Marketing applications: from Angry Birds to happy marketers

This marketing teaching case is focussed on the rapidly emergent industry associated with Apps for mobile devices. After setting the context in respect of the awe-inspiring numbers associated with these markets the case is made that innovative marketing is happening across all parts of the basic marketing framework – the 4Ps. The case presents many specific examples of marketing related decision making and outcomes, focussing on games-Apps such as Rovio’s best-selling Angry Birds game

Nostalgia, reflexivity, and the narratives of self : reflections on Devine's 'removing the rough edges?'

This paper offers some theoretical insights on Devine’s account of the Riverside Museum in Glasgow. It elaborates on three interrelated themes authors have derived from Devine’s report: 1) how historical representations arouse nostalgic sensations and sensibilities in museum visitors 2) the role of narratives in visitors’ development of their nostalgic experiences 3) the importance of engagement to the creation of such nostalgic experiences. The paper contributes to the existing literature on nostalgia, experiential consumption, and the museum experience literature by establishing a relationship between nostalgia, reflexivity, and individuals’ narratives of self

Guest editorial

Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in hospitality and tourism is laden with contradictions. From the simple “carbon offsetting” of budget flights to the warning from the Maldivian Government that their country will disappear due to rising water levels whilst also building, in one year, at least seven additional airports to service their resort islands. The academic literature does not always help; the continually inconclusive or contradictory findings of financial impact studies, often meaningless CSR reporting, and consumer cynicism over perceived “green-washing” activities (Farrington et al., 2017) further contribute to the lack of clarity in this area. There is a need for a substantive move towards sustainable, ethical, responsible, environmentally or socially friendly strategies, but also towards concern for the well-being of future generations in the coming decades (Farrington et al., 2017; Jones et al., 2016; Wells et al., 2016a). Despite continued interest, this is a challenge for many countries, particularly with regards to meeting the ever-shifting opinions and customer expectations surrounding environmental issues pertaining to modern hospitality and tourism. Research should fundamentally debate the relevance and application of sustainability to the sector and its relationship with external stakeholders, and move away from narrow focuses. More specifically, ‘one size does not fit all’ with regards to sustainability and CSR, hence societies and organisations with different cultures and beliefs may be motivated to be involved in sustainability and CSR developments for different reasons, and may also face diverse barriers to implementation (Nyahunzvi, 2013; Thompson et al., 2018; Wells et al., 2015; Wells et al., 2016b; Xu, 2014; Yadav et al., 2016). Hence, the goal of this special issue was to encourage new theoretical and empirical development on sustainability and CSR studies in the hospitality and tourism field

How much for your kidney? The rise of the global transplant tourism industry

The term 'Transplant Tourism' is becoming commonly used to describe any form of travel that serves in the attainment of new organs; this practice is utterly condemned by the medical community and the World Health Organisation. Medical Tourism involves tourists travelling to, 'obtain medical, dental and surgical care while simultaneously being holidaymakers' (Connell, 2006, p. 1094). British Medical Journal (2008) highlights that Medical Tourism is a billion dollar industry, where companies advertise health services and attract patients for a fraction of the price they would have paid at home (Turner, 2008a). However, the typically legitimate Medical Tourism industry's reputation is being tarnished by its association with Transplant Tourism. Human organs used in transplantation can be obtained in two ways: live organ donation or cadaveric organ procurement (Lamb, 1990). In general, recipients prefer having living donor transplants over deceased ones, as the former offer them a better chance of survival (Steinberg, 2004). There is a worldwide struggle to meet the demand for organs; the gap between supply and demand has stimulated global organ trade and transplant tourism. Transplant Tourism has been overlooked within tourism literature and hoping to begin a debate, this note investigates the concept of Transplant Tourism, outlining why it cannot, in general, be considered a legitimate part of the Medical Tourism industry

Keeping your audience : presenting a visitor engagement scale

Understanding visitors’ level of engagement with tourist attractions is vital for successful heritage management and marketing. This paper develops a scale to measure visitors’ level of engagement in tourist attractions. It also establishes a relationship between the drivers of engagement and level of engagement using Partial Least Square, whereby both formative and reflective scales are included. The structural model is tested with a sample of 625 visitors at Kelvingrove Museum in Glasgow, UK. The empirical validation of the conceptual model supports the research hypotheses. Whilst prior knowledge, recreational motivation and omnivore-univore cultural capital positively affect visitors’ level of engagement, there is no significant relationship between reflective motivation and level of engagement. These findings contribute to a better understanding of visitor engagement in tourist attractions. A series of managerial implications are also proposed

Investigating the influence of performance measurement on learning, entrepreneurial orientation and performance in turbulent markets

Purpose: This study aims to examine how comprehensive performance measurement systems (CPMS) influence entrepreneurial orientation, market-focussed learning (MFL) and employees’ perceptions of firm performance within a service-provision context. It also considers the moderating effect of low and high levels of perceived market-turbulence (low-turbulence environments [LMT] vs highly turbulent environments [HMT]) on the relationships between these concepts.Design/methodology/approach: PLS-SEM was used to test the hypothesised relationships using survey responses from 198 employees of a leading multi-branch travel agency in Iran.Findings: The findings demonstrate that CPMS positively influence MFL and, in doing so, have a positive effect on perceptions of firm performance. However, the findings also suggest that CPMS negatively influence entrepreneurial orientation, and therefore can also negatively influence perceptions of firm performance. Further, the relationships between CPMS, entrepreneurial orientation, MFL and firm performance are stronger for HMT when compared to LMT for all relationships.Practical implications: Industry managers should adapt their CPMS to include measures specific to intra-organisational entrepreneurship and innovation and should pursue greater understanding of changing customer preferences.Originality/value: This study highlights the importance of MFL as a means of avoiding the negative impact of underdeveloped market research on performance in the turbulent Iranian context. Contrary to previous literature, it provides an example of how CPMS can negatively influence entrepreneurial orientation in such environments.</p

Negotiation, bargaining, and discounts:generating WoM and local tourism development at the Tabriz bazaar, Iran

This paper examines the effects of negotiation intention, bargaining propensity, and discount satisfaction on word-of-mouth (WoM) behaviours for tourists visiting Tabriz bazaar, Iran. Data from 615-survey respondents highlight that tourists are motivated to conduct WoM behaviour when they are experientially satisfied with the opportunity to negotiate and bargain, and when they are satisfied with the discount they receive. This paper makes theoretical contributions to social exchange theory and presents managerial implications for policy-makers to generate tourism development

Islamic heritage marketing : the Umrah experience

A potential visitor’s image of a destination and its attributes is likely to influence their behaviour before, during, and after their trip. However, there is a lack of research into Islamic destination image (Jafari & Scott, 2013; Stephenson, 2014). Existing studies have commented on the differentiation between the expectation formation of Muslim and non-Muslim tourists; however these are often restricted to more secular destinations such as Turkey. Moreover, much of the literature which focuses solely on the Muslim community fails to explore beyond the realms of religious satisfaction of their experiences. This paper explores the journey of experience of Muslim pilgrims during the Islamic pilgrimage to the Umrah. Globally, the Hajj is one of the greatest traveller movements, demonstrating a significant rationale for the study of Islam within the heritage tourism domain. Islamic texts, such as the Quran, endorse traveling with a view to attaining social, physical and spiritual objectives. As such, tourism of various categories is compatible with Islam and inspired by its principles. However, the Hajj and Umrah is a highly commanded activity encompassing devout and monetary planning. Therefore, for some Muslims Hajj is a sacred obligation rather than form of heritage tourism. With this in mind, religious pilgrimage is likely to have a very strong destination image in the minds of Muslim visitors. Therefore, this paper looks not only at sacred obligation but also attitudes such as hedonic value, motivations, socialisation, gift, and evidence. Therefore, our study contributes to a wider understanding of the perceptions and behavioural outcomes of visitors toward Islamic destination image. To do so, we develop a conceptual model based i=on the theory of the ‘commodity fetishism’. The term ‘commodity fetishism’ refers to the system through which capitalist societies treat ‘commodities as if value inhered in the objects themselves, rather than in the amount of real labour expended to produce the object’. Thus, this paper attempts to address two gaps, firstly examining the symbolic importance to pilgrims of material objects of pilgrimage, and secondly examining this symbolic experience in the Islamic context of Umrah. Our survey data was collected in a number of tourists agents within Iran from Muslim pilgrims preceding their visit to the Umrah and returning home. Structural equation modelling is tested with a sample of 538 visitors. The empirical validation of the conceptual model supports a majority of the research hypotheses. These findings contribute to a better understanding of Islamic destination image in the heritage tourism context and a series of implications are proposed

Optimizing Parameters of the DC Power Flow

Many power system operation and planning problems use the DC power flow approximation to address computational challenges from the nonlinearity of the AC power flow equations. The DC power flow simplifies the AC power flow equations to a linear form that relates active power flows to phase angle differences across branches, parameterized by coefficients based on the branches' susceptances. Inspired by techniques for training machine learning models, this paper proposes an algorithm that seeks optimal coefficient and bias parameters to improve the DC power flow approximation's accuracy. Specifically, the proposed algorithm selects the coefficient and bias parameter values that minimize the discrepancy, across a specified set of operational scenarios, between the power flows given by the DC approximation and the power flows from the AC equations. Gradient-based optimization methods like Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno (BFGS), Limited-Memory BFGS (L-BFGS), and Truncated Newton Conjugate-Gradient (TNC) enable solution of the proposed algorithm for large systems. After an off-line training phase, the optimized parameters are used to improve the accuracy of the DC power flow during on-line computations. Numerical results show several orders of magnitude improvements in accuracy relative to a hot-start DC power flow approximation across a range of test cases