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This paper aims to examine the UK’s small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) policies under Margaret Thatcher’s era in the 1980s, with a view to understand the success stories, historical development and the structures of Chinese family business through a case study of See Woo Holdings Ltd.

The authors have achieved the objective on the study of the SMEs policies under Margaret Thatcher through critical evaluation of the historical literatures, books, journals and newspapers. The study on overseas Chinese business and the case of See Woo Holdings Ltd. is mainly through the research of the Chinese overseas in the UK and Southeast Asia, and the companies report from the Companies House in the UK. The authors have used the latest 2011 UK Census statistics and academic reports to locate the most current demographic changes and Chinese business characteristics in the UK and the Northeast of England.

First, the UK’s SMEs policies under Margaret Thatcher were quite receptive towards the ethnic business. Second, the case of See Woo Holdings Ltd. indicates that family business networks are still one of the characteristics of Chinese business. Finally, the broader UK’s SMEs policies play an important role in this case study.

The authors provide a tentative linkage between the UK’s SMEs policies under Margaret Thatcher and Chinese family business. In addition, the case study of See Woo Holdings Ltd. improves the current understanding of Chinese family business with a clearer picture about their structure, practice, characteristics and development.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of earnings forecast revisions by equity analysts in predicting Canadian stock returns

The sample covers 420 Canadian firms over the period 1998-2009. It analyses investors’ reactions to 27,271 upward revisions and 32,005 downward revisions of analysts’ forecasts for Canadian quoted companies. To test whether analysts’ earnings forecast revisions affect stock return continuation, forecast revision portfolios similar to Jegadeesh and Titman (2001) are constructed. The paper analyses the returns gained from a trading strategy based on buying the strong upward revisions portfolio and short selling the strong downward revisions portfolio. It also separates the sample into upward and downward revisions.

The authors find that new information in the form of analyst forecast revisions is not impounded efficiently into stock prices. Significant returns persist for a trading strategy that buys stocks with recent upward revisions and short sells stocks with recent downward revisions. Good news is impounded into stock prices more slowly than bad news. Post-earnings forecast revisions drift is negatively related to analyst coverage. The effect is strongest for stocks with greatest number of upward revisions. The introduction of the better disclosure standards has made the Canadian stock market more efficient.

The paper adds to the limited evidence on the effect of analyst forecast revisions on the returns of Canadian stocks. It sheds light on the importance of analysts’ earnings forecast information and offers support for the investor conservatism and information diffusion hypotheses. It also shows how policy can improve market efficiency.

The purpose of this paper is to report on a study that examined the factors of motivation and satisfaction of mega‐business events, using the ITU Telecom World 2006 in Hong Kong as a case study.

The paper takes the form of a structured questionnaire developed by the authors and distributed by the event organizer to registered attendees.

Empirical findings showed that the respondents attended the event mainly for business and networking opportunities. Overall, they were satisfied with Hong Kong as the location for the ITU Telecom World 2006. Additionally, there were no significant differences in perception between overseas and local attendees in all but two attributes.

The major limitations of this case study are the low response rate and the fact that the results would be limited to this sector of activity.

The findings should be of use to related practitioners and policy makers to set more pragmatic plans for hosting mega‐business events.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether mutual fund investors can make effective cash flow timing decisions and examine the sensitivity of these decisions to past fund performance using cash flow data at the individual fund level.

This study examines performance persistence and investor timing ability of 200 domestic equity mutual funds in Taiwan between 1996 and 2009. In particular, a performance gap measuring the difference between dollar‐weighted average monthly returns and geometric average monthly returns is used to evaluate investors' timing ability.

The empirical results show that funds that have performed well (poorly) in the previous year tend to continue performing well (poorly) in the following year, and investors' timing performance is negatively related to fund performance. The results also show that investors' timing performance is significantly and negatively related to fund size, length of fund history, and momentum‐style of funds, but positively related to value‐style funds. These results suggest that mutual fund investors are loss‐averse and demonstrate return‐chasing behavior in well‐performing funds.

The paper contributes to the mutual fund performance literature by proposing an integrated framework that jointly tests fund performance and how it affects investors' cash flow timing decisions. Furthermore, the paper individually measures investors' timing sensitivity for the current best (worst) performance funds and consecutive two‐year best (worst) performance funds, and contributes to a growing body of research on the behavior of mutual fund investors.

The objectives of this study are to investigate the relationship between hotel room demand and room rates, and to find a viable solution for the optimal room rate that maximizes the total profit.

There are various studies in the literature on how room rates affect profitability, and how the optimal room rate that maximizes the total revenue can be determined. Most of these studies assume an algebraic relationship between room rates and room demand, and obtain the optimal solution by applying calculus to the revenue or profit function. This study adopts the alternative approach of using a model with a demand function that has been shown to be a superior causal forecasting model in some markets, and develops a new method to optimize the total profit.

The traditional method of applying calculus to the profit function based on a causal forecasting model leads to unrealistic solutions. This gives rise to the paradox that, on the one hand, there is a superior causal forecasting model based on room rates, but on the other hand, the traditional method does not yield a realistic solution for room rate optimization. This study analyzes the underlying causes of this paradox and proposes a method to resolve it.

The findings can be used by hotels to fine‐tune the room rates determined by conventional methods to arrive at a realistic and definitive value for the optimal room rate.

This study highlights the problems that arise with the traditional method of applying calculus to revenue and profit optimization and proposes a new method to resolve it.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a personal view of the state of hospitality and tourism research as we enter 2018. It seeks to highlight a number of systemic issues that are affecting adversely the quality of research published.

This is an auto-ethnographic approach based on the author’s nearly 30 years of working and researching in the field of hospitality and tourism.

The paper begins by talking about many of the positive things that are occurring in this field, before raising five main issues of concern: the changing nature of academic research; our own lack of critical thinking; becoming method robots; publishing and authorship pressures that hinder career development and creativity; and whether our own lack of working experience hurts the academic development of the field.

The paper provides a list of five key issues all academics must be aware of to ensure both their own career progression and the continued development of the field.

President Richard M. Nixon's historic trip to the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1972 established a relationship between the United States and the PRC which was formalized when President Nixon signed the Shanghai Communique. This treaty proclaimed China's willingness to accept foreign investment and its movement toward becoming a more “open door” nation. With the normalization of full diplomatic relations between the United States and the PRC in 1978, U.S. investments in the PRC and the interest of world marketers has gained momentum. Today there is intense interest in the potential of the PRC market among U.S. consumer goods manufacturers, of both consumer durables and nondurables. U.S. consumer goods companies are starting to produce their products for and in China.