Search results

The concept of information and communication technology (ICT) has extensively used among travel and hospitality organization in the contemporary world. The present study discovers tourism and hospitality business reactions toward ICT-based marketing usage and investigates its relationship with functional competencies and profitability among tourism and hospitality business organizations in India. With a quantitative approach, the study found an extensive usage of ICT-based marketing in tourism and hospitality organizations was noted from descriptive tables. The application of regression analysis indicated positive and significant impact of ICT-based marketing on functional competencies and profitability of tourism and hospitality organizations in India. A positive and significant correlation was also noted among these two due to adoption of ICT-based marketing. This study provides insights to formulate comprehensive ICT-based marketing strategies to fulfill growing customer needs.

This paper aims to investigate the current value chain activities grounded on Porter’s value chain theory and to examine the drivers of strategic environmentalism that influence sustainable value chain adoption. This study further constructs a prescriptive model to reveal the extent to which information communication technology (ICT)-based industries are adopting sustainable value chain practices.

Data were collected using questionnaire from selected ISO 14000/14001-certified ICT-based firms in Malaysia and analyzed using partial least square-structural equation modeling.

Results reveal that the primary activities positively influence sustainable value chain. Moreover, results indicate that support activities significantly influence sustainable value chain adoption in ICT-based firms. Results further show that strategic environmentalism drivers have an impact on sustainable value chain adoption.

Data were collected from ICT-based industries in Malaysia only. Additionally, this research extends the body of knowledge and offers theoretical implications for ICT-based industries in Malaysia and other emerging economies in adopting sustainable value chain activities.

Practically, this study assists ICT-based industries to change their current paradigm from the traditional operations to a more holistic approach toward supporting practitioners to simultaneously achieve social responsibility, environmental and economic growth.

This study offers social implications for ICT-based industries to implement cleaner operations by decreasing CO₂ emission, lessening energy usage, diminishing cost incurred and minimizing usage of natural resources, thereby increasing product recovery and recycle-ability of IT hardware.

This study is one of the first to address the issue related to sustainable value chain in ICT-based industry by providing a roadmap on how practitioners can implement sustainable initiatives or more significantly, how to infuse these initiatives in their current chain, while concurrently enhancing competitiveness. Furthermore, this paper examines the current activities implemented by practitioners toward sustainable value chain adoption and explores the correlation of the drivers of strategic environmentalism with regard to sustainable value chain.

The adoption of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) has some peculiarities that may depend on the combined effect of size and the competitive environment. The purpose of this paper is to use a contingency approach to explore how SMEs develop organizational capabilities through ICT investments in response to environmental conditions.

A survey on 284 SMEs in Italy was conducted and data were analyzed with regression models for testing seven hypotheses on the environmental influence on the development of ICT-based capabilities and the role played by firm size.

The results show that the environment influences the development of such capabilities in a different way, depending on size. Within munificent environments, ICT-based capabilities are more diffused among larger SMEs, whereas under environmental complexity, this pattern is inverted, with larger SMEs exhibiting a more limited deployment of ICT in support of both their internally and externally oriented processes. Under environmental dynamism medium-sized firms tend to develop more internally oriented ICT capabilities, but fail in reporting superior capabilities for managing external relationships.

This paper contributes to understand the relationship between the environment and ICT investments in SMEs. Since the combined effect of size and the competitive environment may influence considerably the ICT investments in SMEs, this study investigates the organizational responses with respect to how SMEs use ICT to address their external environment. This focus provides a contribution to understand the challenges that SMEs are facing in the current technological and market environment, where changes in the ICT paradigm raise the level of complexity and dynamism and bring changes in competition levels that leave few resources for growth to SMEs.

Information and communications technology (ICT) offers enormous opportunities for individuals, businesses and society. The application of ICT is equally important to economic and non-economic activities. Researchers have increasingly focused on the adoption and use of ICT by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as the economic development of a country is largely dependent on them. Following the success of ICT utilisation in SMEs in developed countries, many developing countries are looking to utilise the potential of the technology to develop SMEs. Past studies have shown that the contribution of ICT to the performance of SMEs is not clear and certain. Thus, it is crucial to determine the effectiveness of ICT in generating firm performance since this has implications for SMEs’ expenditure on the technology. This research examines the diffusion of ICT among SMEs with respect to the typical stages from innovation adoption to post-adoption, by analysing the actual usage of ICT and value creation. The mediating effects of integration and utilisation on SME performance are also studied. Grounded in the innovation diffusion literature, institutional theory and resource-based theory, this study has developed a comprehensive integrated research model focused on the research objectives. Following a positivist research paradigm, this study employs a mixed-method research approach. A preliminary conceptual framework is developed through an extensive literature review and is refined by results from an in-depth field study. During the field study, a total of 11 SME owners or decision-makers were interviewed. The recorded interviews were transcribed and analysed using NVivo 10 to refine the model to develop the research hypotheses. The final research model is composed of 30 first-order and five higher-order constructs which involve both reflective and formative measures. Partial least squares-based structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) is employed to test the theoretical model with a cross-sectional data set of 282 SMEs in Bangladesh. Survey data were collected using a structured questionnaire issued to SMEs selected by applying a stratified random sampling technique. The structural equation modelling utilises a two-step procedure of data analysis. Prior to estimating the structural model, the measurement model is examined for construct validity of the study variables (i.e. convergent and discriminant validity).

The estimates show cognitive evaluation as an important antecedent for expectation which is shaped primarily by the entrepreneurs’ beliefs (perception) and also influenced by the owners’ innovativeness and culture. Culture further influences expectation. The study finds that facilitating condition, environmental pressure and country readiness are important antecedents of expectation and ICT use. The results also reveal that integration and the degree of ICT utilisation significantly affect SMEs’ performance. Surprisingly, the findings do not reveal any significant impact of ICT usage on performance which apparently suggests the possibility of the ICT productivity paradox. However, the analysis finally proves the non-existence of the paradox by demonstrating the mediating role of ICT integration and degree of utilisation explain the influence of information technology (IT) usage on firm performance which is consistent with the resource-based theory. The results suggest that the use of ICT can enhance SMEs’ performance if the technology is integrated and properly utilised. SME owners or managers, interested stakeholders and policy makers may follow the study’s outcomes and focus on ICT integration and degree of utilisation with a view to attaining superior organisational performance.

This study urges concerned business enterprises and government to look at the environmental and cultural factors with a view to achieving ICT usage success in terms of enhanced firm performance. In particular, improving organisational practices and procedures by eliminating the traditional power distance inside organisations and implementing necessary rules and regulations are important actions for managing environmental and cultural uncertainties. The application of a Bengali user interface may help to ensure the productivity of ICT use by SMEs in Bangladesh. Establishing a favourable national technology infrastructure and legal environment may contribute positively to improving the overall situation. This study also suggests some changes and modifications in the country’s existing policies and strategies. The government and policy makers should undertake mass promotional programs to disseminate information about the various uses of computers and their contribution in developing better organisational performance. Organising specialised training programs for SME capacity building may succeed in attaining the motivation for SMEs to use ICT. Ensuring easy access to the technology by providing loans, grants and subsidies is important. Various stakeholders, partners and related organisations should come forward to support government policies and priorities in order to ensure the productive use of ICT among SMEs which finally will help to foster Bangladesh’s economic development.

This study aims to explore the propensity of adoption of ICT‐based facilities by hotels in the hospitality sector.

The factors that influence a hotel's propensity to adopt ICTs are broadly divided into location‐related and firm‐related. The relative impact of the factors on the ICT adoption propensity was analyzed through a survey amongst 95 hotels from seven locations in Thailand.

The findings give valuable insights for the marketers of ICTs who wish to gain entry into the hotel sector, and help them in better focusing their sales and marketing efforts.

The study provides researchers and suppliers of ICT‐based facilities with a framework for predicting the adoption propensity of potential customers.

To analyze and discuss the role of ICTs and the emerging trends and issues in marketing tourism experiences.

Previous conceptual frameworks are reviewed and key issues and trends are identified as central for ICT-based tourism marketing. Case studies are presented to illustrate how the marketing issues could be translated into practical tourism marketing strategies.

(1) Based on the literature, a conceptual model that outlines a technology-empowered marketing approach for co-created tourism experiences is presented. (2) The identified key trends in marketing tourism experiences include the changing overall role of marketers, a growth in mobile marketing opportunities, the emergence of smart destinations and their varied implications for marketing. (3) The case studies show the integrated and strategic role of social media platforms, hashtags, photography, location-based geofilters, augmented reality and videography in marketing tourism experiences.

This chapter conceptually outlines the technology-empowered tourism marketing approach and the role of marketers and various other players in tourism experience co-creation. The case studies provide practical implications for ICT-based tourism marketing.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how organizations focusing on employee-driven innovation (EDI) use information and communication technologies (ICT)-based tools in their innovation work. EDI involves systematic exploitation of knowledge resources in organizations. Thus, the role of ICT for efficient knowledge management is important in this respect.

In-depth interviews with employees, managers and union representatives from 20 organizations focusing on EDI were conducted. The sample included organizations from eight different industries, representing both private and public sectors.

The results show that ICT-based tools can support the processes of acquisition, dissemination and exploitation of knowledge, which are important aspects of EDI. However, use of ICT-based tools has to be aligned with organizational structures and professional role conduct to be efficient.

This study contributes to practice by highlighting several factors that organizations should emphasize to succeed with application of external and internal knowledge in their innovation work.

This study applies a knowledge management perspective on the role of ICT-based tools to support EDI in organizations. The findings contribute to an improved understanding of organizational conditions for succeeding with use of ICT-based tools in innovation work, and emphasize that perspectives on knowledge management, technology management and human resource management have to be combined to understand how EDI can be promoted by using ICT in organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the factors influencing the adoption decision of patients towards digital consultation in India with gender as a moderating variable. This study is based on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2) framework for examining the factors influencing adoption decisions for digital consultation and to what extent this leads to continuous usage intention.

Based on the UTAUT2 framework, this study proposed a set of hypotheses that were tested using structural equation modeling. This study was based on primary data collected from 462 sample respondents using the judgemental sampling method who had experience of using digital health consultation in India.

Findings of this study revealed significant and positive causation in the behavioural intention (BI) of a patient to adopt digital health consultation arising out of performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating condition and price value; however, habit is insignificantly associated with the same. Furthermore, the results of this study also revealed that the BI of a patient towards digital health consultation is significantly moderated by their gender.

This study conceptually strengthens the present body of literature on the adoption behaviour by contributing certain new dimensions in the context of digital health consultations and will also help policymakers and service providers in crafting their strategy for promoting the adoption of digital health consultation.

The tourism industry is known to be both famous and infamous in a way that there is a blurred line between how much tourism is sustainable and how much it is not. However, there is no denying of the fact that the industry is in need of innovative and upgraded mechanisms to ensure sustainability. Technology, on the other hand, is making great strides in providing support to ensure sustainable development across various sectors. Taking cues from the existing work, this chapter investigates the various facets of technology in imbibing sustainability, especially in the tourism sector, and proposes a framework for technology-led sustainable tourism development process. The chapter concludes that both technology and sustainable development concept share the common principles of being holistic, futuristic and interrelated (integrated). Therefore, technology can be a proper solution to develop a sustainable model.