Tourism governance in protected areas: investigating the application of the adaptive co-management approach

Abstract

Protected areas have become popular tourism destinations; yet these areas are often plagued by poor governance systems, particularly in developing countries. Adaptive co-management (ACM) has been advocated as one approach to improve the governance of protected areas, yet empirical evidence from developing countries is lacking. This study investigates the application of the ACM approach in two protected areas in Bangladesh which are also important nature-based tourism destinations. Using Lawachara National Park and Sundarbans East Wildlife Sanctuary as cases, this qualitative study explored the extent to which an ACM approach was able to support the achievement of key governance principles such as participation, accountability, transparency, power, rule of law, and social learning. It was found that the approach was successful in facilitating the increased participation of a broader range of stakeholder groups, and the collaboration between them. Importantly though, it was the adaptive element of ACM which was found to have made the greatest contribution to improved governance with the approach providing new opportunities for stakeholders to engage in iterative learning. This aspect was found to be of particular importance for the sustainability of the protected areas with stakeholders reporting changes attitudes and behaviour towards protected area conservation.     

Corporate Social Reporting Practice: Evidence from Listed Companies in Bangladesh

This article presents an empirical investigation into the corporate social reporting practices of listed companies from Bangladesh, where corporate social reporting is a matter of voluntary disclosure. Analysis of annual reports published in 2007 reveals that only 15.45% of listed companies made such disclosures. This article presents an extensive survey of the contents, form, nature, and extent of corporate social reporting practices of listed companies. Analysis over a wide range of industries reveals that companies in the banking sector secure the highest rank in terms of corporate social reporting; three fourths of all disclosures are generalized qualitative statements without any attempt at attestation; more than one half of the disclosures are located in the director's report; and the mean amount of disclosures was less than half a page.     

Financial development and economic growth: an empirical evidence from the GCC countries using static and dynamic panel data

This paper contributes to the existing empirics of finance-growth nexus of all GCC countries with new results based on a larger dataset and longer time period 1975–2012, incorporating additional control variables, FDI, interaction term of FDI & financial development variables, and oil production. We employed four estimation techniques, Pooled OLS, Fixed effect estimation, Random effect estimation, and the system GMM estimation and used static and dynamic panel data. We obtain a robust finding of consistently a positive effect of financial sector development (FSD) on economic growth of GCC region with implication that a substantial improvement in FSD was in place. The results indicate that FDI, Fixed capital formation and oil production contribute positively to the economic growth of this region. The study results signify for a continuity of the on-going financial reform process, supervision & monitoring exercises to bring hitherto more dividends to the GCC economies.     

Women Managers and The Gender-Based Gap in Access to Education: Evidence from Firm-Level Data in Developing Countries

A number of studies explore the differences in men's and women's labor market participation rates and wages. Some of these differences have been linked to gender disparities in education access and attainment. The present paper contributes to this literature by analyzing the relationship between the proclivity of a firm having a top woman manager and access to education among women relative to men in the country. The study combines the literature on women's careers in management, which has mostly focused on developed countries, with the development literature that has emphasized the importance of access to education. Using firm-level data for seventy-three developing countries in 2007–10, the study finds strong evidence that countries with a higher proportion of top women managers also have higher enrollment rates for women relative to men in primary, secondary, and tertiary education.     

Supply Restricted Telecommunications Markets: The Effect of Technical Efficiency on Waiting Times

The paper is concerned with supply constraints in the provision of telecommunications services. As a measure of supply constraint we use the average waiting time for telephone connections. Duration models are employed to analyze a panel data set for 28 countries. In addition to economic variables, we consider the role of technical efficiency in causing supply constraints. Stochastic frontiers are used to determine the technical efficiency with which countries use labor and capital inputs to connect customers. When technical efficiency is included in duration models for waiting times until connection, we find that it is the major determinant.     

Nanotechnology innovation system: Understanding hidden dynamics of nanoscience fusion trajectories

Nanoscience and technology has introduced a new dimension to basic sciences and a range of technologies. Researchers from various scientific disciplines are aggressively getting involved in the relevant research as a parallel way to boost nanoscience competitiveness through academic research, and corporations are directing their R&D activities towards the exploration and exploitation of nanotech opportunities. For years, it has been said that innovation is achieved by breaking through the boundaries of existing technologies. This paper has argued how nanotechnology is driven by scientific research and in what way traditional disciplines are fused into this emerging area. We attempt to provide an empirical analysis of the dynamics of nanoscience fusion trajectories, which is typically a focused area in innovation studies. In this paper, we seek to understand the attributes that are likely to enable scientific disciplines to fuse into nanoscience through a combination of quantitative and qualitative search within nanotechnology systems of innovation (NanoSI). An insight of the similarity and disparity of fusion between Europe and Japan is also provided. Finally, we develop an integrative framework to explore the co-evolutionary nature of nanotech. The paper then tries to derive some implications that would be useful for science and technology policy makers as well as for researchers in traditional scientific disciplines.     

The impact of competition,and economic globalization on the multinational diffusion of 3G mobile phones

To discover differences in technology diffusion of 3G mobile phones across countries, we investigate the impact of market factors, measured by competitive fractionalization, and economic globalization across countries using a multi-country diffusion model. We incorporate comprehensive socioeconomic and telecommunications data covering 35 geographically and economically diverse countries and control for covariates from literature. We used the Non-linear Mixed Modeling (NLMIXED) approach in SAS with pooled multi-country data to estimate a generalized Bass model taking into account unobserved heterogeneity in market saturation levels, a major source of inter-country differences. Our substantive findings are: the significance of the impact of competitive fractionalization on the likelihood of adoption and on the market potential; the significance of the impact of economic globalization on market growth. Our findings will aid international managers and regulators in their strategy and policy formulations. Finally, we demonstrate model validity by model fit and predictive accuracy.     

Critical success factors of the nine challenges in Malaysia’s vision 2020

By the year 2020, Malaysia aspires to become a fully developed nation. In order to realize this vision, formally termed ‘Vision 2020’, Malaysia must address nine strategic challenges identified by the government of former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad. These challenges are: (1) Establishing a united Malaysian nation, (2) Creating a psychologically liberated, secure, and developed Malaysian society, (3) Developing a mature democratic society, (4) Forming a community that has high morale, ethics, and religious strength, (5) Establishing a mature, liberal and tolerant society, (6) Establishing a scientific and progressive society, (7) Establishing a fully caring society, (8) Ensuring an economically just society, and (9) Establishing a prosperous society. The present paper seeks to identify and rank the critical success factors of these nine challenges by applying the Analytic Hierarchy Process. A number of ‘front-line’ critical success factors are discussed at length. The paper also analyzes the impact of respondents’ demography on the outcomes. The findings are expected to provide valuable guidelines to the Malaysian government in course of developing effective action plans to achieve Vision 2020.     

Food scare crises and developing countries: The impact of avian influenza on vertical price transmission in the Egyptian poultry sector

A bivariate smooth transition vector error correction model is applied to monthly poultry price data to analyze the effects that avian influenza has had on price transmission along the Egyptian poultry marketing chain. In order to reflect consumer awareness of the crisis, an avian influenza food scare information index is developed and used within the model as a transition variable. Our results suggest that price adjustments to deviations from the market equilibrium parity depend on the magnitude of the avian influenza crisis. Further these adjustments are found to have very different implications for market equilibrium: during the crisis retailers use their market power to increase marketing margins. In contrast, wholesaler margins are found to decline. Results also suggest that food safety information indices contribute to understanding the economic effects of food scare crises in developing countries.     

Trade liberalization in asian newly industrialized countries

Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan are often perceived as having achieved similar trade patterns; nevertheless, their trade policies and patterns differ in fundamental respects. In this study, three models are considered and different aspects of the trade liberalization policies of these three countries are highlighted. The model of South Korea underscores the significance of product market concentration in restraining real wage growth and contributing to income inequality. The model of Singapore highlights the role of foreign investment in producing manufactured goods for export and in raising real wages. The factor proportions model of a labor-abundant economy adequately describes the Taiwanese liberalization. The model's predictions of rising real wages and no monopoly profits are consistent with Taiwan's declining income inequality.