Academic literature on the topic 'Fields of Research – 350000 Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services – 350500 Tourism'

Recently, New Zealand's wine industry has made remarkable progress. For example, the number of hectares planted in grapes increased from 4,880 in 1990, to 15,479 in 2003, and the number of wineries increased from 175 in 1993 to 421 in 2003. Projections for 2006 indicate that the growth of wine exports should nearly double from 2003, with expected revenues of $NZ 736 million. However, despite this growth, little has been reported about developments in New Zealand's wine tourism industry, or about consumer perceptions of the winery experience in the form of published academic research. The limited amount of information, particularly from the visitors' points of view, may not only be preventing winery operators and the wine industry in general from having a better understanding of their visitors, but also from addressing the needs of different visitor segments. Resulting implications for winery operators may include forgone business opportunities, and customers not fully benefiting in terms of product and service quality. Recent studies indicate that this last element is particularly important in wine tourism. This study reports the results of an exploratory research project conducted in New Zealand wineries that investigated aspects of the winery experience, including wine involvement, satisfaction with the winery experience, and visitor demographics. An index to measure involvement with wine, the wine involvement index (WIX), was developed and utilised to investigate whether wine involvement had an impact on winery visitors' behaviour. Data were collected from winery visitors via questionnaires distributed in a sample of wineries in different wine regions of New Zealand. A total of 609 usable responses were obtained (24.8% response rate). The results indicate a number of differences between the independent, dependent, and moderating variables. For example, it was found that age, whether visitors are domestic or international, and different levels of wine involvement appear to have a clear impact on winery expenditure. In addition, the WIX was confirmed to be a useful tool, for example, by identifying potential relationships between different groups of winery visitors. The results add new knowledge to the area of wine tourism, and offer useful information for wineries and the wine tourism industry. This information includes the potential commercial significance of some visitor groups. An additional contribution of this study is the 'complete wine tourism research model.' This concept presents an alternative to existing wine tourism models, and points out attributes and dimensions that play a major role in the winery experience.

Empirical studies have established that tourism is a major determinant of economic growth and that international air services have a beneficial effect on the growth and development of an economy. It has also been argued that trade and public enterprise reforms in the service sectors, undertaken to a greater extent in high income countries, have had a positive impact on the sectors performances. This study analyses several hypotheses relating to Fiji’s tourism and air transport service industries. First the study examines the contribution of tourism exports to economic growth in the case of Fiji. Second, the study analyses whether the tourism reform adopted by Fiji in 1999 under the World Trade Organization’s General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) has impacted on total tourism export performance. Third, the aviation-service growth nexus is investigated. Lastly, the effect of the aviation public enterprise reform activities on the export performance of air services is evaluated. Using time series annual data from 1968 to 2006, the Auto Regressive Distributed Lag. methodology has been utilized to estimate the contribution of each service sector to Fiji’s total service output. The results show that the tourism is a major determinant of growth in Fiji and that the aviation service-growth hypothesis is also valid for Fiji. The empirical results show that both the trade reforms in tourism and the pro-competitive measures undertaken in the airline industry, amongst other determinants, have not significantly created an impact on the respective export performance of tourism and air services. These findings provide key policy implications in the light of capitalizing on services exports as a major source of growth, particularly in developing island countries such as Fiji and the need to facilitate the strengthening of the market to boost the export performance of tourism and air services.

Antarctica is one of the most beautiful and remote places on the planet. The moniker of being the highest, driest, coldest, iciest, windiest, most remote continent, surrounded by the stormiest ocean is well deserved, yet it also acts as quite a draw for visitors. Despite the fact that visitor numbers have been steadily rising for the past 15 years, very little is empirically known about the experience these visitors have, particularly outside of the Antarctic Peninsula region. This lack of understanding is particularly detrimental from the perspective of visitor management, as is being discovered by agencies worldwide. As such, the aim of this thesis is to report on a study of visitor experiences in the Ross Sea region of Antarctica. Visitors are defined as those who come into physical contact with the continent, and whose primary activity and purpose is simply "being there." Visitors are a wider population than just commercial tourists aboard cruise ships; visitors are not passengers on commercial overflights, the scientists or base and support staff. Experience is defined as a longitudinal period—looking at visitors well in advance of their visit, throughout their time on site, and following up back at their homes. The Ross Sea region is essentially equivalent to New Zealand's Ross Dependency, a section of the Antarctic "pie" from the South Pole to 60°S, bounded by approximately 150°E and 150°W. Using a three-phase methodology to examine the cycle of experience, the purpose of this study is to compare groups of visitors with four organisations through this cycle, and analyse for change or transition as a result of their visit. The visitors were participants, to varying degrees, in a number of data-gathering methods during the 2002–2003 or 2003–2004 seasons. Such methods included: self-administered surveys sent to the respondents' home (up to three months in advance of the trip); personal narratives and journals while on the trip (regardless of trip length; 4–28 days); in-depth interviews held in Christchurch directly before and after the trip when possible; and email surveys (two to three months following the visit). In 2003–2004, a supplemental season of data was collected that included a researcher familiarisation visit, participant observation, and informal interviews at Scott Base. These supplemental data helped shape the researcher's own thoughts and thus comments in the Discussion sections. Results indicate both similarities and differences as compared to previous research; key findings include: scenery was a strong motivator and component of image; expectations were for a safe and professional learning; mood was positive throughout all phases; visitation was both acceptable and problematic; the environment was important, even in advance of the visit; education was an essential benefit of the visit; the Ross Sea region was an impressive and awe-inspiring locale; organisational differences were apparent when discussing people and the role of transportation to the continent; historic huts were uniformly amazing sites for the feelings they instil; expectations were virtually always exceeded; awareness changed over the experience; sharing of awareness and teaching from one's learning had occurred; action may or may not have occurred on various specific issues, but the label of ambassador was respondent-perceived to be acceptable. This study concludes with a number of implications for theory, methods, and logistics, which will hopefully lead to future research that is much wider in scope (geographically), but equally inclusive in terms of methods and ability to utilize and critique theories built outside of purely tourism research.

This thesis looks at the potential for using tourism as a poverty alleviation strategy in the context of Vietnam and the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS). The theoretical basis for this research stems for the growing recognition within development rhetoric of the place of tourism as a key industry in many developing nations, and the formation of a Pro-Poor Tourism (PPT) approach. The fieldwork section of this thesis looks at the barriers and opportunities for those in the poorer communities of Lang Co, a small town on the cental east coast of Vietnam, to supply the burgeoning tourism industry with locally produced products that are compatible with their current livelihood strategies. Results show that there are many opportunities for the poor to benefit from the rapidly growing tourism industry in Vietnam and the region. There is a strong recognition of tourism in national and regional development strategies, there is a rich cultural, environmental and social context driving the tourism industry and there are several initiatives taking place, such as the Vietnamese National Tourism Law, which include many elements of pro-poor tourism principles. However, this thesis has found many barriers also prevent poorer people from benefiting from tourism. In the case of Lang Co, the poor were often limited in their ability to participate in the industry by debt and lack of access to credit, lack of education and training opportunities, a declining natural resource base and by a lack of awareness and participation in the planning of the tourism industry. More widely, the tourism industry is centrally driven and focused on high growth and large infrastructure type developments which in some cases conflict with the principles of PPT and the ability of people at the ground level to participate. This research highlights the complexity of attempting to use tourism as a poverty reduction strategy given the wide range of stakeholders involved and various levels involved the planning and implementation of the tourism industry. The potential applicability of a concept of pro-poor tourism in a rapidly changing context such as Vietnam is contingent of the ability of the poor to have influence on an industry which is having an increasing effect on their lives and livelihoods.

This thesis argues that while analysing markets and developing strategies to exploit the external market place and to attract tourists remains a central focus for tourism marketers, it is not enough on its own to achieve sustainable tourism destination development. The researcher substantiates this argument by exploring the 'participatory tourism planning' concept in detail. Based on this approach, the community is identified as a primary customer for whom tourism marketers have ignored involving in their marketing attention, messages and programmes. The fundamental concept - marketing orientation and customer orientation - combined with emerging marketing theories were reviewed in order to help examine how destination marketing, a community-driven approach, should be implemented within a destination area. This examination of marketing and community based tourism planning set a platform for this research. This analysis examines relevance, applicability and potential for an integration of these two pervasive approaches for tourism planning. Guided by the theoretical examination, an integrated community-based tourism planning and marketing model was proposed. In order to explore gaps between the proposed model and its practicality, three destination areas (Phuket, Samui and Songkla-Hatyai) in Thailand were studied and evaluated. At this pragmatic level, this thesis identified impediments confronting national and local tourism organisations. The findings of this study draw a particular attention to institutional challenges which require clear identification of responsibilities and coordination of all actors involved in the planning and marketing process. These selected case studies have not only provided critical commentaries to assist tourism planners improve strategically their marketing approaches within community tourism planning, but they also have helped provide avenues for future research.

This study develops and used a CHESS (chief Executive Stress Survival) model developed from the occupational stress literature to predict variations in the psychological and physical stress experience and health risk of chief Executives of New Zealand organisations. The model proposes that stress is a sequential process with identifiable phases and that variation are mainly due to the frequency of environmental experiences and stressor factors which are both “chronic” and “episodic”, “at work” and “outside work”. The model also assumes, however, that the impact of the environmental variables and stressor factors are moderated by individual personality differences, coping mechanisms and stress management practices. The model was tested on a sample of 107 male chief Executive officers and General Managers. It was found that the majority of the sample (80%) were relatively stress resistant and healthy. Stepwise multiple regression was used to test the model, and some evidence derived suggests that the frequency of environmental problems does predict various stress symptoms and that environmental stressors ultimately predict health risk profiles. Individual differences are shown as being largely independent variables predicting stress, rather that being moderating variables as suggested by the model. Coping and stress management variables are also shown to play a significant moderating role in the stress - outcome relationship. Some evidence derived suggests that there may be individual manager profiles, provisionally labelled “stress immune” vs “vulnerable” and “ill - health preventers” vs “non-preventers”. Due to the depth of the cross-sectional data obtained on this rarely studied management level, some comparison with published information on other researched groups are explored. A number of limitations of the study are noted. The practical implications for this senior management group of the findings of this study are also examined.
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The primary purpose of this research was to establish whether different perspectives on managerial effectiveness could be integrated to derive a common core of skills and characteristics. The different perspectives include management theory, strategic management and international business perspectives, and the competency-based approach to management effectiveness in the United Kingdom, The United States, and New Zealand. The research programme used a blend of quantitative and qualitative techniques. Each phase of research is supported by a review of the international literature and empirical field work conducted in New Zealand. A research tool relatively new to management research, Concept Mapping (Trochim, 1989a, 1989b), was to allow qualitative verbal statements to be described in terms of both quantitative and spatial relationships. A singular advantage of Concept Mapping is that collection and analysis of data is conducted without imposing research constructs at any stage, and a distillation of a core set of skills and characteristics can be derived through the reiterative process of Concept Mapping. In addition to Concept Mapping sessions with practicing managers and management educators and developers, two national surveys were conducted. In essence, the research builds a framework of the factors influencing managerial effectiveness through literature reviews and empirical work to generate a predictor variable list then tests that list for predictive strength. The primary outcomes of the research were: 1) the identification of a set of skills and characteristics that discriminate classes of effectiveness and ineffectiveness; and 2) the provision of a conceptual framework for analysing the similarities and differences between models of managerial effectiveness.

This thesis examines the relationships between performance, evolution and network governance of international joint ventures from a dynamic perspective. This is accomplished with a two-stage examination of case studies on the China-New Zealand joint ventures in China, involving two case studies in the first stage and one case study in the second stage. The exploratory and narrative research aims to aid theory building in the area of assessment and determination for IJV performance. In an investigation of the case IJVs between the Chinese and New Zealand firms, the study results in the development of three conceptual models of IJV performance and network relationships, namely, the Static Goal Model, the Goal Succession Model, and the Goal Emergence Model. These conceptual models adopt goal attainment as the criterion for assessing UV performance, and address goal attainment from a dynamic perspective by using a network approach. The theoretical models are illustrated and supported by the empirical evidence from the longitudinal case studies. The conceptual models differ from existing models of IJV performance in a number of important aspects, and thus contribute to theory relating to IJV performance in the following ways. These models integrate the concepts from the three research areas of performance, governance structure and dynamic evolution into a conceptual framework addressing IJV performance. Two types (organisational and interpersonal) of IJV network relationships are identified, and complex multiple tiers of network relationships in each type and their influence on JV performance and evolution are discussed. The study highlights the influence of network relationships and their evolution on IJV performance by arguing that IJV performance hinges on whether a trend of institutionalising the mechanism of trust building and conflict resolution and of balancing the network relationships within the IJV arrangement emerges from the process of IJV dynamic evolution. This research was solely undertaken by the author for the purpose of a thesis submitted in fulfilling the requirements for the degree of Ph. D at the University of Auckland.

The aim of this research is to investigate the use of third party logistics in New Zealand companies from the users’ perspective and to identify the improvement opportunities in the New Zealand environment. The empirical research is used to investigate the reasons for undertaking or not outsourcing logistics activities in New Zealand companies; to investigate the extent of use of third party logistics services in New Zealand and the influence of firm sizes and different industries on different aspects of 3PL (third party logistics) practices; to investigate critical success factors and attributes of selecting and evaluating 3PL service providers by users of 3PL in New Zealand; to establish the impact of usage of 3PL providers on New Zealand companies; to evaluate the satisfaction level of New Zealand 3PL services; to investigate the future plans of current 3PL users in New Zealand. The results showed that 3PL has been accepted by New Zealand organizations; with more than half of the respondents using 3PL. Current users accepted that 3PL allows them to gain a number of benefits and believe that 3PL has more positive impacts than negative. With a high level of satisfaction, a large number of user firms are likely to maintain and moderately increase the use of 3PL in the near future. The results of this study provide useful information for both 3PL providers and users. Providers should be aware of the most frequently used services, the potential trend, and develop their capabilities accordingly in terms of these future requirements. The experience of the firms in this study also provides insights as to the benefits of outsourcing logistics activities and how to plan for implementation for 3PL users.

This thesis reviews the evolution of interim reporting in New Zealand. The attempts to regulate interim reporting by the stock Exchange Association of New Zealand and the lobbying behaviour of affected parties are documented. The regulation of interim reporting is interpreted as a series of self-interest actions by the affected parties. In 1973 semiannual reports were mandated for all firms listed on the New Zealand stock Exchange. However, the content of these reports, was not specified until 1976. The extent of voluntary reporting practice prior to 1973 is recorded. The major empirical analysis of the thesis examines the association between corporate characteristics and the voluntary disclosure of semiannual earnings during the period 1973 to 1976. The analysis shows that firms with high semiannual earnings disclosures have more shares issued, have paid an interim dividend, carry relatively less inventory, are in a more seasonal industry and have a greater earnings forecast error. Assets in place, political costs of disclosure and competitive costs of disclosure are not found to be associated with the level of semiannual earnings disclosure. Sensitivity analysis indicates that the significance of the explanatory variables depends on firm size and upon the threshold level of disclosure.