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Wireless sensor networks (WSN), as a solution for buried water pipe monitoring, face a new set of challenges compared to traditional application for above-ground infrastructure monitoring. One of the main challenges for underground WSN deployment is the limited range (less than 3 m) at which reliable wireless underground communication can be achieved using radio signal propagation through the soil. To overcome this challenge, the purpose of this paper is to investigate a new approach for wireless underground communication using acoustic signal propagation along a buried water pipe.

An acoustic communication system was developed based on the requirements of low cost (tens of pounds at most), low power supply capacity (in the order of 1 W-h) and miniature (centimetre scale) size for a wireless communication node. The developed system was further tested along a buried steel pipe in poorly graded SAND and a buried medium density polyethylene (MDPE) pipe in well graded SAND.

With predicted acoustic attenuation of 1.3 dB/m and 2.1 dB/m along the buried steel and MDPE pipes, respectively, reliable acoustic communication is possible up to 17 m for the buried steel pipe and 11 m for the buried MDPE pipe.

Although an important first step, more research is needed to validate the acoustic communication system along a wider water distribution pipe network.

This paper shows the possibility of achieving reliable wireless underground communication along a buried water pipe (especially non-metallic material ones) using low-frequency acoustic propagation along the pipe wall.

In contrast to prior studies examining burnout in academic employees, this paper explores how academic employee agency mitigates burnout risks in the context of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) and how this agency facilitates research productivity and influences well-being in the face of changes in learning and teaching practices.

The authors use collaborative auto-ethnography (CAE) in the higher education (HE) sector to probe how an employee productivity group supported the group's members during the pandemic.

Thematic analysis revealed four emerging themes: burnout, beneficial habits for research productivity, blocking-out-time and belonging. The authors' findings suggest that by acknowledging and legitimising employee-initiated groups, feelings of neglect can be combatted. Purposeful employee groups have the potential to create a therapeutic, safe space and, in addition to the groups' productivity intent, diminish the negative effects of a crisis on organisational effectiveness.

This paper contributes to the literature by utilising a CAE approach to provide greater insight into how academics enact agency by creating digital research workspaces, attending to the spatial dimensions of well-being especially during turbulent times.

Most recent C-suite surveying suggests current applications of generative AI, although hyped, are fragmented and unlikely to yield major financial returns anticipated. Instead, business leaders expect major value from generative AI will be achieved through application of generative AI to innovation: operational innovation, product and service innovation, and most elusive of all, business model innovation.

Findings and analysis presented draws on data from several surveys of C-level executives conducted by IBM Institute for Business Value in collaboration with Oxford Economics during 2023. Each survey focused on the potential of generative AI in a particular business area. The n-count of each survey ranged from 100-3000.

1. Business leaders expect generative AI to build on returns achieved from investments in traditional AI, with 10 percent RoI expected on generative AI investments by 2025. 2. Executives anticipate that generative AI will have most impact when implemented to expand innovation. 3. Specific examples provided for operational innovation, product innovation, and business model innovation

We are still very early in the generative AI development cycle. We have made best efforts to project, but only time will tell for sure.

Business application of generative AI are extremely fragmented. Despite the desire to throw investments at the wall to see what sticks, it is important that leaders take a structured approach to generative AI, focusing on RoI from innovation investments.

To alleviate negative impacts of generative AI, focusing on innovation potential and value maximization is crucial.

This research is based on completely new surveying and data. This papers adds to the sum total of new knowledge in the generative AI domain.

To understand how certain cultural dynamics play out in the case, the main attributes of Hofstede and Meyer’s work are first highlight. While Hofstede focuses on national culture, Meyer’s uses culture as a tool by which to gauge behavior within organizations, teams and individuals. Below the main elements of their work are highlighted. Hofstede’s cultural dimensions are detailed in IM Exhibit 1. Note there are six dimensions on a scale of 0–100. The higher the number, the higher that element of that dimension. For example, the individualism score for the USA is 91, whereas China’s score is 20, suggesting that Americans are much more individualistic, whereas the Chinese are much more collectivist. Students can find where the USA, France and China, the three countries discussed in the case, stand at the Hofstede’s website noted below. For reference, these are also noted in IM Exhibit 2.

All of the information in the case was gathered using publicly available secondary sources (i.e. news articles, annual reports and executive/employee interviews). All sources are cited at the end of the Case/IM.

On April 12, 2022, LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH), the global leader in the personal luxury goods, released first quarter earnings for 2022, highlighting their latest acquisition, the New York City-based Tiffany & Co (Tiffany). Tiffany had performed well due to growth in demand in the USA following two difficult years because of the global COVID-19 pandemic. This underscored the fact that Tiffany was still largely dependent on the US market, which was a cause for concern for CEO, Anthony Ledru, who was brought in by the parent LVMH to elevate Tiffany and exploit the high growth market for personal luxury goods in China and other parts of Asia-Pacific. LVMH’s acquisition of Tiffany had been completed on January 7, 2021, and LVMH was expecting the turnaround of the largely US-centric Tiffany to show results by shifting focus to higher-end and more iconic jewelry lines and greater expansion in China. Nonetheless, Ledru’s ability to address the China market for Tiffany was constrained by culture clashes between the company’s French owners and management team and its large cadre of US-based employees. Employees chaffed at what they felt was a rigid and autocratic management style and at the company’s insistence on limits to a work-from-home policy that was instituted in early 2020 because of the pandemic. Ledru and his top management team had to quickly overcome the internal clashes and employee issues to make significant inroads in the China market.

This case is appropriate for undergraduate and MBA courses addressing dynamics of global business, strategy and culture, such as cross-cultural management, international business, global strategy and organizational behavior. At both levels, its is found that the case will be valuable in generating a lively discussion on organizational and strategic challenges grounded in often lesser discussed issues around cultural fit. In most courses, the case should be positioned toward the end, mainly because it examines both cultural challenges (French ownership of a quintessentially American company) and strategic initiatives (how to grow the brand itself along with geographic expansion, i.e. China), assuming that the module has covered one or the other/or both at different points in the course.

Designing an effective metaverse experience through a tourism digital-twin platform is crucial to the success of metaverse tourism. How such a digital-twin platform should appeal to target users, however, lacks exploration. The study aims to advance a conceptual contribution by successfully creating a metaverse experience through a well-designed digital-twin platform. It also aims to show how the design science approach in tourism can enrich our understanding of digital-twin platform design elements introduced in metaverse experience design.

Guided by the design science approach in tourism, this research conceptualizes the role of digital-twin elements in metaverse experience design and proposes a one-factor between-subject experimental design to examine the effect.

This research conceptualizes how eight unique configurations of digital-twin design, which are embellished in two or three dimensions, shape tourists’ metaverse experience and physical travel intention.

The results offer operators clear strategic guidance on designing an effective tourism digital-twin platform.

This study not only identifies the impact of digital-twin platform design elements but also clarifies how such elements affect customers’ metaverse experiences.

通过旅游数字孪生平台设计有效的元宇宙旅游体验, 对元宇宙旅游的成功至关重要。然而, 这样一个旅游数字孪生平台应该如何吸引目标用户,还缺乏探索。该研究旨在通过精心设计的数字孪生平台成功塑造旅游者的元宇宙体验, 从而在概念上做出贡献。它还旨在展示旅游设计科学方法如何丰富我们对元宇宙体验设计中引入的数字孪生平台设计要素的理解。

在旅游设计科学方法的指导下, 本研究将概念化数字孪生平台设计元素在元宇宙体验设计中的作用, 并提出了一个单因素的受试者间实验设计来检验效果。

本研究将数字孪生平台设计的九种独特配置概念化, 这些配置在三个维度上得到了点缀, 塑造了游客的元宇宙旅游体验和现实旅游意向。

研究结果为产业者设计有效的旅游数字孪生平台提供了明确的战略指导。

现有的研究是第一个研究数字孪生平台设计元素的影响, 阐明了这些元素如何影响旅游者的元宇宙体验。

Diseñar una experiencia efectiva en el metaverso a través de una plataforma digital gemela de turismo es crucial para el éxito del turismo en el metaverso. Sin embargo, la exploración de cómo debería atraer dicha plataforma digital gemela a los usuarios objetivo carece de exploración. El estudio tiene como objetivo avanzar en una contribución conceptual al crear con éxito una experiencia en el metaverso a través de una plataforma digital gemela bien diseñada. También tiene como objetivo mostrar cómo el enfoque de la ciencia del diseño en el turismo puede enriquecer nuestra comprensión de los elementos de diseño de la plataforma digital gemela introducidos en el diseño de experiencias en el metaverso.

Guiada por el enfoque de la ciencia del diseño en el turismo, esta investigación conceptualiza el papel de los elementos gemelos digitales en el diseño de experiencias metaversales y propone un diseño experimental de un factor entre sujetos para examinar su efecto.

Esta investigación conceptualiza cómo ocho configuraciones únicas de diseño gemelo-digital, enriquecidas en dos o tres dimensiones, conforman la experiencia metaversal de los turistas y su intención de viaje físico.

Los resultados ofrecen a los operadores una orientación estratégica clara para diseñar una plataforma gemelo-digital turística eficaz.

Este estudio no sólo identifica el impacto de los elementos de diseño de las plataformas gemelas digitales, sino que también aclara cómo afectan dichos elementos a las experiencias metaversales de los clientes.

Although the concept of destination is often described as an economic term that describes places of interest for tourists and visitors, currently, there is still little awareness in the extant literature about regional, city, village, resort, or even standalone tourist destinations. This chapter aims to clarify the meaning of destinations. It distinguishes the differences between common locations and tourist destinations. It uses case studies to describe places, placemaking, and the experiencescapes of various destinations. This contribution implies that tourist attractions differentiate themselves from other places, as they offer accessible attractions with amenities.

The prevalence of visually splendid multi-million-dollar cellar doors (CDs) builds an assumption that bricks and mortar create the co-created cellar door experience (CDE). This study aims to determine what attracts the visual attention of staff and customers during a CDE at three visual designs of CD: lively, stylised and simple.

A total of 23 customers and five staff consented to record their CDEs using TobiiPro2 glasses with 35 recordings providing 993 min for analysis with Tobii Pro Lab. Twenty-five areas of interest were used to calculate fixation and visit metrics.

The most attended elements of a co-created CDE were staff and faces. Attention is less influenced by the design of CD, whereas staff significantly influence attention.

The findings are valuable to the industry as they highlight the importance of human resources to a winery business, an increasingly casualised workforce. Future research could focus on staffing needs, including training and performance during experience delivery, with the expectation of increasing profitability.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to analyse objective recordings of staff and customer visual attention during their experience.

An unexpected Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has negatively affected the tourism and the hospitality industry, including luxury accommodation service providers. While this was not the first virus outbreak to impact the tourism sectors, in this case, its consequences were devastating. In this light, this contribution analyzes the case of an Italian luxury hotel, a winner of numerous awards during the last few years, including the prestigious World Luxury Hotel Award. The researchers compare its pre- and the post-COVID situation. They clarify that the outbreak has resulted in reduced reservations and explain how the upscale hotel responded to the unprecedented crisis by implementing different approaches. The luxury hospitality business decided to defend its brand differentiation and positioning strategy by continue offering improved service quality and by introducing enhanced hygiene and sanitation facilities, in order to deliver customer-centric experiences to their valued guests.