bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Interlocking directorships against community closure: a trade‐off for development in tourist destinations
Authors: Beritelli Pietro , Strobl Andreas , Peters Mike 
Published: March 2013

PurposeIn remote rural areas such as the Alps, communities present a set of specific laws, norms and rules. According to social capital theory, these idiosyncrasies are founded on the closure of the actors in the community. On the contrary, as tourist destinations develop, enterprises and organizations gradually acquire non‐local directors in the boards, slowly affecting the identity of the local community. The aim of the paper is to analyze whether interlocking directorships with board members, residing outside of the destination, really increases openness in the boards of the organizations.Design/methodology/approachFor a set of salient organizations in six tourism destinations in Austria and in Switzerland, the authors analyzed the networks of interlocks between local and non‐local (outside of the region, outside of the country) board directors.FindingsChi‐square tests for group differences in tie densities show that, with the exception of the control destination Zürich, intragroup linkages (i.e. locals and non‐locals among their peers) are stronger than intergroup linkages.Research limitations/implicationsFurther research must address the operationalization of social capital with a set of variables that could be checked against increasing interlocks with non‐local directors, and the validation of the results of the six case studies with additional tourist destinations and regions and in the context of other industries, where inherently the identity and the underlying social capital may be less developed.Practical implicationsThe benefits of interlocking directorships with non‐local board members (i.e. acquisition of knowledge, increase of reputation for the destination) may fail to appear, when these actors do not effectively join with local board directors. In contrast, rather close networks of local board directors may increase the probability of collective action, effective sanctioning, and, generally speaking, the development of social capital.Social implicationsA tourist destination or generally a community must ponder the benefits of either one of the aspects. That is, a closed community guarantees the preservation of reciprocal trust and the development of locally grown and accepted governance. In contrast, by increasing the organizational connections with external directors in the boards, the enterprises may gain additional knowledge, new financial resources, etc. but they may undermine historically grown rules and norms as well as routines that are founded on reciprocal trust and a common identity.Originality/valueThe functionalities of destination communities are of growing interest for tourism researchers. However, tourism research has never focused on networks of interlocking directorships. By analyzing interlocking directorships in the context of tourist destination communities, this research opens a new stream of discussion for both community research, and the usefulness of research on interlocking directorships.
Using wireless proximity data to infer the behaviour of mobile people
Authors: Awais Azam Muhammad , Loo Jonathan 
Published: March 2013

PurposeThe aim of the research work presented in this paper is to investigate a mechanism that can recognise high level activities (for example, going for a walk, travelling on the bus, doing evening activity, etc.) and behaviour of low entropy people (people with regular daily life routines, e.g. elderly people with dementia, patients with regular routines) in order to help them improve their health related daily life activities by using wireless proximity data (e.g. Bluetooth, Wi‐Fi).Design/methodology/approachThe paper adopted a tiered approach to recognise activities and behaviour. Higher level activities are divided into sub‐activities and tasks. Separating the tasks from the raw wireless proximity data is achieved by designing task separator (TASE) algorithm. TASE takes wireless proximity data as an input and separates it into different tasks. These detected tasks and the high level daily activity plans that are made in a planning language Asbru, are then fed into the activity recogniser that compares the detected tasks with the plans and recognises the high level activities that the user is performing.FindingsThe paper provides an insight to how only wireless proximity data can be utilised to recognise high level activities and behaviour of individuals. A number of scenarios and experiments are designed to prove the validity of the proposed methodology.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper focussed on relatively low entropy individuals with regular routines and behavioural patterns which can be improved by increasing the level of entropies in behavioural routines.Practical implicationsThe paper includes implications for the utilisation in health care environments for elderly people and physically impaired individuals.Originality/valueThis paper provides a detailed and original study of algorithms and techniques that can be used to recognise high level activities and behaviour of individuals by using only wireless proximity data.
Situation‐awareness and reasoning using uncertain context in mobile peer‐to‐peer environments
Authors: Wibisono Waskitho , Zaslavsky Arkady , Ling Sea 
Published: March 2013

PurposeThe recent advances of mobile computing and sensing technologies have enabled mobile devices to individually sense environment context and develop situation awareness capability. To gain a better understanding of the environment, mobile devices that are co‐located can establish a mobile peer‐to‐peer (MP2P) environment to share their individual context information. The purpose of this paper is to propose a theoretical model for representing and reasoning about situations using uncertain context information captured by multiple devices in an MP2P environment.Design/methodology/approachThe paper proposes a generic model for reasoning about situations using uncertain context information captured by multiple devices in a MP2P environment. A data fusion technique is then integrated into the proposed model. To deal with uncertainty of context information captured by multiple independent devices, several models to estimate reliability of context information captured in the environment is proposed and developed.FindingsThe proposed model has been implemented as a middleware and evaluated using data from real experiments in various scenarios and environment settings. The results of the experiments show the robust performances of the proposed model as the basis for situation reasoning in the environment.Originality/valueA novel model to represent situations and context information captured by multiple devices and to estimate reliability context information used for situation reasoning is proposed. The proposed model is then implemented as a middleware and validated using context data taken captured by multiple independent devices in a MP2P environment.
Relevance of corporate governance practices in charitable organisations
Authors: Reddy Krishna , Locke Stuart , Fauzi Fitriya 
Published: March 2013

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine whether the registered charities in New Zealand have adopted the principle‐based corporate governance practices similar to those adopted by the publicly‐listed companies and the effect corporate governance practices have on their financial performance measured by technical efficiency, allocative efficiency and quick ratio. The paper addresses four important questions: how registered charities in New Zealand are managed and controlled; whether the funds donated to registered charities are utilised effectively; the nature of the corporate governance practiced by registered charities in New Zealand; and the nature of compliance to the Charities Act 2005.Design/methodology/approachPanel data for the registered charities over the period 2008‐2010 are analysed using ordinary least squares (OLS) regression and Tobit model regression. Technical efficiency, allocative efficiency and quick ratio are used as the dependent variables.FindingsThe findings indicate that there is no reporting requirement for the registered charities under the Charities Act 2005 to report detailed information regarding the board make‐up, board committees, board meetings, etc. and therefore, registered charities have not reported such information. The results show also that board gender diversity is an important corporate governance mechanism to mitigate agency problem in charitable organisations in New Zealand. However, large board size and large donors have potential to increase agency costs in charitable organisations in New Zealand.Research limitations/implicationsCaution should be exercised when interpreting and generalising the paper's results, as this study is a case study of registered charities in New Zealand and data comprised only large charities that have revenue over NZ$20 m. It should also be noted that there was a small sample size, which may have had a bearing on the results.Practical implicationsThis study offers insights for policy makers and practitioners interested in adopting similar corporate governance practices within their country.Social implicationsWithin New Zealand, issues relating to management and control of charitable organisations are better understood and as a consequence, development of sector‐wise standards could be initiated.Originality/valueThis research is novel as it investigates the nature of corporate governance practices relating to the registered charities in New Zealand. The availability of data provided by Charities Commission made this research possible.
Contagion among major world markets: a wavelet approach
Authors: Ranta Mikko 
Published: March 2013

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine contagion among the major world markets during the last 25 years and propose a new way to analyze contagion with wavelet methods.Design/methodology/approachThe analysis uses a novel way to study contagion using wavelet methods. The comparison is made between co‐movements at different time scales. Co‐movement methods of the discrete wavelet transform and the continuous wavelet transform are applied.FindingsClear signs of contagion among the major markets are found. Short time scale co‐movements increase during the major crisis while long time scale co‐movements remain approximately at the same level. In addition, gradually increasing interdependence between markets is found.Research limitations/implicationsBecause of the chosen method, the approach is limited to large data sets.Practical implicationsThe research has practical implications to portfolio managers etc. who wish to have better view of the dynamics of the international equity markets.Originality/valueThe research uses novel wavelet methods to analyze world equity markets. These methods allow the markets to be analyzed in the whole state space.
Profitability determinants among micro firms: evidence from Swedish data
Authors: Yazdanfar Darush 
Published: March 2013

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the variables affecting firm profitability, applying the seemingly unrelated regression method to a large sample of approximately 87,000 observations covering 12,530 non‐financial micro firms operating in four industry sectors, from 2006 to 2007.Design/methodology/approachThe study considers profitability determinants at the firm as well as industry affiliation levels in examining hypotheses developed from resource‐based approaches. Seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) was used to detect the combination of variables that best estimated the impact of the explanatory variables on the dependent variable.FindingsThe findings indicate that while firm size, lagged profitability, growth, and productivity positively influence profitability, firm age and industry affiliation negatively influence it. The empirical results suggest that productivity is the most significant determinant of profitability. These results are fairly robust across the various industry sectors covered in the study and are largely consistent with the hypotheses developed from the resource‐based approach.Research limitations/implicationsThe current study addresses an issue that is relevant to various stakeholders, including managers, investors, and debtholders, and may facilitate further research in similar areas of small business studies.Practical implicationsThe question of what factors determine profitability should accordingly be one of high priority for both researchers and practitioners, including managers, investors, debt holders, and policy makers.Originality/valueMost of previous studies of profitability determinants were actually performed in the industrial organization discipline. This study examines the impact of internal determinants including firm size, age, and sector on firm profitability from a managerial perspective. Unlike the other approaches, this approach suggests that firm performance is mainly determined by internal rather than external variables.
Returns and volatility spillover between stock prices and exchange rates
Authors: Kumar Manish 
Published: March 2013

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze the nature of returns and volatility spillovers between exchange rates and stock price in the IBSA nations (India, Brazil, South Africa).Design/methodology/approachThe study uses VAR framework and the recently proposed Spillover measure of Diebold and Yilmaz to examine the returns and volatility spillover between exchange rates and stock prices of IBSA nations. In addition, multivariate GARCH with time varying variance‐covariance BEKK model is used as a benchmark against the spillover methodology proposed by Diebold and Yilmaz.FindingsThe results of multivariate GARCH model suggests the integration between stock and foreign exchange markets and indicates the existence of bi‐directional volatility spillover between stock and foreign exchange markets in the IBSA countries. Spillover results using the Diebold Yilmaz model suggest the bi‐directional contribution between stock and foreign exchange market, in terms of both returns and volatility spillovers. Overall, results confirm the presence of returns and volatility spillovers within the IBSA nations and, in particular, the stock markets play a relatively more important role than foreign exchange markets in the first and second moment interactions and spillovers.Practical implicationsThe market participants may consider the relationship between the exchange rate and stock index to predict the future movement of each other effectively. Multinational companies interested in exchange rate forecasting may consider the stock market as an important attribute. There is an interesting implication for portfolio managers too because of the spillover stock and foreign exchange markets. This knowledge would help to create a fund which performs well. Moreover, the paper can help regulators and policy makers in IBSA nations to understand the structure of the market in a better way and then design their policies.Originality/valueThe study contributes to the literature by extending the existing studies on the spillover between stock price and exchange rate by investigating the issue for three emerging economies, India, Brazil and South Africa. Unlike most studies in the literature which focus on multivariate GARCH model, this is the first study which explores the issue of returns and volatility spillover between the stock prices and the exchange rates using spillover measure of Diebold and Yilmaz and much longer and recent daily data. Moreover, multivariate GARCH with time varying variance‐covariance BEKK model is used as a benchmark against the spillover methodology proposed by Diebold and Yilmaz.
Cultural intelligence (CQ) in MBA curricula
Authors: Ahn Mark J. , Ettner Larry 
Published: March 2013

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of cultural intelligence in MBA curricula. Shaping global corporate culture that manifests itself in powerful‐shared values, group behavior, and persists despite changes in‐group membership is decisive to organizational performance. In turn, cultural intelligence (CQ), defined, as an individual's capability to function and manage effectively in culturally diverse settings, has recently emerged as a likely indicator of management ability and leadership potential.Design/methodology/approachThe authors utilized the Cultural Intelligence Scale (CQS) – metacognitive, cognitive, motivational, and behavioral – to capture data from MBA students attending three universities in the USA.FindingsThese results, coupled with the open‐ended survey responses, suggest that in general the students have a firm understanding on why CQ is essential in an increasingly globalized business world, as well as a strong desire to interact with other cultures. However, although students appear highly motivated to study about other cultures, the results indicate that many of the MBA students lack an in‐depth knowledge of the values, beliefs, and practices of other cultures. Further, the data suggest that the most important attributes that increase an individual's CQ are international work experience, learning an additional language other than English, and/or obtaining an undergraduate degree from a foreign country.Originality/valueThis is the first empirical study to examine the role of cultural intelligence in MBA curricula.
Understanding the effectiveness of word‐of‐mouth: an elasticity perspective
Authors: Chen Yimiao , Liu Fangyi , Fang Cheng‐Hsi , Lin Tom M.Y. 
Published: March 2013

PurposeWith the increasing usage of social networking sites, there has been considerable interest in Word‐of‐Mouth (WOM) research. The purpose of this paper is to propose that economic elasticity theory can be applied to evaluate WOM effects and serve as the basis for cross‐product comparison. The practicality of the proposed methodology is demonstrated through a case study. It is hoped that the result of this study solves the argument of WOM effects as shown in past research.Design/methodology/approachIn order to remove restrictions of measuring WOM objectively, the research asked consumers to form their positive evaluation of WOM about a product or service. In the event that consumers can assess feelings accurately, the WOM consumption function can be constructed and the marginal effect of WOM estimated. The study uses a self‐reported questionnaire to estimate WOM elasticity for 13 products. In total, 465 valid questionnaires were collected.FindingsEmpirical results demonstrate that: first, for all 13 product categories, a significant percentage of respondents are very sensitive to the WOM of product they want to buy; and second, the WOM elasticity of the 13 product categories is between 0.24 and 1.31; the average elasticity was 0.84 for service product and 0.43 for physical goods.Originality/valueThis study may lead to a better understanding of the effectiveness of WOM. WOM elasticity provides an alternative view to examine WOM effects across different products; moreover, it offers an opportunity to re‐evaluate the results of past research.
The impact of knowledge governance on knowledge sharing
Authors: Cao Yong , Xiang Yang 
Published: March 2013

PurposeKnowledge governance is an organizational mechanism that formally and informally defines how the firm manages the activities related knowledge, thus it plays a significant influence on knowledge sharing. The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of knowledge governance, including formal and informal knowledge governance, on knowledge sharing. Then the paper examines the mediating role of the guanxi effect on knowledge governance and knowledge sharing.Design/methodology/approachBased upon this research, the authors chose to use the logical deductive approach for their hypotheses and analytical frameworks. Questionnaires and interviews were used to collect data from 339 employees in 39 Chinese strategic emerging firms. Finally, regression analysis and structure equation models (SPSS and AMOS) were used for data analysis and hypotheses testing.FindingsThis study points to the impact that knowledge governance has on knowledge sharing based on the mediation of the guanxi effect in China. The results first show that knowledge governance, including formal and informal knowledge governance, plays a key role in knowledge sharing; second, that the guanxi effect partly mediates between informal knowledge governance and knowledge sharing; third, the guanxi effect plays a significant mediating role between formal knowledge governance and knowledge sharing.Research limitations/implicationsThis study presents a framework for Chinese strategic emerging industries to better understand the impact of knowledge governance upon knowledge sharing and thus enhance their firm's guanxi networks to maximize economic and social benefits. The managerial implications are that firms should strengthen knowledge governance to promote employee knowledge sharing and infuse a more harmonious atmosphere to strengthen the positive effects of guanxi among employees. Ultimately, Chinese firms must consider and encourage the benefits of the guanxi effect. This study only investigated 339 employees in 39 organizations located in the central China. It is limited by employees' cognition. In further research, the authors will identify more samples and develop a large‐scale questionnaire to explore these impacts in more detail and thus enhance their current research.Originality/valueIt is the first attempt in China to systematically investigate the impact of knowledge governance on knowledge sharing based on the mediation of the guanxi effect. The results provide a theoretical and methodological contribution to the study of knowledge governance and can thus improve managerial practice in an era of knowledge‐based economies.
Some findings on career counselling in higher education
Authors: Merkač Skok Marjana , Dolinšek Tatjana 
Published: March 2013

PurposeIn the time of social and technological challenges and in the perspective of recent global crisis, the ability of students to perform on the labour market to get their first job and to make significant, fulfilling career, is very important. The aim of this paper is to examine some aspects of counselling students in higher education to develop their competencies as future employees. This article discusses similarities and differences in organised counselling forms for students in some neighbouring European countries.Design/methodology/approachThe survey was conducted as comparative study desk research on the basis of internet data – higher education institutions (HEI) web pages. Authors defined a set of 28 items by which they evaluated each individual HEI, and developed a dislcloser index Career Centre – DICC. For 246 HEI entities involved in the research the authors developed and tested research hypothesis. The authors applied descriptive statistics and bivariant statistics – non‐parametric Kruskal‐Wallis test and the Chi‐Square Test.FindingsThe results show that there is a statistically significant difference between the countries regarding DICC. Correlation between the existence of the Careers Centre at HEI and the country is confirmed. There is no correlation between range of Career Centre users and the State.Originality/valueFor the purpose of examining the problem of Career centres at HEI, an dislcloser index Career Centre – DICC was developed. Significant difference between countries regarding DICC index was confirmed. The future research will include and will explore students points of view regarding their expectations and satisfaction with the existing career counselling offer at HEI.