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Discusses the importance of tourism on a country's overall economy. Highlights Finland as a particular example, where, due to tourism, the balance of trade soared from a $33.1 million deficit in 1963 to a $34 million surplus in 1970. Analyzes various studies into the tourism industry and examines their findings. Uses a sample of 681 foreign tourists visiting Finland as a survey to gauge tourists' perceptions of 12 European tourist destinations. Reveals findings, inter alia, that: Spain is perceived as the best value for money; Holland has strong accessibility; Ireland is ranked last in offering a cultural experience to tourists. Uses data obtained by survey to concentrate on people's perceptions of Finland. Reveals findings, inter alia, that: Finland is most unlike Germany, Spain, Holland and France; Finland is most like Norway, Denmark and Sweden. Concludes that public and private tourism organisations throughout the world need a focused marketing approach to identify the travelling public's needs.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and empirically test model depicting the relationships among perceived environmental uncertainty, domestic and foreign networking, and export performance.

A sample of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) from Finland, Sweden and Norway serve as the study setting. Data were collected via mail surveys from random samples of SME owners/managers. Usable responses were 75 from Finland, 111 from Sweden and 71 from Norway.

Of the four dimensions of uncertainty, only uncertainty about supplier markets emerged as a significant driver of domestic networking activities of SMEs. While domestic networking did not have a significant influence, foreign networking showed a significant positive impact on SMEs' export performance. Firm size was found to have positive impacts on foreign networking and export performance.

The study was limited to manufacturing SMEs in a particular region. Replications in other industries and regions are needed to validate the current findings. People from Finland, Norway and Sweden share similar cultural values and they are low on uncertainty‐avoidance. Hence, they are not threatened by environmental uncertainties and, consequently, may not feel compelled to engage in networking to reduce uncertainty.

The positive linkage between foreign networking and export performance suggests that public officials in these countries should encourage SMEs to strengthen their existing foreign networks and facilitate formation of new ones via trade missions in other countries.

Understanding the role of networking, as a potential buffer between environmental uncertainty and export performance, should be of interest to both researchers and practitioners.

This study investigates the image of a theme park by determining the relative importance of factors tourists rely on in their evaluations of a theme park and their assessments of that theme park in satisfying these motives. The analytical framework of the importance‐ performance technique is used in analyzing the data. The SantaPark in Rovaniemi, Finland serves as the study setting. Study results and their implications are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to unfold factors anchored in visitors’ experiences possibly determinant of the success or failure of cultural festivals.

The studied data included 931 experience descriptions, 23 interviews and 51 empathy-based stories collected from 17 cultural festivals around Finland during the summers of 2012 and 2013. The nature of the study was exploratory, the theoretical framework was social constructionism, and the analysis was done using Foucauldian discourse analysis. The Method of Empathy Based Stories, a non-active role-playing technique, was used in the data collection.

The identified success factors were the programme, good quality food, sense of community, chill-out opportunities and building blocks of one’s identity. The factors that might cause failures were commercialised and low-quality programme, the low quality of services, commercialism demonstrated by elevated ticket and service pricing, VIP services confronting egalitarianism, crowd control and queueing and anti-social behaviour.

Three areas of particular interest were: how to nurture identity construction and personal well-being, how to enhance egalitarianism within the festival community, and how to promote the desired code of conduct without applying unnecessary rules and restrictions. If successful in these, the festival could boast of features that are not easy to replicate and that could create a competitive edge.

Empathy-based stories combined with discourse analysis contributed new insights on the issues of the success and failure of festivals. The empathy-based stories were particularly useful in retrieving informants’ perceptions of the future and for identifying factors that might cause failures.

Reviews the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

The success of any tourist attraction has always depended heavily on giving the customer what he or she wants. And since globalization has made it much easier for tourists to find a destination or attraction that best fulfills their requirements, customer satisfaction has never been more important. Get it right and the satisfied customer spreads the gospel, visitor numbers rise and everyone lives happily ever after. The reverse is, of course, also true. Shrewd companies do not take their customers for granted and routinely monitor satisfaction levels. Nevertheless, there is growing belief that such research is no longer enough. Sure, measuring the degree of contentment is a worthwhile exercise that few would argue against. But some analysts claim the greater potential for advantage lies in becoming more aware of exactly what it takes to keep the customer satisfied and how to accomplish it.

Provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy‐to‐digest format.

Since the first Volume of this Bibliography there has been an explosion of literature in all the main areas of business. The researcher and librarian have to be able to uncover specific articles devoted to certain topics. This Bibliography is designed to help. Volume III, in addition to the annotated list of articles as the two previous volumes, contains further features to help the reader. Each entry within has been indexed according to the Fifth Edition of the SCIMP/SCAMP Thesaurus and thus provides a full subject index to facilitate rapid information retrieval. Each article has its own unique number and this is used in both the subject and author index. The first Volume of the Bibliography covered seven journals published by MCB University Press. This Volume now indexes 25 journals, indicating the greater depth, coverage and expansion of the subject areas concerned.

Selected differences observed among segments of the public in terms of socio‐economic and sociographic characteristics, raise the hope that donors of voluntary contributions can be defined through behaviouristic giving variables, which can be profiled and accessed. Data collected from telephone interviews in Indiana regarding giving behaviour and socio‐economic/sociographic characteristics of the sample, plus individuals' media exposure, suggests that such surveys can isolate segments which are different in their giving orientations, and can aid the targeting of marketing/advertising strategies.

The purpose of the study is to compare features of career development and fandom in frequent festival attendance in the context of Finnish music festivals.

The study uses a mixed methods research approach and employs two theoretical frameworks: theories of career development and fandom.

In frequent festival attendance, both festival career development and festival fandom are most clearly present in motivation development and social dimensions.

Strategically, frequent festivalgoers should be considered as crucial stakeholders, who might mobilize the co-creation of a sense of community or festival brand.

Music-related fandom has been previously investigated in relation to artists and specific musical genres, but not so much in relation to music festivals in general. Career studies, on the other hand, concentrate heavily on sports events. There is a scarcity of research scrutinizing both career development and fandom in the festival context within the same study, and festival attendance as part of music tourism is an under-researched area.