Bringing The Past To Life: Co-creating tourism experiences in historic house tourist attractions

This ethnographic study concentrates on the co-creation of experiential value between the tourist and tour guide in a single historic tourism site; Huntingdon Castle, Ireland. Built upon the principles of service dominant logic, the research explores how storytelling acts as an engagement platform and value enhancing strategic resource. In doing so, it impels the value co-creation journey and shapes the tourist’s experience. Observation is coupled with qualitative interviews to capture the dual perspective of both guides and tourists. Findings exhibit the co-creation process through the performance of stories; how and when people derive pleasure (value); the influencing aspects of the environment or place; and guide/tourist perspectives on how they feel and think during the experience. The research contributes by taking a practical operational view of how co-creation occurs. It goes beyond the guide’s perspective and exhibits the importance of co-creation of lived experience in the story enhanced tourism experience framework

INTERPRETIVISM AND THE PURSUIT OF RESEARCH LEGITIMISATION: AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO SINGLE CASE DESIGN.

While interpretive research is recognized for its value in providing contextual depth, results are often criticized in terms of validity, reliability and generalizability, referred to collectively as research legitimisation. This paper explores the criticisms levied on interpretive case studies and presents a research design that seeks to address these criticisms. The paper describes the research template developed by the author and applies it to a longitudinal case study carried out on a micro firm in the Republic of Ireland. Following some detailed evaluation and analysis the author concludes that legitimisation of an interpretative case study is improved when an integrative approach involving the combination of specific research techniques to relevant and appropriate standards is adopted

Why, What, and How of Rigour and Relevance in Management Research

In his 1993 presidential address to the assembled faithful of the Academy of Management Don Hambrick posed the question, “What if the academy actually mattered” (1994:11). This rhetorical question set his esteemed colleagues, world leading management scholars, in the category of perhaps rigorous knowledge workers, but definitely not relevant to their community of practice. One might presume that when Hambrick, a giant of his era with a record of citations that is the envy of most scholars, and a field of work (upper echelons) that has been defined by his contribution for over 20 years, we would take note and act. Unfortunately three years later Richard Mowday (1997:341) found it necessary to return to the theme in his presidential address referring to what has ultimately become a perennial challenge of being both rigorous and relevant. In 2002 Jean Bartunek (2003:203) had a dream for the academy where we work to make a difference and speak to tensions involving theory and practice. In 2005 Denise Rousseau (2006) addressed the topic through the search for evidence based management to bridge the research-practice divide. We look forward with anticipation to the new challenges evoked in this years speech, but hardly expect an announcement that we have risen to the challenge. The European debate on the issue has had equal longevity and coverage, with the British Academy of Management leading a search in 1995 for the academic beast that could leap Pettigrew’s (2001) double hurdle. What emerged was a debate closely aligned with the call for a transition from Mode 1 to Mode 2 forms of enquiry (Gibbons et al., 1994; Nowotny et al., 2001) most notably characterised by Tranfield and Starkey (1998) who argued that management research must take account of the fields ontology as a discipline of practice which aligns it more with engineering than pure science and lends itself to Mode 2 collaborative enquiry. Despite diversions towards Mode 1.5 (Huff, 2000) recognising that Mode 1 and Mode 2 are not dichotic, the call for a move to Mode 2 was carried through to the influential Starkey-Madan report (2001), albeit with the caution that it was not Mode 2 at the expense of Mode 1. We were then offered the tantalising thought of moving to Mode 3 (Starkey, 2001)! Despite the attention brought to the issue by such eminent scholars the conversation has stubbornly remained in this conceptual phase. Perhaps because we are too wedded to our traditional approaches or perhaps we have not found the means of articulating the method needed to match our emerging theory. One attempt to move the theory towards a method of investigation is provided by McLean, MacIntosh and Grant (2002) with the first comprehensive articulation of the five key features of mode 2 enquiry in what they call their 5mode2 framework and it is from this point that we try to take up the challege to transcend Mode 1 in our teaching and research. Whether we have reached mode 1.5, Mode 2, Mode 3, Hodgkinson’s Pragmatic Science (2001:S42) or Pettigrew’s double hurdle (2001) is unclear. The intention of our paper is not to propose a neatly packaged Mode 1.75 approach or a lofty Mode 4, but rather it is to explore the struggle, reaffirm the need, and point to the opportunities. The paper is structured around three key issues. First, the question of why so little progress has been made in the intervening period? Second, we question what is considered to be managerially relevant research and who gets to decide together with the allied question of what we consider to be rigour and how this is evolving ? Third we discuss the challenges for the future. A later version of this paper was published in the Irish Journal of Management and the full text is available here http://eprints.maynoothuniversity.ie/7924

Spreading Leader Knowledge: Investigating a Participatory Mode of Knowledge Dissemination among Management Undergraduates

In this paper we discuss the need for a practitioner–academic partnership in disseminating leader knowledge among undergraduate management students, and find that in order to cultivate actionable skill development, business and academic communities should collaborate to offer a participatory approach to leadership education. The core objective is to discover sources of actionable knowledge and to decipher its optimum dissemination among management students, encompassing technical, conceptual and human kill development, through interaction with both theory and practice, in order to prepare students for active participation, and potential leadership, in the business environment. Based on a comprehensive literature review, we propose a participatory leader knowledge dissemination model, where business leaders can stimulate the academic environment, and leadership skill development can be promoted through practitioners’ active involvement in the education process. The article concludes with a perspective on the evolution of knowledge transfer among management students and the current trend towards dynamic collaboration between academics and corporate leaders

Learning in Action: Implementing a Facilitated Learning Programme for Tourism Micro-Firms

This paper presents findings from research associated with a tourism micro-firm facilitated learning programme, carried out over a four-year period. Considering traditional educational interventions have had limited impact on micro-firm activities; the researchers propose an alternative approach to meeting the learning needs of micro-firms which encompass local and self-developed knowledge and the successful completion of learning cycles. Using a behavioural lens, the researchers’ consider the experiential learning impact of facilitated learning programmes on observed micro-firm owner-managers. Adopting an action learning (AL) approach, the researchers explore the design, development, implementation and impact of this programme and contemplate the observed micro-firms’ focus on and approach to learning in their business setting. Having analysed the micro-firms’ learning-enhanced development strategies, the researchers propose a cohort-specific AL framework based on the findings and highlight the research implications prior to setting out avenues of further research

From Facilitated to Independent Tourism Learning Networks Connecting the Dots

Facilitated networks are regularly cited in tourism literature as a means to promote sustainable competitive advantage in small tourism firms. These networks function for a variety of reasons including marketing, innovation and research and development; however learning networks specifically seek to encourage learning among tourism entrepreneurs. Once established, the question remains whether such networks can transition from facilitated cooperative learning strategies to become independent learning communities in the longer term. Little is known about the formation, maintenance or success of these types of learning relationships after facilitated learning structures and supports reach a conclusion. What is known is that these networks, labeled ‘Evolving Learning Communities’ (ELCs) by the authors, are devoid of formal structures, thus autonomy in their structural and relational reasoning is required. In this paper, the authors explore a facilitated tourism learning network (TLN) environment operating in Ireland, and discuss the potential to transition from a facilitated TLN to an independent learning network environment. Following a comprehensive literature review, the authors propose an ELC model for the purposes of mapping the tourism entrepreneur’s learning development, from the autonomous business setting to the facilitated learning network environment and on to the independent learning network arena, illustrating the evolution of a learning community. The overriding research objective is: to explore the elements and relationships that influence entrepreneurial learning in tourism learning networks. Future research will inform and validate the proposed model through the completion of a longitudinal interpretive case study incorporating sub-studies for the purposes of cross-validation. Key Words: Tourism, Facilitated Learning Networks, Evolving Learning Communitie

RURAL TOURISM DEVELOPMENT: PROPOSING AN INTEGRATED MODEL OF RURAL STAKEHOLDER NETWORK RELATIONSHIPS

Traditionally agriculture and farming activities have been synonymous with rural areas and have been to the fore of policies to develop the countryside. However, in the last number of years it has been acknowledged that the significance of agriculture to rural development is in decline (Van der Ploeg et al, 2000). Additionally, there has been a shift in focus from what has been termed the ‘modernisation paradigm’ to the development of a ‘new paradigm of rural development’ (Murdoch, 2000). The focus is now firmly on social networks and a more integrated approach to rural development activities. In context, there is a growing consensus of what constitutes rural development activities including nature conservation, region-specific products and rural tourism (Van der Ploeg et al, 2000).This research will, therefore, examine rural development through the medium of rural tourism. Rural tourism fits well with the concept of rural development as it has strong linkages to rural resources, which focus on social networks and take account of the complex linkages among regional stakeholders. Much emphasis has been placed in recent years on collaborative relations between network partners’ to aid the facilitation of rural tourism development. It is well-documented in the literature that inclusive rural stakeholder networks, involving third level institutions and public-private stakeholders, are considered pivotal to successful and sustainable rural development (Johnson et al., 2000). Yet, it is acknowledged that significant gaps exist on the identification and precise nature of the roles and functions of stakeholders (Pezzini, 2001; McQuaid, 1997), and the content of network interactions and relationships (Jack, 2008), particularly in a rural environment (Murdoch, 2000). As articulated by Van der Ploeg et al. (2000): ‘what we now need are new theories that adequately reflect these new networks, practices and identities’ (p.394). Despite a number of calls to study relationships within networks, these interactions have not been studied to date in a rural network setting to the best of the author’s knowledge. In response to this research gap in extant literature, this paper seeks to identify and explain the nature and content of the roles and functions of key stakeholders in a rural tourism network. This author will, thus, propose an integrated model of rural stakeholder network relationships, and how these relationships shape collaborative regional network activity, in a rural tourism milieu. Following this phase of the research study, the proposed model will be applied in a practical setting, a process involving the exploration and analysis of the nature of the roles and functions of regional stakeholders in the south-east region of Ireland. An underlying objective of this research is to identify the inhibitors and facilitators of stakeholder interaction within a rural network, while model refinement will be pursued through multiple case study analysis, to allow for research legitimacy to be strengthened. This exploratory research addresses significant rural development and tourism literature gaps, and seeks to contribute significantly to academic and practitioner knowledge by developing a rural stakeholder network relationship model

The social dynamics of micro-firm learning in an evolving learning community

Micro-firms dominate the tourism sector internationally, yet there is a notable absence of studies specifically relating to their learning interactions with other tourism firms. Even when studied, a social learning lens is rarely applied in either micro-firm or tourism learning network research despite its relevance in this domain. In seeking to understand and map the social dynamics of micro-firm learning and participation in an independent learning network, the authors studied an evolving learning community (ELC) situated in Ireland's south west region over a four-year period. The findings demonstrate the complexity associated with creating and sustaining a social learning infrastructure in this context. An ELC model is proffered to provide insight into inter and intra social dynamics that influence learning development in the micro-firm setting. The proposed future research includes the study of additional ELCs, in Ireland and other countries, for the purposes of cross case/cross country comparison, and in pursuit of greater insight into the social dynamics of these communities

The thinking behind the action (learning): Reflections on the design and delivery of an executive management program

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to report on an action learning (AL) approach to curriculum design and delivery of a two-year part-time executive masters program, facilitated in part through a longitudinal work-based action research project. Program participants were a mix of mid- to senior managers operating in both the public and private sector and business owners, and all were in full-time employment. Design/methodology/approach - This paper presents findings relating to participant and tutor perspectives of the program design, structure, and content. It also chronicles an AL tutor initiative run in conjunction with the inaugural program delivery, established to provide a collegial approach to learner facilitation, and to enable a research informed model of practice. Findings - Findings suggest that the program allowed for greater action-reflection among and across all contributors (students, tutors, and program managers), and facilitated cross-pollination of AL perspectives, thus strengthening the interaction between practitioner and academic, and among academics themselves. Furthermore, the early involvement of tutors informed the work-based research project and larger AL program, and facilitated a matching of research interests between practitioner and tutor. Originality/value - These findings suggest that an action-based model of knowledge transfer and development offers significant learning benefits to those partaking in an executive development program, resulting in the following insights: executive needs better served using a learner-centric approach; problem-oriented work-based assessment affords theory–practice balance; there is evidence of action-reflection “contagion” among all contributors; and the presented AL cycle has potential value in the conceptualization of reflective action