Attributes that influence the evaluation of travel dining experience: When East meets West

Many destination marketers have utilized gastronomy as a source of new products and activities to attract tourists. Despite the substantial rise in the Chinese outbound market, very little is known about how Chinese tourists evaluate their travel dining experiences. By using narrative analysis, this study examines attributes that may affect Chinese tourists' evaluation of their travel dining experiences. On-site participant observation and focus group interviews were conducted, respectively, with Mainland Chinese, Taiwanese, and Hong Kong group tourists, while they were on holiday in Australia. A total of 15 attributes were identified, which were classified under the following six categories: tourists' own food culture, the contextual factor of the dining experience, variety and diversity of food, perception of the destination, service encounter, and tour guide's performance. The respective implications of the attributes on travel dining experience are also discussed.     

The functional-psychological continuum in the cognitive image of a destination: A confirmatory analysis

This paper analyses the cognitive component of the image of a destination from a dual perspective. Firstly, we study its composition by positing three positions on a continuum: functional, mixed and psychological, which are analysed using confirmatory factor analysis. Secondly, we study the influence of these components on tourists' overall image of the destination and on their future behaviour intentions, using structural equation analysis. The results show that the psychological and functional components exercise the greatest influence on the overall image of the destination. Overall image was found to influence future behaviour intentions consistently, while the functional component is relevant for revisit intention and the psychological component for the intention to recommend.     

Carrying capacity assessment for tourist destinations. Methodology for the creation of synthetic indicators applied in a coastal area

The growth and expansion of tourism is a complex phenomenon and its study requires multiple disciplines. When related to sustainability, the growth limits and carrying capacity of destinations must also be considered. The objective of this article is to develop a methodology to assess the growth limits of tourist destinations, and this method is then applied to the management and planning of an open tourist resort. The limits to growth are established using a mathematical formulation (i.e., multicriteria analyses, based on the reference point methodology) based on synthetic indicators applied to two scenarios: weak and strong sustainability. There are two developments in this type of research. The first is that the application of this method is neither restricted to a natural protected area, which has its own rules and management, nor to an island possessing geographically controlled entry and exit points. Rather, this study focuses on an open coastal area with an economy based on mass tourism. Second, this new way of assessing growth limits uses a flexible formula – adaptable to other coastal areas, e.g., rural, natural, and urban – depending on the impacts generated by the tourism and the objectives specified by destination managers.     

Validation of a market orientation adoption scale in rural tourism enterprises. Relationship between the characteristics of the enterprise and extent of market orientation adoption

Market orientation (MO) is considered as a competitive strategy for the rural tourism sector. A MO adoption scale is proposed and validated for the rural tourism sector. Given the importance of MO, it is important to know the relationship between a firm's characteristics and MO adoption. This study makes a hierarchical segmentation to predict the behaviour of these firms when adopting the MO. Activity and category are the two characteristics that most effectively predict a firm's behaviour. The contribution made by this work is of interest given the new field of application achieved and which have implications for the professional sector.     

Testing for spatial market integration: evidence for Colombia using a pairwise approach

We examine the extent of spatial market integration in Colombia using consumer price index data for 153 consumer goods in 13 cities. An econometric analysis of the time‐series properties of all the possible city price differentials reveals that market integration tends to occur more frequently in unprocessed food products, as opposed to processed foods, other traded and nontraded products. The results also support the view that, except for nontraded products, the speed at which prices adjust to the long‐run equilibrium is slower for cities that are farther apart.     

人与组织匹配对组织功效的影响

人与组织匹配是关于人与他们所工作的组织之间产生相容性的前因和后果的研究,实际上反映了影响人与组织匹配的相关因素.本文探讨了人与组织匹配与其影响变量之间的关系:人与组织匹配与雇佣过程的关系:人与组织匹配与个体层次的结果变量的关系;人与组织匹配与组织绩效的关系;人与组织匹配对构建和谐组织的影响.     

高校生活垃圾分类体系的优化及其可行性分析——以西南大学为例

基于高校的垃圾分类回收现状,分析实现垃圾分类回收体系优化后的效益。以发放问卷的调查方式,通过spss的单因素分析,进行定性、定量分析,得出抽样结果的显著性,证实所选命题产生困难的原因及操作实施的可能性,寻求相应的解决措施,为学校的垃圾分类工作提出建议。     

A multi-country,multi-sector replication challenge to the validity of the cultural tightness-looseness measure

Asia Pacific Journal of Management - In this study, we assess the internal and external validity of Gelfand et al.’s (2011) recently developed measure of cultural tightness-looseness (CTL)....     

Mechanical engineering and issues on teaching mechanical engineering design in Turkey

Students with relatively low affinity and/or weak ability for science and mathematics have been presently acknowledged into Mechanical Engineering (ME) departments around the world. This has resulted in apparent lowering of fully competent graduate engineers, due to insufficient comprehension and its concomitant cognitive issues. Now, the complexity and the demand of ME education have been extremely unbalanced with recruited students. This conflict between the education process and less knowledgeable students has been adequately acknowledged, but remedies for this global issue are not yet available. This is no longer sustainable. The paper gives insight into (individual and combined) plausible reasons for fewer fully competent graduate engineers, taking the specific case study in Turkey. It proposes a generic approach, which can be extended to courses of any university/degree subject. Findings on student learning are provided using a hierarchical decomposition. A proposed remedy for this issue has been thoroughly evaluated, and accountability measures, qualitative data and a survey has been conducted for the ME design course taught in Turkey. The findings indicate that the new recruits are not fully to blame for the conflict, because there have also been other reasons for the issues within teaching. It identified multiple instances of the reasons such as unnecessary complexity of textbooks, unsolved contradictions even between the technical component design standards and etc. If these are considered by educators, this will help to reduce the perceived degree of teaching difficulty, and have a positive effect on the quality of graduates. It may even assist in attracting higher ability students into ME.     

The international hotel industry in Spain: Its hierarchical structure

This paper empirically analyzes the indebtedness of the main companies in the Spanish hotel industry. In particular, it introduces a method to analyze the structures and dynamics of the largest companies in this sector. The method combines the Pearson correlation coefficient with the nearest neighbour single linkage clustering algorithm (Mantegna, R. N. (1999). Hierarchical structure in financial markets. The European Physical Journal B, 11, 193–197). The Pearson correlation coefficient determines a metric distance between two different multidimensional time series that is then used to construct a Minimal Spanning Tree. From this tree, an ultra metric distance that is used to derive the Hierarchical Tree can be computed. From the analysis of the time series data of companies included in the SABI, or the Iberian Balance Sheet Analysis System 2005, it is possible to derive a hierarchical organization of the Spanish hotel firms. In particular, different dynamic clusters of companies, which correspond to their common production and indebtedness strategies, can be detected.