bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Business & Society/Business Ethics Courses
Authors: Collins Denis , Wartick Steven L.
Published: March 2007

This article uses a historical perspective for reviewing the evolution of Business & Society/Business Ethics courses at business schools and programs in the United States. The study carefully reviews the findings of 11 major studies relating to the role and number of Business & Society/Business Ethics courses in business school/program curricula. Included in these 11 studies are the results of the 1990 survey on curricula and faculty conducted by the Curriculum Development Committee of the Academy of Management's Social Issues in Management Division. The study reveals that business schools/programs experienced a period of growth in Business & Society course offerings between 1973 and 1986 but a decline between 1986 and 1990 at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. A brief look at alternative futures for Business & Society teaching and research is offered at the end of the article.
Research in Corporate Political Action
Authors: Getz Kathleen A.
Published: March 2007

This article reviews the literature on corporate political action (CPA), integrating the perspectives of nine basic social science theories. Theoretical and empirical research grounded in these nine theories have described the characteristics of firms that engage in CPA (who), their rationale (why), and their methods (how). To a much lesser extent, the literature has also addressed how CPA changes over time (when) and the settings in which CPA is done (where). Reexamining the CPA literature this way directs us toward fundamental research questions that have not yet been addressed.
Units of Analysis and Rae's Fractionalization Index
Authors: GROSS DONALD A.
Published: March 2007

This article examines the relationship between Rae's fractionalization index and the units of analysis on which it is based. It is shown that as one increases the size of the unit of analysis, the value of the index will increase. An exact mathematical relationship between the mean level of fractionalization for a given set of units and a fractionalization index based upon the aggregate voting totals for the units is established. This relationship shows that the aggregate fractionalization index overestimates the level of interparty competition in a system as measured by the mean level of fractionalization. U.S. congressional elections from 1824 to 1978 are used to indicate the importance of the overestimation by the aggregate fractionalization index.
Toward an Empirical Theory of Tolerance
Authors: CASPI DAN , SELIGSON MITCHELL A.
Published: March 2007

This article tests the thesis of pluralistic intolerance developed by Sullivan and his colleagues. The thesis attempts to explain the survival of democracy in the United States despite high levels of political intolerance. The test is conducted with survey data from Israel and Costa Rica. The targets and levels of intolerance in both countries are reported and it is found that in neither one does the thesis seem to apply. The findings lead to the conclusion that political tolerance by itself cannot explain the survival of democratic regimes.
Inflation, Unemployment, and Government Collapse
Authors: ROBERTSON JOHN D.
Published: March 2007

As democracies enter an era of economic retrenchment, the political costs associated with economic decline have come under close scrutiny by students of comparative politics and public policy. Of particular concern is the linkage between inflation, unemployment, and the collapse of incumbent governments. The present study provides an initial application of an alternative approach to measuring this linkage across 8 European democracies, and offers significant evidence linking political costs for cabinet governments with rising prices and the growing unemployment. By utilizing the Poisson method of determining probabilities of discrete events, increasing probabilities of government collapse are significantly associated with rising inflation and unemployment in European democracies between January 1958 and December 1979. Subsequent use of the Sanders and Herman's (1977) and Warwick (1979) analyses of cabinet stability provides a useful means to disaggregate the nation sample of the study into four discrete subsets of nations. After applying the model developed in the current study to these separate subsets, it is concluded that the more significant the change in rates of inflation and unemployment, the more likely the pattern of government collapse will be interrupted by the unexpected termination of an incumbent regime.
The Constituency Component
Authors: CAIN BRUCE E. , FEREJOHN JOHN A. , FIORINA MORRIS P.
Published: March 2007

The policymaking component of representation in the United States and Great Britain has been closely studied and compared, but the constituency component—the handling of constituent complaints and the protection of constituency interests—is less well understood. This article considers two questions about the constituency component of representation: how much and what kinds of casework services do MPs as opposed to members of Congress provide, and second, what are the statistical determinants of these activities? With regard to the first question, our findings indicate that MPs devote more of their own time to constituency work than do members of Congress. In addition, we identify representatives on both sides of the Atlantic who adopt a more aggressive strategy toward their constituency work. This strategy is manifested by such activities as publicizing successful cases, handling cases that concern local government matters, the frequency of surgeries, and the active solicitation of cases. In the second part of this article, we model these activities as being related to the electoral margin, party, and the year the representative was elected. These estimations indicate that casework entrepreneurs in both countries are most likely to be in marginal seats, recently elected, and Democrats or Labour.
An “Events” Approach to the Problem of Cabinet Stability
Authors: BROWNE ERIC C. , FRENDREIS JOHN P. , GLEIBER DENNIS W.
Published: March 2007

This article seeks to develop the argument that existing theoretical work investigating cabinet stability in parliamentary democracies is in need of reorientation. In the first part, we offer an extended critique of historical and contemporary literature, focusing heavily on contributions from coalition theory and recent empirical research on situational determinants of cabinet longevity. Arguing that the various models associated with both these research traditions are likely to be misspecified, in the second section we offer the sketch of a preliminary model of cabinet stability based upon “events” arising in the political environment of cabinet actors and capable of bringing on the termination of their governments. Unlike earlier theoretical treatments, our “events” focus suggests that a major component of a successful model of cabinet stability should be stochastic. In the final section, we seek to demonstrate the versatility and efficacy of an “events” approach to cabinet stability by providing a research agenda for further investigation of the problem. Two such projects are described: one pertaining to inductively oriented work relating “events” to the dissolution of cabinets, and the other a discussion of the consequences of an “events” approach for the deductive modelling of cabinet formation and persistance over time.
Ecology of Party Strength in Western Europe
Authors: ERSSON SVANTE , JANDA KENNETH , LANE JAN-ERIK
Published: March 2007

Following the Lipset-Rokkan cleavage approach, we present an ecological analysis of the electoral outcomes at the regional level of the political parties in 16 European democracies. The search for relationships between voter alignments and the social structure is conducted in terms of a comparative ecology model. Ecological factors at the regional level within each country account for 75% of the variance in support for 93 parties over three elections during the 1970s. More than half of the “regional” variance could be explained by five “structural” properties of the regions: industry, agriculture, affluence, religion, and ethnicity. The impact of these structural properties varied across countries and across party types. Some of the more theoretically interesting variations are discussed for specific countries, individual parties, and party types.
Immigration and the French State
Authors: HOLLIFIELD JAMES F.
Published: March 2007

Why is it so difficult for a liberal-democratic state to regulate immigration? Although control of a territory is part and parcel of the definition of state sovereignty, labor-importing countries have found it increasingly difficult to regulate the flow of noncitizens across their borders. This article seeks to address the difficulties of regulating immigration by focusing on the policy-making process and the interaction of politics and markets in France, one of the principal countries of immigration.
The Entrepreneurial State
Authors: DAVIS DAVID R. , WARD MICHAEL D.
Published: March 2007

Duvall and Freeman (1983) propose an explicit theory to explain the entrepreneurial role of the state in developing societies. Their argument illuminates linkages between the benefits that an elite group receives from state entrepreneurial activity and the support that this group provides to the state. In this article the authors examine theoretically and empirically the ability of their theory to explain the evolution of state entrepreneurship in a rapidly industrializing society, Taiwan. Overall, the authors show that the formal theory of Duvall and Freeman holds several features not heretofore explicated but that it is remarkably robust in providing a cogent framework in which to interpret recent Taiwanese economic history. In short, the fit between the model of Duvall and Freeman and the empirical data for Taiwan is quite strong. This suggests that state entrepreneurship is used in developing societies in a countercyclical way in order to help manage the political economy. The authors also explore the possible implications that economic stagnation and increasing democratization have for the entrepreneurial activity of the state in Taiwan.
Comparative Judicial Politics
Authors: BRUNELLO ANTHONY R. , LEHRMAN KENNETH F.
Published: March 2007

This article is part of an ongoing project of the authors to systematically compare the policy-making influence of courts in nations with disparate political systems, levels of economic development, and legal traditions. Presented herein is a two-nation comparative case study of the policy influence of the highest courts in the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of India. The general research strategy begins with the premise that judicial decisions are not self-executing and therefore implementation requires the cooperation of others. Courts are forced to rely on other political actors to translate policy decisions into action. From this premise the authors reason that the degree of judicial influence in the policy process of any nation can be roughly gauged by examining the reaction of other actors who, as part of the political environment, are themselves subject to a wide range of political pressures. Using the judicial impact model of Charles A. Johnson, the authors analyze the impact of the courts on university admission policy in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the industrial disputes machinery in the Republic of India.
War and the Three Faces of Power
Authors: JAGGERS KEITH
Published: March 2007

This analysis tests the effects of war as an agent of social change by examining its impact on state building on a cross-sectional sample of 44 interstate and 19 civil wars from 1815-1954, involving 28 European and American states. At its core, what distinguishes this analysis from previous research of the war-state-building relationship is its treatment of both war and state building as multidimensional phenomena that interact in a world of socioeconomic and institutional complexity rather than strict empirical isolation. This analysis is scientifically progressive in the sense that it both confirms many old hypotheses and generates some new propositions in the process. Most important for future research is the finding that the systemic theory of Rasler and Thompson and the collective goods thesis of Olson are necessary, but not sufficient, explanations of the war-state-building relationship. The level of resource mobilization, the extent of socioeconomic destruction, as well as prewar societal characteristics must be incorporated into future research. Moreover, an increased emphasis on the theoretical importance of interactive relationships now seems justified. Thus the results of this analysis point out the importance of being sensitive to differences across states and wars when assessing the effects of war on state building.
Consensus Versus Majoritarian Democracy
Authors: CREPAZ MARKUS M. L.
Published: March 2007

This article argues that consensual political institutions as operationalized by Lijphart and Crepaz (1991) have significantly favorable effects on unemployment, inflation, and the number of working days lost, whereas economic growth remains unaffected. Although this finding is consistent with Olson's theoretical concept of “encompassing organizations,” this study shows that Olson's empirical operationalization is flawed. “Strong,” two-party “Westminster” systems, based on single-member district electoral rules, and single-party, bare majority cabinets do not perform as well as “weak,” multiparty coalition governments with proportional representation as an electoral rule. An empirical measure of “encompassing organizations” is introduced, termed popular cabinet support. A cross-sectional/time-series panel study of 162 elections (18 countries and 9 elections per country, N = 162) provides strong evidence that governments with consensual, inclusive, and accommodative constitutional structures and wider popular cabinet support behave more “responsibly” than do their more majoritarian, exclusionary, and adversarial counterparts.
Electoral Origins of Japanese Socialists' Stagnation
Authors: KOHNO MASARU
Published: March 2007

Why did the Japan Socialist Party (JSP) cling to its original leftist policies for so long? Traditionally, the JSP's failure to become a credible alternative to the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has been explained in terms of either the legacy of its disastrous coalition experience in the early postwar years, the party's organizational reliance on unionized labor, or its nervousness about the reactionary element in the LDP. None of these existing explanations is convincing, given that the adherence to its leftist policies had self-defeating electoral consequences for the JSP. This article explores an alternative explanation and provides empirical evidence which illustrates the link between the JSP's misfortune and the Japanese electoral system existing from 1947 to 1994.
The Fragmentation of the Bargaining Society
Authors: WALLERSTEIN MICHAEL , GOLDEN MIRIAM
Published: March 2007

It is commonly believed that corporatist bargaining institutions have been in general decline in the 1980s and 1990s. The leading explanations of the purported universal trend toward greater decentralization of collective bargaining are the impact of technological change, changes in the occupational structure, and growing international economic integration. Decentralization should be particularly visible in the Nordic countries, because collective bargaining was more centralized in these countries in the 1960s and 1970s than in any others in Western Europe. In this article, the authors present data on the changes in the centralization of wage bargaining in the four Nordic countries since 1950. They document that a significant decentralization of collective bargaining has occurred in Sweden, as is well known, but not in the other three. The article concludes with a review of possible explanations of Swedish exceptionalism.
Integrating Western and Eastern European Markets
Authors: KNUDSEN JETTE STEEN
Published: March 2007

Although general trade theories are useful for specifying which groups support or oppose trade, these frameworks see preferences as static and do not explain how they change over time. Instead, this article proposes a dynamic perspective that considers how economic adjustment and liberal trade policies alter trade preferences. The article examines why the traditionally protectionist German textile and apparel sectors accept the recent trade agreements with Eastern Europe. Producers can exploit technological and product changes by gaining access to export markets. Furthermore, to take advantage of low labor costs abroad, producers shift production to these countries for later reimportation. Lower trade barriers are therefore attractive to producers. This strategy is also supported by increasingly liberal trade policy orientations in Germany, the European Union (EU), and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). German producers have therefore modified their protectionist focus to a qualified support for more free trade, and German workers have reluctantly followed suit.
Judicialization and the Construction of Governance
Authors: SWEET ALEC STONE
Published: March 2007

I present a theory of the emergence and evolution of governance, conceived as the process through which the rules systems in place in any social setting are adapted to the needs of those who live under them. The theory is composed of three elements: normative structure, dyadic contracting, and triadic dispute resolution. I demonstrate that a move to triadic dispute resolution leads the triadic dispute resolver to construct, and then to manage over time, specific causal relationships between exchange, conflict, and rules. In this way, political life is judicialized. Under certain conditions, the triad will constitute a crucial mechanism of political change. I then explain judicialization and the dynamics of change in two very different polities: the international trade regime and the French Fifth Republic. The conclusion draws out some of the implications of the theory and data for our understanding of the complex relationship between strategic behavior and social structure.
Public Sector Unions, Corporatism, and Macroeconomic Performance
Authors: GARRETT GEOFFREY , WAY CHRISTOPHER
Published: March 2007

What accounts for the apparent breakdown of the positive relationship between powerful trade union organizations and macroeconomic performance? Is corporatism a relic of a different age, a luxury of the long postwar boom? Although the authors answer the latter question in the negative, they do contend that existing arguments about the macroeconomic consequences of corporatism should be significantly modified to take into account the impact of the growth of public sector unions on the relationship between institutional structure of labor movements and economic outcomes. The deteriorating performance commonly attributed to corporatism in the 1980s was limited to countries in which unions in the public sector and other sectors not exposed to international competition increasingly dominated national labor movements. Encompassing trade union movements can still generate wage restraint, but only where the union movement is dominated by unions in the exposed sector that are subject to the constraints posed by international market competition.
Free or Forced Riders?
Authors: AHNLID ANDERS
Published: March 2007

This article deals with small industrial states in the international political economy, with emphasis on their policies under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). According to derivations from variants of hegemonic stability theory, small states are predicted to pursue mercantilist free-rider policies, i.e. implementing protection at home with impunity while enjoying free trade abroad. Since the trade policies of small industrial states are often very open, this prediction is inaccurate. The failure of the traditional theories may be explained by their neglect of the coercive nature of international leadership. Under coercive leadership small states become forced riders, i.e. they are forced to give up the mercantilist policy option. However, the systemic opportunities to free ride still affect the trade policies of small industrial states, even though more indirectly than traditionally assumed. Throughout the article, cases drawn from Swedish trade policy are used for illustrative purposes.
The Two Musterknaben and the Naughty Boy: Sweden, Finland and Denmark in the Process of European Integration
Authors: MOURITZEN HANS
Published: March 2007

The Swedish and Finnish value priorities and modes of adaptation in the current process of European integration are analysed — Denmark being a comparative background cloth. The Danish Maastricht referendum and its European aftermath leading to the Edinburgh agreement in late 1992 are used as the focal points that can elucidate not only Denmark's general postures, but also those of the other two countries. The referendum outcome forced the Danish decision-makers to make issue-neutral autonomy Denmark's no. 1 priority (at the cost of a certain status marginalization in the EC, presumably). Sweden and Finland, by contrast, cannot afford such a provocative posture (from the standpoint of EC integration); given their narrow action spaces as would-be members, some more modest, issue-specific values are given highest priority. Inspired by these cases and certain more general reasonings, a model of national adaptation to unipolar (regional) integration is formulated. It emphasizes the causal power of the polarity structure and its constellations for the explanation of non-essential powers' modes of adaptation. Not only should it put the cases at stake into a broader perspective, but it should also be useful for the future study of some fresh cases of national adaptation during the present European polarity structure.
Norwegian Political Economy and European Integration
Authors: INGEBRITSEN CHRISTINE
Published: March 2007

The typical farmer in Norway receives more support from the state than the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) provides to the average farmer in the European Union (EU). The sheltered agricultural sector has been an important political obstacle to Norwegian membership in the European Union. While only a small percentage of the population is engaged in farming, many more Norwegians are concerned about the consequences of liberalizing the agricultural sector. Norway's unique agricultural policy can be explained by the historic importance of farming, the political power of the farmer's party (the Center Party) and the ideological commitment of Social Democrats to rural development goals. In contrast to Sweden, where agricultural policies have been adjusted to the CAP, the Norwegian government has not substantially reformed its agricultural policies. The costs of maintaining generous subsidies to agriculture are under-written by Norway's petroleum-dependent economy. The capacity of the Social Democratic government to reform the agricultural sector is constrained by powerful rural interests, who depend on state support and are effective at mobilizing the population against policy liberalizations. Of the four EFTA states that recently applied to join the EU (Sweden, Finland, Austria and Norway), domestic opposition was strongest in Norway. The real and perceived consequences of EU membership for Norwegian agriculture can partially account for the public's reluctance to join in 1994.
The International Whaling Commission
Authors: SIGVALDSSON HERLUF
Published: March 2007

In 1982, the International Whaling Commission underwent a change which manifested itself in the form of a worldwide moratorium on commercial whaling. The principal purpose of this article is to explain the metamorphosis from whaling to preservation. As multi-faceted approaches have become more common among scholars of international politics, five different models of regime change are applied to this case. The model of economic processes views the change in the International Whaling Commission as a result of technological progress and economic growth within the global whaling sector; the model of internal contradictions shows how constituent contradictions together with new compositions of whaling interests eased the change; the model of overall power structure explains how the United States enforced the change; the model of international organization clarifies how other networks, norms and institutions affected the function of the International Whaling Commission, and thus facilitated the change; the model of bargaining and coalition-making demonstrates how coalitions combined with compromises among whaling interests set the rules which catalysed the change. In addition, this multi-faceted approach provides a complex perspective of the change in the International Whaling Commission.
Autonomy-Community-Suzerainty
Authors: FØRLAND TOR EGIL
Published: March 2007

The first part of this article offers a critique of Andrew Moravcsik's and Alan Milward's attempts to present theories to replace neofunctionalism, arguing that Moravcsik's framework of `liberal intergovernmentalism' is short on explanatory power while Milward's `rescue of the nation-state' thesis is short on evidence. The second part substitutes a triangular model of Autonomy-Community-Suzerainty for the conventional dichotomy of sovereignty and supranationality employed by integration scholars. States aim to maximize control — meaning autonomy for oneself and suzerainty by oneself over others — if this can be achieved without detriment to other objectives. They may opt for community, however, in order to rid themselves of suzerainty or to prevent autonomy by other states whose actions may affect themselves positively or negatively. The third part applies the triangle to the history of European integration, showing how it can shed light on the ECSC, the EDC, the EEC, the internal market, and monetary union.
A Case for Seduction?
Authors: HANSEN LENE
Published: March 2007

This paper argues that the field of security studies would benefit from engaging more closely with the poststructuralist writings on security than has previously been the case. Poststructuralism advocates a position different from both the traditional realist and idealist perspectives in IR and offers important insights on the construction of the national-international dichotomy, the relationship between national identity and security politics, the discursive character of the concept of security, and the late-modern transformation of security. Specifically, poststructuralism is an important contribution to the debate on whether and/or how to expand the concept of security. It is argued from the poststructuralist position, most clearly by Ole Wæver, that security is a discursive practice and that the concept of security cannot therefore by definition be linked to the military domain: the crucial point is not to establish an objective relationship between the concept and the possible domains of security, but to study whether and how an issue is securitized. The paper concludes by pointing towards further research within poststructuralist security studies and argues in favour of more studies problematizing the possible and argues relationships between the state and the Other, asking whether security politics has to be built on a conquest of the Other.
Policy Diffusion in Research and Technological Development
Authors: MÖRTH ULRIKA
Published: March 2007

The article explores the question of how the EC and several European governments almost simultaneously launched research and technological development (RTD) programmes during the 1980s. It is suggested that RTD policy processes within the EC and individual states were linked to each other in a European policy process, and that the convergence of such policies was a function of policy diffusion. An analytical approach of policy diffusion is outlined in order to study the linkages between national and EU policy processes. A policy diffusion perspective, which entails how policies are formed in a communication between various national political-administrative systems, can be seen as an important contribution to the study of the dynamics behind the European integration process. It is suggested that the OECD, with its informal and non-hierarchical cooperation structure, is an important condition for policy diffusion, and that this type of cooperation can also be found within the EU. The EU, which can be characterized as a type of multilevel governance, enhances communication between national political-administrative systems and thus the processes of policy diffusion.
The United States and the Nordic Countries During the Cold War
Authors: ZAKHEIM DOV S.
Published: March 2007

In this article, former Reagan Administration Deputy Under Secretary of Defense, Dov S. Zakheim, analyzes the concerns and complexities that have governed past and present US strategic thinking about Northern Europe. A flourishing military cooperation between the US, the Scandinavian neutrals, the Baltic states, and even Russia under the auspices of the Partnership for Peace are among the most visible signs of the drastic changes that have taken place in this region in the post-Cold War era. This article traces American strategic thinking and concerns with the far North from the advent of the Cold War to the present and the recent signing of the Baltic Charter.
The EU Negotiates Climate Change
Authors: SJÖSTEDT GUNNAR
Published: March 2007

The European Union (EU) is the only great power that has decisively promoted an international agreement requiring substansive emission reductions. It is possible that EU diplomacy has contributed to producing the inadequate but still encouraging results obtained in Kyoto. Although the 1997 UN conference in Kyoto produced an agreement to the effect that industrialized countries would collectively reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases by more than 5%, a viable solution to the climate problem is not yet in sight. Scientists estimate that emissions of CO2, the most important greenhouse gas, will have to be cut by 60% if further climate warming is to be avoided. However, it is clear that the EU is not strong enough to move the climate negotiation decisively towards a more viable solution without the active support of other leading countries. A static assessment examining the circumstances explains why the EU has had difficulty taking a leadership role in the climate talks. A crippled actor capability and diverging domestic conditions prevailing in the various member countries have constrained its external performance in the talks. A more dynamic analysis will have to consider that the external performance of the EU could be enhanced by the interaction between its actor bahaviour and its actor capability.
Women in Hotel Management
Authors: Woods Robert H. , Viehland Douglas
Published: March 2007

An examination of 11 U.S. hotel chains' 1998 filings with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission shows that nearly half of the managers in hotel properties are women. Specifically, in a sample of over 470 hotels comprising 5,447 individual managers, the split between male and female managers was 54 percent to 46 percent. However, just over 15 percent of the general managers were women, and most of the women are clustered in just a few management positions-namely, catering, sales and marketing, personnel, reservations, and housekeeping. For example, nearly 82 percent of the catering managers were women, and that figure was 74 percent for personnel managers. By contrast, the percentage of women in two positions that typically lead to the GM job-rooms (front office) manager and F&B manager-is nowhere near as high. While 53 percent of the front-office managers were women, only 17 percent of F&B managers were women. Women were likewise underrepresented on hotels' executive committees. Still, the overall picture is one of progress.
You've Got Trouble!
Authors: Mills juline E. , Clay Joan Marie , Mortensen Mark
Published: March 2007

The use of e-mail as one of the principal means of workplace communication creates for employers a variety of legal problems because of these three typical e-mail-system features: broadcasting capabilities, perpetual retention, and susceptibility to abuse. Those features can give rise to such legal concerns and challenges as (1) preserving the confidentiality of company information, (2) protecting attorney-client communications between the firm and its lawyers, (3) dealing with e-mails' admissibility into court and their storage during litigation, (4) protecting the firm from liability for employees' misuse of e-mail, and (5) handling employee-privacy claims. These aspects of e-mail also should be of concern to employers: the deletion of e-mail records can be seen as destroying evidence, and tampering with e-mail evidence or refusing to produce it also may be unlawful; e-mails are widely used as evidence in employment-related litigation; numerous e-mails containing inappropriate content may be sufficient to establish a hostile work environment; employees' e-mail messages are not private when those are sent or received using company-owned equipment and systems; and intercepted e-mail messages containing private company information may be construed as trade-secret theft.
How Restaurant Owners Manage Strategic Risk
Authors: Morgan Ivor , Rao Jay
Published: March 2007

A study of 63 Toronto restaurants found that certain attributes or amenities had a statistically significant effect on average check, as well as customers' ratings of decor and service quality. The features tested were offering catering, a dress code, late-night dining, live entertainment, outside seating, parking, smoking, takeout, and some form of internet activity. Specifically, a dress code boosted check averages and improved ratings for decor, service, and food quality. Offering parking also boosted check averages. In contrast, offering takeout depressed check averages and reduced the ratings for decor. Offering a late-night menu had a significant negative effect on perceptions of food and service quality. The restaurant features offered most frequently were catering, takeout, and a smoking section.
The Changing World of International Hotel Management
Authors: Ference Eugene A.
Published: March 2007

We know, however, that everything will increase in price. We have to provide more value to our guests. People can accept that things cost more, but if they pay more they have a right to expect more for their money and will demand it.—Curt R. Strand, President, Hilton International, 1974 Policy Meeting.
The Travel Agent's Responsibility to the Travel Consumer: For Whom Does the Bell Toll?
Authors: Sherry John E.H.
Published: March 2007

In the following article, Professor Sherry draws on previously published scholarship to analyze the travel agent-travel consumer relationship. The objective is to provide a balanced judgment that reflects the current state of the law in light of the interests and needs of both the travel agent and the traveler. Professor Sherry acknowl edges the research and editorial efforts of Ms. Mary Ann Thompson, Cornell Law '76, who assisted him ably in all stages of the article's preparation.
Part I of a Series on Corporate Strategy for Restaurant Firms
Authors: Lawless Mark J. , Hart Christopher W.
Published: March 2007

Take a step back from your business to gain a fresh perspective on the forces that affect the industry and your performance within it
The Myth of Labor-Cost Percentages
Authors: Pavesic David V.
Published: March 2007

Reliance on a single labor-cost measure can lead restaurateurs to incorrect conclusions about worker productivity. This article provides several measures of staff productivity that will enhance the precision of staff-scheduling decisions
Service Management and Quality Assurance...
Authors: Records Harold A. , Glennie Michael F.
Published: March 2007

Forecasting business volume and efficient labor scheduling are crucial to maintaining quality in an operation. Using a relatively simple computer network, the Boca Raton Resort and Club has been able to control budgets, forecasts, and labor schedules. For a computer application to be effective, an operation must first have a systematic approach in which various functions are tied together and reflect expected business conditions. Such an approach means, for instance, setting labor standards that are entered into the computer and used in conjunction with forecasted guest activity to establish schedules. Through the computer network, business forecasting, personnel scheduling, time accounting, and variance reporting are all linked. In two years of operation, the Boca Raton system has enabled the resort to improve its quality assurance while cutting labor costs.
Restaurant Service:
Authors: Meyers Don
Published: March 2007

One way to maintain excellent service standards is with constant reminders to the waitstaff about how to serve customers. By accompanying those reminders with strong visual images, a manager can help the waitstaff improve its service. Some of those images are thinking of the table as a carefully composed painting, remembering the difference between server time and customer time, and imagining that each table sits in a pool of water (don't "splash" the guest with sudden movements).
Troubled Hotels
Authors: Hankamer Ray
Published: March 2007

The 1980s are over: the tax benefits are gone, hotels' glamour is tarnished, and what's left is a lot of hotels in financial difficulty. Lenders who have non-performing hotel loans in their portfolio must decide how to proceed. Rule one is don't panic, because a "fire sale" or a quick removal of the owner could saddle the bank with the possibility of an even greater loss. Instead, each project should be examined by a hotel-management professional for its true market potential. Some properties should, indeed, be sold for their residual property value. But others may need just renovation or repositioning and patience for the lender's investment to be returned.
Resort-Marketing Trends of the 1990s
Authors: Whelihan William P. , Chon Kye-Sung
Published: March 2007

In recent years, resorts have had to respond to substantial structural and demographic changes. Among them: an increase in the number of chain-affiliated resorts, outdated consumer attitudes, and consumers' desire for diverse, family-related activities. As a result, resorts must both encourage repeat business and seek new markets. Some resorts have sought business from nearby residents, while others have courted meeting planners and stretched their operations into off seasons. Most resorts sponsor special events and offer travel packages, and nearly all resorts have added children's activities.
Bed-and-Breakfast Inns Come of Age
Authors: Lanier Pamela , Berman Judy
Published: March 2007

The B&B segment is growing and as it grows its characteristics increasingly match those of the lodging industry as a whole. Fewer B&Bs are being opened as second-income businesses, while more are being developed as properties that provide primary income to professional owner-operators. A substantial change over the past operation of B&Bs is the addition of restaurants or other food service in dayparts other than breakfast and to customers other than overnight guests. The greatest threat to B&Bs is zoning and other local regulations that tend to restrict B&B operations.
False and Misleading Promotional Material
Authors: Sherry John E.H.
Published: March 2007

In several breach-of-contract claims for inaccurate representations made to guests through advertising brochures, the courts have allowed guests to recover relatively large damages from findings of fraud or intentional misrepresentation. The courts have focused attention on representations that overstep permissible limits of selling behavior and looked at the totality of the statements made. If promises fail to live up to guests' reasonable expectations, the courts may find them actionable. A finding of fraud is necessary to permit recovery of punitive damages.
Enhancing Resort Profitability with Membership Programs
Authors: Sim Michael P. , Burritt M. Chase
Published: March 2007

Many resort owners view the operation of their amenities as a necessary expense that must be incurred to improve the market-ability of the resort's rental program. In fact, a well-designed club-membership program can turn those amenities into a profit center instead of a loss leader. Recreation clubs have been incorporated successfully into several types of resorts, especially golf resorts, whereby club members pay for privileged access to the resort's facilities. A resort club can also be structured as a vacation club, whereby members can stay at the resort a certain number of days or weeks each year. The resort-club concept needs to be tailored to the particular resort and its locale; no single plan can be used for all resorts. Before planning a club-membership program, a careful analysis of the target market must be made. A program may be easy to implement and market in a residential-resort community, because the resident neighbors represent a readily exploitable market. As an example, the Boca Raton Resort and Club reorganized its club program with promising financial results.
Employment Benefits
Authors: Schmidgall Raymond S. , knutson Bonnie J.
Published: March 2007

This article compares 19 employment benefits offered to hospitality educators with those offered to food-service professionals. The 19 benefits cluster into three categories: health, income or life-style, and professional, plus a catch-all group. Educational institutions appear to be more generous than their food-service counterparts, but a larger percentage of industry firms pay the entire cost of those benefits than do institutions. When all 19 benefits are examined for the entire sample populations of both educational institutions and food-service firms, the number of those firms and institutions that pay 100 percent of the benefit appears quite equitable.
Producing Global Managers
Authors: Clark Jack J. , Arbel Avner
Published: March 2007

Always international, the hospitality industry needs managers who consider the long-range impact of their decisions on the global community. Unfortunately, it seems that hospitality schools cannot yet provide the necessary leadership in “going global.” To globalize the student body colleges should: accept more international students, develop international student-exchange programs, intensify support for international students, increase scholarship aid, and require foreign-language skills. To globalize their faculty, universities should require more international faculty exchanges and sabbatical leaves, recruit more international faculty members, and increase the use of industry professionals as guest lecturers and executives in residence.
Graduate-Level Education
Authors: Enz Cathy A. , Renaghan Leo M. , Geller A. Neal
Published: March 2007

To evaluate the school's Master of Professional Studies (M.P.S.) program, the graduate faculty of the Cornell Hotel School surveyed hospitality-industry professionals, M.P.S. alumni, the school's graduate faculty, and incoming graduate students. All groups considered three skills important: leadership, the ability to identify problems, and organizing and writing skills. Four critical themes for success in the hospitality industry emerged from the executives and alumni: strategic or “big picture” orientation, communication, work and managerial styles, and leadership.
Marketing Communications
Authors: Miller Jessica
Published: March 2007

Besides print advertising, marketing communications should include public relations, direct mail, and events and promotions. Any activity that has the potential to be press worthy can create an awareness of your product, provided the event represents legitimate news. Hospitality press releases may announce news that generally falls into a “features” slot, but that announcement must nevertheless be newsworthy. Assembling a press-information package is a useful exercise to present both an overview of an operation as well as a more-detailed picture for journalists interested in developing an in-depth report. Direct mail may be a letter, a calendar of events, a newsletter, a flier, or any number of other forms, the cost of which is dependent on the target audience. In any event, the writing should be interesting and informative. Involvement in the life of the community is critical to an operation's image as a good citizen. Charitable functions have a unique way of merging publicity and fund-raising. Your top-rank executives also may create business opportunities through their involvement in events and civic associations. Also, consider giving customers an unexpected extra to enhance their perception of value received. No matter what, an effective marketing plan needs the support of a management that is committed to quality.
The Right Fit
Authors: Dingman H. Bruce
Published: March 2007

When the owner of a posh destination resort in southern California needed to replace his retiring general manager, he turned to a retained recruiter to conduct the search. A retained recruiter is paid for the search regardless of the outcome of that search. The search professional first spent time at the resort to familiarize himself with the operation. He then sent a far-flung inquiry among resort operators and other segments of the industry to find potential candidates. Winnowing the first 60-plus responses down to 13, the recruiter then conducted lengthy telephone interviews to reduce the list to six. Those persons spent time at the resort and met with the owner. After further deliberation and reports prepared by the recruiter, the owner selected the candidate he thought best fit the position. As part of his service, the recruiter will check back on the match at intervals of two months, six months, and a year.
Industrial Cuisine
Authors: Hudson Bradford T.
Published: March 2007

Industrial cuisine is a relatively new approach to food-service management that brings mass manufacturing and distribution applications to the restaurant industry. The concept involves using flexible food preparation and processing techniques, separating production from retailing, and employing advanced technology (such as sous vide) to ensure quality and variety. Industrial cuisine can increase productivity, overcome labor shortages, and ease the problems of site selection. The concept offers variety, quality, and consistency at a lower price and in less time than many traditional methods. Industrial cuisine may enable chain restaurants to finally enter the fine-dining segment and should radically alter the traditional structure of the restaurant business.
Marketing Hotels
Authors: Emmer Rita Marie , Tauck Chuck , Wilkinson Scott , Moore Richard G.
Published: March 2007

Although travel agents will continue to book hotel rooms via telephone using information in published guides, more and more rooms will be booked electronically via global distribution systems. By creating and maintaining a proper listing on a GDS, hoteliers enable travel agents to make quicker and, in many cases, more accurate reservations. The hotelier should make certain that the listing has the appropriate key words to indicate the hotel's location (e.g., airport, tourist attractions) and a proper description. A key to making sure the travel agent will rely on the GDS listing is to ensure that the rates offered electronically are complete, accurate, the lowest available. Although a majority of hotel bookings are not yet completed via computer, the day is fast approaching when that will be the case.