The Food Service Industry Environment: Market Volatility Analysis

In their dialogue entitled - The Food Service Industry Environment: Market Volatility Analysis - by Alex F. De Noble, Assistant Professor of Management, San Diego State University and Michael D. Olsen, Associate Professor and Director, Division of Hotel, Restaurant & Institutional Management at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, De Noble and Olson preface the discussion by saying: “Hospitality executives, as a whole, do not believe they exist in a volatile environment and spend little time or effort in assessing how current and future activity in the environment will affect their success or failure. The authors highlight potential differences that may exist between executives' perceptions and objective indicators of environmental volatility within the hospitality industry and suggest that executives change these perceptions by incorporating the assumption of a much more dynamic environment into their future strategic planning efforts. Objective, empirical evidence of the dynamic nature of the hospitality environment is presented and compared to several studies pertaining to environmental perceptions of the industry.” That weighty thesis statement presumes that hospitality executives/managers do not fully comprehend the environment in which they operate. The authors provide a contrast, which conventional wisdom would seem to support and satisfy. “Broadly speaking, the operating environment of an organization is represented by its task domain,” say the authors. “This task domain consists of such elements as a firm's customers, suppliers, competitors, and regulatory groups.” These are dynamic actors and the underpinnings of change, say the authors by way of citation. “The most difficult aspect for management in this regard tends to be the development of a proper definition of the environment of their particular firm. Being able to precisely define who the customers, competitors, suppliers, and regulatory groups are within the environment of the firm is no easy task, yet is imperative if proper planning is to occur,” De Noble and Olson further contribute to support their thesis statement. The article is bloated, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing, with tables both survey and empirically driven, to illustrate market volatility. One such table is the Bates and Eldredge outline; Table-6 in the article. “This comprehensive outline…should prove to be useful to most executives in expanding their perception of the environment of their firm,” say De Noble and Olson. “It is, however, only a suggested outline,” they advise. “…risk should be incorporated into every investment decision, especially in a volatile environment,” say the authors. De Noble and Olson close with an intriguing formula to gauge volatility in an environment.

Hospitality IT: What Does the Future Hold?

The impact of information technology (IT) is far-reaching and driving dramatic shifts in business paradigms. Trends suggest greater adoption of IT will continue and develop at accelerating rates. Hence, hotel operators and executives must learn how to embrace IT and capitalize on the many capabilities it has to offer while minimizing the threats. The authors attempt to provide a sense of focus and a roadmap to help hoteliers understand the issues, see the future, and find an appropriate on ramp to the information superhighway.

Environment for Future Conference Centers: Perception of Managers

Socio-cultural, economic, political, and technological trends are likely to impact the future conference center industry. This article is based on a survey of the members of the International Association of Conference Centers; it identifies the perceptions of conference center executives of future industry trends and provides them with environmental information so that they can better plan for management in the future.

An Analysis of Contributors to the FIU Hospitality Review: Volume 1 to Volume 19

This article documents all major articles in the FIU Hospitality Review, from its inaugural issue in spring of 1983 through 2001; 346 articles and 325 authors from 127 affiliations are included, as well as the academic institutions, hospitality industry organizations and authors who have contributed most frequently. The high ranking received by the FIU Hospitality Review is evidence of the many researchers and industry executives who have contributed over the past two decades.

Monitoring the Accuracy of Multiple Occupancy Forecasts

Corporate executives closely monitor the accuracy of their hotels' occupancy fore- casts since important decisions are based upon these predictions. This study lists the criteria for selecting an appropriate error measure. It discusses several evaluation methods focusing on statistical significance tests and demonstrates the use of two adequate evaluation methods: Mincer- Zamowitz's efficiency test and Wilcoxon's Non-Parametric Matched-Pairs Signed- Ranks test.

Electronic Channels of Distribution: Challenges and Solutions for Hotel Operators

This paper addresses the issues of hotel operators identifying effective means of allocating rooms through various electronic channels of distribution. Relying upon the theory of coercive isomorphism, a think tank was constructed to identify and define electronic channels of distribution currently being utilized in the hotel industry. Through two full-day focus groups consisting of key hotel executives and industry practitioners, distribution channels were identified as were challenges and solutions associated with each.

Think Like An Owner: Identifying the Characteristics that Are Important for Ownership-like Thought in the Hospitality Industry

Companies want recruits who “think like an owner”; that is, managers who demonstrate entrepreneurial aptitude and skills, think on their feet, and possess good problem-solving abilities. This exploratory study sought to identify the characteristics important for ownership-like thought in the hospitality industry. A questionnaire based on a review of entrepreneurship literature drew responses from 182 hotel and restaurant industry operators, executives, and owners. Results suggested six factors or characteristics that lead to ownership-like thought or behavior.

Industry Expresses Attitudes Toward Accounting, Finance Curricula

A survey of hospitality financial executives provides guidance for those planning accounting and finance curricula for schools of hospitality management. The authors discuss the results of their survey sponsored by the Association of Hospitality Financial Management Educators.

The Use of the Internet in the U.S Lodging Industry

The internet has been heralded as the communications and marketing tool of the future for the hospitality industry. Both corporate executives and information technology experts feel the hotel of the future cannot do without a presence on the Web. Yet, do the actions of hospitality operators in the field reflect this optimism? This article reports on a study done among property managers in the U.S. lodging industry to determine the actual use of the internet in hotel properties of various types and sizes. Additionally, it addresses development and maintenance issues related to internet use.

Why Send Students Abroad?

The author reports on a study done among food service and lodging industry recruiters to determine their perceptions about the value of various international student experiences such as internships and exchanges. The study found that lodging recruiters appreciate the value of these experiences significantly more than their peers in food service and contends that there is a role for both corporate executives and educators in raising recruiters’ awareness of the value of international student experience.

The role of overseas Chinese investment in the emerging countries of Southeast and East Asia: A Confucian model of the foreign direct investment decision-making process using factors unconsidered in the West

The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of the foreign direct investment location decision making process through the examination of non-Western investors and their investment strategies in non-traditional markets. This was accomplished through in-depth personal interviews with 50 Overseas Chinese business owners and executives in several different industries from Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Thailand about 97 separate investment projects in Southeast and East Asia, including The Philippines, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam, India, Pakistan, South Korea, Australia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, Taiwan, and Mainland China.^ Traditional factors utilized in Western models of the foreign direct investment decision making process are reviewed, as well as literature on Asian management systems and the current state of business practices in emerging countries of Southeast and East Asia. Because of the lack of institutionalization in these markets and the strong influences of Confucian and patriarchal value systems on the Overseas Chinese, it was suspected that while some aspects of Western rational economic models of foreign direct investment are utilized, these models are insufficient in this context, and thus are not fully generalizable to the unique conditions of the Overseas Chinese business network in the region without further modification.^ Thus, other factors based on a Confucian value system need to be integrated into these models. Results from the analysis of structured interviews suggest Overseas Chinese businesses rely more heavily on their network and traditional Confucian values than rational economic factors when making their foreign direct investment location decisions in emerging countries in Asia. This effect is moderated by the firm's industry and the age of the firm's owners. ^

Strategic positioning of Taiwan in the outsourcing market: Evidence from information technology services and electronic manufacturing outsourcing to China

In outsourcing relationships with China, the Electronic Manufacturing (EM) and Information Technology Services (ITS) industry in Taiwan may possess such advantages as the continuing growth of its production value, complete manufacturing supply chain, low production cost and a large-scale Chinese market, and language and culture similarity compared to outsourcing to other countries. Nevertheless, the Council for Economic Planning and Development of Executive Yuan (CEPD) found that Taiwan's IT services outsourcing to China is subject to certain constraints and might not be as successful as the EM outsourcing (Aggarwal, 2003; CEPD, 2004a; CIER, 2003; Einhorn and Kriplani, 2003; Kumar and Zhu, 2006; Li and Gao, 2003; MIC, 2006). Some studies examined this issue, but failed to (1) provide statistical evidence about lower prevalence rates of IT services outsourcing, and (2) clearly explain the lower prevalence rates of IT services outsourcing by identifying similarities and differences between both types of outsourcing contexts. This research seeks to fill that gap and possibly provide potential strategic guidelines to ITS firms in Taiwan. This study adopts Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) as the theoretical basis. The basic premise is that different types of outsourcing activities may incur differing transaction costs and realize varying degrees of outsourcing success due to differential attributes of the transactions in the outsourcing process. Using primary data gathered from questionnaire surveys of ninety two firms, the results from exploratory analysis and binary logistic regression indicated that (1) when outsourcing to China, Taiwanese firms' ITS outsourcing tends to have higher level of asset specificity, uncertainty and technical skills relative to EM outsourcing, and these features indirectly reduce firms' outsourcing prevalence rates via their direct positive impacts on transaction costs; (2) Taiwanese firms' ITS outsourcing tends to have lower level of transaction structurability relative to EM outsourcing, and this feature indirectly increases firms' outsourcing prevalence rates via its direct negative impacts on transaction costs; (3) frequency does influence firms' transaction costs in ITS outsourcing positively, but does not bring impacts into their outsourcing prevalence rates, (4) relatedness does influence firms' transaction costs positively and prevalence rates negatively in ITS outsourcing, but its impacts on the prevalence rates are not caused by the mediation effects of transaction costs, and (5) firm size of outsourcing provider does not affect firms' transaction costs, but does affect their outsourcing prevalence rates in ITS outsourcing directly and positively. Using primary data gathered from face-to-face interviews of executives from seven firms, the results from inductive analysis indicated that (1) IT services outsourcing has lower prevalence rates than EM outsourcing, and (2) this result is mainly attributed to Taiwan's core competence in manufacturing and management and higher overall transaction costs of IT services outsourcing. Specifically, there is not much difference between both types of outsourcing context in the transaction characteristics of reputation and most aspects of overall comparison. Although there are some differences in the feature of firm size of the outsourcing provider, the difference doesn't cause apparent impacts on firms' overall transaction costs. The medium or above medium difference in the transaction characteristics of asset specificity, uncertainty, frequency, technical skills, transaction structurability, and relatedness has caused higher overall transaction costs for IT services outsourcing. This higher cost might cause lower prevalence rates for ITS outsourcing relative to EM outsourcing. Overall, the interview results are consistent with the statistical analyses and provide support to my expectation that in outsourcing to China, Taiwan's electronic manufacturing firms do have lower prevalence rates of IT services outsourcing relative to EM outsourcing due to higher transaction costs caused by certain attributes. To solve this problem, firms' management should aim at identifying alternative strategies and strive to reduce their overall transaction costs of IT services outsourcing by initiating appropriate strategies which fit their environment and needs.

The survival and stock performance of emerging country firms in the United States

Many firms from emerging markets flocked to developed countries at high cost with hopes of acquiring strategic assets that are difficult to obtain in home countries. Adequate research has focused on the motivations and strategies of emerging country firms' (ECFs') internationalization, while limited studies have explored their survival in advanced economies years after their venturing abroad. Due to the imprinting effect of home country institutions that inhibit their development outside their home market, ECFs are inclined to hire executives with international background and affiliate to world-wide organizations for the purpose of linking up with the global market, embracing multiple perspectives for strategic decisions, and absorbing the knowledge of foreign markets. However, the effects of such orientation on survival are under limited exploration. Motivated by the discussion above, I explore ECFs' survival and stock performance in a developed country (U.S.). Applying population ecology, signaling theory and institutional theory, the dissertation investigates the characteristics of ECFs that survived in the developed country (U.S.), tests the impacts of global orientation on their survival, and examines how global-oriented activities (i.e. joining United Nations Global Compact) affect their stock performance. The dissertation is structured in the form of three empirical essays. The first essay explores and compares different characteristics of ECFs and developed country firms (DCFs) that managed to survive in the U.S. The second essay proposes the concept of global orientation, and tests its influences on ECFs' survival. Employing signaling theory and institutional theory, the third essay investigates stock market reactions to announcements of United Nation Global Compact (UNGC) participation. The dissertation serves to explore the survival of ECFs in the developed country (U.S.) by comparison with DCFs, enriching traditional theories by testing non-traditional arguments in the context of ECFs' foreign operation, and better informing practitioners operating ECFs about ways of surviving in developed countries and improving stockholders' confidence in their future growth.

A Case Study of the Ellison Model's Use of Mentoring as an Approach Toward Inclusive Community Building

The Ellison Executive Mentoring Inclusive Community Building (ICB) Model is a paradigm for initiating and implementing projects utilizing executives and professionals from a variety of fields and industries, university students, and pre-college students. The model emphasizes adherence to ethical values and promotes inclusiveness in community development. It is a hierarchical model in which actors in each succeeding level of operation serve as mentors to the next. Through a three-step process--content, process, and product--participants must be trained with this mentoring and apprenticeship paradigm in conflict resolution, and they receive sensitivitiy and diversity training, through an interactive and dramatic exposition. The content phase introduces participants to the model's philosophy, ethics, values and methods of operation. The process used to teach and reinforce its precepts is the mentoring and apprenticeship activities and projects in which the participants engage and whose end product demontrates their knowledge and understanding of the model's concepts. This study sought to ascertain from the participants' perspectives whether the model's mentoring approach is an effective means of fostering inclusiveness, based upon their own experiences in using it. The research utilized a qualitative approach and included data from field observations, individual and group interviews, and written accounts of participants' attitudes. Participants complete ICB projects utilizing the Ellison Model as a method of development and implementation. They generally perceive that the model is a viable tool for dealing with diversity issues whether at work, at school, or at home. The projects are also instructional in that whether participants are mentored or seve as apprentices, they gain useful skills and knowledge about their careers. Since the model is relatively new, there is ample room for research in a variety of areas including organizational studies to dertmine its effectiveness in combating problems related to various kinds of discrimination.

Perfil desenvolvimental das funções executivas em crianças de 05 a 08 anos da cidade de Natal - RN

This study aimed to establish the developmental profile of executives components in typical child development. This is a correlational cross-sectional study of predominantly quantitative. The instruments for data collection are the subtests included in the NEPSY-II Attention and Executive Functioning domain. Eighty children between 5 and 8 years of age, of both genders, students from public and private schools in the city of Natal were evaluated. The sample was divided into six-month intervals for subsequent analysis of strategies and types of errors. Analysis of variance (univariate and multivariate) and Tukey and Games-Howell post hoc tests were conducted to verify the effect of age on test performance. Subsequent correlations indicate the strength and direction of the relationship between variables. Were identified two peaks of development in the six-month interval adopted for the skills of selective attention and inhibitory control. The results indicate that there’s no significant influence of sex and type of school on the performance of the sample. The performance of preschool children (5 and 6 years) was lower than the other subgroups in most tests. Highlights the role of autoregulation discourse among preschool children during activities of greater executive demand and the abstraction resource as a resolution strategy between the older. Were identified similar development trajectories among selective attention abilities and inhibitory control. In general, there is a decrease in the number of mistakes and increase of success with the age progression. Future longitudinal research can extend the age range encompassed in this study, investigating the developmental course of executive abilities.