Search results

Heritage tourism sites worldwide are increasingly using augmented reality (AR) and gamification elements to enhance visitor interaction and enhance educational experiences. This research study conducts a comprehensive analysis of many case studies that illustrate successful implementations of AR and gamification within the domain of historical tourism. This research investigates the impact of various technologies on visitor engagement, knowledge acquisition and overall enjoyment. This research provides novel perspectives on the transformational capacity of AR and gamification within the domain of historical tourism. It does this by investigating the most effective strategies and challenges faced throughout the implementation process. The findings underscore the importance of these innovative technologies in enabling the linkage between different historical eras, fostering emotional connections and permitting impactful and interactive engagements with cultural artefacts. This research offers practical recommendations for administrators of cultural institutions and professionals in the tourism sector who want to improve the integration of AR and gamification. The aim is to enrich historic tourist experiences via the development of immersive and educational itineraries. The investigation of these particular occurrences contributes to the broader debate on the interface between technology and the preservation of cultural heritage, therefore shaping a dynamic and engaging trajectory for the area of heritage tourism.

In recent years, the development of metaheuristic algorithms for solving optimization problems within a reasonable timeframe has garnered significant attention from the global scientific community. In this work, a new metaheuristic algorithm inspired by the inflection mechanism of the avian influenza virus H5N1 in poultry and humans, taking into account its mutation mechanism, called H5N1.

This algorithm aims to explore optimal solutions for optimization problems by simulating the adaptive behavior and evolutionary process of the H5N1 virus, thereby enhancing the algorithm’s performance for all types of optimization problems. Additionally, a balanced stochastic probability mechanism derived from the infection probability is presented. Using this mechanism, the H5N1 algorithm can change its phrase, including exploitation and exploration phases. Two versions of H5N1, SH5N1 and MH5N1, are presented to solve single-objective optimization problems (SOPs) and multi-objective optimization problems (MOPs).

The performance of the algorithm is evaluated using a set of benchmark functions, including seven unimodal, six multimodal, ten fixed-dimension multimodal to solve SOPs, ZDT functions and CEC2009 has been used to demonstrate its superiority over other recent algorithms. Finally, six optimization engineering problems have been tested. The results obtained indicate that the proposed algorithm outperformed ten algorithms in SOPs and seven algorithms in MOPs.

The experimental findings demonstrate the outstanding convergence of the H5N1 algorithm and its ability to generate solutions of superior quality.

Tourism is vital to India's economy, contributing significantly to its GDP and job creation. As the country aims to become one of the top 10 tourism destinations globally, it is essential to understand meaningful tourism and its facets. The concept of meaningful tourism is gaining traction, with tourists seeking experiences that enrich their lives and benefit local communities. Meaningful tourism in India encompasses responsible and sustainable travel practices that promote cross-cultural understanding and support local economies. In this paper, the authors delve into the case study of Dhordo, a Gujarat village recognized by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) as the Best Tourism Village. Dhordo's success story highlights the symbiotic relationship between tourists and host communities. The village's commitment to sustainable tourism practices, cultural preservation and community development has made it a model for meaningful tourism. The criteria for selecting the best tourism village, as outlined by the UNWTO, include stewardship attitude, cultural pride, environmental consciousness, community involvement, empowerment, adaptability, cultural exchange, education, sustainable infrastructure, waste management, respect for local traditions, economic development, quality of life, conflict resolution and monitoring and evaluation. Dhordo's recognition signifies its contribution to meaningful tourism, fostering economic growth, preserving cultural heritage and promoting environmental conservation. The case study of Dhordo not only provides a comprehensive understanding of meaningful tourism and offers practical implications for decision-makers, empowering them to make informed decisions for the well-being of tourists and host communities.

This paper introduces and develops a conceptual model, “organizational job crafting,” to extend and apply job crafting theory to precarious workers.

This conceptual model incorporates the perspectives of organizational justice theory into job crafting theory to identify precarious workers’ unique job crafting motivation and processes in their work environment. The theory is developed by integrating and adjusting aspects of these two approaches.

This model invokes five propositions specifying (1) the impacts of organizational justice on individual motivations for job crafting, (2) the conditions for developing a shared perception of organizational justice, (3) the forms of organizational job crafting and (4) the individual and organizational effects of job crafting. Moderating conditions are identified, such as the level of connection to labor/community organizations.

This study extends established job crafting theory, enriching it by incorporating the precarious worker perspective. By connecting job crafting to organizational justice theories, this model opens the possibility that workers’ job crafting can produce not only personal enrichment or work efficiency but also contribute to organizational changes. The theoretical development handles issues blocked or hidden by the original constituent theoretical ingredients.

This study aims to develop a model for coordination and communication overhead in distributed software development through case study analysis in the Indian outsourcing software industry. The model is based on business knowledge, which can be classified as domain, regulatory, strategic, business process and operation process knowledge as per existing literature.

Double case study method was used to verify an existing knowledge–management framework of software development from the literature. The stakeholders of both the cases were interviewed, and project documents were verified to reach conclusions.

The findings supported the business knowledge classification from the literature. The concept can be used to analyze the software project in a distributed environment.

The research work findings are based only on two case studies. The study findings cannot be generalized and should be used as a learning tool. There can be large variations of project characteristics with differences in business knowledge requirements. The research shows the importance of business knowledge transfer in global software development.

Projects managers in the distributed software development environment can use the findings in project planning and work allocation for better control over cost and schedule, etc.

There is little research works attempted to study the business knowledge classification in the global software industry making the research novel.

With infographics emerging as key communication tools on social media platforms, this study explores the visual literacy of governments in creating effective infographics, especially during crises. Using the Kuwaiti government during the COVID-19 pandemic as a case study, the investigation evaluates the government’s visual competency and strategy in its infographics on X.

For competence, AI-based techniques were employed to analyze the proportion of text region size to total infographic size, word count per infographic and the most prominent colors used. Regarding strategy, the study utilized the crisis and emergency risk communication (CERC) model as a framework to examine how the Kuwaiti government integrated crisis communication response strategies into infographics.

When communicating complex messages, the government resorted to text-heavy infographics instead of creative visualizations, casting doubt on its visual competence. The inconsistent use of colors further undermined a recognizable visual identity. Regarding strategy, infographics on crisis updates were most frequent, supporting CERC’s emphasis on reducing uncertainty. Yet, prioritizing bolstering strategies above empathy and action steps goes against the advice of existing literature.

While crisis communication research is widely based on textual analysis, this study extends the literature by examining visuals, specifically infographics. Additionally, focusing on Arabic infographics from Kuwait, the study expands the crisis communication literature, which has mainly concentrated on Western countries and the English language. Given the lack of consensus on the best methods to measure visual literacy, this study’s AI approaches contribute to the literature.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-03-2024-0172

Lesotho is one of the most vulnerable countries to effects of climate change with resultant recurrent drought. Drought and dry spells have become a common feature that causes crop failure which subsequently causes food insecurity for agrarian communities. While drought-related research has explored the association between rainfall and crop production, there is a gap in understanding people’s experiences of drought impacts and their opinion about what actions could be taken to avoid such impacts in the future. This study aims to ask: what are people’s experiences of drought and potential early actions that could save livelihoods and reduce human suffering?

A qualitative research approach was adopted where this paper carried out consultations in three agroecological zones, i.e. Southern Lowlands, Northern Lowlands and Mountains of Lesotho. Overall, this paper conducted 48 community consultations where genderized focus group discussions (mixed elderly, mixed youth, middled aged men and women) and nine key informants (local authorities, schoolteachers, wisemen and women in the community) interviews were conducted. Furthermore, interviews with stakeholders at the district level (sectoral leaders in disaster risk reduction sub-sectors) were conducted.

This study finds that there are interlinked socio-economic, productive and environmental impacts. Drought-related impacts reported were: cost of food, prevalence of diarrhoea in children under five years of age, conflicts over resources, animal diseases and mortality, aridity and crop failure. Informants also perceived the following actions could be taken before a drought is manifested: clear agro-climatological early warning messages, tailor-made drought-relevant advisories, water harvesting and availability of drought-tolerant seeds. It is thus imperative to streamline policy interventions regarding dissemination of early warning messages and anticipatory actions to reduce the negative impacts of drought on livelihoods.

In any qualitative study, the researchers need to reflect on their positionality and how that may influence the research process, outcomes and the general limitations of the research methods (Quandt, 2021). Given that the research team has worked with humanitarian organisations in the study area after which development interventions were implemented, this might have led to interviewees exaggerating the negative impacts of drought hoping the team to bring assistance into the community. In contrast, others may have downplayed the impact and anticipatory actions they deem necessary because of concern that people from different institutions come to ask questions without feedback.

This study provides much-needed evidence on how communities affected by drought conceptualise it and how it affects their livelihoods. It delivers an understanding of the nature of the impacts of drought and the nature of anticipatory actions perceived as essential in reducing these impacts and, in so doing, seeks to inform policymakers on designing interventions informed by evidence on lived experience. Future humanitarian and policy interventions to prepare for droughts can use this evidence to identify the type of support that would be the most well-received by community members who are preparing for long-term drying trends in their region.

The study presents an understanding of people’s opinions of the nature and state of drought impacts, which are key to any effort towards developing and implementing relevant anticipatory action interventions to minimise the impacts of drought.

This study, a theoretical article, aims to introduce new institutionalism as a framework through which business and management researchers can explore the significance of artificial intelligence (AI) in organizations. Although the new institutional theory is a fully established research program, the neo-institutional literature on AI is almost non-existent. There is, therefore, a need to develop a deeper understanding of AI as both the product of institutional forces and as an institutional force in its own right.

The authors follow the top-down approach. Accordingly, the authors first briefly describe the new institutionalism, trace its historical development and introduce its fundamental concepts: institutional legitimacy, environment and isomorphism. Then, the authors use those as the basis for the queries to perform a scoping review on the institutional role of AI in organizations.

The findings reveal that a comprehensive theory on AI is largely absent from business and management literature. The new institutionalism is only one of many possible theoretical perspectives (both contextually novel and insightful) from which researchers can study AI in organizational settings.

The authors use the insights from new institutionalism to illustrate how a particular social theory can fit into the larger theoretical framework for AI in organizations. The authors also formulate four broad research questions to guide researchers interested in studying the institutional significance of AI. Finally, the authors include a section providing concrete examples of how to study AI-related institutional dynamics in business and management.

This study aims to elucidate the dynamics of social media discourse during global health events, specifically investigating how users across different platforms perceive, react to and engage with information concerning such crises.

A mixed-method approach was employed, combining both quantitative and qualitative data collection. Initially, thematic analysis was applied to a data set of social media posts across four major platforms over a 12-month period. This was followed by sentiment analysis to discern the predominant emotions embedded within these communications. Statistical tools were used to validate findings, ensuring robustness in the results.

The results showcased discernible thematic and emotional disparities across platforms. While some platforms leaned toward factual information dissemination, others were rife with user sentiments, anecdotes and personal experiences. Overall, a global sense of concern was evident, but the ways in which this concern manifested varied significantly between platforms.

The primary limitation is the potential non-representativeness of the sample, as only four major social media platforms were considered. Future studies might expand the scope to include emerging platforms or non-English language platforms. Additionally, the rapidly evolving nature of social media discourse implies that findings might be time-bound, necessitating periodic follow-up studies.

Understanding the nature of discourse on various platforms can guide health organizations, policymakers and communicators in tailoring their messages. Recognizing where factual information is required, versus where sentiment and personal stories resonate, can enhance the efficacy of public health communication strategies.

The study underscores the societal reliance on social media for information during crises. Recognizing the different ways in which communities engage with, and are influenced by, platform-specific discourse can help in fostering a more informed and empathetic society, better equipped to handle global challenges.

This research is among the first to offer a comprehensive, cross-platform analysis of social media discourse during a global health event. By comparing user engagement across platforms, it provides unique insights into the multifaceted nature of public sentiment and information dissemination during crises.

This study aims to present a comprehensive review of the scientific literature on gig work and the social responsibility towards them; the study highlights the evolving nature of work, career and organisation, focussing on their social responsibility towards gig work.

A systematic review of 186 selected articles published since the beginning of the gig economy research. Quantitative bibliometric and framework-based review techniques were used to analyse theoretical nuances, themes, antecedents and contextual factors.

Factors responsible for the social responsibility towards gig work were identified. The factors were categorised into individual, organisational and social-related attributes. Overall, the contextual factors, top articles, authors and journals suggested that gig work research is increasing exponentially across the globe.

The understanding of the factors influencing the gig work explored, the long-term implications of disruptions or gig workers’ well-being and exploring the impact of social and cultural aspects of the gig work research.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first studies to analyse the factors influencing social responsibility towards gig work in the changing nature of work, career and organisation. The study provides future directions for expanding the scholarship, resulting in the sustainability of this form of employment.