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Academic studies have sought to understand the motivations of festival and event attendees usually through single-event case studies. This approach has failed to generate a generalizable set of motivation items. In addition, there is increasing criticism in the literature of the common methodological framework used in festival motivation studies, due to a perceived over-reliance on motivations derived from the broader tourism and travel research, with too little attention to event-specific factors. The purpose of this paper is to address these issues by analyzing a sub-category of motivation studies, music festivals, in order to see if this approach can elicit a consistent set of motivation dimensions for the sub-category, which can in turn be compared and contrasted with the broader literature. A new case study of motivations to attend the 28th Macau International Music Festival (MIMF) is included to complement the existing music festival sub-category by adding a classical music and music festivals in Asia.

Motivation dimensions important to music festivals are compared to dimensions across the broader festival motivation literature to find similarities and differences. Factor analysis is used to identify the motivation dimensions of attendees at the MIMF and the results are compared to those of existing music festival studies.

Music festival goers are shown to be primarily motivated by the core festival offering, the music, in contrast to festival attendees in general, where socialization has emerged as the primary motivating element. The results of the additional case study support these findings.

In contrast to previous research, this study examines the possibility of identifying common motivations among festival attendees through studying festivals by sub-categories.

To date, researchers examining the motivations of volunteers at festivals and events have used a range of measurement indexes, most of which appear to have common antecedents in the psychology literature. It is not clear if different events actually require different scales, or if individual scales are more generalizable than is currently recognized so that the proliferation of scales is largely an academic exercise. The current study takes a preliminary step in exploring this issue by using an existing scale developed to measure the motivations of volunteers at western sporting events to examine the motivations of volunteers at a music festival in China.

The Volunteer Motivation Scale for International Sporting Events (VMS-ISE) is administered to volunteers at the Midi Music Festival in China. The 467 respondents are divided into two subgroups. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is applied to the first subsample to explore the factor structure of the index. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) is then applied to the second subsample to test the factor structure of the resolved scale.

The results of the EFA are promising, yielding a resolved factor structure, which is very close to the hypothesized index. The resolved scale is reasonably well supported by the subsequent CFA.

The findings suggest it may be possible for researchers to use a smaller number of scales on a larger range of festivals leading to a better understanding of similarities and differences in motivations across event volunteers. The results should also be helpful to festival organizers in their continuing efforts to recruit volunteers.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of Auditing and Accounting Organization for Islamic Financial Institution (AOIFI) governance disclosure on the performance of Islamic financial institutions (IFIs) through systematic literature review approach.

This study is based on the review of literature related to the AAOIFI accounting standards downloaded from Scopus database. This study includes review of 126 research articles, 10 review papers, 9 book chapters and 5 conference papers related to different roles played by AAOIFI in providing standards for accounting, auditing, governance and ethics for global IFIs.

The findings of this study suggest that AAOIFI has played a critical role in developing the accounting standards for the IFIs and contributed positively to the overall growth of the Islamic finance industry.

AAOIFI has played a critical role in issuing and development of accounting and auditing standards and has contributed positively to the financial performance of IFIs. Research gaps are identified, and there is a need to work on these gaps.

This study will contribute to the understanding the role of AAOIFI in issuing and development of accounting and governance standards and future research agenda based on a thorough review of literature.

This paper aims to evaluate the feasibility of utilizing the performing arts as one element in changing the destination image of the Macau special administrative region from that of the Las Vegas of the East to a “World Centre of Tourism and Leisure”. The context is of particular interest as rebranding is typically associated with negative or outdated images, whereas Macau’s existing brand is strong and associated with positive tourism revenues.

Semi-structured in-depth interviews with frontline participants in Macau’s performing arts sector are utilized to evaluate the relevant re-branding strategies and goals of the city’s administration. In-depth interviews focus on understanding policies through the thoughts and experiences of respondents. They are particularly useful in cases where insiders are likely to be better informed than others with respect to policy issues.

Three main themes related to the use of the performing arts as a vehicle for destination rebranding are explored. Findings suggest that few elements common to successful branding campaigns are evident in the approach of the Macau administration. Shortcomings are evident, for example, in communication, infrastructure development, long-term planning and the allocation and monitoring of funding.

Although qualitative research relies on rich data from small numbers, the study focuses only on the views of informed insiders in the performing arts. Input from commercial stakeholders and higher-level policy makers would broaden the perspective.

The findings are relevant for any destination wishing to alter or update its image.

Cultural aspects are increasingly utilized in destination branding. This study is one of only a few which focuses on the performing arts sector.

This paper aims to demonstrate the pivotal role played by Thomas Hobbes in the displacement of political philosophy by economic science.

The focus of the paper is an analysis of Hobbes' most clear and accessible work, The Leviathan.

The paper shows that Hobbes was the first not only to enunciate comprehensively a mechanistic understanding of man as matter in motion but also, more importantly, to infer from this the logical conclusion that the only end for human kind is the preservation of the matter which the human race comprises. Economic science, being the science of material preservation, necessarily becomes, therefore, the true science of man and Hobbes the first political economist[1].

Hobbes' application of the methodology of mathematics to analysing human behaviour was not unique. What is original in his writings, and not clearly recognized in the literature on the history of economic thought, is the clear link made by Hobbes between this adaptation and its logical consequence in the science of material production (or economics) as the true science of man.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an extension of a previous study by the author into compliance by Islamic banks in Bahrain with accounting standards issued by the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI).

A number of compliance indexes are constructed to better understand compliance by the sample banks. The use of multiple indexes addresses methodological shortcomings identified in the previous study.

Compliance is found to be higher for some Islamic issues than for others. In a relative sense, compliance is found to be similar to that for the region with standards issued by the International Accounting Standards Board.

The sample is limited to Islamic financial institutions in Bahrain. This is necessitated by the lack of adaptation elsewhere. The relatively high compliance found in Bahrain suggests broader adoption would be successful and would contribute to the overall regulation of the Islamic financial sector.

The AAOIFI has existed for over 20 years, but little empirical research had been conducted into compliance with the standards developed by this body. This paper, along with the previous study by the author, helps address this gap.

Thomas Hobbes and John Locke are typically linked with the foundations of political economy, while at the same time, Locke’s teaching is regarded as differing substantively from that of Hobbes. Locke, in fact, differs from Hobbes on only one substantive issue, that of the political regime most compatible with a commercial republic. Recognising Hobbes’ preference for monarchy as a deficiency in his natural law teaching, Locke was able to establish that teaching on firmer ground than had been possible for Hobbes. Moreover, Locke’s more prudent presentation of this new teaching, which decisively rejected the previous tradition of Western thought, significantly advanced its acceptance. In the most important aspect of Hobbes’ thought, that of his application of the method of the new mathematical sciences to the study of human nature, Locke is in complete agreement with his predecessor.

The purpose of this study is to identify best practices in the implementation of market segmentation via expenditure in tourism research so that the practical potential of this technique can be realized. Market segmentation on the basis of expenditure has tremendous practical potential for tourism destinations, yet the volume of research remains slim. This article examines 20 studies of market segmentation based on expenditure in tourism research in order to identify issues and challenges which currently impede the growth of this area and its translation to policy.

The studies reviewed are analyzed on four dimensions, namely, the tourism market context, the specification of the expenditure variable, data source and sample size and the methodological approach.

To identify commonalities across big spending tourists, tourism markets should be categorized and the expenditure variable clearly specified. Studies using a relatively simple bivariate statistical analysis have more practical usefulness than those using a slightly more complex multivariate approach.

While the articles studied have been selected to include seminal and widely cited early studies and to provide a broad overview, no other selection criteria were established. The study is not exhaustive, and further research could be more broadly inclusive.

Expenditure segmentation if utilized by tourism planners can help maximize revenue from smaller tourism numbers. The results of this article show the most useful research path for practical application.

There is no prior study reviewing the literature using expenditure segmentation in the tourism context. Providing such an overview will facilitate further use of this research tool.