Funding sustainable paddle trail development: paddler perspectives,willingness to pay and management implications

Paddle sports (kayaking, canoeing) are a growing tourism niche and an activity that can bring sustainable rural tourism development and economic regeneration. Managing sustainable paddle trail growth is complex, involving coordination among government bodies, consensus from landowners and funding acquisition for safe access sites, signage, maps and other amenities. This paper explores the paddle-trail-related literature and the many different funding options to manage the creation and maintenance of paddle trails. An Internet survey of 1851 respondents determined support for a variety of user funding mechanisms for trail development as well as paddler perceptions about trail development as a viable form of economic development. The results indicate that women and recreational paddlers are more likely to support funding mechanisms, in addition to paddlers who consider paddle trail development a form of economic development. Paddlers who did not support any user funding mechanism were male, employed in the private sector, avid paddlers, and those who owned boats. It is observed that awareness of paddle trails’ value as an economic regeneration tool increases the willingness to pay. A range of management implications from this research are discussed, including information and educational programs, marketing partnerships and targeted incentive offers to those groups that are unwilling to pay.     

Understanding social media effects across seller, retailer, and consumer interactions

In this research, the authors propose a contagion effect of social media use across business suppliers, retailers, and consumers. After developing and validating social media usage measures at three levels—supplier, retailer, and customer—the authors test social media contagion effects and their ultimate impact on multiple performance measures. The conceptual framework and empirical results offer new insights into the contagion effects of social media usage across the channel of distribution as well as important social influence mechanisms that enhance these effects. Consistent with the predictions, social media use positively contributes to brand performance, retailer performance, and consumer–retailer loyalty. Also, the effect of supplier social media usage on retailer social media usage and in turn on customer social media usage is moderated by brand reputation and service ambidexterity. With the ever-increasing growth and adoption of social media applications and similar technologies, this research provides a framework to promote usage by supply channel partners which ultimately influences performance-related outcomes.     

Securities regulation,household equity ownership,and trust in the stock market

Review of Accounting Studies - Using aggregate data from national accounts, we study whether strengthening and harmonizing securities regulation across the European Union increases household equity...     

The insight-value-perception (iVP) model for user-centered design

Through an inductive, multi-case analysis of eight medical device firms, this paper maps user-centered design and development practices to product performance outcomes. First, the data highlight that designing products under variable use conditions enabled firms to optimize products for widespread use and to increase the predictability of product outcomes. Second, the study shows that product adoption relied on maximizing benefits for multiple product stakeholders with often-conflicting needs, while minimizing required changes in end user behavior. Third, the paper highlights that managing perceptions toward product use through performance data positively influenced product adoption among the cases studied to a greater degree than did market demand or regulatory clearance. Fourth, rival explanations for outcomes involving limited user involvement, indicate that competitive advantages were achieved through maintaining dominant financial and intellectual property positions. From these findings, the insight-value-perception (iVP) model for user-centered design was constructed. This model links design and development practices to outcomes, from a combination of consumer-oriented, technical, and financial perspectives. Although rooted in the experiences of device developers within early stage medical device companies, the iVP Model may be used as a theoretical framework to examine a range of complex systems involving an embedded network of product users and stakeholders.