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The present study aims to synthesize and conceptualize, through a systematic literature review (SLR), the current state of gamification knowledge in the tourism and hospitality (T&H) sector, providing a roadmap for future research recommendations for service research and practice.

The research is based on a systematic literature review and adopts a systematic quantitative approach to summarize existing evidence on gamification usage in the T&H sector, focusing on relevant service literature on gamification. The authors analyze 36 papers published between 2011 and 2019.

The authors synthesize existing knowledge into five themes describing gamification's role in T&H (Edutainment, Sustainable behavior, Engagement factors, Service provider-generated content and User-generated reviews). Then, a cross-analysis of the five themes reveals the pivotal elements (affordances, behavioral and psychological outcomes, and benefits) generated by gamification mechanics in T&H, simultaneously highlighting potential implications and relevant insights for service literature. The review identifies critical issues affecting gamification research and provides a future research agenda, considering opportunities for T&H and service research.

The study provides the first SLR investigating gamification in T&H. The findings present potential implications and relevant insights for T&H contributing to the construction of a more holistic understanding of gamification adoption in service research.

Investigating technical terms of vehicle spare parts used in the mechanics' jargon in Saudi Arabic (SA) and Yemeni Arabic (YA) has received scant attention. The current study, therefore, is an attempt to shed some light on the topic. The aim is to identify the strategies used for creating equivalents in vehicle spare parts vocabulary and to pinpoint the most salient variations between the two dialects in this jargon.

More than 250 terms of vehicle spare parts were collected and analyzed qualitatively. Each list contains nearly 125 items. They were gathered from two main resources: semi-structured interviews with vehicle mechanics, and written lists from spare parts dealers in both countries.

Three main strategies are found at work: lexical borrowing (from English and French), metaphor and loan translation. Direct borrowing is the most influential strategy where loanwords represent nearly one-third of the data, the majority of which is from English. Metaphorical extensions and literal translations also have an important role to play in the process of spare part naming. While the two dialects share common practices in terms of literal translation, they are characterized by many differences with regard to lexical borrowing and metaphors.

The study approaches an under-researched topic that is related to the mechanic's jargon in Arabic and leaves the door open for further research. The findings of this study may be used as guidelines for Arabic academies and those who are concerned with translating and studying technical terms in the field of mechanical engineering.

Within the theoretical framework of global value chains (GVCs), much importance has been given to industrial districts (IDs) and their role as localized manufacturing systems. The regionalization of GVC has opened new questions on the location of manufacturing activities and the potential consequences at the ID level. The reshoring phenomenon challenges internationalization processes, changing the configuration in trade dynamics for IDs. This paper aims to investigate which are the main internationalization patterns followed by district small and medium enterprises (SMEs) under the perspective of the regionalization of GVCs. This will help both practitioners and policymakers to better understand internationalization trajectories aimed at sustaining the economic development of district firms and territories.

The analysis has been conducted using a survey carried out on 210 ID SMEs in the furniture, mechanics and fashion industries located in Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia regions, in northeastern Italy. Moreover, data released from the Italian Customs Agency have been merged to detect the trends of interviewed firms’ internationalization between 2005 and 2019.

The results highlight how the geography of internationalization has changed over time, in particular following the regionalization of the GVCs. There are also differences among the industry specializations of IDs. This could be attributable to the strategy pursued by each firm to control the competition both in the domestic market and abroad, also in relation to GVC lead firms’ location strategies.

This paper applies new data on the analysis of ID SMEs related to international transactions over a long period of time. In doing this, this paper adds new insights to the GVC literature and future policies to be implemented to foster the participation of district firms in the global scenario.

This research seized the COVID-19 pandemic-induced economic recession as a strategic response background to answer whether serious games (SGs) can be effectively applied to facilitate the strategic decision-making process.

This paper develops a conceptual model and hypotheses based on the strategic formulation and SGs literature. Virtual-gamified workshops treat four companies in a quasi-experimental framework applying an action research design approach. The data were analysed triangularly from the observations, the focus group interviews and the surveys.

A SG facilitates conveying conceptual recession management knowledge and structures the decision-making process. It incentivises creativity and motivation. Meanwhile, it is a tool to mitigate human errors due to cognitive biases. More importantly, it offers a new means to improve strategic decision-making adapted to different cases. The variety of game elements expands possibilities for different needs.

This paper creatively bridges the gap between strategic decision facilitation and serious gaming in a crisis. It contributes a conceptual model and provides practical insights into SGs mechanics for companies.

Location-based games (LBGs) have afforded novel information technology (IT) developments in how people interact with the physical world. Namely, LBGs have spurred a wave of territoriality (i.e. controlling) and exploration (i.e. discovering) of augmented physical space that are driven by different social dynamics related to group formation, social connectivity and altruism. The aim of this study is to investigate this dynamic and how it is further related to the use intensity of location-based IT.

This work presents a structural equation model that connects social dimensions of play to territorial control and exploration, and playing intensity. The model was tested with psychometric data gathered from a global sample of Pokémon GO players (N = 515).

In the tested sample, players' social self-efficacy and altruism were positively associated with team identification. Team identification, in turn, was positively associated with both territorial control and exploration tendency. Territorial control had a significant relationship with playing intensity; however, exploration tendency did not. This implies territorial control is the stronger predictor of playing intensity.

The findings suggest that human primal urges to conquer and control geographical territory may surface in the digital reimagination of physical space. LBGs offer opportunities for making use of new forms of play (territorial control and exploration) in motivating locative behaviours.

This research quantifies the relationships between a social predisposition, team identification, territorial control, exploration tendency and playing intensity in the context of Pokémon GO. It contributes new knowledge to the understanding of territorial behaviour (control and exploration) in location-based IT.

This study aims to propose a semiempirical and semitheoretical cyclic compaction constitutive model of coarse-grained soil filler for the high-speed railway (HSR) subgrade under cyclic load.

According to the basic framework of critical state soil mechanics and in view of the characteristics of the coarse-grained soil filler for the HSR subgrade to bear the train vibration load repeatedly for a long time, the hyperbolic empirical relationship between particle breakage and plastic work was derived. Considering the influence of cyclic vibration time and stress ratio, the particle breakage correction function of coarse-grained soil filler for the HSR subgrade under cyclic load was proposed. According to the classical theory of plastic mechanics, the shearing dilatation equation of the coarse-grained soil filler for the HSR subgrade considering particle breakage was modified and obtained. A semiempirical and semitheoretical cyclic compaction constitutive model of coarse-grained soil filler for the HSR subgrade under cyclic load was further established. The backward Euler method was used to discretize the constitutive equation, build a numerical algorithm of “elastic prediction and plastic modification” and make a secondary development of the program to solve the cyclic compaction model.

Through the comparison with the result of laboratory triaxial test under the cyclic loading of coarse-grained soil filler for the HSR subgrade, the accuracy and applicability of the cyclic compaction model were verified. Results show that the model can accurately predict the cumulative deformation characteristics of coarse-grained soil filler for the HSR subgrade under the train vibration loading repeatedly for a long time. It considers the effects of particle breakage and stress ratio, which can be used to calculate and analyze the stress and deformation evolution law of the subgrade structure for HSR.

The research can provide a simple and practical method for calculating deformation of railway under cyclic loading.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how small and medium enterprises (SMEs) cope with the need for labour flexibility. Most previous studies ignore the labour flexibility practices of SMEs, especially in times of economic growth and tight labour markets.

A multiple case study approach is applied, with ten Dutch SMEs located in one small province with a similar labour market. A survey was executed as an intake, followed by 48 interviews with the entrepreneurs, HR and other managers and employees, and two focus groups in each company. The findings are based on an analysis of the approved case descriptions.

SMEs, like big companies, do not rely on one flexibility practice. Volume fluctuations are countered with all flexibility strategies, the mix fluctuations and the product innovations are mostly countered with flexible functions and flexible production technology. In general, the data suggest that flexibility strategies of SMEs can be characterised as ad hoc, reactive and with a short-term orientation.

Future research should include other sectors and regions enabling to generalise the findings. Future research should have a longitudinal design to include the pathway dependencies of flexibility practices.

This study identifies the need to analyse flexibility demands; reduce flexibility demands before investments in flexibility practices; create production process flexibility; invest in labour flexibility practices only after the first three steps are taken; and develop basic and more advanced levels of flexible contracts, flexible functions and flexible working times.

This study contributes to the authors’ knowledge on the use of labour flexibility practices in SMEs. In addition, it brings empirical data on how these labour flexibility practices relate to the needs for flexibility and how they relate to other sources of organisational flexibility, such as a flexible market approach and flexible production technologies. Dynamic capabilities should include the suggested operationalisation of the flexibility practices.

The rostrum of a paddlefish provides hydrodynamic stability during feeding process in addition to detect the food using receptors that are randomly distributed in the rostrum. The exterior tissue of the rostrum covers the cartilage that surrounds the bones forming interlocking star shaped bones.

The aim of this work is to assess the mechanical behavior of four finite element models varying the type of formulation as follows: linear-reduced integration, linear-full integration, quadratic-reduced integration and quadratic-full integration. The paper also presents the load transfer mechanisms of the bone structure of the rostrum. The base material used in the study was steel with elastic–plastic behavior as a homogeneous material before applying materials properties that represents the behavior of bones, cartilages and tissues.

Conclusions are based on comparison among the four models. There is no significant difference between integration orders for similar type of elements. Quadratic-reduced integration formulation resulted in lower structural stiffness compared with linear formulation as seen by higher displacements and stresses than using linearly formulated elements. It is concluded that second-order elements with reduced integration are the alternative to analyze biological structures as they can better adapt to the complex natural contours and can model accurately stress concentrations and distributions without over stiffening their general response.

The use of advanced computational mechanics techniques to analyze the complex geometry and components of the paddlefish rostrum provides a viable avenue to gain fundamental understanding of the proper finite element formulation needed to successfully obtain the system behavior and hot spot locations.

The combined effects of several complex phenomena cause the deterioration of elements in steel hydraulic structures (SHSs) within the US lock system: corrosion, cracking and fatigue, impact and overloads. Predicting the future condition state of these structures by the use of current condition state inspection data can be achieved through the probabilistic chain deterioration model. The purpose of this study is to derive the transition probability matrix using final elements modeling of a miter gate.

If predicted accurately, this information would yield benefits in determining the need for rehabilitation or replacement of SHS. However, because of the complexity and difficulties on obtaining sufficient inspection data, there is a lack of available condition states needed to formulate proper transition probability matrices for each deterioration case.

This study focuses on using a three-dimensional explicit finite element analysis (FEM) of a miter gate that has been fully validated with experimental data to derive the transition probability matrix when the loss of flexural capacity in a corroded member is simulated.

New methodology using computational mechanics to derive the transition probability matrices of navigation steel structures has been presented.

The difficulty of deriving the transition probability matrix to perform a Markovian analysis increases when limited amount of inspection data is available. The used state of practice FEM to derive the transition probability matrix is not just necessary but also essential when the need for proper maintenance is required but limited amount of the condition of the structural system is unknown.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of several intrinsic motivations driving consumers' intention to buy using a mobile app, namely: shopping gamification, focussed attention, shopping enjoyment and socialness, through the mediating role of shopping engagement. The online shopping experience is investigated in its dual role as direct driver of the intention to buy using a mobile app and as moderator of the shopping engagement – intention to buy using a mobile app path.

The empirical analysis was performed in China due to the extensive usage of mobile shopping apps amongst the Chinese population. A structural equation model was estimated on 893 valid and complete structured questionnaires collected amongst a sample of Chinese consumers.

Findings confirm that intrinsic motivations (i.e. shopping gamification, focussed attention, shopping enjoyment and socialness) indirectly influence the intention to buy using a mobile app channelled by shopping engagement. Most remarkably, results show that the online shopping experience positively moderates the shopping engagement – intention to buy using a mobile app path.

The novelty of the paper lies in the conceptual and empirical evidence provided on shopping gamification, within the retailing marketing domain. The study investigates other related intrinsic motivations that jointly with shopping gamification directly influence shopping engagement and indirectly impact mobile shopping intention. The paper provides insights into the moderating role of online shopping experience, a key aspect when the challenge concerning gamification is considered.