Relationships of providing and receiving leisure social support to stress in older adults

Leisure has become a topic of interest in stress-coping research. This study examined the relationships between receiving leisure social support, providing leisure social support, leisure self-determination and leisure competence in older adults and their stress. A total of 639 community-dwelling older adults were recruited. Data were collected using face-to-face surveys, which included measures of leisure social support (receiving and providing), leisure self-determination, leisure competence and stress. Data were analysed using regression analysis. The results indicated that receiving leisure social support, providing leisure social support, leisure self-determination and leisure competence were significantly and negatively correlated with stress and that providing leisure social support was more significantly correlated with reduced stress than the other leisure factors. Implications of the results are discussed.     

The influence of attitudes towards healthy eating on food consumption when travelling

This study explores tourists' attitude towards healthy eating and its influence on their travel eating behaviour. Based on focus group interviews and literature review, two instruments were developed to measure healthy eating attitude and travel eating behaviour. Factor analysis results revealed two healthy eating attitude factors (‘food content and nutrients’ and ‘balanced diet and eating habit’), and five travel eating behaviour factors (‘novelty’, ‘risk avoidance’, ‘health steadfastness’, ‘familiarity’, and ‘food supplement and medicine’). The relationships among the factors were examined using structural equation modelling. The findings revealed that respondents who had a stronger attitude towards ‘balanced diet and eating habit’ tended to be more motivated by the ‘novelty’ factor; whereas ‘risk avoidance’, ‘health steadfastness’ and ‘familiarity’ were found to be associated with a stronger attitude towards ‘food content and nutrient’. The findings suggest that the healthy eating attitude construct is multidimensional and healthy eating conscious tourists should not be treated as a homogeneous group.     

A preliminary examination of the relationship between consumer attitude towards space travel and the development of innovative space tourism technology

With increasing global competition in service sectors, innovative technologies have radically changed the tourism industry, and to be successful innovative products/services must have clear, significant points of difference that are related to needs in the market place. Furthermore, changes in consumer perceptions that emanate from an innovation are central to its effective product and service design. Although for most of us space travel is still a faraway dream, it is in fact a future probability that will increasingly attract travellers who seek new vacation experiences, and as a result, sustain academic interest. Thus, in initiating space tourism for the purposes of recreation, leisure and knowledge enhancement, a preliminary estimation of potential global demand characteristics that are specific to consumer innovators for space travel needs to be undertaken prior to promotion of research and development. In this context, this paper investigates both consumer attitudes towards space travel by analysing the components of motivated consumer innovativeness and the interest that potential consumers have in developing space tourism technology innovations within Taiwan. Consumer innovativeness is complex and comprised four innovativeness types, namely, social, functional, hedonic and cognitive. As product/service innovation development has been relatively unexplored in the mature industry of tourism, many business managers would welcome an understanding of which vacation travellers are most likely to be the earliest buyers of such an exciting new product. With data collected from a sample of 354 Taiwanese, this research uses mediated regression to examine the influence of the four types of consumer innovativeness on consumer's attitudes and acceptance of a space tourism technology innovation, and the mediating role perceived novelty plays in the relationship. The findings indicate that only hedonic and social innovativeness are associated with improved consumer attitude and that novelty partially mediates the relationship for those two types of consumer innovativeness. The implications for theory and practice are discussed. Limitations and directions for future research are also addressed.     

中国崛起的认识论及其叙事衍生

从自我认同与群体归属两种需要的分析视角,作者得出了四种观察中国与非中国之间关系的视野:国家、亚洲、文明与天下。其中,从中国的角度出发,观察非中国的视野主要是国家与天下。如果继续按照自我认同与群体归属两种需要的区分,我们可得出国家权力、霸道、主权身份以及中心-边陲四种叙事的文本。简言之,看待中国崛起不是一件纯粹的客观之事,而是涉及观察者的群我关系之深层需要。中国研究不仅是一个应该适应国情并随之调整的方法论问题,而且它还涉及知识形成的前提,亦即中国与非中国关系所涉及的群我关系。群我关系的形成与认知须靠文化形塑,进而使行为主体形成对中国崛起的认识角度与文本选择。     

Gender and Promotions: Evidence from Academic Economists in France*

The promotion system for French academic economists provides an interesting environment to examine the promotion gap between men and women. Promotions occur through national competitions for which we have information both on candidates and on those eligible to be candidates. Thus, we can examine the two stages of the process: application and success. Women are less likely to seek promotion, and this accounts for up to 76 percent of the promotion gap. Being a woman also reduces the probability of promotion conditional on applying, although the gender difference is not statistically significant. Our results highlight the importance of the decision to apply.     

IQ and Audit Quality: Do Smarter Auditors Deliver Better Audits?

This study examines the role of an individual auditor's cognitive ability in delivering high‐quality audits. Our results from analyzing archival data from Sweden show that audit partners' IQ scores obtained from psychological tests are positively associated with going‐concern audit reporting accuracy and audit fee premiums. We also find some, albeit weak, evidence that audit partners' IQ scores are negatively associated with the income‐increasing abnormal accruals of the client. These results suggest that, although audit services are standardized through various control mechanisms and audits are conducted by teams rather than by individual auditors, the cognitive ability of audit partners responsible for an audit remains important in delivering high‐quality audit services.     

自动化立体仓库模拟系统软件设计

介绍自动化立体仓库模拟系统中的软件设计。提出软件的总体设计思路,列举了系统的各功能模块,具体分析了通讯接口电路及程序实现,并介绍了软件设计中的重点及难点。     

An Initial Investigation of Integrating Innovation Diffusion Models for Drawing First‐time Visitors

Prior studies in the existing tourism literature have frequently emphasized the relatively expensive costs for drawing first‐time visitors. These studies, however, have largely failed to explain how to draw first‐time visitors to a destination. In other words, little was known regarding what destinations should do to attract first‐time visitors in an effective way. To provide more insights, this research investigated the impact of three diffusion models on attracting first‐time visitors. These models included an external influence model for impact of mass media, an internal influence model for impact of interpersonal communications, and a mixed model for impacts of both mass media and interpersonal communications. Assessing the model impact in a macroapproach for first‐time visitors to Hong Kong, empirical findings indicated that the mixed influence model provided the highest explanatory quality, with word‐of‐mouth being a dominant factor.     

The Influence of Confucianism on Women’s Leisure in Taiwan

Abstract

Confucian philosophy has traditionally had a considerable influence on many aspects of the lives of the Taiwanese people. It is therefore necessary to take this belief structure into account in order to explain Taiwanese women’s leisure perceptions and behaviours. The purpose of this study is to examine this issue. The factors that constrain women’s leisure in Taiwan are identified. These categories can be broadly termed economic, domestic, social, and cultural constraints     

Upper‐echelon executive human capital and compensation: Generalist vs specialist skills

This study extends current knowledge of upper echelon executive compensation beyond the CEO, specifically CFO compensation, based on whether they possess generalist or specialist skills. We find that “strategic” CFOs with an elite MBA (generalist) consistently command a compensation premium, while “accounting” CFOs (specialist) and CFOs with a non‐MBA master's degree, even from an elite institution, do not. Further, scarce “strategic” CFOs are awarded both higher salaries and higher equity‐based compensation. Our findings support the view that unique complementarities between scarce CFOs and firms increase these executives' bargaining power leading to pay premium. Our results are robust to post‐hiring years, firm sizes, board characteristics, and CFO's insider/outsider status. We contribute at the confluence of upper‐echelon compensation, executive human capital, resource‐based view, and assortative matching literatures. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.