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This study provides a comprehensive framework of adaptation in triadic business relationship settings in the service sector. The framework is based on the industrial network approach (see, e.g., Axelsson & Easton, 1992; Håkansson & Snehota, 1995a). The study describes how adaptations initiate, how they progress, and what the outcomes of these adaptations are. Furthermore, the framework takes into account how adaptations spread in triadic relationship settings. The empirical context is corporate travel management, which is a chain of activities where an industrial enterprise, and its preferred travel agency and service supplier partners combine their resources. The scientific philosophy, on which the knowledge creation is based, is realist ontology. Epistemologically, the study relies on constructionist processes and interpretation. Case studies with in-depth interviews are the main source of data.

The purpose of this study is to explore the risk factors that employers consider when assessing an employee’s business travel (BT) assignment and the risk treatment, crisis response and recovery strategies they use to discharge their BT duty of care.

An exploratory approach is taken with in-depth interviews of 21 executives, travel managers and insurance brokers involved with the management of BT in four international hotel groups. In all, 12 follow-up interviews were conducted to assess the possible COVID-19 impact on BT risk management processes.

Employers assess BT assignments considering the travel’s characteristics, including the destination’s risk profile against seven types of risks (health, political, transport, natural, crime, technology and kidnap), length of stay, travel mode and activities undertaken in the destination as well as the traveler’s profile which includes diversity and travel experience. Accordingly, they develop a range of duty of care strategies for BT risk treatment, crisis response and recovery.

BT practitioners can use the proposed framework to develop risk assessment methodologies based on more accurate destination and traveler profiles and pursue targeted risk treatment strategies and insurance policies. The proposed duty of care approach can be used as a blueprint for organizations to design and manage BT policies.

BT risk is an under-researched area. The extant research looks predominantly at travel risks and their assessment taking the traveler’s perspective. This study looks at business travel risk and explores it from an employer’s risk management perspective offering a BT risk assessment framework and a BT duty of care plan.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief perspective on the growth of business travel over the past 60 years and how it may unfold in the future, highlighting certain themes and noting limitations in the research.

This paper is based on selected academic literature and industry sources on business travel which briefly reviews its growth and directions of research in this field.

The paper distinguishes between different types of business travel and provides a bird's eye view of the future.

The review distinguishes between different forms of business travel and concludes that greater clarity of the business travel concept will enable research to be conducted within a properly defined theoretical framework.

Mobile travel apps (MTA) smart features were identified based on recent travel application (app) trends and a literature review of MTA smart features. Subsequently, the MTA features that could be prioritised to increase user interest in MTA were determined. The MTA smart feature development challenges that should be mitigated were also identified.

The app identification and selection were based on the one-stop solution characteristics containing the common function of travel apps and eight MTA smart features. A total of 193 Apple apps and 250 Google apps were identified, where 36 apps that met the inclusion and exclusion criteria based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses flowchart were selected for evaluation.

The high user ratings for apps from both app stores revealed the acceptance of smart technology in the tourism industry. Geolocation tracking services, travel itinerary generators, and real-time personalisation and recommendation were the three major features available in the included MTA. The challenges of MTA with smart features were highlighted from the tourism organisation, app developer and user perspectives.

The findings can guide tourism organisations and app developers on the smart features that MTA should offer for user engagement. Technological organisations could optimise their technology stack by considering the identified smart features. The findings are valuable for scholars in terms of MTA aesthetics and usability to gain acceptability. The development challenges included significant investment in technology, location accuracy and privacy concerns when implementing MTA smart features.

The previous literature mainly focused on evaluating app quality, assessing app functionality, and user ratings using the Mobile Application Rating Scale, and scoping reviews of MTA articles. Contrastingly, this study is among the first in which MTA smart features were examined from a developer-centric perspective. Moreover, it is suggested that MTA includes integrated smart features for better tourism services and market penetration in the tourism industry.

The aim of this paper is to explore flexpatriates' perceptions of work life balance (WLB) issues and identify possible adjustments of WLB programs to better meet the needs of flexpatriates. This paper investigates flexpatriates' challenges at the interface of personal and work lives and their perception of standard WLB programs and then proposes organizational adjustments to better meet the needs of flexpatriates.

This study employed a qualitative research approach and two kinds of empirical data were collected: first, through in‐depth semi‐structured interviews with 40 employees involved in flexpatriate assignments in multinational companies operating in Austria and, second, through a document analysis of the homepages of their employing organizations to gain information about WLB practices.

Drawing upon the study findings, the authors present a typology of flexpatriates and propose a model that considers both WLB and work life imbalance as a desirable or acceptable option and offers a new theoretical perspective for examining organization and individual dimensions in WLB.

The authors' contribution is a new contextualization of WLB initiatives that incorporates both WLB and work life imbalance as valid perspectives of employees.

This paper aims to discuss partitioning an air travel service encounter into touchpoints according to elements and phases, which are depth and breadth, respectively, using the conceptual framework of Le Bel. The empirical findings further the dialogue about the service encounter construct.

A total of 12 distinctive touchpoints within the joining and intensive phases of any air travel service encounter are reviewed for importance using travel purpose and nationality as segmentation variables. Respondents participated through an online questionnaire and face‐to‐face approach from a fieldworker; they were not engaged in an air travel service encounter at the time of the study. Data analysis includes descriptive statistics, independent sample t‐tests and paired sample t‐tests where the latter considered a named airline from the region.

The findings indicate touchpoints to be sufficiently distinctive that partitioning a service encounter provides opportunities for quality improvements directed at customer satisfaction outcomes. Notably, greater importance is typically given to the intensive phase touchpoints than those in the joining phases thus placing more emphasis on activities within service encounters' simultaneous production/consumption. Touchpoint preference is evident for travel purpose and passenger nationality segmentation criteria. When an airline is named, respondents appear more discriminating about touchpoint quality compared to those in generic service encounters.

Academically, partitioning strengthens the links between the service encounter construct and service quality and provides additional information beyond expectations‐perceptions results. Industry value is derived for practitioner marketers when distinctive touchpoints are taken from a partitioned service encounter providing opportunities for segmenting and targeting consumers accordingly.

Whereas investments in new attractions continue to rise within the theme park industry, knowledge regarding the effects of new attractions on theme park performance and attendance remains scarce. In order to isolate these effects, the purpose of this paper is to present the results of an econometric study explaining the variance in theme park visitor numbers and quantifying the effects of new attractions on theme park attendance.

The paper is based on an econometric study, in which models were produced for four European theme parks. No pooled modelling was used, meaning that four different models were created; one for each participating theme park. Various variables affecting theme park attendance were identified and quantified, and subsequently the effects of new attractions on visitor numbers were isolated.

Findings indicate that all new attractions opened at Park D during the research period have had a positive long‐term influence on attendance. This positive influence lasted for no more than two years. No significant short‐term influence was found. There were significant differences in effect between new attractions which could not yet be explained.

The research by design only takes into account the economic effects of new attractions and disregards all environmental and socio‐cultural effects. Even though the research provides an accurate approximation of the effects of new attractions on attendance, this effect should, according to the author, not be perceived as a stand‐alone effect yet as a part of a complex system. A situational approach taking into account several other situational as well as qualitative factors would do the complex reality more justice than a, even though effective, simplified and general approach.

Industry operators can now use the econometric model presented in this paper to determine the effects of new attractions on their theme park's attendance and use this knowledge to further fine‐tune their investment policy.

The paper presents the first econometric model successful at isolating and quantifying a new attraction's effect on theme park attendance and can thus be a valuable tool in perfecting one's investment policy. The paper furthermore includes a brief introduction to a situational approach of determining a new attraction's effects on theme park performance.

Celebrity-themed aircraft campaigns have become a popular tactic that airlines adopt as part of their experiential marketing efforts. The campaign aims at differentiating their airline from competitors through delivering and/or reforming consumers’ flying experience. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Based on data collected from Taiwan, this study investigated the influence of four antecedents – attitude toward celebrity-themed aircrafts, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control and celebrity worship − on purchase intention.

The results revealed significant positive relationships between all four antecedents and purchase intention. Furthermore, celebrity worship changed the relationships between attitude, subjective norms, as well as perceived behavioral control and intentions.

This study investigates the potential role of marketing program of airlines with a fictional celebrity-themed aircraft that offer immersive flying experience to consumers. The experience starts on the outside where consumers can see the aircraft painted with celebrity-themed livery, and on the inside where the consumers get to experience many celebrity-related products, services, and spirit. According to the results, airlines can influence consumer purchase intention of the airlines services by offering consumers more celebrity related services, including celebrity-themed aircraft, customized products, and limited-amount souvenirs for their patronage. The results also demonstrate that celebrity worship has a significantly moderating effect on consumers’ perception on purchase intention. The results can vary depending on the intensity of celebrity worship.