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The purpose of this paper is to deconstruct the backpacker label by reconstructing it using the historical antecedent of drifting. Following the deconstruction of backpacking’s near past, the author build a clearer conceptual foundation for backpacking’s future.

The study is framed by scenario planning, which demands a critical review of the backpacking and an appreciation of its history in order to understand its future.

Backpacking, ever evolving, remains difficult to articulate and challenges researchers to “keep up” with its complexity and heterogeneity. This paper argues that researchers must learn more about how backpacking “works” by opening a dialogue with its past, before engaging in further research. The paper finds that a poor conceptualisation of backpacking has led to a codification of backpacker criteria.

Backpacking remains a research topic which draws disparate researchers using criteria that produces disparate results and deviations. By understanding its past, researchers will be better placed to explore the emancipatory impulses that drive backpackers today and in the future.

This papers’ value lies in the retrospection process which explores backpacking’s near past so as to “make sense” of present research and present scenarios for it is the immediate future. The paper re-anchors backpacking by investigating the major historical, social and cultural events leading up to its emergence.

As tourism destinations grapple with declines in tourist arrivals due to COVID-19 measures, scholarly debate on overtourism remains active, with discussions on solutions that could be enacted to contain the excessive regrowth of tourism and the return of “overtourism”. As social science holds an important role and responsibility to inform the debate on overtourism, this paper aims to understand overtourism by examining it as a discursive formation.

The paper explores recurring thematic threads in scholarly overtourism texts, given the phrases coherence as a nodal-point is partially held in place by a collective body of texts authored by a network of scholars who have invested in it. The paper uses interdiscursivity as an interpretative framework to identify overlapping thematic trajectories found in existing discourses.

Overtourism, as a discursive formation, determines what can and should be said about the self-evident “truths” of excessive tourist arrivals, the changes tourists bring to destinations and the range of discursive solutions available to manage or end overtourism. As the interpellation of these thematic threads into scholarly texts is based on a sense of crisis and urgency, the authors find that the themes contain rhetoric, arguments and metaphors that problematise tourists and construct them as objects in need of control and correction.

While the persistence of the discursive formation will be determined by the degree to which scholarly and other actors recognise themselves in it, this paper may enable overtourism scholars to become aware of the limits of their discursive domain and help them to expand the discourse or weave a new one.

本文探讨了过度旅游研究文本中反复出现的主题线索, 鉴于这些短语连贯性作为一个节点, 由学者们组成的网络所研究的一组文本所组成。本文将互辩作为一个解释框架来识别现有语篇中重叠的主题轨迹。

随着旅游目的地应对因新冠病毒−19措施而导致的游客人数下降, 关于过度旅游的学术辩论仍然活跃, 通过讨论可以制定的解决方案, 以遏制旅游业的过度再生和“过度旅游”的再现。由于社会科学在有关过度旅游的辩论中扮演着重要的角色和责任, 本文试图通过将其作为一种话语形式进行考察来理解过度旅游。

作为一种话语形式, 过度旅游展现了过量游客所带来的不言而喻的“真相”、游客给目的地带来的变化以及可用于管理或结束过度旅游的一系列解决方案。由于这些主题线索在学术文本中的质询是基于危机感和紧迫感, 我们发现这些主题包含修辞、论据和隐喻, 使游客感到困惑, 并将其构建为需要控制和纠正的对象。

尽管话语形成的持续性将取决于学者和其他参与者在其中认识到自己的程度, 但本文可能会使过度旅游学者意识到其话语领域的局限性, 并帮助他们扩展话语或构建新的话语。

A medida que los destinos turísticos lidian con la disminución de las llegadas de turistas debido a las medidas del COVID-19, el debate académico sobre el “sobreturismo” permanece activo, con discusiones sobre soluciones que podrían promulgarse para contener el crecimiento excesivo del turismo y el regreso del “sobreturismo”. La ciencia tiene un papel importante y una responsabilidad en informar sobre el debate del “sobreturismo”, este artículo busca entender el constructo de “sobreturismo”, examinándolo como una formación discursiva.

El artículo explora los hilos temáticos recurrentes en los textos académicos sobre el “sobreturismo”, dada la coherencia de las frases como un punto nodal, mantenida parcialmente en su lugar, por un cuerpo colectivo de textos escritos por una red de académicos, los cuales han invertido tiempo en ellos. El artículo utiliza la inter-discursividad como marco interpretativo a la hora de identificar trayectorias temáticas superpuestas que se encuentran en las disertaciones existentes.

El sobreturismo, como formación discursiva, determina lo que puede y debe decirse sobre las “verdades” evidentes de la llegada excesiva de turistas, los cambios que los turistas traen a los destinos y la gama de soluciones discursivas disponibles para gestionar o acabar con el “sobreturismo”. Como la interpelación de estos hilos temáticos en textos académicos se basa en un sentido de crisis y urgencia, encontramos que los temas contienen retórica, argumentos y metáforas que problematizan a los turistas y los construyen como objetos que necesitan control y corrección.

Si bien la persistencia de la formación discursiva estará determinada por el grado en que los académicos y otros actores se reconozcan en ella, este artículo puede permitir a los estudiosos del “sobreturismo” tomar conciencia de los límites de su dominio discursivo y ayudarlos a expandir el discurso o tejer un discurso nuevo.

This paper proposes a methodology for governing expatriate assignments in the context of corporate‐level objectives.

The approach taken is to envisage expatriate managerial assignments within the theoretical framework of agency theory and the knowledge‐based view of the firm. The paper begins with the view that knowledge acquisition and integration is a primary goal for most expatriate assignments. The relationship between expatriate managers and multinational corporation (MNC) headquarters from an agency perspective are considered and the notion of a “knowledge contract” as a means of governing that relationship is discussed. Four corporate‐level international strategies available to MNCs (global, international, transnational, and multidomestic) are then examined and the extent of agency problems under each strategy is discussed.

The paper makes specific predictions about the type of knowledge contract that is most likely to address agency problems for each corporate strategy.

This research extends agency theory by introducing the knowledge contract as a means of managing agency concerns. This offers a broader range of contract alternatives, moving researchers beyond traditional agency theoretic prescriptions. The research also contributes to the literature on expatriate management by integrating assignment success with research on corporate‐level international strategy. Few authors have recognized organizational strategy as an important unit of study in international human resource management. Doing so, however, has yielded a unique set of contingency relationships that would otherwise be obscured.

Following Marx and Engels' identification of the “essential condition of capital”, the purpose of this paper is to begin an initial critical exploration of the essential condition of intellectual capital, particularly the ownership rights of labour.

Adopting a critically modernist stance on unitarist HR and OB discourse, and contextualised within a background on the stock option phenomenon and recent accounting regulation, the paper argues that the fundamental nature of the capital‐labour relation continues resiliently into the IC labour (intellectual capital‐labour) relation.

There is strong evidence that broad‐based employee stock options (ESOPs) have become institutionalised in certain firms and sectors – but the future of such schemes is very uncertain (post 2005 accounting regulation). Overly unitarist HR/OB arguments are challenged here with empirical evidence on capital's more latently strategic purposes such as conserving cash, reducing reported accounting expense in order to boost reported earnings, deferring taxes, and attracting, retaining and exploiting key elements of labour.

Research supports the positive benefits of broad‐based employee stock ownership schemes. Further research on the benefits of such schemes and the reasons why they are or are not implemented is now required.

From the perspective of labour, nothing appears to have really changed (yet) in terms of the essential condition of intellectual capital.

This paper explicitly raises the issue of the ownership rights of labour to intellectual capital.

Reviewing Human Resource Management (HRM) and innovation literature, an identified gap exists in the mechanism in which the association between HRM and innovation is happen. To respond, the current study has suggested a moderated mediated mechanism to explain the link between HRM, through its new High Performance Work Systems (HPWS) and organisational innovation, as employee engagement mediates the relationship between HPWS and employee creativity. Then later one has subsequent influence on organisational innovation; moreover, the model also considers the moderating role of employee perspective-taking between HPWS and employee engagement.

A quantitative-deductive causal method, along with a cross-sectional approach was adopted, and SMEs in Jordan were the focus for the present study, through targeting employees in Research and Development centres. Data were collected through a self-administered questionnaire answered by 272 employees and Structural Equation Modelling using SMART-PLS was used for the statistical analysis.

The results confirmed that employee engagement fully mediated the relationship between HPWS and employee creativity and accounted for 69.5% of the variance; additionally, perspective-taking as a moderator of the relationship between HPWS and employee engagement was confirmed. Moreover, employee creativity significantly predicted organisational innovation to moderate levels.

The study suggested a unique mechanism for the link between HPWS and organisational innovation, contributing to the suggested gap that could have numerous variables acting as mediators or moderators which require further investigation to explore other possible mechanisms.

The transition from centralised to market economy created a number of difficulties for Polish enterprises and many of them went bankrupt, especially after the Soviet market had been lost. While large companies, such as steelworks, coal mines, railways, etc, have been protected by the government for social reasons, the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) could survive only when they, by themselves or with some external assistance, were able to introduce internal changes and adjust to the market environment. Polish SMEs may be divided into two groups: emerging private firms and split firms which were created by a partition of large state‐owned enterprises. The various reasons for failure are discussed for both groups and compared with those described in the literature. A general model of consultancy intervention is presented and the attitudes of Polish enterprises towards change are described. In general, the state‐owned and split firms are reluctant to change unless their situation is critical, and if restructurisation is done it is rather superficial. Thus, a successful consultant has to be not only convincing and flexible but also must assess how deep a change is wanted by a given enterprise. This paper presents the approach used in helping the split firms by the University of Mining and Metallurgy (UMM), Faculty of Management Consulting Group. In order to find solutions for a given firm, a working team consisting of representatives of an enterprise and university was set up. The team devises a strategy of enterprise survival and prepares a detailed plan of the steps to be taken. This approach, which in many cases has proved to be successful, consists of trying to infuse the employees with the philosophy of enterprise survival and organising a series of relevant training activities. When the employees fully understand the essence of all the actions necessary for enterprise survival (privatisation, improvement of marketing, creation of systems of motivation, quality control, management information and other), the consulting group’s role as “company doctor” is limited to the supervision of the change planning process and the assessment of the solutions chosen. This system of triggering employee initiative has been found to be not only effective but also cheap, an aspect which in the case of small enterprises should not be underestimated.

The purpose of this paper was to investigate the concept of innovative marketing and how it manifests itself in the context of small‐to medium‐sized enterprises.

The literature relating to the characteristics of SMEs, and innovative marketing are reviewed to identify the key elements of innovative marketing and SMEs. This review and the key elements identified contribute to an overall conceptualisation of innovative marketing for SMEs.

The discussion considers and provides a description of innovative marketing in SMEs. Innovative marketing does not just relate to products, new product development, and technological development but is also evident in other aspects of marketing related activities and decisions and is very specific to the context and needs of the SME.

The focus of this paper is on taking the relevant themes from the literature and considering them in the light of SME marketing and in the context of SME business activities.

Addresses some of the key debates within the HRD literature and considers the extent to which HRD can be described as a field of study. The paper addresses the issues raised in the contributions that make up this special issue and identifies a broad range of methodologies and use of research methods. It argues that all of the contributions fit into at least one theoretical perspective: capabilities, psychological contacts and the learning organization/organizational learning. The paper concludes with a consideration of the prescriptions which the perspectives advocate for HRD in organizations.

Organizations use Industry 4.0 readiness models to evaluate their preparedness prior to the implementation of Industry 4.0. Though there are many studies on Industry 4.0 readiness models, the dimensions of readiness differ. Besides, there is no study empirically validating the readiness model in different sectors or types of organization. The purpose of this study is to conceptualize the dimensions of the Industry 4.0 readiness model and subsequently evaluate the criticality of these dimensions in manufacturing, service, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and large enterprises (LEs).

The study uses an exploratory sequential mixed method design. In phase one, 37 senior managers participated through a purposive sampling frame. In phase two, 70 senior managers participated in an online survey.

The results of the study indicated that the Industry 4.0 readiness model has 10 dimensions. Further, the criticality of the dimensions as applied to different sectors and type of organizations is put forward. This study will help manufacturing, services, SMEs and LEs to evaluate Industry 4.0 readiness before commencing the deployment of Industry 4.0.

The findings can be very beneficial for Industry 4.0 practitioners and senior managers in different organisations to understand what readiness dimensions need to be considered prior to implementation of Industry 4.0 technology.

This paper makes an attempt to conceptualize the Industry 4.0 readiness model and utilizes an exploratory mixed method for critically evaluating the dimensions related to the model.

This study aims to investigate whether United Kingdom (UK)-based companies have changed their voluntary disclosures on curbing the bribery of foreign officials in response to the UK Bribery Act 2010, and if so whether and how such disclosure changes substantively reflected allegations of bribery of foreign officials by news media.

By using the notions of institutional pressure and decoupling and applying content and thematic analysis, the authors examined, in particular, disclosures on curbing bribery by the largest 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange in periods before and after the Bribery Act (2007–2012). News media reports covering incidents of bribery of foreign officials and related corporate disclosures before and after the Act were thoroughly examined to problematise corporate anti-bribery disclosure practices.

The study finds a significant change in disclosure on curbing bribery before and after the enactment of the UK Bribery Act, consistent with the notion of institutional coercive pressure. However, decoupling is also found: organisations' disclosures did not substantively reflect incidents of bribing foreign public officials, mostly from underprivileged developing nations.

This study acknowledges a limitation stemming from using media reports that focus on bribery incidents in identifying actual cases or incidents of bribery. As some of the incidents identified from news media reports appeared to be allegations, not convictions for bribery, companies could have defensible reasons for not disclosing some aspects of them.

Regulators should think why new or more regulations without substantive requirement are not helpful to curb corporate decoupling and injustice. The regulators should address the crisis that multinational companies (MNCs) being suppliers of bribery are much more harmful for the underprivileged communities in developing nations. Accordingly, this paper provides practical insights into how stakeholders ought to critically interpret MNCs' accounts of their involvement in bribery.

This study contributes to the accounting literature by problematising MNCs' operations in underprivileged countries. The findings suggest that not only public officials in developing countries as creators of bribery but also Western-based MNCs as the suppliers of bribery contribute to perpetuating unethical practices and injustices to the underprivileged communities in developing countries. This research is imperative as this is one of the first known studies that provides evidence of the actions including disclosure-related actions companies have taken in response to the UK Bribery Act.