INVESTIGATING ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES TO HARMONISE MULTI-REGIONAL INPUT–OUTPUT DATA

Over recent years a small number of global multi-regional input–output (MRIO) databases were developed to describe the entire global economy at high sector detail. We investigate the differences that arise out of applying different construction procedures for two global MRIO databases: The EXIOBASE database, developed as part of the EU FP6 & 7 programs and the Eora database developed at the University of Sydney. The procedures used in EXIOBASE involve a high degree of interrogation and adjustment throughout the construction of the data set, whilst the Eora MRIO relies on single-step mathematical programming techniques and high-performance computing. We unravel the effect of the different approaches taken to develop the databases by undertaking a number of combinatorial experiments in which we exchange parts of the construction process between the EXIOBASE and Eora build pipelines. We conclude that Eora's highly automated data reconciliation approach produces MRIO databases that are of comparable quality to those constructed with EXIOBASE's multi-step approach. However, the reliability and robustness of the resulting MRIO database largely depend on the level of detail and reliability of the underlying raw data.     

Modeling Farm Households' Price Responses in the Presence of Transaction Costs and Heterogeneity in Labor Markets

We develop a farm household model to analyze price responses of farm households. This model incorporates various types of transaction costs as well as labor heterogeneity. Nonproportional variable transaction costs or labor heterogeneity imply that production and consumption decisions become nonseparable, even when the household buys or sells labor. An empirical model is estimated using data from Midwest Poland. The results show that nonproportional variable transaction costs and labor heterogeneity significantly influence household behavior. Not all price elasticities, however, change significantly if these are neglected.     

How sustainable is sustainable hospitality research? A review of sustainable restaurant literature from 1991 to 2015

This research was designed to evaluate our current state of knowledge by systematically reviewing tourism and hospitality academic literature concerning sustainability in the restaurant sector by undertaking a systematic review and content analysis. The characteristics of 76 articles are listed in a comprehensive table, presenting research design and research variables, and the articles are examined for their approach to the sustainability concept as applied to the restaurant industry (i.e. the range of responsible practices addressed in each work). The findings indicate that the majority of the literature only engages with parts of sustainability, particularly ecological, rather than holistic sustainability. This matters because it may mean we fail in our attempts to achieve more sustainable restaurant operations.

This research suggests that tourism and hospitality studies need to re-engage with the evolving conceptualisation of sustainability to ensure that best practice responses to changing requirements are undertaken. The narrow focus on ecological aspects of sustainability featuring in restaurants does not acknowledge the full meaning of sustainability and therefore may constrain efforts to secure more sustainable futures. Illuminating such gaps in knowledge is important in order to strengthen our conceptual understandings, refine our practices and thereby secure more sustainable futures through tourism and hospitality.     

The Influence of Retail Management’s Use of Social Power on Corporate Ethical Values,Employee Commitment,and Performance

Recent cases in retailing reflect that ethics have a major impact on brands and performance, in turn, demonstrating that brand owners, employees, and consumers focus on ethical values. In this study, we analyze how various sources of social power affect corporate ethical values, retailer’s commitment to the retail organization, and ultimately sales and service quality. Multi-source data based on a sample of 225 retailers indicated a strong link between power, ethics, and commitment and that these affected output performance.     

Testing Retail Marketing-Mix Effects on Patronage: A Meta-Analysis

Retailers have always worked to establish close relationships with customers through the retail marketing mix. Thus, the literature has a long tradition of testing the effects of various instruments on retail patronage. This meta-study synthesizes prior research into one comprehensive framework. We use 14,895 effect sizes reported by more than 239,000 shoppers from 41 countries extracted from 350 independent samples, to test the impact of 24 marketing-mix instruments on retail patronage. Specifically, we investigate the direct and indirect effects of these instruments on store satisfaction, word of mouth, patronage intention, and behavior. Product and brand management related instruments display the strongest effects on most outcome variables, whereas price, communication, service and incentive management instruments affect only selected outcomes. Distribution management turns out to be of secondary importance. However, the effectiveness of these instruments depends on the specific shopping context (food/non-food, shopping frequency, single store/agglomeration, hedonic/utilitarian), the retail environment (gross domestic product, country innovativeness, retail sales share, retail employment, Internet era), and the employed method (participant type, study design, data source). Specifically, we reveal most differences for hedonic shopping environments and developed countries. Also, the store’s advertising and atmosphere have gained importance in the Internet era, while purchase incentives, in-store orientation, and store location have lost relevance. This study contributes to a synoptic understanding of the comparable effectiveness of retail marketing instruments on retail patronage. It offers insights into the effectiveness of marketing-mix instruments and provides guidance on whether and when to invest in them. It also presents an agenda for future research on marketing-mix instruments.     

Development and perspectives of the Australian Coal Supply Chain and Implications for the Export Market

The Australian coal industry is critical for the nation’s domestic energy supply and economy with an export value of almost A$24 bn in the fiscal year 2007/08. With almost 75% of production destined to the export market, Australia is also the world’s largest hard coal exporter and an essential secure source of energy particularly to meet both thermal and metallurgical coal demand in the fast growing Pacific Rim. This paper examines the Australian mining sector prospects to retain its position as the world’s largest coal exporter in the mid-term, by analysing the potential increases in export capacity along the coal supply chain through expansions in mine, rail and port capacities. Despite current financial challenges and restrictions, the authors conclude that export volumes, depending on demand, could rise by 50% in the period to 2014.     

More than an “industry”: The forgotten power of tourism as a social force

This paper argues that in the current neo-liberal era, the discourse of tourism as an “industry” has overshadowed other conceptualisations of the tourism phenomenon. An argument is developed that this discourse serves the needs and agendas of leaders in the tourism business sector. However, the author desires to revive an earlier understanding of tourism that predates the neoliberal era. Tourism is in fact a powerful social force that can achieve many important ends when its capacities are unfettered from the market fundamentalism of neoliberalism and instead are harnessed to meet human development imperatives and the wider public good. Examining the human rights aspects of tourism, investigating phenomena such as “social tourism”, exploring a few “non-western” perspectives of tourism and outlining some of the tantalising promise that tourism holds, this paper attempts to revive and reinforce a wider vision of tourism's role in societies and the global community. It is argued that it is critical for tourism academics, planners and leaders to support such a vision if tourism is to avoid facing increasing opposition and criticism in a likely future of insecurity and scarcity.     

Epilogue: Popperian Perspectives on Transaction Cost Economics and Future Directions of Empirical Research

The 2009 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel Prize to Oliver Williamson was not a surprise to scholars in business research. Transaction cost economics (TCE) has been among the most important streams of empirical investigation in business research during the last four decades. TCE has formed, developed and changed business research across disciplines during this era. Williamson, (1999:1092) himself noted that “I have no hesitation, however, in declaring that transaction cost economics is an empirical success story.” The Nobel Prize is a milestone event in business research, and the use of the criterion of falsification in this essay provides a compass to navigate future efforts. We present potential avenues of TCE research based on a Popperian lens focused on research discussed throughout this milestone issue of the Journal of Retailing.     

Robustifizierung des Chain-Ladder-Verfahrens über ein skalares Zustandsraummodell

Applications of state space models and the Kalman filter are comparatively underrepresented in stochastic claims reserving. This is usually caused by their high complexity due to matrix-based approaches, which complicate their applications. In order to facilitate the implementation of state space models in practice, we present a state space model for cumulative payments in the framework of a scalar-based approach. In addition to a comprehensive presentation of this scalar state space model, some empirical applications and comparisons with popular stochastic claims reserving methods are performed, which show the strengths of the scalar state space model in practical applications. This model is a robustified extension of the well-known Chain Ladder method under the assumption, that the observations in the upper triangle are based on unobservable states. Using Kalman-filter recursions for prediction, filtering and smoothing of cumulative payments, the entire unobservable lower and upper run-off triangles can be determined. Moreover, the model provides an easy way to find and smooth outliers and to interpolate gaps in the data. Thus, the problem of missing values in the upper triangle is also solved in a natural way.