Local Businesses

Information about quantitative characteristics in local businesses and services, such as the number of people waiting in line in a cafe and the number of available fitness machines in a gym, is important for informed decision, crowd management and event detection. In this paper, we investigate the potential of leveraging crowds as sensors to report such quantitative characteristics and investigate how to recover the true quantity values from noisy crowdsourced information. Through experiments, we find that crowd sensors have both bias and variance in quantity sensing, and task difficulties impact the sensing accuracy. Based on these findings, we propose an unsupervised probabilistic model to jointly assess task difficulties, ability of crowd sensors and true quantity values. Our model differs from existing categorical truth finding models as ours is specifically designed to tackle quantitative truth. In addition to devising an efficient model inference algorithm in a batch mode, we also design an even faster online version for handling streaming data. Experimental results in various scenarios demonstrate the effectiveness of our model.

Victimization surveys have found that small local businesses experience far higher rates of crime than individuals and households. Previous research also suggests some of the crimes suffered may be organized. Furthermore, local businesses may also be invited to play a part in organized crime, for example through receiving and reselling stolen, counterfeit or contraband goods, though this has been subject to little research to date. A victimization survey was conducted in three high crime neighbourhoods in English cities that aimed to establish patterns of organized crime victimization and the extent to which businesses were invited to participate in organized crime. Local police and community representatives were also interviewed to gauge their views on organized crime and local businesses. The evidence collected suggests that the nature of organized crime in relation to business varies widely between high crime neighbourhoods, that invitations to participate in organized crime are very widespread and that the police tend to perceive higher levels of crime organization affecting businesses than those revealed through surveys.

With the rapid development of e‐commerce, there is an increasing number of online review websites, such as Yelp, to help customers make better purchase decisions. Viewing online reviews, including the rating score and text comments by other customers, and conducting a comparison between different businesses are the key to making an optimal decision. However, due to the massive amount of online reviews, the potential difference of user rating standards, and the significant variance of review time, length, details and quality, it is difficult for customers to achieve a quick and comprehensive comparison. In this paper, we present E‐Comp, a carefully‐designed visual analytics system based on online reviews, to help customers compare local businesses at different levels of details. More specifically, intuitive glyphs overlaid on maps are designed for quick candidate selection. Grouped Sankey diagram visualizing the rating difference by common customers is chosen for more reliable comparison of two businesses. Augmented word cloud showing adjective‐noun word pairs, combined with a temporal view, is proposed to facilitate in‐depth comparison of businesses in terms of different time periods, rating scores and features. The effectiveness and usability of E‐Comp are demonstrated through a case study and in‐depth user interviews.

ABSTRACT Contrary to the perception that the business community can be hostile and exclusive toward individuals experiencing homelessness, local businesses can and do serve homeless populations at multiple levels. This article proposes a theoretical framework that links the versatile roles that local businesses can play in addressing various dimensions of human needs. This theoretical framework is illustrated through two models in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles, which focus on the role of business improvement districts (BIDs) and a social enterprise intervention (SEI), respectively. These models demonstrate that the business community can meet not only physical needs but also the emotional and self-actualization goals of homeless individuals. This article suggests that social work education and field education curricula can benefit from engaging the business sector in addressing complex social issues, such as homelessness.

Professional and collegiate athletic events are major tourist attractions, and, on a smaller scale, youth sport tournaments have similar effects on the communities that host them. According to Weiss and Hayashi (1996), youth sport participation in the United States is growing, especially in soccer. Sport tourism attracts first-time visitors, increases visitation during slow parts of the year, and improves the local economy in general. The economic impact of tournaments is well documented (Crompton & Lee, 2000; Yardley, MacDonald, & Clarke, 1990), and techniques for estimating economic impact have been devised and refined (Crompton, 1999; Vogelsong & Graefe, 2001). Despite the benefits, holding a sports event is a costly venture. An important value ofaccurately estimating the economic impact ofsports lies in the ability to use that knowledge to gain financial support for youth leagues from the host community. This article focuses on the process of preparing an inexpensive and manageable economic impact study, analyzing data, and presenting the findings in order to gain financial support from local businesses.

On-line reviewing systems have become prevalent in our society. User-provided reviews of local businesses have provided rich information in terms of users' preferences regarding businesses and their interactions in reviewing systems; however, little is known about how the reviewing behaviors of users can benefit businesses in terms of suggesting potential collaboration opportunities. In the current study, we aim to build a recommendation system for businesses to provide suggestions for business collaboration. Based on historical data from Yelp that shows two businesses being reviewed by the same users within a same season, we were able to identify businesses that might attract the same customers in the future, and hence provide them with a collaboration suggestion. Our results suggest that the evidence - two businesses sharing reviews from same users - can provide recommendations for businesses to pursue future collaborative marketing opportunities.

South Africa is facing the reality of extremely high youth unemployment rates. The problem poses a threat to the country's economic development and future labour force projections. In response, the South African government has promulgated the Employment Tax Incentive Act (Act 26 of 2013), a targeted employer-side supply wage subsidy which requires a significant degree of public-private sector co-operation. The purpose of this study is to determine perceptions of local businesses regarding youth unemployment and the aforementioned act to determine its feasibility as an appropriate tool to address this problem. A qualitative research approach was used to collect data. A total of 13 in-depth interviews were conducted with business representatives in the Vaal Triangle region, Gauteng Results of the study indicated that 92 percent of the interviewed business representatives support the act. However, its effectiveness in contributing to the employment of the youth is impeded by supply side issues of the said crisis that make businesses reluctant to hire young people. Strict labour polices and laws also induce difficulties restricting its implementation.

ABSTRACT Local officials in North America frequently face opposition to new or expanded bicycle or pedestrian facilities. The most vocal opponents are usually motorists and local business owners who fear that the removal of or reductions in vehicular parking or travel lanes will reduce patronage from motorists and that any increased patronage from pedestrians or cyclists will not offset the lost revenues. A lack of direct evidence on the economic impacts of facilities on local businesses has made it difficult to support or debunk such fears. A lack of quantitative evidence in particular has prevented the incorporation of such impacts into cost–benefit analyses. The issue has received enough attention from researchers in recent years that a review of the evidence is now warranted. We reviewed the relevant literature and identified 23 studies, focusing on the US and Canada, that either (1) quantified and compared consumer spending between active travellers and automobile users (n = 8), or (2) quantified an economic impact to local businesses following the installation of bicycle or pedestrian facilities (n = 15). Taken together, the studies indicate that creating or improving active travel facilities generally has positive or non-significant economic impacts on retail and food service businesses abutting or within a short distance of the facilities, though bicycle facilities might have negative economic effects on auto-centric businesses. The results are similar regardless of whether vehicular parking or travel lanes are removed or reduced to make room for the active travel facilities. The studies also highlight best practices for designing future research. Ten of the 15 studies that quantified an economic impact to local businesses used both before-and-after data and comparison sites or other statistical controls for variables unrelated to the active travel facility “treatment;” six of those used statistical testing.

Most economics and urban literature focuses on the economic aspects of foreign investors' impact on cities and defends their positive role in urban development. This paper takes a different approach by developing an urban economics model for tourist cities that illustrates how, when there is local underinvestment and a large influx of foreign labour, transnational enterprises may make their profits at the expense of local businesses. Therefore, it is the government's responsibility to regulate foreign investment in a way that is conducive to sustainable development. Macao is adopted as a case study. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

In late March 2012, severe flash-flooding caused loss of life and widespread damage to property, businesses and community infrastructure in and around Fiji's international tourism destination, Nadi. With little warning, local businesses had limited or no time to prepare for inundation once the banks of the Nadi River broke. Drawing on the experiences of local businesses in Nadi, the major causes of extensive financial loss were high recovery costs, limited insurance of property and goods, and contracted levels of government assistance to help them prepare and recover. This was a serious concern for the long-term sustainability of local businesses in the area. Lessons on how local authorities might better respond in the future are proposed, which include more effective early warning systems and strengthened disaster preparation and recovery systems to ensure that the socio-economic wellbeing of the local community is protected in the long-term.