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In this chapter, the performance of Swiss mountain ropeway companies in the period from 2011 to 2016 have been analyzed. The sample includes 194 observations from 43 companies, covering about 90% of the market. In order to explain the levels of cash-flow returns, the degree of self-financing and revenue growth for ropeway companies, firm-specific characteristics, meteorological data, infrastructure information and market-specific factors were taken into account. The results, which are based on a general method of moments estimates, reveal that a high equity ratio and consistent capital expenditures are important for performance. Also, the market environment, including such factors as exchange rates and brand recognition of ski areas in Europe and Asia, are important for firm performance. Overall, the Swiss market is a unique country for this type of analysis, given either that the required data on mountain ropeway companies in other countries are unavailable or that a few rather large companies dominate the market.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a stochastic optimisation model for integrating service and maintenance policies in order to solve the queuing problem and the cost of maintenance activities for public transport services, with a particular focus on urban ropeway system.

The authors adopt the following approaches: a discrete-event model that uses a set of interrelated queues for the formulation of the service problem using a cost-based expression; and a maintenance model consisting of preventive and corrective maintenance actions, which considers two different maintenance policies (periodic block-type and age-based).

The work shows that neither periodic block-type maintenance nor an age-based maintenance is necessarily the best maintenance strategy over a long system lifecycle; the optimal strategy must consider both policies.

The maintenance policies are then evaluated for their impact on the service and operation of the transport system. The authors conclude by applying the proposed optimisation model using an example concerning ropeway systems.

This is the first study to simultaneously consider maintenance policy and operational policy in an urban aerial ropeway system, taking up the problem of queuing with particular attention to the unique requirements public transport services.

WIRE ropes are found in almost every industry. Short lengths are used on many fork lift trucks, cranes, and other hoisting machinery, long lengths, up to several miles, are used for aerial ropeways, in collieries, and on many kinds of hoisting and transporting equipment. In many cases long aerial ropeways provide the only means of transport across water, deserts, bogs and even mountains. They are costly to buy and replace and their breakdown can cause serious loss of production in addition to possible injury to personnel.

This research paper aims to explore whether and how perceived corporate social responsibility (CSR) influences employee-associated outcomes in ways that are controllable by managers. Drawing from the theories of self-determination and social identity, this study investigates the mediating effects of psychological needs fulfillment and organizational identification in exploring the mechanisms that link perceived CSR to employee job performances of Chinese state-owned tourism companies.

Survey was used to collect original data from ten Chinese state-owned tourism companies to examine the proposed model. Data was analyzed through structural equation modeling.

Employees’ perceptions of CSR are found to demonstrate significantly effective associations with their job performance. Moreover, results support that the influences of CSR on staff’s job performance are also conveyed through psychological needs fulfillment (competence) and organizational identification (i.e. cognitive identification and affective identification).

Findings not only provide strategic ideas and operational tactics for tourism managers to devise CSR strategies and allocate CSR resources but also offer inspirations to integrate CSR initiatives with human resource management strategies.

This study diverts the research of CSR from the organizational level to the individual level. This study also explores the mechanism of psychological needs fulfillment and organizational identification underlying processes in the employee perceptions of CSR–job performance linkages.

Part One in this series appeared in our June issue and dealt with early and more recent investigations which have proved the importance of wire rope lubrication. Part Two (July issue) covered the duties and properties of wire rope lubricants.

Convict labor which the Sumitomo family rounded up in order to carry charcoal from the charcoal kiln to the smelting hearth on the steep mountain paths, began in 1881 at the Besshi copper mine. When one local newspaper scooped cruelties to miners at the Takashima coal mine in 1887, the Sumitomo family was socially criticized for using convict labor at the Besshi mine. The prefectural governor of Ehime asked Sumitomo to stop it in 1888, and then abolished it in March, 1889. Officially,we can understand the abolition of convict labor at the Besshi mine as a political process. However, it is assumed that without the technical advancement and the good condition of the economy in this period, the abolition of convict labor would not have been possible. The author suggests that it was the major reason why Sumitomo accepted the prefectural governor’s request to abolish it.

Eighteen executives from industry take time off to shoot rapids, climb mountains and go skin diving. It all sounds a bit gimmicky — a sort of adventure playground for adults. But after spending a week on the course — devised by Bulmers' chairman, Peter Prior — and speaking to the men taking part, Leslie Kenton reports that the idea is a valuable means of developing a manager's leadership qualities. Not to mention his physique.