Over and over : consumer engagement and turning sports tourists into fans

Travel to consume sport is an increasingly popular and prevalent leisure pursuit (Fourie & Santana-Gallego, 2011; Fredline, 2005). From those who follow Formula 1 across the globe (Henderson et al., 2010), to Tennis’ most ardent fans (Fredline, 2005), consumers probe further afield in order to satisfy their desires for memorable and gratifying travel couched within the domain of their favourite sporting activities. Football consumption, although traditionally aligned along geographical or demographic boundaries (Jones, 2000; Porat, 2010, Conner, 2014), is no different with 800,000 overseas tourists travelling to the UK to experience matches every year (Magowan, 2015). The extent of this travel provides opportunities tangentially for service providers geographically proximate to major finals and international tournament destinations (Daniels, 2005; Prayag et al., 2013), but also at a granular level for football clubs who seek to attract, engage, and maintain access to this lucrative market of affluent consumers who spend over £680m annually (Magowan, 2015). Extant research is focused on the impact of this economic influx (Daniels, 2007; Smith, 2005, Allan et al., 2007), with little consideration given to the tourists themselves, nor the potential to engage with these one-off visitors in order to transform them into more regular sources of income. Therefore, engagement is crucial and, from an operational perspective, the football ‘industry’ has recognised this. The increasing prevalence of social media transfer announcements (Lang, 2017), innovations such as Manchester City’s newly developed glass-tunnel (Hyde 2017), and ‘city-takeover’ events aimed at bridging the gap between player-and-fan, demonstrate how football clubs are adopting unusual strategies in order to encourage consumers to believe that they have ‘behind-the-scenes’ access to the machinations of the clubs that they love. However, these attempts typically focus on local fans, neglecting those who travel to consumer sport on a regular basis. As such, the question remains, how can football clubs engage these tourists and encourage them to become ‘fans’ (through repeat visits and recommendations to friends) and thus benefit financially from their considerable spending power

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

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

A Non-Functional Carbon Dioxide-Mediated Post-Translational Modification on Nucleoside Diphosphate Kinase of Arabidopsis thaliana

The carbamate post-translational modification (PTM), formed by the nucleophilic attack of carbon dioxide by a dissociated lysine epsilon-amino group, is proposed as a widespread mechanism for sensing this biologically important bioactive gas. Here, we demonstrate the discovery and in vitro characterization of a carbamate PTM on K9 of Arabidopsis nucleoside diphosphate kinase (AtNDK1). We demonstrate that altered side chain reactivity at K9 is deleterious for AtNDK1 structure and catalytic function, but that CO2 does not impact catalysis. We show that nucleotide substrate removes CO2 from AtNDK1, and the carbamate PTM is functionless within the detection limits of our experiments. The AtNDK1 K9 PTM is the first demonstration of a functionless carbamate. In light of this finding, we speculate that non-functionality is a possible feature of the many newly identified carbamate PTMs