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1 – 10 of 157
Article
Publication date: 2 November 2012

Yuko Minowa and Terrence H. Witkowski

This study seeks to further understanding of spectator consumption practices by applying modern consumer theory in a much different historical context: the gladiator games during…

1039

Abstract

Purpose

This study seeks to further understanding of spectator consumption practices by applying modern consumer theory in a much different historical context: the gladiator games during the time of the Roman Empire. The objective is to validate modern ideas of consumption practices with evidence from the past.

Design/methodology/approach

The research draws from a sampling of classical and contemporary literatures as well as the interpretation of the images and inscriptions delineated on archaeological artifacts such as relief sculptures on sarcophagi, floor mosaics, fresco paintings, and terracotta and glass lamps. The visual content and consumption themes of selected objects are described and analyzed.

Findings

Spectators at the Roman games used these events for the sake of the experience, for integrating themselves into their community, for classifying themselves in a certain group category, and for interacting and socializing with other people. As in modern sporting events, consuming the Roman games served both instrumental and autotelic purposes for spectators. The games were directly an object of consumption as well as the focal resource of interpersonal communications.

Research limitations/implications

The set of visual data sources is small and the literary evidence is in translation of the original sources.

Originality/value

The research shows that Holt's typology of sports consumer practices is supported by evidence from a much different time and context. Thus, the theory provides a robust framework for analysing consumer practices and rituals.

Details

Journal of Historical Research in Marketing, vol. 4 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1755-750X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 August 1940

WE publish this month an exhaustive survey of the types of aeroplane in current use by the Regia Aeronautica. The general impression gained from a cursory inspection of the…

Abstract

WE publish this month an exhaustive survey of the types of aeroplane in current use by the Regia Aeronautica. The general impression gained from a cursory inspection of the illustrations is that Italian military aeroplanes are clumsy in appearance and by no means up‐to‐date in comparison with British machines. This impression is confirmed when a more detailed examination of their characteristics is made. The performance figures, as from time to time officially stated, are conflicting and of extremely doubtful reliability; but even if they are taken at their highest they are not particularly impressive. This view has received further support from experience in combat, so far as this has gone at present; for even in action against Gladiators, which can hardly now be considered representative of the present‐day British fighter, they have not shown up particularly well.

Details

Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, vol. 12 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0002-2667

Article
Publication date: 12 July 2011

Roger Brown and Michael Young

The purpose of this paper is to propose a new way to measure risk in real estate investment, which departs from traditional statistical methodology borrowed from finance.

2678

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to propose a new way to measure risk in real estate investment, which departs from traditional statistical methodology borrowed from finance.

Design/methodology/approach

An argument is advanced for the use of so‐called coherent risk measures for real estate investment decisions. Central to this class of measure is the computation of spectral risk, a measure that covers the spectrum of an individual's risk aversion function. Intuition being hard to observe, empirical data from two large databases are presented as support.

Findings

At the heart of the controversy is a discussion of the nature of risk and how it should be measured. This paper seeks common ground where peace may be made between these two warring factions. Scenarios are tested wherein different risk aversion functions are used to compute spectral risk for different sectors. Ex‐post analysis shows that reasoning of this nature can lead to improved risk‐adjusted investment results.

Practical implications

The route to finding an appropriate risk measure for real estate investment has been tortuous. It is not certain that the destination has been reached. Complicating the task is a considerable gap between academic and practitioner methodology, the former relying on the mathematics of objective probability, the latter dwelling quite successfully in a habitat of subjective risk measures.

Social implications

It is widely accepted that risk represents a cost to society. Real estate, as a repository of roughly half the world's wealth, can be viewed as having risk of a structurally different nature. The better understanding of this risk reduces the cost to society.

Originality/value

For practitioners, spectral measures offer formal support for something they have been doing their entire careers: evaluating risk subjectively. The simple dot product of weights and ordered outcomes is an extension of the widely used “Best case – Worse case – Most likely” methodology that has served professionals well for decades. Perhaps a by‐product of spectral measures is to bring academics and field gladiators closer together. If there is merit to a new way of thinking about risk independent of its implementation, real estate investment could benefit from that thinking. Among those who doubt that everything is “normal” are those who believe that previous attempts to explain risk in real estate have fallen far short of the mark. The challenge to those still not satisfied by the spectral approach is to offer an alternative that represents both a departure from and an improvement of the old methods.

Details

Journal of Property Investment & Finance, vol. 29 no. 4/5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-578X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 July 1903

IT is evident from the numerous press cuttings which are reaching us, that we are once more afflicted with one of those periodical visitations of antagonism to Public Libraries…

Abstract

IT is evident from the numerous press cuttings which are reaching us, that we are once more afflicted with one of those periodical visitations of antagonism to Public Libraries, which occasionally assume epidemic form as the result of a succession of library opening ceremonies, or a rush of Carnegie gifts. Let a new library building be opened, or an old one celebrate its jubilee, or let Lord Avebury regale us with his statistics of crime‐diminution and Public Libraries, and immediately we have the same old, never‐ending flood of articles, papers and speeches to prove that Public Libraries are not what their original promoters intended, and that they simply exist for the purpose of circulating American “Penny Bloods.” We have had this same chorus, with variations, at regular intervals during the past twenty years, and it is amazing to find old‐established newspapers, and gentlemen of wide reading and knowledge, treating the theme as a novelty. One of the latest gladiators to enter the arena against Public Libraries, is Mr. J. Churton Collins, who contributes a forcible and able article, on “Free Libraries, their Functions and Opportunities,” to the Nineteenth Century for June, 1903. Were we not assured by its benevolent tone that Mr. Collins seeks only the betterment of Public Libraries, we should be very much disposed to resent some of the conclusions at which he has arrived, by accepting erroneous and misleading information. As a matter of fact, we heartily endorse most of Mr. Collins' ideas, though on very different grounds, and feel delighted to find in him an able exponent of what we have striven for five years to establish, namely, that Public Libraries will never be improved till they are better financed and better staffed.

Details

New Library World, vol. 6 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

Book part
Publication date: 15 February 2021

Jurgen Brauer, Keith Hartley and Stefan Markowski

Using long-run trend data for US tactical and bomber aircraft, Norman Augustine’s Law 16 famously suggests continuously rising US armament unit costs. By the year 2054, the…

Abstract

Using long-run trend data for US tactical and bomber aircraft, Norman Augustine’s Law 16 famously suggests continuously rising US armament unit costs. By the year 2054, the country’s entire defence budget would be expended on a single aircraft, which an industry colleague dubbed as the Battlestar Galactica. However, while it is thought provoking, what does Law 16 in fact entail? It appears that the mechanics of Augustine’s ‘Law’ has never been examined in detail. To help disentangle the matter and assess its relevance in the context of today’s battlefield technology, which is increasingly focussed on the application of large numbers of small, cheap, expendable, electronically linked, yet highly autonomous systems, this chapter introduces the concept of an Augustine weapons system.

Details

New Frontiers in Conflict Management and Peace Economics: With a Focus on Human Security
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83982-426-5

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 11 September 2020

Bartosz Sawik

The newsvendor problem is fundamental to many operations management models. The problem focuses on the trade-off between the gains from satisfying demand and losses from unsold…

Abstract

The newsvendor problem is fundamental to many operations management models. The problem focuses on the trade-off between the gains from satisfying demand and losses from unsold products. The newsvendor model and its extensions have been applied to various areas, such as production plan and supply chain management. This chapter examines the study about newsvendor problem. In this research, there is a review of the contributions for the multiproduct newsvendor problem. It focuses on the current literature concerning the mathematical models and the solution methods for the multiitem newsvendor problems with single or multiple constraints, as well as with the risks. The objective of this research is to go over the newsvendor problem and bring into comparison different newsvendor models applied to the flower industry. A few case studies are described addressing topics related to the newsvendor problem such as discounting and replenishment policies, inventory inaccuracies, or demand estimation. Three newsvendor models are put into practice in the field of flower selling. A full database of the flowers sold by an anonymous retailer is available for the study. Computational experiments for practical example have been conducted with use of the CPLEX solver with AMPL programming language. Models are solved, and an analysis of different circumstances and cases is accomplished.

Abstract

Details

Decolonising Sambo: Transculturation, Fungibility and Black and People of Colour Futurity
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78973-347-1

Abstract

Details

Sport, Gender and Mega-Events
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83982-937-6

Book part
Publication date: 22 April 2017

Robert Barner and Ken Ideus

Abstract

Details

Working Deeply
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78714-424-8

Article
Publication date: 2 August 2013

Tony Johnston

In 1867, the author Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, undertook a great pleasure excursion across Europe. Visiting a range of sites, from those associated with…

3084

Abstract

Purpose

In 1867, the author Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, undertook a great pleasure excursion across Europe. Visiting a range of sites, from those associated with the Christian Cult of Death to the notable cultural heritage attractions of the time, Twain published his experiences in what would later become one of the world's best‐selling travelogues; The Innocents Abroad, or the New Pilgrim's Progress. This essay offers a rereading of Twain's encounters, proposing examination of Twain's encounters as timely and useful in addressing what Seaton identifies as a gap in data on thanatourism consumption.

Design/methodology/approach

The essay draws on contemporary thanatourism theoretical frameworks, including Seaton's “Continuum of intensity” and “Thanatourism developmental sketch”; Sharpley's “Matrix of dark tourism supply and demand” and Stone and Sharpley's “Dark tourism consumption framework”, among others, to explore Twain's encounters.

Findings

Supplemented by a review of recent theoretical thanatourism research, the essay proposes three findings. Finding one illustrates that Twain's encounters, although not always pre‐motivated or purposefully supplied, were emotionally charged and deeply affective experiences, which had the potential to provoke ontological insecurity. Finding two highlights the potential of the geography of death to stimulate emotional reactions and configure individual and societal interactions with death. Finding three argues a need for new methodological approaches to understanding the thanatourism experience; approaches that are empathetically sensitive to the potentially powerful impact of the thanatourism experience.

Originality/value

The essay draws on a classic travelogue to help address the imbalance in knowledge of the thanatourism experience. The essay argues that thanatourism is a layered and complex phenomenon, highly personal and often a potentially powerful and emotionally affective experience.

Details

International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, vol. 7 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1750-6182

Keywords

1 – 10 of 157