Niche Theory Analysis of Sustainable Strategic Relationships among MICE Destinations: A Case of New Zealand

This study aimed to analyze the competitive relationship among meetings, incentive, convention and exhibition (MICE) destinations with reference to the notion of niche businesses in New Zealand; and to explore the existence of cooperative strategies between neighboring destinations. The data were collected from Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment Reports on the Convention Activity Survey (CAS) in New Zealand. The study contributes towards an innovative and better understanding of the dynamics of sustainable destination competitiveness. It broadens the scope of MICE industry research by exploring new insights on the notion of destination competition and makes a theoretical connection between niche theory and the importance of coopetition. By investigating the case of MICE destinations of four northern central islands in New Zealand, this study provides information on the strategic significance of niche marketing for global destinations preparing for entrance into this market.

When Science Fiction Meets Reality

Eighty years after the first science fiction convention, geek culture has gone mainstream and facilitated exponential growth in the fandom convention industry. With fandom conventions facing increasing competition and changing demographics, standing out in the crowded convention space is essential. Dragon Con founded in 1987 created the idea of the multi-genre convention that has something for everyone. Since its inception, Dragon Con has changed to fit fans' evolving tastes and formed strategic relationships with key partners. With growth comes issues related to registration, wait lines, harassment and security which need to be addressed while trying to take into account the younger and more diverse fandoms.

Never let me go? A case study of deaccessioning and disposal undertaken at Museum of Wellington City and Sea

<p>In the current economic climate museums are increasingly being asked to do more with less. For museums that hold collections, this poses a unique challenge. With the cost of collections being relentlessly accumulative, questions are being raised about the long term financial sustainability of current collecting practices. Deaccessioning is being suggested as a way in which museums can improve the quality of their collection without increasing its size. Yet the literature on deaccessioning suggests that the process is fraught with ethical and practical difficulties. By highlighting the negatives aspects of the process, writing in museum studies and practice does little to explore how deaccessioning might be used to achieve positive outcomes. This research addresses this gap by asking whether deaccessioning is a positive tool that, if used appropriately, can assist a museum in improving the quality and manageability of their collection through systematic planning. To understand how and why a museum may permanently remove objects from their collection, the study focuses on one New Zealand museum’s response to the challenge of redeveloping a collection through the process of deaccessioning and disposal. The Museum of Wellington City and Sea’s deaccessioning process is analysed through documentary research and interviews with Museum staff. The interviews offer an understanding of the thought processes and motivations involved in selecting objects to be deaccessioned. The data collected reveals both the challenging aspects of the process but also offers insights into how these aspects can be mitigated or resolved. The conclusions presented in this dissertation suggest that deaccessioning is an integral part of current museum practice that can be used positively to actively shape and refine a museum collection. I argue that some of the beneficial outcomes of the process include greater understanding of collections, improved knowledge and context, resolution of historical collecting problems, strategic relationships built with other museums and improvement in how objects are stored and utilised. More importantly deaccessioning allows museums to determine the character and content of their collections. In order for this to be achieved, I recommend that museums adopt a rational approach to reviewing their collections that is multi-disciplinary, transparent and acknowledges how their collection is used in the achievement of their institution’s mission.</p>

Never let me go? A case study of deaccessioning and disposal undertaken at Museum of Wellington City and Sea

<p>In the current economic climate museums are increasingly being asked to do more with less. For museums that hold collections, this poses a unique challenge. With the cost of collections being relentlessly accumulative, questions are being raised about the long term financial sustainability of current collecting practices. Deaccessioning is being suggested as a way in which museums can improve the quality of their collection without increasing its size. Yet the literature on deaccessioning suggests that the process is fraught with ethical and practical difficulties. By highlighting the negatives aspects of the process, writing in museum studies and practice does little to explore how deaccessioning might be used to achieve positive outcomes. This research addresses this gap by asking whether deaccessioning is a positive tool that, if used appropriately, can assist a museum in improving the quality and manageability of their collection through systematic planning. To understand how and why a museum may permanently remove objects from their collection, the study focuses on one New Zealand museum’s response to the challenge of redeveloping a collection through the process of deaccessioning and disposal. The Museum of Wellington City and Sea’s deaccessioning process is analysed through documentary research and interviews with Museum staff. The interviews offer an understanding of the thought processes and motivations involved in selecting objects to be deaccessioned. The data collected reveals both the challenging aspects of the process but also offers insights into how these aspects can be mitigated or resolved. The conclusions presented in this dissertation suggest that deaccessioning is an integral part of current museum practice that can be used positively to actively shape and refine a museum collection. I argue that some of the beneficial outcomes of the process include greater understanding of collections, improved knowledge and context, resolution of historical collecting problems, strategic relationships built with other museums and improvement in how objects are stored and utilised. More importantly deaccessioning allows museums to determine the character and content of their collections. In order for this to be achieved, I recommend that museums adopt a rational approach to reviewing their collections that is multi-disciplinary, transparent and acknowledges how their collection is used in the achievement of their institution’s mission.</p>

Mixing Business with Politics? The Role and Influence of the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum

<p>Since 2004, the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum (ANZLF), an annual bilateral business-led Forum, has facilitated the engagement of high level state and non-state Australian and New Zealand actors in debate, unofficial dialogue, networking, information and idea exchange. Yet very little is known about the event, who participates and what the ANZLF produces. Drawing on extensive interviews with key participants and organisations, this thesis examines the Forum’s genesis, its form and modalities, and the substance of the meetings. While the literature on “track two” diplomacy and regional integration often exaggerates the importance of business and other non-official actors in the process, evidence from the ANZLF case suggests that these participants merely promote, but do not transform trans-Tasman economic integration policy. Rather, the ANZLF has served as a tool for governments to expand their capacities and to draw on alternative resources. The ANZLF is an example of unofficial diplomacy helping governments to build strategic relationships with a variety of non-governmental actors to advance specific objectives. From a New Zealand perspective, the thesis argues the Leadership Forum has been beneficial in building relationships, networks and trust as the country engages in asymmetrical integration with Australia.</p>

Mixing Business with Politics? The Role and Influence of the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum

<p>Since 2004, the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum (ANZLF), an annual bilateral business-led Forum, has facilitated the engagement of high level state and non-state Australian and New Zealand actors in debate, unofficial dialogue, networking, information and idea exchange. Yet very little is known about the event, who participates and what the ANZLF produces. Drawing on extensive interviews with key participants and organisations, this thesis examines the Forum’s genesis, its form and modalities, and the substance of the meetings. While the literature on “track two” diplomacy and regional integration often exaggerates the importance of business and other non-official actors in the process, evidence from the ANZLF case suggests that these participants merely promote, but do not transform trans-Tasman economic integration policy. Rather, the ANZLF has served as a tool for governments to expand their capacities and to draw on alternative resources. The ANZLF is an example of unofficial diplomacy helping governments to build strategic relationships with a variety of non-governmental actors to advance specific objectives. From a New Zealand perspective, the thesis argues the Leadership Forum has been beneficial in building relationships, networks and trust as the country engages in asymmetrical integration with Australia.</p>

МЕТОДОЛОГІЧНІ ЗАСАДИ ОЦІНКИ ЕФЕКТИВНОСТІ УПРАВЛІННЯ КОНКУРЕНТНИМ РОЗВИТКОМ ПІДПРИЄМСТВ

In the article the authors highlight the main methodological approaches to assessing the effectiveness of competitive development of enterprises in the face of intensifying competition in the markets caused by the processes of globalization of international economic relations. The presence of a wide range of approaches in domestic and foreign literature made it possible to form their own vision of this problem. Based on the analysis, basic groups of approaches to measuring the effectiveness of competitive development are formed on the basis of comparison of efficiency indicators, comparison of competitive advantages and measurement of competitiveness on the basis of market share. The tools for assessing competitive development at different hierarchical levels of management were considered (macro-level – the competitiveness of the country, meso-level – the competitiveness of the industry, micro-level – the competitiveness of the enterprise). Methodological tools are proposed, which consists in building a matrix of standardized values of partial indicators of competitive development of enterprises in order to rank them according to the integrated indicator of the level of competitiveness of each individual enterprise. Considering the competitive development from the standpoint of the competitiveness of the enterprise, it is established that its strategic priorities are interrelated and determined by the goals of which the company seeks to achieve in the market. It is proposed to pay attention to the trajectories of competitive development, selection of methods and tools for forming a system of competitive development management, a set of strategic relationships, and resource provision of competitive development.

Strategic Pricing of Bee Products from the Ruse Region

The study reveals that in the context of global competition in supply, limited demand, and product parity in the B2B and B2C markets for bee products, there are significant limitations on the applicability of cost pricing methods (cost and desired profit) and partly of demand-based methods. In addition, the study shows that the most applicable pricing methods are the ones based on competition. Regional honey, the main product of beekeeping in the Ruse region, has a negligible differentiated value (monetary and psychological) in the B2B and B2C markets compared to its competing counterparts, due to which its price fluctuates around its market price. The lack of product differentiation, as well as established regional image and brand nowadays, do not allow producers to achieve prices higher than the market ones. Beekeeping farms in the Ruse region should build horizontal and vertical strategic relationships to gain price leadership through low costs and high quality. Value communication is necessary to protect the value and importance of regional bee products from competitors. This should be done by increasing the willingness of customers to pay a higher price for them. The pricing policy of beekeeping farms defines the general price behaviour based on the achieved differentiated value of the regional bee products and its continuous increase. The formation of regional bee products with high added value has a decisive role in the positive perception of the price by the different segments, due to which they reach higher price levels.

THE ROLE OF SCHOOLS IN YOUTH DEVELOPMENT

Great schools have the power to change lives. They transform the process of guiding students towards benchmark success into a transformative learning experience that helps young people chart a course for a bright future. This type of education is purposefully designed to foster creativity and critical thinking. It’s a place where students are introduced to ideas that inspire them and encouraged to investigate possible career paths in which those ideas could take flight. A great school is one where students understand that true learning, learning that matters to them and helps them connect to their goals, occurs. Three essential priorities are critical in assisting educators in designing innovative schools that strive to be great for all students: young people must be at the centre of any school design process; great practise must be deployed with the needs of students in mind; and schools must grow alongside students, practising iteration to meet emerging challenges. Given the demands on school staff and government regulations that place a premium on academic accomplishment, focusing on holistic adolescent outcomes and school outcomes that improve both adolescent psychosocial well-being and societal well-being remains a priority. The key to making youth development in schools a success is to take a system-wide approach to efforts and outcomes, as well as to form strategic relationships with key community stakeholders who share a same goal of fostering positive youth development. Great schools make learning easier by making these developmental milestones fundamental to their mission and smoothly incorporating them into academic goals.

Strategic Relationships, Risk, and Proxy War

Proxy wars dominate modern war fighting. Despite the frequency of proxy wars on today's battle field, the strategic studies community lacks sufficient models and strategic theories to frame proxy wars from the strategic level. This works seeks to build on the limited amount of preexisting theoretical work on proxy war by introducing five models of proxy relation - coerced, transactional, cultural, exploitative, and contractual. This models help policymakers, strategists, and practitioners understand and navigate through the strategic workings of today's proxy wars.