develop and manage informal networks systematically, say management experts Cross and Prusak. Specifically, senior executives need to focus their attention on four key role-players in informal networks: Central connectors link most employees in an informal network with one another; they provide the critical information or expertise that the entire network draws on to get work done. Boundary spanners connect an informal network with other parts of the company or with similar networks in other organizations. Information brokers link different subgroups in an informal network; if they didn't, the network would splinter into smaller, less effective segments. And finally, there are peripheral specialists, who anyone in an informal network can turn to for specialized expertise but who work apart from most people in the network. The authors describe the four roles in detail, discuss the use of a well-established tool called social network analysis for determining who these role-players are in the network, and suggest ways that executives can transform ineffective informal networks into productive ones.     

DID TIME INCONSISTENCY CONTRIBUTE TO THE GREAT INFLATION? EVIDENCE FROM THE FOMC TRANSCRIPTS

We use evidence from detailed records of FOMC deliberations to argue that time inconsistency theory can help explain the excessive monetary expansion that characterized Arthur Burns's tenure as Federal Reserve Chairman (1970–1978). The records suggest that the Fed perceived a Phillips curve tradeoff and political pressures that made it difficult to adopt disinflationary policies; the tendency toward excessively expansionary policy was exacerbated by the short-run planning horizon the Committee faced in each of its meetings. We argue that comparative static predictions of the time inconsistency model are consistent with the rise of inflation during the Burns years and its subsequent fall.     

Hardball. Five killer strategies for trouncing the competition

The winners in business play hardball, and they don't apologize for it. They single-mindedly pursue competitive advantage and the benefits it offers: a leading market share, great margins, and rapid growth. They pick their shots, seek out competitive encounters, set the pace of innovation, and test the edges of the possible. Softball players, by contrast, may look good--they may report decent earnings and even get favorable coverage in the business press--but they aren't intensely serious about winning. They don't accept that you must sometimes hurt your rivals, and risk being hurt, to get what you want. Instead of running--not scared, but smart--softball players seem almost to be standing around and watching. They don't play to win; they play to play. That approach may reflect the recent focus of management science, which itself has gone soft. Indeed, the discourse around soft issues such as leadership, corporate culture, knowledge management, talent management, and employee empowerment has encouraged the making of softball players. While there are countless ways to play hardball, a handful of classic strategies are effective in generating competitive advantage. Best employed in bursts of ruthless intensity, these strategies are: Devastate rivals' profit sanctuaries, plagiarize with pride, deceive the competition, unleash massive and overwhelming force, and raise competitors' costs. But hardball isn't only about the moves you make. It's also about the attitude you bring to them. The playbook won't do you any good if you feel squeamish about using it. Do you have what it takes to play hardball?     

Telework remains ‘made to measure’ The large-scale introduction of telework in the Netherlands

About 25% of all jobs in the Netherlands can be done in telework. We cannot give a quantitative overview of the costs and benefits of telework, partly due to the ‘made to measure’ quality of telework projects, but a qualitative overview shows that overall telework will be beneficial both on the micro and macro level, provided its introduction is voluntarily for all involved. The main barrier to the introduction is that organizations do not know enough about the implementation process. Considering the differences between organizations, a large-scale introduction of telework can be stimulated by creating a large variety of telework examples. Telework will have to remain ‘made to measure’.