What drives customers toward proximity payment services? An integrated theory of planned behavior perspective

Proximity mobile payment (PMP) services facilitate mobile payments between payer and payee who are at same location thorough a proximity technology such as QR codes, Bluetooth, and near-field communication. It has potential to drastically change consumers' payment methods in developing countries where traditional finance infrastructure is lacking. However, there are various challenges to adopting PMP in such countries. This study aims to explore users' opinions on and motivations for using PMP by proposing an extended theory of planned behavior (TPB) model. It also seeks to resolve inconsistencies in PMP adoption studies regarding the role of user's trust in PMP services. A survey instrument was used to collect data from PMP users in a developing country. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. This study highlights trust as a mitigator of the negative effect induced by the perceived risk of using PMP services. It also validates that the TPB, coupled with other contextual factors, explains the adoption of PMP services in developing countries.     

Bubbles,crashes and information contagion in large-group asset market experiments

Experimental Economics - We study the emergence of bubbles in a laboratory experiment with large groups of individuals. The realized price is the aggregation of the forecasts of a group of...     

Pay progression in routinised service sector work: navigating the internal labour market in a fast food multinational company

The United Kingdom's widespread use of low-skill, low-paid employment has been well documented. It has been argued internal labour markets (ILMs) benefit such workers, affording them with opportunities for progression. Relatively little is known, however, about the impact of ILMs on entry level workers undertaking routinised service sector work. Drawing on qualitative data, this article explores the prospects on offer in a market leading, fast food multinational company. Potential enabling features include on-the-job training, a transparent and integrated pay structure and a professed culture of progression . Occupational movements to positions above the low-pay threshold are, however, relatively rare. We conjecture this contradiction is the result of the business context in which the firm operates. The findings suggest that in sectors where price leadership strategies dominate, escape from low pay is likely to be exceptional, even within large organisations featuring some of the classic characteristics of ‘pure’ or strong ILMs.     

Productivity in the tourism industry

This paper analyzes the efficiency of a Portuguese public-owned hotel chain, Enatur. It applies data envelopment analysis (DEA) to estimate total factor productivity (TFP) change, while breaking it down into technical efficiency and technological change. The benchmarking procedure used is an internal one, which compares hotels with each other. For the period 1999–2001, the hotels are ranked according to their total productivity change. It is concluded that some hotels experienced productivity growth, while others faced a decline. Some implications beneficial for managerial policies were drawn from this study.     

Solomon's Dilemma: An experimental study on dynamic implementation

This paper reports an experimental investigation on two mechanisms for the so-called King Solomon Dilemma, where one of them fails to implement the social choice rule dynamically. We compare the two mechanisms in terms of their welfare, incentive and learning properties.Received: 9 October 2000, Accepted: 13 February 2003, JEL Classification: C70, C78The authors are grateful to José Agulló, Paolo Battigalli, Ted Bergstrom, Ken Binmore, Sandro Brusco, Antonio Cabrales, Francesco Feri, Leo Hurwicz, Raffaele Miniaci, Miguel Angel Meléndez, Juan Mora, Juan D. Moreno-Ternero and seminar participants at the universities of Alicante and Trento for stimulating comments. We also thank an anonymous referee for thoughtful comments and, in particular, for raising questions that led to run additional sessions that significantly improved Sect. 4.4. Usual disclaimers apply. The first version of this paper was written while Giovanni Ponti was visiting the Department of Economics at UCSB. He thanks the Department for providing hospitality, encouragement and funding to run some experimental sessions. Financial support was also provided by CICYT (BEC2001-0980) and by the Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas (IVIE).     

Work stress and leadership development: The role of self-leadership, shared leadership, physical fitness and flow in managing demands and increasing job control

Leaders work in highly stressful environments, yet few leadership development efforts have focused on managing work stress. We posit that self- and shared leadership practices can help leaders manage high job demands and increase long-term job control. We examine the effects of high-strain jobs; identify the outcomes of active jobs, and highlight physical fitness as a key strategy of, and flow as a natural outcome of self- and shared leadership. We argue that self- and shared leadership, and the consequent and entailed fitness and flow benefits, support healthful regeneration and increased engagement and are thus vital to the leader's ability to manage work stress and create an active work environment. Our multi-disciplinary model offers a proactive way for leaders to manage the stressful demands of today's work environments.