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This chapter analyses the situation of gender research and education in tourism. It describes gender inequity as a wicked problem resulting from a deep embeddedness of gender stereotypes in social norms, values, and attitudes. Drawing on sociological theories, this chapter demonstrates that invisible power structures and interests of certain groups in society, in combination with prevailing gender-based stereotypes, result in vicious cycles of adapting behaviour to stereotypes and enforcing them by doing so. With its clear focus on appearance and easy-going lifestyle, the tourism industry still does not address gender issues, including sexual exploitation, appropriately. There is a need to systematically integrate gender-related topics into tourism studies and education curricula on a university level to create awareness among students and acknowledge how they can contribute to gender justice.

Drawing upon the stimulus-organism-response model, this study aims to explore the impact of soft aspects of service quality on revisit intention through the mechanism of perceived empathy.

For the examination of the hypothesized relationships, the study adopts structural equation modelling to analyse the data of 562 respondents (i.e. 281 family members and 281 inpatients).

The empirical results suggest that service quality increased family member empathy perception, which, in turn, improved inpatients’ revisit intentions.

Past studies have focused on the roles of overall service quality. The authors have extended the literature by examining the specific but important aspect of service quality and its effects on emotional response. Importantly, the study explains that the affective reactions of a patient’s family, fastened with perceived empathy, have a central role in influencing the patients’ subsequent reactions. Moreover, the prior studies collected the data either from hospital employees or patients. However, in the present study, the authors used a unique sample (family members as well as patients) to have a deeper understanding. Thus, the study enhances the literature on the stimuli-response (i.e. service quality – revisit intentions) relationship in the context of service marketing in general and health care in specific. Important academic and managerial contributions and recommendations for future research are discussed.

The purpose of the chapter is to explain how boys learn to mask their expression of fears and emotions. The aim is to understand how boys internalize socially prescribed masculine traits, including masking of fear, certain emotional expressions and discomfort. The sample consisted of 20 parents, 30 school teachers and 50 boy students and 50 girl students between the ages of 11 and 14 from government-funded co-education schools in Delhi, India. School observation, focus group discussion, and interviews were used for data collection. The study found that gendered social norms are enforced on boys in the form of ‘boy codes’. These boy codes are so deep rooted in daily practices that they are considered as an essential ‘ideal male’ trait. Although the ‘ideal male image’ is presented as a uniform category among boys, the masking of fears and emotional expressions is not the same for all boys. Thus, many boys internalized the ideal male images in the form of hegemonic displays of masculinity, where they are focused on conforming to rigid masculine traits. However, through challenge, negotiation and renegotiation, many boys would like to conduct themselves according to their personal masculinity. There is a shift among some boys from the internalization of the traditional male image to giving meaning to personal experiences that deviate from the ideal male figure without the fear of being judged by society.

The text introduces the theory of integrating territorial identity into the discourse on sustainability. It stresses the importance of considering for each place the complex interaction among social, cultural, political, historical, architectural, biophysical, geological, and hydrographic factors in shaping sustainable development trajectories. Sustainable development must certainly involve environmental, social, and economic aspects in an integrated manner, but it must be “territorially desirable” in the meantime. This vision represents a fundamental paradigm for a new way of approaching the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the path to sustainability. The proposed approach acknowledges that the way of achieving SDGs cannot be implemented without any differences worldwide. Instead, it must account for the specificities of each area and territory and the compatibility of actions with the identity of places.

Digital preservation of theses and dissertations (TDs) is crucial for the archiving (long-term preservation) of intellectual content of undergraduate and postgraduate students in universities. This paper aims to investigate the digitization of TDs in three selected academic libraries in Oyo State, south-west Nigeria.

Descriptive survey research design was used for this study. The instrument for data collection was the questionnaire. The study comprised 78 professionals and paraprofessional librarians in the three selected university libraries in Oyo State.

The study revealed that digital preservation of TDs in university libraries is at the developmental stage. Also, the study revealed that most participants strongly agreed that the main purpose for embarking on the digital preservation of TDs was to influence the web ranking of the institutions. Web archiving was the widely adopted method of digital preservation in university libraries. Poor information and communication technology infrastructure, absence of policy and poor funding were identified as major challenges militating against the effective digital preservation of theses in the libraries. Hence, it was recommended that the management of university libraries should be more committed to providing substantial funds to meet the financial obligation for digital preservation initiatives.

The study provides insight into a case study of digitization of theses and dissertation i academic libraries in three selected universities to serve as a basis for further research.

There is a paucity of studies on factors influencing social entrepreneurial behaviours or actions. Against this background, this study aims to explore factors and challenges affecting Enactus members’ social entrepreneurial actions in Nigeria.

This study adopted a qualitative approach, and data were gathered through three focus group discussions involving 25 people (18 Enactus members, 4 faculty advisors and 3 business advisory board members). The study adopted a content analysis technique for data analysis.

The findings reveal that social mission orientation, desire to create social impact and social problems influence Enactus members’ social entrepreneurial actions. Other influencing factors include social entrepreneurial passion, moral obligation, social empathy and social support. In addition, the study finds that financial and time constraints affect Enactus members’ social entrepreneurial actions.

The findings have implications for social entrepreneurs/enterprises, governments/policymakers and Enactus members.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first qualitative study that provides insights into the factors influencing a group of people towards social entrepreneurial actions.

The Metaverse is rapidly reshaping the understanding of tourism, yet the public perception of this new domain remains largely uncharted empirically. This paper aims to build on the technology acceptance model (TAM) and diffusion of innovations theory (DIT) to fill this gap, offering crucial insights that could inform scholars and practitioners in both the tourism and technology sectors.

Using a big-data approach, the authors applied machine learning to scrape comments made by social media users on recent popular posts or videos related to tourism in the Metaverse from three prominent social media platforms. The cleaning process narrowed down 15,461 comments to 2,650, which were then analysed using thematic, emotion and sentiment analysis techniques.

The thematic analysis revealed that virtual tourism evokes a complex range of public beliefs. While many express awe and excitement toward its immersive capabilities, others remain sceptical about authenticity compared to physical travel. Additional themes show people draw comparisons to real-world tourism, discuss technology’s role and note educational value and novelty. However, some comments raise concerns about potential societal harms, exploitation and mental health impacts. Sentiment analysis found over half of the comments positive, though some were negative. Emotion analysis showed contentment, happiness and excitement as most frequent, though sadness, worry and loneliness also featured. Overall, perceptions of Metaverse tourism encompass enthusiasm yet substantial ambivalence.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first to comprehensively analyse public discussions on Metaverse tourism. It takes TAM and Rogers’s DIT a step further and provides fresh insights into how these theories can be employed in the emerging field of Metaverse tourism. The themes revealed new conceptual insights into multidimensional factors shaping public beliefs about Metaverse tourism and thus informing scholarly research on virtual interaction and technology acceptance regarding Metaverse tourism. In addition, the results can help tourism providers, platforms and marketers address salient public beliefs and sentiments/attitudes in developing marketing offerings, experiences and communications. Over time, this analysis methodology can be used to track the evolving public perceptions of Metaverse tourism.

This article aims to tackle the organization's problems with a new paradigm of organizational consciousness by developing a framework.

The Phenomenological and Framework Synthesis approach is used to develop the conceptual framework for organizational consciousness.

The research article highlights organizational consciousness's implications for long-term sustainable success. It emphasizes the positive impact of conscious organizations on stakeholder well-being and the resolution of environmental and social problems.

The organizational consciousness framework encompasses the collective awareness, values, and purpose that guide an organization's actions and decisions. The framework emphasizes aligning organizational values, needs, and goals with all stakeholders' social, environmental, and well-being. It highlights the interconnectedness of stakeholders and encourages a system-thinking perspective. Furthermore, it acknowledges the role of individual and group consciousness in driving organizational transformation. It discusses the pathway to organizational success through conscious practices, emphasizing value creation beyond monetary gain. It explores the role of conscious leadership, innovative and continuous learning, and adaptation in fostering conscious organizations.

We aim to ascertain whether and how an individual’s social comparison affects their self-gifting motivations (SGMs).

We survey a North American sample comprising 619 Canadian and US respondents. We apply partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to examine relationships between social comparison, attachment orientation, parenthood, and self-gifting motivations.

We find that social comparison positively impacts self-gifting motivations. Additionally, we find that attachment orientation and parenthood can moderate social comparison’s impact on positively valenced SGMs and negatively valenced SGMs, respectively.

We elevate and expand existing scholarship on consumers’ self-gifting. Through the current study, we contribute new, empirical evidence illuminating how individuals’ attachment orientation (i.e. secure v. insecure) and parenthood status (i.e. parent v. non-parent) serve as agency-oriented moderators to temper social comparison’s influences on SGMs.