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Customer relationship management, or CRM, is a new management concept ‐ a new approach ‐ to managing customers. CRM is about the management of technology, processes, information resources, and people needed to create an environment that allows a business to take a 360‐degree view of its customers. CRM environments, by nature, are complex and require organizational change and a new way of thinking about customers ‐ and about a business in general. Creating such an environment requires more than adequate management of the customer relationship or new technologies, it requires new forms of leadership as well. Customer relationship leadership, or CRL, is a new model that leaders can embrace to recreate or readjust their leadership styles in order to foster an atmosphere in their businesses to adopt and practice the principles of CRM. While CRM environments improve business performance, initiatives undertaken in this new management field require sound leadership as well. CRL is a recommended approach to bridge the gap between a CRM vision and its reality.

Interpersonal skills are increasingly important tools in long-term care with older people, especially against the backdrop of loneliness affecting older people and expectations for a person-centred, joined-up approach. However, the term is used as a composite and its definition lacks shape and focus. In existing literature, participants appear to be selected on the basis of specific illnesses rather than age. Better understanding of the features of everyday communication processes associated with person-centred care can lead to improvements in policy and practice.

A scoping review examined communication features associated with person-centred care for older adults. This identified the extent and nature of literature. Several databases were searched; after screening and hand-searching, 31 were included. Findings were analysed for patterns and contradictions, against the objectives of person-centred and integrated care.

Emotional intelligence and the ability to employ various communication styles are crucial skills of person-centred communication. Such approaches can have positive effects on the well-being of older people.

Some studies' validity was weakened by methodological designs being founded on value judgements.

Using personalised greetings alongside verbal and non-verbal prompts to keep residents emotionally connected during personal care is considered good practice. Stimulating feedback from people using services and their relatives is important.

The role of communication is highlighted in many professional guidance documents on person-centred and integrated care, but the process of implementation is decentralised to individual employers and workers. This paper draws on the findings of contemporary literature, grounded in naturalistic data, with implications for practice and policy.

How many times have you been in a bank, shop or restaurant, satisfactorily received what you wanted, only to be treated by the member of staff with utter disdain? If the answer is once only, that is once too often. People are talking about a breakdown in society in terms of morals but all I am talking about are a few good manners. It has never harmed anyone to say please or a thank you, yet it is surprising how many people who are working at the customer interface of a business often find difficulty with this simple task. It is sometimes not what they have said, but the way in which they have said it, and ultimately whether or not they will go back again. Tone of voice is most important to show that a person means what they are saying.

A year into the launch of TiVo—the “revolutionary new personal TV service that lets you watch what you want, when you want”—John Tebona, VP of business development, was faced with important decisions about TiVo's revenue model and strategic alliances. With television's move from a network-based model to an interactive one, he had to decide what role TiVo would play in the emerging industry landscape. Would TiVo be just a set-top box or would it live up to the vision of revolutionizing the television viewing experience? What revenue streams should it emphasize to capture the most value? What strategic relationships must TiVo form in an environment where companies were cross-investing in multiple technologies across different industry segments? How could it expand its customer base and accelerate its revenues before competitors like Microsoft's WebTV became the default standard?

To understand that disruptive innovation from a value creation standpoint may not mean a profitable or viable business from a value capture standpoint; products are far easier to create than robust business architectures with solid profit engines; the future of interactivity is clouded by the conflicting visions of the varied players; and control over standards is a valuable choke point.

This paper reviews the current status of photovoltaics on the island of Barbados, including experiences to date, and discusses the future directions with a view to sharing the experience gained with other small island developing states (SIDS).

As with many SIDS Barbados is heavily reliant on fossil fuels to meet their electricity generation needs (currently 98 per cent of total electricity generation). The paper outlines how solar PV sits within the existing energy structure for the island of Barbados and reflects on the experience gained from the success of its solar thermal hot water heating industry.

This paper estimates the installed capacity of photovoltaic solar systems on Barbados was estimated to be around 200 kWp in 2010 (0.18 per cent of the average electricity demand, not including the load factor of the PV systems).

With an average daily solar radiation of 5.7 kWh/m², the potential of the resource is clear to see, with solar PV being capable of substantially contributing to the island's energy mix and saving valuable foreign exchange.

Concerning the increasing role of solar PV in the energy mix for Barbados, substantial barriers are still observed. The paper has tried to identify these barriers and has provided a detailed overview of the energy sector and solar thermal success in Barbados.

In the construction industry, it has proven difficult to implement and realize innovation efforts, for example in the development of industrialized construction and use of platform concepts. Thus, the purpose of this study is to characterize the innovation diffusion process in the social system of a large Swedish contractor company. Specifically, the diffusion of three innovative industrialized house-building (IHB) platforms and factors affecting their adoption and implementation (particularly effects of their perceived radicality in relation to the company’s decentralized characteristics) are identified and discussed.

A case study approach was applied, using empirical material including semi-structured interviews and archival records (research reports from earlier studies at different points in time related to each innovation and annual corporate reports). The material was analyzed using Rogers’ (2003) five-stage innovation process model, acknowledging the importance of social systems’ structures.

Structural characteristics of the social system strongly affect innovation diffusion. In subsystems that had not been involved in initiation of the innovations, they were regarded as radical, which hindered their adoption and implementation.

This study builds upon the recent findings that successful innovation implementation depends on a range of contingencies in the construction context. Although the diffusion of the innovations per se has been traced over a ten-year period, generalizability is limited because the results come from one construction company.

Contractors have invested substantially in the development of industrialized construction and use of platform concepts, but less in their implementation, so they have obtained little gain. How innovations are perceived and implemented in different subsystems affects the success of their implementation in the overarching social system.

This study adheres to previous calls for more research on firm level in the complex social system of construction companies by adopting a ten-year perspective on the diffusion of innovation at a large contractor addressing in particular the impact of the innovations perceived radicality in relation to the decentralized characteristics of the company.

The purpose of this paper is to offer some insights into the future of urban tourism with particular consideration given to immigration and visiting friends and relatives (VFR) travel. The discussion highlights the fact that cities are increasingly home to immigrants and transitory residents who host visitors, blurring resident-visitor distinctions, with implications for cultural and economic development, and tourism practitioners. These trends are highlighted, and discussions relating to the future are offered.

This discussion is based on a literature review and a conceptual approach.

The number of immigrants to cities keeps growing. These immigrants are shaping their new communities and changing local culture. They contribute to increased tourism through generating VFR travel and creating new tourist attractions.

The implications of VFR and immigration on urban tourism are most visible in large urban centers that are major points of entry into a country and international magnets. They are not, however, limited to big cities.

There are potential implications for municipal governments and destination marketers to consider how cultural development and the touristic promotion of the city overlap with areas and direction for possible partnerships with community groups.

This paper promotes the idea that for immigrants, to experience their communities through hosting VFR has positive social implications in terms of integration and cultural development.

This paper discusses a topic rarely addressed the impact of VFR and immigration on shaping urban tourism.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of paid accommodation by international visitors who also stay with a friend or relative in another destination.

This paper conducts analysis of secondary data to look at the proportion of person nights in paid accommodation attributable to visitors who also stay with a friend or relative in another destination, and comparison of different visitor groups and their likelihood to use paid accommodation.

Results show that 14.5 per cent of all person nights spent by international visitors to Canada in paid accommodations were attributable to people who also stayed with a friend or relative in another destination. This proportion is higher for destinations outside of the largest cities and varies by source market.

This paper is limited the structure of the secondary data set, which does not separate visiting friends from visiting relatives, and does not capture host behaviour.

This paper has implications for destination marketers and tourism businesses as a source for reflection on drivers of their local and international business.

This paper helps position residents in a more central role regarding tourism in their regions and should encourage marketers and service providers to appreciate and engage residents as hosts.

This paper offers an original position by combining concepts from visiting friends and relatives and multi-destination travel that provides a foundation for further research in this area.