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The global tourism industry is continuing to experience a change from high-touch to high-tech with the increasing implementation of self-service technologies (SSTs) such as hotel reservation websites, kiosk technologies at airports and smartphone applications. SSTs require active customer involvement in the service delivery process and as such, the customer serves as a co-creator of value along with the tourism provider. Although there are benefits to customer involvement in service provision, there is a risk that SST usage may also detract value from the service experience. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore customer perspectives on their experiences of SST usage in a tourism context, through the theoretical lens of the service–dominant logic framework.

This interpretivist study employs a two-stage qualitative methodology of short interviews with 133 participants at an international airport, followed by 32 in-depth interviews with SST users in a tourism context.

Six diverse customer SST experiences are identified and then classified in terms of being either value-creating or value-destroying. The first two experiences accruing from SST usage, namely accomplishment and supportiveness, are deemed to be value-creating, while the experiences of lack of control, manipulation, concern about discrimination and social tension are deemed to be value-destroying.

The study responds to a gap in the literature regarding the concept and nature of customer value co-creation pertaining to the use of SSTs in a tourism context. The research findings indicate that value is not only created but may also be destroyed in the SST encounter. The study also illustrates that SST usage may have a strong social element in terms of the presence and role of other customers and employees. This challenges the consensus in the literature that SST usage reduces or removes human interaction.

Purpose: The development of service automation continues to underpin the travel, tourism and hospitality sectors providing benefits for both customers and service companies. The purpose of this chapter is to showcase the practice of self-service technology (SST) usage in the contemporary tourism and hospitality sectors and present a conceptual framework of customer SST adoption.

Design/Methodology/Approach: This chapter offers an examination of theory, research and practice in relation to SST usage in tourism, highlighting the benefits and drawbacks arising for both customers and service providers. Since the benefits are achieved only if SSTs gain effective adoption with customers, this chapter focuses on concepts underpinning the study of customer SST adoption. Drawing on SST adoption factors and SST customer roles, a conceptual framework of SST adoption is discussed.

Findings/Practical Implications: This chapter examines the principles and practice underpinning the usage of self-service technologies in the travel, tourism and hospitality sectors, with specific reference to customer SST roles in co-creation. The customer SST roles provide a more detailed and nuanced picture of the customer perspective on SST usage. These nuanced roles are captured in a conceptual framework which seeks to further refine the understanding of customer SST adoption.

Research Implications & Originality/Value: The framework provides a useful foundation for further research with a focus on customer empowerment in SSTs. The future development of service automation will require a balance between the delivery of a personalised and smarter customer experience and technology applications that are unobtrusive and which do not pose any ethical or privacy concerns.

This paper seeks to address the impact of an organisational change initiative on organisational employees, with specific reference to a micro-merger which occurred in a public sector, higher education organisation in Ireland. The literature on change management is examined, with specific reference to the post-integration stage of a micro-merger. The paper then reports on a study that was undertaken in an Irish higher education institution and focuses on the impact of the micro-merger on employees. Specifically, the study seeks to address their perceptions and emotions relating to a heretofore under-researched area in the merger literature, namely the impact of a change of physical geographical location and the accompanying change of physical facilities on employee motivations and well-being.

The aim of the research was to examine the post-integration stage in a newly merged entity, in terms of the employees' perceptions regarding the impact of such organisational change on them, from a personal perspective. A phenomenological approach was adopted in this study. A total of 41 in-depth interviews were conducted with academic employees (i.e. lecturers) of an Irish higher education institution.

The participants had varying feelings and emotions, resulting from the practical and personal manifestations of the change wrought by the micro-merger. These emotions ranged from excitement to anxiety and apprehension. A major theme in the literature is that organisational change can be destabilising for all organisational members, resulting in uncertainty, fear, psychological stress, anxiety and insecurity. This was not the experience in this study. The merger certainly represented a significant change for the participants, but in contrast to the aforementioned stark view of mergers, the participants exhibited a more practical and pragmatic approach to this organisational change.

This exploration of the emotional impact of a merger on employees is noteworthy in the context of a major research gap in the literature concerning the “soft” or human resource issues arising from a merger. Specifically, the paper illustrates a heretofore under-researched aspect of the change management and post-merger literature, namely the substantial impact of a change in physical location and physical facilities on employees' motivations and sense of well-being.

While substantial scholarly attention has been given to children’s understanding of advertising in the context of traditional advertising channels, there is a gap in the literature with regard to children’s commercial awareness in the context of online social networking sites. This paper aims to seek to explore the nature and extent of advertising literacy among young consumers in the context of their use of social networking sites, namely, Facebook and Bebo.

A three-stage study was conducted with 12 to 14-year-old girls, using focus group discussions, participant observation and in-depth interviews.

The study illustrates that the increasingly blurred line between online advertising and other forms of online brand-related content is militating against the development of advertising and marketing literacy in young consumers. A key issue which is discussed is the extent to which the traditional conceptualisation of advertising literacy is “fit for purpose” in an online context.

The authors propose an alternative to the advertising literacy concept, namely, the Online Brand Communications literacy framework. This framework recognises the convergence of traditional online advertising and other forms of online brand content and also acknowledges that the messaging around a brand may originate from the brand owner in a variety of overt and covert forms. Equally, online consumers may also act as brand promoters when they engage in brand-related word-of-mouth.

The purpose of this paper is to explore why young people use and participate in social networking sites (SNSs) with specific reference to Bebo.

A qualitative approach is employed in this paper with a view to exploring the uses and gratifications (U and G) that girls aged 12‐14 years, both seek and obtain from the Bebo SNS. The research is conducted in a school setting in Ireland.

The findings indicate that the participants are actively using Bebo for their own personal motives and gratifications in terms of presenting and managing a certain identity and persona in a social context. Furthermore, the relatively impersonal nature of the online environment is seen to especially facilitate the young participants in negotiating the practicalities and difficulties that can arise offline, in terms of forging identities and managing relationships.

U and G theory has attracted criticism in terms of a perceived limitation that it only serves to offer lists of reasons as to why audiences attend to the media, and furthermore, a perception that much of the extant U and G research has desisted from discerning between gratifications sought (GS) and gratifications obtained (GO). This paper affirms the appropriateness of the U and G theoretical approach in the context of online research. The authors conclude that SNS such as Bebo facilitate the participants in this paper in executing personal aims (for example, identity creation and management) with a view to obtaining certain gratifications (for example, peer acceptance). Therefore, a clear distinction but inextricable link is demonstrated between the GS and GO from participating in SNS.

This paper aims to present the first systematic review of the literature relating to the relationships between organisations and their marketing agencies, the agency–client relationship, and presents a concept matrix that identifies the key areas of investigation, and topics where further research would be beneficial. As agencies play a pivotal role in operationalising marketing strategy, this relationship is central to marketing theory, management and practice.

A systematic review of the literature was performed using key databases and search terms, and filtering on the basis of criteria relating, for example, to relevance and format, to create a core set of refereed papers on the agency–client relationship in the marketing and advertising domains. Bibliographic and thematic analysis was used to profile the literature in the dataset, and to draw out key themes.

The paper provides an analysis of the extant knowledge base, including key themes, journals and research methods. The following themes emerged from the literature, and are used to elaborate further on the existing body of knowledge: conflict, client account management, contracts and agency theory, cultural and international perspectives and co-creation. An agenda for future research is proposed that advocates a focus on theoretical foundations, research strategies and research topics and themes.

This is the first systematic review of the literature on agency–client relationships, which is scattered across disciplines and informed by several theoretical perspectives. Given the increasing complexity of agency–client relationships in the digital age, and increasing need to understand “marketing-as-practice”, the coherent overview offered by this paper is of particular value for guiding future research.

The purpose of this paper is to provide food science or biology students with a simple and reliable method of determining the antibacterial activity of a range of foods and biological materials that contain lysozyme.

The antibacterial effects of the materials reported to contain lysozyme were assayed by gel‐diffusion using the lysozyme‐sensitive bacterium Micrococcus lysodeikticus. The antibacterial effects of the selected test materials, namely fresh hen egg‐white, human saliva, Brussels sprouts, papaya and figs were compared against standard solutions of proprietary analytical crystalline hen egg‐white lysozyme.

The antibacterial activity of the test substances was similar to the effects of their lysozyme concentrations as quoted by other workers.

Antibacterial activity was higher in avian egg‐white and human saliva than in the assayed plant material. Measurement of the activity in the plant material was at the limits of the sensitivity of the method.

The two main practical methods for measuring lysozyme are either a gel‐diffusion assay or a spectrophotometric procedure. Gel‐diffusion assay provides a convenient procedure for student investigative work as it has a limited requirement for method development. Additionally, it is simple, cheap, reproducible and does not require specialist equipment. Further possible investigations for students are suggested.

The paper builds on established techniques to provide a procedure that is appropriate for student use for determining lysozyme activity in a variety of biological materials.

Crises precipitate strong fiscal responses by government – sometimes toward austerity, other times toward renewed social spending. This variation in approaches to crisis handling has the potential to highlight factors that drive public opinion toward government interventions that may be quite different from those in non-crisis times. This study aims to discuss the aforementioned issues.

This article brings together theories of government policymaking in crises, policy responsiveness and economic voting to assess how personal financial (egocentric) concerns and/or national financial (sociotropic) concerns may influence opinions toward government handling of direct financial supports in a crisis and, more generally, opinions toward social policy interventions. The authors assess this dynamic in the Canadian context using original national survey data collected in the initial stage of the pandemic-based crisis in June and July of 2020 (N = 1290).

The authors find strong evidence in support of sociotropic concerns shaping government approval and support for greater social policy interventions, but limited evidence to support egocentric concerns, suggesting that social policy attitudes may be more insulated from personal factors than anticipated.

The authors’ findings suggest that crises may prompt enhanced support for interventionist social policy measures that may lack broad-based support in non-crisis times.

The authors’ findings speak to the ongoing discussion around the possibility for crises to function as policy windows for enhanced social spending and for entrenching targeted financial supports for vulnerable individuals.