A green economy indicator framework for tourism destinations

This paper presents a green economy indicator framework for tourism destinations which has been developed in the case study destination of Bali, Indonesia. Whilst the term “green economy” can have many interpretations, here it refers to the global strategy framework surrounding Rio+20, as well as the policies and strategies being developed by tourism destinations as a response. Many uncertainties remain about the effectiveness of these efforts and how they may be measured. For lesser developed countries in particular, reliable data is often difficult to obtain and this study uses a case study approach to identify the relevant, and measurable, indicators in this context. First, a nominal group technique was applied to identify the green economy issues for local tourism stakeholders. The indicators were then selected based on the green economy literature and a review of the available secondary data for the destination. Data on greenhouse gas emissions from tourism was identified as one of the critical gaps and an estimate is provided to show how this could be obtained and monitored. While this indicator framework was developed specifically for Bali, the case study may be relevant for many other island destinations in the lesser developed world that are experiencing rapid tourism growth.     

How do cities approach policy innovation and policy learning? A study of 30 policies in Northern Europe and North America

This paper reports on a study of current practice in policy transfer, and ways in which its effectiveness can be increased. A literature review identifies important factors in examining the transfer of policies. Results of interviews in eleven cities in Northern Europe and North America investigate these factors further.The principal motivations for policy transfer were strategic need and curiosity. Local officials and politicians dominated the process of initiating policy transfer, and local officials were also the leading players in transferring experience.A range of information sources are used in the search process but human interaction was the most important source of learning for two main reasons. First, there is too much information available through the Internet and the search techniques are not seen to be wholly effective in identifying the necessary information. Secondly, the information available on websites, portals and even good practice guides is not seen to be of mixed quality with risks of focussing only on successful implementation and therefore subject to some bias. Officials therefore rely on their trusted networks of peers for lessons as here they can access the ‘real implementation’ story and the unwritten lessons. Organisations which have a culture that is supportive of learning from elsewhere had strong and broad networks of external contacts and resourced their development whilst others are more insular or inward looking and reluctant to invest in policy lessons from elsewhere. Solutions to the problems identified in the evidence base are proposed.City to city policy transfer is a very active process in the field of transport. Not enough is yet understood about its benefits or the conditions under which it is most effective. Such understandings should help to promote and accelerate the uptake of effective and well matched policies.     

For the greater good: business networks and business social responsibility to communities

Business networks (co-operative arrangements between independent business organizations) may be the signature organizational form of the contemporary global economy. Many policy-makers and local leaders advocate business network membership as an alternative development strategy for regional economic vitality. The extant literature on business networks has focused on their association with business success. However, little is known about their impact on other aspects of community life. The purpose of this paper is to elaborate the role of network membership on one non-economic dimension of the business community interface. We examined the relationship between business network membership and business social responsibility to communities, defined as the provision of leadership and support for community betterment projects. Data were gathered from telephone interviews with a random sample of 460 non-metro small business operators in the USA. Independent t-tests and ordinary least squares regression analyses controlling for theoretically important variables were conducted. Findings show that networked businesses provide more leadership and support for their communities than non-networked businesses. However, networked businesses were no more likely than non-networked businesses to use local suppliers of goods and services.     

Supporter Influence on Club Governance in a Sports League; a “Utility Maximization” Model

The article formalizes a seminal suggestion of Sloane ( 1971 ), studying a sports league in which club objectives are multi‐argument utility functions defined over profits, win percentages and fan (=supporter) welfare, thus combining the three objectives that have been addressed separately in previous models. Particular focus is on the consequences of increasing the utility weight on fan welfare, to capture the recent increasing supporter involvement in club governance in UK football. Positive consequences are unambiguously higher attendances, with more nuanced affects on ticket prices and player expenditure. A normative consequence is that positive profits for club owners indicate social sub‐optimality.     

Electricity pool prices: a case study in nonlinear time-series modelling

This paper considers modelling the behaviour of prices in the English and Welsh wholesale electricity Pool since the creation of this spot market in 1990. The process turns out to be nonlinear and a logistic smooth transition autoregressive model is fitted and shown to be superior to a linear alternative. The behaviour of the estimated model is discussed, and it is seen that nonlinearity is needed to describe the institutional characteristics and historical path of pool prices.     

Preference for Restorative Situations: Interactive Effects of Attentional State,Activity-in-Environment,and Social Context

This study extends research on psychological restoration by encompassing a broad set of restorative situations available to urban residents. Preferences are assessed for mundane restorative situations comprising leisure activity, setting, and social context, given different levels of attentional fatigue. Attentional fatigue, activity-setting, and social context were experimentally manipulated. The settings for activities were home, park, city center, and transit. Participants (N = 70) read scenarios describing an attentional state and rated their preference for the situations. Results show interactive effects of attentional state with activity-setting and with social context. The park was most preferred given attentional fatigue. Results confirm that while residents may particularly value urban nature for restoration, their urban context also provides other mundane but attractive restorative situations.     

Institutional Aspects of Youth Employment and Training Policy in Britain

Public policy towards youth employment and training in Britain during the past decade has been dominated by two themes: the quest to reduce youth relative pay, as part of a wider deregulation of the labour market, in order to increase access to jobs and training: and the neglect of apprenticeship in favour of the Youth Training Scheme. This paper analyses these policies in an institutional framework informed by the results of a recent research project on youth activity in industry in major EC economies (Marsden and Ryan 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991).
The policy debate in Britain has tended to focus upon the effectiveness of lower youth pay at improving youth access to jobs and training (Wells 1983; Jones 1985; Junankar and Neale 1987). We accept the efficacy of lower youth pay but question its institutional viability. Youth employment and training policies must be well grounded in labour market institutions in order to achieve success. We argue that neglect of the institutional context accounts for the lopsided and partial success resulting from current policies in Britain, and that the revitalization of apprenticeship, either as such or in the equivalent form of a strongly upgraded public training scheme, has a great deal to offer.
We begin with an outline of the relevant institutions. We trace their implications for outcomes in the youth market, contrast the divergent institutional directions taken by West Germany and the UK, and finally assess contemporary British policy towards youth activity in general and apprenticeship in particular.