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Hazel Kyrk, one of the first women economists at the Economic Department of the University of Chicago and author of A Theory of Consumption (1923), conducted groundbreaking research for the Bureau of Home Economics of the US Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Kyrk made a considerable contribution to the development of standards for a “decent living,” the Consumer Price Index, and the conceptualization of what would later turn into the definition of the poverty line. This chapter evaluates Kyrk’s use of eugenic notions of gender and race that were widely used in Kyrk’s day. This chapter shows that eugenic reasoning impacts Kyrk’s theoretical work only superficially but does structure her research on consumption standards through her focus on the white middle-class family as the unit of analysis for consumer behavior. This chapter also makes clear that the American Institutionalist approach to consumer behavior, rather than marginalized and side-tracked due to a lack of theoretical progress, was relegated to the margins of economics science together with the research of women economists into Home Economics departments and policy research at government institutions.

The purpose of this study is to primarily focus upon the acknowledged benefits of tourist-to-tourist (t2t) encounters through productive interactions among tourists, rather than focusing on interactions between tourists and service providers.

This study delves into various value dimensions among Indian tourists that arise during different co-creation stages. A rigorous mixed-methods approach, coupled with a three-wave analysis, was used to develop a comprehensive six-dimensional scale for measuring t2t value co-creation.

The research findings shed light on the dimensions constituting t2t value co-creation, thereby providing a nuanced understanding of their interactions. The developed six-dimensional scale offers a structured framework to quantify positive interactions among tourists, previously unexplored in the literature.

This study significantly contributes to the field of tourism experience by enriching the literature on t2t interaction and value co-creation. Moreover, it provides valuable conceptual, practical and instructive insights for service design and administration within the tourism industry. These insights potentially enhance the overall tourist experience and facilitate more meaningful interactions among tourists, thereby contributing positively to the tourism sector.

The research breaks new ground by shifting the focus from tourist-service provider interactions to productive relationships among tourists. It introduces a pioneering six-dimensional scale, quantifying positive t2t value co-creation. Concentrating on Indian tourists, this study offers unique cultural insights. Methodologically rigorous and practically impactful, it clarifies conceptual ambiguities laying the foundation for nuanced research in understanding tourist interactions and value co-creation.

Understanding the multifaceted images of tourism destinations is critical for effective destination marketing and management strategies. Traditional approaches, including conceptualization of destination images or analysis of their antecedents and consequences, are commonly used. This study aims to advocate the inclusion of visitors’ latent profiles based on cognitive images to enrich the evaluation and formulation of destination marketing and management strategies.

The analysis focuses on Serbia, an emerging destination, that attracts an increasing number of first-time, repeat and prospective visitors. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were used to test the potential dimensions (tangible and intangible cultural destination; infrastructural and accessible destination; active, nature and family destination; sensory and hospitable destination; and welcoming, value for money (VFM) and safe destination) of the cognitive destination image factors scale while subtypes (profiles) were obtained using latent profile analysis (LPA).

The cognitive image component encompasses the perceived attributes of a destination, whether derived from direct experience or acquired through other means. The study identified the following profiles: conventional destination; sensory and hospitable destination; welcoming, VFM and safe destination; secure and active family destination and accessible cultural destination, which are presented individually with their sociodemographic assets.

The main contribution of the paper is the application of a novel method (LPA) for profiling visitor segments based on cognitive destination image. From a theoretical perspective, this research contributes to the extant body of literature pertaining to the destination image, thereby facilitating the identification of discrete latent visitor segments and elucidating noteworthy differences among them concerning a cognitive image.

In the years following the publication of A Theory of Consumption (1923), Hazel Kyrk’s book became the flagship of the field that would later be known as the economics of consumption. It stimulated theoretical and empirical work on consumption. Some of the existing literature on Kyrk (e.g., Kiss & Beller, 2000; Le Tollec, 2020; Tadajewski, 2013) depicted her theory as the starting point of the economics of consumption. Nevertheless, how and why it emerged the way it did remain largely unexplored. This chapter examines Kyrk’s intellectual background, which, we argue, can be traced back to two main movements in the United States: the home economics and the institutionalist. Both movements conveyed specific endeavors as responses to the US material and social transformations that occurred at the turn of the 20th century, notably the perceived changing role of consumption and that of women in US society. On the one hand, Kyrk pursued first-generation home economists’ efforts to make sense of and put into action the shifting of women’s role from domestic producer to consumer. On the other hand, she reinterpreted Veblen’s (1899) account of consumption in order to reveal its operational value for a normative agenda focused on “wise” and “rational” consumption. This chapter studies how Kyrk carried on first-generation home economists’ progressive agenda and how she adapted Veblen’s fin-de-siècle critical account of consumption to the context of the household goods developed in 1900–1920. Our account of Kyrk’s intellectual roots offers a novel narrative to better understand the role of gender and epistemological questions in her theory.

Financial services industry is increasingly showing interest in automated financial advisors, or robo-advisors, with the aim of democratizing access to financial advice and stimulating investment behavior among populations that were previously less active and less served. However, the extent to which consumers trust this technology influences the adoption of rob-advisors. The resemblance to a human, or anthropomorphism, can provide a sense of social presence and increase trust.

In this paper, we conduct an experiment (N = 223) to test the effect of anthropomorphism (low vs medium vs high) and gender (male vs female) of the robo-advisor on social presence. This perception, in turn, enables consumers to evaluate personality characteristics of the robo-advisor, such as competence, warmth, and persuasiveness, all of which are related to trust in the robo-advisor. We separately conduct an experimental study (N = 206) testing the effect of gender neutrality on consumer responses to robo-advisory anthropomorphism.

Our results show that consumers prefer human-alike robo-advisors over machinelike or humanoid robo-advisors. This preference is only observed for male robo-advisors and is explained by perceived competence and perceived persuasiveness. Furthermore, highlighting gender neutrality undermines the positive effect of robo-advisor anthropomorphism on trust.

We contribute to the body of knowledge on robo-advisor design by showing the effect of robot’s anthropomorphism and gender on consumer perceptions and trust. Consequently, we offer insightful recommendations to promote the adoption of robo-advisory services in the financial sector.

In the uncertain business environment, the supply chains are under pressure to balance routine operations and prepare for adverse events. Consequently, this research investigates how artificial intelligence is used to enable resilience among supply chains.

This study first analyzed the relationship among different characteristics of AI-enabled supply chain and how these elements take it towards resilience by collecting the responses from 27 supply chain professionals. Furthermore, to validate the results, an empirical analysis is conducted where the responses from 231 supply chain professionals are collected.

Findings indicate that the disruption impact of an event depends on the degree of transparency kept and provided to all supply chain partners. This is further validated through empirical study, where the impact of transparency facilitates the mass customization of the procurement strategy to Last Mile Delivery to reduce the impact of disruption. Hence, AI facilitates resilience in the supply chain.

This study adds to the domain of supply chain and information systems management by identifying the driving and dependent elements that AI facilitates and further validating the findings and structure of the elements through empirical analysis. The research also provides meaningful implications for theory and practice.