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Information is power. Cliché, but true. The Internet has simultaneously empowered individuals. Prospects can click, choose and control their online interactions. For organisations, the pendulum has swung in the opposite direction. They face more competition and are overloaded with more information than ever before. Manual tracking and processing of competitor activity are tedious, inaccurate, and rapidly outdated. Technology has created the “problem”, and technology can offer potential solutions. This study explores the use of text mining technology to analyse competitors' online promotional text messages. To examine its potential applications, a text mining analysis is applied to top educational sites in the USA. How their Web content is positioned relative to their competitors is analysed and discussed.

The Internet is playing an increasingly important role in the marketing activities of organisations across a wide range of industries. While the opportunities afforded by this phenomenon seem readily apparent, there is still much debate and speculation on exactly what impact it will have on marketing. To shed some light on this uncertainty, the present study examines managers’ perceptions of the impact of the Internet on key marketing activities. It employs a quasi‐longitudinal research design involving mail surveys to Australian marketing decision makers. Findings suggest that expectations in 1999 may have been unrealistically optimistic and exaggerated. It would appear that the so‐called “dot.com crash” has led to more realistic and pragmatic expectations among practicing managers in 2001. The study then focuses on differences in perceptions between industries. As expected, divergent views emerge, particularly from within the services sector. Managerial implications are then considered, conclusions drawn and future research directions outlined.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The aim of this chapter is to understand the nature of business collaboration between healthcare service providers and tourism agencies in Malaysia. Interviews with 17 healthcare service providers in Malaysia reveal that most of the collaboration between healthcare service providers and tourism agencies in Malaysia is informal or loose, despite their intention to leverage on medical tourism for business expansion. Close and tight collaborations are rare. The findings point towards the main reasons behind the rare collaboration which are the high customer orientation of healthcare service providers, the strategic move of business and support for government agenda.

Using the example of audiovisual materials, this paper aims to illustrate how records-related and archival legislation lags behind advances in technology. As more audiovisual materials are created on the cloud, questions arise about the applicability of national laws over the control, ownership, and custody of data and records.

This paper analyses court cases relating to audiovisual materials in the cloud and archival legislation from three Commonwealth countries: Canada, Australia, and Singapore – representing North America, the Pacific, and Asia respectively.

Current records-related and archival legislation does not effectively address the creation, processing, and preservation of records and data in a cloud environment. The paper identifies several records-related risks linked to the cloud – risks related to the ownership and custody of data, legal risks due to transborder data flow, and risks due to differing interpretations on the act of copying and ownership of audiovisual materials.

The paper identifies the need for records professionals to pay greater attention to the implications of the emerging cloud environment. There is a need for further research on how the concept of extraterritoriality and transborder laws can be applied to develop model laws for the management and preservation of records in the cloud.

The paper identifies record-related risks linked to the cloud by analyzing court cases and archival legislation. The paper examines maritime law to find useful principles that the archival field could draw on to mitigate some of these risks.

Studies showed that a proactive delivery system employing innovative artificial intelligence (AI) in urban services might perform better. This has become an important national policy for many countries. Thus, this study aims to explore the influence of AI in urban services in Malaysia.

Official documents such as Structure Plan and Government Transformation Programme Policy Document covering various levels of cities in Malaysia, articles related to urban studies mostly written by researchers regarding urban growth in Malaysia and the Urban Development Bulletin from the Federal Department of Town and Country Planning from 1957 to date were reviewed and analysed.

The findings show that the influence of AI in urban services has long existed and been carefully planned by local authorities since colonial times. The development of global digital technology influences the upgrading of AI in urban services in Malaysia. Also, the success of AI in these municipal services is influenced by the rate of information technology literacy among the urban population. These developments have led to the definition of a conceptual city.

This paper's findings and conclusion were based on reviewed literature but did not compromise the strength of this paper. Thus, as part of the implications for future research, mixed-methods research design has been suggested.

As part of the implications, this article intends to promote AI in urban services in Malaysia and other developing countries with similar urban services challenges.

This paper encourages AI applications in urban services because it enhances service delivery performance. This intends to key stakeholders to promote AI via policies across Malaysia's urban services as part of the study implications.

The purpose of this paper is to revisit Russell Belk’s (1988) landmark paper “Possessions and the extended self”. The authors provide a prehistory of related ideas and then examine the controversy it triggered regarding the different paradigms of research in marketing (Cohen, 1989) some 26 years ago.

This paper takes Belk seriously when he argues that his work is a synthesis and extension of prior studies leading to the novel production of the “extended self” concept. Via a close reading of the history of self-constitution, the authors highlight a number of thinkers who were grappling with similar issues now associated in our disciplinary consciousness to the idea of the “extended self”. To assess the contribution of Belk’s work, the authors engage in citation and interpretive analyses. The first analysis compared scholarly citations of Belk (1988) with the top ten most-cited Journal of Consumer Research (JCR) papers published in the same year. The second citation analysis compared Belk (1988) to the top ten most-cited JCR papers in the history of the journal. The authors follow this with an interpretive analysis of Belk’s contribution to consumer research via his 1988 paper.

Belk (1988) had the most citations (N = 934) of any paper published in JCR in 1988. When compared to all papers published in the history of JCR, Belk (1988) leads with the most overall citations. Moreover, Belk (1988) is the most prominent interpretive paper that appeared in JCR and one of the top three, regardless of paradigm. The analysis illustrates diversity in topic and methodology, thus indicating that Belk’s contribution impacted a wide variety of scholars. Interpretive analysis indicates the importance of Belk’s work for subsequently impactful consumer researchers.

The authors offer a prehistory of the “extended self” concept by highlighting literature that many consumer researchers will not have explored previously. With citations spanning over three decades, consumer behavior scholars recognize Belk (1988) as an important paper. Our analysis reveals that contrary to received wisdom, it is not only important for interpretive researchers or scholars within the consumer culture theory, but it is significant for the entire discipline, irrespective of paradigmatic orientation. The research presented here demonstrates that Belk’s (1988) paper is arguably one of the most influential papers ever published in JCR.