Strategic marketing planning for heritage tourism: a conceptual model and empirical findings from two emerging heritage regions

This paper examines the process of strategic marketing planning for heritage tourism, an inherently complex and fragmented system, requiring a coordinated approach among a range of stakeholders. A conceptual model, detailing key stakeholders and specific strategic functions, as well as a prescribed method of coordination, is presented. Two regions were investigated using a qualitative methodology, which examined five strategic documents and consisted of in-depth interviews with 11 key informants from the tourism industry. Key findings indicate that weak coordination, in terms of strategic marketing planning, has negative implications for heritage tourism marketing concerning four key strategic functions, strategic orientation, resource allocation, product service development and destination promotion. The paper emphasises the importance of strategic marketing planning for each function and considers the role of the public sector in terms of providing strategic direction. Furthermore, the paper highlights the potential difficulties of engaging in heritage tourism development in a non-traditional destination.     

Disease management programs: program intervention, behavior modification, and dosage effect

Disease management programs provide highly personalized self- management support to consumers afflicted with chronic illnesses. Program interventions include the provision of health information, ongoing motivation, and support for behavior change, adherence to pharmacotherapy, development of self-efficacy, and the distribution of self-care tools. Interactions between program and patients are structured and repetitive over time. Consumer behavior change can result in measurable improvements in quality and medical cost savings from postponement or avoidance of preventable complications. We evaluated the impact on cost and quality of a comprehensive Diabetes Disease Management Program (DDMP) across ten US urban markets. A staggered implementation allowed for ten pre–post and five pair-wise comparisons. The DDMP demonstrated significant improvements in six diabetes-related quality indicators, lower cost, and a dose-response with greater than 6 months participation. We conclude that a DDMP improves quality of care and reduce overall medical costs.     

Cultivating group-oriented travel behaviour to major events: assessing the importance of customer-perceived value,enduring event involvement and attitude towards the host destination

Abstract

Major events, such as the Olympics and Glastonbury music festival, attract tourists and result in increased consumer spending in host economies. The purpose of this study is to gain insights into the key determinants driving future intentions of travel consumers to participate in group-based travel to major events. An integrated theoretical model is empirically tested with 424 travel consumers who have had prior experience travelling in a group to a major event. The results substantiate the model showing that customer value perceptions of a past group-travel consumption experience conceptualised with multiple benefit dimensions has the largest relative effect on future intentions to engage in group-travel behaviour to major events, followed by attitude towards the host destination and enduring event involvement. The results provide managers with holistic insights into components that are used as the basis upon which group-travel consumers develop their choice behaviour which can be used to effectively cultivate more attendees to major events.     

Recruiting and Retaining Older Adult Volunteers: Implications for Practice

There is an increased interest in the promotion of volunteering within nonprofit organizations. In this paper organizational supports for recruiting and managing volunteering among older adults are explored. The paper describes an intervention comprising an intergenerational reading program delivered by volunteers in eight schools in the Republic of Ireland. The research draws on qualitative data from a mixed-methods research project (2009–2011) that evaluated outcome and process aspects of the reading program. The qualitative data was collected from a group of older volunteers aged 55 years and older. This present study frames the empirical findings within a volunteering framework that involved deductively analyzing the data using attributes associated with “volunteerability” and “recruitability.” Through this analytical framework a number of features were identified as contributing to greater knowledge of marketing strategies to recruit and retain volunteers within nonprofit organizations. The paper concludes with a set of core practice messages for organizations that rely on volunteers in the delivery of their service.     

Motivation,opportunity, and ability: Understanding new habits and changes adopted for weight management

As obesity rates continue to rise, both effective prevention and treatment programs are urgently required. Combating obesity requires weight management programs that are accessible and scalable to large numbers of people. There is growing evidence that commercial programs, which combine behavior change techniques with the key motivators for changing habits, are effective as the first line in helping people adopt healthier dietary and activity patterns. In particular, digital programs have the potential to provide a service to large numbers of people, be widely accessible and cost effective for the individual. However, to date, digital programs have been relatively under‐utilized and under‐evaluated. There is little published evidence on the performance of programs on a large scale, outside of partnerships with primary care, where participants self‐refer and pay a nominal fee. The purpose of the following study was to examine the interrelated effect of motivation, opportunity, and ability on the behavioral outcomes of a digital commercial weight management program. To address this aim, a thematic content analysis of participants' qualitative responses to habits learned and changes adopted was conducted. Findings reveal that habits learned and changes adopted as a result of participating in the program influence not only weight loss outcomes but other health and well‐being outcomes as well.     

The new value imperative for privately held companies: The why, what, and how of value management strategy

This discussion describes the why, what, and how of managing for value in privately held companies. Public companies continue to manage for value, a trend that is now pushing its way inexorably into privately held companies. First, we discuss the dynamics that are creating a value-management imperative for these companies. Second, we provide a signaling model to assist management of privately held companies in deciding whether to emphasize (a) revenue growth, (b) the spread between return on invested capital and the weighted average cost of capital, (c) reduction in the cost of capital, or (d) some combination of these three. The key-value-driver model provides guidance in addressing questions such as: Do we have the right to grow? Should we improve profit performance before we grow? What is our performance in relation to our cost of capital? We also describe how to acquire the data necessary to use the model. Third, we present some important but under-utilized tools based upon transactions cost and strategic cost management theories to assist executives in managing for value and discuss when to apply these tools within a strategic context.     

The influence of underlying philosophies on talent management: Theory,implications for practice,and research agenda

In order to explain how and why talent management can contribute to a firm's sustained competitive advantage, we need to gain insights into the philosophies about talent that underpin talent management. This article introduces four talent philosophies that vary in their perception of talent as (a) rare (exclusive) or universal (inclusive), and (b) stable or developable: the exclusive/stable; exclusive/developable; inclusive/stable; and inclusive/developable talent philosophy. We discuss basic assumptions, talent-management practices, opportunities, and challenges for each of the four philosophies. Based on this discussion, testable propositions for future research are developed.     

Effect of community relationship management,relationship marketing orientation,customer engagement,and brand trust on brand loyalty: The case of a commercial bank in Thailand

Business uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic has brought financial and banking industries under stress. This study examines brand loyalty (BL) in the Thai banking industry by integrating community relationship management (CoRM) (4Cs model), relationship marketing orientation (RMO), customer engagement (CE), and brand trust (BT). It analyzes how a Thai commercial bank used four success factors to create new client acquisition, business efficiency, long-term relationships, and BL. We use quantitative data and structural equation modeling (SEM) to identify variables influencing the BL of 1650 customers of a Thai commercial bank. We found CoRM and RMO's key success factors indirectly affected BL by mediating CE and BT. These results may improve sustained performance effectiveness in the banking industry now and in the future.