Expected benefits and perceived risks of cloud computing: an investigation within an Italian setting

Over the past several years, cloud computing has increasingly been regarded as able to improve efficiency within organisations. The aim of this study is to address under-investigated issues related to the implementation of cloud computing, with a particular focus on expected benefits and the perception of risks. Towards this aim, on the basis of an adapted version of the technology acceptance model, we carried out a semi-structured survey among first-time cloud computing users to identify expected benefits and perceived risks. The survey of this study included a sample of 130 individuals in 65 enterprises located within Italy. We chose an Italian setting because it is characterised by an increasing number of programmes that emphasise the importance of cloud computing and support its wide dissemination. The findings of this study identify possible areas for improvement within the implementation phases of cloud computing.     

Career Identity and its Relation to Career Anchors and Career Satisfaction: The Case of Convention and Exhibition Industry Professionals in Asia

This paper explores career identity and its relation to career anchors and career satisfaction, key demographic and job variables, specific to convention and exhibition (C&E) industry professionals in Asia. It reviews the key literature relating to career identity and career anchors, which is followed by a discussion of findings of an online survey of C&E industry professionals in Asia. Study results indicate that the majority of C&E professionals displayed a strong cognitive and affective identification with their career in the C&E industry. However, career identity varied significantly with the time respondents had been in the industry, job seniority and age. In terms of career anchors, the lifestyle anchor was found to be the most dominant career anchor, followed by challenge and autonomy. Examining the relation between career anchors with career identity revealed that the lifestyle anchor was more important to respondents with a weak career identity, whereas the challenge anchor was more important to respondents with a strong career identity. Managerial implications of the study findings and suggestions for future research are provided.     

Ethics and the Networked Business

Pushing through a logical continuum of closed- to open-system views of organizations necessarily changes the conceptualization of a firm from a strongly bounded entity to a configuration of networks and sub-networks, which exists and operates in a larger systemic network configuration. We unfold a classification of management processes corresponding to views of the firm along the closed/open-systems continuum. We examine ethical issues that are likely to devolve from these classes of management processes, and we suggest typical means by which managers will attempt to control their firms’ exposure to such issues. The final class of management processes examined focuses on the achievement of outcomes that are mutually satisfactory in the set of networks and sub-networks that constitute the focal firm, and that support the sustainability of the whole system. The article contributes to organizational theory, business ethics, and computer and information ethics by providing a comprehensive analysis of the impact of managerial views of the firm and of networks – virtual, social, informational – on managerial processes and on our understanding of how business ethics issues are linked to perceptions of what a firm is, does, and can do.     

Introduction to the Special Issue on the Impact of Network Ethics on Business Practices

Modern public relations practices have been dominated by appeals to impulses, desires, and images that affect publics defined predominantly in demographic terms. This paper argues that abandoning basic rhetorical assumptions about the ability of ordinary people to engage in practical reason has serious ethical implications for the marketplace as well as for society in general. The study applies recent rhetorical scholarship on issues of public discourse and rhetorical culture to public relations practices, considering how rhetoric can contribute to more effective and ethical public discourse in our dominant modes of marketplace communication.     

Collaborative Tourism Planning: A Case Study of Cusco,Peru

This research examines issues concerning the collaborative approach towards tourism planning, with a focus on Cusco, Peru. The research begins with a review of key themes related to collaborative tourism planning, and then explores four issues in relation to collaborative tourism planning in Cusco. These are the vision of tourism development among tourism stakeholders; collaboration and coordination between the multiple parties involved in tourism; input from the tourism industry and other interest groups in tourism planning; and constraints to and facilitators of collaboration and coordination. The research indicates that despite an awareness of the benefits of collaboration in tourism planning generally, collaboration is not yet a major part of the tourism development process in Cusco. The main reasons for the lack of collaboration are outlined using the views of the main stakeholders, as well as suggestions for ways in which future collaboration can be developed.     

Are New Homes Special?

This article describes alternative ways of identifying new homes and, using a large dataset of property sales in Las Vegas, Nevada, tests for the extent to which new homes sell at a price premium relative to otherwise similar existing homes. We also investigate whether the results differ across time and location, including before and after the housing bust. Our results suggest that price premia for new homes arise primarily in circumstances in which the supply of new houses is relatively low. In some cases rising to over 20% relative to otherwise similar existing homes. When new homes are plentiful, they are not special and the premium disappears.     

SAVINGS IN TIMES OF DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGE: LESSONS FROM THE GERMAN EXPERIENCE

Pension reforms in many developed countries make individuals shoulder a bigger share of longevity and income risks. The desired response is that individuals accumulate private assets for retirement. Whether this actually takes place, is of paramount relevance for scientists and policy makers. We take Germany as an example: Twenty years of pension reform have transformed the monolithic German pension system into a multipillar system. Formerly generous public pension benefits are gradually being reduced, whereas substantial incentives are granted to occupational and private saving schemes. Has this transition worked out? We survey the reform steps and households’ reactions: How did individuals adjust their labor market behavior? How did private and occupational pension plans take off? How do behavioral adjustments vary in the population? Most Germans adapted to the new situation. Both actual and expected retirement decisions changed and the share of households without supplementary pensions decreased from 73% to 39% in little more than a decade. This is a remarkable success. Nonetheless, households with low education, low income and less financial education did neither adjust their retirement behavior nor pick up supplementary pension plans and are thus likely to face difficulties in bridging the gap arising in future pension income.     

Understanding the relationship between holiday taking and self‐assessed health: an exploratory study of senior tourism

The senior market is particularly attractive to the tourism industry. Alongside evidence of a growing propensity to travel and spend, consumption is often deliberately linked to low seasons, balancing out the peaks and valleys for tourism suppliers. Health is one variable which is particularly significant to this consumer. Personal health influences all patterns of consumer behaviour regardless of age, although the full extent to which this models senior tourism activity is unclear. An exploratory qualitative study was undertaken in the spring of 2005, with 22 senior consumers (aged 55 years plus) interviewed. Utilizing the earlier work by Zimmer et al.into self‐assessed health as a framework, travel propensity, the perceived effects of travel and factors inhibiting full participation were questioned. Conclusions drawn outline both a senior tourism typology and areas for future research. Notably the relationship between caregiving and tourism consumption is singled out for further investigation.     

Forecasting oil price movements: Exploiting the information in the futures market

Relying on the cost of carry model, the long‐run relationship between spot and futures prices is investigated and the information implied in these cointegrating relationships is used to forecast out of sample oil spot and futures price movements. To forecast oil price movements, a vector error correction model (VECM) is employed, where the deviations from the long‐run relationships between spot and futures prices constitute the equilibrium error. To evaluate forecasting performance, the random walk model (RWM) is used as a benchmark. It was found that (a) in‐sample, the information in the futures market can explain a sizable portion of oil price movements; and (b) out‐of‐sample, the VECM outperforms the RWM in forecasting price movements of 1‐month futures contracts. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 28:34–56, 2008