The meanings of solo travel for Asian women

2019 ◽  
Vol 74 (5) ◽  
pp. 1047-1057 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elaine Chiao Ling Yang ◽  
Mona Ji Hyun Yang ◽  
Catheryn Khoo-Lattimore
Keyword(s):  
Service Providers ◽  
Constructivist Grounded Theory ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Asian Women ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Strategic Essentialism ◽  
The Social ◽  
Positive Meaning ◽  
Self Discovery ◽  
Tourism Service

Purpose This study aims to explore the meanings of solo travel for Asian women, focussing on how Asian women construct and negotiate their identities in the heteronormalised, gendered and Western-centric tourism space. Design/methodology/approach In-depth interviews were conducted with 35 Asian solo female travellers from ten Asian countries/societies and analysed using constructivist grounded theory. The interpretation was guided by a critical stance and intersectionality lens. Findings The findings show that solo travel provides a means for self-discovery but the path was different for Asian women, for whom the self is constructed by challenging the social expectations of Asian women. Western-centric discourse was identified in the participants’ interactions with other (Western) travellers and tourism service providers, as well as in the ways these Asian women perceive themselves in relation to Western travellers. In addition to gendered constraints and risks, the findings also reveal the positive meaning of being Asian women in the gendered tourism space. Research limitations/implications By labelling Asian women, the study risks adopting an essentialised view and overlooking the differences within the group. However, this strategic essentialism is necessary to draw attention to the inequalities that persist in contemporary tourism spaces and practices. Originality/value This study investigated Asian solo female travellers, an emerging but under-researched segment. It provides a critical examination of the intersectional effect of gender and race on identity construction for Asian solo female travellers. This study shows the need for a more inclusive tourism space.

scholarly journals An evaluation of factors affecting the management of COVID-19 in Bangladesh

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Syed S.M Sadrul Huda ◽  
Afsana Akhtar ◽  
Segufta Dilshad ◽  
Syeeda Raisa Maliha
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Care Management ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Care Service ◽  
Health Care Service ◽  
Health Care Management ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Social

PurposeThe study aims to gain insights into the management of COVID-19 in Bangladesh to identify the factors that are relevant to managing the pandemic in a developing country.Design/methodology/approachThe study was carried out by pursuing the archival method. The information was collected from credible newspaper reports over the previous months, as well as articles published on the subject of COVID-19.FindingsThe research revealed important and relevant dimensions of the health sector in managing the COVID-19 pandemic. The major factors were doctors, nurses (health service providers), patients, (customers) and society. This is a pioneering paper, which documents the major lessons learned from the management of COVID-19 in Bangladesh concerning three stakeholders of the health-care system, i.e. providers, patients and society. This paper covers the situation regarding the ongoing pandemic from three perspectives – provider, customers and society, and thus, may help to develop future research regarding the development of health-care management models for addressing the pandemic.Research limitations/implicationsThe major limitations of this paper is its over dependence on secondary sources for collecting the information.Practical implicationsThis paper presents the learnings from the pandemic in health-care management in different categories (e.g. social, doctor/nurse, patients), which can help the managers in understanding different dimensions of the health-care sector from different perspectives. The problems as well as the learnings stated in the paper can help the policy makers implement such strategies to ensure better delivery of the medical health-care service during a pandemic.Social implicationsThis paper clearly reveals the social dimensions of the COVID-19 by assessing the social aspects of COVID-19 management. Both social stigma and support are traced out during evaluating the situation. Thus, the social forces will be able to rethink about their role in addressing the social costs of pandemic.Originality/valueThis is a commentary piece.

Relationality in the service logic of value creation

2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (6/7) ◽  
pp. 463-471 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary FitzPatrick ◽  
Richard J. Varey ◽  
Christian Grönroos ◽  
Janet Davey
Keyword(s):  
Value Creation ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Direct Interaction ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Social ◽  
Service Logic ◽  
Relational Concepts ◽  
Practical Analysis ◽  
Philosophical Understanding

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a framework – the Relationality Framework – for elaborating relational behaviour, in response to calls to address the ontological weaknesses identified in the extant value and value creation literature. Design/methodology/approach – The social philosophical understanding of interaction as an organic mode of social organisation, upon which the Relationality Framework is based, supersedes the economistic (mechanistic) understanding of interaction as a means of connecting otherwise independent actors. In foregrounding the relationality of interaction, the authors are inspired by Grönroos and Voima’s (2013) conceptualisation of spheres of value generation to conceptualise the intersubjective dynamics and domains invoked in direct interaction. Findings – The Relationality Framework identifies distinct relational concepts that build on service logic’s specificity and conceptualisation at the level of direct interactions between service providers and customers. In particular, this paper develops the concept of “relationality” using the three domains in any interaction of I, Other and We. Originality/value – The Relationality Framework provides sound conceptual support for extending the theoretical and practical analysis of the value creation processes of the customer and of the firm and for the purposeful management of relationships to enhance value creation by both.

Understanding online knowledge community user continuance

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 445-458 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tao Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Cognitive Theory ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Outcome Expectation ◽  
System Quality ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Knowledge Community ◽  
User Behaviour ◽  
Knowledge Quality ◽  
The Social

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to draw on the social cognitive theory to identify the determinants of online knowledge community user continuance, which reflects a user’s continued use.Design/methodology/approachBased on the 271 valid responses collected from a survey, structural equation modelling was employed to examine the research model.FindingsThe results indicated that the cognitive factors of outcome expectation and the environmental factors of system quality and knowledge quality significantly affect a user’s continuance intention, which, in turn, affects continuance usage.Research limitations/implicationsThe results imply that service providers need to enhance community platforms and improve knowledge quality in order to retain users and facilitate their continuance.Originality/valueAlthough previous research has examined online knowledge community user behaviour from multiple perspectives such as the social exchange theory and the motivational theory, it has seldom explored the relative effects of personal cognitions and environmental factors on user behaviour. This research fills the gap.

Tourism will settle to a new normal after the pandemic

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Business Models ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Infrastructure Investment ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Mass Tourism ◽  
Business Ecosystem ◽  
Travel Restrictions ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Tourism Service ◽  
Catalytic Effects

Subject Tourism outlook. Significance Tourism accounts for about 10% of global GDP and jobs, when direct, indirect, induced and catalytic effects are considered. The pandemic and associated travel restrictions have severely hit tourism and its business ecosystem. Social distancing will be enforced where possible until there is a vaccine or effective treatment, with major economic and social ramifications. It potentially threatens the wide accessibility of tourism. Impacts Mass tourism will become more expensive and could even be constrained by government policy. Tourism service providers will have to restructure their revenue management models to achieve higher yields with fewer customers. Destinations will rebrand to promote the benefits of lower tourist numbers; health-related infrastructure investment will grow. Sectors associated with tourism, such as construction and travel insurance, will need to adapt their business models carefully.

The impact of social visibility of VIP services on satisfaction

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhongpeng Cao
Keyword(s):  
Customer Satisfaction ◽  
Boundary Conditions ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Customer Segmentation ◽  
Mediating Effect ◽  
Perceived Fairness ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Visibility ◽  
The Impact

Purpose From the perspective of customer segmentation, most scholars show more interest in the very important person (VIP) customer’s service experience and satisfaction; however, the way in which ordinary customers view VIP services has received less attention. Based on fairness heuristic theory and social comparison theory, this study aims to examine the impact of the social visibility of VIP services on ordinary customers’ satisfaction and explored the underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions of this effect. Design/methodology/approach Two experiments were conducted, Study 1 verified the main effect and mediating effect, Study 2 tested the moderating effect. Findings The results show that the social visibility of VIP services decreases ordinary customers’ satisfaction and perceived fairness mediates this effect. The deservingness of VIP status moderates the connection between social visibility and perceived fairness. Research limitations/implications This research changes the objects of VIP services research and focuses on ordinary customers as its main group and expands the scope of social comparisons among customers. Practical implications The findings expand the scope and perspective of research on VIP services and provide guidance to service providers to reduce ordinary customers’ feelings of unfairness so as to improve customer satisfaction. Originality/value This study explores the effect of the social visibility of VIP services on ordinary customer satisfaction from the perspective of perceived fairness, as well as the underlying mechanism and boundary conditions of the effect.

Social constructions of mental health among Romani in Ukraine

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Viktoriia Gorbunova ◽  
Natalia Gusak ◽  
Vitalii Klymchuk ◽  
Zemfira Kondur ◽  
Paliy Valeriia ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Cultural Psychology ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Mutual Engagement ◽  
The Social ◽  
Future Data ◽  
Social And Cultural Factors

Purpose The purpose of this study is to characterize the social and cultural context of the social construction of mental health (MH) by members of Romani communities in Ukraine. Design/methodology/approach The research collected qualitative data to gain a better understanding of how Romani communities in Ukraine view the social and cultural factors influencing mental health. This paper analyzes data from focus groups in Romani communities in Ukraine (from six different oblasts) from February to March 2020. A total of 49 persons 19–75 years of age participated in the research, including 17 men and 32 women. Findings This study identifies four clusters of perceived social determinants of Romani mental health, these being employment, financial difficulties, level of education and discrimination. The findings indicate specific cultural characteristics of the Romani community that are seen as helping to support mental health. Family values, mutually supporting and referring to other members of the community are seen as especially important. Such social cohesion is believed to have a positive effect on the mental health of members of the Romani community. This paper discusses the implications of the study and suggests possible avenues for future data-driven policymaking in the area of mental health that take account of the culturally-specific meanings of mental health for these communities. Originality/value Given the significant gaps, shortages and, in some cases, complete lack of data on Romani ethnic and cross-cultural psychology, research is urgently needed to fill this gap. Lack of understandings of how Romani construct mental health can lead to badly-matched, misplaced or ineffective actions and distrust. This paper aims to support better understandings of Romani among MH service providers and enhancing the mutual engagement of Romani and MH services, supporting the broader agenda of social inclusion of Romani people.

scholarly journals E-mindfulness – the growing importance of facilitating tourists’ connections to the present moment

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 239-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Uglješa Stankov ◽  
Viachaslau Filimonau ◽  
Ulrike Gretzel ◽  
Miroslav D. Vujičić
Keyword(s):  
Mindfulness Meditation ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
Present Moment ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
News Reports ◽  
Technology Applications ◽  
Consumer Perspectives ◽  
Tourism Service

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to introduce e-mindfulness as a tourism trend. Mindfulness meditation is becoming increasingly mainstream, which is reflected in a rapidly growing number of related technology applications. Such technology-assisted mindfulness is typically referred to as e-mindfulness. The e-mindfulness trend creates opportunities for the tourism industry but also implies changed consumer perspectives on tourist experiences. Design/methodology/approach The paper is based on a general review of academic literature, news reports and online resources regarding the offerings of related technologies. Findings Implications of e-mindfulness for consumers, tourism service providers and designers of future tourism experiences are outlined. Originality/value This is the first paper to conceptualize e-mindfulness as a tourism trend.

Measuring the impact of COVID-19 papers on the social web: an altmetric study

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Metwaly Ali Mohamed Edakar ◽  
Ahmed Maher Khafaga Shehata
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Research Performance ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Number Of Citations ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The rapid spread and severity of the coronavirus (COVID-19) virus have prompted a spate of scholarly research that deals with the pandemic. The purpose of this study is to measure and assess the coverage of COVID-19 research on social media and the engagement of readers with COVID-19 research on social media outlets. Design/methodology/approach An altmetric analysis was carried out in three phases. The first focused on retrieving all papers related to COVID-19. Phase two of the research aimed to measure the presence of the retrieved papers on social media using altmetric application programming interface (API). The third phase aimed to measure Mendeley readership categories using Mendeley API to extract data of readership from Mendeley for each paper. Findings The study suggests that while social media platforms do not give accurate measures of the impact as given by citations, they can be used to portray the social impact of the scholarly outputs and indicate the effectiveness of COVID-19 research. The results confirm a positive correlation between the number of citations to articles in databases such as Scopus and the number of views on social media sites such as Mendeley and Twitter. The results of the current study indicated that social media could serve as an indicator of the number of citations of scientific articles. Research limitations/implications This study’s limitation is that the studied articles’ altmetrics performance was examined using only one of the altmetrics data service providers (altmetrics database). Hence, future research should explore altmetrics on the topic using more than one platform. Another limitation of the current research is that it did not explore the academic social media role in spreading fake information as the scope was limited to scholarly outputs on social media. The practical contribution of the current research is that it informs scholars about the impact of social media platforms on the spread and visibility of COVID-19 research. Also, it can help researchers better understand the importance of published COVID-19 research using social media. Originality/value This paper provides insight into the impact of COVID-19 research on social media. The paper helps to provide an understanding of how people engage with health research using altmetrics scores, which can be used as indicators of research performance.

The uncontrollability of relational indifference in blended workgroups

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anette Kaagaard Kristensen ◽  
Martin Lund Kristensen
Keyword(s):  
Nursing Students ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Constructivist Grounded Theory ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Extra Effort ◽  
The Social ◽  
Hospital Wards ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose This paper aims to examine how temporaries’ experience and perception of encounters with permanent members’ relational indifference affect the social relations in blended workgroups. Design/methodology/approach Constructivist grounded theory study based on 15 semi-structured interviews with first- and third-year nursing students in clinical internships at somatic hospital wards was used. Findings The authors identified two themes around organizational alienation. Temporaries expected and hoped to experience resonance in their interactions with permanent members, which drove them to make an extra effort when confronted with permanents’ relational indifference. Temporaries felt insignificant, meaningless and unworthy, causing them to adopt a relationless mode of relating, feeling alienated and adapting their expectations and hopes. Practical implications Relational indifference is, unlike relational repulsion, problematic to target directly through intervention policies as organizations would inflict a more profound alienation on temporaries. Originality/value Unlike previous research on blended workgroups, which has predominantly focused on relational repulsion, this paper contributes to understanding how relational indifference affects temporaries’ mode of relating to permanent.

Integrating technology to service innovation

2019 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Minwoo Lee ◽  
Jiseon Ahn ◽  
Minjung Shin ◽  
Wooseok Kwon ◽  
Ki-Joon Back
Keyword(s):  
Customer Service ◽  
Emerging Technologies ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Service Innovation ◽  
Evidence Base ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Body Of Knowledge ◽  
Hospitality And Tourism ◽  
Tourism Service ◽  
Innovation Practices

Purpose This study aims to provide an understanding of the concept of service innovation resulting from emerging technologies and suggest areas for future hospitality and tourism research. By thoroughly reviewing previous literature, this study provides the basis for improving customer service with service innovation. Design/methodology/approach This study examines the existing body of knowledge from leading hospitality, tourism and business journals by performing content analysis. Findings This study reveals the multifaceted aspects of service innovation practices using emerging technologies. Findings provide an evidence base to future studies by highlighting the role of technology in hospitality and tourism service innovation. Originality/value The major contribution of this study is the demonstration of an approach for both academic researchers and service providers how they can use the technology to improve customers’ perceived value, experience and engagement.

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