Developing sustainable tourism through adaptive resource management: a case study of Machu Picchu,Peru

Machu Picchu, Peru, is recognized as a top international travel destination. Pressure from the approximately 900,000 tourists who annually visit the ancient Inca city threatens the ecological integrity, physical substance and cultural authenticity of the World Heritage Site and surrounding area, including the Inca Trail. Multiple organizations and agencies currently involved in the management of Machu Picchu have distinct agendas for the conservation and development of the city, and conflicts regarding public access, economic growth and cultural preservation are rampant. Attempts to establish carrying capacities have failed, with proposed daily visitor levels ranging from 800 to 4000. This paper explores the complex issues surrounding tourism at Machu Picchu and presents a potential solution: an adaptive management approach based on the UN World Tourism Organization's (UNWTO) sustainable tourism framework. This integrative strategy accounts for multiple perspectives and synthesizes disparate goals embraced by diverse stakeholders, including the Peruvian government, international conservation organizations, foreign tourists, private tour operators, regional authorities and indigenous communities. The focus on Machu Picchu as an adaptive management case study site outlines key steps leading to implementation, offering planning and policy implications for sustainability initiatives at numerous developing-world tourism destinations facing similar political and socio-economic challenges.     

Stakeholders' Engagement in Promoting Sustainable Development: Businesses and Urban Forest Carbon

To better understand how businesses' motivation and support for green projects varies by their organizational objectives and characteristics, this study investigates a case of urban forestry carbon credits in a broader context of climate change mitigation efforts. Companies and organizations currently participating in the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) were surveyed regarding their perception of consumers' concerns with climate change, attitudes toward government regulations, factors important to their emission management decisions, and their interest in buying and paying premiums for carbon credits sourced from urban forestry. Statistical analysis of the responses reveals noticeable differences among various types of business organizations. The findings are useful for understanding how businesses respond to different kinds of green products and will help in the development of green product markets. Finally, the results will help in developing effective environmental policies that respond well to businesses' objectives and preferences. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Multinational Learning under Asymmetric Information

The aim of this paper is to analyze the competition between a multinational and the incumbent firm in a foreign market under asymmetric information about demand and unobservable outputs. It is shown that the incumbent firm increases its production in the first period to signal to the multinational that the demand is low. The multinational reduces its output in the foreign market in order to signal-jam. In addition, the multinational increases its production in the other market. However, total production of the multinational is lower. Implications for research and development expenditure by the multinational are examined.     

Entry deterrence and experimentation under demand uncertainty

We examine the effect of a threat of entry on experimentation about demand by an incumbent monopolist when there is a fixed cost of entry. We show that experimentation may itself be used as a tool for entry deterrence and derive conditions under which experimentation reduces the probability of entry. These conditions depend on the entry rule which in turn depends on entry costs. We show that if experimentation does not deter entry, the monopolist incumbent experiments less. We also characterize experimentation and entry in the linear-uniform example, and show that cost of entry and experimentation do not have a monotonic relationship.     

Real and financial effects of insider trading with correlated signals

Summary. In this paper we study the real and financial effects of insider trading in a Static, Kyle-type model. In our model the insider is also the manager of the firm. Hence the insider chooses both the amount of the real output to be produced and the amount of the stock of the firm to trade. The aim of the paper is to study the relationship between financial decisions and real decisions. In particular, we examine how insider trading on the stock market affects the real output and price and how the real decision making affects the financial variables, such as the extent of insider trading, stock prices, and the stock pricing rule of the market maker. In the model, the market maker observes two correlated signals: the total order flow and the market price of the real good. We study the informativeness of the stock price and the effects on insider's profits. We also construct a compensation scheme that aligns the interests of the insider and the firm. Finally, we generalize the pricing rule set up by a competitive market maker and analyze the comparative statics of the model. Received: October 3, 1999: revised version: December 1, 1999     

Debt, managerial compensation and learning

Using a dynamic model with uncertainty and asymmetric information, we study the impact of debt and bankruptcy on managerial compensation and learning. In this model, compensation has two roles to play—providing incentives to the manager and learning about his type. We show that debt, through bankruptcy, acts as a substitute of compensation in both dimensions and derive conditions under which debt lowers average compensation, pay-performance sensitivity and increases learning. We also examine the choice of debt and show that firm value can be increased due to debt's effect on managerial compensation, abstracting from other costs and benefits of debt. Finally, we conduct comparative statics with respect to the underlying parameters.     

Property taxation and rural land values: Their effect on private forestland ownership structure in Texas

The objective of this study was to estimate the effect of property tax and rural land market value on the ownership structure of private forestland in Texas. Using county-level panel data in an Instrumental Variable regression framework, we estimated the effect of property tax rate and rural land value on two measures of ownership fragmentation: the total number of private forest landowners and the average size of private forest holdings. The results indicate that after controlling for the total amount of private forest area in a county, both property tax rates and rural land values increased ownership fragmentation. However, the rate of ownership fragmentation was relatively inelastic in both property tax rate and rural land value. While further restructuring local property tax rates might minimize the negative effect on private ownership dynamics, policy instruments that decrease the disparity between productivity value and market value of rural forestland might be needed to check the ongoing ownership fragmentation in Texas and elsewhere in the United States.     

Corporate control and the choice of investment financing: the case of corporate acquisitions in India

The market for corporate control offers a rich framework to study the interaction between investment and financing decisions. Do corporations have specific preferences for the means of financing acquisitions, such using cash or equity to pay the claims of the target firm’s shareholders? This study builds a unique sample of 1041 corporate acquisitions over the period 2000–2018 in India, a major emerging economy with fast-growing capital markets. The study investigates separately corporate preferences for the means of payment and the financing sources for acquisitions, using multinomial logit and nested logit models. First, we find that different factors explain the payment and financing decisions. Second, the cash payment decision is best explained by the target’s relative size, greater tender offers, cross-border deals, and cash reserves. Third, the findings are most aligned with pecking order theory and cost of capital considerations.

     

A hedonic analysis of the demand for and benefits of urban recreation parks

Increasing population and urbanization in U.S. cities is not only contributing to the congestion in urban recreation parks but also is likely to exceed the capacity of these parks’ recreational and amenity benefits. In order to estimate the demand for and benefit of parks, we employed a typical hedonic model, which confirmed that the urban recreation park acres increase nearby property values. Two Step Clustering, which is capable of defining the optimum number of submarkets based on the data, was employed to define the submarkets within Roanoke, Virginia and to obtain enough implicit price points to further estimate the demand for urban park acres in the second stage. Results from the second stage hedonic estimation revealed that demand for urban park acres was inelastic in price and income; and the size of the park was a substitute for living space and proximity to park. In addition, increasing the average size of parks by 20% from the current level increased the per household consumer surplus by $160. The estimated amenity benefits of urban recreation parks will be useful in urban landuse planning and open space preservation.     

The communicative effectiveness of ethnically oriented advertising

A study conducted on Asian ethnic consumers in the UK showed ethnic origin to be a major segmentation variable in differentiating ethnic and white intergroup responses to four different executions of advertising copy incorporating different levels of ethnic appeal. The ethnic group gave consistently more favourable responses than white consumers, implying that they would respond more favourably to the visual ‘picture’ component in advertising copy. On an intragroup basis it was found that ‘all-ethnic’ copy with higher levels of ethnic content would be more effective in targeting ethnic groups because it provides a cultural framework with greater staying power in terms of its visual, nonverbal presentation in comparison to ‘all-white’ appeals. ‘Integrated’ panel layouts incorporating both ethnic and white appeals in the same advertising copy format did not evoke significantly more positive feelings among either Asian ethnic or white viewers in comparison to ‘all-ethnic’ copy. Advertisers should note therefore that integrated advertisements cannot be expected to radically influence either ethnic or white consumer attitudes towards promoted products. It was also found that as a compromise strategy, ‘product-only’ advertisements might well be the best answer to targeting ethnic as well as white viewers.