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Employer-provided benefits are a large and growing share of compensation costs. In this paper, I consider three factors that can affect the value created by employer-sponsored benefits. First, firms have a comparative advantage (e.g., due to scale economies or tax treatment) in purchasing relative to employees. This advantage can vary across firms based on size and other differences in cost structure. Second, employees differ in their valuations of benefits and it is costly for workers to match with firms that offer the benefits they value. Finally, some benefits can reduce the marginal cost to an employee of extra working time. I develop a simple model that integrates these factors. I then generate empirical implications of the model and use data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to test these implications. I examine access to employer-provided meals, child care, dental insurance, and health insurance. I also study how benefits are grouped together and differences between benefits packages at for-profit, not-for-profit, and government employers. The empirical analysis provides evidence consistent with all three factors in the model contributing to firms’ decisions about which benefits to offer.

Purpose: The purpose is to introduce the fundamental economic concepts that must be wrestled with the incorporation of robots, artificial intelligence and service automation (RAISA) into the travel, tourism and hospitality industries.

Design/methodology/approach: This chapter uses cost-benefit analytical framework of the incorporation of RAISA technologies into travel, tourism and hospitality industries.

Findings: The chapter elaborates on the economic fundamentals of RAISA adoption into the travel, tourism and hospitality industries. The analysis reveals that many financial and non-financial costs and benefits need to be considered when taking a decision to use RAISA technologies. Automation of tasks leads to simultaneous substitution and enhancement of human employees. Introduction of RAISA technologies results on inevitable deskilling of some and upskilling of other tourism and hospitality jobs.

Research limitations/implications: The chapter is conceptual and conclusions are limited by the views and interpretations of the authors.

Practical implications: RAISA technologies will become increasingly omnipresent in the travel, tourism and hospitality industries. That is why an understanding of the costs and benefits and many of the practical impediments to the incursion of RAISA into the workplace should be understood to make a transition from human-performed tasks to technology-performed tasks.

Social implications: Replacement of human labour will have significant social implications for the workforce and employers.

Originality/value: This is one of the few publications that discuss the economic aspects of the incorporation of RAISA technologies into travel, tourism and hospitality industries.

After reading this chapter you should be able to:

• Understand what is meant by relocation cost.

• Explain the management and disbursement of relocating costs.

• Critically evaluate the calculation of relocation costs.

• Reflect on the role of human resource managers in relation to the future of the costs of relocation.

Understand what is meant by relocation cost.

Explain the management and disbursement of relocating costs.

Critically evaluate the calculation of relocation costs.

Reflect on the role of human resource managers in relation to the future of the costs of relocation.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a costs framework for harm of human resource management (HRM) practices to develop the cost measures for the psychological, social and work‐related health aspects of harm of HRM practices on stakeholders (employees, their family and communities) so as to understand the implications of harm on the stakeholders.

Initially, the cost components of health care are used to theoretically develop a costs framework for harm of HRM practices to measure cost for each of the psychological and the social aspects of harm of HRM practices. Subsequently, employee relative deprivation, spill over and crossover effects of work on family are the theories used to develop the cost measure for the psychological and the social harm of HRM practices. Finally, the direct costs associated with the psychological and the social harm of HRM practices on stakeholders are valuated using published research.

The proposed costs framework of harm of HRM practices is a useful theoretical framework to identify, measure and valuate the cost of psychological and social harm of HRM practices on the stakeholders.

The costs component framework of harm of HRM practices can facilitate the capture of the associated costs of the harm of HRM practices so as to understand organisations' ethics of care for stakeholders.

The theoretical costs framework for harm of HRM practices provides a new technique to measure the cost of psychological and social harm of certain HRM practices imposed on the stakeholders so as to minimise the harm in the future.

From 2007, New Zealand firms must report the cost of granting employee stock options (ESOs). Market‐based option pricing models assume that option holders are unconstrained in their portfolio choices and thus are indifferent to the specific risk of any firm. By contrast, ESO holders are frequently required to hold portfolios that are over‐exposed to the firm that employs them and so adopt exercise policies that reflect their individual risk preferences. Applying the model of Ingersoll (2006) to hypothetical ESOs, we show that ESO cost can be extremely sensitive to employee characteristics of risk aversion and under‐diversification. This result casts doubt on the usefulness of any market‐based model for pricing ESOs, since such models, by definition, produce option values that are independent of employee characteristics. By limiting employee discretion over the choice of exercise date, vesting restrictions help reduce the magnitude of this problem.

On the basis of labor economics theories, this study examines how adjustment in human capital accounts for labor cost stickiness.

This study makes use of employee education level as a measure of the quality of human capital and relies on data from Chinese public firms to conduct the empirical test. This study focuses on two important components of labor cost changes: one corresponding to the adjustment in the number of employees (capacity adjustment) and another corresponding to the adjustment in the mix of employee education levels (quality adjustment).

This study reveals that labor cost changes driven by the adjustment of employee education level are sticky. This stickiness cannot be explained by the standard adjustment cost theory. This further shows that firms that actively adjust their employee quality during downturns experience improved future performance. The findings are robust to alternative measures and specifications.

This study provides new evidence for and insights into the cost behavior literature. Previous studies treat input resources in a homogenous way and focus on the effect of capacity adjustment. This study considers the heterogeneity of resources and examines three dimensions of salary cost adjustment: capacity, structure, and unit cost. In line with the economic theory of sticky costs proposed by Banker et al. (2013a), the study’s evidence sheds light on the additional underlying economic mechanisms driving cost stickiness behavior. Specifically, managers asymmetrically adjust both employee structure and average salaries, in addition to employee number. This study also adds to the existing knowledge of the consequences of managers' actions regarding cost behavior.

This paper analyzes economic, legal, behavioral and public policy issues pertaining to the accounting for employee stock options. The paper explains why employee stock options (ESOs) are superior to other forms of incentive compensation, why ESOs in their present form are inefficient and why particular accounting, legal and tax treatments will provide the optimal results for the economy, the government, management/employees and shareholders. The issues discussed in this article are relevant in ESO accounting, regulation of ESOs, incentive compensation, human resources analysis, tax policy, corporate governance, fraud, valuation of companies, derivatives regulation, behavioral analysis of law/rules, portfolio management and management strategy.

This paper aims to propose a quadruple bottom line approach for higher education leaders who must decide whether to accept sustainability initiatives that do have not have a business case. The authors describe a personal waste management program at a major university to illustrate how a quadruple bottom line framework may impact decisions to adopt a sustainability practice in higher education. The authors also demonstrate how opportunity costs can be applied to better understand the true costs of such waste management programs.

This exploratory research uses a case study approach with a unique accounting method to determine the costs of a personal waste management system. System costs are calculated for the entire university and for sample units within the university.

University leaders chose to continue the new waste management program in light of evidence showing higher than anticipated costs. The authors illustrate how this decision was driven by consideration of a fourth bottom line, that of the educational value of the sustainability initiative. It is discussed whether proposed sustainability initiatives such as these should be evaluated using a traditional triple bottom line framework, or, in the case of higher education, if equal consideration should also be given to factors related to the educational mission of the institution.

The authors develop a quadruple bottom line framework to explain the frequent implementation of economically costly sustainability programs in higher education contexts. This paper also reviews the rise of “personal waste management” programs at higher education institutions, demonstrates how the value of employee time can and should be considered as a cost of a comprehensive campus sustainability program (i.e. recycling and composting) and illustrates a novel means for using opportunity costs to determine those costs.

The purpose of our paper is to empirically examine the conjectures, which prior literature suggests, that employees work more productively in socially responsible companies and employees are willing to work for less when they work for these companies.

This study uses ordinary least squares regression to examine the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and employee performance and between CSR and employee cost. Further, 2SLS is used to address the endogeneity issue.

The results indicate a positive relation between CSR and employee performance, suggesting that employees in socially responsible companies generate better operating performance than their peers in less socially responsible companies. Findings also reveal that socially responsible companies incur higher labor cost.

First, the CSR ratings constructed by KLD Inc. are an approximate measure of CSR performance. Better CSR measures may yield stronger results. Additionally, the sample firms in our study are relatively large firms. Caution needs be exercised when readers generalize these conclusions. Finally, this sample only consists of public firms. Whether these conclusions hold in private firms remains unknown. The above issues can be investigated in future studies.

The findings of our study should interest managers who contemplate engaging in socially responsible activities, investors and financial analysts who assess firm performance and policymakers who design and implement guidelines on CSR programs.

This is the first paper that directly tests the association between CSR and employee performance and cost. Thus, this study contributes to the CSR literature by offering evidence to show a positive effect of CSR on employee performance. It also contributes to the management accounting literature.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a conceptual model of harm indicators of negative externality (NE) of organizational practices, to help practitioners and researchers identify the harmful aspects associated with the unsustainable internal efficiency focused organizational practices to achieve a sustainable society.

Initially, the harm indicators of NE of organizational practices are theoretically explored. Subsequently, the direct costs associated with the harm indicators of NE of work intensification, one of the strategic organizational practices, on employees and the community are examined using published information.

There are clear indications of direct costs for handling the psychological and social aspects of harm of organizational practices on employees, and the employee work‐related health treatment costs to the community.

The published research used in estimating the direct costs of harm indicators on employees and the community in this paper are not originally designed to examine the NE of organizational practices. Therefore, future studies need to explore the costs of harm indicators of NE of organizational practices on society.

An understanding of the costs of harm indicators of NE of organizational practices on society can help organizations to be proactive to introduce sustainable human resource management strategies, so as to minimize the harmful aspects of NE before it starts curbing employees making positive contributions to their families and the community.

The model of harm indicators of NE provides a new insight – that over‐utilization of human resources for an organization's internal efficiency purpose – has unsustainable impact on society.