Search results

In pursuit of good governance and better allocation of resources, corruption and informal economy are of interest to policymakers and citizens alike. The impacts of military spending on the informal economy are scant. Moreover, the effects of an external factor, such as corruption that moderates this relationship, have largely been neglected in previous studies. Hence, this paper investigates how corruption moderates the effects of military spending on the informal economy in 30 Asian countries from 1995 to 2017.

This paper utilizes the GMM estimation technique, which allows cross-sectional dependence and slope homogeneity in panel data analysis, to examine the moderating role of corruption on the relationship between military spending and the informal economy.

Empirical findings from this paper indicate that an increase in military spending declines the informal economy while corruption increases it. Interestingly, the negative effects of military spending on the informal economy will mitigate with a greater degree of corruption in the Asian region. We also find that enhancing economic growth and attracting more FDI has reduced the informal economy in Asian countries.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first empirical study conducted to examine the moderating role of corruption on the military spending – informal economy nexus. Thus far, this approach has not been investigated in the existing literature, particularly for Asian countries.

This research addresses the professional logics of street-level managers (SLMs) and bureaucrats (SLBs) working in the Brazilian National Social Security Agency (INSS) through their perceptions of distributive justice and discretion. Since SLMs have the authority to influence SLBs' actions, we investigate whether these two groups hold similar viewpoints.

We integrate the administrative data and survey responses (n = 678) with earlier thematic content analysis (n = 350) in three stages: mean-testing, regression analyses and complementary qualitative analysis, integrated through a mixed-methods matrix.

Whilst no significant differences emerge in distributive justice ideas between groups, SLMs demand wider benefit-granting discretion, praising professionalism whilst adopting managerial posture and jargon.

The study adds to the theoretical discussions concerning SLM’s influence on SLB’s decision-making, suggesting that other factors outweigh it. The finding concerning the managers’ demand for wider discretion asks for further in-depth approaches.

Findings supply valuable insights for policymakers and managers steering administrative reforms, by questioning whether some roles SLMs play are limited to symbolic levels. Further, SLBs’ heterogenous formations might be more relevant to policy divergence than managerial influence and perhaps an underutilised source of innovation.

By approaching street-level management professional logics within a Global South welfare state through a mixed-methods approach, this study offers a holistic understanding of complex dynamics, providing novel insights for public sector management.

At the beginning of the 21st century, a new class of information workers, the “information have-less” has risen. This class of workers alleviates the influence of information and communication technologies (ICTs) revolution on poverty and unemployment. The purpose of this study is to investigate the presence of this class of workers in Egypt and assess the size and potential growth of this category of workers.

The study clarifies the conceptual framework of the new division of labor, in the information age. The Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and Information and Decision Support Center websites provided secondary data for this study. These data are used to assess the size of “the information have less” in Egypt.

The division of work and class, in the 21st century, depends on the level of skills possessed to work with ICTs. So, class and labor nowadays could be divided into self-programmable labor (Innovators). Information have-less labor class, adding value to the economy by learning skills and presenting repetitive work. Generic labor class, who cannot work with ICTs, and work in jobs, that do not need computers or other ICTs. The study has shown that the “information have-less” labor class is present in Egypt since the beginning of the 21st century, in all its categories; entrepreneurism, the service sector and the manufacturing sector. There are approximately 50% of this labor class in the service sector and only 13% of the information have-less works in manufacturing sector despite the great opportunities that Egypt has to expand manufacturing to absorb more employment. The inclusion of information technology (IT), in all domains, has not decreased employment in Western countries but has reallocated information have-less employment toward the service sector, and there would probably be the same effect in Egypt.

The study highlights the need for Egyptian policymakers to encourage the manufacturing and service sectors to provide huge working opportunities. The Egyptian government has to change the educational policies, at all stages, to include digital learning skills so IT can be incorporated in a wide range of economic activities. Further research includes: conducting a survey to measure the contribution of the entrepreneurial part of the information have-less employment in Egypt. In addition, a model may be developed, by the researcher to examine the reallocation of employees in Egypt.

Studying employment, in Egypt, using the conceptual framework of the information age is rarely being done.

Social sciences have discussed the host–guest relation from many theoretical lenses and perspectives. Violence as well as local crime has been studied as one of the major risks concerning tourism security. Anyway, less attention was given to homeless people and their interaction with foreign or local tourists. The purpose of this paper is oriented to explain how globalization has winners and losers, in which case, as noted, thousands of persons are excluded from the formal labor marketplace or the economic system year by year.

This is a conceptual paper that discusses critically not only the recent advances of sociology in urban tourism but also the connection between homeless people and tourists.

There is an urban underclass formed by those who have been excluded from the economic system. What is more important, such an underclass situates nearby luxury hotels and tourist destinations creating serious contradictions or zones of disputes. These contradictions have been approached by different sociologists since the turn of the 20th century.

The question of sustainability, as well as the idea of liveable cities, and the efficient organization of the city, have occupied a central position in the academic debate, above all after the COVID-19 pandemic. In the present paper, the authors put in dialogue the contributions of Marc Auge with Zyggy Bauman toward a new understanding of this postmodern phenomenon.

Based on the metaphor of vagabonds and tourists, we give a snapshot of the problem of homelessness in Buenos Aires city and its effects on the tourism industry. Unlike other English-speaking countries where the cities are actively organized by the state, Buenos Aires city lacks a planned program to regulate and relocate homeless people. They dwell in nonplaces nearby tourists sleeping in the streets near luxury hotels (but for sure escaping any planning or governmental control).

This paper aims to explore the opinions of business owners in an industrial area of Abu Dhabi that could be potentially turned into an art tourism destination.

By mobilizing the concept of “gentrification aesthetics,” the authors use a recall technique to explore support toward art from business owners, regression analyses to understand how the type and content of art predicts gentrification support and chi-square to research the differences between respondents who support the area to become a creative place and those who do not.

A model that explains the connection between gentrification aesthetics and art tourism is presented.

The authors’ proposed model results from testing the possibilities for expanding art tourism specifically and may not apply to other types of tourism. Future research is needed to understand whether and how the model can be applied to other forms of tourist consumption.

The current research presents a case study on how tourism can be strategically expanded into more rural places in a city.

The authors found significant differences between respondents who would like to see Mussafah becoming a creative place in five years and those who believe Mussafah needs to be(come) something else.

While work on tourism gentrification has been conducted, the nexus between gentrification aesthetics and art tourism cannot be found. Their relation can help to expend (art) tourism from busy cultural attractions to industrial areas. The present research fills this gap.

The aim of this study is to examine the nature and determinants of stock market integration between India and other Asia–Pacific countries (Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Japan, China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Taiwan) over the period 1991–2021.

Unit root tests, the dynamic conditional correlation-Glosten Jagannathan and Runkle-generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (DCC-GJR-GARCH), pooled ordinary least squares (OLS) regression and random effects models are employed for the analysis.

The empirical results show that the DCC between each pair of sample countries is less than 0.5, indicating weak ties between the pairs of sample countries. Also, the DCC between India and other Asia–Pacific stock markets is positive and low, implying low level of integration. The correlation between India and China stock markets is found to be the highest, implying significant level of integration. The main reason for it would be strong economic linkages and bilateral trade relationship between India and China. Moreover, gross domestic product (GDP), interest rate (IR), consumer price index (CPI)-inflation and money supply (MS) differentials are the major driver of stock market integration between India and other Asia–Pacific countries.

The findings of the study have important implications for investors, portfolio managers and policymakers. It is found that the DCC between India and other Asia–Pacific countries (considered in the study) except China is low, which indicates weak ties between the pairs of sample countries. This implies that the Indian stock market provides good investment opportunities for foreign investors. Also, investors and portfolio managers can attain more diversified benefits and can minimize country risk by investing across Asia–Pacific countries. Further, knowledge about the factors that integrate the Indian stock market with the other Asia–Pacific stock markets will help policymakers frame suitable economic and financial stabilization policies.

This study contributes to the extant literature: first, by examining the linkages of Indian stock market with other Asia–Pacific countries; second, although previous studies confirmed the existence of linkages among the various stock markets, few researchers pay attention to the factors driving the process of stock market integration. This study provides additional evidence by examining the significant macroeconomic factors driving the process of such integration in the Asia–Pacific region considered under the study.

Our study examines how artificial intelligence (AI) can enhance decision-making processes to promote circular economy practices within the utility sector.

A unique case study of Alia Servizi Ambientali Spa, an Italian multi-utility company using AI for waste management, is analyzed using the Gioia method and semi-structured interviews.

Our study discovers the proactive role of the user in waste management processes, the importance of economic incentives to increase the usefulness of the technology and the role of AI in waste management transformation processes (e.g. glass waste).

The present study enhances the circular economy model (transformation, distribution and recovery), uncovering AI’s role in waste management. Finally, we inspire managers with algorithms used for data-driven decisions.

The impact of COVID-19 on tourism destinations has been severe, but a future crisis is never far away. How communities can better prepare for disasters to come in the near future continues to be researched. This research aims to understand the tourism community’s responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and present the Tourism Community Resilience Model as a useful instrument to help communities better respond to disasters in the future.

This research uses a qualitative research approach which seeks to understand phenomena, events, social activities, attitudes, beliefs, perceptions and individual and group opinions that are dynamic in character in accordance with the situation in the field. Research primary data is in the form of Kuta Traditional Village local community responses in enduring the COVID-19 pandemic conducted between January and May 2022. These data were obtained through in-depth observations and interviews involving informants based on purposive sampling, including traditional community leaders, village officials, tourism actors (i.e. street vendors, tourist local guides, taxi drivers and art workers) and tourism community members. We selected the informants who are not only directly impacted by the pandemic, but also some of them have to survive during the pandemic because they do not have other job options. The results of previous research and government data concerning the pandemic and community resilience were needed as secondary data, which were obtained through a study of the literature. The data which had been obtained were further analysed based on the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) technique, which seeks to make meaning of something from the participants’ perspective and the researchers’ perspective as a result there occurs a cognition of a central position.

Based on findings from Bali, Indonesia, this resilience model for the tourism community was created in response to the difficulties and fortitude shown by the community during the COVID-19 pandemic. It comprises four key elements, namely the Local Wisdom Foundation, Resource Management, Government Contributions and External Community Support. These elements are all rooted in the concepts of niskala (spirituality) and sekala (real response); it is these elements that give the tourism community in the Kuta Traditional Village a unique approach, which can inspire other tourism destinations in other countries around the world.

A tourism community resilience model based on local community responses has implications for the process of enriching academic research and community management practices in facing future crisis, particularly by involving local wisdom foundation.

A tourism community resilience model based on local community responses has implications for the process of enriching academic research and community management practices in facing future crisis, particularly by involving local wisdom foundation.

The existence of the resilience model strengthens local community social cohesion, which has been made stronger by the bonds of culture and shared faith in facing disaster. This social cohesion then stimulates the strength of sustainable and long-term community collaboration in the post-pandemic period. For tourism businesses, having strong connections with the local communities is an important condition to thrive.

The value of this research is the Tourism Resilience Community Model, which is a helpful tool to optimise and improve future strategies for dealing with disasters. Illustrated by this Balinese example, this paper emphasises the importance of adding social factors such as niskala and sekala to existing community resilience models. Addressing these local characteristics is the innovative aspect of this paper and will help inspire communities around the world to prepare for future disasters better and build more sustainable and resilient tourism destinations elsewhere.

Microenterprises in emerging economies are known to operate in turbulent and resource-scarce environments. We test our hypothesis that a more comprehensive “Integrated Capital-Based Model” (ICBM) is needed when explaining the performance of microenterprises in such an environment. The model combines traditionally researched financial, human and social capital with more recently emphasized psychological and cognitive capital, providing greater explanatory power than models using only the traditional types of capital.

We use a pooled linear regression to analyze an existing survey of more than 900 independent business owners who were interviewed seven times between 2008 and 2012 in the Accra and Tema marketplaces in Ghana. We measure the performance of microenterprises using three dependent variables (revenue, profits, and productivity). We contrast the explanatory power of ICBM models against the more traditional models.

The ICBM has significantly higher levels of explanatory power over the traditional models in examining the performance of these microenterprises. These results highlight the importance of psychological and cognitive capital in emerging economies.

We advocate for a more comprehensive view of capital as shown in our ICBM. However, the data were gathered only in an urban setting, which limits the generalizability to rural parts of emerging economies.

These findings suggest the utility of government and appropriate agencies finding ways to enhance the level of psychological and cognitive capital of microenterprise owners.

This paper's originality stems from hypothesizing and empirically confirming the higher predictive efficacy of ICBM against more traditionally researched capital sources.

Circular economy (CE) is receiving increasing worldwide attention as a manner to overcome the challenges linked to current trends of unsustainable energy and resource consumption. This paper aims to fill this gap and analyze the adherence to sustainable, access-based and collaborative consumption practices by exploring the role of CE awareness, specifically in the context of Porto, the second-largest city of Portugal.

The methodology of choice is quantitative, based on partial least square-based structural equation modeling.

The result shows that there is an influence of CE awareness on subsequent sustainable consumption models.

Present research contributes to the theory on CE awareness and sustainable consumption. It proposes a model that could be applied in other countries. As this research is developed within the city of Porto, it may limit generalizations of obtained results.

As CE practices are embodied into national and local policies, this research contributes to understanding local contexts of CE practices dissemination, providing practical suggestions for businesses and policymakers aiming the transition to the CE.

An original approach to measuring the awareness of CE economy is proposed, that is analyzed not only from the familiarity perspective but in six dimensions of its construction: familiarity, importance, perception or interpretation, advantages, social impact and barriers in this process. Further, the conceptual model of the impact that these dimensions have on the adoption of sustainable consumption models (purchase of sustainable products, access-based and collaborative consumption) is proposed.