Understanding travel expenditure by means of market segmentation

Consolidated tourism destinations should expand their market share by focusing on tourism spending instead of number of travellers. This strategy emphasises satisfying the preferences and needs of tourists more dynamically in terms of their expenditure patterns. The purpose of this paper consists of evaluating the usefulness of an expenditure-based segmentation as a relevant instrument of tourism policy in order to increase the economic benefits from travellers to Andalusia. More specifically, by means of decision trees and linear regression statistical techniques, heavy spenders are identified as well as exploring which variables might be considered as the best predictors of travel expenditure. Finally, the implications of the results are discussed, as they may provide practical guidance for tourism practitioners at similar destinations.     

New services margin/high success discriminators

The present range of services, particularly financial, is subject to high privatisation and competition. Anticipating the future return of new projects is a critical challenge that confronts marketing managers at present. However, the transfer of success models from new products to services has not allowed a global vision of the internal and external environment that best set up the success of new services. Using a sample of 120 new Portuguese financial services (67 successful/57 failures), this study examines the relationships foreseen by a global model of success determinants of new services, i.e., formulates and tests hypotheses relative to the differentiated impact of the strategic and environmental factors on the multiple return indicators. The results of a binary logistic regression analysis suggest that a group of factors that best discriminate between new services of average and high return, through its different indicators that distinguishes the factors, is slightly different and less than one that distinguishes between successful and failed innovations.     

News and the cross-section of expected corporate bond returns

We study the cross-section of expected corporate bond returns using an inter-temporal CAPM (ICAPM) with three-factors: innovations in future excess bond returns, future real interest rates and future expected inflation. Our test assets are a broad range of corporate bond market index portfolios. We find that two factors – innovations about future inflation and innovations about future real interest rates – explain the cross-section of expected corporate bond returns in our sample. Our model provides an alternative to the ad hoc risk factor models used, for example, in evaluating the performance of bond mutual funds.     

The antecedents of the use of continuous auditing in the internal auditing context

The concept of continuous auditing originated over two decades ago. Yet despite its much touted benefits, its acceptance and use in practice has been slow. To gain insight into the state of affairs, we surveyed 210 internal auditors worldwide on the status of their use of continuous auditing. Using the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) we explore the antecedents of internal auditors' intentions to use continuous auditing technology. Employing the Partial Least Squares method, we find strong support for the model with an R² of 44.3%. Specifically, we find that internal auditors' perceptions of effort expectancy and social influence are significant predictors of their intentions to use continuous auditing. We also find that annual sales volume of the company and voluntariness of use significantly moderate the relationship between performance expectancy and social influence respectively. Additionally, we find regional differences in the significance of key UTAUT antecedents. Specifically, we find that the North American internal auditors are more likely to use continuous auditing due to soft social coercion pressures of Social Influence through peers and higher authorities. On the other hand, Middle Eastern auditors are more likely to use the technology if it is mandated by the higher authorities.     

A discrete choice experiment to assess patients’ preferences for HIV treatment in the urban population in Colombia

Abstract

Aim: This study aimed to assess patients’ preferences for HIV treatment in an urban Colombian population.

Methods: A Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE) was conducted. Urban Colombian HIV patients were asked to repetitively choose between two hypothetical treatments that differ in regard to five attributes ‘effect on life expectancy’, ‘effect on physical activity’, ‘risk of moderate side effects, ‘accessibility to clinic’ and ‘economic cost to access controls’. Twelve choice sets were made using an efficient design. A Mixed Logit Panel Model was used for the analysis and subgroup analyses were performed according to age, gender, education level and sexual preference.

Results: A total of 224 HIV patients were included. All attributes were significant, indicating that there were differences between at least two levels of each attribute. Patients preferred to be able to perform all physical activity without difficulty, to have large positive effects on life expectancy, to travel less than 2?h, to have lower risk of side-effects and to have subsidized travel costs. The attributes ‘effect on physical activity’ and ‘effects on life expectancy’ were deemed the most important. Sub-analyses showed that higher educated patients placed more importance on the large positive effects of HIV treatment, and a more negative preference for subsidized travel cost (5% level).

Limitations: A potential limitation is selection bias as it is difficult to make a systematic urban/rural division of respondents. Additional, questionnaires were partly administered in the waiting rooms, which potentially led to some noise in the data.

Conclusions: Findings suggests that short-term efficacy (i.e. effect on physical activity) and long-term efficacy (i.e. effect on life expectancy) are the most important treatment characteristics for HIV urban patients in Colombia. Preference data could provide relevant information for clinical and policy decision-making to optimize HIV care.     

Road Travelers' Motivations and Loyalty: Train Versus Bus Services

ABSTRACT

Railroad and highway travel may differ not only in terms of their nature but also in terms of their appeal to travelers. Travelers may have different motivations to use either transportation mode in either inbound or outbound directions. Travelers may also demand different services or service traits of the provider in order to gain satisfaction in the short-term and/or become loyal customers in the long-term. This study uses a 2?×?2 design to compare train and a bus service between two cities 250 km apart in a country where these two means of transportation are equally essential. The study also compares the outbound and inbound routes in order to acknowledge additional differences in both the travelers' motivations and the customers' loyalty formation. The results show that travelers' motivations for choosing train or bus transportation differ based on whether they are leaving from or returning to the city that was the original point of departure. They also show that customers' long-term relationships with the provider significantly differ according to means of transportation and routes used. Characteristically, customers in the studied sample prefer train transport to leave and bus to return based on their idiosyncratic motivations of seeking value or money savings and their expectations of mutual loyalty. This research suggests practical consequences both for understanding travelers' motivations and customer loyalty formation and for managing policies regarding train and bus services competing for specific segments of travelers.