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The purpose of this paper is to explore the effect of agricultural extension services provided by public sector on the individual technology adoption behaviour of rice farmers in Sri Lanka.

The study used data from a cross sectional survey conducted in seven rice procuring regions in Sri Lanka. Eight rice technologies were selected to explore the effect of extension service on adoption behaviour of rice farmers using probit models. The extension service variable was identified as potentially endogeneous and instrumented using average extension for each region.

The results revealed that the extension service variable was positive and indicative of a high level of significance in all the rice technologies promoting the adoption. Hence the public agricultural extension service programmes were considered as significant explanators of technology adoption. The farmers who received agricultural extension service were more likely to adopt a technology.

At present, the position of agricultural extension service is questioned and the future is unknown. Therefore, this study advises policy makers to prioritise agricultural policies to strengthen public spending on agricultural extension for effective adoption of technological innovations.

The paper adds solid empirical evidence to the literature on technology adoption behaviour from a peasant agricultural context in a developing country scenario that uses farm level data. Moreover, the study contributes to the literature by reiterating the significance of public provision of extension and training programmes as a direct motive in the technology adoption behaviour of farmers.

The purpose of this paper is to develop weights of key performance areas (KPAs) and performance indicators for public private partnerships (PPPs) in Bangladesh. Since a variety of PPP arrangements is observable, different performance measurement approaches exist in the literature. However, analysing the relative importance of indicators influencing the performance score of particular projects using the perspective of developing countries remains unexplored.

The authors’ method involves application of the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) to develop weights for eight KPAs for which 41 contributing performance indicators have been developed. In total, 68 respondents (62 per cent of the PPP practitioners in Bangladesh) participated in a structured questionnaire survey and their judgements have been found to be consistent, using consistency ratios, a geometric consistency index and one-way ANOVA test.

“Feasibility analysis”, “life cycle evaluation and monitoring” and “optimal risk allocation” are the most significant performance indicators in Bangladesh. “Financing” is the most important KPA, followed by “planning and initiation” and “transparency and accountability”. Interestingly, unlike the cost, time and quality measures of the public sector comparator analysis used in most developed countries, a different set of indicators and KPAs are found dominant.

This suggests that performance indicators and their weights may differ for developing countries. Future research could usefully focus on testing this model in different countries and applying it to derive performance scores for individual PPPs.

An application of AHP in determining weights of the performance indicators represents a major contribution to the literature on PPP performance measurement in the developing countries including Bangladesh.

Introduction Summary: Tourism is accepted as a multidisciplinary industry .Hoteliers and tour operators/travel agencies (TO/TA) count as two main stakeholders in the tourism sector, and they are interdependent with regard to their marketing and service objectives. Distribution channels, as TO and TA, are an important part of tourism growth. As TOs and TAs are the intermediaries between tourist and tourism service providers. Tourists travel to satisfy or fulfill their dreams because travel is a need for psychological relief that motivates people for temporary movement to different places and different countries. The research aims to examine the effects of perceived stakeholder conflict factors (PSCF) issues identified from the existing literature on guests’ outcomes in accommodation establishment located in Kyrenia, Northern Cyprus. PSCF is, namely, misinformation, unmanaged bookings and operational mistakes involving quality-price inconsistency and unsolved guest’s problems should be considered by both parties. Therefore, the objective of this study is to address the research gap regarding the effects of PSCFs on guests’ perceived value (GPV), guest satisfaction (GS) and behavioral intention (BI). Purpose: This study aims to investigate stakeholders conflict and its effects on guests’ outcomes, namely GPV, GS and BI associated with accommodation establishments, which has not been examining empirically before. Design/Methodology/Approach: This study conceptualized PSCFs and developed a scale for assessing this conflict and its outcomes. Through careful instrument development process, four sub-dimensions and 17 items of PSCFs were identified. Findings: The overall PSCFs’ effects obtained indicate that GPV, GS and BI are associated with accommodation establishments, and are negatively affected by the unsatisfactory relationship between these two key stakeholders. Originality/Value: The study empirically tested the conceptual model through conducting survey research to collect data from the guests whose trips were organized through a TO/TA and staying in five-star or four-star accommodation establishments located in Kyrenia, Northern Cyprus.

Those of us in our mid‐thirties can just barely remember the tourist homes, guesthouses, small hotels, and “mom and pop” tourist cabins which once dotted the two‐lane highways of this country, roads like Route 66 which spanned the country east to west and U.S. I which ran from Maine to Florida. However, aided by the developing interstate highway system, Holiday Inn, Best Western, and several other major chains spread themselves all over the landscape in the 1960s and 1970s and won a large part of the growing leisure and business travel dollar. Indeed, Holiday Inn's ubiquitous qualities were so thoroughly standardized that the company adopted the slogan, “The best surprise is no surprise.” The trouble is some people like to be surprised, especially if the surprise is a pleasant one. Until a few years ago, the traveler looking for a more interesting or cheaper accommodation than a typical chain motel had few guidebooks to choose from. Country Inns and Back Roads and Farm, Ranch and Country Vacations were about all that were available. Since the late 1970s, however, a steady stream of alternative accommodation books has appeared, and now any library faced with choosing guidebooks for the reference collection finds a bewildering number of them. In this review I will examine and evaluate what is available to guide the traveler to alternative accommodations in the United States and Canada. I'll look at bed and breakfast guides, guides to country inns, farm vacations, and college campus accommodations, but not camping guides.

To investigate the skills and abilities that MBAs who study marketing, those occupying marketing positions, and companies that hire marketers regard as important; the level of competency required to perform on the job; and areas that need improvement, whether through on‐the‐job training, continuing education, or changes in MBA curricula.

Large‐scale international longitudinal and cross‐sectional surveys used to assess skill development, skill requirements, and the need for additional education provides the foundation of this paper. The data are obtained from three surveys conducted by the Graduate Management Admission Council: Global MBA Graduate Survey, MBA Alumni Perspectives Survey, and Corporate Recruiters Survey.

Understanding the perspectives of different constituencies provides an in‐depth and comprehensive view of the skills and abilities needed by those who work in marketing. Without the assistance of a crystal ball to peer into the future, an empirical investigation is required into the relationship between skill development in the classroom, practical use of skills in the field, and the requirements of hiring companies for graduates. The paper identifies a thinking‐doing divide, discusses why it exists, and suggests how it may be corrected.

The research, although consisting of large international samples, is limited to students and alumni of graduate business schools and companies that hire MBAs. Even though the scope of the samples is limited to more advanced practitioners, the information is useful to faculty, students, and companies at all levels to assist in developing marketers of the future.

This paper presents data from three viewpoints that taken together yield a comprehensive picture of graduate education for marketers as it exists today, and clearly suggests directions for graduate education of future marketers.

In marketing, as in other areas of management studies, there is a feeling abroad that lines of communication need to be improved between those who work largely in the academic sphere and the practitioner community. Introduces the papers presented in this special issue, which explore the nature of the “academic‐practitioner divide”, investigates the reasons for it and the barriers to communication that exist, and put forward ideas for improving the effectiveness of academic‐practitioner collaboration. However, members of the academic community should carefully avoid a headlong and uncritical rush for managerial relevance, since their claim to a unique position in the knowledge production process relies on maintaining objectivity and a certain distance from the day‐to‐day pressures of marketing management.