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This study aims to provide insights into the scale and use of information and communication technology (ICT) in managing medical devices in the National Health Service (NHS), with a focus on reverse exchange (RE) systems as a part of the broader reverse logistics (RL) systems, within which medical devices are returned and exchanged.

Two case studies were conducted with NHS Hospital Trusts, whilst another was built upon secondary resources. Primary findings were triangulated with the information collected from the NHS Trusts’ reports, direct observation and a preliminary round of consultations with 12 health-care professionals working in other NHS Trusts or Integrated Equipment Community Services.

The findings of this paper suggest that the sophistication of ICT implementation increases with the risks and value associated with medical devices. Operational attributes are derived from ICT implementations which can positively affect RE performance. The forces that drive the adoption of ICT in the NHS include pressure from government, business partners and patients; competitive pressure; perceived benefits; organisation size; top management support; and the availability of sufficient resources. Obstacles are mainly centred around the lack of sufficient resources.

Although the trusts that participated in this research are representative of different regions, the generalisation of the study results may be limited by the size of the sample organisations, so the results can only provide insights into the research problem. As this work is exploratory in nature, there is insufficient data on which to form definitive recommendations.

NHS Trusts may use the six operational attributes identified and verified by the case studies to benchmark their ICT implementation for device management. The actual and potential benefits of ICT implementation could inform technology development and encourage the uptake of ICT in healthcare. Governmental bodies can utilise this information to develop directives to actively drive ICT adoption in device management and the associated RE system. A well-considered training programme is needed to improve staff ICT skills to fully realise the potential of ICT systems which support the effective RE of medical devices.

The results of this paper suggest that the reverse management of medical devices backs up the supply chain attained through using ICT, which in turn reduces capital costs, medical risk and increases the finance available for frontline medical treatment.

Augmented reality (AR), which is a variation of virtual reality, is a technology that can appeal to a number of senses with its sound, video, image or touch sense features, take the information created by computers or digital environments and adapt it to the real environment, thus allowing the user to see and explore the real world. Although AR technology has the potential to be used to develop all senses in general, it is widely used today. AR, which is the subject of many scientific research, is turning into a subject that is especially curious and excited by the tourism sector and that consumers are very interested in. In particular, within the scope of examining consumer behaviours and searching for solutions, businesses have started to benefit from AR technologies in order to respond to the demands of consumers who spend the majority of their time with technology and to offer different, unforgettable and unique experiences. Moreover, promotional activities are very important in terms of preferability among competing destinations. At this point, the effect of AR on the persuasion efforts carried out within the marketing process for all kinds of messages and destinations conveyed to consumers cannot be denied. Therefore, AR technologies constitute one of the most effective steps in facilitating consumers' travel, creating a rich experience, speeding up their decision-making processes, enabling them to revisit the destination and increasing their satisfaction. In this chapter, what AR is, why it has an important place in destinations and marketing and the use of AR in destinations, hotels, cafes, bars and restaurants, and finally in recreation areas, are discussed.

Consumers shopping motives may differ across products/services categories, retail formats and channels. In the context of m-Apps-based commerce, this study aims to explore different shopping motives of consumers in three different categories of app, namely, food delivery, ride sourcing and digital payments. Using motivation literature, the study extends the theory of consumer motives by including sustainability as a key motive to buy in the context of m-App channel. Further, the authors undertake a comparative analysis of the identified motives across the three mobile applications (m-Apps).

The research methodology involved two stages (qualitative research followed by quantitative research). In qualitative research, personal interview was conducted to extract items for survey questionnaire development. Subsequently, quantitative analysis was carried out. The data were subjected to exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The study sample comprised 201 young Indian managers.

Using principal component analysis and CFA, the study validates the existence of different motivations in the three categories of m-Apps considered. Transaction-oriented and sustainability-oriented motivation is found to be a major motive to use m-Apps for food delivery, ride sourcing and mobile payments. Additionally, in digital wallet applications for mobile payments, consumers exhibit innovation-oriented motivation. Value-oriented motivation was identified as a motive in food delivery apps.

The scale developed and the comparative study done extended the theoretical conversation on young consumer motives in the context of m-Apps channel and extended it by including sustainability motive, which needs further in-depth study.

This is one of the first studies to explore sustainability motives in the context of m-Apps channel.

This paper aims to analyse the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in establishing destination appeal and reflect on the implications for smart tourism destination development. The focus is on identifying and analysing technological solutions by considering six elements shaping tourism destination appeal, namely, attractions, public and private amenities, accessibility, human resources, image and character and price.

To deliver public and private sector implications, the authors have reviewed and analysed relevant papers that were published in hospitality and tourism journals (42 Q1 and Q2 ranked journals based on SCImago Journal Rank) between 2010 and 2018.

ICTs affect the marketing and management of tourism destinations. They foster their innovativeness (e.g. interpretation of destination factors, new travel trends, innovative products, VA and AR), contribute sustainability (e.g. visitor management and reducing the use of resources) and improve accessibility (e.g. information provision, navigation, availability of sites and travel planning). The adaptation of technological solutions in the hospitality industry can be related to increased productivity, profitability and quality of services. Additionally, ICTs facilitate visitor decision-making (e.g. online distribution channels and information accessibility), influence overall travel experience and enable the sharing of visitors’ impressions.

The significant limitations of this study include restrictions on the timing of publication and on journal selection.

This paper reviews full-length research papers that were published in relevant tourism and hospitality journals. This paper complements the current literature by addressing the role of ICTs in establishing destination appeal and reflecting on implications for smart destination development and future research.

本论文分析了ICT在搭建旅游目的地吸引力方面的作用, 并对智慧旅游目的地发展提出启示。本论文重点在于考量六种搭建旅游目的地吸引力的因素：景点、公共和个人设施、可参观性、人力资源、形象和性格、以及价格, 并分析了各种科技解决方案。

为了给公众和私人企业提出启示, 本论文审阅并分析了发表在2010年至2018年之间的酒店旅游相关期刊文献（42Q1和Q2级别的SCImago期刊排名）。

信息通讯技术（ICTs）影响了旅游目的地的营销和管理。ICT促进了多种创新（比如, 目的地因素的解读、新旅游趋势、创新型产品、VA\AR）, 增强可持续性（比如, 游客管理和减少资源耗损）以及提高可参观性（比如, 信息提供、导航、景点信息、旅游规划等）。酒店业中的科技应用促进了生产力提高、营利性、和服务质量。此外, ICT帮助游客做旅游决策（比如, 在线分销渠道和信息获取）, 影响了整体旅游体验, 和增强了游客分享游历经验。

本论文审阅了旅游酒店期刊相关科研文章, 强调了建立旅游目的地吸引力中ICT的重要性, 以及对未来智慧旅游目的地发展和研究做出启示。

本论文的局限性在于只包含了特定发表年限和期刊限制的文章。

智慧旅游目的地、旅游目的地吸引力、信息和通信技术、ICT、旅游研究、酒店业

Urban logistics presents a series of challenges, as the interests of the different stakeholders are not always aligned. The aim of this research is to explore the potential of applying Lean principles to reduce waste in urban logistics.

As a structure for “going to gemba,” the authors implemented the shadowing technique to better understand the perspective of companies distributing products in the city of Montevideo, Uruguay. Then, meetings were conducted to validate the observations by the people shadowed.

The results show that most of shipper's time is dedicated to waiting (59%), which is followed by driving (22%), and only a small section of time was dedicated to unloading and verification activities (19%). Although collaborative solutions are needed along with the different stakeholders, this research highlights how deploying Lean thinking can improve significantly urban logistics achieving up to 25% improvement in the number of stores served per shift.

From an academic point of view, this study emphasizes the importance of continue applying and evaluating the Lean practices into transportation contexts. From a company's perspective, the authors have presented a list of propositions that can be implemented for carriers in order to reduce waste and/or improve the efficiency of the urban transportation process.

Based on the literature review carried out, the subject study of Lean and its application to urban logistics remains mostly unexplored in the scientific literature.

The popularity of mobile technologies and applications is constantly growing and undoubtedly changing consumers’ and providers’ behavior. The purpose of this study is to provide a comprehensive systematic literature review of academic research related to mobile technologies and applications in smart tourism published between 2012 and June 2017.

Published peer-reviewed articles were gathered from the three largest and most popular online databases and search engines – EBSCO host, Science Direct and Google Scholar and ENTER conference proceedings. Based on a keyword-driven search and content analysis, 126 articles were determined to be relevant to this study.

Selected publications were analyzed in accordance with the proposed research questions and thematically classified into three main categories: consumer perspective, technological perspective and provider perspective. The findings contribute to a better overall understanding of recent research into mobile technologies and applications in smart tourism by presenting the main results, methods, trends and other insights of relevant publications.

Although the researchers used two databases, one search engine and ENTER conference proceedings to collect articles, there is the possibility that some studies connected to the topic were not included. The study did not include books, other conference proceedings, literature reviews, theses, business reports and other possibly relevant publications.

This study provides a systematic review of the most recent published academic research (2012-June 2017; also including “Online First” articles) on mobile technologies and applications in smart tourism. The results of this study provide an agenda for future research in tourism and hospitality industry by identifying major trends and developments in smart tourism.

Research abounds highlighting the differences between males and females when they travel. Even in business travel, these differences have been acknowledged, with suppliers and marketers spending significant money to develop and market products to accommodate them. The purpose of this study is to ascertain whether differences exist in terms of mobile application usage between male and female business travellers.

A mixed method approach is followed. An internet-based survey is distributed and in-depth interviews conducted with South African business travellers. The Mann–Whitney U-test is used to test the differences between males and females and their mobile application usage. Content analysis is used to analyse the interviews.

The results show that mobile applications are perceived as more important by females than males in all the phases of the travel cycle, although most of these differences in perceived importance were not significant.

Owing to the online data-collection method and the self-selective process, the findings cannot be generalised to the global population of business travellers who use mobile applications.

The results should caution corporate organisations, travel management companies and their application developers not to spend unnecessary technological and financial resources on developing applications to accommodate differences between males and females, which might not exist. Companies should rather spend money on developing applications that will enhance and add convenience to the business traveller’s experience.

The main contribution of this study lies in investigating the applications market, particularly in the context of business travel. Applications focussed on specific sectors of the tourism industry, such as business travel applications, serve business travellers differently from generic travel applications. This research examines business travel-specific applications and expands the scale and scope of the enquiry, concentrating on the travellers’ view.

本论文主要研究男人和女人在旅游中的行为区别。特别是在商务旅游中, 男女差别确实存在, 这也验证了供应商和营销商在开发营销产品中的针对性和区别性。本论文旨在验证是否男女商务旅游者对使用移动APP存在区别。

本论文采用混合采样方法。采样方式通过网络问卷和深度访谈, 采样群体为南非商务游客。本论文采取Mann–Whitney U检验来测试男女在移动APP使用上的区别。本论文还采取文本分析法来分析访问数据。

研究结果表明女性游客在各个旅游阶段都比男性游客对移动APP更看重, 而这些区别在统计计算上并没有获得显著效果。

由于线上采样和自助问卷的采样限制, 研究结果不能推广到全球商务旅客对于使用移动APP的态度。

研究结果可以警示企业机构、旅游管理公司、以及APP开发商不要花费不必要的科技和财力资源来迎合男女受众的需求。因为这个区别可能不存在。公司应该花费财力在开发APP上, 使得商旅客人的使用体验更加便捷。

本论文最重要的贡献就是研究了商旅APP市场。商旅APP区分于普通旅游APP。我们的研究检验了商旅客人APP以及扩展其度量和研究视野到旅游者的角度。

移动设备， 性别， 商务旅行， 商务旅行周期， 商务旅客， 移动商务旅行应用