Moving from pilgrimage to responsible tourism: the case of Palestine

Since the beginning of the twentieth century, Palestine has seen complicated changes in its political circumstances, most notably the creation of Israel in 1948 and the 1967 war, where Israel occupied the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. These events have created catastrophic political, economic and social facts which deeply affected the life of the Palestinian people. In this context, tourism became a political tool in the supremacy and domination of the Israeli establishment over land, and people, and an instrument for preventing the Palestinians from enjoying the benefits and the fruits of cultural and human interaction on which tourism thrives. Israel controls all access to Palestine (land and sea borders), most of the Palestinian water resources and all movements of people and goods from, to and within Palestine. This article assesses the role that tourism may play in promoting peace by presenting the Palestinian Initiative for Responsible Tourism – code of conduct – and its contribution to peace. In addition, issues of sustainability and the triple bottom line will be evaluated which could go a long way towards healing some of the divisions in the Palestinian/Israeli society.     

Termination Fees in Mergers and Acquisitions: Protecting Investors or Managers?

Abstract:  Institutional investors closely monitor termination fees in mergers and acquisitions (M&A). We argue that their magnitude reflects either agency problems or efficiency considerations. Focusing on M&A involving Canadian targets between 1997 and 2004, we assess the determinants and market impact of termination fees. Our findings show that the Thomson's SDC Platinum™ Worldwide Mergers & Acquisitions Database underestimates their extent. Results suggest that termination fees are essentially an efficient mechanism as they are relatively higher in M&A with high merger costs, a cash component and expected operating synergies. Stock market returns surrounding the deal announcement do not differ across levels of relative termination fees.     

Optimal Task Design: To Integrate or Separate Planning and Implementation?

Integrating planning and implementation, by having one agent perform both tasks, may be effective in encouraging planning activity whose outcome is not observable. Emphasizing its information-generating role, we find that planning activity is best encouraged by partially integrating the tasks. This is because the value of information is nonmonotonic in the degree of task integration. Therefore, the threat of using a second agent to implement the project may relax the moral hazard constraint associated with the planning task. The project size is distorted to increase the value of information, and there can be overinvestment relative to the first best.     

Private monitoring,collusion, and the timing of information

When a principal's monitoring information is private (nonverifiable), the agent should be concerned that the principal could misrepresent the information to reduce the agent's wage or collect a monetary penalty. Restoring credibility may lead to an extreme waste of resources—the so‐called burning of money. A more realistic and efficient outcome is feasible when the private information arrives in time to rescale the agent's effort. Rescaling is more effective than pure monetary penalties because effort has different values to different parties whereas money is equally valuable to all parties. Furthermore, when rescaling is feasible, private monitoring is more efficient than public monitoring subject to collusion because nonmonetary penalties are ineffective to deter collusion.     

IAMOT and Education: Defining a Technology and Innovation Management (TIM) Body-of-Knowledge (BoK) for graduate education (TIM BoK)

Whether it is called Management of Technology and Innovation (MOTI), Management of Technology (MOT), Engineering Technology Management (ETM) or Technology and Innovation Management (TIM), the TIM field is rapidly growing and diverse. This diversity is built upon disparate university locations of TIM programs; TIM’s emerging nature, its wide appeal as well as unique researcher and practitioner viewpoints. This has created a plethora of education materials, benchmark programs and pedagogical thought. Yet the field is growing so rapidly that no single source has yet been established which clearly identifies which topics and educational materials represents its basic Body of Knowledge (BoK). If this is so, then there is cause for concern.We review TIM pedagogy studies, TIM research, and the economic realities that initiated and continue to demand TIM education for managers. We leverage the five-year body of knowledge development activities of the International Association for the Management of Technology (IAMOT) education committee. We then develop a TIM BoK topic list and survey stakeholders that include: academics, industrial professionals and government policy makers. We found that there is a need for and convergence on a comprehensive TIM BoK source. The result is a TIM BoK source document that can be utilized to improve and monitor TIM educational programs around the world.     

The Influence of the Provision of Online Channel Functions on Exporting Channel Performance: The Moderating Effect of International Experience

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of the provision of two online channel functions on exporting channel performance, using international experience as a moderating variable. The study setting is Taiwan. The results confirm that the provision of online communication and transaction functions can increase exporting channel performance. Moreover, international experience can better facilitate the effect of the provision of online transaction functions on exporters’ channel performance for less-experienced firms rather than for experienced firms. However, its facilitation reverses in course of the provision of online communication functions (albeit in a different direction than hypothesized).     

Working and organizing in the age of the learning algorithm

Learning algorithms, technologies that generate responses, classifications, or dynamic predictions that resemble those of a knowledge worker, raise important research questions for organizational scholars related to work and organizing. We suggest that such algorithms are distinguished by four consequential aspects: black-boxed performance, comprehensive digitization, anticipatory quantification, and hidden politics. These aspects are likely to alter work and organizing in qualitatively different ways beyond simply signaling an acceleration of long-term technology trends. Our analysis indicates that learning algorithms will transform expertise in organizations, reshape work and occupational boundaries, and offer novel forms of coordination and control. Thus, learning algorithms can be considered performative due to the extent to which their use can shape and alter work and organizational realities. Their rapid deployment requires scholarly attention to societal issues such as the extent to which the algorithm is authorized to make decisions, the need to incorporate morality in the technology, and their digital iron-cage potential.     

Principles,rules and ideology

Some of the ideas expressed here have crystallized during conversations with Elizabeth Kohn, Eenefiok Ekanem, and Kenneth Betsalel. I appreciate the extensive comments made on erlier drafts by Thomas Wyrick and John B. Davis. All should not, however, be implicated with any remaining errors. I would like to thank Tamara Goodrum for her editorial suggestions.