Marie-Louise von Bergmann-Winberg

Comparison of Econometric Modelling of Demand for Domestic and International Tourism: Swedish Data

The purpose of this paper is to identify functions for the domestic and international demand for tourism in the objective 6 region in Sweden (SW:6), in order to understand how tourism demand relates to the key macroeconomic variables and other variables such as real income, nominal and real exchange rate, price level and the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. An econometrics model is used to estimate the domestic tourism demand in SW:6. Monthly data for the period 1980–1998 are used. The results do not indicate any statistically significant effect of income, exchange rate or the Chernobyl nuclear disaster on the domestic tourism demand. Meanwhile, the consumer price index (CPI) and weather condition variables are found to have a rather significant effect on the domestic tourism demand. In this paper we also use a cointegration analysis to estimate the long-term relationship between monthly flows to SW:6 from the USA, the UK, Germany, Finland, Norway and Denmark, and factors such as income, CPI and exchange rate that influence arrivals. Monthly time series data for the period 1980–1998 are also used for this purpose. The estimated model does not indicate any statistically significant effect of the Chernobyl nuclear accident and the Gulf war on international tourism demand; on the other hand, significant effects of income, exchange rate and CPI on international tourism demand are found. The estimation and diagnostic testing strategy supports the specification of both models. When comparing these two parts of the study, regarding the domestic demand for tourism, we found the CPI, lags of the dependent variable and several of the monthly dummy variables that stand for the seasonal effects, to have significant effects on the number of visitors. On the other hand, we find income, exchange and CPI have a great influence on international tourism demand.

Social and Political Entrepreneurship: Ways and Means to Develop Sparsely Populated Regions?

Social entrepreneurship as a variant of entrepreneurship is probably only in the beginning of its conceptualization as scientific subfield, and applicable theories are yet to be defined. However, starting from the empirical findings in a global perspective, I find that the phenomenon that could be labelled social or societal entrepreneurship has existed under other synonyms for quite a while. Personally, I find the borderlines between these concepts and social economy, third-sector entrepreneurship, public–private enterprises, and so on, rather blurred. The ambition must nevertheless be to develop the necessary conceptual tools for social entrepreneurship as means for measuring and comparing regional development, for example, in sparsely populated areas. Political entrepreneurship as a concept is comparatively new too, although connotations to earlier political science terms can be noted. The meaning of the term refers to political actions in connection with governance structures in a multi-level perspective, but obviously also has consequences for government in traditional political settings, and the question of accountability. My aim in this chapter is to develop a model for social and political entrepreneurship, and, with a comparison of small municipalities in the Swedish rural peripheries, to be able to find out, whether or not this can cause changes in socio-economic regional development over time. To examine these aspects, I have chosen the number of inhabitants, firms per inhabitants, ranking of municipal entrepreneurship, and employment rate, associations and social capital networks. Tentatively, I expect to find stronger socio-economic development when social and political entrepreneurship is combined over time, as this seems to be a necessary path to combat depopulation and loss of employment and taxation. Five municipalities have been chosen for examination, four in the central Sweden region, and one from the southern Smaland region with a strong entrepreneurial tradition, also situated in the periphery, by and large as a bench-marking unit for the comparison. The results confirm that a combination of social and political entrepreneurship is required for the shift of downward trends, as far as Swedish small-sized municipalities in the periphery are concerned.

Political entrepreneurs, networking women entrepreneurs and business growth

Women as business entrepreneurs have been the subject of more intensive research in the last decades, not least in connection with European Union (EU) projects and inter-state comparisons. However, regional comparisons within states like the Nordic states in general and within, like Sweden in particular, are rare. In this chapter, we explore whether regional business traditions and regional structures influence women entrepreneurs, and if so, how and to what extent. The research questions are as follows: Under which conditions and with which criteria is political entrepreneurship of crucial importance as counterweight to strong business networks, or are they to be considered complementary? Does political entrepreneurship matter, and if so what would be the criteria for women’s business entrepreneurship? Do some forms of networks replace the absence of political entrepreneurship or are they to be considered as complementary? How is this affected by local or regional business climates and corresponding historical traditions?