Search results

Many homeless people have significant levels of early adverse experiences and consequent mental health difficulties. The purpose of this paper is to examine the experiences of residents and staff living and working in a psychologically informed environment (PIE), a new model of hostel for homeless people which aims to update and make more flexible the principles of the therapeutic community, thereby meeting the psychological and emotional needs of residents.

Semi-structured interviews were carried out with nine residents, ten staff and five psychotherapists at two PIE hostels in London. The data were analysed using thematic analysis with a phenomenological epistemological approach.

Analysis generated 18 themes for residents and staff combined, organised into five domains: what makes a home, resident needs, managing relationships, reflective practice and theory vs practice of PIEs. The study suggests that PIEs broadly meet their aim in providing a different type of environment from standard hostels. Efforts to build relationships with residents are particularly prioritised. This work can be challenging for staff and reflective practice groups provide a supportive forum. There are limits to the extent to which the theoretical PIE can be put into practice in the current political and economic climate.

This is one of the first qualitative studies of PIEs. It provides perspectives on their theoretical background as well as how they operate and are experienced in practice. It may be informative to services intending to establish a PIE and to commissioners in assessing appropriate resources.

Not all pressured, greedy, and opportunistic individuals actually commit white-collar crime. So what exactly is the common denominator for individuals to commit white-collar crime? This study investigates the propensity of an individual to commit white-collar crime and advances personality as an explanatory factor. Questionnaire survey data is collected from 357 undergraduate accounting students in a later year accounting course at a large university in Australia. Personality is measured using the Big Five Inventory. Support is provided for the view that individuals scoring lower in agreeableness and lower in conscientiousness have a higher propensity to commit white-collar crime. While no significant main effect associations emerged for extraversion, neuroticism, or openness to experience, inspection of individual parameter estimates revealed a significant negative association between neuroticism and propensity to commit white-collar crime but only in certain circumstances.

The advancement of technology and increased sales of service robots have led to discussions about their usage. Recently, the use of service robots in accommodation businesses has become a topic of examination. This study aims to explore the behavioural intentions of accommodation business managers towards using service robots from the perspective of the technology acceptance model. As part of this project-supported study, the ‘Sanbot Elf’ service robot was rented for 14 days and demonstrated in six accommodation businesses in Kastamonu. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with managers and unit supervisors after the demonstration, and the process was also monitored through participant observation. The data were analysed using content analysis and participant observation methods. It was determined that participants' opinions on service robots were generally positive. Participants stated that personalised service presentations could be provided with service robots and that these robots could be used in different departments and marketing processes. The study concluded that service robots could positively impact service quality, are an exciting technology for accommodation businesses and the use of service robots could increase in the future. Participants' attitudes towards using service robots in accommodation businesses were positive in this context.

The aim of this chapter is twofold: (i) to perform a synthesis of the academic research regarding the changes of tourist consumer behavior brought about by social media; and (ii) to suggest a set of strategies for tourism businesses to address resulting challenges.

Extensive literature reviews have been executed on the motivating factors and the effects of online reviews.

This analysis of the related research identified three main topics, namely: (1) the antecedents, the factors motivating tourists to write online reviews; (2) the impact of eWOM on providers of tourism services (business perspective); and (3) the influence of online reviews on consumers’ behavior (demand perspective). This chapter focuses on the impact of online reviews on tourism businesses and suggests suitable strategies.

This study is based on a literature review and implications indicated by previous studies; hence the suggestions are indicative rather than conclusive. A need exists for empirical studies to fully validate the chapter’s suggestions.

This chapter outlines a series of adequate strategies formulated for business practitioners divided into two fields, namely managerial and marketing activities.

This study provides practical recommendations/suggestions for tourism businesses in addressing the challenges and opportunities raised within the online context.

This study aims to test the complaints of tourists who visit five-star hotels in Antalya, Turkey, on those same hotels’ websites.

In the study, the data were collected with qualitative methods but analyzed with the mixed analysis method. In this context, the authors collected 1,012 comments on the website between 2016 and 2019.

According to the results of the study, the most intense complaints were found to be concentrated in categories such as ambience, food and staff.

First of all, it is thought that it will make an important contribution to the literature, since different methodologies are adopted in the study. In addition, online shares, evaluations and comments produce positive or negative results for the destination or business in question. It is necessary to closely monitor such activities in electronic environments, as they may have negative consequences, thus revealing the need to take corrective or preventive measures. For this reason, the research is important in terms of not having such a large-scale study in the literature and contributing to the hospitality industry.

Although the issues related to the motivation of entrepreneurs have been widely studied, there is a less study focussing on the immigrant women’s entrepreneurial motivation under challenging environment such as COVID-19. Existing studies on entrepreneurs’ motivations mainly adapt the concepts that have often been developed in male-dominated paradigm. According to Shmailan (2016), male entrepreneurs focus on making sure costs are under control and are more profit driven. Women seek to make social contributions and want to ensure their quality. Some of the literature suggests that men are inclined to start businesses because of financial considerations and are more likely to be pulled into entrepreneurship. Conversely, women are likely to start business because of lifestyle issues and are more likely to be pushed into self-employment (Clain, 2000; Georgellis & Wall, 2005; Takahashi, Lourenço, Sander, & Souza, 2014).

This chapter focuses on the motivation of immigrant females in developed economies and what makes them continue especially during difficult times such as recent crisis ‘new normal’, COVID-19 pandemic. The study explores the challenges ethnic female entrepreneurs are facing and what motivated them to continue. The study also seeks their responds and strategies during challenging time such as the pandemic. The findings indicate that women often pursuit business opportunities to satisfy social needs, rather than focussing on traditional business outcomes such as growth or profit. The study found a stronger desire to contribute to a society, community and family’s needs among female founders in the UK . The immigrant female entrepreneurs have shown strong resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.

Oil market VAR models have become the standard tool for understanding the evolution of the real price of oil and its impact on the macro economy. As this literature has expanded at a rapid pace, it has become increasingly difficult for mainstream economists to understand the differences between alternative oil market models, let alone the basis for the sometimes divergent conclusions reached in the literature. The purpose of this survey is to provide a guide to this literature. Our focus is on the econometric foundations of the analysis of oil market models with special attention to the identifying assumptions and methods of inference.

Women and men business owners are often thought to have different success criteria for their businesses, but there is little empirical research to support this. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the nature of self-defined success factors, and to compare women and men’s success criteria.

This study surveyed 216 New Zealand business owners’ (78 women, 138 men) self-perceived success criteria for their businesses. Results are based primarily on an open-ended question on their interpretation of what success means to them. In total, 30 main categories of success factors were identified, and the four main factors analyzed in depth.

The four most frequently occurring success factors were financial success, personal satisfaction, work-life/work-family balance, and satisfied stakeholders. Women and men business owners described very similar success criteria, which were balanced across financial success and personal and relationship factors. No statistically significant gender differences were found in the incidence of these success factors, suggesting a movement of male business owners to a more holistic view of business success that incorporates financial success, alongside personal and relationship aspects.

Offers implications for researchers, policy makers, and practitioners. Highlights the need to be careful when designing research studies in multi-faceted areas such as business success, and also in gender comparative studies.

Uses self-perceived success criteria to assess gender differences.

Contemporary literature reveals that, to date, the poultry livestock sector has not received sufficient research attention. This particular industry suffers from unstructured supply chain practices, lack of awareness of the implications of the sustainability concept and failure to recycle poultry wastes. The current research thus attempts to develop an integrated supply chain model in the context of poultry industry in Bangladesh. The study considers both sustainability and supply chain issues in order to incorporate them in the poultry supply chain. By placing the forward and reverse supply chains in a single framework, existing problems can be resolved to gain economic, social and environmental benefits, which will be more sustainable than the present practices.

The theoretical underpinning of this research is ‘sustainability’ and the ‘supply chain processes’ in order to examine possible improvements in the poultry production process along with waste management. The research adopts the positivist paradigm and ‘design science’ methods with the support of system dynamics (SD) and the case study methods. Initially, a mental model is developed followed by the causal loop diagram based on in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and observation techniques. The causal model helps to understand the linkages between the associated variables for each issue. Finally, the causal loop diagram is transformed into a stock and flow (quantitative) model, which is a prerequisite for SD-based simulation modelling. A decision support system (DSS) is then developed to analyse the complex decision-making process along the supply chains.

The findings reveal that integration of the supply chain can bring economic, social and environmental sustainability along with a structured production process. It is also observed that the poultry industry can apply the model outcomes in the real-life practices with minor adjustments. This present research has both theoretical and practical implications. The proposed model’s unique characteristics in mitigating the existing problems are supported by the sustainability and supply chain theories. As for practical implications, the poultry industry in Bangladesh can follow the proposed supply chain structure (as par the research model) and test various policies via simulation prior to its application. Positive outcomes of the simulation study may provide enough confidence to implement the desired changes within the industry and their supply chain networks.

This study aims at identifying the most critical factors affecting the customer switching behavior for mobile service providers in Jordan. A number of 580 questionnaires distributed to a random sample of Jordanian mobile users. The questionnaire contains 33 items measured on a five‐point likert scale. The data were analyzed using regression analysis. It was found that all the independent variables (pricing, inconvenience, core service failures, service encounter failures, employee responsiveness to service failures, attraction by competitors, changes in technology, switching cost) had a significant effect on switching behavior of mobile service users except change in technology and employee responsiveness to service failure. Recommendations and directions for future research are proposed.