A three-way partnership model of tourism graduate employability

Abstract: The aim of this paper presentation is to show the employability of tourism graduates, using a three-way perspective. The concept of employability differs depending on the context, as well as the views of the people making employment decisions and those seeking employment. Graduates are not always employable, because they lack certain knowledge, skills, employability attributes, and practical work experience. Therefore, it has become imperative to ensure an adequate level of preparedness of tourism graduates, including their employability attributes, to enhance their chances of securing and sustaining employment in the tourism industry. The researcher adopted a sequential explanatory mixed method, which entailed combining quantitative and qualitative methods. The researcher conducted a quantitative survey on a purposive sample of 561 managers, supervisors and owners within the tourism industry and tourism graduates working in the tourism industry. The researcher used means, standard deviations, exploratory factor analysis and independent t-test. The qualitative research approach was applied to investigate graduate employability more in-depth. A total of twelve interviews were conducted with three academics within higher education institutions (HEIs) that offer a tourism qualification, three graduates working within the industry and three experts within the tourism industry. The researcher found a significant relationship between the professional skills, personality traits, knowledge skills and operation skill within the tourism industry. The researcher constructed a model to enhance graduate employability through a three-way perspective within the tourism industry. The model links all three partners the tourism graduate, tourism industry and Higher education institutions) that play a key role in the industry regarding the transfer of knowledge, skills and other employability attributes. The originality of this paper is that it constructed a model for the tourism industry to enhance graduate employability that links three partners, and creates further constructive debate

Vulnerable and exploitable:the need for organisational accountability and transparency in emerging and less developed economies

The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the papers which appear in this special issue of Accounting Forum. The paper sets out the background and rationale for this special issue, introduces the papers contained within it and discusses their contributions to the literature on social and environmental accounting and accountability in emerging and less developed economies. This discussion is informed by the notions of vulnerability and exploitability. The final section of the paper provides conclusions and directions for future research in this under-researched area

Partnership and the e-commerce initiative of small businesses

ArticleThe deployment of new technologies such as the Internet is changing the way that businesses work, but success is not universal. It is evident that a wider range of skills is needed than just technical skills, and a wider vision is needed than just the vision of one business. For small businesses especially, they must be seen in the context of their communities, for their relationship with public sector departments and other supporting and regulatory bodies, and as partners to much larger businesses that may or may not choose to do business with them. The appropriation of ICT in support of business development provides an emerging body of research that seems to be useful in understanding the prospects for success of small businesses that may themselves be emerging from and striving to serve communities. In this way, a wider range of competencies is needed that will deal with relationships and partnerships, as well as simple internal operational issues. As the nature of partnerships changes, so the mix of required competencies varies from one circumstance to another. A model is presented that shows some of the critical relationships between the Internet (on the one hand) and the stakeholders of a business and the relationships with them (on the other). This model is the foundation for current research that is looking at the success and unsuccess of e-commerce in the financial services industry