Macroforces driving change into the new millennium — major challenges for the hospitality professional

The fast pace of change will present many challenges in the new millennium. The success of the leader of tomorrow will depend on how well he or she is able to identify the forces that will drive change, invest in industry leading competitive methods that will take advantage of the opportunities presented by these forces and consistently allocate resources to these methods. Identifying the forces driving change is the most challenging aspect of this co-alignment concept. This paper explores the macroforces, which can be expected to drive change, and possible impact they will have on the hospitality organization. These forces include: globalization and economic change, a knowledge-based environment, the future of labor and quality in service delivery systems, and the growing consumer desire for improved well-being. These forces are presented along with the key variables making them up with the goal of understanding their complexities and interdependencies.     

Fairness of prices,user fee policy and willingness to pay among visitors to a national forest

Imposing user fees in Nature-Based Tourism (NBT) contexts has been a controversial issue. Based on the notions of justice and fairness, this study extended previous work examining the relationship between attitudes toward user fees and spending support. In a proposed structural model of price fairness, fee spending support, and willingness to pay (WTP), this paper identified the antecedents of WTP user fees, and empirically examined to what extent the data fit the model. Furthermore, the moderating role of place attachment in the model was investigated by using multiple-group structural equation modeling. Subjects (n = 562) were recreational tourists to a forest area in the southeast U.S. Results revealed that spending support partially played a mediating role in the relationship between perceived price fairness and WTP user fees. A multiple-group invariance test also demonstrated that while the degree of place identity moderated the effect of price fairness on spending support, the degree of place dependence did not influence the relationships among the antecedents of WTP.     

Did households’ time preference change due to the Great Recession?

Household time preference for US households, as measured by the planning horizon, was fairly stable for many years, but sharply changed with the onset of the Great Recession. Based on an analysis of a combination of the 1992–2013 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) datasets, time preference increased in 2010 and remained high in 2013, indicating households were less patient after the onset of the recession. This pattern held up even after controlling for household characteristics.     

An Empirical Investigation of Japanese Consumer Ethics

One of the gaps in the current international marketing literature is in the area of consumer ethics. Using a sample drawn from Japanese consumers, this study investigates these individuals' reported ethical ideology and their perception of a number of different ethical situations in the realm of consumer behavior. Comparisons are then made across several demographic characteristics. The results reveal differences which provide theoretical support for expanded research in the area of cross-cultural/cross-national consumer ethics and highlight the need for managers to consider possible differences in the ethical behavior of consumers when entering a new international market. In addition, this study extends current knowledge in international marketing ethics by utilizing a research design and survey instruments similar to previous studies on consumer ethics.     

De Vetula: a Medieval Manuscript Containing Probability Calculations

De Vetula , a poem that contains probability calculations on the throw of three dice, was written in the mid-thirteenth century. The poem was widely circulated, read and quoted. There is strong evidence that some of the medieval readers clearly understood how the probability calculations were obtained. Based on the discussion given here, it is put forward that an elementary probability calculus was established and known in Europe from about the year 1250. A translation of the relevant section of the poem is given.     

Young African Americans: a new generation of giving behaviour

It has been suggested that younger generations of African Americans may be the group whose giving behaviour has altered most in recent times. Primary research to establish whether this is indeed the case was conducted through focus groups to identify deviation from the extant research on giving motivations. The ages of the participants were 26–32. The theoretical foundation for this research was drawn from historical literature on African American philanthropy, relevant models of giving behaviours and contemporary research in the field. The research concludes that the notion of uplifting one's race remains a powerful motive for giving. Copyright © 2001 Henry Stewart Publications