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This paper aims to offer insights into the impact of digitization technology on consumer goods manufacturers and retail organizations. The authors propose that the “next phase” of digitization will entail the employment of digitization technology to offer consumers personalized product offerings and recommendations based on their internal biomarkers.

The authors draw on past investigations into digitization and their retailing experience to speculate on how the next phase of digitization will affect both consumer goods manufacturers and retailers.

The next phase of digitization will entail the use of nutrigenomics (DNA sequencing), exhaled breath analysis, fitness tracker devices, sensory patches, radio frequency identification tags and quantum ID tags to create customized and recommend products, and support product-to-customer communication regarding authenticity.

Consumers will increasingly rely on technology to inform them of their bodily needs and to receive personalized solutions to help satisfy those needs. Consumer behavior theories must be reconsidered because consumers will become more passive participants in retail consumption as they rely on technology for need-recognition and product-fulfillment.

Digitization technologies that use consumers’ biomarkers for new product creation or product recommendation raise new risks and uncertainty. For example, the legal implications of an incorrect product recommendation based on customer biomarkers are unknown. Furthermore, retailers would need to maintain data privacy of biomarker data and be responsible for data breaches.

The research explores how digitization will affect consumers’ in-store experiences with consumer goods products.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the types of social responsibility actions that small local retailers implement in their local community and to explore their underlying motivations and perceived benefits.

A qualitative research method is used to explore small local retailers’ social responsibility practices and underlying motivations. Owners/managers of small apparel retailers in the USA were interviewed and their responses transcribed and analyzed.

Findings highlight that local retailers are active in giving back to their community using various means from monetary donations to promotion of community events. Such contributions to their local community are largely driven by their affection for the community, and the motivation is to maintain a good reputation. It was also found that episodes of giving were also triggered externally by customers, local organizations, and local events. Small retailers’ social responsibility contributions to the community are typically not undertaken in an effort to stimulate sales, profits and/or customer traffic. Rather, local retailers find their experiences enjoyable and their contributions build a sense of connection to the community. These retailers enjoy an extra sense of enrichment and perceive social benefits accrued from actively engaging in social responsibility within the community.

Much has been written about social responsibility from a manufacturing and large retailer viewpoint, but there is a dearth of information on small local retailers. This study explores the understanding of small businesses’ social responsibility practices from a local retail perspective and provides valuable insights about retailers approach to social responsibility in relation to their local community.

The purpose of this editorial is to introduce the current special issue of research related to cultural misconceptions during the globalization of tourism.

The four peer reviewed articles presented in this special issue are introduced.

All of the research articles examine the potential or actual result of misconceptions when different cultures interact. Culture identity is a common theme throughout the articles. Sub‐themes include how cultural identity is changed (positively or negatively) when other cultures interact. The data collection sites include: Zakopane, a small village of 30,000 residents located in the Tatra Mountains in the South of Poland; Ubud, a village in Bali, Indonesia; Great Britain and Ireland; Shandong, China; and a framework to compare data collected throughout different cultures in Asia. The first two articles presented examine the influence of tourism on a village. The third article focuses on service providers working in large cities. The fourth article examines what is considered to be the fastest growing tourist destination (i.e. China). Finally, the last article provides the reader with a theoretical framework.

The special issue on misconceptions addresses how the interaction of different cultures, for all the benefits, may also have negative repercussion on the host country and tourist. Instead of the traditional all white American sample, this call generated global insight. This article provides an introduction

The purpose of this paper is to develop and test the reliability of six tourism scales based on Ap and Crompton's research.

In order to test the scale, the authors examine differences between genders' tourism beliefs, tourism evaluation, and perceptions of the impact of tourism throughout Shandong China. The sampling frame in this study includes residents over 18 years of age and living more than a year in Shandong Province. As an experimental study, a convenience sampling method is employed to select samples. The sample distribution of each of the 17 cities of Shandong Province equals the multiplied products of the total samples (760) and the percentage of its population in the total population of Shandong.

The tourism scale is shown to be reliable. The data illustrate the benefits and challenges of an emerging destination within an emerging national tourism product. In Shandong, residents acknowledged tourism's positive social benefits such as better shopping facilities, while at the same time recognizing the negative impact of tourism on the natural environment.

Residents' perceptions of tourism and its impact to the community has primarily been conducted in the USA. Of the research, limited data exists which examines differences between genders' perceptions of the benefits tourism may bring to a region. This study compares males' versus females' perceptions of the changes tourism development has to the Shandong province in China. This study offers insights into different perspectives by gender and culture.