Different voices from community groups to support sustainable tourism development at Iranian World Heritage Sites: evidence from Bisotun

Abstract

This empirical study investigates the causal factors affecting support for sustainable tourism development (SSTD) at a world heritage site in Bisotun, a city in Kermanshah Province, Iran. It uses social exchange theory to assess the effects of community attachment, community involvement, perceived benefits, and perceived costs on SSTD. Using social identity theory, it identifies whether these associations significantly vary across four different community groups: farmers, businesses, handicraft sellers, and local government employees. A questionnaire was administered to 489 respondents from these four community groups in the Bisotun area. The hypotheses were tested using structural equation modelling and invariance metric tests. The results revealed that community attachment, community involvement, and perceived benefits had a significant and positive impact on SSTD. The results of the metric invariance tests show that the effects of community attachment and community involvement on SSTD varied across the community groups at this world heritage site located in a developing country. The study discusses the theoretical and managerial implications of these findings.     

An examination of the Fisher Hypothesis: the case of Turkey

This study examines the famous Fisher Hypothesis (FH) for Turkey. FH asserts that nominal interest rates adjust on a one-to-one basis to expected changes in inflation rates. Using the Johansen cointegration method for the Turkish monthly interest rate and inflation rate data, we find that it is possible to determine the long-run relationship—but not the one-to-one basis—between nominal interest rates and inflation. Our findings suggest that full FH does not hold but there is a very powerfull Fisher effect in the case of Turkey from 1990 to 2003.     

THE EFFECT ON POVERTY STATUS IN ISRAEL OF CONSIDERING WEALTH AND VARIABILITY OF INCOME

This paper assesses the effects of including wealth and the variability of income on the incidence of poverty and the degree of income inequality in Israel. A special survey, which includes data on the wealth and income of a national sample of Israeli families in 1963–64 and 1964–65, allows us to go beyond measures based on current income alone.
The first section reviews earlier studies of poverty in Israel. The next section looks at poverty and inequality in terms of current income, current wealth, and a combined measure of income and wealth. The combined measure is the Hansen-Weisbrod measure (HW), which equals income plus the annuity value of wealth, assuming all wealth is just consumed at the time of death. It is interesting that, in spite of the much higher wealth inequality than income inequality, the HW measure was slightly more equally distributed than income. This result occurred because the annuity component made up a low share of the total HW measure and the correlation between income and wealth was well under 1. Although overall inequality and poverty were similar for income and HW measures, the incidence of poverty by subgroup depended on the measure used.
The final section presents a dynamic view of poverty and inequality. Year-to-year changes in poverty were substantial. Because of the use of a relative poverty concept and the rise in real incomes, the real income poverty line rose by 15 percent between 1963 and 1964. Still, of those in income poverty in 1963, 37 percent managed to escape poverty in 1964. The paper shows how the degree to which poverty was stable or transitory varied substantially by age and country of origin.     

An empirical study of the usefulness of human resources turnover costs in australian accounting firms

This paper reports the results of a laboratory experiment designed to evaluate the usefulness of applying Human Resources Accounting (HRA) to the problem of labour turnover management decision making in a sample of Australian accounting firms. Useful was defined as a reduction in uncertainty and an increase in relevance and sufficiency. Using a pretest-post-test research design, 57 volunteer accountants responsible for personnel decisions were individually administered (1) a two-part pilot tested case study with and without Human Resources Turnover Costs (HRTC); (2) a questionnaire which measured subjects' response to levels of uncertainty, relevance and sufficiency of the information. Three specific hypotheses tested warranted the conclusion that HRTC information significantly reduced accountants' levels of uncertainty and increased their levels of relevance and sufficiency.     

A comparison of conventional versus Islamic banking customers attitudes and judgment

This investigates the impact of customer attitude and judgment regarding conventional and Islamic banking system in Pakistan. This study attempts to find out, how the customers of Islamic banks perceive about Islamic banking practices in terms of Shariah compliance and conventional banking system regarding earning more profits. This study consists on primary data through a well design questionnaire. Four hundred and thirty (430) questionnaires were distributed among different customers of all three types of banking, such as Islamic, conventional and stand-alone branches in order to investigate customer’s attitude and judgment toward banking system. The findings indicate that overall 28% of Islamic banking customers don’t know the essential concept of Islamic financial institution’s in Pakistan. Furthermore, 54% customers of conventional banking show their interest to convert their accounts toward Islamic banks.

     

Money laundering and audit fees

We investigate the association between state-level money laundering sentences and audit fees in the US. Money laundering measures a broad category of offenses involving financial transactions using funds or monetary instruments gained through criminal activities and tax evasion. We find that firms headquartered in US states with high rates of money laundering sentences pay more audit fees. Our results suggest that auditors incorporate, as a fee premium, the higher risks involved when clients operate in those states. Our result remains robust to alternative specifications of money laundering proxies, and to the inclusion of a number of firm-level and state-level control variables. We also conduct two-stage least squares and propensity score matching analysis to mitigate the endogeneity problem that might arise from omitted variables, reverse causality, or model misspecification problems.     

Auditors' behaviour in an audit conflict situation: A research note on the role of locus of control and ethical reasoning

This study investigates the interaction effects of locus of control, a personality variable, and ethical reasoning on the behaviour of auditors in an audit conflict situation. Eighty experienced auditors from a sample of Big Six and Non-Big Six CPA firms in Hong Kong were provided with a case study involving an audit conflict situation and were asked to state the extent to which they would accede to the client's request. Subjects were also administered Rotter's Locus of Control Scale and the Denning Issues Test (DIT) to measure ethical reasoning. Analyses of the data using multiple regression found that ethical reasoning moderated the relationship between locus of control and the auditors' responses to accede to client's request in an audit conflict situation. An implication of these results is that the explicit recognition of both locus of control and ethical reasoning provides a better explanation for differences in auditors' ethical decision making.     

An Analysis of Joint Effects of Investment Opportunity Set,Free Cash Flows and Size on Corporate Debt Policy

This study, based on a sample of 1869 observations from 1989 to 1993 for non-regulated U.S. firms, examines the association between investment opportunity set (IOS), free cash flows (FCF) and debt, and also tests whether firm size acts as a moderating variable on this association. The results show that there is a significantly positive association between FCF and debt for low IOS firms, which provide support to Jensen's (1986) control hypothesis. The results also show that the positive association between debt and high FCF for low IOS firms is more pronounced for large firms, suggesting that the firm size serves as a moderating variable on the association.     

An Analysis of Hong Kong Auditors' Perceptions of the Importance of Selected Red Flag Factors in Risk Assessment

This study examined auditors' perceptions of the relative level of risk of fraud and material irregularities associated with the presence of six red flag factors and also evaluated the quality of auditors' judgements. The study was conducted in two stages. In the first stage, subjects were asked to rank the importance of 15 factors that proxy the existence of material misstatements. Based on the responses to this questionnaire, 6 of the most important factors were identified and included in the second stage, a lens model experiment. In the lens model experiment, 30 experienced auditors from a cross-section of Big 6 firms were used as subjects in a repeated-measures ANOVA design. Results showed that misstatements in prior audits and indicators of going-concern problems were perceived to be the most significant factors in alerting auditors to the risk of fraud and material irregularities. In making these judgements, auditors demonstrated a relatively high level of consensus and consistency. However, the two most important factors in the lens model experiment are not the same as the results of the first survey suggesting that the first group of respondents, faced with a simple questionnaire, used heuristics in their decision making. The results have implications for audit practice.