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This paper aims to outline Emaar Hospitality Group’s (EHG’s) role as the official hotel and hospitality partner for Dubai Expo 2020.

This paper draws on personal insights from an industry and trend perspective, aligned with the Expo 2020 Dubai theme, “Connecting minds, creating the future,” and its three sub-themes: mobility, sustainability and opportunity.

As an outcome, EHG’s commitment to Dubai Expo 2020 encompasses the provision of rooms and hospitality, meeting and events venues including outside catering, a hotel of the future innovation stand that reflects the company’s commitment to innovation in the Middle East, gender parity (female-male ratio) employment of women and youth, support to small- and medium-sized enterprise and global apprenticeships for six months during the Expo 2020 event an a commitment to sustainable economic growth.

This is an original, experience-based piece that focuses on an Expo 2020 operator’s viewpoint.

This concluding paper aims to review the contribution made by this theme issue to the body of knowledge on Dubai as a host city for Expo 2020 and the impact of such mega events overall on the host destinations.

A content analysis of the contributing articles selected for this theme issue was undertaken.

The summary paper highlights the key takeaways relating to Expo 2020 Dubai that will help inform policy making and decision-making for stakeholders in Dubai’s economy.

Retaining and nurturing the vibrancy of Dubai’s cosmopolitan and diverse socio-economic landscape in the run-up to and after the Expo are as much an opportunity as they are a challenge. The outcomes and recommendations emanating from the papers provide stakeholders with the tools to consider and mitigate risks.

This theme issue makes a significant scholarly contribution towards understanding the dynamics of Dubai as a destination on the verge of hosting a mega event and captures the zeitgeist of the pre-event planning and post-event strategies in “connecting minds, creating the future”, which is the theme of Expo 2020.

The purpose of this paper is to profile the Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes (WHATT) theme issue “Expo 2020: What will be the impact on Dubai?” with reference to the experiences of the theme editor and writing team.

This paper uses structured questions to enable the theme editor to reflect on the rationale for the theme issue question, the starting point, the selection of the writing team and material and the editorial process.

This paper provides a framework to facilitate discussion between academics and practitioners engaged with Dubai’s Expo 2020, identifies ways of improving competitiveness as an events destination and contributes to thinking about sustainable development before and after the event. The outcomes of a broad-ranging collaboration yield fresh insights, a deeper understanding of the issues and an array of possible responses to the theme issue question.

The theme issue outcomes provide lines of enquiry for others to explore and they reinforce the value of WHATT’s approach to collaborative working and writing.

The collaborative work reported in this theme issue offers a unified but contrarian response to the theme’s strategic question. Taken together, the collection of articles provides a detailed picture of the on-going preparation for Expo 2020 and plans to ensure continued growth in the post-Expo phase.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and profile clusters of retailers operating in emerging markets, in terms of positioning strategies of their own brands (based on the example of the Polish market).

The study is based on a random sample of 143 medium and large retailers operating in Poland. The data were collected using a CATI method at the end of 2014 and then analyzed with the use of hierarchical and non-hierarchical methods.

With the use of cluster analysis, six clusters of retailers were identified. Members of each cluster refer to different predominant factors when positioning their own brands. Members of each cluster do not differ significantly in terms of descriptive variables (exogenous to the cluster analysis) being used for profiling clusters.

In this study, only retailers operating in Poland were surveyed. This study does not refer to the targeting strategies, which may be analyzed jointly with the positioning strategies of retailers’ brands.

The paper has implications in understanding the approaches to the retailer brand positioning representing by the identified clusters of retailers that might be a basis for the creation of the retailers’ competitive advantages.

The main contribution of this research lies in the clustering approach to segmenting retailers in terms of their own brands’ positioning strategies and identifying clusters of retailers in the Polish market due to the retailer brands’ positioning.

Health service effectiveness continues to be limited by misaligned objectives between policy makers and frontline clinicians. While capturing the discretion workers inevitably exercise, the concept of “street-level bureaucracy” has tended to artificially separate policy makers and workers. The purpose of this paper is to understand the role of social-organizational context in aligning policy with practice.

This mixed-method participatory study focuses on a locally developed tool to implement an Australia-wide strategy to engage and respond to mental health services for parents with mental illness. Researchers: completed 69 client file audits; administered 64 staff surveys; conducted 24 interviews and focus groups (64 participants) with staff and a consumer representative; and observed eight staff meetings, in an acute and sub-acute mental health unit. Data were analyzed using content analysis, thematic analysis and descriptive statistics.

Based on successes and shortcomings of the implementation (assessment completed for only 30 percent of clients), a model of integration is presented, distinguishing “assimilist” from “externalist” positions. These depend on the degree to which, and how, the work environment affords clinicians the setting to coordinate efforts to take account of clients’ personal and social needs. This was particularly so for allied health clinicians and nurses undertaking sub-acute rehabilitative-transitional work.

A new conceptualization of street-level bureaucracy is offered. Rather than as disconnected, it is a process of mutual influence among interdependent actors. This positioning can serve as a framework to evaluate how and under what circumstances discretion is appropriate, and to be supported by managers and policy makers to optimize client-defined needs.