Insights into Economics and Management Vol. 7

This study aims to examine the development of rural tourism by applying the Appreciative Inquiry (AI) approach as a research tool. AI is an increasingly important field as it can offer a positive and strength-based approach to the development of rural communities. It can be seen as an alternative tourism research tool for community development in relation to rural tourism. A qualitative research approach is implemented by holding focus group discussions with the local community and youth groups at the Sungai Sedim Natural Forest (SSNF) in Kedah, Malaysia. SSNF was chosen as the research location because of its future characteristics and contributions to several residents. From the study result, natural resources, eco-tourism products, Tree Top Walk and historical assets have been identified as an important strength in SSNF. Furthermore, it is believed that the expansion of this product, would enhance the branding and image of SSNF as the best eco-tourism tourist attraction in Malaysia.

The expansion of Airbnb's environment in the hospitality and tourism industry has made a difference for customers to buy products or services. Over the years, customer behavioural intention has evolved according to various aspects and require to get more than expected to meet the needs and wants. Customers normally book accommodation online. Innovation disrupts Airbnb accommodation is an interesting element that causes customers to be wary of Airbnb. In line with this, customers intend to choose accommodation based on the physical environment, namely the atmosphere, decoration and layout. Despite, weak Airbnb services such as demand services are not provided, and Airbnb is still absent in a large number of fields. This paper aims to review the literature on the role of the physical environment in Airbnb behavioral intentions. Literature reviews indicate that there will be a positive relationship between atmosphere, decoration and layout with behavioral intentions among customers. The findings of this study are expected to fill in the gaps in the literature by expanding existing literary knowledge of Airbnb’s behavioral intentions.

This essay draws on theoretical and empirical evidence of secrecy in the management of oil rents by the government of Cameroon and the ensuing underdevelopment in the main oil and mineral exploitation regions of the country. The aim is to investigate if these failures can influence future rents related conflicts. The paper argues that to avoid oil and mineral related conflicts, human security through financial transparency in conjunction with socio economic development and the political structure of a country can influence security in the exploitation of natural resources than military surveillance.

Cameroons main oil revenues are generated from the Rio Del Rey region off the Bakassi Peninsula of the Gulf of Guinea. This region is situated in what is known as Ndian Division in the South West region of the country. Like most resource rich areas of the country, there is rampant poverty in this area and the region is not accessible because there is a lack of any modern means of transport (e.g. roads, airport, railways, seaport, etc). Giving the cultural relationship between Ndian indigenes and several tribes in eastern Nigeria and Niger Delta’s own oil related conflicts, if appropriate measures are not taken to ensure there is substainable and inclusive development in Ndian Division, there are bound to be oil related conflicts. The essay recommends that the Cameroonian government, Ndian elites, members of the civil society and the international community work together to ensure oil and mineral rents are used to provide basic facilities to indigenes and settlers of those resource rich communities.

With regard to the stakeholder strategy of corporate governance, the idea of this paper is to evaluate the mental models of actors in the business. The use of the cognitive map to interpret these diagrams in order to explain the stakeholder approach's ways of thought and conceptualization. The paper takes a view of corporate governance and explores the stakeholder paradigm. A cognitive mapping method is also required.

Background and Objective: Human capital is the pivotal of organisational effectiveness and the most valuable asset available to an organisation is its people. Retaining employees in their jobs is crucial for any organisational productivity and competitiveness. The shortage of academic staff and inability for higher Education Institutions to attract and retain highly qualified talent is a critical phenomenon in tertiary education. Academic staff are the employees of the educational organizations and their job satisfaction promotes teaching and learning. Satisfaction of academic staff will increase productivity and increase research outputs for the universities. The aim of the study was to investigate the impact of compensation, benefits on job satisfaction among academic staff in higher education institutions in a South African context. There is paucity on research investigating specifically the relationship between compensation, benefits and job satisfaction within the higher education institutions nationally.

Materials and Methods: This study employed the quantitative research method to investigate the influence of rewards on talent attraction and retention. An explanatory hypothesis generating approach was employed and a survey design was used to collect data through a semi-structured questionnaire. A sample of 279 academic staff, which was the total population of participants were selected for this study.

Results: A positive and significant effect of compensation on job satisfaction (p = 0.263). Moreover, there were no significant effect between benefits and job satisfaction. Therefore, only compensation significantly predicted job satisfaction among academic staff.

Conclusion: The practical managerial implications that are attracting and retaining the new generation of lecturers into higher education institutions will require substantially different skills and attractive employment offers than what the higher education institutions presently offer. Therefore, higher education institutions must improve their compensation strategy in order to boost employees’ dedication that will enable commitment, while efficiently deliver outstanding results. This will improve research outputs and improve skills within the country. An electronic method of data collection should be considered to reduce time and cost of travelling to different campuses, which would enable academic staff to complete online surveys.

Orientation: Higher education institutions play a significant role in development of skills, which improves the economy; therefore, a high quality of staff is required. Retaining staff with special endeavours within higher education institutions has become a top priority and crucial for any organisational productivity and competiveness. Attracting and retaining talent has remained a critical and complex issue for human capital management in organisations.

Research Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of total rewards on organisational commitment measured by Total Rewards Scale and Organisational Commitment Questionnaire.

Motivation for the Study: There is paucity in research on the impact of total rewards on organisational commitment. Commitment of academic staff is significant as higher education institutions are influential in the development of a country.

Research Design, Approach and Method: This study employed the quantitative research method using a survey design. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect survey data. A sample of 279 academic staff, which was the total population of participants, was selected for this study.

Main Findings: Results show a positive and significant correlation between elements of total rewards (performance management, 0.387; recognition, 0.335; talent development and career opportunities, 0.328; compensation, 0.231; benefits, 0.213; work–life balance, 0.024) and organisational commitment. A variance of 52.3% of total rewards explained organisational commitment. Performance management, compensation, benefits, recognition, talent development and career opportunities significantly predicted organisational commitment. However, work–life balance indicated a negative effect on organisational commitment.

Practical Managerial Implications: Findings of the study has implications to managers because they have to encourage and promote total rewards in order to enforce talent retention within higher education institutions for the benefit of both institutions and employees.

Contribution: For higher education institutions to attract, retain and motivate talent, sound rewards strategy needs to be formulated. Total rewards can be used to retain talent. In addition, performance management should be improved as it influences organisational commitment among academic staff. The results are important to managers with great interest in talent retention and can be used as guideline to develop rewards strategy.

The present study aimed to analyze the potato market integration in India, specifically how the Tamil Nadu market behaves with respect to the behavior of other potato markets across India. Major potato markets, such as Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, which have a majority share in the total supply potato to Tamil Nadu were selected for market integration analysis. Since price data for Tamil Nadu market was non-stationary and other market prices were stationary in level form, Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model (ARDL) was used to estimate cointegration (long run equilibrium) among these markets. Month wise potato price data from January 2005 to September 2016 were collected from different sources and used for analysis. Results revealed that long run equilibrium existed among the potato markets in Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat but the speed of adjustment of equilibrium level is very less in the long run. Change in the potato price of Gujarat market was the key determinant of shocks in the potato market of Tamil Nadu.

This study investigates the wealth effects of diversification on United States banking mergers and acquisitions announcement. 2,148 domestic US banking M&As announced between 1985 and 2006 are classified based on geographic and activity diversification, and abnormal returns of each group around the merger announcements are examined. The abnormal return equals the daily real return minus the expected return calculated with the market model. I find geographic and activity diversification tends to decrease bidding firms' value, reflected by the bidders' negative abnormal returns around the merger announcement, but increase target firms' value. Target banks are also grouped into private and public companies. In deals consummated with stock, bidders acquiring private targets experience significantly higher cumulative abnormal returns (CARs), measuring the periodic performance and calculated during different event windows encompassed by event days (-n, +n), than bidders acquiring public targets do. It confirms the monitoring hypothesis of private companies, usually with concentrated ownership. The decision-makers should match the business cautiously and time it skillfully to guarantee its stable development and proper positioning. Facing mergers in such a risky industry, regulators should monitor the information disclosure, ensure deal transparency carefully, and provide guidance for both parties, especially in case of diversification.

The purpose of this study was to explore strategies for hospital managers to improve customer services. The target population consisted of five hospital managers who implement customer services strategies within hospitals. The conceptual framework for the study was the expectation-confirmation theory. Using methodological triangulation, the data derived from included semistructured interviews, hospital policy and procedure documents, and qualitative data from the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) Hospital Compare website. The three major themes were to improve interpersonal communication, address issues in the hospital environment, and provide employee training. The findings reveal that exploring employee training relate to the conceptual framework of the expectation-confirmation theory. Hospitals’ staff exhibit satisfactory performance when customer expectations, regarding the quality of medical care and service satisfaction, receive confirmation. Consistent review of the strategies in the daily operations of the hospital staff will enable hospital managers to continuously increase customer satisfaction and achieve the goal of reaching the 75% level or higher. The participants described multiple attempts to alter operations within the hospital based on customer expectations for satisfaction and to confirm customer satisfaction for the hospital system. The expectation confirmation theory by [1] Joo, Park, and Shin (2017) was the framework of this study. Hospital managers performed actions for example, hiring the right people, using customer feedback for improvement, and using the HCAHPS qualitative data to create strategies that would meet customer expectations for satisfaction and loyalty.

This article examines the differences in the adoption and implementation of the reform of financial accounting in the Portuguese municipalities. The accrual accounting in the public sector has attracted great interest from researchers and academics. This approach was developed based on the idea that one way to modernize public sector management will be adopting similar accounting practices to the private sector. This study is based on a questionnaire sent to the financial officers of the Portuguese municipalities of Central Region of Statistics of Portugal, who had previously adopted the double entry accounting based on Official Accounting Plan of Local Authorities (POCAL). The questionnaire was structured in the same way for the whole target population. This study will be possible to verify, based on the responses obtained, if local authorities do what they are legally defined to do in the provision of financial information on the allocation of resources as well as on the development of performance indicators, based on accounting data.