The influence of values and attitudes on green consumer behavior: A conceptual model of green hotel patronage

This study develops a comprehensive conceptual framework of consumer behavioral intentions in green hotels. Based on Schwartz’s values theory, using Stern’s nomenclature, in conjugation with value-attitude-hierarchy, ecocentric and anthropocentric ethic, and green signaling theory, this study identifies values (biospheric, altruistic, and egoistic) and attitudes (ecocentric and anthropocentric) that influence consumers’ green hotel visit intention, willingness to pay more, and willingness to sacrifice. This study adds to the extant literature by incorporating the consumers’ environmental concern perspective, the social-altruistic perspective, and the personal benefits and status perspectives in embracing green products. Understanding the interplay of biospheric, altruistic, and egoistic values and ecocentric and anthropocentric attitudes on green hotel behavioral intentions will provide insights to better understand the green consumer and to better manage the green hotel.     

GIS-based DRASTIC method for groundwater vulnerability assessment: a review

Groundwater vulnerability is a burning issue all over the world due to the deterioration of groundwater level and increasing contamination which poses serious detrimental risk to the environment. To identify this risk, extensive research has been carried out to assess the groundwater vulnerability by using different methods. Generally, the process-based method, statistical method, and overlay & index methods are used in this regard. DRASTIC method is one type of overlay & index method for vulnerability assessment. This paper represents a comprehensive review of available literature on the applications of Geographic Information System (GIS)-based DRASTIC method for groundwater vulnerability assessment. Also, some other types of overlay & index methods are compared with the DRASTIC method. This study discusses the rescaling of rating ranges and modification of DRASTIC parameters, and shows the comparison of DRASTIC method with other vulnerability assessment methods. In addition, this study identifies some research gaps on the present state of groundwater vulnerability assessment and proposes some research needs for further studies. The findings of this study indicate that the combination of GIS and DRASTIC are more viable for groundwater vulnerability assessment. Furthermore, modified DRASTIC method can be used for agricultural, arid, semi-arid, and basaltic regions.     

The impact of trade costs on exports: An empirical modeling

Studies, which have discussed some of the important issues concerning the measurement of trade costs, have conceded that the literature is still in the early stages of understanding and measuring what the real costs are. It is in this context, decomposing trade costs into ‘natural’ costs, ‘behind the border’ costs, ‘explicit beyond the border’ costs, and ‘implicit beyond the border’ costs, this paper suggests a method to measure the impacts of these components on changes in exports between countries in the absence of complete information on all the components of trade costs in home and partner countries. Empirical measurement has been demonstrated using 1999 and 2004 trade data from Pakistan. The results show that Pakistan's export growth between 1999 and 2004 came mainly from the reduction in both ‘explicit and implicit beyond the border’ trade costs in partner countries.     

Evaluating willingness to pay for the temporal distribution of different air quality improvements: Is China's clean air target adequate to ensure welfare maximization?

Stated preference analyses seeking to determine the public's value for air quality improvements often estimate willingness to pay (WTP) for days at a specified minimum quality threshold (e.g., days with clean air), but do not consider the temporal distribution of pollution levels below this threshold. This paper develops a choice experiment designed to evaluate WTP for a more complete distribution of air quality improvements, including the number of days per year at multiple air quality levels. The model is applied to a case study of air quality improvement in the core districts of Xi'an City, China. Results from a linearly constrained mixed logit model demonstrate that average household WTP for improving a lightly polluted, moderately polluted, heavily polluted, or severely polluted day to a clean air day is 7.42, 8.90, 13.06, and 24.28 RMB per year, respectively. These results show that WTP depends not only on the total number of clean air days, but on the total distribution of pollution levels across all days of the year. Results are directly relevant to the development of clean air policies in China, for which benefit estimates are currently unavailable.     

The effect of obedience pressure and authoritarianism on managers' project evaluation decisions

This study examines the effects that obedience pressure and the personality trait of authoritarianism have on managers' project evaluation decisions. A laboratory experiment was conducted to test the various hypotheses formulated in this study. The results suggest that project managers have a higher inclination to escalate their commitment to a failing project in the presence of obedience pressure. The results further reveal that project managers' tendency to escalate is most prominent in a private information situation and in an obedience pressure condition. In addition, the results suggest that low authoritarian project managers exhibited a greater tendency to continue a failing project regardless of the extent of obedience pressure under private information conditions. Furthermore, high authoritarian project managers exhibited a greater tendency to continue a failing project only when obedience pressure was present under private information conditions.     

How “green” are North American hotels? An exploration of low-cost adoption practices

This study analyzed the so-called “green,” or environmentally friendly, practices of American hotels. As such, it examined how green hotels in the United States are regarding no-cost or low-cost practices. Respondents included 166 hotels, which were identified through a random sample of hotels from the American Hotel & Lodging Association and included chain and independent properties as well as properties of various sizes (based on the number of rooms). The study findings show that chain hotels were at the time of the study stronger adopters of green practices than independent hotels were, likely due to leveraging economies of scale through uniform corporate practices. In addition, hotels in the Midwest were found to be the most environmentally friendly in terms of their use of no-cost or low-cost green practices. Additional results indicated that size (classified by number of rooms) had little effect on the extent to which hotels were trying to manage energy consumption.     

Individual and organizational learning from inter‐firm knowledge sharing: A framework integrating inter‐firm and intra‐firm knowledge sharing and learning

Literature has highlighted but not explored links between knowledge sharing and learning at inter‐firm and intra‐firm levels. Using the single case of an aviation refuelling company as the basis for our research methodology and collecting data through 34 semi‐structured interviews, we develop a framework that integrates knowledge sharing and learning at inter‐firm and intra‐firm levels. We show that intra‐firm knowledge sharing capabilities facilitate the diffusion of inter‐firm learning within organizations. Moreover, inter‐firm trust manifests in different forms that affect individual and organizational learning. The purpose of collaboration determines what a firm learns or discards. The findings are important for organizations facing a shortage of skills. © 2018 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The right metrics for marketing-mix decisions

This study addresses the following question: For a given managerial, firm, and industry setting, which individual metrics are effective for making marketing-mix decisions that improve perceived performance outcomes? We articulate the key managerial takeaways based on testing a multi-stage behavioral framework that links decision context, metrics selection, and performance outcomes. Our statistical model adjusts for potential endogeneity bias in estimating metric effectiveness due to selection effects and differs from past literature in that managers can strategically choose metrics based on their ex-ante expected effectiveness. The key findings of our analysis of 439 managers making 1287 decisions are that customer-mindset marketing metrics such as awareness and willingness to recommend are the most effective metrics for managers to employ while financial metrics such as target volume and net present value are the least effective. However, relative to financial metrics, managers are more uncertain about the ex-ante effectiveness of customer-mindset marketing metrics, which attenuates their use. A second study on 142 managers helps provide detailed underlying rationale for these key results. The implications of metric effectiveness for dashboards and automated decision systems based on machine learning systems are discussed.     

Economic freedom and migration: A metro area-level analysis

We examine the determinants of intra-U.S. population migration at the metropolitan area level (MSA), with an emphasis on the presence of policies that are consistent with economic freedom. We are the first to produce a multivariate regression analysis of migration and economic freedom at the local level. Combining a 1993–2014 unbalanced panel of MSA-to-MSA migration data from the Internal Revenue Service with a new economic freedom index for U.S. metropolitan areas, we find that a 10% increase in economic freedom of a destination MSA, relative to the economic freedom of an origin MSA, was associated with a 27.4% increase in net migration from the origin MSA to the destination MSA. If we use mean net migration flows as a benchmark, we would expect a 10% increase in relative economic freedom to increase net migration to the destination MSA by 22 workers per year from each other MSA.