Exchange-rate volatility and industry trade between Canada and Mexico

While it has long been assumed that exchange-rate volatility introduces a level of uncertainty that helps reduce trade flows, this need not be the case for particular country pairs or for specific products. This study examines the case of trade between Canada and Mexico—two members of the highly integrated North American market. Trade flows are examined for a number of specific products using the “bounds testing” cointegration approach over the period from 1973 to 2006. Relatively few industries see a long-run reduction in trade volumes due to volatility. This indicates that multinational producers in these integrated markets might be able to hedge against exchange-rate risk. Since major Mexican exports appear to see the largest reductions, Mexico might have a stronger incentive to reduce the volatility of the peso.     

Consumers’ online responses to the death of a celebrity

Humans have long been fascinated with celebrated persons. Because celebrities are usually protected, fans rely on celebrity-related products to connect to a beloved individual. As symbolic embodiments of celebrities, these related products often become cherished personal possessions. The death of a celebrity appears to strongly elevate a celebrity’s stature and increase the value of the celebrity’s products. This research examined marketplace effects of celebrity deaths using longitudinal data obtained from online auctions. Results indicated that a celebrity's death strongly boosts demand for surviving memorabilia. Marketers were also found to act with incredible speed in offering products to meet this heightened demand. These findings suggest that the effect of death on memorabilia sales varied by product type and death context.     

Marketing sustainability: Use of information sources and degrees of voluntary simplicity

The concept of voluntary simplicity (VS) is taken as a starting point to investigate consumers' use of information sources when making purchases of sustainable technological products and services. Differences in information seeking and sources consulted and trusted are investigated with a view to increasing the uptake of sustainable domestic technologies such as energy efficient fridges and washing machines over more grey alternatives. Clear patterns both in sources used and the information seeking process were found between different groups of consumers and priorities for purchase were also identified. The results suggest different strategies for marketing sustainable technologies to these different consumer groups.     

Commodity index investment and food prices: does the “Masters Hypothesis” explain recent price spikes?

The “Masters Hypothesis” is the claim that unprecedented buying pressure in recent years from commodity index investors created massive bubbles in food and energy prices. The purpose of this article is to review the evidence from recent studies that investigate the empirical relationship between index investment and price movements in agricultural futures markets. One line of research uses time‐series regression tests, such as Granger causality tests, to investigate the relationship between price movements and index positions. This research provides little evidence in support of the Masters Hypothesis in agricultural futures markets. A second line of research uses cross‐sectional regression tests and studies in this area provide very limited evidence in favor of the Masters Hypothesis for agricultural futures markets. A third line of research investigates whether there is a significant relationship between commodity index trading and the difference, or spread, between futures prices of different contract maturities on the same date. These studies report a range of results depending on the type of test. However, the bulk of the evidence indicates either no relationship or a negative relationship, which is once again inconsistent with the Masters Hypothesis. Overall, this growing body of literature fails to find compelling evidence that buying pressure from commodity index investment in recent years caused a massive bubble in agricultural futures prices. The Masters Hypothesis is simply not a valid characterization of reality.     

Public R&D subsidies,outside private support,and employment growth

In the aftermath of the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the employment effects of public subsidies have been scrutinized because of new emphasis on public accountability and transparency. In this paper, we investigate conditions in which public subsidies of research and development (R&D) in small firms stimulate employment growth. We find, based on an empirical analysis of employment growth induced by US Department of Defense Small Business Innovation Research program awards, that the stimulated employment growth is greater under two conditions: one, the presence of outside investors providing additional funding for the R&D and, two, when an exceptional amount of intellectual property is created by the publicly subsidized R&D. In addition to outside investors, other firms that make commercial agreements with the subsidized firm appear important for the employment growth of the subsidized firm. Cooperation between the small business doing the R&D and other firms is an important determinant of the commercial success of the technologies created with the support of public funds.     

Complexity science: an alternative world view for understanding sustainable tourism development

Tourism research has generally taken a reductionist approach and has not effectively understood tourism as a stakeholder within a complex system (CS) of stakeholders. As a result, interpretations of sustainable tourism development (STD) are highly focused and sector-specific, thereby limiting understanding of the complex inter-relationships between tourism components and other components within a system. This paper explores complexity science as an alternative paradigm to understand why STD is problematic. It is argued that a new world view is required to understand the unpredictable world in which tourism operates. Complexity science and the associated chaos theory offer an alternative paradigm for viewing and understanding tourism phenomena. Viewing underlying influences on a CS in terms of the characteristics of complexity science, including the edge of chaos, strange attractors and conflict provides greater understanding of the system in which tourism operates. The second part of the paper discusses a framework, adapted from complexity science characteristics, to identify the complex inter-relationships between stakeholders with political, environmental, economic, social and cultural interests in an urban river context, the Swan River in Perth, Western Australia.     

Using vehicle monitoring technology and eco-driver training to reduce fuel use and emissions in tourism: a ski resort case study

Ground-based transport moves more tourists than any other form of transportation and contributes c. 32% of tourism's carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions – yet remains a largely neglected area of emission/carbon management research. This study examines the value of vehicle monitoring technology (VMT) and eco-driver training as a means to improve fuel efficiency and reduce CO₂ emissions for a fleet of vehicles at the largest ski resort operation in Ontario, Canada. The VMT was installed in 14 fleet vehicles. After eco-driver training, the fleet reduced its average daily speed (?14%), hard decelerations (?55%), hard accelerations (?44%), and idling time (?2%), resulting in decreased fuel costs (?8%) and CO₂ emissions (?8%). The process requires very low capital expenditures, can pay for itself in as little as one year, and has safety paybacks. It also has valuable externalities: tourism businesses that instill sustainability awareness and values to their employees contribute to environmental prosperity generally, because eco-trained drivers also drive more efficiently in their everyday lives. This is the first known study to quantify the benefits of driver training and behavioral intervention within a tourism context, demonstrating the potential to enhance environmental sustainability while simultaneously reducing operating costs. Technicalities, issues, and future application possibilities are discussed.     

Simon Broadbent: a tribute

Alcohol-impaired driving (AID) has devastating effects on society. To decrease the incidence of AID, high-risk populations like college students are often targeted by anti-AID advertising campaigns. The present study examines the effectiveness of anti-AID advertisements as a function of pre-existing audience mood. Two experiments showed that congruity between the mood of the audience (positive, negative) and the regulatory focus of the ad (promotion, prevention) can increase advertising effectiveness. Positive mood enhanced the effectiveness of promotion-framed ads, whereas negative mood enhanced the effectiveness of prevention-framed ads. The effects were attributable to differential engagement in global or local processing. Positive mood induced a tendency to engage in global processing, and negative mood fostered engagement in local processing. Theoretical contributions are considered along with actionable recommendations for the creators of anti-AID advertising campaigns.     

An extension of the benefit segmentation base for the consumption of organic foods: A time perspective

Abstract

Benefit segmentation is a long-standing marketing approach that emphasises the ‘what’ and ‘how’ dimensions of consumer benefits; that is, what benefits consumers perceive in product/service consumption, and how such benefits are perceived. This research proposes a fresh time-based approach to benefit segmentation – namely, focusing on the ‘when’ element or when in time benefits take effect. Drawing upon a survey of UK consumers, it explains and discusses consumption motivations through examining antecedents of temporally dominated benefits in application to organic food. Specifically, the study investigates why some consumers predominantly seek present-based benefits vis-à-vis future-based benefits or vice versa in organic food purchase and consumption behaviour. Using correlation and regression analyses, the research findings establish significant associations of level of involvement, prior knowledge level, and product usage level, and some association of time orientation with the temporally emphasised consumption benefits consumers ultimately pursue. Overall, the research highlights the added contribution of a time perspective in a benefit segmentation approach which can assist marketers in understanding better and communicating more effectively with consumers through drawing up consumer profiles based on when in time their dominantly pursued benefit for an offering is perceived to take effect.