Search results

Tourism and hospitality employment have long faced widely recognised challenges with regard to employment, its workforce and the workplace environment, issues that have been addressed by generations of policymakers and practitioners without evident success or solution. These wicked problems are frequently characterised by inherent paradoxes and, therefore, accepting the tenets of paradox theory provides the basis for recognising the need to accept contradictions as a reality which a search for solutions will not resolve. This chapter presents six examples of wicked problems in tourism and hospitality employment, which are underpinned by paradoxes as proxies for the much wider range of intractable problems that beset policy-making and practice in this vital area of tourism and hospitality. The chapter concludes by suggesting ways in which wicked problems can be accommodated, and stakeholders can learn to understand and live with paradoxes.

This study aims to critically evaluate the competitiveness of Transformer-based models in financial forecasting, specifically in the context of stock realized volatility forecasting. It seeks to challenge and extend upon the assertions of Zeng et al. (2023) regarding the purported limitations of these models in handling temporal information in financial time series.

Employing a robust methodological framework, the study systematically compares a range of Transformer models, including first-generation and advanced iterations like Informer, Autoformer, and PatchTST, against benchmark models (HAR, NBEATSx, NHITS, and TimesNet). The evaluation encompasses 80 different stocks, four error metrics, four statistical tests, and three robustness tests designed to reflect diverse market conditions and data availability scenarios.

The research uncovers that while first-generation Transformer models, like TFT, underperform in financial forecasting, second-generation models like Informer, Autoformer, and PatchTST demonstrate remarkable efficacy, especially in scenarios characterized by limited historical data and market volatility. The study also highlights the nuanced performance of these models across different forecasting horizons and error metrics, showcasing their potential as robust tools in financial forecasting, which contradicts the findings of Zeng et al. (2023)

This paper contributes to the financial forecasting literature by providing a comprehensive analysis of the applicability of Transformer-based models in this domain. It offers new insights into the capabilities of these models, especially their adaptability to different market conditions and forecasting requirements, challenging the existing skepticism created by Zeng et al. (2023) about their utility in financial forecasting.

Predicting commodity futures trading volumes represents an important matter to policymakers and a wide spectrum of market participants. The purpose of this study is to concentrate on the energy sector and explore the trading volume prediction issue for the thermal coal futures traded in Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange in China with daily data spanning January 2016–December 2020.

The nonlinear autoregressive neural network is adopted for this purpose and prediction performance is examined based upon a variety of settings over algorithms for model estimations, numbers of hidden neurons and delays and ratios for splitting the trading volume series into training, validation and testing phases.

A relatively simple model setting is arrived at that leads to predictions of good accuracy and stabilities and maintains small prediction errors up to the 99.273th quantile of the observed trading volume.

The results could, on one hand, serve as standalone technical trading volume predictions. They could, on the other hand, be combined with different (fundamental) prediction results for forming perspectives of trading trends and carrying out policy analysis.

Purpose: This chapter examines the effect of green banking practices (GBPs) on environmental performance (EP), specifically focussing on the Sri Lankan banking industry. Additionally, the study explores the mediating impact of green finance in the association between GBPs and the EP of banks listed in the Colombo Stock Exchange in Sri Lanka.

Methodology: The survey included 233 banking employees from Sri Lanka, and data for this study were collected via questionnaires. The formulated hypotheses were tested employing a regression analysis.

Findings: GBPs such as employee, customer, operation, and policy-related practices significantly predicted the banks’ EP. Furthermore, the study highlights that green finance partially mediates the relationship between GBPs and banks’ EP in Sri Lanka.

Implications of the study: The study’s results indicate that banks should prioritise integrating GBPs in their organisations to enhance environmental and overall performance. Moreover, strategically utilising green financing techniques might be a substantial channel for banks to further strengthen their ecological dedication and influence.

Originality: This is the first study to investigate the impact of GBPs on banks’ EP with the mediating effect of green finance in the Sri Lankan context.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between bank policy-related practices and green financing sustainability in Pakistan. The study uses a mediating-moderation analysis to examine how the influence of bank policies on green financing sustainability is mediated by green banking activities and moderated by the employees’ green value and green knowledge sharing.

In this study, a structural questionnaire was used to gather data from Pakistani bank personnel through stratified sampling. A two-stage structural equation modelling approach was used in this investigation. The measuring scale’s validity and reliability are assessed using the measure model. A structural model was used to ascertain the connection between the underpinning constructs.

This study found a positive significant effect on bank employed related practices on green banking activities, besides the mediate role of green banking activities between the bank policies-related practices and green financing. In addition, this study also found the moderating role of employees’ green value and green knowledge sharing on the relationship of bank policies-related practices and green banking activities as well as green banking activities and green financing, respectively.

As environmental sustainability becomes more and more important on a worldwide scale; the study looks into the ways that financial institutions may become more environmentally conscious and help create a more sustainable future. To shed light on the ways in which financial institutions can be crucial in advancing green sustainability in an emerging economy such as Pakistan, this study used sophisticated statistical tools.

India's Muslim women (MW) face significant underrepresentation within the government and commercial sectors, rendering them virtually invisible in the job market. This underrepresentation is compounded by the double stigma of being both Muslim and female. As a result, this study aims to address this critical issue by looking into MW's intention to work in the industry of tourism and hospitality (T&H).

A survey was conducted online to gather data and 404 of the responses met the requirements for selection. The research model was empirically assessed by applying structural equation modelling. The data collection phase spanned from August 11, 2023, to November 10, 2023.

The study's findings demonstrate the effectiveness of the extended theory of planned behaviour in providing a robust model for analysing MW's intentions to participate in the T&H industry.

This research discloses inclusive policies, reduces discrimination, empowers women in the workforce, improves educational opportunities, promotes cultural sensitivity and fosters inclusive leadership in the T&H industry, focusing on MW career intentions, to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 5 (gender equality).

The importance of this study is contingent upon its ability to inform policymakers in academia and the T&H sector. By recognising and addressing the barriers faced by MW, it has the potential to foster a workplace environment that promotes equality and eliminates discrimination, ultimately improving the image of the T&H industry and harnessing the untapped potential of these women in India.

The existing literature on the effects of capital mobility and financial development on sustainable trade development in sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries has been centered on production-based carbon emissions without investigating consumption-based or trade-adjusted carbon emissions. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of capital mobility and financial development on sustainable trade development, specifically trade-adjusted carbon emissions in SSA economies.

The study employed the novel GMM-PVAR estimator and the Drisc-Kraay fixed effect panel corrected standard error (PCSE) dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) and the fully modified least squares (FMOLS) approaches on panel data from 46 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries over the period 1992–2021.

The study established that capital mobility has a significant positive effect on sustainable trade development in SSA in the long run. Further, the empirical results reveal that the link between financial development and sustainable trade development is significantly positive in the long run. Moreover, the results suggest that capital mobility and financial development have predictive power on sustainable trade development.

The findings of the study imply that policymakers ought to pay equal attention to capital mobility and financial development when developing sustainable trade development policies.

The existing literature has been centered on production-based carbon emissions, without specifically considering sustainable trade development (consumption-based carbon emissions). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the effect of capital mobility and financial development on sustainable trade development in SSA countries context.

This study aims to explore the effects of responsible international investment in a least developed country (LDC) on ethics and corruption in the local industry. While investment growth in least developed countries (LDCs) is essential to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, international investment in LDCs poses challenges, including corruption. The authors explore perspectives from relevant stakeholders on the influence, if any, on an LDC’s banking sector, of investment in the LDC by a multinational bank with an environmental, social and governance focus – using a case study of Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) in Nepal.

The authors conducted thematic analysis on: focus groups with current and former SCB Nepal management; semi-structured interviews with Nepal banking regulator representatives; senior staff from SCB global divisions; and management of other commercial banks in Nepal.

Knowledge transfer, organisational enablers and constructive international competition contributed to the dissemination of best practices within the Nepal banking sector, supporting the notion of beneficial spill-over effects of multinationals on LDC host countries.

Practical insights will aid LDC governments, international businesses, investment funds and donor organisations seeking to invest in/assist LDCs with economic development.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this may be the first case study on ethics and anti-corruption practices of a multinational bank in a LDC. Through a practice-driven focus, the authors provide “on-the-ground” insights to better understand the complex nature of corruption.

Following the tradition of scholarship showing that elites institutionalize their tastes via cultural philanthropy, this chapter investigates patronage of Asian art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Drawing on content analysis of museum press releases and other documents, I conceptually elaborate and empirically illustrate different patterns of Asian art patronage among Asian and white patrons as well as among Asian patrons from different ethnic groups. Engaging theory asserting that elites legitimate art tied to their ethnoracial heritage through supporting it at cultural organizations, I elaborate how Asian elites are especially committed to supporting Asian art at the museum. In addition, I illustrate how, compared with each other, Asian elites particularly champion art from their respective ethnic groups – for example, Chinese elites support Chinese art at higher levels than Asian elites who are not Chinese, and Indian elites support Indian art at higher levels than Asian elites who are not Indian. This chapter advances theory about elites and cultural legitimation, elites and organizational contributions, and progressiveness within the elite.