Measuring tourism success: are we on the brink of a new paradigm?

PurposeThe article aims to introduce the strategic question and demonstrate its relevance and reality. It also profiles the articles selected for the annual global trends issue and explains how they illustrate the various angles impacting the adoption of a new paradigm to measure tourism success.Design/methodology/approachThe paper draws on a review of articles selected to identify commonalities and differences in respect to the evolution of the concepts and methodologies explored in this global trends issue: sustainability, the contribution of tourism to host communities and measures of tourism success. A brief explanation of the positions and proposals presented by authors as well as their key contributions is also presented.FindingsThe tourism industry has traditionally been based on economics and financial return, with the metrics for measuring tourism performance remaining fairly static over the years. These placed a strong emphasis on the number of tourists and their levels of expenditure at the destinations. However, it is interesting to note a clear evolution towards a new perspective for a holistic and balanced approach between the economic, social/cultural and environmental dimensions of sustainable tourism development.Originality/valueThis introductory article sets the scene for an emerging paradigm to measure tourism success, and it highlights the various contributions to the development of sustainable tourism and the challenges faced by the tourism sector, the role of Destination Management Organizations and the need for quality data to support decision-making by public and private organizations.

tradeoff between liquidity and profitability: evidence from Indian manufacturing firms

The main aim of this research paper is to examine the trade-off between liquidity and profitability of Indian firms. The target population of the study is manufacturing firms. The study used convenience sampling for collecting the data. The study is based on secondary data for the period from 2008 to 2017 and 20 Indian manufacturing firms are selected for this purpose. Analysis of the data has been undertaken using SPSS software. Findings revealed that current liabilities ratio have a positive and significant impact on earnings per share and profit after tax. On the contrary, the current ratio and quick ratio have an insignificant impact on earnings per share, return on capital employed, return on assets and profit after tax. This study suggests that managers should incorporate liquidity into their evaluation decisions in order to boost the financial return of their businesses. The current study offers valuable insights into the success of Indian listed companies for administrators, analysts, regulators, investors, and other interested parties. There is insufficient research that has been conducted to examine the trade-off between liquidity and profitability. Furthermore, findings from this literature cannot be relied upon as they are outdated. Therefore, this study is going to provide updated evidence on the trade-off between liquidity and profitability of Indian manufacturing firms, an area that has largely remained unexplored.

Reasons for low academic achievement among public school students from the point of view of mathematics teachers in the city of Aqaba: أسباب تدني التحصيل الدراسي لدى طلبة المدارس الحكوميّة من وجهة نظر معلمي الرياضيات في مدينة العقبة

The study aimed to identify the reasons for the low academic achievement of public school students from the point of view of mathematics teachers in the city of Aqaba. For data analysis, arithmetic means, standard deviations, t-test for independent samples, one-way analysis of variance, and (LSD) test were used. This is significant in terms of the arithmetic average, which amounted to (3.66), as it was found that the most important reasons for low achievement are the lack of incentives for the creative student, in addition to the fact that parents’ preoccupation with their children does not encourage education, and the weak financial return for the teacher, as well as the lack of incentives for the creative teacher, and based on the The results of the study The researcher made several recommendations, the most important of which were: the necessity for mathematics teachers to use incentives for students in basic schools in order to increase their academic achievement, and the need for mathematics teachers to follow appropriate methods in the education process in order to increase their academic achievement. The level of academic achievement.‏

PENERAPAN BALANCED SCORECARD SERTA ANALISIS SWOT DALAM PERANCANGAN STRATEGI PADA BADAN USAHA MILIK DAERAH PT BANK X

Balanced Scorecard menganalisis kinerja organisasi secara keseluruhan melalui empat perspectif. menilai organisasi melalui Financial Return hanya memberikan informasi tentang kinerja organisasi sebelum penilaian, sehingga kinerja masa depan tidak dapat diprediksi dan tidak dapat mengambil strategi maupun tindakan yang tepat untuk Sustainable Development Growth. Penelitian ini mencoba menunjukkan perspektif Balance Scorecard, kemudian analisis SWOT dan dapat ditentukan posisi perusahaan sesuai Internal External Matrix. Objek pada penelitian ini adalah perusahaan sektor perbankan. Metode pengumpulan data pada penelitian ini adalah dengan data primer dan sekunder. Data primer dapat diperoleh melalui wawancara dengan key informan, serta data sekunder didapat melalui dokumentasi data data yang dibutuhkan diperoleh dari PT Bank X. Matrix sesuai dengan SWOT perusahaan, selanjutnya akan dilakukan klarifikasi hasil menggunakan IFE Matrix (Strength Weakness) dan EFE Matrix (Opportunities - Threats). Kedua Matrix yang telah terbentuk tersebut diplot ke dalam Internal External Matrix, dan berada di kuadran I, sehingga dapat diketahui posisi strategik PT Bank X pada posisi Grow and Build. Strategi yang paling tepat berdasarkan posisi Grow and Build adalah dengan menerapkan Intensive Strategy yang spesifik strateginya dapat menggunakan strategi pengembangan pasar, dan product development. Berdasarkan analisa BSC dan IE Matrix dihasilkan suatu rekomendasi strategi pada product development, diantaranya melakukan upaya peningkatan kualitas SDM, perbaikan kualitas kredit, serta digitalisasi perbankan dalam mempersiapkan persaingan di era revolusi industri 4.0

Learning Communities: A Sound Investment in Higher Education

University and college leaders are tasked with enhancing student outcomes with fewer resources. Student retention is one such key outcome of interest for many policy makers as well as for university administrators. Over the years, administrators have turned to High Impact Practices (HIPs) such as Learning Communities (LCs) to aid in retention. This quantitative study explores the impact LCs have on student retention at a large R1 university in the Midwest. Additionally, the financial return on investment in LCs at this institution is measured via tuition dollars generated from students who are retained as a result of their participation in a LC at the institution. Two key findings of this study are that LCs are positively associated with increased odds of student retention, and that investing in LCs makes good financial sense. Our research contributes to the scholarship on retention attributable to LCs and provides researchers and practitioners with a “template” to evaluate the efficacy of specific retention initiatives in relation to their financial return on investments.

Density Forecast of Financial Returns Using Decomposition and Maximum Entropy

We consider a multiplicative decomposition of the financial returns to improve the density forecasts of financial returns. The multiplicative decomposition is based on the identity that financial return is the product of its absolute value and its sign. Advantages of modeling the two components are discussed. To reduce the effect of the estimation error due to the multiplicative decomposition in estimation of the density forecast model, we impose a moment constraint that the conditional mean forecast is set to match with the sample mean. Imposing such a moment constraint operates a shrinkage and tilts the density forecast of the decomposition model to produce the improved maximum entropy density forecast. An empirical application to forecasting density of the daily stock returns demonstrates the benefits of using the decomposition and imposing the moment constraint to obtain the improved density forecast. We evaluate the density forecast by comparing the logarithmic score (LS), the quantile score (QS), and the continuous ranked probability score (CRPS). We contribute to the literature on the density forecast and the decomposition models by showing that the density forecast of the decomposition model can be improved by imposing a sensible constraint in the maximum entropy framework.

A Proposed Mechanism for Financial Reporting on Sustainable Investment and Its Role in Achieving Value Added - Applied in the Iraqi Midland Refineries Company-

The research aims to develop a proposed mechanism for financial reporting on sustainable investment that takes the specificity of these investments. To achieve this goal, the researcher used (what if scenario) where the future financial statements were prepared for the year 2026, after completion of the sustainable project and operation, as the project requires four years to be completed. The researcher relied on the results of the researchers collected from various modern sources relevant to the research topic and published on the internet, and the financial data and information obtained to assess the reality of the company's activity and its environmental, social, and economic impacts to formulate a proposed mechanism for accounting for Sustainable Investment. And the experimental approach was adopted to provide a proposed mechanism for financial reporting on sustainable investment per international accounting and reporting standards and then applied at the Iraqi Midland refineries company. There are three main findings from the research: the first finding shows the possibility of financing these projects, because this project may not generate significant economic returns (aims to achieve environmental and social returns as well), by configuring a sustainable reserve allocated to finance these projects. The second finding shows the possibility of presenting accounts for sustainable investment separately from traditional accounts (sustainability reserves, sustainable assets, sustainable revenues, sustainability expenses), as this classification can play an important role in the financial sustainability analysis. The third finding is the application of the proposed mechanism that contributes to increase the company's added value. The practical effects of the research are to encourage Iraqi companies (oil companies in particular) to invest in sustainable assets and develop a way to assess the sustainability of companies, because Iraq is one of the most Arab countries burning Gas flare. The researcher tried to highlight this project because it is the best example of sustainable investment that achieves economic returns (the sale value of recovered gases), social returns (protection of citizens living in the vicinity of the refinery) and environmental returns (reducing greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming), where companies avoid investing in these assets because of their high cost and lack of expected financial return, and the relevant international organizations seek to promote this type of investment and develop appropriate tools, and this research comes in line with international trend. The concept of sustainable investment is a relatively recent one, where the originality of the current research shows in its attempt to present a proposed mechanism of financial reporting that supports this new type of investment due to the relative importance of this new type of investment

Performance evaluation of accelerometers ADXL345 and MPU6050 exposed to random vibrational input

The use of vibration monitors is a well-established practice in industrial maintenance, usually vibration sensors are positioned at specific points on the monitored machinery and data are continuously collected to feed a machine operating health control system. Nevertheless, the technology for obtaining the signal, its treatment and analysis is generally expensive, and the financial return is not evident, which justifies the development of low-cost alternatives technologies. In this work was performed an analysis of the responses of two Micro-Electro-Mechanical accelerometers, models ADXL345 and MPU6050, exposed to a low intensity random signal and standard operating frequency. The objective of the analysis was to verify the capacity of these devices to be used as mechanical vibration sensors for rotating machines. For this purpose, offset shift analyzes of the sensors due to the Earth's gravitational field were performed, as well as vibrational spectrum and rectification errors analysis under multiple conditions. The data pointed to a greater uniformity of the MPU6050 response, while several behavioral anomalies were seen in the ADXL345, when these sensors are exposed to the same mechanical signal. The qualitative and quantitative behavior of MPU6050 rectification error was consistent with reported in the literature. It was noted that the methodology used can profile the behavior of sensors, however, it is not sufficient to safely justify the inaccuracies, requiring that the tests be performed on a statistically representative number of sensors from different manufacturers and batches.

Understanding New Zealand Homeowners Apparent Reluctance to Adopt Housing-Sustainability Innovations

<p>This thesis investigates why sustainability innovations are not being adopted at the expected rate when they not only reduce environmental problems but also improve health, comfort, productivity, and economic and social wellbeing. Homeowners' demonstrate an apparent preference for sustainability innovations. However, there are apparent inconsistencies in their decisions as demonstrated by the lack of success of numerous intervention schemes. The aim of this research was to understand the motivations behind New Zealand homeowners' apparent reluctance to adopt sustainability innovations such as solar water heating panels or double glazing. A mixed methods research approach was taken to account for the numerous explanations and to address the research questions and concerns. This included a preliminary study to further establish the need for this research by investigating the implied market value of sustainability through real estate advertisements; a survey to identify homeowners engaging in this behaviour and their reasons for doing so; and a series of verbal report interviews to develop a qualitative insight of the thought processes behind their decisions. Numerous groups of homeowners were identified; the focus of this research however were those who displayed apparently unreasonable behaviour in that despite knowing what the logical answer should be they still said that they were not willing-to-pay full price for the innovation. This group were found to represent the largest proportion of homeowners suggesting that our time and resources need to be focussed primarily on convincing this large group of homeowners. The cause of these homeowners apparently unreasonable behaviour was observed to be due to an exaggerated perception of risk. In addition to the obvious risks that the innovation might not suit their house or that the financial return would not occur, these homeowners seemed averse to being seen to be different from the average homeowner. It is proposed that the findings from this research can be used to plan interventions that either change behaviour or align policy and other marketing responses to the characteristics this group of homeowners displayed.</p>