Creating a scale for assessing socially sustainable tourism

As destinations absorb ever increasing number of visitors, destination managers become progressively more concerned about the longer term viability of tourism from a resident's perspective. However, few studies have examined the application of real-time social sustainability within tourism, particularly how to measure impacts on social sustainability. This study outlines the development of a valid and reliable scale – the Scale of Social Sustainability (SSS) – for tourism that provides an assessment of social sustainability in destination settings. A 10-step procedure was developed drawing upon the related literature. A telephone poll-based survey generated 1839 valid responses from Hong Kong residents. Hong Kong's growing popularity as a destination provides a rich array of host–guest conflict situations. Dimensionality was identified using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Construct validity, reliability, and stability were assessed, and found good, showing that the scale could be used by other destinations worldwide. The theoretical and managerial implications of the scale are discussed, including options for annual surveys giving policy-makers alerts before situations worsen. Detailed host resident viewpoints and the large scale of the survey can help local residents be informed about tourism development and better involved in the policy formation process.     

Managerial response to constitutional constraints on shareholder power

Research summary: We examine whether top managers engage in misconduct, such as illegal insider trading, illegal stock option backdating, bribery, and financial manipulation, in response to the presence, or absence, of governance provisions that impose constitutional constraints on shareholder power. Within the agency framework, shareholders typically oppose governance provisions that limit their power because those provisions could undermine shareholder influence and increase agency costs. However, when shareholders support provisions that constrain their power, managers could respond positively by refraining from self‐interested behavior in the form of managerial misconduct. We find this to be especially true in industries where these governance provisions are particularly relevant to managers and in scenarios where CEOs do not also serve as board chair. Managerial summary: In recent years, shareholders have become central to organizations and the managers who run them. Shareholders and managers establish a rapport with one another, such that the behavior of one affects the behavior of the other. One of the most consequential decisions shareholders can make pertains to the reach of their influence: They can choose to impose strict governance over firms they own or they can allow for constitutional constraints that limit shareholder power. When they act in the mutual interest of managers by allowing such constraints, we find that managers respond in kind by refraining from bad behavior, such as illegal stock options backdating, insider trading, and financial manipulation. This is especially true in industries and scenarios in which shareholder pressure is most relevant to managers. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The stereotyping of tourism management students in a business school setting

Previous research has shown that students in business schools hold stereotypes concerning their peers who are undertaking different specializations. Yet, to the authors’ knowledge, no research to date has investigated the stereotyping of tourism management students by other business students. The present study seeks to fill this research gap. The insights are important because negative perceptions exacerbate the challenge of attracting high-quality prospects for tourism degree programs and of producing graduates who enjoy favorable recognition by their peers and by industry. Tourism management students are future leaders who are critical to the long-term sustainability and competitiveness of the tourism sector. In-depth interviews revealed three stereotyping themes: personality attribution, legitimacy, and professionalism. The study concludes by discussing potential stereotype-reducing strategies.     

Friday the 13th and the philosophical basis of financial economics

The Friday the 13th anomaly of Kolb and Rodriguez (1987) is revisited in an international context. Drawing on the philosophy of science approach of Lakatos (1978), the paper argues the importance of “anomalies” and the need for triangulation. Using the FTSE world indices over 1988–2000 for 19 countries, it is found that there is some evidence that returns on Friday the 13th are statistically different from, and generally greater than, returns on other Fridays. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of the possibility of an emergent paradigm incorporating work such as Jacobsen and Bouman (1998) and Kamstra, Kramer, and Levi (2000a). Thanks to my colleagues in the School of Business Brown Bag Lunch series, especially Dr. Martin Fellenz and Dr. Patrick Butler, and also to the editor, for valuable suggestions.     

Market Efficiency Anomalies in Korea: Mispricing vs. Omitted Risk Factors

Using a sample of Korean firms, this paper examines whether abnormal returns to various trading strategies based on publicly available information are consistent with mispricing (market inefficiency) or with the fundamental variables proxying for omitted risk factors. Results of various tests indicate that significant abnormal trading profits observed from DeBondt and Thaler';s (1985) contrarian strategy and Ou and Penman';s (1989) and Holthausen and Larcker';s (1992) Pr-strategies are likely to be a result of market mispricing, while those from trading strategies based on firm size, earnings-to-price ratios, and book-to-price ratios are likely to be a result of omitted risk factors.     

Food management in tourism: Reducing tourism’s carbon ‘foodprint’

Food production and consumption have a range of sustainability implications, including their contribution to global emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs). As some foodstuffs entail higher GHG emissions than others, managing their use in tourism-related contexts could make a significant contribution to climate change mitigation. This article reviews the carbon intensity of selected foods and discusses how foodservice providers could adapt their practices. It shows that even though food management could substantially reduce the GHG emissions of foodservice providers, its application is currently hampered by the complexity of food production chains and a lack of dependable data on the GHG intensity of foodstuffs. Nevertheless, it is possible to make a number of recommendations in respect of how foodservice providers can better purchase, prepare and present foods. Further research is now needed to refine and extend our understanding of the contribution that food management can make to reducing tourism’s carbon ‘foodprint’.     

Implementing Pillar II of the Common Agricultural Policy in England: Geographies of the Rural Enterprise Scheme and Processing and Marketing Grant

This paper examines the geography of two policy instruments – the Rural Enterprise Scheme (RES) and the Processing and Marketing Grant (PMG) – that formed part of the second ‘pillar’ of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in England between 2000 and 2006. It starts by outlining the ongoing debate over the role of geography in policy research, an outcome of which has been a call for more empirical work that explores the ‘difference that place makes’ in the implementation of public funding mechanisms. The paper argues that the CAP is ripe for geographical analysis, as the Agenda 2000 reforms can be interpreted as moving it away from a ‘sectoral’ (agricultural) approach to a more ‘territorial’ (rural development) one. After outlining the place of the RES and PMG in the reformed CAP in England, the paper discusses three factors – farm size, proportion of land rented and location – that may have influenced their geographies. The distribution of grant approvals under these schemes is then mapped using location quotients. Following this, the potential influence of the factors outlined above is tested using the Kolmogorov–Smirnov statistic. The conclusion revisits the opening discussion by reflecting on the difference that place has made to the implementation of the PMG and RES.     

A Comparison of Conjoint Analysis Response Formats

A split-sample design is used to evaluate the convergent validity of three response formats used in conjoint analysis experiments. We investigate whether recoding rating data to rankings and choose-one formats, and recoding ranking data to choose one, result in structural models and welfare estimates that are statistically indistinguishable from estimates based on ranking or choose-one questions. Our results indicate that convergent validity of ratings, ranks, and choose one is not established. In addition, we find that people frequently use "ties" in responses to rating questions, and that the option not to choose any of the alternatives ("opt-out") affects some preference estimates.