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The COVID-19 pandemic has forced global organizations to adopt technology-driven virtual solutions involving faster, less costly and more effective ways to work worldwide even after the pandemic. One potential outcome may be through virtual global mobility (VGM), defined as the replacement of personal physical international interactions for work purposes with electronic personal online interactions. The purpose of this article is to establish VGM as a theoretical concept and explore to what extent it can replace or complement physical global work assignments.

This perspectives article first explores advantages and disadvantages of global virtual work and then discusses the implementation of VGM and analyses to what extent and how VGM can replace and complement physical global mobility.

Representing a change of trend, long-term corporate expatriates could become necessary core players in VGM activities while the increase of the number of global travelers may be halted or reversed. VGM activities will grow and further develop due to a continued rapid development of communication and coordination technologies. Consequently, VGM is here to stay!

The authors have witnessed a massive trend of increasing physical global mobility where individuals have crossed international borders to conduct work. The authors are now observing the emergence of a counter-trend: instead of moving people to their work the authors often see organizations moving work to people. This article has explored some of the advantages, disadvantages, facilitators and barriers of such global virtual work. Given the various purposes of global work the authors chart the suitability of VGM to fulfill these organizational objectives.

The purpose of this paper is to segment travelers by their predispositions regarding the adoption of smartphones to purchase travel-related services, which is crucial for developing specific marketing strategies for each group of tourists.

A survey was conducted with 1,014 Brazilian travelers assessing their smartphone usage frequency and predispositions regarding travel purchases. The authors selected three variables related to the users’ acceptance of technology (perceived usefulness, ease of use and intentions to use smartphones for tourism purchases) and m-commerce perceptions of risk. Segmentation was conducted employing cluster analysis.

The authors identified three significantly different clusters of travel consumers: “Risk Ignorers,” “Cautious Users” and “Conservatives.” Risk perceptions appeared to be the main discriminating variable, followed by perceptions that smartphone apps are useful and free of effort.

The non-probabilistic snowball sampling technique of Brazilian travelers may limit the generalization of the findings. Also, the use of intentions as one of our clustering variables instead of actual purchase behavior might bring limitations.

Segmentation enables the development of specific marketing strategies for each group, encompassing different risk profiles. Cautious travelers demand the development of safe and trustworthy m-commerce environments, as well as reassuring communication approach to reduce their perceptions of risk in performing mobile-mediated transactions. Conservatives demand marketers to build simpler and more straightforward apps to entice them.

The study reveals more fine-grained nuances to the role of mobile technology and its impact on travelers, unveiling important differences across travelers’ predispositions toward smartphone adoption that is distinctively associated with usage patterns regarding their risk profiles.

Contemporary global mobility and dual careers are two key features of working life today. Little is known, however, about where they intersect, where one partner travels for their career, while the other partner is left behind, caring for the family and attempting to manage their own career. The purpose of this paper is to explore how the partner’s career is impacted by the traveller’s absence, and the strategies employed to enable their continued career development.

The paper employs a qualitative methodology, drawing on semi-structured interviews with the partners of international yachtsmen.

The findings highlight the prioritisation of the traveller’s career, for reasons of finance and their passion for their career. The implications of this could be detrimental to the partner’s career. Personalised, flexible working arrangements are essential in order for the partner to achieve a sustainable career of their own.

The gendered nature of the sample provides an opportunity for further research examining the implications of the female being the traveller and the male the stay at home partner.

The paper examines a range of alternative strategies for maintaining or developing the career when also faced with additional family responsibilities.

This paper gives consideration to the career of the stay at home partner. A new dual-career strategy is identified – the entrepreneurial secondary career strategy, which has the potential to deliver the flexibility required to manage both work and family demands, and allow partners to enact their authentic career.

The goals of this review are to identify key theories, constructs and themes in the international business travel (IBT) literature and to propose a model based on findings, theories and constructs drawn from adjacent research literature.

The authors reviewed the business travel (BT) literature to identify conceptual and empirical articles on IBT published from 1990 to 2022. Only 53 publications were suitable for review. The authors reviewed them using an open coding system.

The IBT literature is dispersed across several disciplines that use different methods, focus on different aspects of travel and emphasize different positive and negative outcomes that IBT engenders. The publications employed a diverse range of methods, including review and conceptual (11), quantitative (28) and qualitative methods (14). The samples were diverse in country, age, marital status and tenure. Many publications were descriptive and exploratory. The few that based their research on theory focused on two stress theories: Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) theory and conservation of resources (COR) theory.

Experimental and longitudinal designs are needed to reduce the causal ambiguity of this body of mostly correlational and cross-sectional research. The authors discuss the impact of emerging advances in virtual global communication technology on the future of IBT.

More research is needed on positive aspects of IBT. Human resource (HR) people should be aware of these issues and are encouraged to decrease the deleterious aspects of the international trips and increase the positive ones.

Increasing well-being of international business travelers is important for the travelers, their families and the organization.

This is the first IBT review focused on the theoretical underpinnings of research in the field. The authors offer a model for IBT and introduce adjustment and performance as important constructs in IBT research. The authors encompass crossover theory to add the reciprocal impact of travelers and spouses and label IBT a “double-edge sword” because it arouses both positive and negative outcomes.

Today's increasingly interconnected world presents substantial challenges for the security of air travel, which can be attenuated by using registered traveler biometric systems (RTBS). While several systems have been deployed (i.e. Global Entry), it is not clear how a mass adoption of registered traveler biometric systems can be predicted. Using data from air travelers, the aim of this study is to examine the link between air travelers' perceptions of several air travel attributes and their intentions to use RTBS.

This study used an exploratory factor analysis to reduce the dimensionality of 17 perceptions of air travel experience attributes. Further, a discriminant function analysis was used to determine if any of the air travel attribute groups are useful in distinguishing between travelers favorable v. unfavorable toward RTBS.

This study found that travelers' perceptions of several air travel attributes are linked to their intentions to use RTBS. Specifically, the in‐flight service experience, the efficiency of the pre‐flight processing, and the emphasis on customers' time are useful in discriminating between travelers who are favorable v. unfavorable toward registered traveler biometric systems.

This study shows how certain groups of air travel attributes, which are “visible”, can discriminate between air travelers willing and unwilling to use RTBS. Also, by focusing on general air travel attributes, this study provides a broader understanding of how travelers form criteria to evaluate air travel service performance. Finally, this study offers distinctive insight into the voluntary use of biometric technology in airports.

This study has important implications for improving the security of air travel and understanding better a technology that is associated with strong consumer sentiments.

Being among the first studies to examine air travel attribute perceptions and travelers' intentions to approach or reject RTBS, this study makes an important step in the general understanding of biometric system adoption in air travel. By finding the links between air travel attributes and intentions to use RTBS, this study provides a unique approach to understanding the potential use of RTBS in travel, with important implications for an improved management and marketing of RTBS. Also, the study establishes a link between air travel attributes and technologies designed to enhance the air service experience.

We investigate global competitors’ reaction to the Citicorp–Travelers mega merger announcement and find that global competitors, especially banks in Europe and the US, reacted positively to the Citicorp and Travelers’ merger announcement. The uncertainties created by the investigations into the merger proposal had significant impact on the competitors’ stock price. The announcement that the merger had been consummated also elicited a significantly positive reaction from the rivals following the resolution of uncertainties emanating from the regulatory challenges. The positive reaction by competitors suggests that the merger was a wealth-creating event for the large firms in the financial services industry. The expected benefits outweighed any competitive effects resulting from the merger. The competitors’ reaction was, however, not homogenous. Our cross-sectional analysis shows that the abnormal returns earned by the competitors were higher the larger the competitor. In addition, the abnormal returns were greater for the US rivals. That the global competitors reacted positively to the Citicorp–Travelers mega merger announcement is consistent with our assertion that the merger had ramifications that go beyond regulatory concerns in the US.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the applicability of biometric systems in travel and explain how they can be used in response to today's increasing security problems.

This research is conceptual. Its analysis is based on an extensive review of literature on biometric systems.

Biometric systems can improve travel security without compromising consumer value, convenience, and privacy. Deployment of various applications of biometric systems (i.e. immigration/visitor management systems, trusted traveler programs) improve specific aspects of travel security. Biometric systems present challenges, associated with consumers' perceptions of system functionality, privacy, trust, and anxiety, which must be examined in the context of consumer adoption. To achieve synergy in travel information technology and provide benefits to all stakeholders, biometric systems must seamlessly integrate with other travel technologies, both intra‐firm and inter‐firm.

This research provides a domain statement for biometric systems in travel and stays at the foundation of a methodical approach for the study of biometric systems in travel. It offers a conceptual framework that asserts that an integrated deployment and adoption of biometric systems in travel can transform the current travel system into an ideal, more secure system. Further, this study formulates a number of propositions for further empirical examination of biometric systems in specific fields within travel.

This research provides specific suggestions to integrate biometric systems with the existing systems to achieve synergies and derive benefits for travel stakeholders.

Addressing the security‐privacy relationship, biometric systems have social implications. Travelers' concerns about privacy, fear of harm, trust, and anxiety are found to influence their view of biometric systems, with potential implications for adoption and use.

To date, there is scant academic research examining how biometric systems improve travel security. Thus, the position of this research is unique: it offers insight into a technology that is promising for both research and practitioners investigating the role of biometric systems in improving travel security and paves the way for a multitude of specific research directions.

The brand management literature argues that the standardization of branding strategy across global markets leads to consistent and well‐defined brand meaning. The paper aims to challenge this thesis by empirically examining whether and how global brands travel with consumers. The paper studies how consumers create brand meanings at home and abroad as well as the impact of context (e.g. place) on the meaning of global brands for the same consumers.

The paper takes a qualitative approach to examine brand meanings for two prototypical global brands, McDonald's and Starbucks, at home and abroad. Data were collected through photo‐elicited interviews, personal diaries, and essays with 29 middle‐class American consumers before, during, and after a short‐term trip to China. Interviews lasted from 30 to 90 minutes and the data were analyzed using a hermeneutic approach.

Taking a cultural branding approach, the paper demonstrates that despite perceived standardized global brand platforms, consumers develop divergent brand meanings abroad. While at home, global brands have come to symbolize corporate excess, predatory intentions, and cultural homogenizations; abroad they evoke meanings of comfort, predictability, safety, and national pride. In foreign contexts, global brands become dwelling resources that enable travelers to sustain daily consumption rituals, evoke sensory experiences of home, as well as provide a comfortable and welcoming space.

The paper challenges the brand management literature assumption of a consistent brand image for standardized global brands. It shows that the cultural context (e.g. place) impacts consumer‐derived brand meanings even among the same group of consumers. Further, it argues that standardization offered by global brands provides an important symbolic value to mobile consumers of serving as an anchor to the home left behind.

This research is motivated by the increasing need for international interactions during the gradual recovery of the tourism industry. By recognizing the paucity of research on cultural closeness and accommodation categories, this research aims to illuminate the influencing mechanisms of psychological closeness and travelers’ willingness to book an accommodation-sharing property while booking an accommodation.

The authors employ a mixed-methods approach, including an experiment and semistructured interviews.

Results show that hosts’ higher cultural identity congruence leads to travelers’ higher willingness to book an accommodation-sharing property. Psychological closeness mediates the positive effect of cultural identity congruence on travelers’ willingness to book. The authors further explore the moderating role of room types (entire room vs. private room) and find that the mediation effect is stronger for booking an entire room.

The current research underlines the importance of cultural identity congruence and accommodation type on travelers’ willingness to book an accommodation-sharing property and psychological closeness.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how global managers from the generation born 1965 to 1980 (“Generation X”) manage demands of international business travel with desires for family involvement. A portrait evolves of how travel within a global career might be optimized for both business and family life.

A qualitative methodology was used as little research has focussed on alternative forms of global work or work-family issues in a global context. The author conducted in-depth interviews with 25 Gen X global managers in dual-career families (“Global Gen Xers”) pursuing global careers from the USA and Canada.

The author uncovered how Global Gen Xers experienced “work-life balance” through executing personal discretion over travel and substituting in technology. The construct of travel discretion reveals these approaches. Mutual flexibility on the part of global managers and organizations tamed the demanding nature of work spanning divergent locations and time zones.

The findings represent experiences from a self-select group of global Gen X managers interviewed at one point in their careers. The author did not obtain reflections from their families on work-family functioning.

The findings encourage companies to foster flexibility among their global managers around travel decisions. The author can consider how and when international travel can be replaced through technology in order to control costs and sustain global workforces.

This study provides one of the first examinations of work-life balance among younger global managers. It also highlights experiences of those not on expatriate assignments, but performing global work through international travel and technology.