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This volume contains papers given at the third biennial Wirth Institute for Austrian and Central European Studies Conference on Austrian Economics. The conference was held at a beautiful waterfront facility of Simon Fraser University on October 15 and 16, 2010. In spite of all warnings to expect fog and rain in the Pacific Northwest, the weather was sunny and mild, as were the spirits of the conferees. Our topic title, “Austrian Views on Experts and Epistemic Monopolies,” was perhaps a bit misleading because some of the views represented were not “Austrian.” Indeed, the editorial mission of Advances in Austrian Economics has been to promote dialogue between the “Austrian” tradition of economics and other traditions both within in economics and beyond. Participants discussed the problem of experts from several Austrian and non-Austrian perspectives. While representing different points of view, the participants did tend toward the view that experts may pose a problem in one way or another, especially when they enjoy an epistemic monopoly.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the motivation for firms in emerging economies to engage in constraint absorption. It illustrates the mechanisms that enable business group (BG) affiliated firms to manage interdependencies vis-à-vis standalone firms in emerging economies.

The propositions outlined in this study are rooted in the theoretical lens of resource dependence theory (RDT). The authors integrate RDT with the resource-based view and institutional theory to explain the effect of BG affiliation on the relationship between the two types of interdependence (i.e. mutual dependence and power imbalance) and the likelihood of constraint absorption.

This paper theorizes that BG affiliation influences the relationship between mutual dependence/power imbalance and the likelihood of constraint absorption. However, if both the firms in a dyad are affiliated to a BG, the likelihood of constraint absorption is likely to be low owing to a process called “co-optation” even if mutual dependence or power imbalance between the firms is high.

This paper highlights how BG affiliated firms are better at managing contingencies in the external environment vis-à-vis standalone firms. This paper also advises managers that the type of organizational form is an important factor to be considered while engaging in constraint absorption in an emerging economy.

Engagement, motivation, and persistence are usually associated with positive outcomes. However, too much of it can overtax our psychophysiological system and put it at risk. On the basis of a neuro-dynamic personality and self-regulation model, we explain the neurobehavioral mechanisms presumably underlying engagement and how engagement, when overtaxing the individual, becomes automatically inhibited for reasons of protection. We explain how different intensities and patterns of engagement may relate to personality traits such as Self-directedness, Conscientiousness, Drive for Reward, and Absorption, which we conceive of as functions or strategies of adaptive neurobehavioral systems. We describe how protective inhibitions and personality traits contribute to phenomena such as disengagement and increased effort-sense in chronic fatigue conditions, which often affect professions involving high socio-emotional interactions. By doing so we adduce evidence on hemispheric asymmetry of motivation, neuromodulation by dopamine, self-determination, task engagement, and physiological disengagement. Not least, we discuss educational implications of our model.

H₂O, CO₂ and CO are three main species in combustion systems which have high volume fractions. In addition, soot has strong absorption in the infrared band. Thus, H₂O, CO₂, CO and soot may take important roles in radiative heat transfer. To provide calculations with high accuracy, all of the participating media should be considered non-gray media. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to study the effect of non-gray participating gases and soot on radiative heat transfer in an inhomogeneous and non-isothermal system.

To solve the radiative heat transfer, the fluid flow as well as the pressure, temperature and species distributions were first computed by FLUENT. The radiative properties of the participating media are calculated by the Statistical Narrow Band correlated K-distribution (SNBCK), which is based on the database of EM2C. The calculation of soot properties is based on the Mie scattering theory and Rayleigh theory. The radiative heat transfer is calculated by the discrete ordinate method (DOM).

Using SNBCK to calculate the radiative properties and DOM to calculate the radiative heat transfer, the influence of H₂O, CO₂, CO and soot on radiation heat flux to the wall in combustion system was studied. The results show that the global contribution of CO to the radiation heat flux on the wall in the kerosene furnace was about 2 per cent, but that it can reach up to 15 per cent in a solid fuel gasifier. The global contribution of soot to the radiation heat flux on the wall was 32 per cent. However, the scattering of soot has a tiny influence on radiation heat flux to the wall.

This is the first time H₂O, CO₂, CO and the scattering of soot were all considered simultaneously to study the radiation heat flux in combustion systems.

Interactive mobile technologies (IMT) offered to hotel guests during their stay represent an interesting development in consumer technologies in the hotel industry. Such technologies are designed to facilitate transactions and enhance the quality of guest experience. This research explains how hotel guests develop attitudes and intentions to use IMT in hotels. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Using data from students enrolled in a large hospitality program located in the Southwestern USA, the study validates a variant of the technology acceptance model, extended with constructs such as cognitive absorption and security that capture better the context of IMT in hotels.

The conceptual model explained a large part of variability in intentions to use IMT. Among several predictors, cognitive absorption was the stronger predictor of attitudes. The analysis also revealed the dimensions of cognitive absorption as a second-order factor in the context of mobile commerce in the hotel industry.

This research offers a number of notable theoretical contributions. First, it provides an unique perspective on adoption of immersive technologies that enhance the experiential value of the hotel stay. Second, it revisits and validates the multidimensional construct of cognitive absorption. Finally, it ascertains the roles of cognitive absorption, playfulness, and security in the adoption of IMT.

This research provides specific suggestions to integrate IMT in hotels based on system characteristics and users’ perceptions.

To date, the research examining the immersive aspects of technology is scant. This research provides a novel platform for the systematic examination of the adoption of immersive technologies as they mediate the experiences in hotel service settings.

Frontline employees face constant emotional demands in the course of providing services to their customers, which can impact job engagement. This study aims to investigate the influence of emotional labor (surface and deep acting) and job resources (having a mentor and availability of expressive emotional network resources) on employees’ customer orientation and their relationship to three dimensions of job engagement: vigor, absorption and dedication.

Using data collected from food service providers, a conceptual model based on the job demands–resources theory is developed and tested.

Findings show that having a mentor and expressive emotional network resources increases customer orientation, which in turn increases vigor, absorption and dedication. However, surface acting negatively affects customer orientation, which indirectly reduces job engagement.

Consistent with the main tenet of the job-demands and resources theory, it was found that surface acting reduces engagement, whereas job resources (expressive emotional network resources and mentorship) boost engagement. Moreover, the results suggest that the commercialization of human feelings still remains an important topic for service providers to consider during service interactions because its presence affects frontline service employee engagement levels.

Contingency models have enabled researchers to develop system‐based decision‐making approaches to organizational studies. Two contingency decision‐making models ‐ rational and political choice ‐ have been applied to identify those organizational characteristics and strategic leadership qualities associated with acquisitive growth through “absorption” and “diversification”. A study of the International Telephone and Telegraph Company (ITT) organizational growth strategies from 1920 to 1997 reveals that senior managers adopt the rational decision‐making model when organizational growth through acquisition involves absorption, and the political model when organizational growth calls for diversification. A contingency historical study of ITT demonstrates two important periods in ITT’s organizational life cycles ‐ one of growth (1920‐early 1970s) and one of consolidation/stability (from mid‐1970 to the present time). Contingency models indicate that differences in organizational growth strategies arise due to differences in environmental factors characterizing each period as organizations pass through several stages of growth in their life cycles.

Bloomington scholars are critical of the rather wide-spread “Model Platonism” of both Austrian and Chicago economists. Their empirical, B, perspective avoids the more extreme views of both Austrian “mindful economics,” A, and Chicago “mindless economics,” C. Yet the B is not a mere convex combination of A and C. It is rather a psychologically grounded empirical evidence-oriented approach that keeps clear of the non-empirical spirit of von Mises’ and Selten’s methodological dualism on one hand and the instrumentalist and behaviorist spirit of much of neo-classical economics on the other hand.

Introduction Contemporary marketing thought stresses that pricing decisions ought to be made within the context of the firm's entire marketing mix. Price is but one facet of a company's appeal to consumers and needs to be fully integrated with the physical product, its package, advertising, promotion, distribution and so on, in such a way as to enable it to complement, support and enhance every other component of the marketing mix. This means, among other things, that prices should be determined by reference to the market, set at levels which consumers are able, willing or can be persuaded to pay. In addition, the price he pays for a product should reinforce the consumer's judgement of its image and quality. Just as, according to the marketing concept, it is the buyer rather than the manager who defines the product and, thereby, the firm's business, so the meaning and level of the price at which the product changes hands should be decided ultimately by the attitudes and behaviour of consumers.