Business models among SMTEs: identifying attitudes to environmental costs and their implications for sustainable tourism

This paper examines how environmental resources and costs feature in business models of small- and medium-sized tourism enterprises (SMTEs). Several studies have pointed to the generally positive nature of the relationship between the economic and environmental performance of tourism firms. Yet, although business models act as a vector between these aspects of firm performance, they have been overlooked in sustainable tourism discourse. The paper reports findings from discussion groups of SMTE businesses in South West England during the global economic downturn. Environmental costs and cost control were afforded relatively little importance in terms of value creation; conversely, there was a strong and predictable emphasis on revenue generation. Indirect tactics emerged for dealing with guests’ environmental behaviours which reflected this prevailing commercial logic. Green credentials were routinely de-emphasized, sometimes regarded as liabilities, in a form of greenhushing. Responses were framed by reference to social media and how online reviews may negatively impact on future value capture. Conceptually, the business model emerged as an important lens for understanding how environmental resources and costs were valourized. The paper highlights the need to ensure that contemporary approaches to environmental management in SMTEs reflect the current and fast-changing conditions that frame business models.     

A novel decision support model for satisfactory restaurants utilizing social information: A case study of TripAdvisor.com

Decision support models for satisfactory restaurants have attracted numerous researchers' attention. Many extant models do not consider the active, neutral and passive information in online reviews all at once. Moreover, they ignore the effect of interdependence among criteria on tourists' decision-making. To cover these defects, this study proposes a restaurant decision support model using social information for tourists on TripAdvisor.com. The model introduces fuzzy sets to denote online reviews and utilizes Bonferroni mean to consider interdependence among criteria. Furthermore, it uses a novel similarity measurement which can handle sparse data in fuzzy environments. To validate the model, we conduct a case study of TripAdvisor.com which compares the proposed model with four other models. The performance of each model is evaluated by the metric called the mean absolute error. The study shows that the proposed model can effectively support tourists' decision-making and it performs better than the other four models.     

Community participation in World Heritage Site conservation and tourism development

This study investigates the factors contributing to community participation in a World Heritage Site (WHS) using Motivation, Opportunity, and Ability (MOA) model. We examined the effects of these factors on three levels of community participation. The findings showed that motivation had the greatest positive effect on the low level of community participation. Opportunity had the greatest effect on the high level of community participation. Among the dimensions of ability, namely awareness and knowledge, the findings showed that more aware residents were more interested in low level of community participation, whereas residents with more knowledge were more interested in high level of community participation. This study contributes to the tourism development and WHS conservation and management literature by examining the effects of MOA factors on three levels of community participation. Moreover, this study has a number of practical implications for local authorities in terms of community participation.     

“一带一路”背景下中蒙俄经济走廊贸易潜力研究

在我国大力倡导“一带一路”,推动全球对外经贸合作深入发展的今天,建立“中蒙俄经济走廊”,充分发挥中俄蒙三国的经济互补性,挖掘三国之间的贸易潜力和合作空间,对三国的经济发展均有重要的战略意义。基于此研究背景,本文利用2002～2015年中俄对外贸易面板数据,通过引力模型分析了中蒙俄三国的贸易潜力。结果表明,近几年中俄两国之间的实际贸易额呈下降趋势,贸易增长潜力较大;中蒙两国之间的贸易虽呈现“贸易过度”的状态,但贸易额波动较大,且贸易总量较小。最后,从加强基础设施建设,增强政治、经济和文化交流以及完善边贸管理体制等3个方面对建立“中蒙俄经济走廊”提出了政策建议。     

我国科技-经济-生态系统的综合发展水平及其协调度评价——基于灰关联投影寻踪协调度组合评价模型

科技创新、经济发展与生态环境建设作为国家治理体系的重要组成部分,对于我国国民经济和社会发展具有明显的推动作用。本文参考现有文献中科技创新、经济发展与生态环境建设3个维度的相关指标,构建科技-经济-生态系统协调度评价指标体系。并采用灰关联分析法、投影寻踪法和协调度模型,综合评价我国不同时期的科技-经济-生态系统的综合发展水平及其协调度。研究结果表明,2000～2015年,我国科技-经济-生态系统的综合发展水平处于快速增长阶段,年均增长率为6.22%,其中,科技创新水平、经济发展水平、生态环境建设水平的年均增长率分别为5.95%、5.35%、6.43%。同时,我国科技-经济-生态系统的协调度达到0.992。其中,“十五”～“十二五”时期,我国科技-经济-生态系统的协调度持续提升,分别达到0.8465、0.8466、0.9152。总体来看,在经济发展新常态下,我国政府通过加快转变经济发展方式和社会发展方式,同步提高科技创新水平、经济发展水平、生态环境建设水平,有利于进一步提升科技-经济-生态系统的综合发展水平及其协调度。     

技术创新、金融创新与经济增长——基于中国省际面板数据

本文从实证分析层面对金融创新、技术创新与经济增长之间的作用关系进行探讨。基于我国 2000~2015 年省级面板数据,采用GMM估计方法,利用动态面板模型进行实证检验。结果表明：技术创新对经济增长的影响显著为正,单独的金融创新对经济增长起抑制作用,二者的交互作用则对经济增长起显著性正向作用。脱离实体经济的金融创新将抑制经济增长,也会间接阻碍技术创新对经济增长的影响。本文结合当前经济形势,从金融机构与创新企业相接轨共同提高创新水平、培养创新型人才等角度提出建议。     

环境约束下中国工业企业创新效率评价及影响因素研究

本文应用SBM模型的改进DEA模型以及DEA-Tobit法对中国2006～2015年环境约束下工业企业技术创新效率及其影响因素进行实证分析,研究结果表明,非期望产出对企业效率评价结果有较大影响,北部沿海综合经济区的环境效率值最高;西北综合经济区、长江中游综合经济区、黄河中游综合经济区、东北综合经济区环境效率值相对较差。政府支持力度、企业规模与环境约束下的工业企业技术创新效率呈正相关关系,企业聚集度与其呈负相关关系,而企业技术水平与从业人员素质对其影响较小。     

自主研发、技术引进与区域创新发展——基于人力资本视角的实证考察

本文基于2001~2015年我国30省市的面板数据,建立以人力资本为门限变量,以自主研发、技术引进为门限依赖变量的面板门限模型,从人力资本视角实证分析了自主研发、技术引进对区域创新能力的非线性影响效应。结果表明：自主研发、技术引进与区域创新能力之间存在着显著的以人力资本为门限变量的单门限效应。当人力资本水平低于门限值时,自主研发对区域创新能力的影响不显著,而技术引进能显著地促进区域创新能力的提高;当人力资本水平高于门限值时,自主研发、技术引进均能显著地提高区域创新能力,且自主研发比技术引进更能促进区域创新能力的提高。从目前人力资本水平来看,我国大部分省份已具备从技术引进向自主研发模式转变的人力资本基础。     

能源碳排放与环境污染空间效应研究——基于能源强度与技术进步视角的空间杜宾计量模型

本文基于空间环境库兹涅茨曲线理论探讨经济发展约束下能源强度和技术进步对大气环境的空间效应作用机理,采用探索性空间分析工具、经典最小二乘估计（OLS）、空间滞后模型（SLM）、空间误差模型（SEM）和空间杜宾--可拓展随机性环境影响评估模型（Spatial Durbin-STIRPAT Models）探索能源碳排放与大气环境污染的空间格局和空间溢出效应。实证估计结果表明,能源碳排放与空气环境污染在空间分布上表现出空间正相关性和空间集聚效应;能源强度与技术进步对能源碳排放与大气环境的空间溢出效应显著。在此基础上提出了相应的政策建议。     

A contribution to the assessment of scenic quality of landscapes based on preferences expressed by the public

The purpose of this paper is to validate a model for predicting the public's preference for a landscape using simple statistical techniques. The model assigns numerical values to 42 landscape variables grouped into physical, aesthetic and psychological attributes. The landscape value is obtained using an additive value function. The results of the model on certain landscapes are compared with the preference expressed by the public in a survey of 183 people.The homogeneity of the survey responses was checked in each photograph. It was determined that means and standard deviations of the scores represent the true preference.A strong positive association was observed between preference and certain landscape attributes such as expression, soil use or colour. A marked negative association was detected with respect to landscape alterations.A linear regression was carried out to analyse the predictive capacity of the model. The independent variable was the global score assigned by the model to each photograph and the dependant variable was the mean of the scores assigned by the survey respondents. The high level of correlation obtained indicates that the model is a good predictor of the public's preferences in relation to the set of photographs shown in the survey.To complete the analysis of the model as a preference predictor, a multiple linear regression was carried out between the mean score obtained in the survey and the model elements. Attributes and variables that have the greatest influence on pubic preference were detected.