Search results

The purpose of this paper is to identify the key motivators triggering tour operators to practise responsible tourism in Kinabalu Park.

Inductive and phenomenological research data were collected via in-depth interviews with 25 tour operators guiding tours in Kinabalu Park, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.

The paper uses push and pull motivation theory to explain motivation in practising responsible tourism. The findings show that push factors are more significant to tour operators as compared to pull factors. The key motivation of tour operators to practise responsible tourism is organisational benefits and own initiative (intrinsic) and response demand and market trends (extrinsic). However, the findings show that although tour operators have a positive attitude towards responsible tourism, it does not show in their tour operations of Kinabalu Park. This is because the challenges like lack stakeholders participation and low responsible tourism awareness were negatively affecting to what tour operators would like to do and what actually gets done.

Identified motives, practices, issues and challenges are valuable information and to enhance the practices of responsible tourism in Kinabalu Park, Sabah.

The paper provides in-depth insight of the motivation to practise responsible tourism from tour operators’ perspectives in Kinabalu Park. The finding is benefiting the implementation of responsible tourism in Kinabalu Park.

Travel and tourism has played an instrumental role in the growth of a progressive Indian economy. Contributing 6.3 per cent to the total Indian gross domestic product in 2015 and expected to rise by 7.3 per cent in 2016, the sector has exhibited positive signs of growth and is delivering to its forecasted potential (WTTC, 2017). To manage this growth, it is estimated that there is an incremental need of 4.9 million people to take up varied job roles. To cater to the growing need and take advantage of being the youngest economy, Skill India mission was launched with a view to training 400 million people by 2022. This paper aims to explore the recruitment of Skill Initiative-certified candidates for Luxury Hotels in India, identify the challenges in recruiting Skill Initiative candidates and explore whether the knowledge of the English language is important to the recruitment of skilled personnel by employers.

Primary information was gathered via conversations with industry practitioners to gauge the effectiveness of the hospitality-based curriculum design and to explore the concept of employability and the challenges they face. To measure the effectiveness of a course designed to develop English language proficiencies, interviews were conducted with language trainers.

Skill India initiative is not delivering the promise that was expected. The key findings were that the initiative is being perceived as a program for those not willing to help themselves or the marginalized who would have opted out or failed to complete formal education. There should be structural changes in primary education to develop English language skills in particular. The program needs to reconsider the time it allocates to developing soft skills. The biggest barrier to the absorption of candidates after being skilled and certified via the Government’s skilling agenda is poor English language communication, especially verbal expression.

Although the issue discussed is a genuine bottleneck, there has been no prior formal research on this topic in relation to the Skill India initiative. There is an abundance of literature on the topic of communication skills as it relates to employment and growth, but there is very limited work in the Indian context, especially in relation to the Skill India Initiative. The research forms a platform for various stakeholders, government planners/agencies (for understanding gaps and making necessary changes), training providers (to identify requisite profile of trainers), researchers and industry specialists (to recognize their role and contribution) to build upon and develop.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of celebrity endorsers on consumer advocacy, customization and entertainment intentions based on the notion of the stimulus–organism–response (SOR) framework. In addition, this study aims to examine the mediating and moderating role of customization and entertainment intentions on the proposed relationships. The authors also intend to highlight the comparative effects between male and female young social media consumers on those proposed associations.

In the pursuit of comprehensive and rigorous data collection, this study adopted a quantitative methodology using a meticulously crafted questionnaire. The questionnaire survey was conducted in major cities of Malaysia using the convenience and snowball sampling techniques. A total of 576 responses were collected, even though 549 retorts were used for data analysis. In this investigation, the authors strategically used covariance-based structural equation modeling through the use of AMOS v. 24 as the primary data analysis tool. Augmenting the analytical depth, the authors also conducted a supplementary bootstrap analysis. The additional layers of examination were crucial for appraising the mediating and moderating effects inherent within the model, in which the PROCESS MACRO v.4.20 was used.

The results of this study revealed the significant direct positive effects of celebrity endorsers on consumer customization, entertainment and advocacy intentions. Consumer customization and entertainment intentions also found significant direct affirmative effects on consumer advocacy intention, along with the significant direct positive effects of consumer entertainment intention on consumer customization intention. The results further revealed that consumer customization and entertainment intentions cannot mediate the relationship between celebrity endorsers and advocacy intention. The entertainment intention also declined the mediating effects between celebrity endorsers and consumer customization intention. On the contrary, consumer customization intention significantly and positively, and entertainment intention also significantly but negatively, moderate the association between celebrity endorsers and consumer advocacy intention. This study also illustrates that the effects of those examined relationships differ between male and female young social media consumers.

This study investigates the impact of celebrity endorsers on consumer behavior, focusing on their customization, entertainment and advocacy intentions. It extends current SOR framework, enhances source credibility theory, fills gaps in the literature on social media brand engagement and underscores the significance of customization and entertainment intentions. The findings provide insights for managers aiming to harness consumer brand advocacy through celebrity endorsers effectively.

This monograph contains abstracts from the 2005 Employment Research Unit Annual Conference Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University, 6‐7th September 2005

In the literature of industrial management, the focus is normally given on examining the factors that contribute to product innovation acceptance. The advocates of “pro-innovation bias” assume that consumers are open to new products and are willing to accept an innovative product. However, there is a high failure rate of technological innovations and most of the technological innovations were rejected due to users' resistance. Since the inception of innovation resistance theory (IRT), the number of studies that used IRT has gained much attention from scholars. However, the findings from these studies from various contexts are inconsistent, lack universality, and a clear understanding of technological innovation barriers. The study aims to determine whether the IRT theory is indeed valid and whether IRT is culturally invariant from the Eastern and Western cultures.

A meta-analysis based on a random-effects model and studies drawn from 24 countries and/or regions with a consolidated sample size of 10,463 was conducted. Cultural invariance was identified based on subgroup analysis. Moderator analysis was performed by applying the weighted linear regression.

The results reveal that tradition is the strongest barrier followed by the value, risk, image and usage barrier. Interestingly, there is a cultural invariance in IRT from the Eastern and Western cultures. Besides, there are significant moderating effects due to the temporal factor.

The study has contributed useful theoretical and managerial implications in advancing the product innovation literature.

This chapter reviews emergent research streams as a basis for a dynamic multilevel perspective on organizational buying behavior that can link seminal studies to more contemporary issues raised by managers and scholars alike. Since Johnston and Lewin's (1996) review, the literature does not include a comprehensive analysis of recent themes or general directions. From a managerial perspective, some of these issues that need coverage include the following questions. What are the best practices for integrating the organizational buying process with product design, development, and innovation? How can technology, media, and automation be leveraged in the buying process? For supplier relationships in which trust and commitment have been established, what are the best practices for using this to build competitive advantage? What are the best practices for leveraging the brands of products or services that are not owned by a firm? What are the best practices for managing buying processes across international markets?

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between justice perceptions (distributive, procedural and interactional) and workplace bullying and to test the mediating role of psychological contract violation (PCV) in this relationship and the extent to which the mediation is moderated by power distance orientation (PDO).

The study draws upon quantitative data collected via self-reported survey questionnaires from 422 full-time Indian managerial employees working across different service sector–based Indian organizations.

The results revealed that justice perceptions (distributive, procedural and interactional) negatively correlated with workplace bullying. The hypothesized moderated mediation condition was supported as the results suggest that the PCV mediated the justice-bullying relationship and the PDO moderated this mediating pathway, i.e. indirect effects of justice (procedural and interactional) perceptions on workplace bullying via PCV were weaker for employees with a high PDO.

A cross-sectional design and the use of self-reported questionnaire data in the sample are few limitations of the study.

This study contributes toward a better understanding of the relationships between justice, PCV and workplace bullying. It also highlights the role played by individual cultural dispositions in influencing their perceptions of workplace bullying. Given the perceptual and subjective elements of workplace bullying, understanding how justice and workplace bullying are related in not only important theoretically but also critical from a practical standpoint.

To the best of authors' knowledge, this is the first study that links justice, PCV, workplace bullying and PDO in one study. This study is also important in terms of its context.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a contemporary look at the current state‐of‐the‐art in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) for structure health monitoring (SHM) applications and discuss the still‐open research issues in this field and, hence, to make the decision‐making process more effective and direct.

This paper presents a comprehensive review of WSNs for SHM. It also introduces research challenges, opportunities, existing and potential applications. Network architecture and the state‐of‐the‐art wireless sensor communication technologies and standards are explained. Hardware and software of the existing systems are also clarified.

Existing applications and systems are presented along with their advantages and disadvantages. A comparison landscape and open research issues are also presented.

The paper presents a comprehensive and recent review of WSN systems for SHM applications along with open research issues.