Seasonal employees' intention to return and do more than expected

Seasonal employment is important in the service industries. Having motivated and satisfied employees is fundamental when front-line employees play a key role for the customers' perceived service quality. Seasonal work differs from permanent employment in many aspects and if managed properly, this could be a competitive advantage and contribute to the success of an organization. This study focuses on seasonal employees' intention to return and to do more than expected at work as well as the relationships between certain motivational factors and job satisfaction. A survey was carried out at four ski resorts with 477 respondents. Correlation and regression analyses indicate that job satisfaction influences the intention to return but does not have a strong influence on organizational citizenship behaviour (i.e. doing more than expected at work). The results improve our understanding of seasonal workers' motivation and behaviour. The concluding part discusses managerial implications.     

Public spending and optimal taxes without commitment

We consider a representative agent, infinite-horizon economy where production requires private and public capital. The supply of public capital is financed through distortionary taxation. The optimal (second best) tax policy of a benevolent government is time inconsistent. We therefore introduce explicitly the constraint that at no point in time the revision of the original tax plan is desirable. We completely characterize the (third best) tax plan that satisfies this constraint, and estimate the difference in tax rate between the second and third best policy for a wide range of parameters. For some of these the difference between the second and third best tax rates is large, and so are the associated rates of economic growth.     

Currency crises in Brazil: the role of the fundamentals and the rumours

The paper aims at identification of the main explanatory factors of the currency crises in Brazil. Following Choueiri and Kaminsky (1997) a VAR monetary model is used and the historical decomposition procedure developed by Sims (1980) to evaluate the importance of the ‘fundamentals’ represented by fiscal/monetary and exchange-rate policies, and the ‘external factors’ represented by foreign interest rates and contagious effects. The main results show the importance of the exchange-rate management on the overall period and the contagious effects more recently to explain the Brazilian currency crises.     

Latin American multinationals: A historical and theoretical approach*

Among the so‐called multinationals from the South, Latin American multinationals are outstanding for being pioneers. Their history goes even back to the end of the 19th century. In this article, we sketch a brief history of Latin American multinationals, but we concentrate on their development and growing importance since the 1980s within the context of economic reforms and globalization. We then apply a theoretical and typological perspective in order to characterize these multinational companies and to identify the elements that will condition their future behavior and development     

Leisure and its varieties

Three sets of arguments are presented, which are for and against the development of a European Community (EC) cultural policy and also seem to apply to the development of a European media policy. These arguments cluster around the ‘mass’ character of the media, the relationship between economy and culture and the loss of national identities. In a concluding paragraph the arguments will be summarized by presenting two different, and more or less opposite, approaches to the formulation of an EC media policy.     

Teaching financial literacy: a survey of community‐based educators

A nationwide online survey of financial educators in adult community‐based financial education programmes in the US was conducted to examine teaching beliefs, related curriculum and teaching strategies used to reach underserved populations. A transformative learning theoretical framework was used to discover how financial education engages learners in relation to their own lives. Survey findings indicate in community‐based settings financial educators are largely White, female, college educated and with multiple years of experience; believe their role is to provide expert information to help learners make informed financial choices; and often adapt published materials to reflect the life circumstances of learners. Learners are more racially diverse than educators, most having attended high school, who identify their own financial need to attend the programmes. Programmes do not often target specific groups, are frequently free and can take place in a variety of face‐to‐face settings. Implications indicate best practices for financial educators require inclusive, culturally responsive pedagogies.     

Customer satisfaction's key factors in Spanish grocery stores: Evidence from hypermarkets and supermarkets

The marketing literature has shown how certain attributes of the store are key for grocery retailers to differentiate themselves in the final markets. From this preliminary consideration the present work proposes a step forward by ascertaining the main factors that underlie the attributes of the store which have already been identified in the literature. All of this is taken into account with the object to examine which of these factors presents a greater influence on customer satisfaction. To test the proposed analysis, a sample of 358 Spanish customers that had carried out their purchase in different types of grocery stores (in particular, hypermarkets and supermarkets) has been analyzed considering a key variable of retail patronage behavior: the store format in which the purchase had been carried out. This study has enabled us to obtain interesting conclusions about the variables that have the most influence on customer satisfaction, providing useful managerial recommendations for decision-making in grocery retailing.     

Tourism revenues and residential foreign investment flows in Spain: a simultaneous model

The aim of this work is to analyse the determinants of the tourism revenues and the residential foreign investment, in Spain, during the period 1967–1998. To do so, a two equation simultaneous model is proposed to be estimated. The specification highlights the simultaneous and direct interdependence of the tourism revenues and the residential foreign investment flows. This result contrasts with the traditional standard specification of the international tourism demands in Spain. Nonlinear simultaneous estimations, cointegration techniques and a battery of specification tests are the econometric tools applied in the work.     

An Alternative Business Cycle Dating Procedure for South Africa

This paper applies a factor‐augmented Markov‐switching model to the South African economy to provide an alternative classification of the business cycle and its turning points. In the principal components step, 123 variables are used to establish the aggregate cyclicality in all sectors of the economy with the number of factors chosen using a modified Bai and Ng method. By exploiting the rich nature of the dataset, we provide a model with well‐defined statistical properties that compares favourably with the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) dating points. Combining the results of the parametric approach followed in the Markov‐switching model and the non‐parametric approach followed by the SARB should allow for a robust turning point analysis. A Markov‐switching model of real gross domestic product is also estimated because this variable is commonly used in the literature and provides a benchmark for the factor models.     

Online monitoring and assessment of emerging risk in conventional industrial plants: possible way to implement integrated risk management approach and KPI’s

Existing methodologies and practices do not provide enough possibility for online monitoring and assessment of emerging risks occurring as a result of a change in technology, product, operating conditions, as well as in organization of activities in conventional industrial plants. Typical today’s off and online methods and corresponding software packages are used as risk assessment methods, while various risk aspects (such as: process risks, process equipment integrity risks, organizational risks, and health and environmental risks) are being assessed and treated independently. However, it is clear that risk assessment and making decisions in line with that has to be based on information collected from different (independent) sources in online mode. Also, the fact that additional risks in operations may occur due to unexpected changes in technology, accidents or unexpected process equipment degradation should be taken into account. When monitoring and process management systems are being designed and developed, only the process aspect and process risk are usually analyzed, while other risk aspects are not taken into account (like health and environmental risks). A new approach, to be presented in this paper, provides a possibility of online monitoring and assessment of risks (e.g. in petrochemical industry, power industry, etc.).