Implications of Prospect Theory for the Pricing of Leisure Services

Prospect theory evolved in psychology 35 years ago. It transitioned into economics, where it became one of the founding pillars of behavioral economics. This article uses prospect theory to inform explanations of the workings of eight heuristics used in pricing decisions: enterprise fund effect, semantic framing of discounts and premiums, promotional price, bundling and unbundling of services, hyperbolic discounting, endowment effect, sunk cost effect, and odd number pricing. Research is reviewed from the marketing, psychology, economics, and leisure literatures; examples are provided across a wide spectrum of leisure settings; and implications for leisure managers are suggested.     

Are we all on the same page? A qualitative study of the facilitation challenges associated with the implementation of deliberative priority-setting

Collaborative governance has given rise to decision-making methodologies promoting democracy, inclusivity and transparency. This is exemplified by deliberative priority-setting (DPS) that blends cost-effectiveness analysis with stakeholder deliberation. Little is known however, about the facilitation challenges when ‘technical’ and ‘social’ elements are combined in a methodology. This paper investigates the facilitation challenges of implementing a DPS project within the English National Health Service (NHS). Our study examines the relationship between facilitation and the effectiveness of DPS processes, highlighting the importance of knowledge management as facilitators seek to translate technical information, to enhance the deliberative experience and promote legitimate decisions.     

Bayesian Vector Autoregression Forecasts of Chinese Steel Consumption

China consumed 116 million tonnes of steel in 2000, making it the largest consumer of steel in the world. China differs fundamentally from other countries at similar levels of economic development in that the secondary sector, the traditional consumer of steel products, already accounts for a significant proportion of domestic production. This suggests that little of any future growth in China's steel consumption will result from further rises in the ‘steel intensity’ of domestic production. Rather, growth in GDP will be the driving force behind future growth in steel consumption. This paper uses a macroeconomic Bayesian vector autoregression model to forecast steel consumption in China to 2010. This technique uses historical correlations among the variables in a system of equations and Bayesian priors on the estimated parameters, to introduce more flexibility into the forecasting process and align the models closer in nature to structural commodity market models. The forecasts suggest that steel consumption in China will rise from 116 million tonnes in 2000 to around 182 million tonnes in 2010.     

A conceptual model of consumer evaluation of recreation service quality

The paper develops a model which is intended to explain the process by which a consumer evaluates recreation service quality. Much of the difficulty in measuring the quality of recreation services can be attributed to their intangibility, heterogeneity, and the inseparability of their production and consumption functions. Dimensions of recreation services are operationalized in the article, and the criteria used by consumers for evaluating recreation service quality are discussed. Recreation service quality is defined as the outcome of a comparison between expectations of a service and what is perceived to be received. Since much of the reported work in the area of service quality has been undertaken in a commercial context, key differences in the public and commercial sectors which may impact consumers' expectations of recreation services are discussed and integrated into the model.     

World Leisure and Recreation Association International Position Statement on Leisure Education and Community Development

Tourism as a Factor in National and Regional Development. Proceedings of a meeting of the International Geographical Union's Working Group on the Geography of Tourism and Recreation, September 1974. Occasional Paper 4. Trent University, Department of Geography, Petersborough, Ontario, 1975. Pp. 107

Work and Leisure. An Interdisciplinary Study in Theory, Education and Planning. Edited by J. T. Haworth and M. A. Smith. Princeton, Princeton Book Company, 1976. Pp. 216

The Golden Hordes: International Tourism and the Pleasure Periphery. By Louis Turner and John Ash. London, Constable, 1975. Pp.319.

Florida's Disney World: Promises and Problems. By Leonard E. Zehnder. Tallahassee, Florida, The Peninsular Publishing Company, 1975. Pp 360     

A Comparison of Preferences and Perceptions of Alternate Equity Operationalizations

Seven operationalizations of equity that offer alternate criteria for allocating resources for leisure services were assessed using residents in a Texas city. The operationalizations were compensatory, equality, taxes paid, direct price, efficiency, advocacy and professional judgment. Two samples of data were selected using mail surveys of 903 households and by personal delivery and pickup at 200 additional minority households. A preference/perception grid showed professional judgment as being the only operationalization which received an above average score on both scales. Differences in residents' preferences and perceptions were related to gender, ethnicity and home value and not related to years of residence in the community or frequency with which residents used park and recreation services.     

Reformulating the conceptualization of marketing in the context of public leisure services

The authors deconstructed the prevailing conceptualization of public leisure marketing and concluded it rests on three principles: voluntary exchange, an open system organization, and self-interest motivation. A review of the genesis of these principles revealed that alternative principles were ignored. These were analysed and a panel of eight experts was interviewed to solicit their views on the relative merit of the prevailing and alternative principles. Based on an analysis of the alternative assumptions and the panel's input, a revised conceptualization of public leisure marketing was suggested which incorporated the principles of redistribution, the features of a closed-system organization, and public interest motivation. A revised definition of public leisure services marketing is offered based on these principles.     

Conceptualization and alternate operationalizations of the measurement of sponsorship effectiveness in sport

A model that integrates the communication and product adoption processes is developed and is used to evaluate the effectiveness of alternate measures of sponsorship. The further through the communication process an evaluation takes place, the stronger is the evidence of a sponsorship’s contribution to increasing sales. The most frequently used sponsorship measure is media equivalency values. These frequently inflate the real value of media coverage. Further, this approach is fundamentally conceptually flawed because it measures only the extent of media output and offers no insight as to whether people absorbed the message. Studies measuring changes in consumers’ awareness usually rely on people’s recall of a sponsor’s name being associated with an event, but recall is notoriously faulty. Image enhancement is a state closer to assessing impact on sales and is best measured by ‘strength of link’, reflecting the extent to which a brand has borrowed an event’s image. Intent‐to‐purchase studies are the stage immediately preceding sales and can be done by surveying audiences and identifying their brand and product desires and their purchase habits. The most desirable measure from a sponsor’s perspective is impact on sales, which may be expressed as: (i) increases in traffic at retail points of sale; (ii) number of new sales leads created; or (iii) actual increase in sales associated with a sponsorship.     

Distribution decisions for public services

A systematic approach formulating public sector distribution decisions is suggested. The approach starts with an audit to identify who is getting how much of a service. When the existing allocation pattern is known, then objectives are set which amend or perpetuate this pattern in accordance with the agency's preferred distribution model. A distribution strategy plan is developed which establishes what will be done to implement the objectives. The plan consists of the following four main sets of decisions: (1) the channel of distribution; (2) intensity of distribution; (3) selection of site locations; and (4) schedule of service delivery.