Search results

This paper aims to investigate the effects of virtual reality experiences (VREs) and emotions on holiday destination visit intentions by applying the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) framework. It also examined the role of amateur photography as a moderator in the relationship between VREs, emotions and visit intentions.

Primary data were collected through a structured survey questionnaire administered in India, and structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to examine relationships among variables. The formal survey was preceded by a pilot study. The partial least squares-SEM product indicator technique was applied to measure the moderation effect of amateur photography.

When people have high levels of positive emotions in the pre-travel stage with VRE participation, their intentions to visit destinations are stronger. Amateur photography moderated the relationships between user interactivity, memorable experiences, mental imagery and visit intentions. No significant moderating effect was found between emotional experiences and visit intentions.

The results indicate that creators of virtual reality (VR) communications should concentrate on producing interactive and visually striking VR content, as the research found that VR experiences with tourism-related activities have a significant impact on potential visitor emotions. Therefore, VR producers should incorporate authentic and distinctive elements into contents, giving viewers realistic and trustworthy VR tourism experiences. Destination marketers should evoke emotions in people to increase motivations to visit the VR-presented places. Destination marketers should create VR content with hedonic elements, fostering a connection and desire to visit the destination presented in the VR. For example, destination marketers can enhance the sensory aspects of VR content with audio, video, haptics and artificial intelligence, encouraging people to be emotionally captivated and fully immersed. The findings indicate that amateur photography has a significant moderating effect on prospective tourists’ intentions to visit a place presented in VR. Thus, destination marketers are advised to provide photogenic and relevant content to users. By using amateur photography, destinations can market their attractions to potential visitors in a more interactive and relatable manner. Showcasing images taken by amateur photographers presents a genuine perspective of the offerings, thereby increasing visit intentions among prospective visitors. Additionally, amateur photography helps promote the destination in a positive light, emphasizing the attractions and other offerings, and this encourages potential visitors to consider the destination as a travel option, thereby increasing visit intentions. Encouraging amateur photographers to take and share images also increases their engagement with the destination, creating a sense of community and connection and ultimately driving visit intentions. Destination marketers should embrace VR tourism content as a means of promoting their destinations to potential customers by considering the three crucial elements of memorable experiences, emotional experiences and mental imagery. In essence, destination management organizations and other decision makers should develop complete VR communication plans that incorporate interactive and visually striking activities. This can be done by creating VR experiences for prospective tourists, which will enable them to pick their preferred destinations at the pre-travel stage. Through this approach, an effective destination marketing strategy can be established.

This research has value in making several potential contributions to the tourism applications of VR. It is the first study to use and test the S-O-R framework to analyse tourist behaviour from the perspective of emotions generated by VR applications. The analysis focuses on India’s tourism market, which has not been explored much in the context of VR and from the perspective of a developing country. The research emphasizes the use of VR as a tool to understand tourist behaviour rather than just focusing on visit intentions. The findings provide valuable insights into the importance of VR in tourism. The knowledge generated will contribute to the understanding of the impact of VR experiences on emotions and visit intentions and the moderating effect of amateur photography. It has practical implications for destination marketers in developing effective marketing strategies that enhance tourists’ emotions and motivate visit intentions.

本研究运用刺激-机体-反应(S-O-R)框架, 探讨虚拟现实体验（VREs）和情绪对度假目的地旅游意向的影响。还研究了业余摄影在VREs、情感和访问意图之间的关系中的调节作用。

通过在印度进行的结构化调查问卷收集原始数据, 并使用结构方程模型(SEM)来检查变量之间的关系。在正式调查之前进行了一项试点研究。采用PLS-SEM结果指标方法测量业余摄影的调节效果。

当人们在旅行前的VRE参与阶段拥有高水平的积极情绪时, 他们访问目的地的意愿会更强。业余摄影调节了用户交互性、纪念体验、心理意象和访问意图之间的关系。情绪体验与访问意向之间无显著调节作用。

本研究对虚拟现实的旅游应用有几个可能的贡献。这是第一个使用并测试刺激-生物-反应(S-O-R)框架的研究, 从VR应用产生的情感角度分析游客行为。分析集中于印度的旅游市场, 而在VR的背景下和从一个发展中国家的角度来看, 印度的旅游市场还没有得到太多的探索。该研究强调将VR作为一种了解游客行为的工具, 而不仅仅是关注游客的意图。这些发现为VR在旅游业中的重要性提供了有价值的见解。所产生的知识将有助于理解VR体验对情绪和访问意图的影响以及业余摄影的调节作用。这对目的地营销人员制定有效的营销策略, 增强游客的情绪和激发旅游意图具有实际启示。

Esta investigación analizó los efectos de las experiencias de realidad virtual (VREs) y las emociones en las intenciones de visita a destinos vacacionales aplicando el modelo estímulo-organismo-respuesta (S-O-R). También examinó el papel de la fotografía amateur como moderador en la relación entre las VREs, las emociones y las intenciones de visita.

Los datos primarios se recogieron mediante una encuesta con cuestionario estructurado administrado en la India, y se utilizó la modelización de ecuaciones estructurales (SEM) para examinar las relaciones entre las variables. La encuesta principal fue precedida de un estudio piloto. Se aplicó la técnica PLS-SEM para medir el efecto moderador de la fotografía amateur.

Cuando las personas poseen un alto nivel de emociones positivas en la etapa previa al viaje con participación en VRE, sus intenciones de visitar destinos son más fuertes. La fotografía amateur moderó las relaciones entre la interactividad del usuario, las experiencias memorables, las imágenes mentales y las intenciones de visita. No se encontró ningún efecto moderador significativo entre las experiencias emocionales y las intenciones de visita.

Esta investigación tiene el valor de hacer varias contribuciones potenciales a las aplicaciones turísticas de la realidad virtual. Es el primer estudio que utiliza y pone a prueba el marco estímulo-organismo-respuesta (S-O-R) para analizar el comportamiento de los turistas desde la perspectiva de las emociones generadas por las aplicaciones de RV. El análisis se centra en el mercado turístico de la India, poco explorado en el contexto de la RV y desde la perspectiva de un país en desarrollo. La investigación hace hincapié en el uso de la RV como herramienta para comprender el comportamiento de los turistas, en lugar de centrarse únicamente en las intenciones de visita. Las conclusiones aportan valiosas ideas sobre la importancia de la RV en el turismo. Los conocimientos generados contribuirán a comprender el impacto de las experiencias de RV en las emociones y las intenciones de visita, así como el efecto moderador de la fotografía amateur. Se presentan implicaciones prácticas para los responsables de marketing de los destinos turísticos a la hora de desarrollar estrategias de marketing eficaces que potencien las emociones de los turistas y motiven las intenciones de visita.

Technological advancements in games increased the popularity of online gaming. The rapid expansion of the eSports market may largely be attributed to the ever-increasing popularity amongst Generation Y amateur gamers. The primary objective of this study is to determine the factors influencing Generation Y amateur gamers' ongoing eSports gameplay intentions.

This study used the extended unified theory of acceptance as the theoretical framework. Data analysis included exploratory principal component analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and path analysis.

The results of the confirmatory factor analysis suggest that Generation Y amateur gamers' ongoing eSports gameplay intentions is an eight-factor model that is reliable, valid and has acceptable model fit. The results of the path analysis indicate that habit, price-value, flow, effort expectancy and facilitating conditions have a statistically significant positive influence on amateur gamers' ongoing eSports gameplay intentions, whilst social influence and hedonic motivation have a negative but non-significant influence on those intentions.

The sample was formed using only amateur eSports gamers. In this regard, the opportunity exists to research professional eSports gamers. This study only focussed on Generation Y members between 18 and 36 years old. As a result, there is an opportunity for researchers to research the different generations of South African eSports gamers to determine whether there are any differences or similarities between generational segments.

The results of this study clearly indicate that flow, together with habit are salient contributors to ongoing gameplay intentions amongst amateur eSports gamers in South Africa. A reasonable assumption that can be made here is that flow is also instrumental in encouraging habitual gaming, which increases the importance of flow in overall ongoing gameplay intentions. This suggests that R&D expenditure should be directed at enhancing user engagement by building increased levels of flow into eSports games.

eSports game developers can also achieve a desired state of flow by creating daily challenges that reward players when the players achieve specific objectives, which will encourage gamers to enter a state of flow when provided with challenges to complete. However, these in-game challenges should have a variety of levels regarding difficulty, ranging from beginner, intermediate and advanced levels so as not to exceed the effort expectancy of different groups of players. Game developers should provide regularly updated challenges to gamers to ensure that eSports games remain enjoyable and does not become predictable.

Given the nascence of research on eSports behaviour, the results of this study provide a novel addition to the knowledge pool, particularly in terms of amateur eSports behavioural intentions. Interestingly, hedonic motivation and social influence were non-significant negative predictors of Generation Y amateur gamers' ongoing eSports gameplay intentions. The recommendations provide various marketing strategies and opportunities for eSports business expansion.

In the USA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provides support to State and local governments in fulfilment of their responsibilities for preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation of disasters. One method FEMA has used to support State and local emergency communication functions was to sign and implement a Memorandum of Understanding with the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) for amateur radio operators to provide electronic communications for State and local governments in disasters. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has licensed more than 600,000 amateur radio operators in the USA. The national organization of amateur radio operators called the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) was formed in 1914. More than 80,000 of these amateurs have registered their availability for emergency communications in disasters in the ARRL’s Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES). Amateur radio operators have been providing communications in natural disasters such as floods, hurricanes and earthquakes since 1910. Since amateur radio operation was prohibited during the years of both World Wars I and II, FEMA has sponsored a new branch of the amateur service called Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES). RACES operators are authorized to operate if the President invokes his War Emergency Powers while all other amateur operation would be silenced. Examines the role of amateur radio in providing emergency electronic communications for disaster management and explores future contributions.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the past events where communication challenges have occurred during a disaster, and events in which amateur radio had played a vital role in creating reliable communication links during the disaster response. Furthermore, this paper identifies the modern technology available with amateur radio operators that can be used to create reliable communication networks in order to meet the high demand of disaster communication.

In this paper the author has conducted an integrative literature review, while analyzing case studies of disasters where communication challenges have occurred and the amateur radio has provided communication support during a disaster response.

In today’s world there is a heavy reliance on centralized communications infrastructure such as cell towers, which are very likely to fail during a disaster. Failure or overload of such infrastructure will cause disruptions in communications and make the disaster response inefficient. Amateur radio does not rely on centralized communications infrastructure, and has the ability to be used to meet the demand during many disaster situations. Thus, it is very important for emergency professionals to understand the value of including amateur radio operators in emergency operations plans.

Research is qualitative in nature, with an aim to write a short paper introducing the issues of Disaster Communications.

This paper is intended to provide an insight about the importance of reliable communications during a disaster. Communication interruptions can create a lot of problems and cause inadequate coordination between response agencies. In order to mitigate such challenges it is crucial to study the vital role of amateur radio in supporting the communications when all other mediums of communication fail.

This article aims to explore the concept of amateurism as a form of critique and addition to the concepts of professionalism, professional work and education.

This is a theoretically driven article based upon a review of the historical and sociological literature on amateur–professional relations in various work contexts.

While amateurism is usually conceived pejoratively, the notion of doing something “for the love of it”, even if one is not formally qualified, opens up the possibilities for conceiving new forms of work, worker and sets of working relationships based upon different conceptions of expertise. Drawing upon historical and contemporary studies of the contribution of amateurism to professional work, and exploring the role of digital technologies in enabling amateurs to contribute to forms of professional practice, the article explores some of the challenges posed for work and learning, and suggests some lines of research to be explored.

There has been little to no consideration of amateurism as a positive contribution to considerations of professional work, nor exploration of the expertise and learning of amateurs.

The purpose of this paper is to gather an overview of different research fields that study collection building amongst heritage amateurs (e.g. amateur archaeologists, family and local historians, etc.).

First, the paper will define the term heritage amateur and then identify possible fields in which these groups and their collection building have been studied. A snowball procedure was used to collect material for the study.

While there is an overlap between some of the subjects and fields examined, there is a potential for more collaboration resulting in a deeper understanding of collection building amongst heritage amateurs.

The term heritage amateur is not widely used, and the identification and collection of material for the review rely on the definition and understanding of this term and the groups included under it.

This review of existing literature will benefit researchers and practitioners in the fields of education, information science, museums, libraries and archival studies, as well as the multidisciplinary area of heritage studies.

There is a growing institutional and political interest in making digital heritage collections available to the general public, and this paper argues that an important part of this is understanding how heritage amateurs already do this.

This paper will connect narrow interest areas such as participatory heritage or serious leisure and show how their angles on heritage amateurs differ and compare.

It is well established that courts should and in fact do require a higher level of care by people working within their profession than by amateurs. Adequate care is simply more within reach for the professional than for the amateur (less ‘costly’). This article analyzes whether a further distinction between the professional and the amateur should influence the way courts set negligence standards: the professional is more likely to invest in acquiring information concerning negligence standards, and the professional is hence more likely than the amateur to be influenced by the standards. This issue is analyzed for the case where the professional is the injurer and the amateur is the victim. The amateur is assumed not to acquire any information concerning standards, and the behavior of the amateur is taken as exogenously fixed. Under this assumption, the negligence standard applied to the professional may be either higher or lower than first best, depending on whether care levels by the injurer and the victim are substitutes or complements and on whether, in the absence of information, the amateur over- or under-estimates the standard applied to him or her.

Building on theoretical foundation of personal information management (PIM) in information science, this paper seeks to understand how activity tracker users manage their personal health information generated by their devices and to elucidate future activity tracking technology in support of personal health information management (PHIM). This paper aims to discuss this issue.

The authors conducted a web survey study with a specific group of activity tracker users – amateur runners. This survey collected both quantitative and qualitative data on participants’ engagement with activity tracking technology, their PHIM practices with the information generated by the technology and how their needs were being met by their activity tracking technology use and PHIM practices.

Amateur runners surveyed in this study exhibit long-term engagement and frequent interaction with activity tracking technology. They also engage in PHIM practices by using a range of PHIM tools and performing various PHIM activities. Furthermore, they use activity tracking technology and engage in PHIM practices to meet various health/fitness-related needs and information needs, while some of these needs such as performance needs and overarching needs are only partially met or unmet.

This research discusses amateur runners as power users of activity tracking technology, provides timely updates to PIM and PHIM research in light of a new type of personal health information, and generates design considerations for future activity tracking technology in support of PHIM. It also brings together previously disparate research regarding everyday life PHIM in information science, human–computer interaction and health informatics.

To consider the concepts of amateurism and professionalism, distinguishing these from professional or amateur status.

Outlines the drive for the professionalization of public service delivery in Europe. Explains how the divide between professional and amateur status has developed and considers its implications.

You are about to have an operation: would you prefer a professionally qualified surgeon or an enthusiastic amateur? Professional status provides reassurance about competence, qualifications and standards. The professionalization of service delivery – particularly in the areas of education, health and social care – has been an issue for some time, especially in the UK. But more attention is also now being given to the contribution made by non-professionals such as teaching assistants, family carers and volunteers.

Draws attention to the way new technologies are blurring the distinction between amateur and professional in many areas and providing new opportunities for them to work productively together.

Highlights the ideological tensions underlying the debate about professionalization, qualifications and how public services are delivered.

Presents a wide-ranging discussion of the amateur–professional divide, the contributions made by each and the opportunities for further research in this area.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how the affective aspect of information seeking is important in understanding information behaviour from a holistic perspective. While researchers have often explored adverse affective responses and coping mechanisms in information behaviour, this paper aims to focus on positive affect and the significant place of pleasure in amateur genealogists' information seeking and skills development.

This study adopted a multi‐case, exploratory approach to learning about amateur genealogists' affective behaviour associated with their information seeking. A total of 24 amateur genealogists from around the world participated in semi‐structured telephone interviews about their hunt for their Irish ancestors. Data were transcribed and analyzed to identify patterns of affective behaviour during genealogical information seeking.

The paper finds that amateur genealogists form a unique group of information seekers. Leisure functions as an important information seeking context, in which amateur genealogists associate information seeking with pleasure.

Findings suggest that there is a pleasure principle associated with information seeking, which may offer insight into patterns of affective information behaviour leading to advanced learning, information use, and technological adoption among older adults.