Competencies of training professionals in the Hong Kong hotel industry

ABSTRACT

This study aims to investigate the competencies of training professionals in the hotel industry in Hong Kong. A survey questionnaire was adopted. Seventeen competencies were derived by factor analysis. Six essential competencies are identified, whereas “people skills and commitment” and “awareness of quality” are the most important competencies, while another 11 competencies are highly preferred. This study provides original criteria for hoteliers and human resources professionals to facilitate the recruitment process and aid training professionals in developing core competencies in hotel industry employees. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are presented.     

Options pricing under the one-dimensional jump-diffusion model using the radial basis function interpolation scheme

This paper will demonstrate how European and American option prices can be computed under the jump-diffusion model using the radial basis function (RBF) interpolation scheme. The RBF interpolation scheme is demonstrated by solving an option pricing formula, a one-dimensional partial integro-differential equation (PIDE). We select the cubic spline radial basis function and adopt a simple numerical algorithm (Briani et al. in Calcolo 44:33–57, 2007) to establish a finite computational range for the improper integral of the PIDE. This algorithm reduces the truncation error of approximating the improper integral. As a result, we are able to achieve a higher approximation accuracy of the integral with the application of any quadrature. Moreover, we a numerical technique termed cubic spline factorisation (Bos and Salkauskas in J Approx Theory 51:81–88, 1987) to solve the inversion of an ill-conditioned RBF interpolant, which is a well-known research problem in the RBF field. Finally, our numerical experiments show that in the European case, our RBF-interpolation solution is second-order accurate for spatial variables, while in the American case, it is second-order accurate for spatial variables and first-order accurate for time variables.     

Female participation in African labor markets: The role of information and communication technologies

This article investigates the effects of information and communication technologies (ICT) on female labor force participation in a sample of 48 African countries. We specify and estimate linear regression and dynamic panel data models with fixed effects (FE) and system-generalized method of moments (SYS-GMM) estimation over the period 2001–2017. The three main results are that ICT use (mobile phone and internet) significantly stimulates female labor force participation in Africa; this effect is enhanced by financial development and female education; the effect of ICT on female employment in Africa is strongest in the industrial sector. These results remain robust to the provision of social, cultural, and institutional variables.     

Aggregative games and oligopoly theory: short-run and long-run analysis

We compile an IO toolkit for aggregative games with positive and normative comparative statics results for asymmetric oligopoly in the short and long run. We characterize the class of aggregative Bertrand and Cournot oligopoly games, and the subset for which the aggregate is a summary statistic for consumer welfare. We close the model with a monopolistically competitive fringe for long-run analysis. Remarkably, we show strong neutrality properties in the long run across a wide range of market structures. The results elucidate aggregative games as a unifying principle in the literature on merger analysis, privatization, Stackelberg leadership, and cost shocks.     

Target price forecasts: The roles of the 52-week high price and recent investor sentiment

This paper reveals that in addition to fundamental factors, the 52-week high price and recent investor sentiment play an important role in analysts’ target price formation. Analysts’ forecasts of short-term earnings and long-term earnings growth are shown to be important explanatory variables for target prices; equally, the 52-week high price and recent investor sentiment are also shown to explain target price levels and especially target price biases. Our analysis additionally reveals that analysts place greater weight on these two non-fundamental factors in settings with greater task complexity and to some extent in those with greater resource constraints. Conversely, on balance, the results suggest that this increased reliance does not translate into an increased impact per unit of each non-fundamental factor on forecast bias. Finally, our results show that target prices are useful in predicting future stock returns beyond earnings forecasts and commonly used risk proxies. However, in an internally consistent fashion, the informativeness of target prices for future returns is significantly reduced when greater weight is placed on either the 52-week high or recent investor sentiment in the target price formation process.     

For fraud,look under ‘serious and organized crime’

ABSTRACT

The UK government’s response to fraud cannot be disentangled from its broader ‘serious and organized crime’ (SOC) strategy. In order to explore whether fraud should—in public policy, criminal justice and law enforcement terms—be seen primarily as an SOC issue, there is a need to consider questions about whether or not ‘SOC’ is a sensible object of policy-making in the first place. Several arguments in favour of an SOC policy are identified in the paper. However, the notion of an overarching SOC policy is problematic for three reasons. First, SOC is a fundamental misrepresentation of reality, which does not correspond to a real social problem. Second, SOC policy can limit the development of more problem-specific crime strategies, Third, the ‘SOC’ label can negatively transform how social problems are perceived over the long term. If fraud is to be better understood and dealt with, it may therefore be necessary to extract it from its current inclusion within wider SOC strategy.     

Judicial interpretation of the will of the state: A Hegelian perspective in the context of taxation

This paper draws upon Hegelian dialectic theory to understand the nature of the interrelationship between state, taxpayer, and the accounting profession. The paper proposes that this has been reconstructed from one founded upon neo-Kantian liberalism towards one in which components of political and civil society are co-opted by the state to minimize tax avoidance. Empirical evidence in the form of general anti-avoidance rules, court decisions, and judicial statements is provided to illuminate a process of fundamental redefinition of the roles of the judiciary and the accounting profession vis a vis the state. One of the principal functions of critical accounting theory is to question the political legitimacy of regimes of accounting; the implications of this redefinition are hypothesized in terms of this function, critiquing the changing relationship between the state and the taxpayer in the context of tax policy. The paper theorizes the consequences of this process for the accounting profession.     

Competition for attention in the Information (overload) Age

The Information Age has a surfeit of information received relative to what is processed. We model multiple sectors competing for consumer attention, with competition in price within each sector. Sector advertising levels follow a constant elasticity of substitution (CES) form, and within‐sector prices are dispersed with a truncated Pareto distribution. The “information hump” shows highest ad levels for intermediate attention levels. Overall, advertising is excessive, although the allocation across sectors is optimal. The blame for information overload falls most on product categories with low information transmission costs and low profits.