National culture as a driver of pro-environmental attitudes and behavioural intentions in tourism

Voluntary changes in consumer behaviour hold significant potential to mitigate the growing environmental repercussions of tourism. Such behavioural changes can occur due to positive behavioural intentions that are in turn underpinned by pro-environmental consumer attitudes. To reinforce voluntary behavioural changes in tourism, it is paramount to understand the major drivers of pro-environmental consumer attitudes. Although national culture can influence pro-environmental attitudes of tourists, its role has been under-researched, especially in the context of emerging tourist markets. This study utilised the environment-orientated dimensions or value orientations of major cultural frameworks (Hofstede; Schwartz; Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner) to explore the effect of national culture on pro-environmental attitudes and behavioural intentions in a large-scale quantitative survey of Polish tourists. Correlation between the cultural background of tourists and their pro-environmental attitudes was established, thus highlighting the need for national culture to become an integral element of future scientific, policy-making and managerial discourse on the key drivers of more sustainable consumer behaviour in tourism

Cultural Orientations of sport managers

Various interpretations of sport management are cultural constructs underpinned by core assumptions and values held by members of professional communities. Sport managers world wide share common problems, but differ in how they resolve them. These universal differences emerge from the relationships they form with other people, and their attitude to time, activities and the natural environment. This paper examines the role of sport managers’ cultural orientations in the interpretation and practice of sport management. Using a multiple dimension model (Hampden-Turner and Trompenaars, 2000) it sketches the cultural profiles of fifteen sport managers from seven countries. A combination of methods was employed including questionnaires, interviews and participant observation. It is contended that the culture of sport management concerns a social process by which managers get involved in reconciling seven fundamental cultural dilemmas in order to perform tasks and achieve certain ends. Thus, a knowledge of the cultural meaning of sport management in a particular country would equip sport managers with a valuable tool in managing both the cultural diversity of their own work forces and in developing appropriate cross-cultural skills needed for running international events, marketing campaigns, sponsorship deals and joint ventures

Cultural differences affecting decision-making style: a comparative study between four countries

The aim of this paper was to identify the impact of national culture on decision-making styles in selected countries: Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Hungary. The estimation of Hofstede’s dimensions of national cultures and comparative analyses was carried out by using a narrow-sample strategy. The estimated positions on each dimension confirmed the Hofstede’s original research ranking. The result with significant value was the confirmation of the global trend of decreasing power distance and significant movement towards the individualism. Besides the standardization procedure of comparative cross-cultural analyses, variance analyses were used to identify cultural differences in decision-making styles related to complex decisions (Janis and Mann’s typology). The proposition is that complex decisions are, above and beyond all others, the consequence of social and cultural values installed in every individual. Statistically significant dependency was identified for hyper-vigilant and vigilant decision-making style and national culture’s dimensions. A beneficial goal was to identify the differences and the similarities in value orientation and those in the decision-making style which should not be mistreated as they may influence future business cooperation and political and economic integrations within the CEE context

Consumer behaviour in tourism: Concepts, influences and opportunities

Although consumer behaviour (CB) is one of the most researched areas in the field of tourism, few extensive reviews of the body of knowledge in this area exist. This review article examines what we argue are the key concepts, external influences and opportune research contexts in contemporary tourism CB research. Using a narrative review, we examine the CB literature published in three major tourism journals from 2000 to 2012. Of 519 articles identified and reviewed, 191 are included in this article. We examine the development of and scope for future research on nine key concepts, including decision-making, values, motivations, self-concept and personality, expectations, attitudes, perceptions, satisfaction, trust and loyalty. We then examine three important external influences on tourism behaviour, technology, Generation Y and the rise in concern over ethical consumption. Finally, we identify and discuss five research contexts that represent major areas for future scholarship: group and joint decision-making, under-researched segments, cross-cultural issues in emerging markets, emotions and consumer misbehaviour. Our examination of key research gaps is concluded by arguing that the hedonic and affective aspects of CB research in tourism must be brought to bear on the wider CB and marketing literature

Our place or mine? Exploration into collectivism-focused persuasive technology design

Persuasive technologies are increasingly ubiquitous, but the strategies they utilise largely originate in America. Consumer behaviour research shows us that certain persuasion strategies will be more effective on some cultures than others. We claim that the existing strategies will be less effective on non-American audiences than they are on American audiences, and we use information from interviews to show that there exists much scope to develop persuasive technologies from a collectivism-focused perspective. To illustrate the development of such a tool, we describe the design of a collectivism-focused financial planning tool

What makes you not a Buddhist? : a preliminary mapping of values

This study sets out to establish which Buddhist values contrasted with or were shared by adolescents from a non-Buddhist population. A survey of attitude toward a variety of Buddhist values was fielded in a sample of 352 non-Buddhist schoolchildren aged between 13 and 15 in London. Buddhist values where attitudes were least positive concerned the worth of being a monk/nun or meditating, offering candles & incense on the Buddhist shrine, friendship on Sangha Day, avoiding drinking alcohol, seeing the world as empty or impermanent and Nirvana as the ultimate peace. Buddhist values most closely shared by non-Buddhists concerned the Law of Karma, calming the mind, respecting those deserving of respect, subjectivity of happiness, welfare work, looking after parents in old age and compassion to cuddly animals. Further significant differences of attitude toward Buddhism were found in partial correlations with the independent variables of sex, age and religious affiliation. Correlation patterns paralleled those previously described in theistic religions. Findings are applied to spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and for the teaching of religious to pupils of no faith adherence. The study recommends that quantitative psychometrics employed to conceptualize Buddhist values by discriminant validity in this study could be extended usefully to other aspects of the study of Buddhism, particularly in quest of validity in the conceptualization of Buddhist identity within specifically Buddhist populations

Portraits of life: Patterns of events over the lifespan

This explorative content-analytic study completes earlier studies on the lifespan distributions of number and affect of past and future life-events, collected by means of the Life-line Interview Method (LIM), for three age groups of men and women (young, middle and late adulthood). LIM events were classified into 40 subcategories divided over 9 categories: Relations, School, Work, Health, Growth, Home, Birth, Death and Other. Compression of the full data set by age group, gender, affect, decade, and time perspective, disclosed various patterns of events underlying the human life-course, e.g., the ‘bump,’ ‘rosy view’ and ‘gender phase contrast’ patterns. The compressed data set provided detailed material for the composition of three written group portraits of life, reflecting the modal life story of young, middle-aged and older men and women. Patterns and portraits show a content shift of past memories and future expectations over the lifespan, supporting a more dynamic view on the human life-course

Cultural orientations and preference for HRM policies and practices:the case of Oman

This study empirically examines the influence of cultural orientations on employee preferences of human resource management (HRM) policies and practices in Oman. Data were collected from 712 employees working in six large Omani organizations. The findings indicate that there is a number of differences among Omani employees regarding value orientations due especially to age, education and work experience. The findings show a strong orientation towards mastery, harmony, thinking and doing, and a weak orientation towards hierarchy, collectivism, subjugation and human nature-as-evil. The results demonstrate a clear link between value orientations and preferences for particular HRM policies and practices. Group-oriented HRM practices are preferred by those who scored high on collectivism and being orientations, and those who scored low on thinking and doing orientations. Hierarchy-oriented HRM practices are preferred by those scoring high on hierarchy, subjugation and human nature-as-bad orientations, and those scoring low on thinking and mastery orientations. Finally, preference for loose and informal HRM practices was positively associated with being, and negatively associated with thinking, doing and harmony orientations. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed in detail

Theory and practice – a case study of coordination and ownership in the Bangladesh health SWAp

BACKGROUND: In the past decade the sector-wide approach (SWAp) model has been promoted by donors and adopted by governments in several countries. The purpose of this study is to look at how partners involved in the health SWAp in Bangladesh define ownership and coordination, in their daily work and to analyse the possible implications of these definitions. METHODOLOGY: The study object was a process of decision-making in the Government of Bangladesh in 2003. Information was collected through participant observations, interviews and document review. RESULTS: During the study period the Government of Bangladesh decided to reverse a decision to unify the two wings of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The decision led to disagreements with development partners, which had serious implications for cooperation between key actors in the Bangladesh health sector leading to deteriorated relationships and suspension of donor funds. The donor community in itself was also in disagreement which led to inconsistencies in the dialogue between the development partners and the Government of Bangladesh. CONCLUSION: The case shows that main actors in the Bangladesh health SWAp interpret ownership and coordination, fundamental aspects of SWAp, differently. As long as work ran smoothly, the different definitions did not create any problems, but when disagreements arose they became an obstacle. It is concluded that partners in development should devote more effort to their working relationships and that responsibilities within a SWAp need to be more clearly delineated