Clusters of topics and research designs in peer-to-peer accommodation platforms

This article is a literature review exploring academic papers focused on peer-to-peer accommodation platforms (P2P APs). The sample includes 189 published works indexed in the Scopus and Web of Science databases, identified using 72 queries. The research question underlying the study is centered on clusters of topics and their research designs. Using a cross-citation approach, nine clusters are identified, and a research map is proposed structured around six blocks. These include i) conceptual papers analyzing the sharing economy (cluster 1); ii) demand-side papers based on the consumer behavior approach (cluster 2); iii) host papers exploring spatial patterns (cluster 3) and researching determinants of performance (cluster 4); iv) host-guest relationships, based on Airbnb (cluster 5) and on noncommercial platforms (cluster 9); v) social impact of P2P APs (cluster 6), and vi) effects generated on hotels, including economic impact (cluster 7) and comparison of Airbnb and hotel strategies (cluster 8).     

Government Affiliation and Peer-To-Peer Lending Platforms in China

With thousands of co-existing and competing platforms, the Chinese peer-to-peer (P2P) lending market experienced both high growth and high failure rate. We hand collect unique data for these P2P platforms and investigate the differences in performances and survivals for platforms with and without affiliations with state-owned enterprises (SOEs). P2P platforms with SOE affiliations have higher trading volumes, attract more investors, and offer lower interest rates. These platforms also survive significantly better than those without the SOE affiliations, especially during market downturns. Using P2P platforms with fake SOE affiliations as identification, we show that the SOE affiliation itself (not related to the fundamentals) is an important signal for P2P market participants. These results can be helpful to investors and regulators, especially those from other emerging markets.     

Unwilling Subjects of Financialization

This article seeks to advance debates about the financialization of housing by focusing on the emergence of rental housing as a frontier for financialization, a dynamic that is increasingly relevant since the global financial crisis. Situated in New York City, the research focuses on an aggressive wave of investment in affordable rent‐stabilized properties by private equity firms, their efforts to release value from these properties, and the implications of the 2008 financial crisis for their investment strategies and thus for tenants’ experience of home. Through detailed empirical analysis tracing the connections between how rental housing has been constituted as a new site for private equity investment globally, the local conditions facilitating this process in New York and how it reshaped everyday life for tenants, the article theorizes tenants as unwilling subjects of financialization. Yet unwillingness does not necessarily translate into being overtaken; it also connotes reluctance and indeed struggle. This novel conceptualization highlights the ways in which financialization meets with dissent, and its necessarily contingent and incomplete nature. The article therefore develops the wider intellectual project of understanding financialization not as a monolithic and inevitable process, but as one characterized by resistance from without and contradiction from within.     

The usage of social media as a marketing tool in two Southern African countries

This research provides empirical evidence for the usage of social media in the marketing of accommodation establishments in two Southern African countries. The usage of social networks in the accommodation sector of these two countries has received little attention in hospitality research. The study finds that social media is used very differently by marketers in the two countries. Marketers of accommodation establishments need to be aware of such differences and not assume that all countries use these media in the same way. The study provides evidence on how social media is utilised by accommodation establishments from a developing country perspective. Its findings are useful not only to marketers but also to researchers in the field of social media marketing, especially in the Southern African region.     

Serviced Accommodation,Environmental Performance and Benchmarks

Abstract

The establishment of benchmarks as a tool to aid the evaluation and review of the performance of hospitality and tourism enterprises in a number of areas, e.g., financial appraisal, grading schemes, is comparatively long established. More recently, benchmarks have been developed for the accreditation of business in such areas as TQM and IiP. One area that has been comparatively ignored is that of environmental performance of the enterprises. This is particularly notable, given the rise of attention and debate over sustainable development and the need for a balance between economic growth and the quality of the environment which has generated much debate. The quintessential importance of this latter aspect-the quality of the environment-to the development of tourism has long been recognised, and since the mid-1980s has generated substantial attention to the impact of tourism on the physical environment. In combination, this attention has led to the development of 'sustainability indicators for tourist destinations.' However, there has been a substantial lack of attention to the environmental performance of the enterprises involved and their impacts on the environment-taken in its widest senses. This weakness, and the absence of suitable benchmarks, emerged in the initial stages of a major project designed to evaluate the environmental performance of the tourism sector in the Lake District of England; an area listed in the top 50 of the most attractive tourist destinations in the world in 2000. Thus, the first stage of the project required the development of a set of suitable indicators designed to assess the environmental performance of the enterprises involved. This article discusses the development and derivation of these indicators, with specific focus on serviced accommodation, and subsequently the establishment of a range of benchmarks which may not only be applied in evaluating progress in future assessment of the environmental performance of this sector in the Lake District but also may be applied in other destinations throughout the world.     

Pro-Poor Tourism: From Leakages to Linkages. A Conceptual Framework for Creating Linkages between the Accommodation Sector and ‘Poor’ Neighbouring Communities

The concept of pro-poor tourism (PPT) has in recent years received attention from academia, key industry and donor organisations. While several ‘How to…?’ manuals have been written, little emphasis has so far been given to situating the PPT debate within the general literature on tourism and development. This paper contributes to the PPT debate by linking macro-economic concepts such as leakages and multipliers to micro-economic action opportunities for the mainstream accommodation sector in developing countries. As such it brings together the well-established tourism literature on economic impacts on the macro level with the more recent PPT literature that focuses on action on the ground. A conceptual framework for analysing and developing linkages between the accommodation sector and ‘poor’ neighbouring communities is suggested. This framework is based deductively on a critical review of the literature, coupled with first-hand experience in PPT action-research. It is suggested that PPT action opportunities encompass both core and non-core activities within the accommodation sector. Bringing together a wide range of past and present research, four types of potential linkages are proposed which are (1) employment; (2) sourcing and procurement; (3) SMME development and outsourcing; and (4) other types of partnerships such as donations.     

论群租者居住权保护中的政府责任——以公共租赁房建设为视角

采取与多人合租的方式进行群租是困难群体的无奈选择。政府部门不能仅仅以群租现象具有一定危害性就采取简单的方式进行整治或者以规章的形式加以禁止,而是应当履行服务行政或给付行政职能,积极为这些特殊的困难群体提供合格的公共服务。借鉴国外和我国香港地区的经验,以发展公共租赁房的形式解决城市群租者的居住问题,并通过立法建立相关的法律制度,以保证现代服务政府理念下政府保障公民居住权职责的实现。     

Accommodating Religious Expression in the Workplace

Religious expression in the workplace has been gaining more prominence and attention with the increasing diversity of the population. Employers are legally required to reasonably accommodate the religious practices and beliefs of their employees. This article will examine the most common types of religious expression in the workplace and will discuss the extent of the legal obligation of an employer to accommodate those expressions.     

International tourism demand to Finnish Lapland in the early winter season

This paper investigates the determinants of international overnight stays to Finnish Lapland in the early winter season. The data are based on major winter destinations for the period 1996–2014 and are distinguished by nine major visitor countries. During the sample period, international overnight stays in December increased rapidly with a growth rate of nine per cent per year on average. Dynamic panel data models show that the effect of natural snow conditions on overnight stays varies across countries of origin. The amount of snow in December has a significant impact on overnight stays of visitors coming from neighbouring countries (Russia and Sweden). In contrast, snow conditions do not play a role for visitors from distant countries (the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Spain and Switzerland). Economic factors (real income and real exchange rates) play a larger role for these countries.