Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to determine whether the type of mathematics skills developed at secondary school an effect on students’ later success in business studies. At many business schools in Norway, more students are applying than there are places available. The ranking of applications depends on the grade point average (GPA) level, irrespective of the level or type of mathematics studied at secondary school, where the students are free to choose practically orientated or theoretical mathematics.Design/methodology/approach: A quantitative analysis (regression model) was applied using data for undergraduate students enrolled in business studies over a three–year period (2012–2014).Findings: Students with a non-theoretical background in mathematics obtain systematically lower grades on many courses, especially in core business school subjects. Ranking applicants to business studies courses based on their GPA scores irrespective of their level of mathematics may lead to the admission of less able students.Research limitations/implications: There is little information available concerning why students choose different paths in mathematics at upper secondary school, but the decision students make has an influence on their grades in business courses.Originality/value: By requiring more knowledge of theoretical mathematics, students’ performance at business school will improve. Changing the admission criteria could improve the quality of graduates and reduce the dropout rate.

There are few published articles on the demand for campsites, despite this being an important segment of the tourism industry. The purpose of this study was to gain further understanding of this topic. Using publicly available data over a period of 20 years, income and currency elasticity were estimated for German and Swedish camping tourists by using a natural logarithmic regression model with time series data. The results showed that both income and the exchange rate influenced the number of overnight stays, but the impact was rather small. The income elasticity for Swedish visitors was significant with a value of about 0.5, while it was zero and not significant for German camping tourists. Appreciation of the euro was associated with more visitors from Germany, but the estimated exchange rate elasticity was below 1.0 (and significant). A stronger Swedish currency relative to the Norwegian currency did not appear to have an effect. However, a stronger Swedish exchange rate, measured in euros, had a positive impact on Swedish camping visitors in Norway. The reason might be that more Swedish residents spend holidays abroad, and there is complementarity among the neighboring countries. Such calculations provide useful information for tourist industry planning.

The restaurant industry is quite similar across borders. It is a labour-intensive industry that is important for tourism and employment. It consists mainly of many small businesses that are regionally dispersed. There are many studies that have analysed this sector. However, rather few articles have focused on the dynamics of growth and profit. The purpose of this paper is to apply the theory of profit persistence and the law of proportionate effect (LPE) to Norwegian restaurants by using publicly available public panel data from 2010 to 2019. The sample includes 866 restaurants. One important finding is that Gibrat’s law (LPE) does not seem to hold, meaning the growth is not independent of the size of the firms. Small businesses grow faster than the others, and they are also more profitable. There is some degree of profit persistence in the restaurant industry. Profitability is negatively linked to debt ratios but positively related to working capital. The study shows there is a trade-off between size and profit. These findings are useful for the industry and for others (public planning, lenders, and more).

The purpose of this article was to investigate different variables, by combining mathematical skills and personal traits using The Big Five Model, to see which have the most influence on business students’ attitudes towards statistics. The Big Five personality traits make up a model for capturing various personal characteristics. Specifically, we aimed to understand why there is a gender difference in attitudes towards statistics. Statistical skills are a key factor for success in business studies. The chosen methods were pairwise comparisons (t-test) and a linear regression model, using a sample from a Norwegian business school. The finding was that there is a substantial gender gap towards attitudes towards statistics but taking mathematical skills and personal characteristics into consideration then results in this gap becoming much smaller. Furthermore, mathematical skills and personal traits were shown to have an impact on students’ attitudes towards statistics.

The purpose of this paper is to identify factors that can explain the attitudes of business students towards mathematics, using data from a business school in Norway. This article focusses on gender, personality traits (Big Five Model) and mathematical background. The independent variables were investigated simultaneously using a linear regression model. Mathematical abilities are important for success in business studies, and therefore, attitudes towards mathematics matter, since they will affect students’ effort and their choice of further studies. It was found that mathematical background has the strongest effect on student attitudes towards mathematics. Personal characteristics also explain the variation in the attitudes towards mathematics to some degree. Gender has little or no impact on the dependent variable. If there is any gender difference it is in favour of female students.