The influence of trust perceptions on German tourists’ intention to book a sustainable hotel: a new approach to analysing marketing information

ABSTRACT

This study examined the relationship between German tourists’ trust perceptions and their intention to book a sustainable hotel, pioneering a new quantitative approach to sustainable tourism marketing. Data came from 300 respondents who participated in an online survey. Respondents were given a digital brochure to read containing information about a “fictitious” three-star beach hotel in Portugal, before completing a questionnaire that measured inter alia their intention to book this sustainable hotel. Both individual “general trust” (perception of others’ trustworthiness) and “specific trust” towards the fictitious hotel in the brochure were measured. The survey also evaluated respondents’ perceptions about the usefulness of the information in the brochure. Multiple regression analysis of the data indicated that general trust, trusting the hotel and perceived usefulness of the brochure were positively and significantly related to booking intentions. An interaction between general trust and perceived usefulness was also observed. This means that the higher the perception rate about the brochure's usefulness, the higher general trust was for booking intentions and vice versa. The practical implications of the results suggest that tourists could be motivated to book a hotel if its sustainability attributes and amenities were communicated in a trust inspiring way in marketing material.     

Marketing sustainable tourism: the role of value orientation,well-being and credibility

Abstract

Marketing for sustainable tourism primarily attracts customers with a biospheric–altruistic value orientation. To reach a broader consumer group and also persuade people with a self-enhancement orientation to book sustainable hotels, the effectiveness of three different communication styles (emotionality levels, amount of sustainability information and inclusion of a label) is investigated, considering the consumer’s value orientation. An experiment with 337 participants was conducted to analyze the effects of communication on consumer perceptions of well-being and credibility. Multigroup structural equation modeling was used to compare the impacts of communication style on participant’s attitude toward booking a sustainable hotel, mediated by well-being and credibility. The results highlight significantly different communication effects among the two contrasting target groups. Consumers who are highly interested in sustainability (biospheric–altruistic value orientation) are persuaded by messages that include details about the hotel’s sustainability performance, in order to increase the social–environmental well-being, whereas for customers who are less interested in sustainability (self-enhancement value orientation), a self-referential emotionally communication is essential, as it increases the emotional well-being. Inconsistent findings regarding the role of communication in raising the perception of credibility were obtained.     

Performance Schweizerischer Verwaltungsräte anhand der Aktienkursentwicklung

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Delistings of secondary listings: price and volume effects

Despite their growing importance in recent years, delistings of secondary listings have received very little attention. This article investigates whether a delisting is accompanied by any price or volume effects on the company’s primary exchange. We apply a standard event study methodology to analyze these effects. The total sample consists of 255 companies that either delisted from the SIX Swiss Exchange, the Sponsored Segment of the SIX, Deutsche Börse, or the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The results show no significant price effects, either around the announcement or around the effective delisting. Furthermore, the results vary considerably between subsamples. Prices tend to decline around announcement; however, the effect is not permanent. The effective delisting is preceded by declining prices, whereas the event itself has no influence. Overall, this initial decline appears to be permanent. In general, volumes seem to rise around the announcement as well as around the date of the delisting.     

Ex post adaptations and hybrid contracts in software development services

We follow the recent literature on ex post adaptations in procurement and argue that highly volatile specifications result in multiple variations of fixed price (FP) and time and materials (T&M) contracts. Specifically, placing a cap on specification change in FP contracts prevents specification volatility, similar to the way that placing a cap on the price in T&M contracts prevents price escalation. We argue that these hybrid mechanisms are particularly important in software development contracting, a new critical business capability involving frequent and costly ex post adaptations to specification change. The level of completeness in these contractual archetypes is hypothesized to be determined by contracting costs and benefits, where costs are related to project uncertainty and benefits are related to the likelihood of vendor opportunism. We test this hypothesis with a unique data set of 270 software development contracts entered into by a leading international bank. The analysis confirms the existence of multiple hybrid contracts that mitigate both price escalation and specification volatility. It also shows that contracting costs and benefits explain more variance in contract choice when these hybrids are included, uncovering the detailed mechanisms used to curb opportunism when the vendor is less familiar to the client.     

Kleine Bemerkung zum Zinsfussproblem

Abstract

In den Mitteilungen schweizerischer Versieherungsmathematiker ¹ H. Christen: Das Zinsfussproblem bei der Leibrente (M. d. V. sch. V., Heft 25, 1930). hat H. CHRISTEN eine eingehende Arbeit über das Zinsfussproblem veröffentlieht, zu dem er eine sehr gute Lösung beigetragen hat. Die Hauptergebnisse seiner Untersuehullg hat er aueh in der Skandinavisk Aktuarietidskrift ² H. Christen: Das Zinsfussproblem bei der Leibrente (M. d. V. sch. V., Heft 25, 1930). mitgeteilt.