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This study aims to explore the underlying mechanism of human–pet interaction in pet tourism affecting tourism experiences and daily lives of tourists. The research investigates the moderating role of pet attachment in this mechanism as well.

Based on the social exchange theory and value co-creation theory, this research develops and empirically tests a theoretical framework of human–pet interaction. Data were collected through an online survey of US tourists who have pet travel experiences. The data were analyzed by partial least squares structural equation modeling.

The results show that emotional value partially mediated the relationship between human–pet interaction and travel intention/quality of life, while social value partially mediated the relationship between human–pet interaction and quality of life. The findings of multi-group analysis suggest that the travel experience of tourists with low (vs high) levels of pet attachment is strengthened by human–pet interaction, leading to favorable outcomes.

This study enriches the empirical evidence on pet tourism experience. This study extends the existing literature by demonstrating the heterogeneity of the relationship between human–pet interaction, co-creation value, quality of life and travel intention of tourists with different pet attachment levels.

本研究旨在探索宠物旅游中人与宠物互动影响游客旅游体验和日常生活的潜在机制。本研究还考察了宠物依恋在这一机制中的调节作用。

基于社会交换理论和价值共创理论, 本研究开发并实证检验了人-宠物互动的理论框架。通过对有宠物旅游经历的美国游客进行在线调查收集数据。采用偏最小二乘法-结构方程模型(PLS-SEM)对数据进行分析。

情感价值部分中介了人宠互动与旅游意向/生活质量的关系, 社交价值部分中介了人宠互动与生活质量的关系。多群组分析的结果表明, 低(vs .高)宠物依恋水平的游客的旅游体验因人-宠物互动而得到加强, 从而导致良好的结果。

本研究丰富了宠物旅游体验的实证证据。本研究通过论证具有不同宠物依恋水平游客的人-宠互动、共创价值、生活质量和旅游意向之间关系的异质性, 拓展了现有文献。

El objetivo de este estudio es explorar el mecanismo subyacente de la interacción humano-mascota en el turismo con mascotas que afecta a las experiencias turísticas y a la vida cotidiana de los turistas. El estudio también examina el papel moderador del apego a las mascotas en este mecanismo.

Basada en la teoría del intercambio social y la teoría de la cocreación de valor, esta Investigación desarrolla y prueba empíricamente un marco teórico de la interacción entre humanos y mascotas. Los datos se recopilaron a través de una encuesta en línea a turistas estadounidenses que han tenido experiencias de viaje con mascotas. Los datos fueron analizados mediante un modelo de ecuaciones estructurales basado en mínimos cuadrados parciales (PLS-SEM).

Los resultados muestran que el valor emocional medió parcialmente la relación entre la interacción humano-mascota y la intención de viajar/calidad de vida, mientras que el valor social medió parcialmente la relación entre la interacción humano-mascota y la calidad de vida. Los resultados del análisis multigrupo sugieren que la experiencia de viaje de los turistas con niveles bajos (vs altos) de apego a las mascotas se ve reforzada por la interacción humano-mascota, lo que conduce a resultados favorables.

Este estudio enriquece la evidencia empírica sobre la experiencia del turismo con mascotas. Este estudio amplía la literatura existente al demostrar la heterogeneidad de la relación entre la interacción humano-mascota, el valor de cocreación, la calidad de vida y la intención de viaje de turistas con diferentes niveles de apego a las mascotas.

This paper introduces more-than-human perspective in information behaviour and information experience studies. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to understandings of the concept of multispecies families by exploring their significant dimensions related to information phenomena involving multiple contexts, situations, spaces, actors, species, and activities.

Based on previous research in human information behaviour and human-animal studies, our ideas around information experience of multispecies families are developed conceptually. The paper builds both on previous empirical findings about human information behaviour and the new domain of information experience.

The paper proposes a holistic approach both to information phenomena in everyday living with companion animals including embodied, affective, cognitive, social, digital, and objectual information that shapes pet care and management practices, and to the context of study, including work, domestic, and leisure aspects of multispecies family.

This study broadens our understanding of information phenomena in multispecies families, and so contributes to the field of information experience. It also provides insights for animal welfare scientists to help them understand the information behaviour of humans who are responsible for keeping and caring for animals.

The purpose of this paper is to interrogate the relationship between self-reported levels of acute stress, perceived social support and interactions with robot animals in an academic library. The authors hypothesized that (1) participants would report lower stress and higher positive affect after their interaction with a robot support animal and (2) perceived supportiveness of the robot support animal would positively predict the amount of stress reduction the participants reported.

The authors hosted a robot petting zoo in the main library at a mid-sized Midwestern university during finals week. Participants were asked to rate their stress level prior to interacting with the robot pets (T1) and then after their interaction they were asked about their current stress level and the perceived supportiveness of the robot animal (T2). Data were analyzed using paired samples t-tests for the pretest and post-test scores.

The results showed a significant decrease in acute stress between T1 to T2, as well as a significant increase in happiness and relaxation. Participants reported feeling less bored and less tired after their interactions with the robot support animals. The findings also reveal that the degree to which individuals experienced a reduction in stress was influenced by their perceptions of the robot animal's supportiveness. Libraries could consider using robot pet therapy.

This study reveals the benefit of robot support animals to reduce stress and increase happiness of those experiencing acute stress in a library setting. The authors also introduce the concept of socially supportive contact as a type of unidirectional social support.

The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of the pet-friendliness trend, because despite its growth, there has been little research on the benefits and potential risks of pet-friendly workplaces.

A general review is provided on pet ownership figures in North America and the benefits and drawbacks of pet ownership. Pet-friendly policies and practices are described, highlighting their potentially positive impact on well-being and performance. Possible concerns with pet-friendly workplaces are examined. The paper offers recommendations for organizations that are potentially interested in becoming pet-friendly.

Many households in North America have pets that are considered genuine members of the family. As a result, workplaces are increasingly becoming “pet-friendly” by instituting policies that are sensitive to pet ownership. The scope of pet-friendly policies and practices ranges from simple to more complex measures. Adopting these measures can result in benefits that include enhanced attraction and recruitment, improved employee retention, enhanced employee health, increased employee productivity, and positive bottom-line results. But there are also concerns regarding health and safety, property damage, distractions, and religious preferences.

The range of pet-friendly measures could apply to any workplace that is interested in improving their efforts toward recruitment, retention, and productivity, among others.

This paper describes a range of efforts that workplaces can offer to enhance their employees’ work lives and is the first to provide a detailed account of the pet-friendliness trend.

This paper presents a survey of research into interactive robotic systems for the purpose of identifying the state of the art capabilities as well as the extant gaps in this emerging field. Communication is multimodal. Multimodality is a representation of many modes chosen from rhetorical aspects for its communication potentials. The author seeks to define the available automation capabilities in communication using multimodalities that will support a proposed Interactive Robot System (IRS) as an AI mounted robotic platform to advance the speed and quality of military operational and tactical decision making.

This review will begin by presenting key developments in the robotic interaction field with the objective of identifying essential technological developments that set conditions for robotic platforms to function autonomously. After surveying the key aspects in Human Robot Interaction (HRI), Unmanned Autonomous System (UAS), visualization, Virtual Environment (VE) and prediction, the paper then proceeds to describe the gaps in the application areas that will require extension and integration to enable the prototyping of the IRS. A brief examination of other work in HRI-related fields concludes with a recapitulation of the IRS challenge that will set conditions for future success.

Using insights from a balanced cross section of sources from the government, academic, and commercial entities that contribute to HRI a multimodal IRS in military communication is introduced. Multimodal IRS (MIRS) in military communication has yet to be deployed.

Multimodal robotic interface for the MIRS is an interdisciplinary endeavour. This is not realistic that one can comprehend all expert and related knowledge and skills to design and develop such multimodal interactive robotic interface. In this brief preliminary survey, the author has discussed extant AI, robotics, NLP, CV, VDM, and VE applications that is directly related to multimodal interaction. Each mode of this multimodal communication is an active research area. Multimodal human/military robot communication is the ultimate goal of this research.

A multimodal autonomous robot in military communication using speech, images, gestures, VST and VE has yet to be deployed. Autonomous multimodal communication is expected to open wider possibilities for all armed forces. Given the density of the land domain, the army is in a position to exploit the opportunities for human–machine teaming (HMT) exposure. Naval and air forces will adopt platform specific suites for specially selected operators to integrate with and leverage this emerging technology. The possession of a flexible communications means that readily adapts to virtual training will enhance planning and mission rehearsals tremendously.

Interaction, perception, cognition and visualization based multimodal communication system is yet missing. Options to communicate, express and convey information in HMT setting with multiple options, suggestions and recommendations will certainly enhance military communication, strength, engagement, security, cognition, perception as well as the ability to act confidently for a successful mission.

The objective is to develop a multimodal autonomous interactive robot for military communications. This survey reports the state of the art, what exists and what is missing, what can be done and possibilities of extension that support the military in maintaining effective communication using multimodalities. There are some separate ongoing progresses, such as in machine-enabled speech, image recognition, tracking, visualizations for situational awareness, and virtual environments. At this time, there is no integrated approach for multimodal human robot interaction that proposes a flexible and agile communication. The report briefly introduces the research proposal about multimodal interactive robot in military communication.

Companion animals and social media are two important factors of social interaction and well-being among the older population. This study aims to compare social media use and/or having companion animals with respect to sociodemographic variables in conjunction with loneliness, social isolation, depression, satisfaction with life and satisfaction with social support.

This cross-sectional study involves a sample of 250 older community-dwelling adults. The questionnaire comprised sociodemographic, companion animals and social media questions and scales to assess social isolation, loneliness, satisfaction with life and social support and depression. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.

Four groups emerged: “companion animal/s, no social media” (37.6%); “none” (33.6%); “social media and companion animal/s” (14.4%); and “social media, no companion animal/s” (14.4%). Social media users (with or without companion animals) are the youngest and with higher levels of education; caregivers of companion animals (no social media use) are in-between in terms of age and level of education; and those without companion animals and no social media users are the oldest and with less formal education.

This research examines and compares two key influencers of older adults’ well-being and social interaction (social media and companion animals), that have been researched mostly separately. Findings underlined the cohort effect in the use of social media, suggesting that future older adult cohorts will use more social media whether they have or do not have companion animals.

Food delivery apps (FDAs) have rapidly developed due to mobile technologies, changes in modern consumption and increased online use during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite this, the platforms are struggling to build a stable customer base and make a profit. This study combined tech-driven motivators in an information system success model (ISSM) and emotional attachment operated by affect transfer theory (ATT) to explain why people might continue to use an FDA.

An online quantitative cross-sectional survey was carried out via the Prolific platform. Data were collected from 416 FDA users and analyzed to test the hypotheses using the partial least squares based structural equation modeling.

The study found that system quality, information quality and emotional attachment directly influence the continued use of FDA. Moreover, the results suggest that perceived social interactivity and perceived playfulness are significant antecedents of emotional attachment.

The findings of this study enrich the current literature on continuance intention in online food delivery services by integrating the technology- and affective-based factors. The findings also provide various practical implications for app designers and marketers to foster an emotional bond with users, resulting in high retention rate.

The study proposes the integrated framework of ISSM and ATT for enhancing understanding of consumer behaviors in the post-adoption stage for FDA.

This piece is a review of the animal selfhood literature in sociology, organized into four main parts. First, I review the sociological literature of human–animal interactions, in which sociologists claim that animals possess selves. Second, I review how sociologists have referred to the self, from which I construct five criteria of selfhood, including self as attribution, self-awareness, intersubjectivity, self-concept/reflexivity, and narration. Third, I address how animals have selves using these criteria, drawing on sociological and ethological evidence. Fourth, I critique the animal interaction sociologists’ specific claims of animal selfhood, including their epistemological failure to distinguish between human accounts of animal subjectivities and animal subjectivities, and their empirical failure to show how animals act toward themselves. Ultimately, I conclude that animal selves, particularly in an elemental Meadian sense, are potentially real, but in most cases are unobservable or unverifiable phenomena.

Human–animal interactions (HAIs) have been found to have an extensive and significant influence on individuals' well-being and health-related outcomes. However, there are few studies that examine this influence on work-related contexts, such as teleworking. In this study, the author relied on the affective events theory to examine the effect of daily HAI on employees’ daily work engagement and the underlying mechanisms (daily affect ratio and state mindfulness), by resorting to a daily diary study.

To test the hypotheses, the author collected daily data during five consecutive working days with pet owners (N = 400 × 5 = 2,000).

Multilevel results showed that interacting with pets during the working day was positively associated with daily work engagement, but this positive relationship was stronger for individuals with lower levels of mindfulness. Further analyses showed that the daily affect ratio mediated the moderating effect of mindfulness on the relationship between daily interactions with pets and daily work engagement.

These findings provide strong support for the proposed mediated moderation model; indeed, positive affect and mindfulness help to explain the positive effect of HAIs on work engagement. Hence, managers may consider the adoption of teleworking, even in a hybrid format for those workers who own pets, because interacting with pets may be a strategy to make them feel more positive and, in turn, more enthusiastic, dedicated and absorbed in their work.

This study is one of the first studies to demonstrate the importance of adopting pet-friendly practices, such as allowing pet owners to telework, as a way to promote daily work engagement.

This chapter of exploratory nature aims to provide an account of the reviewed literature and presents some empirical cases to come to conceptualize dogs as social actors with different legitimate roles in the working, social, private, economic, and family life of human beings.

This chapter is the product of a research inspired by the great interest of the authors on rising awareness of the importance of dogs in human working lives. For this, a purposive literature review took place; we consulted scientific studies databases, and also gathered information from market research agencies, and other general media resources. To have a more comprehensive view, and to respond to a specific question on dogs at the workplace, a selection of cases is used to illustrate. For the case studies, secondary data research was used, and individual, structured interviews were conducted and analyzed.

This chapter reviews the relationship between humans and animals. It identifies attitudes and perception toward animals, highlighting the evolution of the intimate bond and the deep relationship between dogs and humans. It describes some cases of dogs as working beings at the service of human functions and dimensions of the pet care markets. Finally, it presents some cases of pet-friendly work environments.

The novel contribution of this chapter is putting dogs in the management of diversity academic literature. In this study, we find that the role, meaning, and purpose of dogs in people’s lives (and in many cases in organizations) are being underestimated. Including and making visible the presence of dogs in the personal, work, and well-being of people represents challenges to be addressed by managers. Additionally, it represents challenges to think about and investigate the welfare of dogs that interact with human beings in productive environments.