Estimating the effect of overcrowding on tourist attraction: The case of Canary Islands

This paper analyzes the influence of the tourist’s perception of overcrowding on a destination’s appeal. To do so, the use of the population density estimates is suggested to measure degrees of overcrowding in a tourist area, which in this paper is undertaken using panel data analysis. A tourist demand model is estimated in the study case, which consists of a number of resorts located in five islands of the same archipelago, Canary Islands. This distinctive case of close but different destinations makes it possible to isolate variations in demand due to changes in population density and other supply-side factors from other demand-oriented ones. Annual tourists coming from two different European countries to the islands were considered as endogenous variables. The empirical findings provide an indicator of each island’s maximum capacity and test some policy measures laid down to extend these limits. The estimation of the effect of population density on demand can serve as a useful tool for planning the future development in destinations where tourist attraction is mainly based on the natural values of the site.     

The Influence of an Organisation’s Corporate Values on Employees Personal Buying Behaviour

This article explores the influence that an organisation’s corporate values have on employees’ behaviour and values both within and outside the work environment. In particular, it focuses on the impact of these values on the personal buying behaviour of employees. The empirical research was undertaken within a case study organisation that produces wine in Spain and involved interviews with senior management, an analysis of company documentation, as well as group discussions with employees supported by an employee survey. The article argues that an organisation’s corporate values influence not only its employees’ behaviour within the work environment, but also impacts on their global values system outside of the work environment. In particular, this was evident within the employees’ buying behaviour practices in relation to supplier loyalty and environmental concern. This has implications for business ethics as an organisation’s value system may go beyond the purely business context. Organisations need to be aware of their impact on employees’ behaviour outside of the work environment; this is particularly the case for multinational companies working across many cultures.     

The evolution of mobile communications in Europe: The transition from the second to the third generation

This paper analyses the evolution of the mobile communications industry in the European Union. The research focuses its interest on the different roles played by the regulator in Europe and in other regions of the world (mainly the US). The diffusion of GSM was extraordinarily fast in Europe, mainly due to the adoption of a unified standard from inception. This rapid diffusion has resulted in an important competitive advantage for European operators. Interestingly, while the regulator acted similarly in the case of UMTS, the development of the latter has faced many problems and, presently, its diffusion is still low (about 5% in the EU). The paper also offers basic information on market structure that may be useful for extracting some preliminary conclusions about the degree of rivalry within the industry and the differences that can be observed between European countries.     

Path modelling to bankruptcy: causes and symptoms of the banking crisis

This article studies the bankruptcy of US banks since 2009. It first analyses the financial symptoms that precede bankruptcy, such as low profitability, insufficient revenue or low solvency ratios. It also goes into the causes of these symptoms. It poses several hypotheses on causes of failure, such as loan growth (some of them risky), specialization (in this case concentration in real estate) and the pursuit of a turnover-driven strategy neglecting margin. It presents and tests a structural equation modelling based on partial least squares path modelling (PLS-PM) and logistic regression. Results show that, 5 years before the crisis, failed banks had, compared to solvent banks, the following: higher loan growth, higher concentration on real estate loans, higher risk ratios, higher turnover, but lower margins. A relationship is found between symptoms and causes. Failed banks present a significant relationship between the percentage of real estate loans and risk. This relationship is negative in excellent banks, confirming that they allocated less real estate loans with a high quality. Nonfailed banks compensated increases in risk by strengthening their core capital.     

Enemies of cloud services usage: inertia and switching costs

This paper examines the direct and mediating role of inertia on the likelihood of adopting cloud services by individual users, and provides the reasons of the inertial behavior. The study is focused on Google Drive cloud services. The results emphasize the importance of inertia and switching costs in explaining the resistance to use cloud services. Furthermore, inertia partially mediates the relationship between switching costs and cloud computing services usage. Finally, it is found that inertia in the use of prior IT is mainly explained by convenience rather than by loyalty. From the point of view of the service provider, these results have implications on its marketing strategy.     

Redesigning nurse staffing plans for acute care hospitals

Johnson City Medical Center's approach to maximizing staffing in nursing units, particularly in acute care settings, had four primary goals: Identify opportunities to maximize the effectiveness of nurse staffing based on a review of core staffing schedules. Reduce cost duplication and improve workflow. Decrease the use of contract labor (with the goal of eliminating the use of contract labor). Develop financial dashboards for staffing that could be used by nursing managers.     

Some results on residual entropy function

Ebrahimi and Pellerey (1995) and Ebrahimi (1996) proposed the Shannon residual entropy function as a useful dynamic measure of uncertainty. They studied the characterization problem from the residual entropy. They also used this function to define a stochastic order and two classes of distributions, DURL and IURL. In this paper, we obtain some new results on this function and we correct some mistakes in the preceding literature.Supported by Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnologia under grant BFM2000-0362Acknowledgements. We thank two anonymous referees for some useful comments that led to an improvement in the presentation of this paper.     

How Well Have Social Economy Financial Institutions Performed During the Crisis Period? Exploring Financial and Social Efficiency in Spanish Credit Unions

As Social Economy financial institutions, credit unions have traditionally been considered less efficient than traditional banking entities. However, like banks and savings banks, they have to be as efficient and competitive as possible to survive in today’s business environment, especially at times of crisis. To date, there have been very few studies on their efficiency and practically none for the crisis period. Moreover, almost all the existing studies assess only financial efficiency, without considering their social function. This study examines the levels of both financial and social efficiency in Spanish credit unions as well as their main determinants during the recent crisis. We apply the two-stage double bootstrap data envelopment analysis (DEA) methodology based on panel data corresponding to all the credit unions active in Spain between 2008 and 2013. The empirical results indicate that financial and social efficiency achieved an acceptable level, although on average the former was slightly greater than the latter. We also find that both age and merger and acquisition activity were positively influential on the financial efficiency of credit unions but had a significant negative effect on their social efficiency. Moreover, the regional location of such entities and the financial crisis were also crucial determinants of both types of efficiency. Our findings are therefore useful for all the stakeholders of credit unions to know if these entities have been efficient according to a double bottom line accounting in the crisis period and hence to maintain successful social management that is compatible with satisfactory financial efficiency.     

Nitrate pollution control under soil heterogeneity

This article presents results on measures to abate nitrogen pollution when soil heterogeneity is considered by using a dynamic model of corn production. Several policy options for the control of nitrate pollution are evaluated by their cost efficiency. While results show that a nitrogen standard or tax is a good second-best control instrument, neglecting dynamics may lead to the wrong choice of instrument. Other important findings for the design of nonpoint pollution policy measures are that water pricing, as advocated by the Water Framework Directive, is inefficient as a pollution abatement tool, and differentiating control measures by soil type enhances welfare, although welfare gains may be small.     

Reducing the level of switching costs in mobile communications: The case of Mobile Number Portability

Switching costs are one of the most important economic forces that affect market competition in mobile communications. Both theoretical and empirical studies have shown that switching costs reduce market competition leading to higher prices, lower product and service quality, and lower customer welfare. Given their negative consequences, national regulatory authorities have designed policies aimed at reducing switching costs and fostering competition. One of the most important of these, in the mobile communications industry, is mobile number portability (MNP). The aim of this paper is to investigate the effect of MNP on switching costs in mobile phone services. First, a hierarchical Bayes model is proposed to measure switching costs at the customer level and to investigate the impact of MNP on them. Second, this study examines the drivers of MNP adoption by customers using a binary logit specification. The results reveal that this regulatory policy has significantly reduced the cost of switching and that MNP adoption partially depends on customer-related variables.