bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Measuring the seasonality in tourism with the comparison of different methods
Authors: Karamustafa Kurtulus , Ulama Sevki 
Published: July 2010

PurposeMost of the European Mediterranean countries are suffering from seasonality and the problems caused by it. By applying different methods, this study proposes to measure seasonality in a Mediterranean country, Turkey. Studying seasonality and its measurement with the comparison of different methods could first provide useful guidelines for the countries, which may have similar problems, and could also broaden the current view in the related literature since the focus is also on the comparison of the widely used methods in the literature.Design/methodology/approachThe study depends on the current literature and makes evaluations based on the secondary data acquired from the statistical publications of The Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism.FindingsThe findings reveal that none of the methods is superior to any other. They complement the weaknesses of one another. Therefore, it is suggested that destinations, when measuring their seasonality, should evaluate seasonality by applying different methods in order to give a proper decision to solve the problem caused by seasonality.Originality/valueThe study contributes to the seasonality literature by employing different measurement methods in a holistic way. It reveals differences and similarities among the different methods, using the case of a Mediterranean country, Turkey.
Enterprise clusters triggered by radical innovation: a modelistic approach
Authors: Pironti Marco , Remondino Marco , Pisano Paola 
Published: July 2010

PurposeThis papers aims to deal with enterprise networks and clusters dynamics, as well as inter‐firm joint efforts and collaborations, in order to study their evolution and possible effects when radical innovation occurs inside them.Design/methodology/approachIn order to study these dynamics, with the optimal balancing among different strategies and the importance of exogenous parameters in cluster creation, a model is presented. It follows the agent‐based paradigm, particularly suited for describing complex social systems in which many parts interact among them. This allows one to create simulations of the studied system, and to test different hypotheses. Besides, it is the only paradigm in which the emergent features of complex systems can arise spontaneously, thanks to the bottom‐up design. A model is introduced and described in detail.FindingsQualitative results are described, reflecting current state‐of‐the art theories. The results show how clusters emerge and evolve among enterprises, and how radical innovation can trigger this phenomenon. Different managerial behaviour (externally or internally focused) is discussed as well.Originality/valueThe most important feature of a model based on agent is the possibility of repeating the experiment several times, by changing one or few variables at a time, by leaving the others unchanged. It constitutes for social sciences the equivalent of lab experiments for such disciplines as physics or chemistry. The presented model allows the study of different clustering scenarios, by changing the initial conditions.
The value of rental deposits
Authors: Hutchison Norman E. , Adair Alastair S. , Park Kyungsun 
Published: July 2010

PurposeThis paper has two aims: to consider the negotiating strength of landlords and tenants in lease negotiations; and to calculate the level of deposit which is necessary to mitigate income risk.Design/methodology/approachThe paper reviews the existing literature on the negotiation strength between landlords and tenants in different stages of the property cycle; investigates the well established deposit system in South Korea for lessons that might be applied in the UK; estimates the appropriate level of deposit using simulation methodology, given different states of the market; and places the contractual arrangement in a legal framework.FindingsEvidence from the Seoul office market suggests that deposits can be very effective in protecting income return. In the UK during the down phase of the cycle, when supply of space exceeds demand and business conditions are uncertain, tenants are unwilling to pay deposits and landlords are more inclined to offer incentives in a bid to get the property let, even though the down phase is exactly the time when a deposit system is needed most. Landlords should be looking through the cycle and insisting that deposits are paid at the height of the market when their bargaining strength is stronger. The deposit should be sufficient to cover the probability of income loss in the down phase of the cycle. Based on market evidence in 2009, the amount of the deposit should be equal to at least 15 months rent.Practical implicationsThe stability of the income return is one of the key features of real estate both as an investment and as security. The use of rental deposits is a practical and straightforward way of hedging the risk. The paper estimates the amount of deposit required and provides guidance on the key heads of terms, which should be included in a deposit agreement.Originality/valueThe estimation of rental deposits has very little coverage in the literature. At a time when income return is under pressure landlords need to be fully aware of the benefits of the deposit system and the key factors that need to be considered when estimating the amount of deposit necessary to offset tenant default risk.
The rise and fall of the high street shop as an investment class
Authors: Jones Colin 
Published: July 2010

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the reasons for the rise and fall of the UK high street shop as an investment class for financial institutions.Design/methodology/approachThe paper begins by tracing the scale of investment by financial institutions in shops and the reasons for their historic popularity. The next sections review the changes in retailing and the consequences in terms of the current retail offering. The consequences and implications for retail investment are then considered in terms of institutional portfolios and (relative) investment yields. The research is based on a review of a range of secondary sources and an analysis of the Investment Property Databank database.FindingsThe traditional UK high street as an investment class has been challenged by the decentralisation of retailing and new retail forms over the last 30 years. While the city centre is still the principal location for comparison retailing, the consequence has been a restructuring of institutional investment portfolios and of relative yields. The number of high street shops in investment portfolios has halved since the mid‐1990s. There are threats from online shopping and the recent recession has further queried the original arguments for investing in high street shops. However, the driving force for the decline of investment in high street shops by financial institutions appears to be the short‐termism.Originality/valueThe paper reviews the changing fundamentals of retail property investment to explain the decline of the high street shop as a property investment class.
Estimation of redevelopment probability using panel data
Authors: Shimizu Chihiro , Karato Koji , Asami Yasushi 
Published: July 2010

PurposeWhen Japan's asset bubble burst, the office vacancy rate soared sharply. This study seeks to target the office market in Tokyo's 23 special wards during Japan's bubble burst period. It aims to define economic conditions for the redevelopment/conversion of offices into housing and estimate the redevelopment/conversion probability under the conditions.Design/methodology/approachThe precondition for land‐use conversion is that subsequent profit excluding destruction and reconstruction costs is estimated to increase from the present level for existing buildings. Regarding hedonic functions for offices and housing and computed profit gaps for approximately 40,000 buildings used for offices in 1991, it was projected how the profit gaps would influence the land‐use conversion probability. Specifically, panel data for two time points in the 1990s were used to examine the significance of redevelopment/conversion conditions.FindingsIt was found that, if random effects are used to control for individual characteristics of buildings, the redevelopment probability rises significantly when profit from land after redevelopment is expected to exceed that from present land uses. This increase is larger in the central part of a city.Research limitations/implicationsLimitations stem from the nature of Japanese data limited to the conversion of offices into housing. In the future, a model may be developed to generalize land‐use conversion conditions.Originality/valueThis is the first study to specify the process of land‐use adjustments that emerged during the bubble burst. This is also the first empirical study using panel data to analyze conditions for redevelopment.
The Research Commons: a new creature in the library?
Authors: Daniels William , Darch Colin , de Jager Karin 
Published: July 2010

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the use made of the Research Commons during its first year of operation in an attempt to establish whether it actually provides a genuinely new and different service from the point of view of the end‐users, and whether a facility such as this could indeed be presumed to support research and enhance research output at the university.Design/methodology/approachUsing Lippincott's assessment grid, an attempt was made to assess activities in the Research Commons according to the dimensions of extensiveness, efficiency, effectiveness, service quality and usefulness. Methodology was mixed, with quantitative and qualitative components that logged the extent and nature of the use of the various facilities in the Research Commons and sought to establish from stakeholder perceptions whether the services on offer are regarded as substantially different from those in the undergraduate Knowledge Commons and whether they are indeed seen to be supporting research activities.FindingsIt was found that a combination of numerical and qualitative measurements has yielded sufficient evidence for the drawing of preliminary conclusions. The evidence gathered demonstrates that the Research Commons, designed primarily as a site for the creation of new knowledge in the form of original writing by researchers at postgraduate and academic level, is indeed an advance on the well‐established “library commons” concept, and that its creation represents an instance of “parallel invention” – the “new creature” that the title refers to.Originality/valueThis paper provides a multifaceted perspective on the activities taking place in a new library facility and should provide librarians and researchers with evidence‐based insight into how meaningful research support may be provided to young researchers from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds as part of an academic library service in a middle income country.
Benchmarking on a national scale: the 2007 LibQUAL+® Canada experience
Authors: Kalb Sam 
Published: July 2010

PurposeIn 2006/2007, the Canadian academic library community came together in the largest national LibQUAL+® consortium to conduct ARL library service quality survey. This paper aims to address how and why the national consortial project came about, the challenges for recruiting and managing participants, and what was learnt, together with possible future directions.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses a case study approach.FindingsThe research touches on the challenges planning and implementing LibQUAL+® with such a large, diverse consortium, with its bilingual mandate and multiple library types, and what made the project successful and its limitations.Practical implicationsThe most apparent accomplishment of this project was successful collection of a large, diverse data set for comparative analysis of services and facilities – a meaningful data set both for individual libraries seeking appropriate Canadian comparators and for analyses by region, institutional categories, etc.Originality/valueA valuable result of the project was to engage more Canadian academic libraries in the process of service assessment. CARL's bi‐lingual consortium approach will provide a valuable example for other national organisations attempting to carry out similar projects.
Measuring the impact of networked electronic resources
Authors: Plum Terry , Franklin Brinley , Kyrillidou Martha , Roebuck Gary , Davis MaShana 
Published: July 2010

PurposeAs libraries are developing a larger Web presence, issues regarding the utility, accessibility, and impact of the usage of their networked resources and services are gaining critical importance. The need to assess systematically the networked electronic services and resources is great as increasing amounts of financial resources are dedicated to the Web presence of libraries. This paper aims to address this issue.Design/methodology/approachThis project proposes to measure the impact of networked electronic services, building on MINES for Libraries®, in a scalable way across libraries and consortia to enhance digital library service quality and impact on learning by enabling the future allocation of resources to areas of user‐identified need. Short, standardized web surveys are placed at the point‐of‐use of networked electronic resources and services through a network assessment infrastructure that uses contemporary mechanisms of authentication and access, such as EZproxy, openURL, Shibboleth, federated searching and others as modules to interface with ARL's StatsQUAL®. A valid and reliable sampling method is proposed.FindingsPoint‐of‐use web surveys hold considerable promise as key tools in the assessment toolkit libraries may deploy to improve the research, teaching, and learning outcomes of their users.Practical implicationsThis project enhances and deepens the information gained from vendor‐supplied data.Originality/valueThe developments described will make it easier for libraries to assess the usage of networked electronic resources and services.
Modelling the success factors for national R&D organizations: a case of India
Authors: Jyoti  , Banwet D.K. , Deshmukh S.G. 
Published: July 2010

PurposeNational policy makers in India have realized that the research and development (R&D) performance of India has not been up to the benchmark. This paper aims to identify and develop the structural cause and effect relationship among various factors that affect the performance of national R&D organizations in India.Design/methodology/approachA questionnaire‐based survey, interpretive structural modelling and structural equation modelling, has been applied in this paper. In this paper, ten factors have been identified such as clear R&D vision and strategic directions; top management commitment (TMC); customer focus and market orientation; organization culture, etc.FindingsClear R&D vision and strategic directions are the major drivers for the performance of national R&D organizations. Statistically, TMC; organization culture and human resource focus; R&D project management skills; and customer focus and market orientation have emerged as the critical factors for improving performance of national R&D organizations in India.Research limitations/implicationsThis model can be validated for various other national R&D organizations in India as well as in other countries.Practical implicationsThis model provides a comprehensive structural cause and effect relationship among various success factors to the policy makers and provides the direction to for designing and implementing appropriate policies in order to enhance the performance of national R&D organizations.Originality/valueThe paper not only provided a cause and effect relationship among various factors, but also a magnitude of relationship.
Structural change and the emergence of the Brazilian MNEs
Authors: Arbix Glauco 
Published: July 2010

PurposeThe internationalization of local Brazilian firms is a very recent phenomenon, especially when considered in terms of the accelerated growth in the number of Brazilian‐owned multinational companies and the intensity of foreign investment that began in the year 2000. While the specialized literature has focused increasing attention on this new trend, the profound transformation of Brazilian production during the 1990s remains a challenging theme for researchers. This paper aims to analyze the changes undertaken by Brazilian firms in pursuit of competitiveness.Design/methodology/approachThe data utilized were furnished by the Institute for Applied Economic Research, a governmental think tank, that has combined and expanded upon the main Brazilian databases that provide reliable information about industrial firms: the Annual Survey of Industry carried out by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE); the Annual Social Information Report, conducted by the Ministry of Labor and Employment; the Foreign Trade Secretariat, under the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, and the Industrial Survey of Technological Innovation also sponsored by the IBGE. This procedure allows to access extremely wide‐ranging analyses covering businesses responsible for more than 90 percent of value added by Brazilian industry.FindingsThe principal finding of this paper indicates that enormous changes in business strategy occurred in the 1990s, modifying Brazilian companies' historical orientation towards the internal market. Significant increases in exports and outward foreign direct investment, consequently led a significant group of Brazilian companies to compete in more sophisticated markets. These new strategies of internationalization are supported by these companies' systematic pursuit of innovative processes. Aggregate data from internationalizing companies show that the most advanced group, characterized in this paper as “A‐class companies,” exhibit a standard of competitiveness, salaries, investment in R&D and new product launches found only in Brazil within the local subsidiaries of foreign multinationals.Originality/valueVarious studies have attempted to capture the difficulties and barriers that the Brazilian economy faced at the beginning of economic liberalization. Despite their differences, most of the analyses are confined at the macro level and make the ease and rapid expansion of internationalizing companies a surprising observation. In contrast, this paper emphasizes microeconomic factors and argues that the changes that occurred throughout the 1990s within the structure and strategies of Brazilian businesses were for the most part overshadowed by macro visions (especially those focused on fighting inflation). To capture these changes, especially those that had an impact on improved competitiveness, a new methodological approach has been designed.
International trajectories of Brazilian companies
Authors: Bruno Cyrino Alvaro , Penido Barcellos Erika , Tanure Betania 
Published: July 2010

PurposeIt has been argued in the international business literature that companies begin their internationalization trajectories by entering countries that are geographically and psychically closest to the country in which their home market is located before entering more distant ones. This paper aims to verify whether this assertion is correct for Brazilian companies. If it is correct, the companies would be expected to begin their international expansion in countries within the Latin America region. Not only is this region closest in geographical distance, but also it is most similar to Brazil in many other important dimensions.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is an exploratory and quantitative research undertaken with a sample of 109 national capital companies selected from the 1,000 largest Brazilian companies in 2001 net revenues.FindingsEmpirical findings indicate that countries in Latin America have been most frequently chosen by Brazilian companies for their first expansions into international markets. Nevertheless, some companies choose divergent trajectories, initially entering markets that are geographically and psychically more distant. Those companies enjoyed structural features of certain sectors (commodities or global sectors), in which the importance of psychic distance is smaller in the face of economic transactions.Research limitations/implicationsAn important limitation of this paper is the impossibility to test the hypotheses in specific countries or markets. The authors are forced to analyze the psychic distance effect among regions, with the risk of not accounting for important intra‐regional differences.Originality/valueThe data presented in this paper have clarified some patterns and trajectories of Brazilian companies in international markets.
Expression and functional profiling of neprilysin, insulin‐degrading enzyme, and endothelin‐converting enzyme in prospectively studied elderly and Alzheimer’s brain
Authors: Wang Suqing , Wang Rui , Chen Lang , Bennett David A. , Dickson Dennis W. , Wang Deng‐Shun 
Published: July 2010

J. Neurochem. (2010) 115, 47–57.AbstractThe brain steady state level of β‐amyloid (Aβ) is determined by the balance between its production and removal, the latter through egress across blood and CSF barriers as well as Aβ degradation. The major Aβ‐degrading enzymes are neprilysin (NEP), insulin‐degrading enzyme (IDE), and endothelin‐converting enzyme (ECE‐1). Although evidence suggests that NEP is down‐regulated in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the role of IDE and ECE in the Aβ accumulation in aging and dementia remains less certain. In this study, we examined mRNA and protein expression, as well as biological activity of NEP, IDE, and ECE‐1 in human frontal cortex by real‐time RT‐PCR for mRNA, immunoblotting for protein, and highly sensitive and specific fluorescence assays for activity. The relationships between Aβ‐degrading enzymes and pathologic measures and clinical features were also assessed. The results showed that NEP mRNA, protein level, and activity were decreased in AD compared with normal controls with no cognitive impairment (NCI). In contrast, IDE activity was unchanged, but there was higher expression of IDE mRNA, indicating a possible compensatory reaction because of deficits in activity. ECE‐1 expression in AD brain showed no significant difference compared with age‐matched controls. Correlation analyses suggested that NEP expression was correlated with Aβ accumulation and clinical diagnosis, being lower in AD than in no cognitive impairment. In contrast, neither IDE nor ECE‐1 correlated with Aβ or clinical diagnosis. These findings provide additional support for NEP as the major protease involved in Aβ degradation and suggest its possible therapeutic targeting in AD.