De‐commitment to losing strategic action: evidence from the divestiture of poorly performing acquisitions

We use a mental accounting framework to study the conditions in which CEOs de‐commit to poorly performing acquisitions and so become more likely to divest them. We test this framework by contrasting the experiences of 68 firms that divested acquisitions with a control sample of 68 firms that did not divest their acquisitions. Consistent with the theory that we use to explain and predict de‐commitment, our results suggest that poorly performing acquired units tend to be divested when executives can place them within ‘attributional accounts’ (i.e., accounts for the cause of the performance that do not incriminate them) and ‘comprehensive accounts’ (i.e., within the context of overall firm performance). Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

African-American travel agents: Travails and Survival

Social science research on the struggles of early and contemporary independent African-American travel agents represents a void in the literature. These agents experienced serious obstacles to survival during the past half-century, not only during times of racial segregation, but more recently with airlines and government regulations, expensive technological innovations, and significant industry demands. Six agents describe their histories, successes and failures, and the futures of independent Black travel agents; serious difficulties remain, including access to capital. A scenario identifies the start-up costs for an independent Black travel agency in a medium-sized Middle West metropolitan area to illustrate the problems that remain.     

Measuring tourist judgment on service quality

This study measures tourist judgments on service quality in alpine ski resorts. An attribute based method was employed in order to estimate weighting schemes both for quality judgments across different tourism activity domains and different quality dimensions within winter resorts and to quantify an overall quality measure. A linear regression and Sirgy's congruity model of customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction were adopted. The results indicate that there exists a linear relationship between the overall quality measure and the partial judgments of each domain/dimension. This allows deciphering the relevance of different domains of tourism activity and quality dimensions within the process of making quality judgments.     

Stated preferences for two Cretan heritage attractions

The paper utilizes discrete choice modeling methodology to evaluate preferences of tourists for hypothetical managerial initiatives for two heritage attractions in Crete, Greece. The results show that they are willing to contribute a significant amount of money for improvements in the quality of information for both sites. Receiving information will substantially improve their satisfaction and thus their chances of visiting. Tourists also make reference to demand management issues, arguing that deterioration in congestion levels in both attractions will negatively affect satisfaction levels. The paper draws attention to future policies designed to improve the quality of the heritage experience, such as the introduction of audiovisual material to complement the presentation of exhibits.     

The effects of scale in tourism projects in developing countries

The paper by Rodenburg (Annals VII:2:177–196) on the effect of scale in tourism development in Bali raises important questions relating to tourism development in Third World countries. One fundamental question is whether large-scale development is inevitable in such countries, or whether there is persuasive evidence to support smaller and craft scale enterprises. This article undertakes a critical review of Rodenburg's analysis and concludes that large scale developments are likely to be inevitable because of external economies of scale and market structures in international tourism, but that the consequences of such developments can be foreseen and therefore mitigated by appropriate pre-project planning.     

Integrated strategy for tourism education/training

Tourism is in need of a comprehensive framework within which to design and deliver education and training programs in a more effective manner. This paper reports the efforts of two provincial governments in Canada to formulate an integrated strategy on which to base the planning and development of a tourism education and training system. The goal of such integration is to ensure a greater degree of interdependence among different levels of the total education system so as to provide well-defined alternative career paths for present and future students. Initial results of the strategy on the development of the education infrastructure are reviewed.     

Evolution of tourism in the Scottish highlands

The evolution of the tourist industry of the Scottish highlands is discussed from the early eighteenth century until the beginning of the nineteenth century. Five stages of development are identified, which reflect the social, economic and technological changes occuring in Britain during those periods. The importance of fashion and taste and transportation improvements are given special emphasis. The early pattern of development of infrastructure structure and land use has significantly influenced the present characteristics of the tourist industry in the area.     

National and Regional Household Demand for Meat, Poultry and Seafood: A Complete Systems Approach

Brown and Heien's S₁-branch system was employed to investigate national and regional demand patterns for meat, poultry, and seafood in the United States. Meal, poultry, and seafood purchases were very sensitive to own-price changes, changes in total expenditure, and changes in household size, and were less sensitive to cross-price changes, regional differences, and differences in degree of urbanization. The estimates of parameters and elasticities in the S₁-branch system were reasonable on a priori grounds, the goodness-of-fit was exceptional, and, using independent samples, the predictive performance of the demand system was particularly notable.
Le système à branches de type S₁ de Brown et Helen a été employe dans le but d'étudier les types de demandes au niveau national et regional en ce qui concerne la viande. la volaille et les fruits de mer aux Etats- Unis. Les achats de viande, de volaille et de fruits de mer etaieni tres sensibles à des changements de leurspropresprix, à des changements des dépenses totales ainsi qu 'à des variations de la taille des menages. Ils étaieni moins sensibles aux changements des prix croisés, aux differences regionales et aux differences du degré d'urbanisation. Les estimations des paramètres et des élasticités dans le système à branches du type S₁étaieni a priori raisonnable, la qualitéétait exceptionnelle et en utilisant des échantillons indépendants, la performance prophétique du système de demande était particulièrement notable.