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Developing the themes from Parts 1 and 2 of the series this article explores the nature and extent of variance arising from inadequate managerial control of variability and variety in the hospitality operations environment. In doing so it prepares a method of approaching the management and control of the three Vs within eight generic areas of management activity and across six resource input areas.

Checklist questions asked of operations managers in the hotel industry regarding potential sources of variety are set out, including Human/Financial/ Material/Equipment/Time and Space Resources and Operational Methods, with the object of eliminating undesirable variety.

Increasing complexity and scale in hospitality company operations combined with intensifying competition in a maturing market is creating an unstable and rapidly changing strategic and operational environment for the hospitality industry. Such instability often leads to the generation of unnecessary and undesirable variety in organisational structures, processes and products. The consequence of this is frequently an increase in complexity for the hospitality operations manager. This issue is addressed through an analysis of the sources of variability and a consideration of potential techniques to avoid, reduce or eliminate the incidence of this instability as a means to reduce complexity and enhance performance.

As the second in a series of three articles, exploring the problems arising from instability in the Hospitality Operations Environment (HOE), this article develops an analysis of the sources, incidence and problems arising from undesirable variety. The discussion focuses on the need to manage variety across the whole hospitality operation, as opposed to a concentration on product variety. The potential sources of variety are identified in the HOE′s products, processes and structures and proposals are advanced to assist the operational manager in managing variety. In particular the control/flexibility dilemma is explored and the desirability of variety in the production and delivery aspects of the HOE is given special attention.

In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of material poses problems for the researcher in management studies — and, of course, for the librarian: uncovering what has been written in any one area is not an easy task. This volume aims to help the librarian and the researcher overcome some of the immediate problems of identification of material. It is an annotated bibliography of management, drawing on the wide variety of literature produced by MCB University Press. Over the last four years, MCB University Press has produced an extensive range of books and serial publications covering most of the established and many of the developing areas of management. This volume, in conjunction with Volume I, provides a guide to all the material published so far.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the perceptions of visitors in terms of multiple aspects of smart cities to allow wise decisions to be made about smart tourist destinations by municipal governments and tourism authorities.

This study takes a sample of inbound visitors (n=205) from Hong Kong as an empirical questionnaire-based survey on visitors’ perceptions of these smart city attributes, which are collected from literature, and framed in Cohen’s Smart City Wheel.

This paper identifies the distinctive factors for branding Hong Kong as a smart city. The results from the factor analysis identify four factors for determining what a smart city is from the perspective of visitors, namely, the quality of a smart society: energy consumption in an urban environment, smart city governance and smart city livelihood. The first two factors further become the determinants of a successful smart city brand considered by visitors, which contribute to their locational decisions and thus the strategies and policies of smart destination branding.

The results obtained can serve as insights for tourism policy makers and destination marketers when considering significant information and communication technology, or other smart and sustainable attributes for city branding (e.g. Buhalis and Amaranggana, 2014; Marine-Roig and Anton Clavé, 2015), as well as common investment and resource allocation for shared benefits in similar metropolises.

The smartness factors represent important dimensions of urban smartness as prioritized areas for further development, innovation and marketing of tourism industries and enterprises in Hong Kong, as a mature urban destination incorporating the branding of a proposed smart district as a strategy of urban development.

Smart urban development and tourism development have increasingly become inseparable, especially when visitors utilize cities as tourist destinations but share other urban resources and spaces with local citizens. Unlike the development of smart tourist attractions, smart tourist destinations should have a wider scope of smartness. A smart tourist destination may carry similar and overlapping characteristics of smart cities, which may be interpreted by visitors and may eventually affect their perceived image of a city.

Business′ most vital resource has become its biggest cost liability. Companies which continue to let the uncontrolled IT tail wag the facilities management (FM) dog are losing their competitive edge. Examines cause and effect as well as implications for businesses and managers. Discusses why FMs must assume proactive responsibility for cost control. Examines key FM asset management issues, methods of approach and available IT management solutions.

Reviews the recent literature in document supply. Looking in particular at e books and journals, resource sharing, scholarly communication, unmediated delivery and pricing.

What strides have been made to increase the participation of women in the work force? Should we be concerned particularly about women's place in our industries and organisations, and if so, what can be done to improve it? This article outlines the aims, approaches, achievements and future plans of a group which has been involved for the past seven years in promoting the development of women through training as a means of improving the position of women in employment.

The Editor introduces a round‐up of news items on the current implications of Information Technology on the business environment.