A review of empirical research on interorganizational relations in tourism

During the last few decades, a growing body of literature has been produced on various aspects of interorganizational relations (IOR) in tourism. This paper provides a review of that literature. The findings are based on a review of 269 empirical papers published in 37 tourism journals between 1989 and the first quarter of 2017. The review identifies six main research themes relating to relationship formation, structure and activities, governance, maintenance, outcomes, and evolution. Based on the insights from this review, an organizing framework for research on IOR in tourism is developed and four opportunities for advancing research on IOR in tourism are proposed relating to the pursuit of causal inference, supply networks as a unit of analysis, quantifying outcomes of IOR in tourism, and addressing marginalized topics.     

Marketing innovation: Sources,capabilities and consequences at airports in Europe's peripheral areas

This paper investigates sources, capabilities and consequences of marketing innovation at airports in Europe's peripheral areas. A questionnaire-based survey was administered to airport managers. Ten sources of airport marketing innovation are identified. Innovation is significantly higher at airports that are administered as an independent entity compared to airports that are administered as part of a regional or national airport system. Large airports have a significantly higher level of innovation compared to small airports. Innovation has a significant positive effect on airport marketing performance, irrespective of the strategic focus of the airport.     

The employment environment for youth in rural South Africa: A mixed-methods study

South Africa has high youth unemployment. This article examines the predictors of youth employment in rural Agincourt, Mpumalanga Province. A survey of 187 out-of-school 18 to 24 year olds found that only 12% of women and 38% of men were currently employed. Men with skills/training were significantly more likely to report employment, mostly physical labour (adjusted odds ratio: 4.5; confidence interval: 1.3, 15.3). In-depth interviews with 14 of the youth revealed that women are perceived more suitable for formal employment, which is scarce, informing why women were more likely to pursue further education and yet less likely to be employed. Ten key informants from local organisations highlighted numerous local youth employment resources while, in contrast, all youth in the sample said no resources were available, highlighting a need for the organisations to extend their services into rural areas. Because these services are focused on entrepreneurship, programmes to increase financial literacy and formal employment opportunities are also needed.     

Macro Features of the Hungarian Economy since 1970

With the introduction in 1968 of the New Economic Mechanism, the reformers of the Hungarian economy hoped to solve the eficiency problem of the socialist economy. It is shown that the survival of the previous structure of prices and accumulation and their interrelationships hindered the necessary transformation of the economic structure. Quantitative aspects of this process are analysed using a closed input–output model. The computed price and production structures are in correlation, which is the consequence of such a development policy where industry's share in investments is high when the investment growth rate is high and vice versa. The ratio of the computed disaggregated and aggregated growth rate is defined as a certain efficiency measure, and this coefficient shows that the Hungarian economy could only absorb the import surplus at a decreasing rate of efficiency. Despite the improvement in the early 1980s the question remains whether the Hungarian economy is able to growth both faster and efficiently at the same time.     

Managerial shareholdings, firm value, and acquired corporations

Prior research on the relationship between managerial shareholdings and firm value provides conflicting evidence. We take a different approach to its analysis and focus on managerial shareholdings in acquired firms. We argue that in a relatively unfettered market for corporate control, prior evidence of a nonlinear relationship between moral hazard costs and managerial shareholdings suggests that acquired corporations can be segmented according to managerial shareholdings, and that these segments will differ according to the source of wealth gains, managerial resistance, who acquires the company, and how target shareholders are paid. We find evidence consistent with these predictions.     

Pricing to Firm: an Analysis of Firm‐ and Product‐level Import Prices*

We use Hungarian Customs data on product‐level imports of manufacturing firms to document that the import price of a particular product varies substantially across buying firms. We relate the level of import prices to firm characteristics such as size, foreign ownership, and market power. We develop a theory of “pricing to firm” (PTF), where markups depend on the technology and competitive environment of the buyer. The predictions of the model are confirmed by the data: import prices are higher for firms with greater market power, and for more essential intermediate inputs (with a high share in material costs). We take account of the endogeneity of the buyer’s market power with respect to higher import prices and unobserved cost heterogeneity within product categories. The magnitude of PTF is big: the standard deviation of price predicted by PTF is 21.5%.     

Does distance matter in spillover?1

Our aim in this paper is twofold: to find whether FDI causes horizontal or vertical productivity spillovers to domestically‐owned Hungarian manufacturing firms, and to see if distance matters in spillovers. For this exercise we use a large panel of Hungarian firms and different panel models. Consistently with previous research, at the country level, we find positive vertical spillovers but no evidence of positive horizontal spillovers. By taking distance into consideration, however, we find positive horizontal spillovers for domestic firms close to foreign‐owned firms. By constructing spillover measures weighted by distance, we find similar patterns. Our results underline the importance of labour market rigidity and the local nature of knowledge in the case of horizontal spillovers.     

Being Different Can Hurt: Effects of Deviation from Physical Norms on Lawyers' Salaries

A recent federal appeals court ruling barred employment bias against obese people. A reconsideration of the association between being overweight and salary is therefore in order. This article examines the effect of being overweight and thin on lawyers' salaries as reported in the 1984 National Lawyer Survey. Using regression models derived from the clinical nutrition literature as well as models based on the lawyers in the sample themselves,we find an effect of being overweight on salary for men and not for women attorneys. There is also an effect of being thin on men's but not on women's salaries. Importantly, the influence of thinness means that the effect of weight on salary is not linear. We suggest that the relationship between salaries and appearance may result from social perceptions of people deviating from an "ideal" physique.     

The infant formula debate

Two articles on ‘The baby milk controversy’, published in the August 1980 issue of Food Policy, were received with great interest and have generated a large response. In those articles, John Sparks put the case for the infant formula manufacturers and Andy Chetley replied. We now present the comments of a Third World scientist in response to those articles, a report from Andy Chetley on the international marketing code for breast-milk substitutes, and an appeal by Jennifer Halpern for increased cooperation between the multinationals and INFACT and its supporters.