Travelers’ food experience sharing on social network sites

The proliferation of social media offers new avenues for understanding traveler information sharing behavior. The purpose of this study was to explore the patterns of traveler food sharing experiences on soial network sites, their triggers, and consequences as well as the inter-relationships among these factors. Thirty-three semi-structured interviews and subsequent thematic analysis revealed five major sharing motivation domains including Social and relational, Self-image projection, Emotion articulation, Self-archiving, and Information sharing, all of which were situated along the two continuums (self–others and psychology–functionality) of a two-dimensional plane. This research uncovers fresh insights that are unique to travelers’ food experience sharing and offers theoretical contributions as well as practical implications for destination marketers.     

Assessing Google Cardboard virtual reality as a content delivery system in business classrooms

In the past, researchers have explored virtual reality (VR) as an educational tool primarily for training or therapeutic purposes. In this research, the authors examine the potential for using Google Cardboard VR in business classrooms as a content delivery platform. They specifically investigate how VR (viewing a 3-dimensional, 360° video) differs from the traditional flat-screen (FS) format (viewing a 2-dimensional video [e.g., iPod (Apple, Cupertino, CA)]) as a teaching tool to deliver video-based content. The results demonstrate that participants in the VR condition (vs. the FS condition) rated their enjoyment and interest to be higher. However, the Google Cardboard VR platform was not superior to the iPod FS format in its content delivery with respect to novelty, reliability, and understandability.     

Destination Aesthetics and Aesthetic Distance in Tourism Experience

Given the paucity of scholarly attention to the aesthetic component of tourism experience, this research attempted to empirically explore the roles of destination aesthetic qualities and “aesthetic distance”, that is, the perceived difference between the aesthetic properties of a destination and those of a tourist’s home environment, in the tourist’s aesthetic judgment and vacation satisfaction. The results validated a six-factor structure of aesthetic qualities, namely locale characteristics, scope, upkeep, accord, perceived age, and shape. This research noted that when tourists evaluate their home environment more positively in terms of upkeep and scope than vacation environment, they tend to perceive a destination as less beautiful. Only aesthetic distance in scope of experiential features influences vacation satisfaction. Relevant practical implications are discussed.     

Volunteer Tourism and Intercultural Sensitivity: The Role of Interaction with Host Communities

This research introduced the concept of intercultural sensitivity to investigate the relationships between the context of volunteer tourism and the change in intercultural sensitivity, empirically assessing the supposition that volunteer tourism facilitates cross-cultural understanding. As a theoretical backdrop, the study utilized Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS) postulating that one’s journey towards greater intercultural sensitivity consists of six consecutive stages along the enthnocentrism–ethnorelativism continuum. Canonical correlation analysis of the survey data revealed that quality of interaction with the host community was the most significant predictor of change in intercultural sensitivity. Additionally, this study demonstrated that volunteer tourism is linked to positive and negative changes in intercultural sensitivity and therefore has the potential to simultaneously promote and inhibit cross-cultural understanding.     

Showing off to the new neighbors? Income,socioeconomic status and consumption patterns of internal migrants

This paper analyses incomes and socioeconomic status of internal migrants over time and in comparison to their new neighbors and investigates whether status consumption is a way for newly arrived city dwellers to signal their social standing. Using a novel dataset from the emerging economy of Kazakhstan we find that internal migrants earn an income and status premium for their move. In a comparison to indigenous city dwellers their earnings and household incomes are not significantly different; however, mobile households report a significantly higher subjective socio-economic status. Exploiting expenditure data, we find that recent migrant households gain status from using visible consumption to impress their new neighbors. This signaling might be used as adaptation to the new economic and social environment or to gain access to social capital.     

Does foreign ownership matter?

The paper both compares productivity of Russian firms that have foreign direct investments with productivity of fully domestically owned firms and analyses spillovers from foreign‐owned firms to domestic firms. Foreign firms are found to be more productive than domestic ones, but productivity of the former is negatively affected by slow progress of reforms in the regions where they operate. It is also found that there are positive spillovers from foreign‐owned firms to domestic firms in the same industry, but negative effects on domestic firms that are vertically related to foreign‐owned firms. The stock of human capital in regions where foreign firms operate is one of the factors which help domestic firms to benefit from the entry of foreign firms.     

Anime consumer motivation for anime tourism and how to harness it

Although a niche, the consumption of Japanese anime and related products is extensive and expected to grow. This study explores Chinese anime consumer motivation to participate in anime tourism. A mixed method is applied to identify travel motivation factors and to examine their importance across three levels of involvement (anime audience versus anime fans versus otaku), and as based on sociodemographics. Three motivation factors were identified: (1) Blending reality and fantasy, (2) Social belonging, and (3) Self-development, with the latter considered as most important. Results show that the importance of Blending reality and fantasy is higher for consumers with a greater level of involvement in the anime subculture, and the otaku is the most promising group in terms of tourism motivation. Recommendations for anime destination and attraction marketing are suggested.     

Understanding the barriers and factors associated with consumer adoption of wearable technology devices in managing personal health

This research seeks to identify the barriers and factors associated with adopting wearable technology devices (WTDs) for managing personal health. Based on a partial least square (PLS) analysis of 277 US-based residents, the findings demonstrate that performance expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, hedonic motivation, habit, and personalization are significant predictors of consumers' intention to use WTDs. Interestingly, price value, privacy concerns, and health consciousness are not significant. This study will inform future research on WTDs in personal health management. Theoretical and practical implications of the study are also presented.     

Mapping moralities of food and health in marketing research literature

ABSTRACT

Inspired by a former review of four sets of moralities that orient food and health research and lead to potentially harmful consequences for consumer wellbeing, this study seeks to qualify and nuance their original arguments by mapping them in a broader (epistemological, methodological and historical) context of research agendas relevant to marketing. We do so with the help of a systematic review and content analysis methods of a corpus of marketing research articles published from 1988 until today. In addition to a quantification of the extent to which various ‘symptoms’ of moralities of health and food manifest in marketing scholarship, the study provides a critical reflection on the more nuanced expressions of the alleged moralities. Consequently, it calls for increased researchers’ awareness about moral assumptions structuring formulation of research questions and operationalisation of the studied health-related concepts.     

Front End Transfers of Digital Innovations in a Hybrid Agile-Stage-Gate Setting

Digital innovations often follow a more fluid innovation process and, therefore, require different ways of managing the front end of innovation. Agile as alternative to established front end management practices is often suggested, potentially combined with Stage-Gate, in what is called a hybrid Agile-Stage-Gate model, to reap the benefits from both. Implementing the hybrid model in the front end is however not sufficient for firms with separate Research and Development departments to succeed. In such organizations digital innovations still need to be transferred from Research, where the front end work on digital innovations takes place, to the Development department, where formal development actually starts. Yet, such front end transfers have been described as inefficient and ineffective. Realizing digital innovation front end transfers is likely even more challenging because of their fluid definition. In the absence of extant theory on front end transfers in such a setting, this research uses a case study approach to analyze the front end transfer experiences of the Research department of a firm in the lighting industry that is undergoing a transformation from traditional to digital lighting. The in-depth analysis of triangulated data on eight front end projects shows that Research struggles to transfer digital innovations to Development, because transfer practices in terms of management, scope, and synchronization, turn out to be inherently challenging in a hybrid Agile-Stage-Gate setting. Specifically, the results reveal that each transfer practice plays an intricate role in either facilitating (i.e., transfer management) or inhibiting (i.e., transfer scope and synchronization) front end transfers of digital innovations. The discovery of these opposing forces has important implications for novel theorizing on the use of Agile in the front end of digital innovation, transfer practices from Research to Development in a hybrid setting, as well as for theorizing about digital innovation management.