The tourism – Foreign direct investment nexus: Empirical evidence from Zimbabwe (2009–2015)

The extent of research into the determinants of foreign direct inflows to particular locations is expansive and diverse; however, little is known of the influence of country images as non-financial determinants on the inflow of foreign capital. In contributing to this body of knowledge, this article aims to explore the influence of tourism as a non-financial nation image determinant of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Zimbabwe. The relationship between tourism and the four distinct forms of FDI opportunities in Zimbabwe, market-, resource-, efficiency- and strategic-asset seeking is examined. Empirical data were generated from a final purposively sampled survey population of 305 foreign investors who had applied to invest in Zimbabwe between January 2009 and April 2015. Multiple statistical techniques were employed including exploratory factor analysis and multiple regression using STATISTICA 12 software. As it emerged, eight variables were identified as constituting Zimbabwe’s tourism nation brand image. Empirically, the results of this article affirm the influence of tourism as a non-financial determinant of market-, efficiency- and strategic asset-seeking FDI opportunities in Zimbabwe.

Mengenal Indonesia Melalui Netflix Original Movie

Culture is one of the approached on shaping up the nation image. Movies, for example, successfully create an image of “super power” country; exotic land; not to mention the most enchanting holiday destination in the world. Convergence era bring forth the “on demand” culture, it is a situation where the citizen freely consumed any kind of cultural “menu”. As like Netflix, most Indonesian favorable online streaming media nowadays, from California. Compared to other online streaming media, Netflix made a good collaboration with global film maker to served original movie and series as one of their eminence. By doing so, Netflix also encourage its audiences to get to know more the “global culture” through the eye of its original movies. In Indonesia, Netflix officially release its premier original movies collaborating with Indonesian cinemas, titled “The Night Comes for Us”. This research is aim to point out how the trailer of “The Night Comes for us” displaying and reflecting Indonesian image with Jean Baudrillard concept of simulation. Roland Barthes semiotic analysis’s concept is also being use in this research as a bridge to understand first and second phase of Baudrillard’s concept. The research concluded that the film trailer did not representing any kind of reality, but only a certain designed of Indonesian image. The displayed image that seen on the trailer is a commodity to persuade audience to watch the movie. Image simulation displayed on the trailer is created with the motives to “win” a certain target segmentation of audience. Citra sebuah bangsa dapat dibentuk dengan berbagai cara, salah satunya dengan pendekatan kebudayaan. Lewat film misalnya, sebuah negara dapat dicitrakan sebagai bangsa “adi kuasa”, negeri yang eksotis, hingga destinasi liburan paling menyenangkan di dunia. Era konvergensi media lahirkan budaya “on demand”, dimana masyarakat bisa bebas menentukan sajian budaya apa saja yang ingin mereka konsumsi. Seperti misalnya, Netflix, layanan media streaming dari California yang mulai populer dinikmati publik Indonesia. Netflix menyajikan Netflix original movie and series, yang diproduksi oleh Netflix dan bekerjasama dengan sineas global sebagai keunggulan dibandingkan layanan streaming lainnya. Netflix mengajak penontonnya untuk mengenal kebudayaan global dengan film-film orginalnya. Di Indonesia, Netflix secara resmi dan perdana ini merilis Netflix original movie dengan judul “The Night Comes for Us”. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menunjukkan bagaimana cuplikan film “The Night Comes for Us” menampilan dan merefleksikan citra Indonesia dengan berpijak pada model pencitraan Jean Baudrillard yang dimulai dari tahapan representasi, ideologi, simulasi dan simulakra. Analisa semiotika Roland Barthes digunakan dalam penelitian ini sebagai jembatan untuk memahami fase pertama dan kedua pencitraan Baudrillard. Temuan yang didapatkan menjelaskan bahwa citra Indonesia yang di tampilan dalam cuplikan objek penelitian tidak mewakili realitas apapun, melainkan sebuah bentukan belaka. Citra yang ditampilkan tak lain adalah sebuah komoditas yang digunakan untuk merayu penonton. Simulasi pencitraan didasari dengan motivasi untuk “memenangkan” segmentasi pasar tertentu.

Contested Identities in Costa Rica

Costa Rica is a country known internationally for its eco-credentials, dazzling coastlines, and reputation as one of the happiest and most peaceful nations on earth. Beneath this façade, however, lies an exclusionary rhetoric of nationalism bound up in the concept of the tico, as many Costa Ricans refer to themselves. Beginning by considering the very idea of national identity and what this constitutes, this book explores the nature of the idealised tico identity, demonstrating the ways in which it has assumed a white supremacist, Central Valley-centric, patriarchal, heteronormative stance based on colonial ideals. Chapters two and three then go on to consider the literature and films produced that stand in opposition to this normative image of who or what is tico and their creation as vehicles of soft power which aim to question social norms. This book explores protest literature from the 1970s by Quince Duncan, Carmen Naranjo, and Alfonso Chase who narrate their experiences from the margins of society by virtue of their identity as Afro-Costa Rican, feminist, and homosexual authors. Cinema from the twenty-first century is then analysed to demonstrate the nuanced and intersectional position chosen by national directors Esteban Ramírez, Paz Fábrega, Jurgen Ureña, and Patricia Velásquez to challenge the dominant nation-image as they reinscribe youth culture, Afro-Costa Rica, a female consciousness, and trans identity into the fabric of the nation.

Nation image and its dynamic changes in Wikipedia

Purpose In this volatile and increasingly fast-revolving world, it has become crucially important to monitor, measure and manage nation image and its dynamic changes in real time. However, few studies have been conducted on a model to measure the image and/or its changes. The purpose of this paper is to find an economically affordable methodology to measure nation image and its changes online in real time. Design/methodology/approach The study took an approach to build dynamic ontology that may reflect to change nation image in real-time. With it, the authors attempted to measure nation image in real time. Findings Among many social media, the authors found that Wikipedia is particularly suitable for the purpose of measuring nation image. An ontology of nation image was built from the keywords collected from the pages directly related to the big three exporting countries in East Asia, i.e. Korea, Japan and China. The click views on the pages of the countries in two different language editions of Wikipedia, Vietnamese and Indonesian were counted. Originality/value The study confirms the objective: the data from a social media service, Wikipedia, may work very well as an economically affordable real-time supplement to offline nation image indices that are currently used.