Business cycle duration dependence and foreign recessions

This study revisits business cycle duration dependence in G7 countries by controlling for foreign recessions, defined as the number of other G7 countries in a recession. Estimates from regime switching logit models show that the monthly likelihood of ending an expansion roughly doubles for every extra G7 country in recession, but the end of foreign recessions do not affect the ending of recessions. They also show that recessions are duration dependent in all G7 countries, but expansions only in the United States and Germany. The economic importance of foreign recessions and duration in driving business cycle phase changes vary across countries.     

Effects of the October 2013 U.S. Federal government shutdown on National Park gateway communities: the case of Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor,Maine

The U.S. Federal Government experienced a shutdown that halted much of its spending and services over 16 days in October 2013. Federal government officials noted a wide variety of impacts that the shutdown had on economic activity, including a reduction in the admission fees collected by the National Park Service and losses of visitor spending in ‘gateway communities’ located near national parks and monuments. This article examines the effects of the October 2013 federal government shutdown on Acadia National Park’s gateway community of Bar Harbor, Maine. Regression results show that the 16-day shutdown is associated with a 76% reduction in Acadia visitation in October 2013 and a 13% reduction in tourism-related sales. This suggests that an estimated 17% of the potential visitors impacted by the Acadia closure cancelled their trips to Bar Harbor. This change in visitor behaviour is a reasonably large response to a short-term event such as the government shutdown.     

Mapping Out the Customer's Journey: Customer Search Strategy as a Basis for Channel Management

Many companies tailor their communication and interaction with customers by segmenting them into channel usage groups. This study argues that simply focusing on channels has limited effectiveness as increasingly customers today use multiple channels, the online channel contains many different forms, and channels are increasingly blended. We have identified several search strategies that reveal how customers find their way through a multichannel landscape during the various phases of a purchase. By explaining channel usage through these “search strategies,” we propose a clear and intuitive model that will support companies developing an effective multichannel strategy.     

'We are nurses, we are supposed to care for people': professional values among nurses in NHS Direct call centres

This paper explores the interpretive negotiation of professional values by nurses working in a large public-sector organisation in the UK, namely the NHS Direct (NHSD). Reported are findings from a number of case studies of NHSD, undertaken in response to calls for more research into so-called professional call centre settings.