Budgeting practices in the Turkish hospitality industry: An exploratory survey in the Antalya region

The present study aims to explore budgeting practices of Turkish hotels in the Antalya region which is the most prominent tourism center of the country. The results indicate that having a budget committee and budget manual are common for Turkish hotels. Secondly, participative budgeting is advocated within the industry. Furthermore, budget period seems dynamic, because hotels state that they revise budgets and make periodic reporting within the budget period. Profitability and cost control are the primary reasons in budget preparation. Finally, budgets are viewed as one of the primary performance indicators.     

Quantifying the socio-economic determinants of sustainable crop production: an application to wheat cultivation in the Tarai of Nepal

This study specifies a procedure to quantify the determinants of sustainable crop production, and applies the method to wheat cultivation in the Tarai of Nepal. Three aspects of sustainability were considered. First, the fertility of the land was found to have deteriorated owing to long-term practices incompatible with soil and drainage conditions. Three-quarters of the farmers had reduced land fertility and for one-third of them the wheat yield was at least 20% lower than for farmers who applied farmyard manure to every crop and adopted a rotation consistent with soil and drainage conditions. Secondly, the study found that it was possible to improve resource-use efficiency in wheat production to give 25% higher production at current levels, type, and quality of farm resources. Resource-use efficiency was significantly related to farm management practices such as crop stand, variety, disease, and land preparation quality, and socio-economic factors such as off-farm job opportunities, poor plot accessibility, and migration. Thirdly, the increasing population pressure on land, decreasing livestock number per cropped area, and diminishing fuel wood sources, significantly reduced farm-based nutrient cycling because farmyard manure had to be used for fuel. This had implications for the higher use of the fossil-based inputs in crop production.     

Corporate mergers and union wage premiums

Corporate mergers possibly enhance the labor negotiation advantage of employers. This study investigates the association between wage levels and merger activity to test the employer bargaining strength hypothesis. The results indicate significantly lower union wages as a consequence of merging. Merger activity, however, does not influence wage levels of non-union workers. These findings are supportive of the employer bargaining strength hypothesis.     

What makes you click?—Mate preferences in online dating

We estimate mate preferences using a novel data set from an online dating service. The data set contains detailed information on user attributes and the decision to contact a potential mate after viewing his or her profile. This decision provides the basis for our preference estimation approach. A potential problem arises if the site users strategically shade their true preferences. We provide a simple test and a bias correction method for strategic behavior. The main findings are (i) There is no evidence for strategic behavior. (ii) Men and women have a strong preference for similarity along many (but not all) attributes. (iii) In particular, the site users display strong same-race preferences. Race preferences do not differ across users with different age, income, or education levels in the case of women, and differ only slightly in the case of men. For men, but not for women, the revealed same-race preferences correspond to the same-race preference stated in the users’ profile. (iv) There are gender differences in mate preferences; in particular, women have a stronger preference than men for income over physical attributes.     

An Approach to Security for Unstructured Big Data

Security of Big Data is a huge concern. In a broad sense, Big Data contains two types of data: structured and unstructured. Providing security to unstructured data is more difficult than providing security to structured data. In this paper, we have developed an approach to provide adequate security to unstructured data by considering types of data and their sensitivity levels. We have reviewed the different analytics methods of Big Data to build nodes of different types of data. Each type of data has been classified to provide adequate security and enhance the overhead of the security system. To provide security to a data node, and a security suite has been designed by incorporating different security algorithms. Those security algorithms collectively form a security suite which has been interfaced with the data node. Information on data sensitivity has been collected through a survey. We have shown through several experiments on multiple computer systems with varied configurations that data classification with respect to sensitivity levels enhances the performance of the system. The experimental results show how and in what amount the designed security suite reduces overhead and increases security simultaneously.     

The effect of the dynamics of knowledge base complexity on Schumpeterian patterns of innovation: the upstream petroleum industry

This article analyzes important changes in technological innovation in the upstream petroleum industry. It provides evidence that shifts in sectoral patterns of innovation over the petroleum industry's lifecycle from the 1970s up to 2005 were dependent on the dynamics of knowledge base complexity (KBC), a key dimension of an industry's technological regime. Accordingly, observed shifts in innovation patterns are understood to be the aggregated strategic response of industry innovators to changes in the technological regime. The article proposes a quantitative method for exploring KBC and Schumpeterian patterns of innovation, and interactions between the two at the industry level. As the industry evolved, its knowledge base moved to higher orders of complexity creating a shift in the Schumpeterian pattern of innovation. Increased KBC was found to alter Schumpeterian patterns from Mark I toward a ‘modified’ Mark II. Instead of coming predominantly from ‘traditional’ established oil operators, technological innovation was increasingly triggered by a new class of emergent integrated service companies – ‘second tier’ systems integrators of the upstream sector able to cope with increased KBC.     

Hydrochloric acid tank explosion

Explosions in hydrogen chloride storage tanks are very rare. However, we have experienced one. The explosion was so powerful that the tank with a capacity 250 kL, 60% filled with 33% HCL, took off from the ground went up to 8–9 m high in air and landed around 50 m away. The contents of the tank sprayed all over the nearby area. Though the tank was surrounded by other plants and equipment, fortunately, it landed in a barren area. This averted loss of life and property that would have otherwise resulted. © 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Process Saf Prog, 2009     

Internal green integration and environmental performance: The predictive power of proactive environmental strategy,greening the supplier,and environmental collaboration with the supplier

The effect of proactive environmental strategies (PES) on corporate performance has been debated extensively among academics; however, the significance of the pathway of those strategies—internal green integration (IGI) through greening the supplier (GTS) and environmental collaboration with suppliers (ECS)—remains undecided. This study examines environmental performance (EP) through GTS, IGI, and ECS. It also examines the direct link between PES and IGI. A conceptual framework was designed following a rigorous review of the literature. A survey questionnaire was used to collect cross-sectional data from a random sample of manufacturing firms, obtaining 196 usable samples. Using AMOS, the structural equal modeling found a positive and significant impact of PES on IGI. Significant predictors of EP were GTS, IGI, and ECS. The findings of the study can provide managers with guidelines for dealing with business and environmental concerns. They can also contribute to creating strategies for environmental protection and management and reducing adverse effects on the environment. Finally, by examining the direct links between GTS, ECS, and EP, particularly in a developing context, the study may contribute to the literature of environmental policy.