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The purpose of this paper is to present knowledge acquired through examining three cruise lines’ social media strategies over a three-year period, analyzing the network structures involved and demonstrating the value of the STAR (storytelling, triggers, amusement and reaction) model for enhancing social media activity.

This study gathered data from three cruise lines’ official websites and Facebook and Twitter accounts, examining variables such as internet presence, engagement and fans/followers. Furthermore, the work also addresses several issues that researchers encounter when using the STAR model.

Digital activity was found to vary significantly between the three cruise lines’ websites and Facebook and Twitter accounts, with the companies adopting different approaches and obtaining different results. Each company tended to have its own base of fans and followers, who shared a common language, reflected in the hashtags they used. The results show that cruise lines wishing to develop a content-oriented strategy that maximizes engagement in social media should share rich multimedia content that supports storytelling values and can be used on multiple platforms.

This work can be of interest to practitioners aiming to use a comparison and assessment tool for their digital activity. It could also assist future researchers focusing on cruise line activity, as few researchers have analyzed the online content strategies of cruise lines, particularly on Facebook and Twitter.

The purpose of this paper is to explore differences in the decision-making styles between family and nonfamily firms, while assessing how family participation relates to the use of decision-making styles within family firms.

The empirical evidence is provided by a sample of 155 firms, located in the Azores, Portugal, 82 family controlled and 73 nonfamily controlled firms. All firms included in the sample are small-sized privately owned enterprises. Business owners and managers responded to a decision-making styles questionnaire, followed, in the case of family firms, by the report of the number of family members actively involved in the business.

Results show that there are no differences in the use of rational decision making between family and nonfamily firms. However, nonfamily firms show higher levels of experiential decision making than family firms. Results also show that family participation plays a key role in guiding the decisional process, by promoting the use experiential decisions and inhibiting the adoption of a rational decision-making styles in family firms.

From a theoretical perspective, this study opens the door to new research on an under investigated topic in the family business literature. It contributes with initial notions that may help profile the decisional style within small family firms, while revealing how family participation affects it. Thus, creating a fertile ground of discussion that can be an impulse for more research in this area.

From an applied perspective, assessing the influence of family participation in the adoption of a decisional style is potentially valuable for practitioners as well as for owners and managers. Providing them with clues that may help them better understand the basis of their decisions which can benefit their relations with other family members, as with customers, partners and suppliers that play a key role in the firm’s growth, profitability and adaptability.

From a social point of view, showing that family firms tend to be rational in their decisions may help create a more reputable and credible image surrounding these firms that are sometimes perceived as less professional than nonfamily firms. Thus, a more solid reputability can help improve their relationship with important partner institutions (e.g. financial, governmental), becoming more attractive to private and public investment, which can translate into win-win situations.

This study responds to a gap in the literature, by exploring the use of experiential vs rational decision-making styles in small family and nonfamily firms. This study also contributes to the understanding of the decision making within family firms, by assessing the role of family participation in the adoption of a decisional style.

This paper examines the effect of national culture on the process of innovation and research and development activities in the subsidiaries of multinational companies. For this purpose, we use a sample of 222 subsidiaries for five European countries. The paper has drawn up two important findings. Firstly, cultural dimensions such as individualism, masculinity, power distance and uncertainty avoidance influence research and development activities of the subsidiaries. Secondly, the type of management model, defined according to the location of the parent company, influence the organization of the research and development activities.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the dynamics of the triple helix model in less favoured regions, examining the role of three spheres: universities, firms, and government. The paper identifies profiles of behavior in terms of triple helix model performance from the firm's perspective and recognizes key factors for successful innovation dynamics in a less favored region of Portugal.

A brief bibliographic revision regarding development of the triple helix model in the innovation process is followed by a description of the role of the helixes and the presentation of a model, after which the hypotheses are defined for testing. The methodology consists of a survey involving companies in a less favored region of Portugal and the application of multivariate statistical analysis “k‐means clusters” to detect behavioral patterns in terms of performance and dynamics of the triple helix model from the firm's viewpoint. In order to verify the hypotheses, tests of multiple average differences are used to assess the unique characteristics of each cluster and the independent test of Chi‐square.

The results point to the existence of a positive relationship between the dynamics of the triple helix model in terms of different types and objectives to innovate, namely, in regards to introducing new products as well as ecological innovation and their efforts to improve communications relative to the obstacles to innovate – explicitly, the lack of information and geographical location, the companies' innovation performance, and the level of cooperation and interaction with the university producing benefits for them in obtaining additional financial resources and prestige for the researcher, as well as by obtaining information for the education process.

The paper contributes to a greater theoretical understanding of the variables influencing implementation of the triple helix model in less favoured regions. It reveals conditions associated with a more active and proactive stance and consequently better innovation dynamics and regional attractiveness.

This paper aims to determine whether the implementation of knowledge management (KM) is linked to e‐business performance and to identify the nature of the relationship existing in the different components of knowledge‐sharing and application and internet‐based KM.

This paper establishes a new model of the practices and results of the KM which has been tested in European companies. For that purpose, a structural equation modelling analysis was used.

The results show that product innovation and external employees’ access to databases have a strong positive effect on the maximization of internet‐based KM and that internet‐based KM has also a positive impact on e‐business performance.

Limitations of this study include the need for more research into the KM cycle. This paper contributes to the research on this topic with new evidence in a broad sample.

These results point to KM's usefulness in improving every day e‐business processes. Therefore managers should be aware of these benefits.

The present study advances knowledge on the nature of the relative importance of different components of internet‐based KM as drivers of e‐business performance.

This study aims to investigate the advancement of place attachment within the bicycle tourism context. Specifically, this study seeks to ascertain whether the four attributes of bicycle tourism (tourism attractions, accessibility, amenities and complementary services) and enduring involvement can serve as predictors of tourists’ place attachment. Also, the research endeavors to examine the positive effects generated by the four attributes of bicycle tourism on enduring involvement. Additionally, the mediating role that enduring involvement plays in attribute–place attachment relationships will be clarified.

The final 547 samples are collected from five WeChat cycling groups in Shanghai, and the partial least squares structural equation modeling approach is used to analyze the data.

The results show that each of the four attributes has a positive impact on place attachment. Moreover, tourism attractions, accessibility and amenities can be the drivers of enduring involvement. Enduring involvement mediates the tourism attractions–place attachment relationship, the accessibility–place attachment relationship, as well as the amenities–place attachment relationship.

This paper, to the best of the author’s knowledge, pioneeringly introduces the concept of enduring involvement and place attachment into bicycle tourism research, and the findings contribute to providing practical implications for destination managers and government policymakers.

This is innovative work with a comprehensive and creative research framework for place attachment.

Companion animals and social media are two important factors of social interaction and well-being among the older population. This study aims to compare social media use and/or having companion animals with respect to sociodemographic variables in conjunction with loneliness, social isolation, depression, satisfaction with life and satisfaction with social support.

This cross-sectional study involves a sample of 250 older community-dwelling adults. The questionnaire comprised sociodemographic, companion animals and social media questions and scales to assess social isolation, loneliness, satisfaction with life and social support and depression. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.

Four groups emerged: “companion animal/s, no social media” (37.6%); “none” (33.6%); “social media and companion animal/s” (14.4%); and “social media, no companion animal/s” (14.4%). Social media users (with or without companion animals) are the youngest and with higher levels of education; caregivers of companion animals (no social media use) are in-between in terms of age and level of education; and those without companion animals and no social media users are the oldest and with less formal education.

This research examines and compares two key influencers of older adults’ well-being and social interaction (social media and companion animals), that have been researched mostly separately. Findings underlined the cohort effect in the use of social media, suggesting that future older adult cohorts will use more social media whether they have or do not have companion animals.

This study aims to understand in what way international cooperation between universities and/or firms can be seen as a vehicle in the transfer of knowledge and innovation for implementation of environmentally sustainable practices.

To do so, a qualitative approach was adopted, resorting to the case study method: the EdgeWise project. Data were obtained from interviews, documentation provided by partners and observation, and the content analysis technique was also used.

The results lead to the conclusion that this type of international cooperation is supported by solid dimensions, such as knowledge transfer and appropriate choice of partners. In addition, the dimension related to organisational culture is not considered a barrier in the cooperation process studied here, but rather as a form of learning among partners.

The empirical evidence suggests that it will add value to the understanding of the various issues surrounding resources (water and energy) that differ from country to country. However, the administrative-bureaucratic dimension is identified as a barrier to this type of cooperation/project, with its analysis being suggested for future studies.

This innovative study shows that the literature and the case study made identified various dimensions; motivations, barriers and drivers, of knowledge transfer, choice of partners and organisational culture. In addition, this study contributes for international universities-firms cooperation in sustainability area.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the heat transfer on an alpine‐climbing mitt featuring an electrical heating multilayer, in order to provide information for the optimization of its thermal performance.

A numerical model was developed to simulate the heat transfer across an electrical‐heated alpine mitt. The model was used to study the heat losses as a function of the environmental conditions, to optimise the positioning of the heating elements, to determine the optimal power input to the heating system, to estimate the battery capacity requirements and to assess the effect of low‐emissivity surfaces.

The results show that: the heating elements assure approximately constant temperatures across the skin provided they are not more than 6‐7 mm apart; the use of low‐emissivity surfaces facing the skin can reduce the total heat loss by 8‐36 per cent (for air layer thicknesses in the range 10⁻³ to 10⁻² m) and to increase the skin temperature during the transient operation of the heating multilayer; the heat losses from the mitt are practically independent of the chosen heating power; and a battery capacity of 4 A h assures active temperature regulation for more than 18‐23 h.

By enhancing the thermal performance of an electrical heating mitt, the use of low‐emissivity surfaces (facing the skin) can favour the thermal comfort perception of its user.

The influence of several parameters on the thermal performance of an electrical‐heated mitt is analysed and discussed. The findings are relevant for improving the performance of existing electrical heating garments.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the presence of psychological barriers both in the main stock market indices of the Baltic states and the most actively traded individual stocks. A psychological barrier refers to a specific price point, often at round numbers (i.e. powers of 10), that investors believe is challenging to breach, influencing their behavior and trading decisions.

We conduct uniformity tests and barrier tests, such as barrier proximity tests and barrier hump tests, to evaluate the presence of psychological barriers. Additionally, we explore variations in means and variances near these potential barriers using regression and GARCH analysis.

The findings reveal that psychological barriers do exist in the Baltic stock markets, particularly within market indices. The Estonian market index stands out with the most pronounced indications of psychological barriers. Individual stocks also display significant changes in means and variances related to potential barriers, albeit with less uniformity.

Collectively, our findings challenge the traditional assumption of random returns within the Baltic stock markets. For practitioners, the finding that psychological barriers exist opens up opportunities for investment strategies that can capitalize on them.

This study is the first to comprehensively investigate psychological barriers in the Baltic stock markets. Our results provide a valuable contribution to understanding the impact of that phenomenon on pricing dynamics, which is particularly pertinent in less-researched frontier markets like the Baltic states.