Importance of tourism for the economy of Bermuda

The aim of this paper is to compare the results of three separate input-output studies carried out to measure and monitor the contribution of international tourism to the economy of Bermuda in comparison with the impacts made by other export sectors. The studies are part of the ongoing program of the government of Bermuda. Since the early 90s, the leading generator of foreign currency and income has been international business and finance. The level of employment in the economy, however, depends principally upon tourism, and the Bermudian government and private sector are taking positive measures to address the downward trend.     

Vacation decisions,activities, and satisfactions

Vacations are a major consumer expense category. People devote considerable attention to deciding whether to take one or not (generic decision), to making joint decisions as husband, wife, and children, and to acquiring information from different sources and media. Information functions to sensitize, persuade, heighten appreciation, and legitimize choices. Several vacation types can be distinguished. Life-style, as a broader concept, may server as a good basis of explanation for vacation behavior. Equity and attribution are important concepts in understanding vacationer (dis)satisfaction and complaint behavior.     

Outside Directors,Litigation Environment,and Management Earnings Forecasts

This study examines whether outside directors factor in litigation costs for the firm while monitoring optimal disclosure policy. It investigates the association of management earnings forecast disclosure and the proportion of outside directors across two regimes with unequal litigation costs, the United States and Canada. I find that the positive association between forecast frequency/ precision and the proportion of outside directors is stronger in Canada. This suggests that outside directors are more likely to encourage disclosure in less litigious Canada. I also find that firm‐level governance mechanisms such as outside directors and country‐level litigation environment act as governance substitutes in determining unbiased forecasts. Specifically, the negative association between forecast bias and the proportion of outside directors is stronger in Canada. I also revisit the effect of legal regime on forecast disclosure in a non‐U.S. context. Recent legislation has increased the likelihood of class‐action lawsuits in Canada. The passage of these laws has decreased the precision in forecasts by Canadian firms.     

Liberal Jansenists and interest-bearing loans in eighteenth-century France: a reappraisal

Abstract

This article is an attempt to prove that although the liberal Jansenists – Jansenism being the most powerful Christian protest movement of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries – were not the first and the only ones to address the prohibition of interest-bearing loans, their writings on the issue shifted and fuelled the debate during the French Enlightenment, especially among the Encyclopédistes and the economists. By refuting the very logic of “extrinsic titles” of the Scholastics and their extension later on by the Jesuits, the liberals Jansenists redefined “interest” as the price to be paid for the use of money.     

The link between product diversification and performance among Spanish manufacturing firms: Analyzing the role of firm size

This study sheds additional light on the product diversification‐performance relationship for firms in a country having recently attained an advanced economy status in our period of analysis. We assume there will be an inverted U‐shaped relationship and use a sample of small, medium, and large Spanish manufacturing firms between 1994 and 2008. Our findings provide solid support for this assumption, and are identical when the sample consists of small, medium, and large firms and of large firms alone. Our results also suggest that the larger the firm, the higher the optimal level of diversification. Panel data models are used to control for unobservable heterogeneity and potential endogeneity problems. Copyright © 2015 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Impact of industry sector on corporate diversification and firm performance: Evidence from Indian business groups

Prior business group (BG) studies implicitly assume that corporate diversification‐firm performance relationships are uniform across industry sectors. This generalization may lead to research implications that are not equally true for BG‐affiliated manufacturing and service firms. Drawing on strategy and marketing literature, this research addresses this scholarly gap. Our empirical analysis of a large sample of BG‐affiliated Indian firms over a five‐year period (2004‐2008) indicates that the influence of corporate diversification on firm performance is greater for affiliated service firms than affiliated manufacturing firms. Results also indicate that the influence of BG size and diversity on diversification‐firm performance relationship varies significantly depending on whether the focal firm belongs to the manufacturing or service sector. Firm's share ownership does not generate similar influence. Copyright © 2015 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effects of price and message-sidedness on confidence in product and advertisement with personal involvement as a mediator variable

Attribution of confidence by consumers when the price of the product is known, has already been investigated in previous studies, as has been attribution of confidence from advertisements' sidedness. This study, based on a 2 × 3 × 2 (sidedness × price levels × type of product) factorial design, focuses in the interactive effects of price and message-sidedness, since consumers are rarely exposed to one single variable of the marketing strategy. A model is developped, which is articulated on the central concept of consumer involvement. It is found that under high involvement, high price enhances confidence in the product (but not in the advertisement), two-sided messages increase confidence in the advertisement (but not in the product). It is also shown that two-sided messages bring about higher-confidence in the product when price is at the medium level.     

The Impacts of Changes in Key Economic Variables on Crop Rotational Choices on Ontario Cash-Cropping Farms

This study is a sequel to one providing a methodological framework for evaluating the economic and soil-erosion effects associated with different crop rotational systems involving corn on southern Ontario cash-cropping farms. A multi-period linear programming (MPLP) model is used to estimate the impact on rational crop rotational choices, fam-level profitability and soil-erosion rates of having different values for the more important economic variables. The variables examined are relative cash-crop prices, fossil fuel energy-related production costs, discount rates, and values attached to soil lost through erosion. The MPLP model is solved in turn for each of a range of values for one of the economic variables at a time, the selection of values being based upon recent historical experience. Where no change in rotational system is prompted within the range, the MPLP model is used to find the value of each economic variable that would be required to trigger the choice of some alternative rotational system. Each of these model runs is performed for the case where yields of all crops over a 20-year time horizon are firstly assumed constant, and secondly assumed to suffer a cumulative decline. Cet article fait suite à une étude méthodologique dont le but a été d'valuer les effets économiques et érosifs de systémes de production produisant essentiellement du maïs en rotation avec d'autres cultures. Cette méthode d'analyse est appliquée à des exploitations agricoles localisées dans le Sud de I'Ontario et specialisées dans les cultures commerciales. Pour ce faire, un modéle linéaire multi-période (MPLP) est utilisé pour estimer I'impact d'un changement dans les principales variables économiques sur le choix des rotations culturales, le niveau de rentabilité des systémes de production et les taux d'érosion des sols. Les variables économiques prises en compte sont les prix relatifs des cultures commerciales, les coûts de production associés à la consommation d'énergie fossile, les taux d'actualisation et les pertes absolues en sol dues à l'érosion. Le modéle linéaire (MPLP) est de nouveaurésolu pour chaque variable économique en les paramétrisant sur un intervalle de valeurs selectionnées à partir de donntes historiques récentes. Lorsqu'il n'y a aucun changement dans la rotation culturale, le modéle détermine le niveau de chaque variable qui entrainerait la prise en considération d'une rotation culturale alternative. Toutes les simulations ont été effectuées sur une période de vingt ans en adoptant deux variantes sur I'tvolution des ren-dements des cultures commerciales: premierèment, les rendements restent constants durant toute la période, et deuxiémement, les rendements décroissent de maniére cumulative.     

Tourism's external account and the balance of payments

This paper argues that the balance of payments on tourism account is not the best measure of economic tourism activity needed for good policy formulation at the government level. The balance on tourism should be replaced with a broader concept, tourism's external account, which includes expenditures and receipts from tourists together with those other international transactions which follow indirectly from tourism. This concept will provide a broader understanding of the tourism industry so that better policy decisions can be made.