Weak cognitive image of cultural tourism destinations

The current study aims to take an in-depth look at the perceived image of an inland cultural tourism destination. This destination has traditionally had a weak image, making it important to study the components of this image and the factors influencing it in order to identify the best strategies for improving the destination’s positioning with respect to its image. This research is part of the ATLAS Cultural Tourism Research Project, which focuses on the image of tourist destinations. The basic questionnaire prepared by ATLAS and applied in a number of different countries is the key element of the survey. The results obtained show the different influences of factors such as information sources (distinguishing between induced, organic and autonomous sources), previous visits to the destination and the places visited during the tourist’s stay on the overall image of the city. This research will help public institutions to project the image of destinations in their target markets using precise information channelled through the appropriate media. In global terms we try to contribute to the study of factors influencing image formation in the case of inland cities not yet on the tourist map, but whose potential resources could make them obvious cultural tourism destinations. From this perspective, the influence of cognitive attributes in forming the image, as well as the atmosphere the tourist experiences in the city as a psychological attribute, have been studied.     

Capacity planning in hospital nursing: a model for minimum staff calculation

An aging population, emerging technology, heightening patient expectations, rising health care costs, shorter patient stays, and growing pressure to improve quality have made the management of nursing resources even more critical today. While approaching a model for staffing levels, the authors considered factors such as patient acuity, work redesign, and minimum quality standards. The methodology for analysis included estimating the time needed to complete nursing tasks and calculating the average number of tasks per patient. With respect to nursing quality measures, the study examined the adequacy of nursing documentation including admission history, assessments, nursing procedures, and discharge report as well as nursing-driven outcomes such as fall and phlebitis rates. Lastly, the authors determined the theoretical number of staff needed to provide nursing care according to quality standards.     

Second-best trade policies in Cournot oligopoly

In this paper we study the optimal import policy in an oligopolistic market with a given number of quantity-setting firms. In the absence of fixed costs, we show that if the policy instrument is an import quota, the optimal policy is either free trade or autarky, while if the instrument is a tariff the optimal policy is neither free trade nor autarky. In the case of fixed costs, we show that contrary to the traditional protectionist argument, a restrictive import policy might increase domestic welfare by increasing domestic consumers' surplus, instead of increasing domestic profits.     

Analyzing an extension of the isotonic regression problem

In this paper an extension of the classical problem of isotonic regression is first considered. This problem extends the criterion of minimizing convex functions by considering a more general situation. To solve this problem, the max–min formulae are extended by means of the concept of change-level vector, leading to new formulae and algorithms. Moreover, we will find explicit expressions for every isotonic regression when the solution is not unique by considering both max–min and change-level formulae. An immediate implication from the considered extension is that bounds for isotonic regressions can be stated. Furthermore, the problem of finding solutions within a horizontal band in the plane can now be solved. Finally, some practical applications are discussed.     

Does transparency reduce political corruption?

Does a better monitoring of officials' actions (transparency) lower the incidence of corruption? Using a common agency game with imperfect information, we show that the answer depends on the measure of corruption that one uses. More transparency lowers the prevalence of corruption but raises the average bribe as it motivates the corruptor to bid more aggressively for the agent's favor. We show that transparency affects the prevalence of corruption at the margin through a competitive effect and an efficiency effect.     

Wavelet power spectrum and cross-coherency of Spanish economic variables

We analyze six relevant economic and financial variables for the period 2000M1–2015M3 in the context of the Spanish economy: a financial index (IBEX35), a commodity (crude oil price in euros), a foreign exchange index (EUR/USD), a bond (Spanish 10-year bond), the Spanish national debt and the consumer price index. The goal of this paper is to analyze the main relationships between them by computing, using a special toolbox in MATLAB, the wavelet power spectrum and the cross-wavelet coherency associated with Morlet wavelets, focusing our interest on the period variable. We decompose the time–frequency effects and improve the interpretation of the results by non-expert users in the theory of wavelets. This yields empirical evidence on instability periods and reveals various changes and breaks in the causality relationships for the data available from recent years. Moreover, we introduce a comparison with Gaussian wavelets and use the MATLAB software suite for computing, taking the scale instead of the period as the reference variable. These same variables were analyzed individually in a previous paper that specifically considered the decomposition of non-stationary monthly rate series in the period 2000M1–2014M12 using Daubechies wavelets db8 to visualize high frequency variance, seasonality and trend.     

Expatriate management and national culture: a bibliometric study of prolific,productive, and most cited authors and institutions

Abstract

This is a bibliometric study of reference literature related to the influence of national culture issues on expatriate management. It is based on publications in elite Management, International Business, and Human Resource academic journals between 2000 and 2012. The database comprises 222 articles involving 368 authors and 223 academic institutions. The analysis uses a broad scoring procedure that includes: (I) scholars and institutions’ productivity in terms of number of publications (both, total and adjusted), (II) authors and institutions’ productivity in terms of potential impact based on journals’ performance (a wide spectrum of different metrics is used in order to allow for alternative perspectives), and (III) a citation analysis. The use of multiple and diverse scores provides a comprehensive understanding of the ranking of academic institutions and scholars within this particular subfield of research. In addition, the article analyzes collaborative research patterns, expected institutional influence in the near future, and main issues to be included in the field’s research agenda.     

Looking into global value chains: influence of foreign services on export performance

Using data from the OECD Inter-Country Input–Output database, we explore the impact of foreign services value added content of exports on export performance, specifically on duration of trade. Our data show that the share of foreign services content in manufacturing exports grows from 1995 to 2011, in a way similar to foreign goods content, and in contrast to the decreasing share of domestic services. Moreover, the share of foreign services value added content is larger for developing and emerging countries than for advanced countries. Our econometric findings confirm that foreign services value added embodied in manufacturing exports contribute positively to more resilient exports relationships, a positive effect which occurs for the three groups of manufacturing industries (high, medium and low technology industries) and, for each group, it is more pronounced for developing and emerging economies.