Tourist Guides and Job Related Problems,Analysis and Evidence from Jordan

This study investigates the challenges that professional Jordanian tourist guides may encounter. The implication of this research stems from the fact that very little research, at least in Jordan, has addressed the problems that tourist guides encounter. Qualitative methods, using participants’ observations and in-depth interviewing methods, were used to generate insights from the collected data. The results reveal multiple critical challenges that impact the professional stability of tourist guides. Further efforts are required to fully understand the needs of tourist guides.     

Sustainable entrepreneurship and the Sustainable Development Goals: Community-led initiatives,the social solidarity economy and commons ecologies

The social solidarity economy is an approach to the production and consumption of goods, services and knowledge that promises to address contemporary economic, social and environmental crises more effectively than business as usual. The paper employs the concept of commons ecologies to examine the practices, relationships and interactions among actors and organisations in the social solidarity economy, as well as between them and the mainstream economy, which shape the field and its degree of autonomy in relation to capitalism, through a process defined as boundary commoning. Such process shapes both local and regional commons ecologies, as well as the participation of local and regional actors in wider networks at national, international and global levels. The paper takes a case study-based approach to identify practices, relationships and interactions of commons ecologies in relation to selected community-led initiatives in the UK, Portugal, Brazil and Senegal. Each case study illuminates different qualities of local/regional commons ecologies and their forms of engagement with wider networks. Further, the paper shows that these cases demonstrate how the social solidarity economy may facilitate delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals in a distinctive way. In each case, SSE acts as a vehicle for expressing participants' values and principles consistent with those underlying the SDGs. Local implementation of SDGs is thus an in-built feature of these commons ecologies. The participation of community-led initiatives in international and global networks offers opportunities to learn from local level experiences and successes, potentially strengthening SDG implementation more generally.     

Reaching audiences through travel vlogs: The perspective of involvement

Travel vlogs are popular, but how audiences get involved while watching remains unclear. This study explored audience involvement along with expressions of travel intention. A systematic sampling procedure was developed, filtering 132 ‘highly involving sessions’ from 25 videos in Bilibili, a Chinese video-sharing platform. Qualitative analyses were applied, and the findings were threefold. Firstly, a five-category video content typology was highlighted, including frame aesthetics, video editing, fandom, humour, and tourist experiences. Secondly, bullet comments were deconstructed into six dimensions through examining concepts of ‘audience involvement’. Lastly, to address possible patterns of travel intention linked to the video content types, three propositions were made. This work serves as an exploration of audience involvement in the travel vlog phenomenon, an elaboration of travel intention expression in this context, and a method of assessing tourist-generated videos through bullet comments. Practical implications were discussed.     

Pinning and Promotion: How Local Television Stations Are Using Pinterest for Branding and Audience Connectivity

Over the past decade, social media have become an increasingly important component in the ways broadcasters communicate with their audiences. A relative newcomer to that mix is the social network Pinterest, which enables followers to post photos and other types of visuals based on topics of interest. A content analysis examined how 85 local television stations are using that social network for promotion and branding. Results showed that, rather than promotion, use of Pinterest primarily revolves around lifestyle content, including postings by stations and interactivity by followers.     

The Experience of Selling Experiences

In the experience economy, working conditions — that is, the experience of work — directly affect both job quality and the quality of the experience produced. We propose an alternative definition of job quality and apply this concept to a qualitative study of casino employees. Pay and benefits are crucial elements of sustainable livelihoods. But building a life also requires time away from the job, good health, and supportive institutions, including employers who treat their workers as human beings with complex lives. A good job reinforces, rather than undermines, a positive sense of identity.     

Lithuanian valuistic journeys: traditional and secular pilgrimage

The article deals with valuistic journeys from Lithuania. There are many reasons for undertaking valuistic journeys, the most important being personal values, personal and social identities, life experiences, lifestyle enhancement, spirituality and social and cultural influences. The two main types of Lithuanian valuistic journeys are presented in this paper: traditional religious and secular pilgrimages. The paper examines the most popular religious destinations for Lithuanians abroad and describes the most important secular destinations and events. The concept of organized valuistic journeys consists of the agreement between the identities of pilgrims and others, where social identities are marked by meanings and symbols. Valuistic journeys have overwhelmingly been structured by the desire to validate identities and reflect upon them during travel.     

Power Relations and Social Mix in Metropolitan Neighbourhoods in North America and Europe: Moving Beyond Gentrification?

Research on spatial segregation has suggested that social mix may be a temporary phase in class displacement, where relations between different groups are at best divided or ‘tectonic’, for instance in England. Political and policy discourses, by contrast, tend to uncritically valorize social mix as a means to breaking up concentrations of poverty and providing neighbourhoods with a middle‐class voice. In the literature, little attention has been paid to power dynamics in socially mixed neighbourhoods and the implications this may have for understanding theory and policy. The five articles that make up this symposium address the ways in which social and ethnic groups interact in major cities in Europe and North America and, as the title suggests, this involves taking into account power relations, domination and negotiation between the different groups. There is a need to connect the experience of the deployment of power within neighbourhoods (and between them) with the discussions of power mechanisms at work in wider urban processes.     

技术学习成本的分担方式与企业创新绩效关系的实证研究

本文选取2009～2013年中国医药行业上市公司作为研究样本，分别对技术学习的企业内部投入成本与社会外部投入成本对企业创新绩效的影响进行了实证分析，同时探讨了技术学习的两种承担方式之间的关系。研究结果表明，技术学习过程中的企业投入与社会投入均对企业创新绩效产生显著正向影响，技术学习的投入越大，企业创新绩效越好。但政府以税收优惠与财政补贴等政策方式分担企业技术学习成本的效果并不显著。     

普惠型社会福利的中国理解

普惠型社会福利来自于对社会福利模式的最初划分。在社会福利由"补缺型"到"普惠型"转变的过程中,在学界和各级政府层面,无论是顶层设计还是政策实践,我们都在探索有中国特色的普惠型社会福利模式。普惠型社会福利从提出、引入到本土化经历了一个漫长的时期,在我国经济高速发展但人均经济发展水平还很低的情况下,构建怎样的社会福利发展模式并有效地付诸实践成为我国社会福利发展的突出问题。在建立覆盖城乡和全民共享的社会福利体系的背景下,适度普惠型社会福利模式在中国应运而生。     

The effect of social media communication on consumer perceptions of brands

Researchers and brand managers have limited understanding of the effects social media communication has on how consumers perceive brands. We investigated 504 Facebook users in order to observe the impact of firm-created and user-generated (UG) social media communication on brand equity (BE), brand attitude (BA) and purchase intention (PI) by using a standardized online survey throughout Poland. To test the conceptual model, we analyzed 60 brands across three different industries: non-alcoholic beverages, clothing and mobile network operators. When analyzing the data, we applied the structural equation modeling technique to both investigate the interplay of firm-created and user-generated social media communication and examine industry-specific differences. The results of the empirical studies showed that user-generated social media communication had a positive influence on both brand equity and brand attitude, whereas firm-created social media communication affected only brand attitude. Both brand equity and brand attitude were shown to have a positive influence on purchase intention. In addition, we assessed measurement invariance using a multi-group structural modeling equation. The findings revealed that the proposed measurement model was invariant across the researched industries. However, structural path differences were detected across the models.