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The purpose of the study is to provide insights on the COVID-19 pandemic communication from the lessons learned by health communication executives—how they perceived the COVID-19 pandemic and recommend preparing for communication management of future public health crises.

A number of top health communication executives in the United States, who worked in the healthcare industry for at least 25 years and held titles like director, president and chief strategist, were interviewed for their unique perspectives on the COVID-19 pandemic. This study used the contingency theory of strategic conflict management for qualitative deductive analysis of the following segmentations of key factors that drove organizational communication management decision making during the pandemic: organization characteristics, relationship characteristics, general external climate, external publics and the issue under question.

Health communication executives heavily relied on their past health communication experiences, which led to nuanced understandings of the COVID-19 pandemic. Practically, the health communication executives urged future practitioners to constantly assess risks, hire and use diverse and representative decision-makers; set a communication protocol; and keep the communication in perspective. Theoretically, the contingency theory is furthered—there appears to be a theoretical linkage between the construct of general external climate and the construct of the external public.

The unique perspectives of top health communication executives, based in the United States, provided in-depth insights on the COVID-19 pandemic—its nuances, challenges and main influences (e.g. political, racial, etc.). These takeaways and recommendations can be adapted by other organizations and future health communicators in other parts of the world.

Perceived environmental uncertainty (PEU) is a foundational concept in organization studies. The PEU typologies used in organizational research were developed using private sector managers. But, do public sector managers perceive the same uncertainty sources? We asked public sector managers in Hong Kong to identify and group uncertainty sources facing their organizations. Multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis yielded classes of uncertainty sources that differ from those developed using private sector managers.

The purpose of this exploratory study is to examine the sponsorship of a gay and lesbian sports event, and whether this differs from the sponsorship of more mainstream sports events. This is achieved by focusing on one particular non-mainstream sport and event, the Gay Softball World Series. It concludes that nonmainstream sports, such as gay and lesbian softball, have become a significant and legitimate, if problematic, cultural force and a desirable magnet for sponsors as corporations attempt to reach new target groups.

This chapter discusses Launching through the Surf: The Dory Fleet of Pacific City, a project which documents the historical and contemporary role of dory fishers in the life of the coastal village of Pacific City, Oregon, U.S. Linfield College’s Department of Theatre and Communication Arts, its Jereld R. Nicholson Library, the Pacific City Arts Association, the Pacific City Dorymen’s Association, and the Linfield Center for the Northwest joined forces to engage in a collaborative college and community venture to preserve this important facet of Oregon’s history. Using ethnography as a theoretical grounding and oral history as a method, the project utilized artifacts from the dory fleet to augment interview data, and faculty/student teams created a searchable digital archive available via open access. The chapter draws on the authors’ experiences to identify a philosophy of strategic collaboration. Topics include project development and management, assessment, and the role of serendipity. In an era of value-added services where libraries need to continue to prove their worth, partnering with internal and external entities to create content is one way for academic libraries to remain relevant to agencies that do not have direct connections to higher education. This project not only developed a positive “town and gown” relationship with a regional community, it also benefited partner organizations as they sought to fulfill their missions. The project also serves as a potential model for intra- and inter-agency collaboration for all types of libraries.

This research highlights the need for sophisticated measurement tools to allow sponsors and sponsees to evaluate sponsorship achievement against specific goals and its performance relative to other promotional tactics. Two high-profile in-stadium sponsorships of a mega-sponsee, the Grey Cup, are evaluated. Some evidence appears to supports and the effectiveness of the sponsorships; other observations raise questions about the accuracy of the evaluation process. The paper provides direction for practice and future research in sponsorship evaluation.

The auto ancillary industry in India has witnessed huge capacity expansion and modernization due to entry of foreign automobile manufacturers in the post liberalization era. In spite of potential benefits, the adoption of advanced IT among small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) is low in India. There are several technological, economical and organizational factors that enable or inhibit the adoption of advanced IT. The primary objective of this research is to identify and evaluate the key factors that are enabling or inhibiting adoption of advanced IT in the Indian auto ancillary SMEs.

In order to identify and evaluate the enablers and inhibitors, a detailed survey was carried out among registered Indian auto ancillary SMEs during 2010. Out of 584 registered SMEs, 110 owners/top managers of the SMEs responded to the survey. The data collected through the survey were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and multivariate regression to evaluate the influence of enablers and inhibitors of advanced IT adoption by the auto ancillary SMEs.

The survey findings show that the level of advanced IT adoption in auto ancillaries is low with only 17 per cent of SMEs having adopted technologies. This study reveals that “perceived benefits” and “perceived competitive pressure” enable advanced IT adoption among auto ancillary SMEs in India. However, “lack of financial capacity”, “small scale operation and “lack of in‐house IT manpower” inhibit the adoption. It is also found that enablers such as “changes in business environment”, “IT experience of CEO/owner” and “increased information linkage with OEM/customer” do not have any influence on the adoption. Similarly in the case of inhibitors, “lack of IT Infrastructure” and “lack of information security” do not have significant association with IT adoption. Despite the positive external IT environment and recognition of benefits, advanced IT adoption by SMEs in the auto ancillaries is limited by lack of financial capabilities and in‐house IT human resources.

This is one of the early papers that brings out the enablers and inhibitors of advanced IT adoption by auto ancillaries in India. Further, these factors are systematically analyzed to assess the relative importance with reference to the SMEs. The findings contribute to theory of IT adoption among SMEs, but more importantly to the SMEs in the auto ancillary, and policy makers and IT service providers who are likely to facilitate increased adoption.

This paper aims to deduce and present an extended hospitality approach. In developed countries, hospitality is increasingly linked to tourism; in times of migration and increased refugee flows, the accompanying social, economic and political determining factors play a more prominent role, necessitating a new view of hospitality. This study aims to extend the domain of tourism in hospitality by including aspects related to asylum seekers and to combine it with topics regarding welcome culture, service quality and relational quality. The paper explores the question concerning whether, and in which ways, the various sectors may learn from each other.

To expand this new research area and to take the exploratory nature of the research aim into consideration, a qualitative approach was chosen. Fourteen qualitative interviews with experts from the tourism and industry sectors and organizations linked with asylum seekers were conducted; the interviewees were chosen by purposeful sampling, according to knowledge and diversity criteria. GABEK was used as a qualitative research strategy, which involves theories of a phenomenological and linguistic nature. This method allows for a more holistic approach to the complex nature of the topic through the collection of perceptions resulting from open qualitative interviews and a keyword-based analysis.

The paper presents a model for an extended hospitality approach, as hospitality should not be limited to its connection with tourism matters. Refugees as well as tourists rely on the friendliness and the welcoming nature (hereafter: “welcome culture”) of a host country. The tourism industry can stand to improve its unconditional hospitality toward refugees — the comprehension and understanding of different cultures and values is an important aspect of welcoming new arrivals in the local surroundings, be they tourists, migrants or refugees.

As stated above, a qualitative research approach was chosen with the intent to open the research field toward an extended hospitality approach. Therefore, future research must focus on testing the results for application in a more general context. The study was also limited insofar as the conduction of research took place in Bavaria alone.

As stated above, a qualitative research approach was chosen with the intent to open the research field toward an extended hospitality approach. Therefore, future research must focus on testing the results for application in a more general context. The study was also limited insofar as the conduction of research took place in Bavaria alone.

This paper combines different access points to hospitality in a new form.

This study aims to develop adoption barriers model that captures location factors and non-transparency in government support programs, and attempted to unveil why certain locations offer more adoption opportunities than others.

The opinions of small and medium enterprise (SME) owners/managers in the six geo-political zones of Nigeria were purposefully sampled. Two major cities (the commercial nerve center and a state capital) in each zone were chosen for the study and the data were analyzed using multiple regressions.

Irrespective of the need to enhance operations through real-time knowledge sharing and network externalities; evidence from the study shows that SMEs in Nigeria are yet to exploit the full potentials of e-commerce solutions. This is evidenced by non-transparency in government support programs, location factors, weak finances, firm’s size, confidentiality of information, infrastructural inadequacy and lack openness and business integration.

Sampling the opinions of SMEs in Nigeria limits the power of generalization. Therefore, extended data and measures are required to replicate the study to improve external validity and reliability, and possibly build theories. Also, some errors seem unavoidable in the course of converting data just as all the measures used appear subjective and prone to common method bias.

Though e-commerce adoption draw-backs enjoy huge literature, location factors and non-transparency in government support programs as critical inhibitors seem least studied. Therefore, this paper complements literature, stimulates future research and advises policymakers on promulgating, and real implementation of, appropriate policy frameworks to create information, communication, technology (ICT)-friendly environment within which e-commerce diffuse amongst SMEs.