Modeling tourists' visiting intentions toward ecofriendly destinations: Implications for sustainable tourism operators

The previous literature has overlooked the examination of tourists' visiting intentions for ecofriendly destinations. Hence, anchored in Schwartz (1992) personal values and the theory of planned behavior (TPB), the present study aims to develop a research model for application in Chinese settings. Survey findings from 467 tourists reveal significant positive relationships between tourists' values of resultant self‐transcendence and conservation and TPB factors (i.e., attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control), with the exception of the relationship between conservation and perceived behavioral control. Moreover, TPB factors and perceived green image were found to have positive effects on tourists' intentions to visit ecofriendly destinations. In addition, environmental consciousness positively moderates the relationships between the two Schwartz values and attitude. Theoretical implications are provided, and the study's findings have strategic practical implications for business managers. We acknowledge the study's limitations and offer research directions for future ecofriendly tourism scholars.     

How do social media influencers inspire consumers' purchase decisions? The mediating role of parasocial relationships

In recent years, social media influencers (SMIs) have become part of the strategic communication of firms because the traditional form of mass media communication is losing its effectiveness. Thus, it is imperative to study the effects of communication through SMIs on marketing outcomes, such as purchase intentions. Based on the fairness dimensions, that is, information, distributive, interpersonal, and procedural, and dimensions of source credibility, that is, attractiveness, expertise, trustworthiness, and similarity, this research investigated how technology-oriented SMIs (T-SMIs) foster parasocial relationships (PSRs) with followers. Purposive sampling was employed to collect data from 506 active social media users. Data were analysed through IBM AMOS and SPSS 26. The results of the study suggested that attractiveness, expertise, trustworthiness, similarity, interpersonal, procedural, and information fairness are positively related to fostering PSR with followers. In contrast, distributive fairness does not strengthen PSR with followers; furthermore, the study findings suggested an indirect positive influence of attractiveness, expertise, trustworthiness, similarity, interpersonal, procedural, and information fairness on the purchase intentions of consumers via PSR. This study is useful for academia and industry since it fills important gaps in the literature and provides recommendations to brand managers of technology companies about selecting appropriate SMIs for the endorsement of their brands.     

The role of structure and agency in management accounting control change of a family owned firm: A Greek case study

This study seeks to understand the changes in management accounting controls in a large Greek company (pseudonym: FA), with a focus on understanding the role of structure and agency in this change. In order to do this, we have employed a critical realist philosophy, pioneered by Roy Bhaskar (Bhaskar, 1979; 1997). We believe that the empirics of the case, the time span under consideration, and our theoretical approach provide us with a unique opportunity to explore the role of structure and agency in changing management accounting controls within the case firm. Our analysis revealed that changes in management control practices in FA were a function of different interacting structural conditions as mediated through human agency. This paper contributes to the debate about how to conceptualise agency and structure in management accounting control change (Kilfoyle and Richardson, 2011). Our analysis also demonstrates that the ‘dualism’ approach to agency and structure will result in a better analysis of management accounting control changes within firms.     

Investors’ Behavior in an Emerging,Tax-Free Market

We provide empirical evidence on the stock market participants’ behavior in an emerging market, with a tax-free environment. Our results show that United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) investors exhibit overconfidence and home bias, and tend to sell prior winners and buy prior losers. We find that investors rely on familiarity and on their information channels to make decisions. The results indicate that investors are risk averse, especially after the global financial crisis, which has had contagion effect on UAE markets. Investors attribute this effect to the inability to manage systemic crisis and to problems of information asymmetry, insider trading, and lack of good governance during crisis.     

Technology transactions,announcement effect,and reversal: Dissecting an anomaly

We examine the short term stock price performance of firms that acquire or sell technology rights. We find significant positive announcement-period abnormal returns to the acquirers and sellers. However, the price increases reverse during the subsequent twenty trading days. These quick fortune reversals cannot be attributed to methodology; they prevail in the late 1970s through the 2000s, in bear and bull stock markets, and in both high and low technology industries. Upon splitting the sample into two subsamples comprised each of stocks with either pre-announcement price run-up or decline; we find that the abnormal return reversal is confined to the latter subsample. Stocks that witness price run-up prior to the announcement do not reverse to original prices but lose the momentum right after the announcement-period. We believe this is caused by the combination effect of the momentum prior to-and the impact of the announcement.     

A Comparison of Ethical Perceptions and Moral Philosophies of American and Egyptian Business Students

This study compares business students fromEgypt and the United States in terms of theirperceptions of ethical problems, personal moralphilosophies (idealism, relativism), and theirperceptions about the importance of ethics. Aself-administered questionnaire was used tocollect data, in the classroom setting. Theresults reveal significant differences betweenthe business students from the two countries,which may be suggestive for variouscross-cultural business interactions. Theauthors derive some implications for businessethics instruction.     

Financial dependence analysis: applications of vine copulas

This paper features the application of a novel and recently developed method of statistical and mathematical analysis to the assessment of financial risk, namely regular vine copulas. Dependence modelling using copulas is a popular tool in financial applications but is usually applied to pairs of securities. Vine copulas offer greater flexibility and permit the modelling of complex dependence patterns using the rich variety of bivariate copulas that can be arranged and analysed in a tree structure to facilitate the analysis of multiple dependencies. We apply regular vine copula analysis to a sample of stocks comprising the Dow Jones index to assess their interdependencies and to assess how their correlations change in different economic circumstances using three different sample periods around Global Financial Crisis (GFC).: pre‐GFC (January 2005 to July 2007), GFC (July 2007 to September 2009) and post‐GFC periods (September 2009 to December 2011). The empirical results suggest that the dependencies change in a complex manner, and there is evidence of greater reliance on the Student‐t copula in the copula choice within the tree structures for the GFC period, which is consistent with the existence of larger tails in the distributions of returns for this period. One of the attractions of this approach to risk modelling is the flexibility in the choice of distributions used to model co‐dependencies. The practical application of regular vine metrics is demonstrated via an example of the calculation of the Value at Risk of a portfolio of stocks.     

Real Estate for the Long Term: The Effect of Return Predictability on Long-Horizon Allocations

We examine how the predictability of real estate returns affects the risk of, and optimal allocations to, real estate for investors of differing investment horizons. Returns to direct real estate are mean reverting, and risk decreases with horizon. This is driven by a tendency for property transaction prices to overshoot inflation. Mean reversion in real estate returns is weaker than that of equities, resulting in real estate having similar risk to equities for long-term investors. However, optimal portfolios have large allocations to direct real estate at all horizons, and the allocation increases with horizon. Finally, we find that real estate investment trusts are a redundant asset class for investors with access to direct real estate as an asset class, but they do have a role in optimal allocations when direct property investment is not feasible.     

Global sales training: In search of antecedent, mediating, and consequence variables

This study proposes a framework that identifies and explains the relationships of input, mediating, and output variables for global sales training programs. Input or antecedent variables include high-quality: determination of sales training needs, objective setting, designing/implementing the training program, and evaluating training outcomes. The mediating variable culture is measured by a latent indicator: managers' perceived importance/perceived adequacy. The output or consequence variable is the quantitative improvement a firm measures in sales force performance that results from global sales training in the form of increases in sales revenue, profitability, decreased customer complaints, and/or reduced selling expenses. This framework is an initial attempt to synthesize existing knowledge about how to conduct effective sales training programs in cross-cultural settings. The article also offers research propositions that can be tested to advance our understanding of global sales training, discusses managerial implications, identifies limitations encountered by global sales training practitioners, and suggests future study opportunities for researchers.