A Response to 'Ecotourism on Trial: The Case of Billfish Angling as Ecotourism'

This paper estimates the quantity of pollutant produced by the Hong Kong hotel industry through diesel oil consumption. A survey of 20 hotels was carried out to collect three years' energy consumption data. Regression analysis indicated that gross floor area was a major and statistically accepted factor in explaining diesel oil consumption. Diesel oil consumption had reduced from the early 1990s and stabilised by the late 1990s. The sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon dioxide and particulate pollution created by the hotel industry's diesel oil usage from 1990 to 1999 is estimated. The findings indicate that existing green measures and devices are passive and depend on the assimilation of the atmosphere. Environmental costs have stabilised at about HK$54,000 per annum. More proactive approaches to reduce usage and environmental impacts are proposed.     

Exploring preconditions for open innovation: Value networks in industrial firms

The open innovation model embraces the purposive flow of internal and external ideas as a foundation for innovation and network formation. While the open innovation paradigm has been successfully applied in high-tech settings, there is a lack of research on adopters of open innovation in other settings. We describe a case study conducted in a process industry setting, focusing on the LKAB mineral group as it makes a transition from a closed to a more open innovation context by adopting remote diagnostics technology. This process has resulted in the creation of new value networks. By tracing the reasoning behind the organizational transformation and studying the technology used to carry it through, we seek to explore the preconditions for open innovation and provide insight into the role of IT in the process. Our findings show that adoption of the open innovation model is grounded in developing organizational environments that are conducive to innovation, including expertise in creating a culture for knowledge sharing, building a trustful environment, and a resourceful use of IT.     

Narratives of Negotiation and Transformation: Women's Experiences within a Mixed-Gendered Gym

ABSTRACT

Those within the fitness industry claim that gyms provide accessible space for women (of certain economic status) to engage in activities that will increase their health. As such, gyms are marketed as safe, inclusive, and empowering spaces. Yet when viewing gym spaces through a feminist-informed lens, it becomes clear that gyms are not always innocuous spaces. They often reflect and perpetuate gendered power relations and highly prescribed cultural expectations for femininity around women's bodies, appearances, strength, and abilities. This narrative inquiry sought to illuminate women's gendered experiences within a for-profit mixed-gendered gym space. Through the use of unstructured life story interviews, this research highlights the dominant gendered expectations that women perceived within the gym and how these expectations influence women's gym use. The narratives also exposed several ways that gyms can be changed in order to facilitate more positive gym experiences for women.     

On ratio estimates in simple random sampling with some practical applications

Abstract

The distribution of a ratio of two statistical variables has long been of gr,eat interest, especially with regard to the practical application within different branches. Several authors have also been interested in this subject, and a number of articles have been written on this problem on the basis of different assumptions. This problem seems now again to have been actualized by new experiences (ref. 2, 3,4) in the statistical sampling methods.     

Export channel dynamics: an empirical investigation

We investigate the dynamics of export channel arrangements by modelling foreign operation method decisions as the interplay between factors that motivate switches and factors that deter them. Our model extends previous analyses by looking simultaneously at (1) no change of channel arrangement, (2) replacements of foreign intermediaries (within‐mode shifts), and (3) integration of the sales function abroad (between‐mode shifts). We use a multinomial logit model on longitudinal data from a sample of Danish exporters that had entered foreign markets through intermediaries. The results suggest that the decision to carry out within‐mode shifts (i.e. to replace an existing intermediary) is driven by a different set of factors than the decision to switch to another foreign operation mode (i.e. to in‐house operations). Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Bankruptcy Decision Making

When a firm encounters financial distress, there is a significantpossibility that, at some point, the firm itself should be shutdown and its assets put to better use. But Chapter 11 and indeedall market-mimicking reorganization regimes other than a speedyauction entrust the shutdown decision to a bankruptcy judgewho lacks information and expertise, as well as the abilityto control the timing of her decisions. Understanding the costsof entrusting the shutdown decision to a bankruptcy judge iscentral to assessing any law of corporate reorganizations. Thisarticle models the shutdown decision as the exercise of a realoption. The model suggests that the shutdown decision may loomso large in the early parts of the bankruptcy case that it erasesany significant difference between Chapter 11 and many alternativemarket-mimicking regimes. All these regimes take more time thanmandatory auctions and thus increase the cost of taking theshutdown decision away from a market actor. Moreover, the realoption itself gives parties an incentive to withhold information.Only a system of mandatory auctions both limits the amount oftime the shutdown option resides with an inexpert decision makerand forces insiders to give that decision maker sufficient informationto value the option while it is in her hands.     

Did Vietnam veterans get sicker in the 1990s? The complicated effects of military service on self-reported health

The veterans disability compensation (VDC) program, which provides a monthly stipend to disabled veterans, is the third largest American disability insurance program. Since the late 1990s, VDC growth has been driven primarily by an increase in claims from Vietnam veterans, raising concerns about costs as well as health. We use the draft lottery to study the long-term effects of Vietnam-era military service on health and work in the 2000 Census. We find no evidence that military service affected overall employment rates or overall work-limiting disability rates (that is, health conditions that make work difficult). At the same time, military service sharply increased federal transfer income, especially for lower skilled white men, among whom there was also a large negative impact on employment and a marked increase in disability rates. The differential impact of Vietnam-era service on low-skilled men cannot be explained by more combat or war-theatre exposure for the least educated, because high school graduates were at least as likely to be exposed to combat or war theatre as the less-educated. This leaves the relative attractiveness of VDC for less-skilled men and the work disincentives embedded in the VDC system as a likely explanation for our findings.     

Maximization,replication, and the economic rationality of positive economic science

This paper argues that gross, short-term capital mobility is excessive, but that long-term net capital mobility remains low. This combination of extremely high gross, but low net capital mobility can create great difficulties in achieving full employment. However, these difficulties fundamentally depend on the political structure and the choices made in individual nations; they do not result from technological advances, such as innovations in computers and communication. Faced with short-term capital mobility, groups and classes within nations have made political choices that hinder the ability of the nation to reach full employment. But other choices can be made.Nations can adopt political structures and rules of the game that reduce the constraints to achieving full employment.     

Ethnic Identity in Advertising: A Review and Meta-Analysis

The corpus of research on ethnic identity in advertising indicates that (1) ethnic identity influences commonly examined attitudinal and purchase-intention outcomes, and (2) attitudes toward both the actor(s)/model(s) and the ad moderate attitudes toward brands depicted in ethnically resonant ads. Individual studies often differ by measurement type (i.e., single-item measure versus multi-item scale), study design (i.e., experiment versus survey), and diversity of respondent sample. Seemingly, ethnic-identity effects are greater for studies that relied on single-item measures, experimental designs, and more diverse samples. Implications and future research directions are suggested.