Sustainability and the authentic experience. Harnessing brand heritage – a study from Japan

This paper explores the influence of the formative brand heritage construct on perceived authenticity at repaired/reconstructed heritage sites, understood in relation to the Japanese practice of kintsugi (金継ぎ), thereby extending Kolar and Zabkar's consumer-based model of authenticity. It notes that variations of kintsugi occur in architectural heritage conservation worldwide. We establish relationships between brand heritage, cultural motivations, perceptions of authenticity, relational value, and consumer commitment, based on questioning 768 visitors to repaired and reconstructed Japanese heritage sites. Analysis using partial least squares found consumer preconceptions of brand heritage stimulating increased perceptions of authenticity at sites of limited historical provenance, thereby increasing visitor commitment to visiting. Heritage managers should use marketing strategies that effectively communicate a site's brand heritage prior to, during, and after the tourist experience. Even where the material components of the site are entirely reconstructed, this can lead to relational value, and improved consumer commitment. In sustainability terms, holistic brand marketing can increase site revenue, help conservation maintenance and, by increasing repeat visits, reduce footfall damage at other “unreconstructed” sites. Practical implications include better artefact and information presentation, ensuring synergy between site experiences and its purported values, especially through tour guide narratives and interpretation.     

Large-scale mortality shocks and the Great Irish Famine 1845–1852

This paper considers the consequences of a large scale mortality shock arising from a famine or epidemic for long run economic and demographic development. The Great Irish Famine of 1845–1852 is taken as a case-study and is incorporated as an exogenous mortality shock into the type of long-run unified growth theory pioneered by Galor and Weil (1999, 2000), and modelled by Lagerlöf (2003a,b) among others. Through calibration, the impact of such a mortality shock occurring on the cusp of a country's transition from a Malthusian to a Modern Growth regime is then depicted.     

Property Taxation and Human Migration

A bstract . Various factors explain human migration as it relates to the growth of cities. Some are closely related to the location of modem industry: people follow jobs or at least are attracted by better economic opportunities. Cities also attract population by a quality of life otherwise unavailable. Some move to particular cities for personal reasons, etc. But for the United States, at least, and for White migrants, two factors are also important in affecting migration decisions: White migrants are attracted by higher educational spending and lower property tax burdens relative to areas with lower spending and higher burdens. White migrants in 1960-70 apparently preferred areas with mild or warm climates but were less sensitive to income differences.     

Enlargement and the European Geography of the Information Technology Sector

The information technology sector in Europe, comprising the production of computer hardware and software, is disproportionately located on the continent's western periphery. The vast bulk of computers sold in Europe in the 1990s were assembled either in Ireland or Scotland, while Ireland also accounted for over 40 per cent of all packaged software and 60 per cent of all business software sold in Europe. As the sector in both these locations is largely foreign owned, the question arises as to whether EU enlargement might impact on the geography of the sector by diverting information technology FDI from the western to the new eastern periphery. This issue is explored in the present paper by analysis of five individual sub‐segments: computer assembly and electronic components, R&D, mass‐market packaged software and the remainder of the software sector. The paper deems it likely that computer assembly operations will continue the shift seen in recent years from Ireland and Scotland to Central and Eastern Europe. The production of electronic components such as microchips represents a growing share of activity in most EU locations as well as in the CEE countries. Analysis suggests that this pattern of geographically‐dispersed growth will resume once the consequences of the collapse of the high‐tech bubble are played out. The distribution of R&D activity across Europe and globally is also considered unlikely to be much affected by enlargement. As for software, as long as localisation activities remain important, Ireland – the EU location in which most of this activity is carried out – seems set to be able to compete strongly, given the attractiveness of its English‐language environment and other attributes to the young continental Europeans upon which this activity relies. Most software services remain largely non‐tradable however. This sector will grow in the accession states as computer penetration rates converge on the EU average, but without displacing activity from the incumbent EU member states. For firms already competing in the tradable niche software segment, on the other hand, enlargement cannot but be beneficial because of its impact on the size of the market into which they sell.