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This study aims to identify the irritating aspects in the mall environment that impact shoppers with disability and explore the opportunities to design inclusive mall environments.

A mixed-methods design was used in which data collected using a survey (n = 1,434 shoppers with and without disability) were analyzed by structural equation modeling (SEM) and repeated-measures two-way ANOVA. In addition, qualitative data were obtained from critical incident technique (CIT) stories (n = 521) from shoppers with and without disability.

Mall environmental irritants evoke feelings of irritation that mediate the impacts of “inconvenient ambient conditions,” “the annoying socialscape” and “overwhelming design and atmospherics” on decreased mall-visit frequency. Compared with shoppers without disability, shoppers with disability suffer more from these irritating aspects of the mall environment, as evidenced by significantly greater high-activation unpleasant emotions. The “poor access and accessibility” category of irritants mainly affects the mall experiences of shoppers with disability.

Based on the findings, this study offers spatial-, temporal-, social-, material- and virtual-oriented recommendations for the design of inclusive retail spaces. The authors suggest that people with disability have a unique “lived experience” perspective on retail environments and that solutions should be co-created based on ongoing consultations with shoppers and employees with disability.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study offers the first systematic, comprehensive comparison of the impact of environmental irritants on shoppers with and without disability and extends the literature on irritating aspects of retail environments from individual stores to malls.

The purpose of this paper is to explore festivalgoer/camper perceptions of and responses to the non-urban festival service environment (blended festivalscape).

For this exploratory study a quantitative approach was adopted. A self-administered online survey was administered to recipient members of an Australian non-urban festival e-newsletter database resulting in 398 usable responses from festival campers.

Environmental beliefs held by festival campers’ influenced their perceptions of naturescape, socialscape and overall satisfaction. Festival campers’ who attended more than once were found to have stronger pro-environmental beliefs than those who attended once. Festival camper perception of naturescape has a positive moderating influence leading to greater overall satisfaction and the likelihood of repeat attendance and positive word-of-mouth.

It is very important to know how festivalgoers perceive and relate to their festival service environment. Critical to the appeal and success of the non-urban festival is the alignment of festivalgoer environmental beliefs to the natural setting in which they are held. Limitations include use of a single case study context.

This paper responds to lack of research on non-urban festivals when compared to urban festivals and the surprisingly little interest shown in the central role of natural settings and the camping experience. A closer understanding of the environmental beliefs of campers at non-urban festivals has the potential to provide beneficial outcomes for people, profit and planet.

This chapter explores the potential of social media in the context of festivals and shows how web platforms can better inform event managers’ understanding of how a festival’s social atmosphere (i.e. the socialscape) can be extended online and beyond the actual periods of the staging of a festival. This is possible as social media can help to build an online environment that favours social identification and user engagement. To illustrate such a mechanism, the chapter presents a multi-method analysis of Fotografia Europea, a photography festival held in Reggio Emilia, Italy. Results show the potential of a coordinated web and social media strategy for enhancing the festival’s atmosphere in terms of social identification and engagement.

The role and importance of arts festivals are well documented within the festival and events literature. Art and culture, as well as the subsequent enhancement thereof, are especially significant in multicultural societies. However, little is known regarding the role of culinary experiences within an arts festival setting. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The case study was a well-known and popular Afrikaans national arts festival held annually in Potchefstroom, South Africa. Visitors to three distinct tasting experiences (brandy, whisky and sparkling wine, including Méthode Cap Classique), offered as part of the festival programme, were surveyed.

In the analyses, 292 completed questionnaires were included, which revealed three managerial factors for a successful tasting experience, as well as six tasting experience dimensions. In all cases, the experiences exceeded the expectations. This research greatly contributes towards the body of knowledge regarding tasting experiences at national arts festivals, an aspect that has not been researched to date.

Based on the results, practical implications are provided to enhance the current tasting experiences as well as visitor loyalty. This research is a stepping stone towards understanding the needs and preferences of the visitors, as well as identifying how the festival can capitalise on delivering these experiences.

This research identified for the first time the factors that contribute to a memorable tasting experience, as well as evaluated the tasting experience dimensions.

This chapter offers an anthropological commentary on the work of the Academy of Social Sciences’ Research Ethics Group and the process through which five generic ethical principles for social science research was created. I take an anthropological approach to the subject and, following the structure of Macdonald’s essay Making Research Ethics (2010), I position myself in relation to the process. I discuss various features of the REGs work including the enduring influence of medicine and biomedical research ethics on the ethics and ethics governance of social science research; the absence of philosophers and applied ethicists and their incompatibility with the kind of endeavour pursued by the Research Ethics group; and the antipathy many felt towards the creation of a common code resulting in a preference for generic principles. This chapter offers insight into the work of the Research Ethics Group and the creation of the five ethical principles for social science research, subsequently adopted by the Academy of Social Sciences.

The purpose of this paper is the exploration of students’ preferred social media (SM) tools for receiving information about their academic library. The authors administered a questionnaire at their prospective institutions: the College of Staten Island (CSI), City University of New York, USA and the University of Western Ontario (UWO) in London, Ontario, Canada. The authors examine students’ preferences for various SM tools, and analyzed the types of information students expect from the library’s SM accounts. The authors argue that the library’s SM postings should be curated based on market research that provides a better understanding of the target audience.

The authors explore the SM preferences of students at their prospective institutions. The authors examine the SM channels students visit and the types of SM content they wish to seek out. The authors ran the authors’ study from September 1 through December 31, 2016. The authors used convenience sampling and a printed questionnaire to collect data from students in information literacy instruction sessions (n=633 at CSI, n=602 at UWO).

The authors found that more students (at both institutions) used Facebook and YouTube, as compared with other SM platforms. If they viewed their library’s SM accounts, students from both institutions preferred to read about news and current events, followed by announcements about new library services.

The authors illustrate that conducting market research helps SM managers understand their target audience. Market research is the key to successful SM management. It also helps in the development of a marketing plan and provides insights on students’ preferences regarding SM content.

This study compares students’ SM preferences across two academic institutions from two countries, the USA and Canada. The authors wished to investigate the similarities and differences among these students’ preferences.

This opinion piece calls for a consolidation of theories through integrative literature reviews to set forth the path for holistic theory development in future research.

This is a perspective article.

It is difficult to substantiate the value of tourism and hospitality researchers’ contribution due to the fragmented nature of research because researchers typically conduct their studies in silos, sometimes completely detached from others who study similar or even the same concepts using different terminology.

This perspective article suggests critical and integrative literature reviews to consolidate concepts, models, theories, taxonomies and typologies for more holistic theories.

This research aims to classify and describe food festivals and examine the patterns in food festival naming and festival descriptions in online media.

This research represents the first population-level empirical examination of food festivals in the United States using a purpose-built dataset (N = 2,626). Methodology includes text mining to examine food festival communications.

Food festival size varies across local and regional spheres within the country. Food festivals employ geographical (place-, destination-based) associations in their names. Food festivals' descriptions and online communications showcase a welcoming environment predominantly emphasizing family-oriented and live entertainment experiences. Food festivals across the country show common naming patterns based on the elements of longevity, recurrence, location name, brand name, geographic scope, theme, and occasion.

The study makes an original contribution to the theory and practice by identifying festival forms, styles, functions, and their diversity. A population level examination of food festivals does not currently exist. Therefore, this research will serve as a foundation for scholarly work in the future and as a benchmark for evaluating current and future research.