Goal modelling for strategic dependency analysis in destination management

Purpose: The paper suggests goal modelling as a method for the strategic analysis in tourism destinations. Destination management is quite complex and challenging and requires deep understanding of the intentions, the roles and the strategies of the various stakeholders. Methods: This paper identifies the challenges and major issues of destination management, evaluates the capacity of goal modelling to address them and demonstrates the use of goal modelling for stakeholder and strategic analysis. Results: The paper provides a holistic, multi-level modelling approach that begins with stakeholder analysis, continues with the analysis of strategic dependencies between stakeholders and ends with the analysis of the strategic alignment of the Destination Management Systems. Goal modelling is used for the analysis of the roles and functions of stakeholders, the analysis of the interdependencies between stakeholders in terms of goals, tasks and resources, the selection between alternative business configurations, and the business model and strategic analysis. Implications: Three important issues of destination management are addressed: stakeholder analysis, strategic dependency analysis, and strategic alignment of information systems. The formalism of goal modelling can provide rigor and visualization in the analysis of the complex relationships in destination management

Peer norm guesses and self-reported attitudes towards performance-related pay

Due to a variety of reasons, people see themselves differently from how they see others. This basic asymmetry has broad consequences. It leads people to judge themselves and their own behavior differently from how they judge others and others’ behavior. This research, first, studies the perceptions and attitudes of Greek Public Sector employees towards the introduction of Performance-Related Pay (PRP) systems trying to reveal whether there is a divergence between individual attitudes and guesses on peers’ attitudes. Secondly, it is investigated whether divergence between own self-reported and peer norm guesses could mediate the acceptance of the aforementioned implementation once job status has been controlled for. This study uses a unique questionnaire of 520 observations which was designed to address the questions outlined in the preceding lines. Our econometric results indicate that workers have heterogeneous attitudes and hold heterogeneous beliefs on others’ expectations regarding a successful implementation of PRP. Specifically, individual perceptions are less skeptical towards PRP than are beliefs on others’ attitudes. Additionally, we found that managers are significantly more optimistic than lower rank employees regarding the expected success of PRP systems in their jobs. However, they both expect their peers to be more negative than they themselves are

Social Media and Influencer Marketing for Promoting Sustainable Tourism Destinations: The Instagram Case

Instagram is a critical tool for the selection of tourism destinations. Instagram travel influencers seem to play a significant role in this process, often using geo-location data to make their posts even more impactful. However, there is no evidence of them performing such a role in sustainable destinations, although these destinations are increasing and to a large extent are the future in tourism. This paper aspires to shed light in this area focusing on sustainable destinations. Specifically, the purpose of this paper is to examine (a) the role of Instagram travel influencers in shaping users’ opinions of a sustainable destination and (b) the importance of geo-location data used by influencers to the users’ selection of such a destination. Thirty sustainable tourism destinations, as posted between 2017 and 2019, were selected for examination by using 10 Instagram travel macro-influencers’ power derived from their followers’ interactions on posts. The study used a mixed method approach combining cross-sectional and quantitative data analysis. Panel data and a multiple hierarchical analysis using SPSS Statistics were implemented to test the hypotheses. Finally, a regression model was used to try to identify the relationship between geo-location data and the selection of sustainable tourism destinations. The findings show that Instagram travel influencers, as social media communicators, are positively related to the selection of a sustainable destination. However, the use of geo-location data by Instagram travel influencers does not enhance travelers’ intention for such a choice

Designing the Tourist Journey for the Advancement of Sustainable Tourist Practices

Sustainable tourism has become a key priority in the strategic plans for tourism development in order to attain sociocultural development and environmental preservation. This paper examines opportunities for the advancement of sustainable tourism by encouraging tourists to consider sustainability and to include sustainable options in their tourist practices. The paper adopts a practice-based approach for the understanding of tourist behavior as a series of practices tourists perform for the development of valuable experiences, usually with the support of services offered by tourist organizations and service providers. Sustainability is an option for tourists that needs to be offered, promoted, and supported when they decide on their practices and the way they will perform them. Hence, sustainability is an option that needs to be designed so that tourists are enabled and motivated to adopt sustainable tourist practices. The paper proposes the sustainable tourist journey as an approach for the analysis and design of sustainable tourist practices that is based on the holistic scope of the consumer journey. The paper contributes to the advancement of sustainable tourism by introducing and improving the understanding of sustainability concerns in tourist practices. The paper discusses also how digital technologies can support the design of sustainable tourist practices

Sustainability Material Topics and Materiality Analysis in the Chemical Industry

Chemicals are an essential ingredient for many industries. The chemical industry has a direct environmental and social impact and massive potential to contribute towards a more sustainable world. Environmental and social awareness and pressure from society are increasing, customers expect from companies to show increased corporate social responsibility (CSR), and there are increasing legal requirements for companies to disclose information on their social, economic, and environmental performance through CSR reporting. This paper explores the most material sustainability topics in the chemical industry. We reviewed 25 sustainability reports of some of the biggest companies in the chemical industry—in terms of annual sales. We studied the reports, created a database, and then analyzed the findings. We identified the topics that were most commonly reported as being material by the chemical industry. This enabled us to identify trends, differences, or similarities within the data. The industry’s main environmental impacts are pollution and energy consumption, which is directly related to carbon emissions. Other material issues include health and safety, and water and waste management. Overall, it became apparent that the chemical industry recognizes the importance that the materiality assessment plays, but the content and detail of the sustainability reports can be improved

EU Citizens’ Twitter Discussions of the 2022–23 Energy Crisis: A Content and Sentiment Analysis on the Verge of a Daunting Winter

The 2022–2023 winter period is alleged to be one of the toughest since World War II with respect to energy, especially electricity, natural gas and oil. The paper investigates the public discussions on Twitter in five widely spoken European languages and English. Networks of users are formed in order to locate possible important nodes that control the distribution of information. The networks are rather sparse and do not belong to the general class of ‘small worlds’. The communities of users seem to gather around one user; however, users also interact with others within the groups. Regarding the users’ sentiments, the negatives are definitely higher than the positive ones. Sentiments appear to be stable in their scores during the examined period and for each language; fear and sadness are dominant among them. Energy prices are frequently discussed in all languages, along with major political events. Findings may help governments to better understand public views and develop an effective strategy to communicate with and protect EU citizens

Summary statistics of the attitudinal traits towards the introduction of PRP scheme disaggregated by job roles.

<p>Summary statistics of the attitudinal traits towards the introduction of PRP scheme disaggregated by job roles.</p

Ordered probit regression results of the categorical responses of “Own perception” versus “my perception on others’ perceptions/second order beliefs” of the effective implementation of a PRP system split by employment position.

<p>Ordered probit regression results of the categorical responses of “Own perception” versus “my perception on others’ perceptions/second order beliefs” of the effective implementation of a PRP system split by employment position.</p

Variables List.

<p>Variables List.</p