Determinants of the Use of the Internet as a Tourist Information Source

The modelling of usage behaviour of New Information Technologies is of great utility to managers who need to evaluate the probability of success in the introduction of these technologies. The present study empirically contrasts the capacity of Davis's Technology Acceptance Model 1989 to help understand the determinants of the intention to use the Internet to search for holiday information. The findings show that the above theory does explain the intention to use the Internet on the part of the tourist, but it should be expanded to take account of the tourist's satisfaction with previous experiences of searching for holiday information.     

Applicability of global value chains analysis to tourism: issues of governance and upgrading

Tourism firms are increasingly integrated in value chains that often operate across many different countries. As a result, the concepts and the methodology of the global value chains begin to be applied to the tourism industry. This paper aims to explore the applicability of this methodological approach for a specific service industry, such as tourism. It pays particular attention to the impact of different patterns of governance within global tourism value chains on the possible forms of upgrading. First, a set of regional case studies carried out on this subject leads us to identify the main patterns of governance in the Andalusian tourism industry. Secondly, an empirical analysis allows us to consider in which way upgrading can vary according to the governance patterns.     

Characteristics of research on green marketing

This paper aims to describe and analyze the main characteristics of articles on green marketing published in the most relevant journals within the period 1993–2003, in order to determine the evolution of this current issue of research over recent years and improve our understanding of this subject. We built up a database with 112 articles on green marketing and we have explored the topic, the methodology and the techniques of analysis, as well as other relevant aspects of the research. In order to complete this analysis, we made a review of articles published in two journals specializing in environmental management: BSE and CSREM. In this way, this paper offers practical help to those who are beginning research on this topic because the results will help us to determine what still needs to be investigated in this topic and hence propose a research agenda for the coming years. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Is there a business cycle in Singapore? Is there a Singaporean business cycle?

This paper explores the existence and examines the characteristics, if any, of business cycles in Singapore. Specifically, the authors ask: Is there a business cycle in Singapore? Is there a Singaporean business cycle? Unlike earlier studies, this paper investigates whether or not there exists a business cycle in Singapore and employs cross-spectral analysis and factor analysis which have advantages over the time-domain techniques. The study shows that there is a business cycle in Singapore and its frequency does not coincide with the periodicity of the two recessions experienced by the country. However, the business cycle is not in any meaningful way Singaporean, as evidenced by the existence of three international factors explaining about 99 percent of the common variance of the series. The idiosyncratic factor is well below 1 percent in all Association of Southeast Asian Nations countries with the exception of the Philippines. The findings have a number of significant implications both from the theoretical and policymaking viewpoint.     

How accounting and auditing systems can counteract risk-shifting of safety-nets in banking: Some international evidence

This paper suggests that accounting and auditing systems can be effective devices to counteract tendencies for firm risk-taking associated with bank safety nets. Results are obtained from an international sample of publicly traded banks after controlling for other regulatory control devices for bank risk such as restrictions on banking activities, minimum regulatory capital requirements and official discipline. The efficacy of accounting and auditing systems in controlling bank risk diminishes with bank charter value and increases with moral hazard stemming from a country's deposit insurance. The results also indicate that accounting and auditing systems are complements for minimum capital requirements, but substitutes for restrictions on bank activities and official discipline.     

Market Power in European Banking Sectors

We analyze the evolution of market power in the main banking sectors of the European Union. The evolution of the relative margins does not show an increase in the degree of competition within the EU. The explanatory factors of the relative margins most directly related to market power are not significant, and even have a negative influence (concentration in the deposits market). The size and efficiency of banks, default risk, and the economic cycle have a notable capacity to explain the behavior of the market power. The results show the inadequacy of using concentration measures as proxy for the competition environment in banking markets.     

Co‐Authorship in Management and Organizational Studies: An Empirical and Network Analysis*

In recent decades there has been growing interest in the nature and scale of scientific collaboration. Studies into co‐authorship have taken two different approaches. The first one attempts to analyse the reasons why authors collaborate and the consequences of such decision ( Laband and Tollison, 2000 ). The second approach is based on the idea that co‐authorship creates a social network of researchers ( Barabási et al., 2002 ; Moody, 2004 ; Newman, 2001 ). In this study we have carried out an exploratory analysis of co‐authorships in the field of management from the two aforementioned approaches. The results obtained show a growing tendency of the co‐authored papers in the field of management, similar to what can be observed in other disciplines. Our study analyses some of the underpinning factors, which have been highlighted in the literature, explaining this tendency. Thus, the progressive quantitative character of research and the influence of the collaboration on the articles' impact are enhanced. The network analysis permits the exploration of the peculiarities of the management in comparison with other fields of knowledge, as well as the existing linkages between the most central and prominent authors within this discipline.     

The Political Economy of Investment in Human Capital

Investments in human capital accumulation, government consumption and total government expenditures present a striking negative correlation with capital shares. This correlation is robust to alternative specifications, lists of controls, and exclusion of outliers. Causality tests strongly support the hypothesis that the direction of causation runs from capital shares to the government spending variables. We present a political economy model of interest groups that can account for these correlations. In contrast, a median voter model predicts positive correlations between capital shares and the government spending variables.     

A Cointegration Analysis of Car Advertising and Sales Data in the Presence of Structural Change

This paper examines whether there is a long‐run stable equilibrium relationship between advertising and sales across the market segments of the UK car industry over the period 1971–2001. In order to achieve this goal, we allow for structural breaks in the series using cointegration techniques. The results show the existence of long‐run equilibrium relationships in all six market segments, although in four of them the relationship is not stable. In general, one structural change is detected in the late 1970s and another in the early 1990s, coinciding with two economic recessions. When we do not account for structural changes, the estimated long‐run elasticities of advertising on sales are seen to be substantially downwardly biased. Finally, a noticeable increase is observed in long‐run elasticities in most car market segments during the nineties with respect to previous decades.