Procedia Economics and Finance最新文献

Retail giants in every other industry have extensively used sophisticated visual merchandising techniques but they have been grossly underutilized in the auto industry. For this reason, there are no specific guidelines or manual provided to utilize visual merchandising elements inside the car showroom especially in automotive scene. By using strategic visual merchandising, car dealers can turn prospects into buyers. However, the visual merchandising elements must capture the emotion and perception of customers. Therefore, this study aims to identify the roles of visual merchandising inside a car showroom as stimuli that attract customers at the point of sale i.e. the car dealership and proposing emotional design approach in designing car showroom. By means of the proposed conceptual model, it should complement the current design approach in enhancing consumer purchasing behavior from the design perspectives. The conceptual framework has emerged from emotional design concept that allows the creation of desirable showroom design. As a result, this concept can be a guideline to facilitate marketer and dealer in designing a car showroom through visual merchandising elements.

Nobody on the planet is going to be untouched by the impacts of climate change. This study aims to arrange the various socioeconomic elasticities of environmental pollution in order of priority, depending on the length of time period, to establish the most effective policy. We employed a simultaneous equations system to find out the various socioeconomic elasticities in the long run and short run in Iran during 1974-2012. Based on the results, per capita CO2 emissions, GDP, energy consumption show the strongest interactions (relationships and elasticities) in the equations system as a whole in the long run. Moreover, it is the trade openness, labour force, financial development, and urbanization which show the most decisive effects in the short run. So the effectiveness of the system variables depends on the time period. Trade openness, labour force, and financial development play the most leading role in the short run, notwithstanding their limited role in the long run. However, energy consumption elasticity of CO2 emissions and urbanization elasticity of energy consumption are among the largest elasticities both in short run and long run. Therefore, energy consumption, economic growth and urbanization should be reduced and financial sector should be grown to decrease the environmental pollution. Moreover, economic growth is an effective factor for the long run; and trade openness and financial development are effective for the short run but urbanization and energy consumption are influential for both the long run and short run policies.

According to the literature, one of the most obvious and immediately perceptible limitations in tourism concerns the intangibility of the product/service provided, defined as the inability to assess objectively the tangible and intangible aspects of a tourist destination if not having visited it before, making – actually – uncertain the selection process of the interest variables. This means that when we decide to visit a destination we have to rely on a set of images, descriptions, videos and information from which we extrapolate a mix of probably interesting elements able convince us and bring us towards the chosen place. For this purpose, is it possible to consider the search for a particular gastronomic product – presumably already experienced anywhere else – as a factor that could partially break down the intangibility of the destination? It is clear that the methods of territory tourist attraction don’t work exclusively through the traditional communication levers but, in recent years, there are many alternative forms that allow the development of destinations. Among the most diffused ones, we can certainly consider food and beverage events, which – more and more – are closely linked to other concepts today extremely popular, like the streetfood and craft beers. We are witnessing a rediscovery of traditional food values, together with the discovery of a new market segment dedicated to craft beer, which today is experiencing one of the maximum growth periods, reaching to touch quota 1000 in Italy, between microbreweries, brewpubs and beer firm. The matching with the streetfood is the piece that makes up the puzzle of this new model of tourism management. The objective of the study is to investigate about the economic value generated by these events, by measuring what are the material and immaterial benefits of which an area can benefit when it becomes the venue of these events.

The product market competition is one of the factors contributing to earnings management. It forces managers to manipulate the firm's earning for opportunistic reasons. Intense competition in product market forces manages to manipulate corporate earnings so that by reduction of financial pressures via acquisition of low-cost external financial resources and reduction of capital costs, the product prices are lowered; this in turn gives the firm a competitive advantage by which it acquires a greater share of the market and raises above other competitors. On this basis, the present paper studies the relationship between intense competition in the product market and earnings management. As far as the dimensions of competition are concerned, market size, entry costs, and centralization are the three factors used to measure the competition in product market. In order to examine the hypotheses, the financial statements of 77 companies listed in Tehran stock exchange in 5 industry levels over the time period 2002-2011 are analyzed using regression analysis. The results reveal that factors of entry cost and industry concentration have a significant relationship with earnings management. However, in contrast with existing research literature, the relationship between market size and earnings management is not confirmed.

This article examines the causal relationship between the energy consumption, electricity consumption and GDP in Russia by using time series data from 1990-2011 implying the Toda and Yamamoto approach, which is revised form of the Granger (1969) causality test (Econ. 66 (1995) 225). The maximum order of integration was determined by using PP and ADF unit root tests. The Toda and Yamamoto test is applied regardless of whether the series are I(0), I(1), or I(2), mutually cointegrated or non-cointegrated. The variables were estimated at level in the unrestricted lag-augmented VAR. The AIC, SC and LR lag criteria were used to determine the optimal lag length. The diagnostics tests were performed at the optimum lag selected by estimating the variables at level and confirmed the stability of the unrestricted VAR model. The empirical evidence showed that there exists a the bi-directional causality from electricity consumption to GDP that implies the validity of feedback hypothesis but no causality was found for GDP and energy consumption supporting the neutrality hypothesis. The estimated results confirmed that both the economic growth and electricity consumption empirically support each other and have a mutual and complementary relationship. But on another hand the energy sector of Russia has no impact on the economic growth for a period 1990-2011. Furthermore, if the Government of Russia devises policies to promote the access of energy and higher level of consumption, economic growth will not be affected.

The purpose of this study is to investigates the impact of tourism on biodiversity loss in a sample of 141 countries. In the analysis, we measure tourism using the numbers of international tourist arrivals, while biodiversity loss is proxy using the numbers of threatened species – birds, fishes, mammals and plants. We also include GDP per capita, population growth, protected areas, and crop production, which act as the control variables. We find that using robust standard error estimator the number of international tourist arrivals, population growth rate, protected areas and crop production increases the numbers of threatened species, while GDP per capita reduces the numbers of threatened species. One policy implication of this study is that since businesses in the tourism industry depend on the very existence of biodiversity, then biodiversity conservation should become the essential factor for business sustainability.

The construction industry and its impact in strengthening the economic development of a country by providing work for an important constituent of the labour market is acknowledged. This is largely due to its contributing features to the growth of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of a country. Within this industry, teamwork is essential. If managed properly it may contribute to, among others, employees’ commitment to an organization and their job satisfaction. Against this perspective, the study examines the relationship between teamwork, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction. The study is located within a quantitative research paradigm using a cross-sectional survey design through a structured questionnaire. Data from 178 employees were analyzed. The results show that team work, normative, and affective commitment contribute positively to job satisfaction, whereas continuance commitment reflects a negative association with job satisfaction. It seems that employers in this organization need to concentrate on employees’ continuance commitment in shaping employees’ propensity to their commitment in the organization. Since the construction industry depends heavily on the human resource, employers need to assess existing compensation and professional recognition, motivate employees through assignment of meaningful tasks, and create a working environment that inspires and enthuse workers so that their job satisfaction increases.

National Park Mobile Apps (NPMA) is an interesting construct which might open new paradigm in tourism research in context of national parks. Although previous research investigated tourist behavioral intention in national parks, the effect of NPMA on National Park Behavioral Intention (NPBI) of tourists from developed countries in still lacking in literature. To address this gap, the current study developed a model which includes the effect of NPMA, as well as mediating effect of National Park Satisfaction (NPSat) on tourists’ NPBI. The research hypotheses where NPMA, and NPSat have a significant effect on NPBI was examined. A self-administrated questionnaire was distributed among 500 tourists from developed countries visiting Taman Negara National Park (TNNP). The data was examined through deployment of structural equation modelling. The findings revealed that NPMA does not affect NPBI directly, however, NPMA has significant indirect effect on tourists’ NPBI through mediation effect of NPSat. Furthermore, NPSat was a full mediator. Findings of this study had practical implication for sustainable NPBI in national parks.

This paper aimed to test the dynamic relationship between economic growth, energy consumption and defence expenditure in China for the period 1987–2013. It was used to the bounds test approach to cointegration developed by Pesaran et al. (2001) and it was determined whether there was a short and a long-run relationship among defence expenditure, energy consumption and economic growth. It was found that defence and energy consumption has a positive and a statistically significant impact on economic growth of China. Further, it was applied the Granger causality and it was determined a positive and a significant causal relation between variables.

Venture capital (VC) may be defined as a support to entrepreneurial talents and appetite by turning ideas and basic science into products and services which are expected to envy the world. Venture capital funds are able to build companies from the simplest form to mature organizations. Venture capital investors generally actively engage with management of the company by typically taking place on the board. Through the due diligence process the venture capital firms concentrate on the founders, the management team, the concept, the marketplace, the revenue model, the value-added potential of the firm, the amount of capital needed to heal the business and whether all these fit to the fund's objectives. Over the next three to eight years, the venture firm works with the founding entrepreneur/s to grow the company. Once a company funded by venture capital matures and becomes successful, venture funds generally exit by taking it public through an initial public offering (IPO) or by selling it to big companies. This allows the venture funds to be free from the previous investment and invest in the next generation of companies. United States, Europe, Israel, Canada, China and India have the most developed markets for venture capital environment. The size of the venture capital market is nowadays about $50 billion and the United States has the most funds for venture capital of $33.1 billion in 2013. Venture capital firms may invest in promising firms in stages of seed, first round, second round or later. The median investment amounts in the United States in 2013 are $0.5 million for seed, $2.5 million for first round, $5.7 million for second round and $10 for later stage. The most attractive sector for venture capital is information technology for the United States, Israel and Canada, invested over $10 billion in 2013, while the most attractive sector is consumer products for Europe, China and India, invested over $4.8 billion in 2013.