Migration,intermediate inputs and real wages

To examine the effects of immigration on real wages it is important to focus on the interaction between the labour and intermediate input markets. Immigration can lead to more extensive exploitation of external and internal efficiencies in other input markets, resulting in higher real wages in the destination country.     

The Role of Service Quality,Perceived Value,and Relationship Quality in Enhancing Customer Loyalty in the Travel Agency Sector

Relationship quality is crucial to enhancing a tourist’s loyalty. Little empirical research has been conducted to link service quality, perceived value, and relationship quality to customer loyalty in the travel agency sector. This study attempts to investigate the role of service quality, perceived value, and relationship quality on customer loyalty among tourists. Relationship quality consists of three components: customer satisfaction, customer trust, and customer commitment. Structural equation modeling is used to test the linkages between the six variables that have been identified. Findings reveal that service quality and perceived value of a travel package are antecedent factors to the relationship quality with a travel agency; three components of relationship quality significantly influence a customer’s loyalty to a travel agency.     

Local reactions to mass tourism and community tourism development in Macau

By 2014, it became apparent that a popular debate was emerging in many destinations about the “annoyances” felt by local residents in the face of an upsurge in inbound tourism. This study investigates residents’ attitudes toward mass tourism and tourism development in Macau. It comprises an examination of three emotional solidarity factors of residents’ perceptions of the contribution of tourism to the community and the community's experiences of so-called “annoyances” from tourists that may ultimately influence residents’ attitudes toward community tourism development. The results of this study reveal that three emotional solidarity factors play different roles in influencing residents’ attitudes about community tourism and community tourism development. The theoretical contributions, as well as implications, are discussed and future research opportunities are proposed.     

Systematic sampling of nonlinear models: Evidence on speed of adjustment in index futures markets

Based on the cost‐of‐carry model of future prices, a number of studies have estimated nonlinear autoregressive models for the basis at different frequencies (see, e.g., Dwyer GP, Locke, P, & Yu, W, 1996 ; Monoyios M and Sarno L, 2002 ; Taylor N, van Dijk D, Franses PH, & Lucas A, 2000 ). The structure of the models and the speed of adjustment to shocks reported are radically different. In this paper we examine the implications of systematic sampling. The results obtained show that regular sampling of the process seems important in attempting to explain the apparently contradictory results reported on the speed of adjustment to shocks in the cost‐of‐carry model. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 31:192–203, 2011     

The product development process of an enterprise from an SSME perspective

This study empirically explores a real-world manufacturer product development process from a service science perspective. In this era of keen global competition, the process of product development is crucial for companies before the final product is launched to the market. The poor development of a product can fail to meet customer needs and result in product failure, which can even lead to significant losses for manufacturers. However, traditional product development processes are much more manufacture-oriented rather than customer-involved. In this paper, we aim to use the Service science, management, and engineering (SSME) perspective, proposed by IBM, to improve product demand asymmetries by discovering true user requirements in order to enhance customer involvement and lead to better product development. We show how SSME is applied in the context of product development and in the discovery of customer needs, and propose a modified process based on SSME to the product development process.     

Antecedents of consumers' time perceptions in a hypermarket retailer

This study examines the effects of five antecedents on consumers' time perceptions in a hypermarket environment. Findings indicate that the actual shopping time spent in the store and planned shopping activities significantly influence consumers' shopping time perceptions, while consumers' waiting time perceptions are driven by both actual checkout waiting time and actual shopping time. The article examines time gaps, i.e. consumers' errors in time estimation, as related to store loyalty intention and finds that past consumer purchases moderate the relationship between both time gaps and store loyalty intention. Managerial implications are discussed in the article.     

What drives the Bitcoin price? A factor augmented error correction mechanism investigation

This article aims to determine what drives the price of Bitcoin. To achieve this aim, a large set of data is analysed using VEC models augmented by factors representing unobservable economic forces. They have been obtained by means of principal component analysis. This method enables us to contribute to the existing literature on Bitcoin in two ways. First, we employ the dimension reduction technique to combine variables from several papers. Second, we estimate several unobservable economic concepts instead of utilizing proxy variables as is usually done. We find that the main factor driving the Bitcoin price is its popularity. Hence, our result not only confirms some previous findings but reinforces them by providing a better definition of popularity. Finally, we conclude that the Bitcoin price is not affected by supply and demand factors in the way that is natural for conventional currencies.