Mainstreaming sustainable tourism with user-centred design

Abstract

Efforts to design and communicate sustainable tourism products have been based on the premise of explicit market demand for sustainability. This study tests whether it is possible to design mainstream sustainable tourism products that circumvent customer scrutiny of their sustainability features, by making sustainability implicit (as part of quality product design) and communicating hedonistic benefits instead. This is akin to using the peripheral route of communication, as explained in the Elaboration Likelihood Model, as the central route emphasises the consumer-driven message of overall quality of experience; the approach lessens the need for customers to be conscious of the sustainability consequences of their actions. The methodology proposed to achieve this is user-centred design (UCD), which places insights into customer needs, values and demands at the heart of new product design. We designed sustainable tourist activities using UCD and then appraised customer demand for them. Although this may seem counterintuitive, the results show that it can be more effective than traditional methods in mainstreaming sustainable activities, through choice-editing of unsustainable ones and normalising the appearance and communication of sustainability, provided a focus on sustainability is maintained by the product provider.     

An application of padé approximation to volatility modeling

This paper studies the dynamic relationship between future volatility and implied and historical volatility using data from Alegría and Rodríguez [1997]. The methodological approach forms part of the theoretical research being carried out in numerical analysis and especially from the rational Padé approximation. This tool helps to characterize simple computational methods in order to study questions about dynamic modelization of doubly infinite series. Considering noncausal series, where the expectations provided by economic theory or empirical evidence are included in available sample data, leads to dynamic specifications suitable not only from the perspective of fitting available data, but also from their predictive performance when compared to traditionally used formulae based merely on data analysis.     

Management sub-advising in the mutual fund industry

This is a study of how contractual mechanisms can mitigate agency conflicts in sub-advised mutual funds. Sub-advising contracts allow fund families to expand their product offerings to include new investment styles and thereby gain market share. We show that costly contractual arrangements, such as co-branding, multi-advising, and performance-based compensation, can mitigate agency conflicts in outsourcing and protect investors from potential underperformance. Fund families will find it cost-effective to implement such incentive mechanisms only when investors are sophisticated in assessing manager skill. The findings help to explain why a large percentage of fund families outsource their funds to advisory firms.     

Risk Determinants of Suicide Attempts Among Adolescents

A bstract .   In this article we present evidence about the factors that determine four gradual decisions on the part of adolescents to attempt suicide. To that end, we estimate a series of binary choice models by using data drawn from the U.S. National Youth Risk Behavior Surveys corresponding to 1991, 1993, 1995, and 1997. Our results show that the decisions to attempt suicide are motivated by both demographic and psychosocial variables, such as gender, age, ethnicity, education failure, possession of a gun, habitual participation in sporting activities, individual weight perception, and taking pills or provoking vomiting to lose weight. Moreover, we also find that a significant degree of influence is exerted by another group of factors, such as the consumption of drugs, sexual relationships, and, finally, pregnancy.     

Can Fundamentals Explain Cross-Country Correlations of Asset Returns?

Previous studies show that existing correlations between national returns are higher than correlations between the national growth rates of fundamental variables. This paper examines the ability of intertemporal asset pricing models to explain cross-country correlations of national returns. We find that when capital markets are assumed to be fully integrated, a simple intertemporal general equilibrium model is able to explain the observed co-variability of domestic asset returns but generates too little variability in those returns. Results improve considerably if a less restrictive version is employed. In that setting, both domestic variability and cross-country co-variability of returns are consistent with capital market integration. JEL no. G12, G15, E44     

The management of variable pay in European banking

Banking is a major employer in most large European countries, facing common pressures in terms of competition and technological change. Traditional pay systems have been revised in response to changing business objectives and new forms of work organisation. This paper examines variable pay schemes (VPS) in banking in four countries with very different institutional contexts: Austria, Norway, Spain, and the UK. It finds extensive use of VPS in each case and shared managerial objectives in terms of performance management and cost control. Forms of VPS vary, with Norwegian banks in particular favouring collective forms of bonus, but overall there is a common drive towards individual (merit) pay and multiple bonus arrangements providing increased scope for management discretion. In broad terms, what the case of pay-setting in banking suggests is a course of fading path dependency at national level.     

Institutional determinants of the unemployment-earnings inequality trade-off

Most of the research efforts in recent years to explain international differences in unemployment and earnings inequality have placed the emphasis on the institutional components of the labour markets. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate which are the real effects of these characteristics on both phenomena using an ample set of data for different OECD countries. A Cluster analysis permits consideration about relatively heterogeneous models. The results of the econometric exercise show also that institutional factors have a greater impact on earnings inequality than on unemployment.     

Franchisors' disclosure duty: market transparency and franchisee protection

The franchisee is usually the most vulnerable part of the franchise relationship, and should therefore receive greater protection from the legal framework. In this regard, the franchisor's pre-contractual disclosure duty has evolved in its legal status. Whereas its original purpose was to ensure transparency in the market, it now serves to protect the franchisee. In this paper, we compare the franchisor's obligations established by the legal framework in Spain with those set out in the Model Law drawn up by The International Institute for the Unification of Private Law.     

Banking crises and market discipline: International evidence

This paper analyzes the effect of banking crises on market discipline in an international sample of banks. We also evaluate how bank regulation, supervision, institutions, and crisis intervention policies shape the effect of banking crises on market discipline. We control for unobservable bank, country, and time specific effects using a panel data set of banks from 66 countries around 79 banking crises. The results suggest that on average market discipline weakens after a banking crisis. This weakening is higher in countries where bank regulation, supervision, and institutions promoted market discipline before the banking crisis, and where a more accommodative approach is adopted to resolve it.