Professor Rhodri Thomas

Purpose Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in tourism have attracted the attention of both policymakers and academic researchers. Yet, there is little evidence to suggest that the work of the former is influenced to a significant extent by the advances in knowledge claimed by the latter. The study’s critique, supported by a narrative review of the literature, is twofold. Firstly, that the literature contains a degree of conceptual inconsistency on matters of substance affecting SMEs and that this weakens the clarity of analysis offered by academic researchers. Secondly, there has been limited research progress made on issues of fundamental importance to policymakers, and that significant gaps in understanding of other topics relating to tourism SMEs remain. This paper aims to enhance the ability of academic researchers to influence policymakers and the practice of SMEs by promoting the consistent use of foundational (or no longer contested) knowledge, reviewing where academic research has enhanced understanding and identifying research priorities. It demonstrates that a complex interplay of factors affects SME behaviour in various contexts and advocates greater innovation in theorising SMEs. The paper has implications for policymakers as well as for academic researchers.

Academics and policy-makers have long been interested in understanding the interplay of factors that influence resident perceptions of local tourism development. This article reports the results of a study that is both methodologically and contextually novel. It uses the chi-square automatic interaction detection method (CHAID), which is usually associated with other fields, most notably consumer marketing, to examine residents’ perceptions of tourism development in rural Poland. It contributes to the literature by revealing the need to segment residents appropriately and highlights which constituencies in rural communities are most likely to be positively (and negatively) disposed toward tourism. This creates opportunities for more nuanced policy interventions.

The increased importance attached by policy-makers to the anticipated developmental effects of tourism in developing countries has been insufficiently examined by academic researchers, particularly in the context of the contribution of small firms in urban areas. This deficiency is addressed by providing a review of existing research followed by an analysis of interviews with 90 tourism business located within and outside the townships of Langa and Imizamo Yethu, Cape Town, South Africa. The findings reveal tensions between the different actors involved in township tourism. While the involvement of small, locally owned, businesses is beneficial, it is limited by conflicts of interest, lack of trust, limited social networks and little attachment to the township locality. The discussion highlights the complexity of tourism's role in economic development, which has significant implications for local policy-makers.

This paper examines an increasingly pervasive aspect of neoliberal research funding regimes, namely the expectation that academic research should influence non-academic policy and practice. More specifically, it explores the reaction of British academic researchers with an interest in sustainable tourism to what has become known as the impact agenda. How do they conceptualise impact? Do they moralise impact (perhaps in relation to the limits of their expertise or the veracity of their claims)? Does this aspect of research policy affect their approach to academic work? The findings of a qualitative study reveal a constituency of academic researchers primarily concerned with their own performativity. There is seemingly limited moral framing of research impact and a suggestion of moral hypocrisy. Widespread affective subjectivation provides a plausible explanation for current academic behaviour. The paper concludes by arguing that without a collective re-thinking of how sustainable tourism research might gain influence beyond academia, it is probable that performative practices will continue to characterise academic responses to the impact agenda.

Public policy to promote small business development is an established feature of the political landscape throughout western Europe. In a tourism context, there is a growing interest in the small business dimension, in both academic and policy terms. Yet, research relating to small firms does not appear to inform policy development. This paper argues that such a situation is exacerbated, if not precipitated, by a lack of common understanding about terminology and reasons for categorisation. The paper explores various definitions of ‘small tourism firms’ and examines the utility of adopting such a grouping as an analytical category. Following a critical review of statistics relating to the sector, it argues that additional research is required so that policy initiatives might be more finely focused. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This paper presents a model for assessing the business benefits of training in a typical service sector context. It suggests that training provision has a fundamental role to play in delivering strategic objectives. Earlier attempts to demonstrate the benefits that stem from investments in training have frequently been constrained by being limited to financial measures. The model developed here uses a balanced score card approach and argues that training is essentially aimed at changing the behaviour of the trainee and that measures of benefits must primarily consider the impact of employee behaviour on business performance. Flowing from this the model contains a range of measures related to employee performance, commitment and retention, as well as issues related to customer satisfaction. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This paper applies a model for calculating the business benefits of training provision discussed in the previous issue of Strategic Change. The case study of McDonald's restaurants involved exploring the training provision in two clusters of establishments selected against the company's own internal monitoring criteria to be better than average or worse than average trainers. Using a balanced scorecard approach the study shows that restaurants with a better training approach record higher levels of both customer and employee satisfaction. They have lower levels of staff turnover and a more flexible workforce. Training is also shown to positively impact on employee productivity. The study also demonstrates the key importance placed on training provision as a means by which the company achieves its strategic objectives of promoting customer satisfaction and sustaining competitive advantage. The study confirms how vitally important it is to monitor and manage training provision in multi-unit businesses like McDonald's if inconsistencies are to be avoided. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/09596119210010394. When citing the article, please cite: Rhodri Thomas, (1992), “1992 and the Hospitality Industry: A Review of Information Provision”, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 4 Iss 2.

Policy-makers charged with enhancing the competitiveness of tourism, sometimes draw attention to the potential contribution of universities to strengthening innovative behaviour in the private sector. Business elites (very senior managers of large enterprises) play a key role in determining the propensity of organisations to participate in knowledge transfer with higher education institutions. This paper examines the process of knowledge acquisition among ten British business elites, who between them employ tens of thousands of workers, and the (potential) contribution of universities to that activity. Qualitative data are interpreted using concepts from the literature on knowledge transfer and Mezirow’s theory of adult learning. The findings suggest that business elites not only operate within communities of practice but also tend to learn within their own ’meaning perspectives’. As a result, initiatives aimed at strengthening engagement are not likely to succeed unless they are able to influence how elites approach their own learning.

Supporting the development of small tourism businesses has been seen by policy-makers as a valuable means of alleviating poverty in South African townships. This perspective has been endorsed by several ‘responsible’ tourism businesses and academics. Following a review of the literature, this paper reports the findings of an empirical study that examined the practices of micro-business owners and the factors that shape their behaviour in two South African townships. In spite of significant visitor numbers, it finds that their narrow social networks and the imbalances of power between them and intermediaries such as travel agencies and tour operators prevent them from developing their businesses and sharing in the material gains that become available because of tourism. This analysis has important implications for local policy-makers and those advocating responsible tourism. For the former, it suggests a cessation of current initiatives in favour of greater regulation and alternative forms of investment. For the latter, it implies the need to reassess the utility of advocating responsible tourism to consumers in a context where they do not understand the dynamics which fashion what is on offer or the full implications of their choices.

Occupations as diverse as nursing, journalism and marketing have strengthened their claim to professional status and current research suggests that professional associations played a critical part in the process of professionalisation. Following a review of three conceptual approaches to understanding contemporary professionalisation strategies, this paper examines the case of British tourism. It traces the historical development and assesses the current practice of the two main professional associations in the sector. The analysis shows that the ‘professionalisation project’ has largely failed and argues that contemporary frameworks for understanding professionalisation strategies are somewhat deficient when applied to tourism.

This paper adds to previous conceptualisations of lifestyle entrepreneurship in tourism by framing the identity construction of such enterprises in terms of their ethical commitment to global issues, social and economic inequalities, and radical criticism of neoliberal capitalism. The study addresses a gap in the tourism studies literature which usually conceptualises entrepreneurs as either commercially oriented or lifestyle oriented. Such dichotomies do not easily accommodate entrepreneurs who are driven by a set of values associated with ‘doing good’. A linguistic narrative analysis–combined with features of structural narrative analysis–is used to reveal three prominent entrepreneurial identities among a group of values-based Italian entrepreneurs: the intellectual and educational, the professional and entrepreneurial, and the empathic ‘free speech’. These entrepreneurial identities challenge several assumptions about entrepreneurship in small non-commercially oriented tourism firms, thereby revealing some key theoretical and practical insights.

We advocate the adoption of more expansive and creative methodological approaches the study of tourism. More specifically, we argue that by examining how individuals narrate their experiences and social practices, researchers can gain an insight into the meanings actors attach to their actions. Considered from this perspective, narratives become performative; they prompt actors to take actions that (they feel) actualise the story they are seeking to tell. To illustrate its value, we use linguistic narrative analysis to explore how the owner-managers of small values-based tourism firms narrate the operation of their business. A dataset of first person accounts made of both narratives in storified form featuring a chronological order with beginning, middle, and end, and narratives without a storified form largely recounting opinions, feelings, and points of view, are interpreted to offer new perspectives on the behaviours of small firms in tourism. We argue that narrative approaches should complement methods used routinely by tourism scholars to examine this constituency of actors (and others).

Using a case‐study approach this article explores the impact the radical changes in British local governance over the last 15 years or so have had for tourism development at the local level. The expectation that tourism development would both be among the triggers for, and one of the beneficiaries of, changes in governance structures is shown to be misplaced. The paper concludes with a discussion, in the light of its findings, of what might be the most appropriate agencies for promoting tourism development. Copyright © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Partnerships have been a central feature of the tourism public policy landscape in advanced capitalist countries for some time. The intuitively appealing argument is that, by sharing expertise and decision making, commitment to the local tourism project is ensured. By participating in partnership working, small firms – which are almost universally characteristic of the sector – are said to contribute to the form and competitiveness of the tourism offer. Drawing on a variety of sources, this paper argues that in most cases such assertions are misplaced because ‘partnerships’ organized by the public sector are often predicated on an inadequate conceptualization of small firms in tourism, fail to appreciate the importance and complexity of informal economic relations, and usually ignore the particular power relations at play in local tourism policy formation and change.

Government regulation of the hospitality industry is extensive and frequently has a direct Impact on managerial decision making. Although the legitimacy of the state to intervene in firms' activities is no longer questioned, there is no guarantee that the implementation of regulations is uniform or always fair. The paper examines this question by considering the regulation of the hot food take-away sector in Britain under town planning legislation. The results of the research project reported here suggest variation in the manner in which planning authorities deal with applications, some divergence between government directives and planning practice and a low level of understanding of the planning system by the hot food take-away sector. In considering the implications of these findings the paper suggests ways in which hospitality firms might influence the planning process at a local level. © 1992.

It has long been recognised that an organisation’s ability to acquire and use external knowledge is related to its level of innovativeness. As others have shown, the acquisition of knowledge is often tied to networks of relationships, on different spatial scales, between those working in similar or quite different organisations. Not surprisingly, public policy-makers responsible for tourism development have invested resources in establishing and nurturing relationships between themselves and other actors and, in recognition of the importance of peer-to-peer learning, have facilitated networks between actors within particular destinations. This chapter explores what has become seen as a critical element in productive tourism knowledge networks, namely the trust shared between actors. Following a brief review of the literature on knowledge transfer (or exchange), it does so by assessing competing and complementary conceptualisations of trust and considering their potential influence on knowledge flows. The chapter concludes by arguing that as public policy-makers and tourism organisations look to the future, they would do well to reflect upon strategies for generating trust if they are to encourage greater learning and innovation.

Although small firms in tourism have featured on the agendas of policy-makers for several decades, academic interest over the same period has fluctuated. Certainly the flurry of activity that occurred during the early 1990s became a steady flow of somewhat fragmented output rather than the ambitious and coherent programme of research that was anticipated at the time. The paper traces progress in this field by reviewing inter-, multi- and disciplinary studies that contribute to current understanding of small firms in tourism and how this understanding articulates with wider debates within tourism studies. In so doing, it challenges some conventional wisdom and provides an agenda for future research.

This book provides the first comprehensive assessment of non-academic research impact in relation to a marginal field of study, namely tourism studies.

This article presents a grounded theory to explain why some small businesses in tourism adopt sustainable business practices while others do not, even when they share environmental and wider sustainability concerns. It does so based on research undertaken among business owners in Crete. The paper starts by considering studies on sustainability awareness, knowledge and the mechanisms for accepting responsibility. Secondly, it summarises the influence of task difficulty and effort on sustainability self-efficacy. Thirdly, it focuses on social comparisons and vicarious experiences, as a way of learning what is important. Finally, it examines powerlessness due to perceived situational constraints. In so doing, the study finds that self-efficacy helps to explain sustainable attitude formation and the attitude-behaviour gap; it partly shifts the locus of responsibility for an inability to act sustainably away from the individual and towards their context. The paper contributes to the theoretical literature on small businesses and sustainability, and leads to new avenues for policy interventions.

Awide range of information sources is given as information which is vital if hospitality managers are to take full advantage of the Single European Market. © 1992, MCB UP Limited. All rights reserved.

He was invited to speak to representatives of member countries about research on tourism SMEs. His contribution was intended to inform the deliberations of the Committee’s work on ‘New approaches to tourism challenges’. Drawing on recently published research, he emphasised the heterogeneity of the sector and offered insights into the role of networks and learning for innovation.

The staging of planned events has emerged as a distinctive sector of the UK economy. This paper examines the nature and degree of professionalization of event management. Three models of professionalism are critically evaluated. It is argued that the model of corporate professionalization appears to hold out most promise for understanding the dynamics of professionalization in event management. This is tested through an empirical research study of four organisations which have a professionalizing mission. The paper concludes that professionalization of the occupation has not succeeded to date, whether professionalism is understood as corporate professionalism or in more traditional terms. It suggests that there is currently little prospect of professionalizing event management in the UK.

Prompted by a period of five years as a non-executive director of a British regional tourist board, this paper examines the constraints faced by academics seeking to engage in critical policy research. It identifies three overlapping influences that serve to circumscribe critical comment. The first is that as universities become increasingly commercial in their orientation, often competing with consultants, a culture of collaboration can develop which encourages shared practices and perspectives. The need for teamwork, shared vision and ‘not letting the side down’ serves to limit or suppress some observations. The second is that universities often have a perceived common interest with city or regional policy-makers in promoting positive images of their locale. As a consequence, senior university managers can become part of informal coalitions of interest who may not welcome narratives that undermine prevailing official discourses. Academics, as workers, may feel inhibited from offering alternative perspectives. Finally, funded research requires the acceptance of certain frames of reference which are set, or accepted, by those commissioning the work. This inevitably limits the conceptual and methodological choices open to academics. The paper concludes by calling for a wider debate about the role of academics and their articulation with the policy-making community.

This article explores how Chinese diaspora communities use guanxi, a unique Chinese interpretation of personal relationships, in the organization of Chinese New Year (CNY) festivals in England. A case-study approach that incorporated mixed qualitative methods was used to investigate the interactions and interrelationships between the ethnic Chinese communities involved in the organization of CNY festivals in five English cities. The article argues that Chinese diaspora communities use their guanxi to establish collaboration at CNY festivals. However, the process of organizing CNY festivals has also exposed divisions among Chinese communities. The article proposes that guanxi has important implications for the relationships among Chinese diaspora communities in the context of CNY festivals. Although it facilitates collaboration and promotes solidarity among Chinese communities, it may also intensify competition for power. Diaspora festivals in general are a neglected area of research and this article is the first to study the organization of Chinese New Year festivals in detail.

This chapter considers the characteristics of performance based research funding systems (PBRFS) and what they mean for academic researchers in tourism. PBRFS are ways of allocating public research funds based on the performance of an individual or group during a stipulated period. The core characteristics of national systems are described - they involve an assessment of the quality of research outputs and related matters – but not the detail of each system (the emphasis of each often changes). Particular attention is paid to Australia, New Zealand, and the UK. By revealing the operation of PBRFS, readers will be able to develop bespoke approaches to career planning that reflect their personal circumstances and outlook.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought into sharp focus the important role public policy, including tourism policy, plays in improving economic and social welfare. This paper advocates consideration of the potential value of hubristic leadership theories when seeking to explain tourism policy failure (though it might also be used to contribute to examinations of policy innovation). In doing so, it seeks to complement existing literature by introducing ‘lower-level’ frameworks to show how more localized crises may occur. The flavour of a growing body of theoretical work in this field is provided alongside a truncated illustrative case study of policy failure in a British regional tourism policy context.

Although small firms characterise the tourism sector, there is currently insufficient critical understanding of their heterogeneity and they remain largely under-investigated and under-theorised. They have been examined mainly on the basis of a rudimentary polarisation - commercially oriented and non-commercially oriented - or according to their lack of entrepreneurial attitude and managerial skills in comparison to firms quantitatively different or operating in other sectors. Small, non-commercially oriented tourism firms have been identified as mostly lifestyle-oriented, rejecting growth to pursue personal lifestyle choices. This definition does not encompass those small tourism firms, which define themselves by non-profit values, commitment to an ethical vision, and a proactive approach to development and welfare. These firms have hitherto remained unexplored and are therefore the subject of this research and investigation wherein they are referred to as ‘value-based’ firms. Small value-based tourism firms critically reflect part of the contemporary debate on global challenges, the development agenda and the switch from consumerism to citizenship, where civil society and companies are called to take responsibility for others and the environment. This research, therefore, explores how small value-based tourism firms construct and narrate their organisational effectiveness between their non-profit driving values and the market’s profit rationales. The study adopts a value-driven outlook involving the understanding of the firms’ identity construction process, decision-making process and management. The research examines the background and ideological outline of such firms, exploring the relationships among alternative paradigms of development and growth, non-profit values, small-scale products and tourism. Through a social constructionism perspective, the research designs a qualitative narrative approach, innovative in tourism research. The researcher organised a number of lightly guided interviews with the founders-owners/managers of small Italian tour operators committed to an ethical vision of tourism, and operating in developing countries. Purposive sampling allows the identification of small tour operators with key common pre-determined characteristics. The selected tour operators are all members of AITR – Associazione Italiana Turismo Responsabile –, an Italian consortium gathering firms committed to a responsible ethical approach to tourism. The interviews result in a dataset of first person accounts, narratives and stories that are analysed through a combination of structural narrative analysis and a linguistic approach to the structure of a narrative. ii The narrative analysis reveals common patterns in the way participants make sense of their identity and role, moral standards, and the construction of their organisational effectiveness, decision-making processes and management. This leads to the identification of three main narrative types: the intellectual and educational narrative, the professional and entrepreneurial narrative and the empathic ‘free speech’ narrative. The research proposes a new understanding of small tourism firms that do not define themselves in commercial terms, and reveals a complex realm of firms not matching the lifestyle-oriented paradigm. The three narrative types picture a realm of disruptive, parrhesiastic - ‘truth-telling’ -, innovative, entrepreneurial firms, committed to alternative ideological paradigms of development and growth that challenge the failures and weaknesses of the Western global economy. The research shows three liquid polycentric narrative types trying to re-define concepts like growth, development, entrepreneurship and professionalism for small value-based tourism firms.

There is a degree of consensus in the academic literature that innovation is a vital source of competitive advantage in tourism. Although some processional aspects of innovation have been examined in detail, the process of implementation of innovation at an organisational level has been neglected, especially in the tourism literature. This paper adopts a relational perspective to examine the implementation of innovation within the burgeoning Chinese modern music festivals sector. The findings of six detailed case studies show how identity, equality, guanxi, and a range of specific contextual factors, influence the development of relationships. These, in turn, affect innovation implementation, notably by influencing the acquisition and use of knowledge and other resources essential to the process. A conceptual model is proposed which explains the complexities of these relationships, their roles in innovation implementation, and incorporates mediating factors such as temporality, organisational structure, and the reliance upon volunteers found within events.

Recent reviews of research on innovation in tourism have highlighted a number of weaknesses in the literature. Among these is the limited theorising and empirical investigation of innovative practices by tourism organisations. This paper responds to these concerns by examining one important dimension of innovation within commercial tourism organisations, namely their ability to acquire, assimilate and utilise external knowledge (absorptive capacity) for competitive advantage. The topic is pertinent because there is evidence to suggest that tourism organisations are particularly dependent on external sources of knowledge when compared with businesses in other sectors. Following a discussion of the conceptual antecedents of absorptive capacity and its dimensions, a validated instrument for its measurement is developed and used to measure the absorptive capacity of the British hotel sector. The results suggest that current conceptions of absorptive capacity have limitations when applied to tourism enterprises. Absorptive capacity is re-conceptualised to overcome these deficiencies. The research and policy implications of the findings are discussed. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd.

© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. Absorptive capacity, one of the most prominent constructs in innovation research over recent decades, has advanced theoretically without consideration for the peculiarities of tourism and tourism enterprises. At its core is the notion that an ability to acquire, assimilate, transform and exploit external knowledge generates competitive advantage. Following a review of the literature and a study of absorptive capacity in the international meetings industry, a new theoretical model is proposed. The paper also provides the means by which policy-makers might, for the first time, assess levels of absorptive capacity in destinations.

Public investment in convention centres represents a relatively common approach to stimulating economic development in many large cities throughout the world. The rationale is that metropolitan authorities can thereby attract business tourists and promote positive (business friendly) images of their locality. While the economic dimension of such spending has received some attention, especially by consultants, there has been little theorising or empirical research which has examined residents’ perceptions of such development. This is in 2 sharp contrast to examinations of resident perceptions of leisure tourism, which has witnessed extensive academic interest. This paper analyses residents’ perceptions of the Busan Exhibition and Convention Centre in South Korea. Distance decay theories, geographic decay and cognitive decay, are used to inform the analysis. The findings indicate that increasing residents’ engagement with, and knowledge of, convention centres is likely to engender positive perceptions of their impacts. It is suggested that urban policy-makers in many parts of the world could learn from this study and should take residents’ perceptions into account when financing and managing convention centres.

The SAGE Handbook of Tourism Management is a critical, state-of-the-art and authoritative review of tourism management, written by leading international thinkers and academics in the field.

The literature on internships (also placements) emphasises their importance in career development, even seeing them as a launch pad for graduate careers. Indeed, universities use internships to enable students to develop a range of skills and to help clarify and refine employment intentions and career goals. Traditionally, most internships have taken place in large organisations. More recently, however, policy‐makers have encouraged internships in small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). This paper reports the findings of a British study and contests the unproblematic treatment of the relationship between SME internship and career intentions in the context of tourism education. An explanatory model is developed to show how an interplay of factors come together to undermine the influence of largely positive SME internship experiences on SME employment intentions. The implications of this analysis for both policy‐makers and researchers are particularly important at a time of upheaval in the graduate labour market.

The starting point of our paper (Thomas & Ormerod, 2017) was to assess the extent to which academic research influenced policy and practice. Others have undertaken this task and come to a broadly similar conclusion; collectively, tourism researchers appear to have little impact on anyone other than fellow academics (and perhaps their students). Whether this is ‘good’ or ‘bad’, important or unimportant, depends on your perspective. In addition to illustrating the novel use of digital methods, the main contribution of our research lay in its attempt to explain why some academic researchers appear to have more non-academic impact than others. Our theorising of impact was, therefore, designed to identify variables that influenced impact and to show their inter-relationships. Readers will reach their own conclusions about the extent to which we were successful in our ambition, but few will deny that we had a very comprehensive data set to work with, albeit limited to the UK.

The need to demonstrate the value of research to non-academic audiences is an increasingly prominent feature of the research policy landscape in many parts of the world. Yet, little is understood about the factors that differentiate academic researchers in terms of their relative influence on non-academic actors. Following a review of the literature, this study uses novel digital methods to undertake a detailed study of the non-academic impact of UK based tourism academics. The findings suggest that non-academic impact is strikingly lower in tourism than in the social sciences more generally. The multiple regression analyses used reveal that researchers who score highly using a range of academic metrics are also cited more by policy-makers and other practitioners. On the basis of the findings, research impact in tourism is theorized. This has implications for individual and institutional tourism research strategies beyond the geographical limitations of the study.

Major sports events are used increasingly by policy-makers to stimulate economic development. This has resulted in a growth of academic interest in ways of analysing their contribution. Following a review of the literature on the contrasting approaches that have been used, this paper assesses the economic impact of the Beijing Olympics, in particular the tourism impact, using computable general equilibrium (CGE) modelling. To add novelty, it analyses the data under conditions of imperfect competition, an approach that has been used to good effect in other contexts, notably international trade. The findings suggest that staging the Beijing Olympics brought economic benefits to the host economy but that the scale of the impact was not significant compared to the total size of the economy. The welfare impacts of the Beijing Olympics under imperfect competition are shown to be higher than when perfect competition is assumed. This is explained by the pro-competitive effect.

This article examines the role community events can play in negotiating forms of community and place identity against a backdrop of social, economic and urban change. Our contention is that in the context of globalisation and de-industrialisation, forms of working-class community may be expressed and recreated through maintaining traditions and practices established in place-based community events. The article is based on an ethnographic study of the World Coal Carrying Championships (WCCC) which involved undertaking in-depth interviews, volunteering, focus groups, observations and archival analysis. The findings show how the WCCC is invested with powerful symbols and invented traditions that are activated through the event. By reconstructing and remobilising shared pasts in the present, the WCCC permits community members to create an affective sense of community in the contemporary context, even in spite of the destabilising loss of other aspects of their industrial lives.

Many commentators consider innovation to be a vital source of competitive advantage and critical to explanation of why some organisations flourish and others flounder. Although various aspects of innovation have been examined in detail, the implementation of innovation is, as yet, the least understood aspect of the innovation process. This research takes a relational perspective to understand the implementation of innovation within the burgeoning Chinese music festivals sector. Social exchange theory is used as a framework to explain the development of relationships within this research context.  Adopting a qualitative research strategy, six detailed case studies were conducted. These involved undertaking one hundred and thirty five in-depth semi-structured interviews with senior staff, junior staff, volunteers, partners and suppliers at six modern music festivals in China. In addition, direct observation, participant observation, and observation of online group discussion and Weibo micro blogs (a Chinese type of Twitter) were also employed.  This research enriches the body of knowledge in innovation, social exchange, and event studies by providing a conceptual framework of the role and influence of relationships on the implementation of innovation within the context of Chinese events. Exchange rules and norms, and exchange resources, were found to influence the development of relationships that affected the implementation of innovation in Chinese events. Five sub-factors, namely, identity, equality, social capital (guanxi), event contexts, and the Chinese socio-cultural context, were found to affect people’s choice of exchange rules and norms, and exchange resources. A combination of these factors influenced the development of relationships, resulting in four types of relationships. A combination of these relationships had impacts on the implementation of innovation by influencing the acquisition and use of knowledge and resources that were essential in this process. Four categories of implementation outcomes were identified and incorporated into the conceptual framework. Such combined effects of different relationships were complex, because the impact between harmonious relationships and conflicting relationships was not equal. Although harmonious relationships exerted certain positive influences on the implementation of innovation, conflicting or malfunctional relationships were more dominant. Such influences were also found being mediated by certain event contexts, including the temporary time and organisational structure, and the employment of unpaid staff.

This paper examines the factors that contribute to students leaving undergraduate programs in events, tourism and hospitality management programs in the UK before graduation. Following a comprehensive review of the literature, it develops a conceptual framework that is used to inform an empirical study that utilises data from one major British educational provider. The study revealed four variables as having significant associations with student withdrawal: gender, socio-economic classification, disability, and term-time distance from campus. Two of these, gender and disability, are statistically significant in predicting levels of withdrawal. The findings have implications for those seeking to improve student continuation rates.

This paper examines the reasons for different levels of environmental engagement among small firms in tourism. Drawing on theories of motivation, notably Social Cognitive Theory, Motivation Systems Theory and Goal Orientation Theory, as well as the literature on environmental sensitivity, it proposes a novel conceptual framework that is subsequently used to inform an empirical study. The findings of the research suggest that varying levels of environmental engagement may be explained by differences in worldviews, self-efficacy beliefs, context beliefs and goal orientation. The paper concludes by considering the policy implications of the results. © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Small firms in tourism are characterised by informal approaches to management, allowing their owners to meet a variety of often overlapping business and personal goals. Environmental certification schemes generally require members to subscribe to formal environmental management systems (EMS), even when aimed at small business operators. This paper examines in detail the managerial approaches of a small group of owner-managers who are operating within the approximately 3000-member Green Tourism Business Scheme (GTBS) available in the UK and Ireland. The findings suggest that the type of environmental practices adopted most willingly reflect the formality of management within the business and the owner-managers’ various backgrounds, values, reasons to be in business, expectations from acting and their understanding of the “environment”. It finds that the “Plan-Do-Check-Review” approach of most EMS does not easily relate to the complex motivations and needs of the world of small business. The paper concludes that environmental engagement is more likely to be fostered if owner-managers’ managerial approaches and assumptions are better understood and that shared visions for environmental engagement are encouraged through informed dialogue. Both economic benefits and the fostering of “feel good” factors should be stressed if small tourism businesses are to adopt EMS programmes.

This paper analyses policies and practices designed to support digital transformation in the tourism workforce in six OECD countries, namely Germany, Greece, Iceland, New Zealand, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Data for the project were gathered via a questionnaire survey, interviews with key informants and examination of various policy documents in 2021. Contrasting practice in relation to digital skills development is revealed. Significant deficiencies are evident in relation to the availability of high-quality data, evaluation, understanding, leadership, and infrastructure among the six countries. Ways in which effective policy development might emerge are suggested.

A reflective piece on how a small team of students and academics gained more awareness of their own sense of enterprise and creativity. The case study examines the phases and crisis points of the whole event process and identifies some of the key learning outcomes for all involved.

Excerpt: More than 1.3 million meetings were held in the UK in 2011 in more than 10,000 venues. Attendees spent just under £40 billion attending UK meetings, and most meetings took place in London, the South East and the West Midlands. After England, Scotland took the lead in hosting the largest number of meetings. Whilst large hotels hosted most meetings, unusual and unique venues proved popular for conference organisers, and small hotels more popular for incentive events. Corporate clients hosted the vast majority of events, with many (more than 60%) favouring smaller meetings of less than 100 people. Meeting organisers staged on average 147 events in the year and received £11 billion from hosting meetings in the UK and £1.4 billion from hosting meetings outside the UK.