Travel Storytelling Theory and Practice

Building on semiological research (i.e., the study of signs and symbols of all kinds) investigating the use of symbols in cinematic portrayals of travel behavior, this article describes a phase dynamics theory of epiphany travel behavior. Core propositions of the theory include (1) epiphany travel behavior and storytelling about such travel includes identifiable phases: prequel, awakening, journey, catharsis, and post-journey storytelling and reinterpreting; (2) world and personal blocks occur; (3) during the journey the protagonist recognizes the need for help and experiences help from key facilitators to reach desired physical locations and other goal objects; and (4) experiencing an archetypal force is an outcome of the journey. Such theory building provides a gestalt view and understanding of epiphany travel behavior

Creating Visual Narrative Art for Decoding Stories that Consumers and Brands Tell

Creating visual narrative art (VNA) of stories that consumers and brands tell achieves several objectives. First, creating VNA revises and deepens sense making of the meaning of events in the story and what the complete story implies about oneself and others. Second, creating VNA surfaces unconscious thinking of the protagonist and other actors in the story as well as the storyteller (recognizing that in many presentations of stories an actor in the story is also the story teller); unconscious thinking in stories relating to consumer and brand experiences reflect one or more archetype (Jung, 1916/1968) fulfillments by the protagonist and the storyteller; given that almost all authors agree on a distinction between processes that are unconscious, rapid, automatic, and high capacity (System 1 processing) and those that are conscious, slow, and deliberative (System 2 processing; see Evans, 2008), VNA enables and enriches processing, particularly relating to System 1 processing—enabling more emotional versus rational processing. Third, creating VNA of stories is inherently and uniquely fulfilling/pleasurable/healing for the artist; using visual media allows artists to express emotions of the protagonist and/or audience member, to vent anger, or to report bliss about events and outcomes that words alone cannot communicate; VNA provides a tangible, emotional, and holistic (gestalt) experience that is uniquely satisfying and does so in a form that many audience members enjoy over and over again. This article elaborates on the rationales for its central proposition, briefly reviews relevant literature on VNA, and illustrates one mode of VNA for the complementary stories told by a consumer and brand

Overcoming Bystander Apathy and Non-Intervention in Alcohol-Poisoning Emergency Situations: Advancing Field Testing of Training-for-Intervention Theory via Thought Experiments

Consider groups of partying college students failing to helpfully assist someone in life- threatening distress from alcoholic poisoning. Anecdotal evidence (Davis and DeBarros, 2006) supports the social-norming theory subfield of unresponsive bystander research by Latane and Darley (1970) and others (Cialdini and Goldstein, 2004). This article is a call for structurally transforming the dynamics of the unfolding dramas in natural groups where alcoholic poisoning leading to death occurs. The present article includes the proposal for a quasi-experiment of natural groups (members of fraternities and sororities) in naturally occurring contexts (party situations) using placebo, a standardized training for intervention programs for servers (TIPS) designed for peer intervention, and two versions of advanced TIPS designed to structurally introduce a designated interventionist (DI). The DI and DI training designs are crafted to overcome the unresponsive bystander effect. The proposal includes thought experiments to explain both short- and long-term dependent measures of program impact in such quasi-experiments that include immediate measures of alcohol drinking and intervention knowledge, the medium-term creation and assignment of a group DI position, and the long-term interventionist behavior of groups appointing persons holding DI appointments versus groups not making such appointment

Conversations with(in) the collective unconscious by consumers, brands, and relevant others

Jung's (2009) paintings of his dreams to enable conscious interpretation of his conversations within the collective unconscious informs a call for creating visual narrative art to inform meanings of personal and collective unconscious relating to stories consumers tell about buying and using brands. This study describes13 conversations relevant to the study of conscious and the collective unconscious for consumer–brand relationships/communications. The 13 conversations' paradigm is useful for complementing the dominant logic by scholars of asking questions and relying on consumer conscious interpretations in their responses. The article advocates the use of multiple methods for both collecting and interpreting consumer–brand relationships, and illustrates the usage of storyboard-art of consumer–brand relationships in natural contexts. Brand strategy implications focus on the value of identifying how brands enable consumers to enact primal forces (archetypes)

Culture, religiosity, and economic configural models explaining tipping-behavior prevalence across nations

© 2017 Elsevier Ltd Unique from prior research that deconstructs culture into separate attributes and reports on the symmetric “net effect� of each, the current study identifies holistic configurations of culture that account for the prevalence of tipping behaviors across tourism industries. Consistent with the theory that distinct holistic cultures predict tipping and non-tipping behaviors, the findings identify configurations of cultural attributes (e.g. “masculine benevolence�, “feminine benevolence�, and “achieving individualist�) in combination with national religiosity and economic well-being that account for the majority of nations with high prevalence of tipping—as well as configurations (e.g. “collective individualist�) that account for nations with low prevalence of tipping. These configurations provide tourism operators, regulators, service providers and tourists with insight about the drivers of tipping expectations at the national level and therefore enable better management of the tourism experience. The paper also demonstrates the usefulness of a complexity theory approach to explore complex phenomena by revealing holistic configurations of antecedent conditions; identifying multiple configurations that explain the same outcome; demonstrating that configurations for high and low prevalence are asymmetric, and; demonstrating that antecedent conditions operate in opposite ways depending on other ingredients in a configuration

Computing with words in modeling firms' paradoxical performances

Copyright © 2018 by Emerald Publishing Limited. The study here responds to the view that the crucial problem in strategic management (research) is firm heterogeneity-why firms adopt different strategies and structures, why heterogeneity persists, and why competitors perform differently. The present study applies complexity theory tenets and a "neo-configurational perspective"of Misangyi et al. (2016) in proposing complex antecedent conditions affecting complex outcome conditions. Rather than examining variable directional relationships using null hypotheses statistical tests, the study examines case-based conditions using somewhat precise outcome tests (SPOT). The complex outcome conditions include firms with high financial performances in declining markets and firms with low financial performances in growing markets-the study focuses on seemingly paradoxical outcomes. The study here examines firm strategies and outcomes for separate samples of cross-sectional data of manufacturing firms with headquarters in one of two nations: Finland (n 1/4 820) and Hungary (n 1/4 300). The study includes examining the predictive validities of the models. The study contributes conceptual advances of complex firm orientation configurations and complex firm performance capabilities configurations as mediating conditions between firmographics, firm resources, and the two final complex outcome conditions (high performance in declining markets and low performance in growing markets). The study contributes by showing how fuzzy-logic computing with words (Zadeh, 1966) advances strategic management research toward achieving requisite variety to overcome the theory-analytic mismatch pervasive currently in the discipline (Fiss, 2007, 2011)-thus, this study is a useful step toward solving the crucial problem of how to explain firm heterogeneity

Achieving requisite variety in modeling firms' strategy heterogeneities: Explaining paradoxical firm-market performances

This study responds to the view that the crucial problem in strategic management (research) is firm heterogeneity-why firms adopt different strategies and structures, why heterogeneity persists, and why competitors perform differently. The present study applies complexity theory tenets and a "neo-configurational perspective" in proposing firms' complex antecedent conditions affecting firms' complex outcome conditions. The complex outcome conditions include firms with high financial performances in declining markets and firms with low financial performances in growing markets-the study focuses on seemingly paradoxical firm-market outcomes. Based on an analysis of firm strategies and outcomes for separate samples of cross sectional data of 1120 Finish and Hungarian manufacturing firms, this study bridges theory and practice in strategic management of complex firm-orientation configurations and complex firm-performance-capabilities. The study contributes by showing how executives can use "computing-with-words" (CWW) (Zadeh, 1966) for achieving requisite variety in explaining and predicting paradoxical firm performance outcomes

Photochemistry of Transition Metal Complexes Induced by Outer-Sphere Charge Transfer Excitation

The intermolecular (outer sphere, OS) interaction of a reducing and an oxidizing metal complex generates a new optical transition involving charge transfer (CT) from the electron donor to the acceptor. OS CT transitions are classified according to the redox site (metal or ligand). Generally, the interaction between donor and acceptor is facilitated by ion pairs consisting of an oxidizing complex cation and a reducing complex anion. There are also ion pairs which are composed of a metal complex and an organic counter ion as electron donor or acceptor. In addition, the review includes examples of OS CT interaction which do not involve ion pairs at all. — A short introduction into the theory is followed by the discussion of the spectroscopy of OS CT of transition metal complexes. Finally, photoreactions induced by OS CT transitions are reviewed. The optical transfer is frequently followed by a rapid back electron transfer which regenerates the starting complexes. In many cases the primary products are kinetically labile and substitution reactions compete successfully with back electron transfer. As a result stable redox products may be formed. As an alternative, the substitution can be followed by back electron transfer. Product formation appears then as a substitution of the starting complexes. The various possibilities are illustrated by appropriate examples