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This study examines the relationship between food experience, emotion, place attachment, and tourists' revisit behavioral intention. A survey questionnaire is conducted on-site in Lukang and distributed to 408 tourists. The dimensions of food experience are established through factor analysis, and a hypothesized model of the relationships between the constructs is tested using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results indicate that tourists' food experiences included local flavor, media recommendation, local learning, life transfer, and interpersonal sharing. In addition, food experience has a significant impact on emotion and place attachment, and emotion has a substantial effect on place attachment. Finally, place attachment significantly impacts tourists' revisit behavioral intention. The study makes a significant theoretical contribution by identifying food experience, emotion, and place attachment as the salient predictors of heritage tourists' revisit intention. Furthermore, the study suggests that food experiences enhance effective bonding at tourism destinations.

The seasonality in the behavior of travelers is something that goes back to the origin of the trips themselves. This seasonality is due to multiple factors, some easy to counteract and others difficult to solve. But, regardless of the causes, it is a phenomenon that generates significant negative impacts on society and the environment in which the phenomenon of tourist seasonality occurs. All tourist destinations have seasonality, but in some cases, it is very high and in others it has a minimal incidence. The objective of this chapter is to ponder the impacts and consequences of seasonality in regions with a strong tourism development, allowing to put into context the aspects of society impacted by this phenomenon and the positive implications that the reduction of seasonality would have. For this, an analysis of a theoretical model with two regions in opposite situations is carried out, raising the possible effects of a high seasonality. The cases of the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands are also reviewed, as real examples of the regional typologies taken into consideration in the theoretical model. This seeks to ponder the problems attributable to seasonality. As a final reflection, the enormous typology of negative impacts generated and the need to continue analyzing the seasonality and its impacts are emphasized.

Serious games (SGs) are virtual systems that allow the reconstruction of the laws governing the behavior of complex adaptive systems such as urban transportation and social interaction. Unlike stated preference-based studies, improved visualization, feedback, and scores mediate players’ learning through experience. SG’s potential to understand users’ preferences regarding shared automated vehicles (SAVs) is developed. The investigation focused on three innovative, entirely automated commuting options: shared rides, shared cars, and automated transit. The research involved 10 participants actively involved in a competitive mode selection exercise, which emulated 50 workdays and was conducted in 10 separate sessions. The players aimed to maximize their overall score influenced by their mode choice, punctuality, and the other players’ choices. SG-obtained data was used to estimate a game-based discrete choice model. The sustainability policy implications of game-based methods on the future adoption of SAVs and impacts on other modes are further discussed.

This chapter examines the concepts of race and racism, critically reviewing their historical and contemporary applications in everyday life as well as in academic and policy debates. Racism has been extensively researched, with various theories and conceptualisations developed across social science. However, there is a great deal of disagreement regarding its nature, contemporary significance and empirical validation. This chapter examines these and attempts to synthesise some of the common definitions of racism provided in the literature. It explores related concepts and underlying themes pertaining to expressions of race and racism. Furthermore, it unpacks current knowledge about racial issues and discusses recent advances in the conceptual understanding of various forms of racism. It also elucidates the social, political and analytical applications of racism as a concept and the significance of racism in contemporary societies. The chapter concludes by highlighting how racism is a dynamic phenomenon, continuously evolving with the social, political and technological transformations in contemporary societies.

This chapter examines the creation and development of trans inclusion policies in community sport in Australia. More specifically, it explores the impact of such policy, or lack thereof, on trans and gender diverse people who are currently engaged or wish to engage with community sport in the state of Victoria, Australia. This chapter evaluates the impact of Federal legislation and guidelines for the inclusion of trans and gender diverse people in Australian sport, and how sport organizations have responded in creating trans athlete policies for community sport participation. Next, we discuss the experiences and challenges for trans and gender diverse athletes playing and competing in community sport. We examine how these athletes work against institutional norms which typically reinforce a rigid gender binary. This chapter draws on a range of research projects in Australia by the first author and concludes with some recommendations for future research and both policy and practice.

Much of the existing research conducted on dynamic capabilities and the microfoundations of innovation has focused either on individual or organizational factors without considering mechanisms. This paper aims to address this “process” gap by developing an integrated conceptual framework based on individual, processual and structural microfoundations as well as the interaction between and among them with respect to innovation.

To understand the theoretical and empirical landscape in building our conceptual model, we conducted a content analysis of existing research microfoundations, dynamic capabilities and innovation. Using NVivo 12, we identified and examined the individual and organizational behavior microfoundations and their interplay to propose possible processual mechanisms. We framed these process mechanisms using the sensing, seizing and reconfiguring dynamic capabilities framework.

The study emphasizes certain microfoundations that facilitate innovation-dynamic capabilities at various organizational levels. It is posited that both formal and informal strategic intelligence processes, along with directed and undirected information research methods, constitute crucial microfoundations for identifying opportunities for innovation. For the internal capture and seizing of these opportunities, we assert that the diversity of individual internal networks and the mechanisms for social integration will prove to be critical. Furthermore, the paper suggests that reconfiguring microfoundations, specifically an organization’s flexible structure and the involvement of external directors with diverse experiences, are pivotal in spurring innovation.

We combine the microfoundations approach (individual, structural and processual) with the dynamic capabilities theory (sensing, seizing and reconfiguring) to offer an integrated conceptual framework underlying innovation’s dynamic capabilities. This sets us apart from existing research by both introducing processual aspects and their multilevel interactions.

This study aims to integrate and revalidate previously proposed various structural models in understanding residents’ attitudes and behaviors in relation to mega-events before the events.

This study focussed on the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and used a questionnaire-based quantitative survey prior these events. A PLS-SEM analysis was run on a sample of 473 residents, in testing relationships between residents’ trust, perceived impacts, support for hosting and subjective well-being.

Results revalidate propositions from previous research, but suggest key contextual differences in light of biosecurity risks. Residents’ perceived positive (cultural) and negative (environmental) impacts affect their support for mega-events, and their perceived positive (economic and cultural) and negative (social) impacts affect their subjective well-being. Variances in the relationships were found for those who perceive a high biosecurity risk.

The data were collected from one mega-event, and thus the findings of this study are highly contextualized.

This research suggest that mega-event organizers should put effort into promoting the benefits of hosting mega-events and work collaboratively with stakeholders to reduce potential negative costs and risks as well as increase resident well-being via bringing in economic and cultural benefits.

This research focusses on social well-being during and post COVID in relation to the hosting of a mega-event.

The data were collected from the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, a mega-event that, because of COVID-19 and restricted spectator flows, potentially had characteristics quite different from that of other Winter Olympics or sporting mega-events.

The aim of this study is to develop a better understanding of how the transferability and recognition of host country professional experience and educational credentials impact the repatriation intentions of long-term self-initiated expatriates (SIEs). To that end, the study interviews a sample of American-educated French long-term SIEs in the United States (US) to assess how both their higher education and professional experience influence their social identity in their home country, France and their perceived repatriation opportunities.

This study applies social identity theory to the examination of the combined impact of higher education and work experience abroad on the repatriation expectations of long-term SIEs. The author interviewed twenty-one French SIEs who attended universities in the US and remained there afterward to begin their careers.

The findings of this study confirm that the repatriation intentions of long-term SIEs are strongly influenced by concerns about the ability to maintain their host country standard of living in their home country. It also finds that foreign educational credentials and professional experience can constrain the ability of long-term SIEs to repatriate easily and gain acceptance. To overcome this, long-term SIEs often feel that they must embrace alternative repatriation strategies to maintain the lifestyle that they enjoyed while abroad when returning back home.

This study examines a sample of long-term SIEs from one home country, France, who left to attend university in the same host country, the US. It assesses how the experiences of those who remained in the US afterward to start their careers impacted their repatriation intentions. This study contributes to the body of knowledge on the context of self-initiated expatriation by examining the influence of host-country educational credentials and work experience on the repatriation intentions of long-term SIEs.

Output from the Irish Dairy Industry has grown rapidly since the abolition of quotas in 2015, with processors investing heavily in capacity expansion to deal with the extra milk volumes. Further capacity gains may be achieved by extending the processing season into the winter, a key enabler for which being the reduction of duration of the winter maintenance overhaul period. This paper aims to investigate if Lean Six Sigma tools and techniques can be used to enhance operational maintenance performance, thereby releasing additional processing capacity.

Combining the Six-Sigma Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, Control (DMAIC) methodology and the structured approach of Turnaround Maintenance (TAM) widely used in process industries creates a novel hybrid model that promises substantial improvement in maintenance overhaul execution. This paper presents a case study applying the DMAIC/TAM model to Ireland’s largest dairy processing site to optimise the annual maintenance shutdown. The objective was to deliver a 30% reduction in the duration of the overhaul, enabling an extension of the processing season.

Application of the DMAIC/TAM hybrid resulted in process enhancements, employee engagement and a clear roadmap for the operations team. Project goals were delivered, and original objectives exceeded, resulting in €8.9m additional value to the business and a reduction of 36% in the duration of the overhaul.

The results demonstrate that the model provides a structure that promotes systematic working and a continuous improvement focus that can have substantial benefits for wider industry. Opportunities for further model refinement were identified and will enhance performance in subsequent overhauls.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first time that the structure and tools of DMAIC and TAM have been combined into a hybrid methodology and applied in an Irish industrial setting.