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The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of telepresence while using a smartphone-based virtual reality system (SBVR) to explore a hotel virtually and to determine the influence of this immersive experience on the booking intention of the potential customer.

Within the scope of this study, a conceptual research model was developed which covered utilitarian and hedonic aspects of the user experience of SBVRs and showed their relevance for the booking intention. A virtual reality application was programmed especially for the study, in which the test persons were able to virtually explore a hotel complex. A total of 569 people participated in the study. A questionnaire was used for the data collection. The structural equation modelling and hypothesis verification were carried out using the partial least squares method.

The immersive feeling of telepresence increases the perceived enjoyment and usefulness of the potential customer. In addition, the user's curiosity is aroused by the telepresence, which also significantly increases the perceived enjoyment as well as the perceived usefulness. The hedonic and utilitarian value of the virtual hotel experience increases the probability that the customer will book the travel accommodation.

The virtual reality application developed for the study is based on static panoramic images and does not contain audio-visual elements (e.g. sound, video, animation). Audio-visual elements might increase the degree of immersion and could therefore be investigated in future research.

The results of the study show that the SBVR is a suitable marketing tool to present hotels in an informative and entertaining way, and can thereby increase sales and profits.

For the first time, this study investigates the potential of SBVRs for the virtual product presentation of hotels and provides empirical evidence that the availability of this innovative form of presentation leads to a higher booking intention.

本论文旨在研究借助智能手机虚拟现实系统（SBVR）以达到网真效果来展示酒店产品, 以及探究这种身临其境的体验是否对潜在酒店消费者的预定意图有影响。

本论文建立了一个理论模型, 包含了功利和享乐两方面的用户体验SBVR, 以及其与预定意图的联系。本论文创立了一个虚拟现实的模式, 实际测量了人们通过这个模式来探究酒店的体验。研究样本为569位参与者。采样方式为问卷方法。本论文采用PLS方式来进行结构方程模型（SEM）计算和假设验证。

网真技术的身临其境的体验增加了潜在消费者的感知享受和有用性。此外, 用户的好奇心被网真技术激发, 显著地增加了感知享受和感知有用性。虚拟酒店体验的享乐和功利价值增加了顾客预定的概率。

本论文研制的虚拟现实应用软件是基于静态全景影像, 而不含视听觉元素（比如, 声音、视频、动画）。视听觉因素可能会增加身临其境的感觉, 因此值得未来研究。

本论文结果表明SBVR是一个适合营销的手段, 其在信息性和娱乐性方面展示了酒店, 因此能够增加销量和利润。

首先, 本论文研究了SBVR对酒店虚拟产品展示的潜力, 并且提供实际测量结果, 证明了这种创新型展示对预定意图的促进作用

关键词 虚拟现实, 旅游住宿, 酒店, 产品展示, 网真, 预定意图

研究型论文

This chapter attempts to uncover the decision code of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, based on 12 decisions he made concerning the Middle East during his third term as president, from 2012 until October 2015.

The study was carried out to understand Putin’s line of thought and decision-making, in light of Putin’s increasing importance throughout the last decade, globally and in the Middle East, in particular. After understanding the decision calculus of Putin, it might also be possible to predict his future decisions concerning the region.

Decision rules can be inferred by analyzing a set of decisions. Analysis of such decisions is made in this chapter using the Applied Decision Analysis (ADA) method that uncovers historic decisions, and aims to peer into the mind of the decision-maker.

The results show the main decision rule for each of Putin’s decisions. The work proves that when it comes to foreign issues, the decision code which leads Putin in his decisions is rational. The results also reveal Putin’s strong desire to promote Russia and himself, while using holistic, maximizing, and compensatory processing, as long as his political survival is not compromised.

The Israeli National Police began to implement community policing on a large scale in January of 1995. In this paper we describe the main findings of a three year national evaluation of community policing in Israel that was initiated by the Chief Scientist’s office of the Israeli police in the Fall of 1996. When community policing was envisioned and planned in Israel it was seen as part of a total reformation of the Israeli police in structure, philosophy and action. Our research suggests that this broad idea of community policing was not implemented in Israel, and indeed the program of community policing was found to lose ground during the course of our study. While community policing did have specific impacts on the Israeli police, it did not fundamentally change the perspectives and activities of street level police officers. We explain the difficulties encountered in the implementation of community policing in reference to three factors: the speed of implementation of the program; the resistance of traditional military style organizational culture within the Israeli police to the demands of community policing models; and a lack of organizational commitment to community policing. In our conclusions we argue that these barriers to successful community policing are not unique to the Israel case, and are indeed likely to be encountered in the development of community policing in many other countries.

Melvin Seeman (1989) has recently stated that nowadays the concept of alienation carries an antiquated meaning which is quite in contrast to its importance in the 1960s. There seems to be much evidence for a fading romance with alienation in the social sciences. I have continued Seeman's search for articles that have appeared between 1978 and 1982 in leading social science journals until 1989. There was only one major reference, however, a quite important one by Kai T. Erikson in his presidential address to the American Sociological Association in 1985. Contrary to these disappointing observations Seeman suggests that alienation is leading an underground life in contemporary research and theory. According to his assessment this theme survives because the assumptions involved in the tradition of the alienation motif are indispensable for critical analysis in sociology and psychology.

The COVID-19 pandemic and its related economic meltdown and social unrest severely challenged most countries, their societies, economies, organizations, and individual citizens. Focusing on both more and less successful country-specific initiatives to fight the pandemic and its multitude of related consequences, this chapter explores implications for leadership and effective action at the individual, organizational, and societal levels. As international management scholars and consultants, the authors document actions taken and their wide-ranging consequences in a diverse set of countries, including countries that have been more or less successful in fighting the pandemic, are geographically larger and smaller, are located in each region of the world, are economically advanced and economically developing, and that chose unique strategies versus strategies more similar to those of their neighbors. Cultural influences on leadership, strategy, and outcomes are described for 19 countries. Informed by a cross-cultural lens, the authors explore such urgent questions as: What is most important for leaders, scholars, and organizations to learn from critical, life-threatening, society-encompassing crises and grand challenges? How do leaders build and maintain trust? What types of communication are most effective at various stages of a crisis? How can we accelerate learning processes globally? How does cultural resilience emerge within rapidly changing environments of fear, shifting cultural norms, and profound challenges to core identity and meaning? This chapter invites readers and authors alike to learn from each other and to begin to discover novel and more successful approaches to tackling grand challenges. It is not definitive; we are all still learning.

High prevalence of violence against persons with disabilities (PwDs) has prompted a steady growth of training aimed at equipping PwDs with personal safety skills. This paper aims to examine the efficacy of safety trainings for PwDs.

A search of relevant electronic databases was conducted to shortlist peer-reviewed literature on empirically evaluated safety trainings for PwDs, between January 2010 and August 2020 with the defined inclusion criteria.

Six safety programmes were reviewed. Data analysis revealed key themes related to programme modifications for accessibility; fit of intervention to disability type; PwDs’ learning needs; and the context of disability abuse in designing intervention pathways.

PwDs can benefit from and contribute to safety training, if programmes are adequately modified to support their learning and participation. Future studies can target disability abuse by known persons; different disability groups; and generate longitudinal data to strengthen validity of programme efficacy.