How is the hospitality and tourism industry different? An empirical test of some structural characteristics

Structural characteristics, such as competition, risk, leverage and capital intensity, directly impact the strategic management of firms operating within an industry. We provide an empirical test and formally compare the structural characteristics of the hospitality and tourism (HT) industry with other industries. Our results, based on a sample of firms from the S&P 1500 index over 21 years, show that the HT industry has higher leverage, higher risk, higher capital intensity and higher competitive rivalry than other industries in the U.S. economy. The formal identification and recognition of these differences provides justification for using the HT industry as a context for testing business theories, and can explain differences in decision-making and firm outcomes such as financial and social performance, as well as efficiency, growth, and survival of HT firms.     

黑龙江省蓝靛果的产业现状与发展前景

由于蓝靛果适应性强、栽培简单、营养价值高、产量高等优势,已经成为黑龙江省最有发展前途的蓝色小浆果。本论文从黑龙江省蓝靛果资源优势、栽培优势、产业优势和市场优势等方面,分析了蓝靛果的发展现状和前景,为蓝靛果产业的可持续发展提供了理论依据和参考。     

Portfolio concentration and performance of institutional investors worldwide

Using data on security holdings for 10,771 institutional investors from 72 countries, we test whether concentrated investment strategies result in excess risk-adjusted returns. We examine several measures of portfolio concentration with respect to countries and industries and find that portfolio concentration is directly related to risk-adjusted returns for institutional investors worldwide. Results suggest, in contrast to traditional asset pricing theory and in support of information advantage theory, that concentrated investment strategies in international markets can be optimal.     

Managerial Firms,Entry, and Switching Costs

Empirical evidence shows that switching costs are important in many industries. We analyze the welfare effects of entry into markets with switching costs when firms can be run by managers and the entrant may be partially foreign-owned. We find that with profit-maximizing firms, the welfare effect of entry depends crucially on the ownership of the entrant firm. We also show that entry is less likely with managerial firms than it is with profit-maximizing firms. In the latter case, entry always reduces welfare if the share of the entrant firm owned by foreign investors is high. However, with managerial firms, entry always increases welfare.     

Cooperation through capacity sharing between competing forwarders

In this paper, we consider a shipping system consisting of one carrier and two shipping forwarders who compete on price for businesses from potential shippers. The carrier may quote different prices or a single price to the two shipping forwarders who will then order shipping capacity from the carrier and set the selling prices to the shippers before market uncertainties are revealed. Inspired by cooperation between competing parties in many industries including the maritime shipping industry, we propose a new model under which the shipping forwarders are allowed an opportunity to purchase shipping capacity from each other after they order capacity from the carrier but before they set the selling prices and satisfy demand, referred to as the capacity reservation model. We show analytically that capacity reservation between competing forwarders benefits both the carrier and the forwarders, leading to a win–win situation under various market conditions. Furthermore, capacity reservation can offset the negative effect of a carrier’s pricing power which enables the carrier to charge discriminatory shipping prices to squeeze more profits out of the forwarders.     

Competition and cooperation between high-speed rail and air transportation services in Europe

New high-speed rail (HSR) lines may have an enormous influence on the provision of air services. The attention has been devoted to competition between both transportation modes but in some cases HSR services may also have an intermodal complementary role with air transportation. By taking a supply oriented empirical analysis, we study the impact of HSR on air service frequencies and seats offered by airlines in large European countries. We emphasize the distinction between routes with and without a hub airport as an endpoint and we also examine the influence of the location of the HSR station. We generally find direct competition between HSR and airlines, but we also provide some evidence that HSR can provide feeding services to long haul air services in hub airports, particularly in hub airports with HRS stations.     

RESEARCH ON THE MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY: STATE OF THE ART AND NEW DIRECTIONS OFF THE BEATEN TRACK AWAY FROM THEATRICAL RELEASE

The motion picture industry has been subject of extensive academic research over the last decades. However, most scholars focused on the U.S. theatrical motion picture market. The number of research activities regarding even more profitable release windows, such as home video or television, has been substantially lower. Although international distribution is essential for a motion picture project to break even, there has been little significant re-search on most other markets. This paper aims at summarizing the current state of research on the motion picture industry, particularly from marketing and management perspective, revealing research gaps, and proposing recommendations for future research endeavors. Therefore, a three-pillar scheme is developed to systemize previous findings: Research on intraorganizational decision making, contractual relationships between national stakeholders, and international market competition are differentiated. Since these insights are mainly derived from U.S. theatrical exhibition, they can hardly be applied to other markets and exhibition windows. Thus, potential research areas are identified to expand knowledge of posttheatrical and international markets.     

Market structure and credit procyclicality: Lessons from loan markets in the European Union banking sectors

The aim of this paper is to investigate whether the market structure has an impact on procyclicality in the European Union bank loan markets. The cyclical responses of three types of bank loans (residential mortgage loans, consumer loans, and corporate loans) are quantified separately using the interacted panel vector autoregression model at the country level and the single-equation panel regression model at the bank level. Using a sample of 26 European Union countries, we find that the procyclical responses of residential mortgage loans and consumer loans are significantly stronger and prolonged when the banking sector is more concentrated or dominated by foreign banks. However, we find that there are nonlinear relationships between the market structure and credit procyclicality based on bank-level data. We also find some heterogeneities between advanced and transitioning European Union banking sectors. Finally, our findings confirm the leading role of residential mortgages in intensifying credit fluctuations.     

Survival in the lodging sector: An analysis at the firm and location levels

this paper studies the determinants of survival of 6494 Spanish hotel firms located in 97 national tourist destinations in the period 2005–2011. The characteristics of the firms and the tourist destinations where they are located have been studied through survival analysis techniques. This is relevant because the impact of the financial and economic crisis on the Spanish lodging sector has shown different effects among tourist destinations. The results confirm that the location significantly affects the probability of survival. In particular, the main determinant of firm survival is the level of occupancy in a tourist destination which has a positive effect. Also, we have found that a low level of competition reduces the average expected survival while the average profitability of a tourist destination has a positive effect on firm survival. Finally, the total effect related to destinations factors can reduce the expected survival by up to 90% (hazard ratio).     

Channels of interaction and past collaborative experience as imperatives in academia–industry collaboration

The present study deals with the engagement of academics with the industry using different channels for the transfer of knowledge and technology. The study provides empirical evidence substantiating the effect of the frequency of use of the different channels of interaction in explaining the relationship between past collaborative experience of the academic and the outcomes of academia–industry collaboration. The results indicate that past collaborative experience develops strong insights into industrial problems, opens up avenues for research projects, leads to industrial funding and builds research networks. The prospects of commercialisation of research of the academic are also rooted in past collaborative experience. The results also reveal that the frequency of use of the traditional and bi-directional channels partially mediate the relationship between the collaborative experience and the outcomes of collaboration, validating that higher collaborative experience leads to increased frequency of use of channels that results in improved outcomes of academia–industry collaboration.