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Interest in the Electronic Word-of-Mouth (eWOM) in connection with tourism is constantly growing not only among consumers but also among theoreticians. Therefore, the objective of this chapter is to provide an overview of studies that focus on eWOM in the tourism sector using the snowball method. The article is based on a review of the literature of 60 studies that focus not only on consumer behavior in tourism and the impact of eWOM on tourism supply but also on the impact of hotel managers' responses to other consumer behavior and tourism companies. The results of the studies show that eWOM has a significant impact not only on consumer behavior but also on tourism supply. Manager responses can also strongly affect other consumer behavior in decision-making. When eWOM is distributed, consumers are influenced by their emotions, motives, and also by the websites to which they have decided to contribute. The chapter proposes further research areas for different authors.

Twenty-first century online retailing has reshaped the retail landscape. Grocery shopping is emerging as the next fastest growing category in online retailing in the UK, having implications for the channels we use to purchase goods. Using Sainsbury’s data, the authors create a bespoke set of grocery click&collect catchments. The resultant catchments allow an investigation of performance within the emerging channel of grocery click&collect. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The spatial interaction method of “Huff gravity modeling” is applied in a semi-automated approach, used to calculate grocery click&collect catchments for 95 Sainsbury’s stores in England. The catchments allow investigation of the spatial variation and particularly rural-urban differences. Store and catchment characteristics are extracted and explored using ordinary least squares regression applied to investigate “demand per day” (a confidentiality transformed revenue value) as a function of competition, performance and geodemographic factors.

The findings show that rural stores exhibit a larger catchment extent for grocery click&collect when compared with urban stores. Linear regression finds store characteristics as having the greatest impact on demand per day, adhering to wider retail competition literature. Conclusions display a need for further investigation (e.g. quantifying loyalty).

New insights are contributed at a national level for grocery click&collect, as well as e-commerce, multichannel shopping and retail geography. Areas for further investigation are identified, particularly quantitatively capturing brand loyalty. The research has commercial impact as the catchments are being applied by Sainsbury’s to decide the next 100 stores and plan for the next five years of their grocery click&collect offering.

To explore how and why the social structures of strategic partnerships are shaped by actors and how these interrelate with a team's interpersonal relationships over time. Grasping the complexity of this interplay is essential if we want to comprehend what actually goes on in these partnerships and understand why actors often disengage from them.

In three cases, 14 in-depth interviews were held with knowledgeable actors about important events and activities that influenced the relationships between partners. Interview data were triangulated with journals kept by the lead author, who participated as an engaged scholar in the three cases. Because this study took an interdisciplinary approach, new insights could evolve from the multi-level analysis.

Trust has a moderating effect on the relation between open-book accounting and the degree of control a dominant party wants to exercise. When the level of control is raised, this can signal distrust to the other partners, which can harm the relationship. When partners feel more dependent on each other's capabilities to reach their long-term goals, the parties seem to be less likely to put the blame on one of the partners in the case of undesirable events.

Managers should be aware of their power position and acknowledge the effects of power on their relationships. If long-term and close collaboration does not emerge in their partnership, it may be due to how they use their power position.

Thanks to the interdisciplinary approach, this is the first study that shows the significance of trust and power in maintaining strategic partnerships in the construction industry, and how trust can affect the financial rules of actors.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a numerical investigation used to calculate the J-integral of the main crack behavior emanating from a semicircular notch and double semicircular notch and its interaction with another crack which may occur in various positions in (TiB/Ti) functionally graded material (FGM) plate subjected to tensile mechanical load.

For this purpose the variations of the material properties are applied at the integration points and at the nodes by implementing a subroutine USDFLD in the ABAQUS software. The variation of the J-integral according to the position, the length and the angle of rotation of cracks is demonstrated. The variation of the J-integral according to the position, the length and the angle of rotation of cracks is examined; also the effect of different parameters for double notch FGM plate is investigated as well as the effect of band of FGM within the ceramic plate to reduce J-integral.

According to the numerical analysis, all parameters above played an important role in determining the J-integral.

The present study consists in investigating the simulation used to calculate the J-integral of the main crack behavior emanating from a semicircular notch and double semicircular notch and its interaction with another crack which may occur in various positions in (TiB/Ti) FGM plate under Mode I. The J-integral is determined for various load applied. The cracked plate is joined by bonding an FGM layer to TiB plate on its double side. The determination of the gain on J-integral by using FGM layer is highlighted. The calculation of J-integral of FGM’s involves the direction of the radius of the notch in order to reduce the J-integral.

The paper aims to compare the efficiency of alternative municipal solid waste (MSW) management business models: a single provider against multiple providers.

In this paper the drivers of MSW management costs are analysed to test the impact of the scale and scope of MSW management services on the average cost. While the business-as-usual scenario foresees a single provider, the alternative scenario foresees multiple providers.

Based on the empirical data on municipal waste management costs, on average, the size and the average cost of the service are inversely related. This trend is supported using sub-sets defined by the quantity of waste managed. Multiple factors aid in explaining this result, and among others, due to scale and scope, factors such as transition costs increase with the number of players running different services.

The provision of public services of economic interest should favour the participation of more companies wherever possible to the extent that social surplus is produced. However, pursuing this principle to the detriment of efficient service delivery is not ideal. This paper demonstrated that a single-provider waste management business model is efficient under specific conditions, as in this article.

This paper presents an original research methodology for comparatively analysing waste management service efficiency in urban areas and provides adequate evidence using alternative measures of costs according to the phase of the waste management chain, the scale and ultimately the scope of MSW management services.

本學術論文擬比較另類的都市固體廢物管理模式的效率, 比較的對像是:單一服務提供者和多個提供服務者。

研究人員分析都市固體廢物管理成本和價格的動因, 以測試有關的管理服務之規模和範圍對平均成本的影響。若在一切照常的情況下, 我們會預見單一服務提供者, 唯在不尋常的情況下, 我們則會預見多個提供服務者。

根據都市廢物管理價格和成本上的實證數據, 平均而言, 服務的規模與其平均成本是成反比的。我們使用了以所處理之廢物量來界定的子集來支持這趨勢。多重因素會幫助解釋和說明這研究結果, 其中包括:因規模和範圍的關係, 諸如過度成本等的因素, 會按著提供各種不同服務的主要參與者的數目而增加。

在能達創造社會剩餘的前題下, 會帶來經濟效益之公共服務的提供, 應有利於在可行範圍內有更多公司的參與; 但如果實行這原則而因此有損於服務提供的效率的話, 則這是不理想的。本文展示了在特定的情況下, 單一服務提供者的廢物管理商業模式是高效率的, 本文已說明這些特定情況。

本文為以比較分析法去探討城市地區廢物管理服務的效率、提出了一個新穎的研究方法, 並根據廢物管理鏈的階段、都市固體廢物管理服務的規模、以及最終其範圍, 考慮了成本和價格的另類測量方法, 繼而提供充分的證據, 以支持這些測量方法。

The purpose of this paper is to compare service outsourcing decisions between public and private organizations and against a theoretical decision-making framework to both understand differences across the sectors and to provide an outsourcing framework more suitable specifically for outsourcing (and for the public sector).

Multiple case studies, i.e. a study of phenomena (here outsourcing process) at various sites is used as an approach.

Findings indicate that public sector organizations are trailing behind private sector organizations in how the decision-making process is conducted and resourced. The authors suggest regular evaluation of service functions internally as a starting point for the outsourcing service decision-making process. Additionally, the market analysis should be done prior to cost analysis and benchmarking as the availability of suppliers more qualified than the internal process defines the make or buy decision.

The newly developed framework based on empirical evidence includes the following phases: regular evaluation of service functions, market analysis, cost analysis and benchmarking and evaluating relevant service activities. Applying the framework improves the efficient delivery of outsourced public services and brings public sector outsourcing closer to the professionalism currently present in the private sector.

Choosing between in-house and outsourced service delivery is a fundamental decision in both private and public sector organizations. Previous outsourcing research has mostly focused on the private sector, with limited focus on the public sector’s outsourcing processes, yet understanding of the service outsourcing process is important in ensuring organizational competitiveness and cost efficiency.