A Changing Netnographic Landscape: Is There a Place for Online Ethnography in Hospitality and Tourism?

With the changing landscapes of online research, netnography has shifted to fit the needs of researchers in hospitality and tourism. This has left a void behind, however, for traditional ethnographic methodologies. This study reviews past netnographic research in hospitality and tourism and finds three major differentiating points: 1. online community definitions, 2. data collection methodologies, and 3. ethics in research. Through discussing the distinctions between ethnography and netnography, this research shows the availability of two distinct qualitative methodologies. As netnography grows and changes, traditional ethnography should not be lost in the process. Ethnographic principles grounded in the foundation of anthropological doctrines should remain important and distinct from netnography. The ability to use the diverse tools in the qualitative toolbox will help hospitality and tourism researchers understand the transforming marketplace

Understanding the Needs of Transgender Young Adults Dually Diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Depression

This study investigates the mental health treatment experiences of one transgender young adult and one genderqueer young adult who are dually diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and depression. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with these young adults and two of their parents. Interview questions centered around participants’ mental health treatment needs and experiences. The researcher conducted a phenomenological analysis of the data that yielded individual meaning units and global meaning units. The analysis found that individuals in this population experience low self-esteem, social difficulties, and a lack of appropriate mental health services.https://idun.augsburg.edu/zyzzogeton/1009/thumbnail.jp

Engaging the Customer: The Impacts of Online Travel Community Engagement on Brand Identification and Behavioral Intentions

Online consumption communities provide opportunities for social engagements targeting conversations about products and services in which individuals’ actions within the community have the potential to influence consumer behavior. According to extant research, these groups effect decision making processes, however they remain an enigma and require further investigation. Understanding the impact of online communities on the hospitality and tourism industry is a crucial area that is still not fully understood. As travel and tourism destinations are highly complex and require travelers to plan thoroughly in order to best enjoy their travels and hopefully minimize travel risks, consumers are turning to alternative sources of information due to availability and preference for online mediums. Using the DIS online community, this study evaluates the impacts of consumer engagement on brand identification and behavioral intentions both towards continued involvement with the community and intentions towards the brand or destination. This research is integral for future understandings of consumer behavior in online communities and the impact of these communities on decision making practices

Co-branding hotel owners and operators to increase willingness to pay

Although hotel brands are well established in the industry, customers have not been educated about the different kinds of properties, nor has hotel  structure been utilised as a functional marketing tool. Drawing on previous studies, the purpose of this study is to evaluate consumer branding  preferences and willingness to pay because of co-branding and informed ownership, operational, or franchise branding. This two-part study looks at  consumer awareness and consumer preferences in the first part through semi-structured interviews, and in the second part, an experimental survey.  Results reveal that most travellers do not understand the difference between a corporate-owned and -managed hotel and a franchised hotel. Co-  branding efforts for management and ownership companies were not significant in both value perceptions and willingness to pay. However, co-branding  efforts by ownership companies with parent companies increased their guests’ willingness to pay

Fairness Opinion

The following addresses the financial fairness of the per share merger consideration to be received by iRobot Corporation. This opinion is based on information regarding financial, economic and market conditions as of April 30, 2023. In arriving at this opinion, we have reviewed the merger agreement, publicly available financial statements, and iRobot’s business information. The following is a summary of the material analyses performed in connection with our opinion dated April 30, 2023. iRobot was founded in 1990 by 3 members of MIT’s artificial intelligence lab Rodne Brooks, Colin Angle, Helen Greiner. Colin Angle is currently the chairman and CEO and Julie Zeiler is CFO. As of 2020 iRobot has sold more than 30 million home robots and has deployed more than 5,000 defense and security robots. On August 5, 2022, Amazon announced plans to acquire iRobot in a deal worth $1.7 billion or for$61 per share. The deal will deepen Amazon’s presence in consumer robotics as subscription revenues are becoming increasingly important for companies needing long-term commitment and revenue. Amazon could turn its iRobot acquisition into a subscription service. According to Alan Pelz-Sharpe, founder of consulting firm Deep analytics, iRobot is a natural extension to Amazon\u27s existing home products, including Ring, Alexa, and its general smart home ambitions. Bringing in iRobot also adds a customer base of 30 million users, he said. The FTC requested more data in 2022 from both companies amid concerns about Amazon’s market share and privacy implication of gaining information about customer floorplans so the merger is still in the works. There is a possibility that the deal may not go through as it is subject to review by regulatory authorities

Moderate threat causes longer lasting disruption to processing in anxious individuals

Anxiety is associated with increased attentional capture by threat. Previous studies have used simultaneous or briefly separated (<1 s) presentation of threat distractors and target stimuli. Here, we tested the hypothesis that high trait anxious participants would show a longer time window within which distractors cause disruption to subsequent task processing, and that this would particularly be observed for stimuli of moderate or ambiguous threat value. A novel temporally separated emotional distractor task was used. Face or house distractors were presented for 250 ms at short (∼1.6 s) or long (∼3 s) intervals prior to a letter string comprising Xs or Ns. Trait anxiety was associated with slowed identification of letter strings presented at long intervals after face distractors with part surprise/part fear expressions. In other words, these distractors had an impact on high anxious individuals' speed of target identification seconds after their offset. This was associated with increased activity in the fusiform gyrus and amygdala and reduced dorsal anterior cingulate recruitment. This pattern of activity may reflect impoverished recruitment of reactive control mechanisms to damp down stimulus-specific processing in subcortical and higher visual regions. These findings have implications for understanding how threat-related attentional biases in anxiety may lead to dysfunction in everyday settings where stimuli of moderate, potentially ambiguous, threat value such as those used here are fairly common, and where attentional disruption lasting several seconds may have a profound impact

Engaging in student evaluations of teaching through intrinsic motivation: an exploratory study of competence, perceived choice, value/usefulness, and relatedness

Student evaluations of teaching (SET) elicit feedback to enhance the course, teaching, and learning. However, hospitality and tourism curriculum research lacks an understanding of the dyadic relationship between the instructor and motivation and other logistics to complete SET. This remains important to uncover student competence, perceived choice, value/usefulness, and relatedness to complete SET to increase SET feedback from instructors. Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient analysis was employed to test the hypotheses using data collected from 69 undergraduate hospitality and tourism students recruited through U.S. educational institutions in the northeast and southeast. Results reveal that intrinsic motivation relates positively to SET completion, showing a strong, positive correlation between all variables. The study provides contributions to instructors to offer extrinsic motivators to encourage students to recognize the value of the SET. The study is among the first to explore the intrinsic motivators and completion of SET with hospitality and tourism undergraduate students

Catalogue and Systematics of Pliensbachian, Toarcian and Aalenian Radiolarian Genera and Species

This volume comprises a catalogue of 90 genera, 274 species and 13 subspecies of Pliensbachian, Toarcian and Aalenian Radiolaria. Two genera, 37 species and 3 subspecies are new formal descriptions, 24 species are described in open nomenclature. Each taxon is presented with a complete and up-to-date synonymy, original description and original remarks (translated into English where necessary), subsequent emendations, remarks by the authors of this catalogue, and etymology. Descriptions of species/subspecies further contain the original measurements, type locality, and data on geographic distribution. Plates illustrate the holotype and one or several specimens from our material, from different paleogeographic realms where possible. The material was collected from 30 measured sections in the Circum-Pacific belt (Baja California Peninsula, Oregon, British Columbia, Japan) and the Tethyan realm (Oman, Turkey, Slovenia, Austria). Abbreviated locality information and a list of all treated taxa are given in the last two chapters.A useful book for paleontologists interested in taxonomy of Jurassic radiolarians.Katalog obsega 90 rodov, 274 vrst in 13 podvrst radiolarijev iz treh stopenj v spodnji in srednji juri: pliensbachija, toarcija in aalenija. Dva rodova, 37 vrst in 3 podvrste so formalno opisani novi taksoni, 24 vrst je opisanih v odprti nomenklaturi. Vsak takson je predstavljen z vso dosedanjo sinonimiko, originalnim opisom in originalnimi opombami (v prevodu, če originalni jezik ni angleščina), poznejšimi revizijami, pripombami avtorjev tega kataloga in etimologijo. Opisi vrst in podvrst vsebujejo še originalne meritve, ime tipične lokalitete in podatke o geografski razširjenosti. Vsaka vrsta ali podvrsta je predstavljena s samostojno tablo, na kateri so slike holotipa in več primerkov iz naših vzorcev. Kjer je mogoče, so ilustrirani primerki z različnih paleogeografskih območij. Vzorci so bili pobrani na 30 profilih, posnetih v cirkumpacifiškem pasu (Kalifornijski polotok, Oregon, Britanska Kolumbija, Japonska) in v območju Tetide (Oman, Turčija, Slovenija, Avstrija). Dodatek na koncu knjige vsebuje kratek opis vzorčevanih profilov in seznam vseh obravnavanih taksonov

Inspiring Minds, Exploring Science with Project SCORE Curriculum

Corresponding author (Pharmacy Administration): Tess Johnson, [email protected]://egrove.olemiss.edu/pharm_annual_posters_2022/1009/thumbnail.jp