Does the look matter? The impact of casino servicescape on gaming customer satisfaction,intention to revisit,and desire to stay

Despite huge investment made by casinos on their physical structures, little has been know if physical environment actually affects psychological responses of gaming customers. This paper explores how dimensions of servicescape influence customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions in the casino environment. Using Bitner's model of physical surroundings, we hypothesized how ambience, navigation, seating comfort, interior decor, and cleanliness affected cognitive and affective satisfaction of gaming customers. We further proposed that gaming customer satisfaction would affect their desire to stay and intention to revisit. Data from 513 gaming customers of Macau offered support to most of our hypotheses. Implications for research and managerial practices were also discussed.     

On tariff changes and firm-production evolution: insights from Turkish manufacturing

We contribute to the yet limited evidence on the relationship between trade liberalisation and a firm's product mix and diversification strategies for an emerging economy, Turkey. Lower import barriers foster firms’ specialisation in their core products. A drop in import tariffs, indeed, enhances a firm's propensity to drop fringe varieties and favours production growth of core products. More importantly, it favours firms’ specialisation in more sophisticated goods. Export tariff cuts, instead, by relaxing competitive pressure at home and lowering the cost to export, only reduce the firms’ incentive to innovate.     

The strategic use of early bird discounts for dealers

We study a widely used ordering process (“Early Bird Discounts”) whereby a profit-maximizing manufacturer permits his dealers to place advance orders at a discount before they set retail prices. We show that such discounts may be used to shift just enough channel profits to dealers to enable them to cover their fixed costs and stay in business. If the manufacturer instead simply cut his wholesale price in order to generate gross margins for his dealers, these margins would soon dissipate as price competition among dealers selling the same product forced retail prices back down to the per-unit cost. We show that when dealer fixed costs are low, the manufacturer offers an Early Bird Discount to his multiple dealers that induces all but two of them to exit; when fixed costs are high, the manufacturer offers no preorder discount (i.e. switches to linear pricing) and induces all but one dealer to exit. Although uniform slotting allowances could also be used to reward dealers, a sales-based alternative like an Early Bird Discount sometimes has a key advantage when the manufacturer has dealers in cities of different sizes. If the same Early Bird Discount is offered, dealers in markets with more consumers, who typically have larger fixed costs, will preorder larger amounts and will automatically receive higher gross margins. To duplicate such payments with slotting allowances, non-uniform allowances would have to be offered to firms in different markets, which is divisive and possibly illegal.     

Motivations and perceived value of volunteer tourists from Hong Kong

This study examines the motivational factors and perceived value of Hong Kong volunteer tourists. The results of a focus group and in-depth interviews reveal five main motives for travelers to partake in volunteer trips: cultural immersion and interaction with the local people; desire to give back and show love and concern; a shared experience with family members and an educational opportunity for children; religious involvement; and escape from everyday life. The perceived value of these volunteer travelers includes personal growth and development, relationship enhancement, and change in perspective on life. The factors influencing their future decision to participate in volunteer tourism include time, financial ability, safety and health issues, arrangements and scale of the tour, and reputation of the organizer.     

Earnings management and earnings quality

Viewing the detection of earnings management from the perspective of a crime scene investigator sheds new light on prior research on earnings management and its close relative, earnings quality. The works of Ball and Shivakumar [2008. Earnings quality at initial public offerings. Journal of Accounting and Economics, in press.] and Teoh et al. [1998. Earnings management and the subsequent market performance of initial public offerings. Journal of Finance 53, 1935–1974.] are used to illustrate the application of seven components of a crime scene investigation to earnings management research.     

Einsatz von Biomethan in Neubauten nach EEW?rmeG – Eine Hemmnis- und Wirtschaftlichkeitsanalyse

The German Federal Government aims at increasing the use of biomethane to 6 billion cubic meters per year by 2020. The German Act on the Promotion of Renewable Energies in the Heat Sector (Renewable Heat Act ?C EEW?rmeG) of 2009 has paved the way for renewable energies in the heating market with 14?% in 2020 being the ultimate goal. Biomethane is one of the options provided in the EEW?rmeG. Building owners can choose between different renewable energy sources as well as a range of compensatory measures such as district heating, insulation or combined heat and power. However, they do not make this decision independently but together with other members of a buying center that comprises architects, specialist consultants and installers. These other members are pursuing their own interests, which includes maximizing their contract volume. Moreover the owner takes his decision under incomplete information. Both factors are detrimental to an optimal decision. Biomethane is chosen for only 3?% of newly constructed buildings. For a better understanding of why the use of biomethane for heating purposes is so limited, the authors have developed an economic calculation method that compares different renewable energy sources as well as compensatory measures. For a single-family home, biomethane is the least attractive option from a financial perspective; for a multi-family house, on the other hand, it ranks third. In order to promote the utilization of biomethane and to achieve the 6 billion cubic meter/year goal by 2020, the Federal Government needs to open up the options for biomethane beyond the now mandatory cogeneration solution. Moreover, the EEW?rmeG, which applies to newly built houses only, should be expanded to existing buildings.     

质量体系认证向2000版ISO／CD19001认证过渡初探

阐述建筑企业按照2000版ISOC/DI 9001标准的要求进行质量体系认证是发展的必然趋势,分析2000版ISO/CDI9001标准的结构,将它与1994版ISO9001标准进行比较,提出建筑企业质量体系认证如何向2000版ISO/CDl 9001标准认证顺利过渡,如何按照2000版ISO/CDl 9001标准的要求建立有效运转的质量体系的合理建议。     

A firm level perspective on migration: the role of extra-EU workers in Italian manufacturing

A production-theory approach to migration is adopted in this paper to address the role of migrant workers from extra-EU countries in Italian manufacturing firms. The adoption of flexible functional forms to model firm-level technology lets us directly derive different measures of elasticity from the coefficients of the estimated production and cost functions. The use of foreign labour is shown to affect the industry composition in favour of low skill intensive sectors and the estimated cross demand elasticities confirm the complementarity between migrant and native workers found in previous studies. However, the two labour inputs prove to be substitutes in terms of the Morishima elasticity of substitution: in general, firms tend to increase the foreign labour intensity of production in response to a decline in migrants’ wage, while the migrant to domestic labour ratio responds to changes in the domestic workers’ wage only for firms in low skill intensive sectors.