Setting B2B digital marketing in artificial intelligence-based CRMs: A review and directions for future research

[EN] The new business challenges in the B2B sector are determined by connected ecosystems, where data-driven decision making is crucial for successful strategies. At the same time, the use of digital marketing as a communication and sales channel has led to the need and use of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems to correctly manage company information. The understanding of B2B traditional Marketing strategies that use CRMs that work with Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been studied, however, research focused on the understanding and application of these technologies in B2B digital marketing is scarce. To cover this gap in the literature, this study develops a literature review on the main academic contributions in this area. To visualize the outcomes of the literature review, the results are then analyzed using a statistical approach known as Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) under the homogeneity analysis of variance by means of alternating least squares (HOMALS) framework programmed in the R language. The research results classify the types of CRMs and their typologies and explore the main techniques and uses of AI-based CRMs in B2B digital marketing. In addition, a discussion, directions and propositions for future research are presented.In gratitude to the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities and the European Regional Development Fund: RTI2018-096295-BC22.Saura, JR.; Ribeiro-Soriano, D.; Palacios Marqués, D. (2021). Setting B2B digital marketing in artificial intelligence-based CRMs: A review and directions for future research. Industrial Marketing Management. 98:161-178. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2021.08.006S1611789

IS standards in designing business-to-government collaborations.

IS STANDARDS IN DESIGNING BUSINESS-TO-GOVERNMENT COLLABORATIONS. Elaborating the impact of standards on inter-organizational collaborations, inter-organizational studies demonstrated a standard’s positive impact on the collaboration between governmental and business partners. How and under which conditions information systems (IS) standards contribute to the effectiveness of business-to-government (B2G) collaborations in customs management is the topic of this thesis. Chapter 2 provides the theoretical and methodological background of the thesis. It illustrates how standards research emerged under institutional conditions such as actor types, linkages and social structures. With the case study in Chapter 3, the thesis introduces a reference framework that gathers different aspects in three pre-selected international business-to-government collaborations. Describing the cases that are subject to the export from EU to non-EU countries a diagnosis of B2G collaborations and relevant elements for the design of the artifact is conducted. A diagnosis of related work in the field of B2G collaborations is provided in Chapter 4. The assessment of collaboration forms revealed necessary constructs of a procedure model and institutional steps necessary to form B2G collaboration as such. Chapter 5 distils related work of IS standards research. In Chapters 6 and 7 considerations from the previous chapters lead to the core part of the thesis, the design and build of a procedure model to institutionalize B2G collaborations, the B2G Procedure Model (B2GPM). The results from the first round of design, the building blocks for B2G collaborations, are subject to Chapter 6. They conclude in a set of design principles of the B2GPM that are being introduced in the chapter. Chapter 7 covers the second round of design by refining the elements of B2G collaboration and the design principles. It continues with the design of the B2GPM. The composition, description, and documentation of the procedure model are the core part of this chapter. Chapter 8 is dedicated to the question of required organizational adoption to deploy the B2GPM. The model is seen as a procedural innovation by which B2G collaboration in customs management can be further improved. The applicability of the B2GPM is based on a series of evaluation cycles and results in the provision of influencing factors of organizational adoption.

The CHORCH Approach: How to Model B2Bi Choreographies for Orchestration Execution

The establishment and implementation of cross-organizational business processes is an implication of today's market pressure for efficiency gains. In this context, Business-To-Business integration (B2Bi) focuses on the information integration aspects of business processes. A core task of B2Bi is providing adequate models that capture the message exchanges between integration partners. Following the terminology used in the SOA domain, such models will be called choreographies in the context of this work. Despite the enormous economic importance of B2Bi, existing choreography languages fall short of fulfilling all relevant requirements of B2Bi scenarios. Dedicated B2Bi choreography standards allow for inconsistent outcomes of basic interactions and do not provide unambiguous semantics for advanced interaction models. In contrast to this, more formal or technical choreography languages may provide unambiguous modeling semantics, but do not offer B2Bi domain concepts or an adequate level of abstraction. Defining valid and complete B2Bi choreography models becomes a challenging task in the face of these shortcomings. At the same time, invalid or underspecified choreography definitions are particularly costly considering the organizational setting of B2Bi scenarios. Models are not only needed to bridge the typical gap between business and IT, but also as negotiation means among the business users of the integration partners on the one hand and among the IT experts of the integration partners on the other. Misunderstandings between any two negotiation partners potentially affect the agreements between all other negotiation partners. The CHORCH approach offers tailored support for B2Bi by combining the strengths of both dedicated B2Bi standards and formal rigor. As choreography specification format, the ebXML Business Process Specification Schema (ebBP) standard is used. ebBP provides dedicated B2Bi domain concepts such as so-called BusinessTransactions (BTs) that abstractly specify the exchange of a request business document and an optional response business document. In addition, ebBP provides a format for specifying the sequence of BT executions for capturing complex interaction scenarios. CHORCH improves the offering of ebBP in several ways. Firstly, the execution model of BTs which allows for inconsistent outcomes among the integration partners is redefined such that only consistent outcomes are possible. Secondly, two binary choreography styles are defined as B2Bi implementation contract format in order to streamline implementation projects. Both choreography styles are formalized and provided with a formal execution semantics for ensuring unambiguity. In addition, validity criteria are defined that ensure implementability using BPEL-based orchestrations. Thirdly, the analysis of the synchronization dependencies of complex B2Bi scenarios is supported by means of a multi-party choreography style combined with an analysis framework. This choreography style also is formalized and standard state machine semantics are reused in order to ensure unambiguity. Moreover, validity criteria are defined that allow for analyzing corresponding models for typical multi-party choreography issues. Altogether, CHORCH provides choreography styles that are B2Bi adequate, simple, unambiguous, and implementable. The choreography styles are B2Bi adequate in providing B2Bi domain concepts, in abstracting from low-level implementation details and in covering the majority of real-world B2Bi scenarios. Simplicity is fostered by using state machines as underlying specification paradigm. This allows for thinking in the states of a B2Bi scenario and for simple control flow structures. Unambiguity is provided by formal execution semantics whereas implementability (for the binary choreography styles) is ensured by providing mapping rules to BPEL-based implementations. The validation of CHORCH's choreography styles is performed in a twofold way. Firstly, the implementation of the binary choreography styles based on Web Services and BPEL technology is demonstrated which proves implementability using relatively low-cost technologies. Moreover, the analysis algorithms for the multi-party choreography styles are validated using a Java-based prototype. Secondly, an abstract visualization of the choreography styles based on BPMN is provided that abstracts from the technicalities of the ebBP standard. This proves the amenability of CHORCH to development methods that start out with visual models. CHORCH defines how to use BPMN choreographies for the purpose of B2Bi choreography modeling and translates the formal rules for choreography validity into simple composition rules that demonstrate valid ways of connecting the respective modeling constructs. In summary, CHORCH allows integration partners to start out with a high-level visual model of their interactions in BPMN that identifies the types and sequences of the BusinessTransactions to be used. For multi-party choreographies, a framework for analyzing synchronization dependencies then is available. For binary choreographies, an ebBP refinement can be derived that fills in the technical parameters that are needed for deriving the implementation. Finally, Web Services and BPEL based implementations can be generated. Thus, CHORCH allows for stepwise closing the semantic gap between the information perspective of business process models and the corresponding implementations. It is noteworthy that CHORCH uses international standards throughout all relevant layers, i.e., BPMN, ebBP, Web Services and BPEL, which helps in bridging the heterogeneous IT landscapes of B2Bi partners. In addition, the adoption of core CHORCH deliverables as international standards of the RosettaNet community give testament to the practical relevance and promise dissemination throughout the B2Bi community.Betriebsübergreifende Geschäftsprozessintegration ist eine logische Konsequenz allgegenwärtigen Wettbewerbsdrucks. In diesem Kontext fokussiert Business-To-Business integration (B2Bi) auf die Informationsaustausche zwischen Unternehmen. Eine B2Bi-Kernanforderung ist die Bereitstellung adäquater Modelle zur Spezifikation der Nachrichtenaustausche zwischen Integrationspartnern. Diese werden im Rahmen dieser Arbeit in Anlehnung an Service-orientierte Architekturen (SOA)-Terminologie Choreographien genannt. Bestehende Choreographiesprachen decken die Anforderungen an B2Bi-Choreographien nicht vollständig ab. Dedizierte B2Bi-Choreographiestandards definieren inkonsistente Austauschprozeduren für grundlegende Interaktionen und nur unvollständige Semantiken für fortgeschrittene Interaktionen. Formale oder Technik-getriebene Choreographiesprachen bieten die benötigte Präzision, lassen aber Domänenkonzepte vermissen oder operieren auf einer niedrigen Abstraktionsebene. Angesichts solcher Mängel wird die Spezifikation valider und vollständiger B2Bi-Choreographien zu einer echten Herausforderung. Gleichzeitig sind mangelhafte Choreographiemodelle gerade im B2Bi-Bereich besonders problematisch, da diese nicht nur zwischen Fach- und IT-Abteilung, sondern auch über Unternehmensgrenzen hinweg eingesetzt werden. Der CHORCH-Ansatz schafft an dieser Stelle mittels maßgeschneiderter Choreographien Abhilfe, welche die Vorteile von B2Bi-Choreographien und von formalen Ansätzen kombinieren. Als Ausgangspunkt wird das ebXML Business Process Specification Schema (ebBP) verwendet, das als B2Bi-Choreographiestandard Domänenkonzepte wie zum Beispiel sogenannte BusinessTransactions (BTs) bietet. Eine BT ist der Basisbaustein von B2Bi-Choreographien und spezifiziert den Austausch eines Geschäftsdokuments sowie eines optionalen Antwortdokuments. Darüber hinaus bietet ebBP ein Format zur Spezifikation von BT-Kompositionen zur Unterstützung komplexer Interaktionen. CHORCH erweitert ebBP wie folgt. Erstens, das Ausführungsmodell für BTs wird neu definiert, um inkonsistente Ergebniszustände zu eliminieren. Zweitens, für Entwicklungsprojekte werden zwei binäre Choreographieklassen definiert, die als B2Bi-Implementierungskontrakt dienen sollen. Die Formalisierung beider Klassen sowie formale operationale Semantiken gewährleisten Eindeutigkeit, während Validitätskriterien die Ausführbarkeit entsprechender Modelle mittels BPEL-basierter Orchestrationen garantieren. Drittens, zur Analyse der Synchronisationsbeziehungen komplexer B2Bi-Szenarien wird eine Multi-Party-Choreographieklasse nebst Analyseframework definiert. Wiederum wird für diese Klasse eine Formalisierung definiert, die mittels Standard-Zustandsautomatensemantik Eindeutigkeit gewährleistet. Ferner garantieren Validitätskriterien die Anwendbarkeit der definierten Analysealgorithmen. Insgesamt bieten die Choreographieklassen des CHORCH-Ansatzes ein B2Bi-adäquates, einfaches, eindeutiges und implementierbares Modell der Nachrichtenaustausche zwischen B2Bi-Partnern. B2Bi-Adäquatheit wird durch Verwendung von B2Bi-Domänenkonzepten, Abstraktion von rein technischen Kommunikationsdetails und Abdeckung der meisten praktisch relevanten B2Bi-Szenarien gewährleistet. Einfachheit ist ein Ausfluss der Verwendung eines Zustandsmaschinen-basierten Modellierungsparadigmas, das die Definition des Interaktionsfortschritts in Form von Zuständen sowie einfache Kontrollflussstrukturen ermöglicht. Eindeutigkeit wird durch die Verwendung formaler Semantiken garantiert, während Implementierbarkeit (für die beiden binären Choreographieklassen) durch Angabe von Mapping-Regeln auf BPEL-Orchestrationen sichergestellt wird. Die Validierung der CHORCH-Choreographieklassen erfolgt in zweierlei Hinsicht. Erstens, die Implementierbarkeit der binären Choreographieklassen mit Hilfe von Web Services und BPEL wird durch die Definition entsprechender Mappingregeln belegt. Weiterhin wird das Analyseframework der Multi-Party-Choreographieklasse als Java-Prototyp implementiert. Zweitens, für alle Choreographieklassen wird eine abstrakte Visualisierung auf BPMN-Basis definiert, die von diversen technischen Parametern des ebBP-Formats abstrahiert. Damit wird die Integrierbarkeit der CHORCH-Choreographieklassen in Entwicklungsansätze, die ein visuelles Modell als Ausgangspunkt vorsehen, belegt. CHORCH definiert, wie sogenannte BPMN-Choreographien zum Zweck der B2Bi-Choreographiemodellierung zu verwenden sind und übersetzt die Validitätskriterien der CHORCH-Choreographieklassen in einfache Modell-Kompositionsregeln. In seiner Gesamtheit bietet CHORCH somit einen Ansatz, mit Hilfe dessen B2Bi-Partner zunächst die Typen und zulässigen Reihenfolgen ihrer Geschäftsdokumentaustausche auf Basis eines abstrakten visuellen BPMN-Modells identifizieren können. Im Fall von Multi-Party-Choreographien steht dann ein Framework zur Analyse der Synchronisationsbeziehungen zwischen den Integrationspartnern zur Verfügung. Im Fall von binären Choreographien können ebBP-Verfeinerungen abgeleitet werden, welche die Modelle um technische Parameter anreichern, die zur Ableitung einer Implementierung benötigt werden. Diese ebBP-Modelle sind in Web Services- und BPEL-basierte Implementierungen übersetzbar. Damit erlaubt CHORCH die schrittweise Überbrückung der semantischen Lücke zwischen der Informationsaustauschperspektive von Geschäftsprozessmodellen und den zugehörigen Implementierungen. Ein beachtenswerter Aspekt des CHORCH-Ansatzes ist die Verwendung einschlägiger internationaler Standards auf allen Abstraktionsebenen, im Einzelnen BPMN, ebBP, Web Services und BPEL. Die Verwendung von Standards trägt dem heterogenen Umfeld von B2Bi-Szenarien Rechnung. Zusätzlich wurden Kernergebnisse des CHORCH-Ansatzes als internationale Standards der RosettaNet-B2Bi-Community veröffentlicht. Dies belegt die praktische Relevanz des Ansatzes und fördert die Verbreitung innerhalb der B2Bi-Community

Development of the framework for a lean, energy efficient, and environmentally friendly port: umm qasr port as a Case Study

The research focus is to examine rigorously how the implementation of Lean within the Umm Qasr Port improves the operation processes and to explore the Lean impact on environment improvement and energy efficiency management. In this research, the ROPMEE model has been developed by the researcher to evaluate the service quality in the cargo delivery process in the Port of Umm Qasr as it covers all the functional and non-functional areas in the cargo delivery process compared to other quality dimensions. The findings confirm that the process quality dimension is the most influential factor in service quality in the Port of Umm Qasr. The reasons for the poor performance of current practices adopted by the port are the use of traditional ways of information flow and a decision-making process that requires more time and steps within the whole process. The lack of smooth process flow is a potential cause of bottlenecks within port operation that create serious problems not only for the customer but also for the port itself. In this research, a visual representation is created of how the current value stream map for different port processes has been established on the identification and elimination of non- value-added activity or “waste” involved in delivering services in Umm Qasr port for customers. A VSM tool was applied to visually map the cargo handling flow, ship entrance, ship maneuvering and cargo clearance to display the current and future states of processes in a way that highlights opportunities for improvement. Based on the defined and classified waste according to the seven deadly wastes of Lean, this research suggests a future value stream map for port processes. The impact of the identified wastes has been quantified in terms of cost, carbon dioxide emissions working time efficiency, and energy consumption cost. This research is the first attempt to develop a Lean port model for improving port processes, as there have been no previous studies aimed at providing a holistic framework for improving port performance, which can be used by other ports. Implementing the Lean approach requires a gradual shift in work culture by involving all port employees and customers in the continuous improvement process and changing the service delivery from a push to pull system

Influence of customer and organisational religiosity on the development of customer trust in financial services marketing relationships

The primary objective of this thesis is to develop a testable conceptual framework that investigates the influence of religiosity on the development of trust in financial services marketing relationships. Guided by the framework for measuring trustworthiness and trust in financial services (Ennew et al, 2011, Ennew and Sekhon, 2007, Sekhon et al, 2014), a novel approach has been adopted to develop a conceptual model that integrates relevant religious constructs whose underpinnings originate from various areas of the literature. In particular, it delineates several trusting beliefs relevant to an organisation’s religious and non-religious attributes that profoundly influence trust through its effect on trustworthiness. Namely, these are expertise and competence, integrity and consistency, effective communication, shared values, concern and benevolence, and organisational religiosity. Also, the model examines the role of customer religiosity on the formation of customer trust in the financial services organisation through its intrapersonal (cognitive) and interpersonal (behavioural) religious effects. The thesis research design consists of two elements, namely an exploratory component, initially implemented in the form of semi-structured interviews and a focus group with banking customers a banking manager, to complement findings from the literature review and inform methodological procedures choices of the research, and a survey component utilised to collect quantitative data. Subsequently, the conceptual model has been validated and tested using 765 self-administered survey responses from a convenience sample of banking customers in Saudi Arabia. Then, the data were subjected to an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) to assess the validity of the measurement constructs. Next, an evaluation of the research model's validity and dimensionality using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA); finally, research hypotheses were examined using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) in SPSS Amos. The main theoretical contribution of this research is the assessment of the formation of trust in financial services marketing relationships through the religious lens, which provides an enhanced look at how trust develops between customers and financial organisations. Notably, two organisational religiosity dimensions, namely organisational religious observance and organisational religious promotion, have positive and negative effects on organisational trustworthiness, respectively. Also, the research theoretically contributes to the understanding of how trust develops at the individual personal level and shows that two customer religiosity constructs have unique and opposite effects on trust. Mainly, intrapersonal (cognitive) customer religiosity negatively influences customer trust in the organisation, while interpersonal (behavioural) customer religiosity has a positive influence on trust. Moreover, non-religious drivers of trust, such as Care and Consistency, Expertise and Competence, Effective Communication, have been shown to influence customer perceptions of an organisation’s trustworthiness. Finally, banking customers differ in their trust and perceptions of an organisation’s trustworthiness based on the banking model (Islamic versus dual window) and length of the buyer-seller relationship. The findings of this thesis provide researchers of trust with a new and fresh approach to viewing trust in financial services. Notably, they point to the customer and organisational religious commitment constructs as essential determinants of trust in financial services marketing relationships. Customer trust remains a complex, ambiguous, yet extremely crucial phenomenon to the success of financial services marketing relationships. Significant advances in the financial services literature have been made to understand the concept and unbox its mysteries. The trust–religiosity model in financial services proposed and tested in this thesis, contributes to the trust theory on this vital issue in the field. Also, findings should alert financial institutions to the importance of personal religious attributes of their customers, while formulating their marketing and promotional strategies. Banking customers may display different trusting attitudes towards their banks based on their level of religious commitment, with cognitively religious customers displaying pronounced distrust and scepticism toward their financial institutions. Conversely, customers displaying stronger behavioural religiosity hold more favourable trusting attitudes toward their banking service providers. Furthermore, the results provide useful insights for institutions by recognising key religious and non-religious factors that should be considered in their trustworthiness maintenance strategies

Exploring factors impacting e-commerce adoption in tourism industry in Saudi Arabia

With the internet revolutionising global tourism, technological changes continue to make inroads into the industry’s marketing and sales management models. Although many tourists still use shopfront providers, they are increasingly becoming a minority as the ‘mobile generation’ goes online for information and uses social media to discuss their holiday plans and book travel services. In Saudi Arabia, the religious tourism industry serving Hajj and Umrah pilgrims as well as other tourism clusters have been slow in coming to terms with e-commerce trends, preferring to offer a traditional personalised service to their clients. However, the logistical needs of servicing the rapidly increasing numbers of international pilgrims and growing IT literacy in the local market means that tourism management in Saudi Arabia needs to make considerable investments in time, resources and training to harness information technology and adopt business models that are at par with their global competitors. To respond to this issue, this study explores the perceptions and experiences of executives in the Hajj/Umrah as well as other tourism industry sectors to understand the factors that may have fostered or impeded e-commerce adoption. This research contributes to the existing research on e-commerce adoption in Saudi Arabia by providing an explanation of the factors that influence the adoption of e-commerce by the tourism industry and explaining how generic theories of technology adoption need to be contextualised for the specific conditions prevailing in the Arab tourism market. The practical contribution on this research relates to the solutions it offers for the challenges faced by the travel and tourism industry in e-commerce adoption in Saudi Arabia. The research was conducted using interviews with Saudi tourism executives to understand the contextual factors that influence the norms and attitudes prevailing in the tourism business that affect their adoption of e-commerce. This was followed by a questionnaire which was sent to a larger sample in Saudi cities, mainly focussing on Jeddah. The questionnaire focused on uncovering the factors influencing the adoption, or lack thereof, of e-commerce in the Saudi tourism industry. The research was grounded on a theoretical framework derived from the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology, Perceived Organisational and External E-Readiness scales, and Organisational Cultural Dimensions. The findings confirmed that the perceived relative advantage of e-commerce utilisation was an essential contributor to promote e-commerce in Saudi Arabia. Although government policy and industry norms were shown to influence e-commerce adoption, executives’ attitudes were found to strongly affect technology adoption and were shown to be indirectly modified by their ICT literacy and customer influence. Internal human and ICT resources also had a direct impact on the decision to adopt e-commerce. On the other hand, customers’ attitude relating to issues regarding online privacy and security and a lack of human interaction in a market with a preference for personalised agent service for customers form significant barriers to their adoption of e-commerce. There is also a lack of industry leadership and a supportive Saudi-based IT industry that can facilitate this move toward modernisation in industry standards. While there is a broad understanding of the importance of e-commerce, the tourism providers view an e-commerce strategy as not yet necessary, or indeed not yet relevant, for the tourism industry in Saudi Arabia at this time

Design for amelioration : leveraging a human-centered approach in designing a sustainable product-service system for Jakarta’s urban poor.

This research is an investigation into sustainable product-service systems in addressing the problems of the poor. The focus of this research is the poor population of Jakarta that live in slums located close to river banks, canals, and drainage areas. This study is built upon relevant literature on design for the base of the pyramid, design for sustainability, and sustainable design guidelines and tools. The main objective of this research is to understand how human-centered design, combined with sustainable product-service system design, can help ameliorate some of the issues experienced by the poor. The methodology is predominantly modelled on the approach of human-centered design (HCD). Participatory methods, being important aspects of the human-centered design methodology, are central to this research. The key participatory aspect of this study was the partnership with the Indonesian Street Children Organization Foundation, a non-governmental organization already active in many slum areas in Jakarta. A pilot study to test the methods and confirm the feasibility of the study was conducted before proceeding with the actual fieldwork. The fieldwork itself was conducted over six months, in situ in Jakarta. Participants comprise different groups of the slum community: adolescents, parents, and community workers. The fieldwork was conducted in three stages; adhering to the human-centered design process. First, a series of semi-structured interviews with the assistance of visual tools, to gain insights into slum inhabitants’ living situations as well as their aspirations. Second, a co-creation session was conducted collectively with the inhabitants, where they actively participated in the design process of generating a solution. The co-designed solution took the form of a clean water service that offered an alternative payment of recyclable materials. The prototype was then deployed and tested in the community itself for a period of time. Finally, in the third session, a live prototyping session was conducted, followed by a focus group discussion and product usability interview with the servicepersons who operated the prototype and performed the water service during the testing period. The last session was a platform where participants offered suggestions on ways to improve the solution. Upon discovering the inadequacies of available sustainable design tools, a new framework of a more comprehensive sustainable design tool called the Design for Amelioration was devised. This proposition, which represents an integration of human-centered design methodology and design for sustainability principles, was then used to assess the solution generated in the fieldwork as well as the design process as a whole. Lastly, the Design for Amelioration framework was then further developed to be an appropriate approach that can tackle the challenges of designing for communities

What factors - external and internal - influence a firm's choice of voluntary greenhouse gas mitigation activities?

This research provides the first empirical evidence on an aspect of a topical debate about firms’ claims over their use of renewable electricity. Increasingly firms – many among them the biggest globally – say they use renewable electricity (RE). Unless they generate their own electricity, they often make this claim based on the use of green tariffs or certificates that document the production of a quantity of RE. However, several studies indicate that such contractual instruments have done little to increase RE generation capacity in Europe. Furthermore, it has been argued this activity could impede other actions by firms that reduce carbon emissions. As firms frequently attribute zero emissions to their electricity consumption covered by these renewable electricity contractual instruments, their reported emissions can plummet. This could reduce the motivation for activities such as improving energy efficiency – a possibility which has not been investigated before empirically. Focusing on 11 of the largest firms in Europe, I ask what factors influence their voluntary greenhouse gas mitigation choices regarding renewable and low-carbon electricity contractual instruments. Secondly, I ask what effect their use has had on their other greenhouse gas mitigation activities. Taking an institutional theory and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) perspective, I integrate documentary evidence on firms’ carbon emissions and mitigation activities – in some cases employing more than a decade of data - with interviews with managers and senior staff. I conduct multiple case studies, selecting firms to facilitate analytical generalisation (Yin 2014). A key insight into the influences on firms was the power of CSR ratings agencies. I found instances of firms making or considering changes to operational practice – such as renewable electricity contractual instrument use - due to rating agencies. Displacement and potential displacement of firms’ focus on other mitigating activities was found in limited circumstances. For energy efficiency/savings, this depended on three circumstances which I characterize. I assess the possible outcomes if expenditure on contractual instruments had been spent instead on internal mitigating activities e.g. energy efficiency or on offsets. Based on my findings, I recommend specific changes to carbon reporting practices that are relevant to firms, policy-makers and standard-setters

THE IMPACT OF PUSH & PULL FACTORS AND POLITICAL STABILITY ON DESTINATION IMAGE, TOURIST SATISFACTION AND THE INTENTION TO RE-VISIT: THE CASE OF ABU DHABI IN THE UAE

Taking into consideration Abu Dhabi 2030 vision, the tourism sector is considered to be a significant sector in its contribution to the long-term economic growth of the UAE. Abu Dhabi has many of the push and pulls factors that attract tourists. By illuminating tourists’ behaviors, the results of this study will enable decision-makers to understand why tourists choose Abu Dhabi over other destinations, what type of experience they are looking for, and the variety of activities that they want. Meanwhile, taking into account the political stability of the UAE in general and Abu Dhabi in particular, insufficient attention has hitherto been given to the political issues that may significantly guide people in forming a destination image. No studies of the factor of political stability with others, such as push and pull factors in raising the intention to re-visit exist in the literature on tourism, at least not in the UAE context. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to identify the motivational push & pull factors that can affect the formulation of the destination image. Moreover, this study examines the relationship between push & pull factors, political stability, destination image, tourist satisfaction, and intention to re-visit to develop and test a conceptual model of the antecedents and consequences of destination image in the Abu Dhabi context. This study adopts the positivist research philosophy with a quantitative approach to empirically validate the fourteen hypotheses. To gather the primary data the questionnaire was distributed among international tourists above 18 years old in seven different attractive locations in Abu Dhabi. The suggested hypotheses were tested through a sample of 406 tourists visiting Abu Dhabi. The results show that tourists’ evaluations of the push and pull factors and political stability act as antecedents of a perceived attractive destination image. Furthermore, political stability and destination image have a strong positive impact on tourist satisfaction and the intention to re-visit. The proposed model in this study enhances existing theorization by exploring the value of political stability in the model of tourists’ intentions to re-visit. While from the practical perspective, it will also provide a recommendation to the policy and decision-maker in the tourism sector