Perceptions of climate change impacts,adaptation and limits to adaption in the Australian Alps: the ski-tourism industry and key stakeholders

This paper explores perceptions of ski-tourism representatives and other regional stakeholders about climate change impacts, limits to tourism development and adaptation strategies in the Australian Alps. This area faces rising temperatures, declining rain and snow falls, and shorter skiing seasons. Open-ended interviews examined the perceptions, plans and attitudes of the ski industry and those of conservation managers, local government officials and Australian researchers into tourism and/or climate change effects in the Australian Alps. All interviewees accepted climate change was a reality; several, however, questioned the worst-case scenarios. The major tourism-related adaptation strategies were snowmaking and diversifying to year-round tourism; the success of these strategies will vary according to individual resorts’ snowmaking capacity and potential summer tourism revenue. Currently non-snow-based tourism revenue is worth only approximately 30% of winter revenue. Social resistance to increased water and electricity use for snowmaking emerged as an important issue. Competition for water, including the needs of ecosystems, agriculture and fire protection in this summer-fire-prone region, and fire management issues, is a key concern. Current conflicts between the ski industry and other stakeholders over climate change adaptation call for a collaborative adaptation and change policy within the Australian Alps.     

Productivity and Efficiency Measurement in Our “New Economy”: Determinants,Interactions, and Policy Relevance

Interpreting and using productivity and efficiency measures requires establishing the determinants and implications of observed performance. This is not a simple task, however, given the complex interactions among economic entities in modern markets. Identifying and quantifying performance drivers often involves parametric estimation of models with explicit performance factors build into functions representing technology and behavior. Here I overview some such studies in the literature on food system economic performance, to emphasize the potential to empirically represent a more complex web of technological and market phenomena than in standard productivity analyses, to enhance the measures' interpretability and relevance for policy guidance.     

The influences of Confucianism, Feng Shui and Buddhism in Chinese accounting history

This paper attempts to examine the influences of Confucianism, Feng Shui and Buddhism on the evolution of Chinese accounting before recent accounting reforms commencing in the 1980s. Chinese cultural variables (e.g. Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, etc.) have been widely utilized in studying Chinese accounting systems, the accounting profession and the evolution of Chinese accounting techniques. However, the literature has not taken into account the traditional Chinese Feng Shui belief, which was broadly considered as the most important part of Chinese traditional culture. There is much evidence to show that Chinese accounting development was not only influenced by Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, but also by the prevalence of Feng Shui belief in ancient China over thousands of years. This paper first discusses the concepts of culture and describes Confucianism, Feng Shui and Buddhism in China, and then examines the influences of Confucianism, Feng Shui and Buddhism on the evolution of Chinese accounting. The influences discussed are those on bookkeeping methods, accounting information, accounting profession/accountants, regulating and standardizing accounting practice, government accounting and private-sector accounting respectively. This paper also identifies some areas for future research in Chinese accounting history and culture.     

Dual-route communication of destination websites

To understand the communication route of destination websites, this study employed the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) which is a dual-route, multi-process model of persuasive message processing. That is, this study proposed a theoretical model for the dual-route persuasive process based on ELM, investigated its antecedents and consequences, and identified the moderating effect of involvement. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is used to test the validity of the conceptual model. The results indicate that highly involved people are inclined to elaborate on information (central route), while people with low involvement are likely to make judgments based on simple cues (peripheral route). Website design characteristics are an important antecedent of both central and peripheral-route persuasions. Attitudes resulting from careful consideration via the central route are more predictive of conation and behavior (further information searching and travel intentions) than those formed via the peripheral route. The study provides a foundation for further tourism research investigating the Internet as a persuasive tool, and suggests strategies for website designers.     

中国需求带动全球金属回收

过去5年，由于金属价格大涨，全世界范围内爆发了一股金属盗窃浪潮——盗窃目标从教堂屋顶上的铅到下水道的钢质井盖，无所不包。但也正因为废品经销商四处搜罗金属，本轮金属牛市也促使了废弃生锈汽车、农用机器和废弃建筑材料得以回收。     

Economic performance, cost economies and pricing behaviour in the US and Australian meat products industries

The cost and demand structures of meat products industries in the US and Australia from 1970 to 1991 are examined. Scale economies, technical change and trade impacts and output pricing behaviour are evaluated, using short- and long-run input cost and input and output demand elasticities. The greatest technological impacts stem from large-scale economies, which are similar across countries. Unit cost savings from output expansion involve capital investment and materials saving in the long run, although input-specific patterns vary by country. Import competition appears to motivate capital expansion further. Finally, large mark-ups of price over marginal cost are found, which are consistent with low profits as a result of the underlying scale economies.     

The impact of voluntary environmental protection instruments on company environmental performance

In the last decade there has been increasing emphasis on the use of voluntary environmental protection tools such as corporate environmental reporting (CER) and environmental management systems (EMSs). There has been relatively little research, however, on the impact of these tools on the actual environmental performance of companies. This paper presents the findings of a survey of 40 companies operating in Western Australia to determine the extent to which the implementation of two voluntary instruments has influenced company environmental performance. The research considered four questions: To what extent have CER and EMSs influenced the environmental performance of companies operating in Western Australia? What are the characteristics of these influences? How does the influence of EMSs on environmental performance compare to that of CER? Have other external factors concurrently influenced environmental performance? In general, most respondents indicated that EMSs had influenced environmental management practices to some extent. On the other hand, CER was seen more as a public relations exercise and had less impact on company practices compared with EMSs. Other factors that influenced environmental performance included pressure from clients, senior management, the public and regulators; corporate culture; and cost savings. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Structural determinants of government budget deficits in developing countries

The purpose of this study is to examine the possibility that certain structural factors make some developing countries more likely to incur government budget deficits than others. Empirical evidence is provided to support the hypotheses that developing countries are likely to have larger government budget deficits the lower their level of economic development, the greater the degree of government participation in the economy, and the less control exercised over government expenditures. Less convincing support is given for the hypothesis that revenue instability contributes to government budget deficits. An unexpected result of the study is that growth of government revenues is positively related to budget deficits, which leads the author to consider the possibility of a ‘Please effect’.