Business models among SMTEs: identifying attitudes to environmental costs and their implications for sustainable tourism

This paper examines how environmental resources and costs feature in business models of small- and medium-sized tourism enterprises (SMTEs). Several studies have pointed to the generally positive nature of the relationship between the economic and environmental performance of tourism firms. Yet, although business models act as a vector between these aspects of firm performance, they have been overlooked in sustainable tourism discourse. The paper reports findings from discussion groups of SMTE businesses in South West England during the global economic downturn. Environmental costs and cost control were afforded relatively little importance in terms of value creation; conversely, there was a strong and predictable emphasis on revenue generation. Indirect tactics emerged for dealing with guests’ environmental behaviours which reflected this prevailing commercial logic. Green credentials were routinely de-emphasized, sometimes regarded as liabilities, in a form of greenhushing. Responses were framed by reference to social media and how online reviews may negatively impact on future value capture. Conceptually, the business model emerged as an important lens for understanding how environmental resources and costs were valourized. The paper highlights the need to ensure that contemporary approaches to environmental management in SMTEs reflect the current and fast-changing conditions that frame business models.     

Requests for zoo visitors to undertake pro-wildlife behaviour: How many is too many?

Recognising the potential conservation impact, zoos regularly ask their visitors to undertake pro-wildlife behaviour. This paper presents the results of two studies undertaken to address the question: how often during a visit should visitors be asked? Study 1 sought to a) determine individuals' personal thresholds and b) the point where the number of different behaviours requested began affect visitors' experiences. Study 2 sought the same, but focused on requests for the same behaviour. Results suggest that few respondents' personal thresholds were crossed (2.5% in Study 1 and 9% in Study 2). In neither study did many respondents (2.5% in Study 1 and 2.8% in Study 2) feel that the number of requests negatively affect their overall zoo experience. While there are caveats, we conclude that there appears little cause for concern about asking zoo visitors on multiple occasions to act in support of wildlife. Indeed, such requests may improve experiences.     

The Contribution of Sectoral Productivity Differentials to Inflation in Greece

This paper estimates the magnitude of the Balassa-Samuelson effect for Greece. We calculate the effect directly, using sectoral national accounts data, which permits estimation of total factor productivity (TFP) growth in the tradeables and nontradeables sectors. Our results suggest that it is difficult to produce one estimate of the BS effect. Any particular estimate is contingent on the definition of the tradeables sector and the assumptions made about labour shares. Moreover, there is also evidence that the effect has been declining through time as Greek standards of living have caught up on those in the rest of the world and as the non-tradeables sector within Greece catches up with the tradeables.

Property Markets At Sea

Explotation of seabed resources will be inefficient unless markets are established in seabed property rights. Professor Denman draws an implicit parallel between the Enclosure Movement which produced rapid improvements in agricultural efficiency, and privatising the ocean floor, and offers specific proposals for its implementation.     

Equal Credit Opportunity Legislation and Indicators of Credit Worthiness: An Economic Study of Women Applicants for Credit in California

Although much equal credit opportunity legislation has been passed in recent years, little has been done to ascertain whether the new laws have actually altered lending practices or whether the practices were sex-biased initially. This research makes use of a sample of 241 women from five counties in California to show what factors affect the probability of credit extension to women in that state, and whether these variables are different from those that were associated with lending practices before the law's passage. The results indicate that prior to the passage of the law, several market indices, including home ownership and spousal support, were associated with an applicant's ability to obtain credit. After passage of the law these indices were no longer significant predictors of loan approval. Within the limits of the data and the design used here, the empirical evidence supported the hypothesis that California credit institutions changed their lending criteria after the passage of equal credit opportunity legislation.     

The interaction of shock waves in cylindrical structures

An experimental investigation into the validity and use of the hydraulic jump analogy for studying the interaction of shock waves in air with cylindrical structures.     

Major fire in a steam-methane reformer furnace

Causes of a major fire which resulted when a pigtail ruptured on a 10-year old hydrogen plant reformer and led to the destruction of 54 catalyst tubes.     

Early on-line detection of exothermic reactions

On-line supervision exhibits in many respects properties complementary to those of established off-line safety tests. Thus, on-line methods are powerful tools for increasing the safety of chemical processes, especially in situations where unexpected hazards could occur. Known on-line supervising methods are described and their advantage and disadvantages are briefly discussed. The abilities of various on-line methods are demonstrated on a real case.