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This paper proposes that categorization flexibility, operationalized as the cognitive capacity that cross-categorizes products in multiple situational categories across multiple domains, might favorably influence a consumer’s evaluation of unconventional options.

Experimental research design is used to test the theory. An exploratory study first establishes the effect of categorization flexibility in a non-food domain. Study 1 documents the moderating role of decision domain, showing that the effect works only under low- (vs high-) consequence domain. Studies 2A and 2B further refine the notion by showing that individuals can be primed in a relatively higher categorization flexibility frame of mind. Study 3 demonstrates the interactive effect of categorization flexibility and adventure priming in a high-consequence domain. Study 4 integrates the interactive effects of decisions with low- vs high-consequence, adventure priming and categorization flexibility within a single decision domain of high consequence.

Consumers with higher- (vs lower-) categorization flexibility tend to opt for unconventional choices when the decision domain entails low consequences, whereas such a result does not hold under decision domain of high consequences. The categorization flexibility effects in case of low-consequence decision domain holds true even when consumers are primed to be categorization flexible. Furthermore, with additional adventure priming, consumers show an increased preference for unconventional options even under a decision domain with high consequence.

This study could not examine real purchase behavior as results are based on cross-sectional, behavioral intention data. In addition, it did not examine the underlying reason for presence of cross-domain categorization flexibility index.

The results suggest that stimuli may be tailored to consumers in ways that increase the salience and the perceived attractiveness of unconventional choices. Further, data reinforce the notion of cross-categorical interrelations among different domains, which could be leveraged by marketers.

This study represents the first documentation of the potential ways by which unconventional product choice might be a function of individuals’ categorization flexibility level across different types of decision domains. The findings yield implications that are novel to both categorization and consumer decision-making literature.

The consumer is currently feeling the consequences of the global economic crisis, leading to decreased spending by tourists. An important economizing strategy appears to be that vacationers do not give up their holiday but are likely to travel closer to home, a phenomenon called “staycation”, but this is just one of a variety of options vacationers can use. If they make economies within a holiday, where do they get their ideas about economizing from? The purpose of this paper is to study information searching from the perspective of economizing on vacations.

The work reported on is a survey of Dutch vacationers who stated that they economized on their 2009 holiday.

The research shows that different sources have strong and weak points in relation to the different subdecisions that constitute a vacation. Information sources are used in concert for subdecisions; the strongest joint use involves marketer‐generated sites and e‐WOM, and brochures and travel guides. In the family context, a tendency is found to use more information sources the more economizing decisions are discussed.

For tour operators, it seems to make sense to make it easier to compare vacation alternatives that differ on subdecisions such as booking moment and period, and to offer a range of options from expensive to inexpensive. Also, making options more flexible in terms of downgrading on vacation features could assist vacationers who want to economize. Consumer‐generated sources could focus more on providing information and comparison opportunities for subdecisions.

Information searching is a widely studied area in vacation decision making. Two extensive literature reviews give an overview of factors influencing this search process. In this literature, a contribution on information searching to obtain economizing ideas in difficult times is absent. In this article, with the aid of five research questions, the role of information searching in relation to economizing on vacations is investigated.

The Co‐ordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) is a social constructionist theory of human action which provides insight into the structure and process of multi‐person decision making. In the CMM analysis presented here, the Hughes family′s vacation decision making supplies an episode within which the family′s socially constructed resources are expressed and recreated. CMM is a technology offering considerable promise to new paradigm consumer researchers.

This study examines the link between vacations, parental leave and voluntary turnover among Canadian organizations in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector.

The empirical analysis is carried out using firm-level data sourced from a survey that was completed by HR managers of 125 ICT firms operating in the province of Quebec (Canada).The organizational voluntary turnover rate was used and was obtained by dividing the number of employees who voluntarily quit an organization within the last year by the total number of its employees. Based on ordinary least squared estimates, results were generated by regressing voluntary turnover rate on vacation and parental leave.

Vacation, operationalized as the average number of annual vacation days, is negatively and significantly associated with the voluntary turnover rate of the ICT organizations surveyed. Parental leave, operationalized as the percentage of salary reimbursed during parental leave, does not significantly reduce voluntary turnover in the ICT organizations surveyed.

In light of the results of this study, if organizations in the ICT sector, in Canada or abroad, desire to reduce voluntary turnover, compensating employees through the use of additional vacation days appears to be a viable approach.

This research constitutes an empirical test of the link between turnover and two compensation practices adopted by firms. To our knowledge, there is no prior scientific evidence on that subject in the Canadian ICT sector.

This study adopted the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET) because of its sophisticated imaging techniques in eliciting mental models. Scholars across disciplines have been exploring paradigms beyond positivism due to the question about the adequacy of quantitative measures to capture complete accounts and to deal with vital problems. The marketing literature also advocates the need of a new methodology to examine consumers’ underlying thought and behavior that might help alleviate the industry's inability to translate research findings directly into practices. This study elicited tourists’ mental models, which were depicted on an integrated consensus map with three metaphoric themes. Marketers might translate these metaphoric themes directly into practices. The results of this study strongly support the use of qualitative methodology, more specifically the ZMET, as a means for obtaining the underlying tourists’ behavior that often remain far beyond the reach of traditional research methods.

This paper aims to explore how different levels of involvement in the prevacation phase affect vacationers’ subsequent satisfaction, word of mouth (WOM) recommendations and loyal behavior with regard to the planning/booking process.

Data from a field study (N = 5,158) in a travel planning context are used to investigate the differences in WOM recommendations and loyalty between self-packagers (higher involvement) and package buyers (lower involvement).

Tourists who are less involved in the prevacation phase are more likely to recommend the planning/booking process, while more involved tourists are more likely to repeat the same planning/booking process than package buyers.

The findings have implications for tourist agencies, tour operators, tourism suppliers and tourism marketers in terms of customer retention and WOM communication. These findings also have theoretical implications for the WOM and loyalty literature.

This paper reveals how involvement in travel planning may affect satisfaction, WOM recommendation and loyalty behavior. These relationships have not been investigated before.

本文探讨了度假规划和预订模式的选择（自我安排行程与购买套餐）是否会影响度假者随后的满意度、口碑（WOM）推荐以及与规划和预订过程相关的忠诚行为。

使用在旅游规划背景下的一项实地研究（N = 5158）数据来研究自我安排行程者与套餐购买者之间的WOM推荐和忠诚度的差异。

较之自我安排行程者, 套餐购买者更有可能推荐规划/预订过程, 而自我安排行程者比套餐购买者更有可能重复相同的规划过程。

本文对参与旅游规划如何影响满意度、WOM推荐和忠诚度行为进行了深入探讨。尚无研究对这些关系进行探讨。

研究结果对旅游机构、旅游经营者、旅游供应商和旅游营销人员的客户保留和客户WOM沟通有启发意义。研究结果对WOM和忠诚度文献也有理论上的意义。

Este artículo explora si la elección de la planificación de vacaciones y la modalidad de reserva (independiente vs compra de paquetes) afecta la satisfacción posterior de los turistas, las recomendaciones boca a boca (WOM) y la fidelización relacionada con el proceso de planificación y reserva.

Se utilizaron datos de un estudio de campo (N = 5158) en un contexto de planificación de viajes para investigar las diferencias en las recomendaciones WOM y la fidelización entre viajeros independientes (mayor participación) y compradores de paquetes (menor participación).

Es más probable que los compradores de paquetes recomienden el proceso de planificación/reserva que los viajeros independientes, mientras que estos últimos tienen más probabilidades de repetir el mismo proceso de planificación que los compradores de paquetes.

El documento proporciona información sobre la manera como la participación en la planificación de viajes puede afectar la satisfacción, recomendaciones WOM y fidelización. Estas correlaciones no han sido investigadas anteriormente.

Estos hallazgos tienen implicaciones para las agencias, operadores, proveedores y comercializadores turísticos en términos de retención de clientes y comunicación WOM con el cliente. Los hallazgos también tienen implicaciones teóricas para el WOM y la literatura sobre fidelización.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate boundary spanning tactics in a cross-organizational virtual alliance and discuss the analytical value of “digging” into technology for excavating boundaries and understanding their dynamic and emergent features.

Although boundaries, their role and implications have been extensively investigated across a variety of online settings, the results are inconclusive as to the features of technology that create, dissolve or re-locate boundaries. This is attributed to the fact that in most cases technology is addressed as a black box – a discrete artefact of practice – without seeking justification for the inscribed functions that enable or constrain use. The paper overcomes these shortcomings by analysing digital trace data compiled through a virtual ethnographic assessment of a cross-organizational tourism alliance. Data comprise electronic traces of online collaboration whose interpretive capacity is augmented using knowledge visualization techniques capable of revealing dynamic and emergent features of boundary spanning.

Boundary spanning in virtual settings entails micro-negotiations around several types of boundaries. Some of them are either enforced by or inscribed into technology, while others are enacted in practice. Knowledge visualization of digital trace data allows “excavation” of these boundaries, assessment of their implications on distributed organizing of online ensembles and discovery of “hidden” knowledge that drives boundary spanning tactics of collaborators.

In cross-organizational collaborative settings, boundary spanning represents an enacted capability stemming from the intertwining between material and social/collective agencies. Consequently, boundaries surface as first class design constructs, directing design attention not only to features inscribed in technology (i.e. user profiles, registration mechanisms, moderation policies) but also the way such features are appropriated to re-shape, re-locate or dissolve boundaries.

An empirical data pool compiled through virtual ethnographic assessment of online collaboration is revisited and augmented with knowledge visualization techniques that enhance the interpretive capacity of the data and reveal “hidden” aspects of the collaborators’ boundary spanning behaviour and tactics.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the involvement of adolescents in family vacation and dining out on the basis of the type of family. Also, the purpose of this paper is to refine the Scanzoni’s sex role orientation scale (SSRS) in the Indian context.

Data were collected using self-administered questionnaires from adolescents in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh (states in India). The response rate is 44.88 per cent. Sex role orientation was measured using the Scanzoni’s SSRS.

There is a decline in the involvement of adolescents through the major decision-making stages for both the services, family vacation and dining out. There is no significant difference in the involvement of adolescents in dual-income and single-income families for a vacation and dining out, except that the children from dual-income families are more involved in destination selection for a vacation. Also, the adolescents in modern families are significantly involved in the sub-decision stages, spending and selection of travel agent.

The marketers should advertise the vacation destinations to adolescent children in dual-earning families. Also, the travel agencies should design their promotion strategies so as to appeal to the adolescent children with modern attitudes. While catering to the needs of a family, travel agencies must present their services in a way that appeals to adolescents in modern families. Also, this aspect must be taken care of in all the pricing strategies and promotions for the modern families.

Despite the large number of studies in various Western countries in this area, few studies investigate adolescent influence in family decision-making in India. The present study takes into account the type of family, single income or dual income (on the basis of the employment of parents) and traditional or modern (on the basis of gender role orientation).

This article proposes a theory of direct and indirect inf luences of the Olympic Games on international tourism behavior and presents test results of the theory using a quasi-experimental research design and visitor exit data (n = 3,875 useable surveys). Key finding: among prior visitors to Australia, the share searching for information nearly doubles (from 30 to 59 per cent) in comparing visitors reporting no change in awareness to substantial increase in awareness of Australia as a vacation destination due to hosting the Olympics. Conclusion: hosting international mega-events may result in substantial increases in activities and expenditures by visitors but such impacts occur through increases in visitors' search for information.

Addresses the impact of family structure on joint purchase decisions of Malaysian spouses for the following products: furniture, vacation, and aggregate or overall products (a combination of furniture and vacation).

A total of 103 couples responded to the survey conducted in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, to understand the impact of family typing namely, strong vs weak cohesive family and modern vs traditional family on joint purchase decision on furniture, vacation, and aggregate products.

The outcome shows consistent results across the three products as follows: a strong cohesive family makes more joint decisions on furniture than a weak cohesive family and a modern family makes more joint decisions on furniture than a traditional family; a strong cohesive family makes more joint decisions on vacation than a weak cohesive family and a modern family make more joint decisions on vacations than a traditional family; and a strong cohesive family makes more joint decisions on aggregate products than weak cohesive family and modern family makes more joint decisions on aggregate products than a traditional family.

Supports the preponderance of strong cohesive families over weak in making joint decisions on furniture, vacations and both.

Modern families make more joint purchase decisions than traditional families.