Quality has been widely recognised as an important source of competitive edge in the tourism industry. Much of the focus of research to date has been on the individual firm…
Abstract
Quality has been widely recognised as an important source of competitive edge in the tourism industry. Much of the focus of research to date has been on the individual firm. However, there has been a shift from interfirm competition to interdestination competition, resulting in a lacuna in the research and a need for more attention to be afforded to management of quality at the destination level. Given the fragmented and diverse nature of the tourism destination, many researchers have underlined the need for co-operation in any effort to improve quality at the destination. However, there is often a reluctance among tourism businesses, particularly small- and medium-sized tourism enterprises (SMTEs) to cooperate. This paper sheds light on the impact of training on interfirm dynamics within a destination quality management network. The findings revealed that training of network members influenced the development of a referral system, which in turn helped to create a tourism quality value chain for the visitor.
The aim of this paper is to present longitudinal data regarding the career progression of Irish tourism and hospitality management graduates.
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to present longitudinal data regarding the career progression of Irish tourism and hospitality management graduates.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey instrument was designed to incorporate questions relating to current and previous employments, recent training/education and personal details. The original study was sent to graduates by their respective colleges and there were 444 respondents to the survey. The follow‐up questionnaire in the current study was sent to all those who had responded to the initial survey and who had provided addresses (374).
Findings
There is a significant drop‐out rate from employment in the tourism/hospitality industry in Ireland, which is particularly obvious amongst women. Those employed in the industry identified poor remuneration and unsuitable working hours as the major issues in need of redress. There is constant reference to work conditions within the tourism/hospitality industry throughout this study and, in particular, their apparent incompatibility with family life.
Research limitations/implications
Owing to the small sample size, results presented here are largely indicative. Nonetheless, some general trends are discernible.
Practical implications
The issues raised in this study have implications for those involved in the provision of tourism/hospitality programmes as well as tourism employers, particularly in an Irish context, where there is an ongoing shortage of skilled workers in the sector.
Originality/value
Tracking studies usually only attempt to monitor graduates' entry into the workforce and do not follow their career paths over time. The objective of this study, however, was to provide longitudinal data and unique insights regarding the career progression of Irish tourism and hospitality management graduates.
Details
Keywords
Williams was a black feminist pragmatist who contributed to and drew on the ideas and practices of the “Hull-House school of race relations” (HHSRR). This American theory unites…
Abstract
Williams was a black feminist pragmatist who contributed to and drew on the ideas and practices of the “Hull-House school of race relations” (HHSRR). This American theory unites liberal values and a belief in a rational public with a co-operative, nurturing, and liberating model of the self, the other, and the community, based on the historical ideas and commitments of abolitionists and Abraham Lincoln. Education and democracy are emphasized as significant mechanisms to organize and improve society, especially the relations between black and white people. This school had a distinct institutional influence, structure, and status (Deegan, 2002b). As an African American women who wrote and spoke using feminist pragmatism as it applied to the black experience viewed from her lived standpoint, she developed black feminist pragmatism (Deegan, 2002a). I concentrate here on her writings on biculturalism, especially her (Williams, 1907) essay on the perils of “a White Negro.” She wrote about this anomalous racial category in a number of other pieces that I also analyze here.
Bo Bae Choi, Doowon Lee and Jim Psaros
This study aims to report the extent of voluntary carbon emission disclosures by major Australian companies during the years 2006 to 2008. This paper provides contemporary data…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to report the extent of voluntary carbon emission disclosures by major Australian companies during the years 2006 to 2008. This paper provides contemporary data and explanations about carbon emissions reporting in Australia. Additionally, the paper aims to determine the variables that explain the extent of carbon disclosures.
Design/methodology/approach
The carbon disclosure score is measured directly from individual companies' annual reports and sustainability reports. A checklist is established to determine the breadth and depth of the information related to climate change and carbon emissions incorporated in these publicly available reports.
Findings
The overall carbon disclosure score has increased significantly over the authors' research period. Furthermore, regression results show that larger firms with higher visibility tend to make more comprehensive carbon disclosures. Overall, the authors' results indicate that the legislation of the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act (the NGER Act) in 2007 may have enhanced the voluntary carbon emission disclosures in 2008, even though the NGER Act was not operative until the 2009 financial year. From a theoretical perspective, the findings of the paper are consistent with legitimacy theory.
Originality/value
Previous studies examining environmental disclosures in Australia are based on a time period prior to widespread public discussion and interest in climate change and carbon emissions. By investigating voluntary disclosures made by large Australian companies around the time that the mandatory emission reporting scheme was introduced, this paper investigates whether the prominence of discussion and impending operation of the mandatory environmental disclosures have led to a greater extent of voluntary carbon disclosures. The findings can help regulators draft appropriate legislation that targets industries and specific practices where disclosure is of greatest importance to relevant stakeholders. In addition, an understanding of who and why entities disclose carbon gas emission information can arm green groups and other stakeholders with an appropriate level of understanding about the motivation for such disclosures.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to dissect key issues and debates in digital humanities, an emerging field of theory and practice. Digital humanities stands greatly to impact the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to dissect key issues and debates in digital humanities, an emerging field of theory and practice. Digital humanities stands greatly to impact the Information and Library Science (ILS) professions (and vice versa) as well as the traditional humanities disciplines.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper explores the contours of digital humanities as a field, touching upon fundamental issues related to the field’s coalescence and thus to its structure and epistemology. It looks at the ways in which digital humanities brings new approaches and sheds new light on manifold humanities foci.
Findings
Digital humanities work represents a vital new current of interdisciplinary, collaborative intellectual activity both in- and outside the academy; it merits particular attention from ILS.
Research limitations/implications
This paper helps potential stakeholders understand the intellectual and practical framework of the digital humanities and “its relationship” to their own intellectual and professional work.
Originality/value
This paper critically synthesizes previous scholarly work in digital humanities. It has particular value for those in ILS, a community that has proven especially receptive to the field, as well as to scholars working in many humanities disciplines. Digital humanities has already made an important impact on both LIS and the humanities; its impact is sure to grow.
Details
Keywords
Andrea Handley and Jerome Carson
The purpose of this paper is to provide a profile of Andrea Handley.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a profile of Andrea Handley.
Design/methodology/approach
In this case study, Andrea gives a short account of her background and is then interviewed by Jerome.
Findings
Andrea outlines a number of issues from her childhood that led to her later mental health problems.
Research limitations/implications
Individual case studies are of course just the story of one person’s difficulties. For too long in psychiatry, case studies were written by professionals about their lives and problems. First person accounts allow the individual to tell their own narrative.
Practical implications
Andrea is not the first person to talk about the delay in access to mental health services. As she notes, 16 years on, she is still waiting for that referral! She notes that a friend of her could not wait even the three months that she had been and tragically took her own life.
Social implications
So much of Andrea’s story is overshadowed by loss, especially the death of her brother when she was a teenager. As a society, we are no as well “prepared” for death, as older generations. The coronavirus pandemic is bringing our mortality home to all of us.
Originality/value
Patricia Deegan once asked, “How much loss could a human heart hold?” In this moving account Andrea lets us see the huge losses she has sustained and yet she is still determined to try and help others who are suffering. Hers is truly a remarkable life.
Details
Keywords
Sonja Gallhofer, Jim Haslam, STEPHEN MORROW and Robin Sydserff
Accounting is problematically shaped by a culture of spin. In the practice of accounting, presentational management risks assuming greater importance than an open and clear…
Abstract
Accounting is problematically shaped by a culture of spin. In the practice of accounting, presentational management risks assuming greater importance than an open and clear communication motivated by a concern to serve the public interest. We elaborate upon this problematic feature of contemporary practice and suggest pointers towards responding to the challenge it poses in terms of a better way for accounting in the new millennium.
Rania Kamla, Sonja Gallhofer and Jim Haslam
This paper adds to a focus of the social accounting literature (on perceptions and attitudes to social accounting) by seeking to offer insights into Syrian accountants' attitudes…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper adds to a focus of the social accounting literature (on perceptions and attitudes to social accounting) by seeking to offer insights into Syrian accountants' attitudes towards, and perceptions of, social accounting in Syria in the first decade of the twenty‐first century, with particular attention to its role, future development and implementation.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper takes the form of an analysis of interviews of Syrian accountants; contextual analysis (and an appreciation of the prior literature).
Findings
Syrian accountants' perceptions are shaped by developments in Syria's socio‐political and economic context, encompassing imperialism/colonialism, globalisation and cultural specificities, including Islam. Interviewees perceived a significant role for a social accounting – that would parallel the Western form of social accounting – in enhancing well‐being in the dynamic context. At the same time, they were reluctant to see the development and implementation of this accounting in Syria as an urgent issue, so that this social accounting might be left initially at least with an even more marginal part to play than in the West. The study suggests that a combination of forces – global developments, Western imperialism and Syria's colonial history – have had a substantively repressive rather than progressive impact on the development of social accounting in Syria vis‐à‐vis its more positive potential.
Research limitations/implications
All limitations of interview research apply. This study focuses on Syria in a context when economic transition was a major issue. Further studies of economies in transition would be of interest.
Practical implications
An awareness of how the local and the global interact in debates over social accounting can provide insights for policy makers concerned with accounting regulation.
Originality/value
The focus on Syria, a non‐Western country, enriches the social accounting literature, which focuses mainly on Western developments.