Economic Storytelling, Tourism Improvement Districts and University Partnerships

Business Improvement Districts (BID), sometimes called Tourism Marketing Districts (TMD) are innovative initiatives that levy assessments as a means of funding what might be traditionally paid for by local government. A recent increase in such organizations internationally may provide universities with an opportunity for a variety of positive benefits including revenue, research, educational improvement, and impactful student experiences. Universities and colleges have a history of partnering with industry, often referred to as University-Industry Partnerships (UIC), as a means for confronting ever-increasing economic challenges and shrinking budgets. Indeed, as funding for public universities continues to decrease, schools and departments within the university are forced to seek alternative revenue streams. The goal of the current study is to provide a conceptual model for understanding and engaging in economic storytelling as the research arm of such organizations. A case study of the partnership between San Diego State University and San Diego’s Tourism Marketing District is assessed against a model of best practices in partnering. Results highlight the value of the model and provide direction for other University-Industry Partnerships (UIC).

Recall vs. Recognition: How the Strength of Sponsor Awareness Influences the Perceived Brand Personality

Aim: The aim of this paper is to investigate whether remembering a sponsor actively (recall) or passively (recognition) has an influence on the perceived brand image. Because brand personality is a psychological and multi-dimensional construct, it is worthwhile to investigate the influence of information retrieval from the long-term memory. Study design: The study contains two independent samples. On the one hand spectators were interviewed at different sports events that were sponsored by the same brand (field sample). Additionally, a representative sample of the population was drawn and questioned about the same brand outside the environment of sports events (online sample). Place and Duration of Study: Both samples were collected in the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany within a period of four months. Methodology: In total, 2761 questionnaires from spectators and 1000 questionnaires from representative online sample of the population in the same region were collected. Regression analyses were conducted to compare the influence of sponsor awareness on brand image with other drivers of image transfer found in literature. Results: Both tests (recall and recognition) show a significant influence on brand image, but they defer in the extent and the addressed dimensions of brand personality. Logistic regressions show that a low sponsor awareness is sufficient to strengthen some general positive brand associations, whereas it requires a higher sponsor awareness to raise intended associations successfully. Conclusion: The strength of sponsor awareness should be considered when selecting the test procedure (recall or recognition test) for measuring image outcomes – both in marketing research and sponsorship controlling. Depending on the type of objectives the sponsor wants to achieve, this can be crucial for a sponsor in strategic management.

How Foodies Choose Popular-Commercial Food

Aims: This study aims to describe the foodie phenomenon in Makassar City regarding the process of selecting various types of popular-commercial food and/or drinks. Methodology: The informant determination technique used is purposive (deliberate). The data collection used is by observation, in-depth interviews with informants, and confirmed by various literature studies that are relevant to the research topic. In this study, the method used is a qualitative method. Results: The results showed that in eating activities, foodies were influenced by several things, including; the concept of eating, the concept of deliciousness and various factors that influence the activity of eating popular-commercial food.

Impact of Budget Deficit Financing on Money Demand in Nigeria

The study empirically investigates the impact of budget deficit financing on money demand in Nigeria with an objective of finding the effect of budget deficit financing indicators such as external debt financing, domestic debt as well as debt servicing on money demand. The study is modeled using a framework of Keynesian theory of budget deficit financing and Richadian Equivalent hypothesis. The study adopted an auto redistributive lag model (ARDL) which shows the existence of long run relationship between money demand and indicators of financing budget deficit and ordinary Least Square. The general findings revealed that external source of financing budget deficit, internal source of financing budget deficit as well as debt servicing has a significant effect on money demand in the Nigerian context. Base on this findings, the study recommend that external and internal source of financing deficit should be encouraged for effective demand leading to economic stability reasons and not for political reasons and it should be properly channeled to productive sector of the economy that will enhance economic stability.

The Convergence of Macroeconomic Variables within the East Africa Community

This study seeks to establish whether the East African Countries are realizing convergence in their macroeconomic policies as efforts are geared towards the establishment of an economic union and subsequently a monetary union in a bid to foster economic growth in the region. Five EACs were included in the analysis using panel data for the period 2008-2018. The methodology employed in the analysis involved; sigma convergence, beta convergence using fixed-effect model, and finally stochastic convergence was tested. The findings show that there is no evidence of macroeconomic convergence and the less developed countries are neither catching up with the relatively developed countries. The macroeconomic variables are also not showing a tendency to be moving the same direction as time goes by. Therefore, for the EACs to realize a common union, either economic or monetary, they need to formulate policies that will ensure that the member states adhere to the desired macroeconomic policies that would lead the region to convergence.

The Effect of Quality Management Practice on Business Performance of SMEs in Merhabete/ Alem Ketema/, North Shoa, Ethiopia

The study investigated the quality management practices and business performances of SMEs in Merhabete/Alem Ketema, Ethiopia. Four key dimensions of quality management practices including customer focus, human resource focus, supplier quality management, and continuous improvements were used as independent variables accompanied by different measurement instruments under each variable, while a non-financial performance variable was used to measure the business performance. Primary data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire from a sample of 245 employees. Data were analyzed using descriptive and econometrics analysis. The findings indicate that the four key independent variables had a positive and significant effect on the performance of SMEs. The study recommended that SMEs should ensure that the objectives of the organization are linked to customer needs and expectations to improve performance, and they should allow participative consultation and engagement of employees in making decisions on quality issues and provide freedom to act with responsibility and accountability.

Assessing the Implementation of Decentralized Management System: Babre Tabor Municipality Administration in Focus

This study addressed the efforts exerted on the implementation of decentralization management system employed a few years ago in a governmental institution. More specifically, this study attempted to assess the perceptions employees hold about the decentralization package, their decision-making practices and correlations among participants’ perception, decision-making practices and provision of resources. To this end, of one hundred and fifty employees, fifty of Debre Tabore Municipality administrative, in Amhara regional state, were selected in a mix of systematic and stratified sampling technique. Likert scale and frequency count itemized questionnaire administered and forty-eight sheets of questionnaire were returned filled in. The major findings showed that participants had a reasonable level of awareness on the positive roles of decentralization, considerable level of decision-making practices and some degree of perceived provisions of resources or support. Besides, there seemed to have positive relationships among the participants’ perceptions about municipality decentralization, input provision and practice of decision making. small but positive correlations among perceptions. A mere degree of variations of responses to the perceptions and practices of decentralization were also seen due to background differences in gender, position and work experiences. In light of the results, the decentralization could be implemented with a more focus of employees’ concern on resource provisions and shared commitment.

Islamic Perspectives on the Implementation of Wadiah Products at Islamic Banks in Indonesia

The aim of this paper is to study the implementation of Wadiah Product at an Islamic Bank in Indonesia. Bank Syariah Mandiri is the first government bank that operates according to the Islamic Syariah system in Indonesia. The Bank Syariah Mandiri provides wadiah products to serve its customers who are concerned with a free interest product in a financial transaction. This study was carried out with a qualitative method, and the data were gathered through in-depth interviews with the bank staff and manager, observation, and written material. The results of this study show that wadiah application in Bank Syariah Mandiri of Palu runs in accordance with the Syariah principles of Islamic Law. The results of this study also show that costumers lack knowledge regarding how to access the wadiah product. Then the Muslim community preferences in wadiah savings products is still relatively small because Muslim society perceived the profit sharing at the Islamic bank is lower compared to similar products from conventional banks.Further study may focus on Islamic banks customers perception of the wadiah product.

Direction of Causality between Financial Development and Economic Growth in Turkey

This paper has investigated the causality relationship between financial development and economic growth in Turkey, using data from 2005:04 to 2020:03. We construct a time-series model to explore causality relationships between the variables. In the study, two indicators were used as financial development indicators: banking loans to the private sector and money supply to GDP (Gross Domestic Product). The empirical results have represented a bi-directional relationship between financial development and economic growth in the short run. On the other hand, we have not found a causality relationship in the long term.

Comparative Analysis of Tariffs-Restricted Trade Wars between the United States and China Under the Recent Past Four Presidents: Did they Achieve Their Objectives?

This paper provides a comparative analysis of the tariffs-restricted trade wars between the United States and China under the recent past four presidents of the United States by using the difference-in-differences estimator framework. The overarching objective of three of the four presidential administrations that engaged in trade wars was to reduce the United States’ trade deficits with China. This raised some research questions. Did each administration achieve its objective of reducing the trade deficits with China? If so, which administration more effectively reduced the trade deficits in comparison to their immediate predecessor? What lessons can future administrations and governments around the world draw from the outcomes of the tariffs-restricted trade wars between the United States and China? To determine which president – Trump, Obama, and Bush – most effectively utilized import tariffs to reduce the trade deficits with China, we specified and tested three different sets of hypotheses. In sync with a controlled experiment, we tested another three sets of hypotheses in which we compared Presidents Trump, Obama, and Bush to President Clinton who did not impose tariffs on China. Based on our estimated results, we rejected all the null hypotheses in favor of the alternative hypotheses, which suggest that Presidents Trump, Obama, and Bush did not achieve any significant reduction in the United States’ trade deficits with China through the use of tariffs relative to President Clinton. The important lesson drawn from these findings is that tariffs are counterproductive and ineffective policy strategy.