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The inadequacy of conventional methods for communication in the face of the ever‐increasing amount of information to be dealt with is obvious. An international system of communication based on knowledge of the way in which the human brain stores and uses information is required. Unfortunately such knowledge is not yet available, but there is no doubt that the richness of association linkages in the brain is in marked contrast to the irregular and unreliable association process in external communication systems. Vast improvements would be necessary, involving increases in depth of cataloguing, indexing, cross‐referencing, and abstracting. The flexibility of the association processes would be such that constant awareness of current developments would become possible. Automatic processes under the supervision of experienced scientists would form an indispensable part of the system. The cost of all this would be justified by the rapid advances of knowledge which would result. At present the principal obstacle in the way of solving the information problem is probably public unawareness. If this could be overcome a system on the above lines might begin to come into being.

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The purpose of this paper is to make contributions toward new knowledge and understanding of how marketers can provide effective online customization experiences for customers. The practicality of online mass customization has received much attention as consumers perceive more value from customized products than from their standardized counterparts. Little research has been done to understand consumers’ behavioral intentions in response to these value additions. This study incorporates product information framing in developing and empirically testing a model of the relationship between online customization and price sensitivity, endowment addition and expected likelihood of product return.

The relationship among the constructs specified in the model was tested using multiple group structural equation modeling analysis.

The findings indicate that consumers perceived knowledge gain via customization process influences the utilitarian value, which directly impacts levels of likelihood of product return and price sensitivity. The process value, on the hedonic side, influences more on the endowment addition. Endowment addition is found to mediate the relationship between the hedonic benefits and the two utilitarian outcome variables: price sensitivity and likelihood of product return.

Understanding the consequences of customization is particularly crucial for marketers. This research is the first to expand and further our knowledge of customization, particularly in relation to its outcomes of customers’ behavioral intentions.

The aim of this chapter is to provide a holistic overview of issues and topics regarding tourism geography in Greece: from its origins to its current situation. By following a historical tracking of tourism activities in this country and the growth of tourism geography as an academic domain at the university level, the main goal is to analyze the shift of academic research on tourism from geographical perspective, as presented in both the Greek and English language literature. The chapter concludes that there is a need for practical orientation and redefinition of typologies of tourism geographies in order to apply a more sustainable and cross-disciplinary approach in the academic discourse on Greek tourism.

This paper aims to explore how volunteers choose one nonprofit organisation (NPO) rather than another. It identifies the drivers of choice, and the relationship between them, to enable NPOs to strengthen their volunteer recruitment.

A total of 51 service-delivery volunteers were interviewed, drawn from 5 leading NPOs. A laddering technique was used to understand the context in which the choice of organisation was made and the underlying personal needs and goals. The data was analysed using means-end chain (MEC) methodology to uncover the relationships between, and hierarchy of, the decision drivers.

Brand, cause, and role were found to be important in meeting personal needs and goals through volunteering. The paper makes three contributions. Firstly, it presents a clearer understanding of NPO choice through adopting an integrated theoretical perspective. Secondly, it identifies the decision-making process and key relationships between the attributes of the NPO, the consequences for the volunteer, and the connection to their personal needs. Finally, the study makes an important contribution to literature through presenting a new conceptual framework of volunteer decision-making in the nonprofit context to act as a catalyst for future research.

This research is both impactful through, and limited by, its context selection: regular service-delivery volunteers from five NPOs within two causes. The paper presents a rich research stream to extend this understanding to other nonprofit stakeholders, other causes including medical volunteer, and smaller NPOs.

In an increasingly competitive nonprofit environment with a growing need to support the vulnerable in society, NPO sustainability is dependent on their ability to recruit new volunteers. NPOs compete not only with other organisations with similar causes but also those offering similar volunteering roles, and other uses of time to meet personal needs such as sport, career, or community. Understanding how volunteers make their choice of NPO rather than other uses of their time is of vital importance to make the most effective use of scarce marketing resources. This paper contributes to that practitioner understanding.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to extend the understanding of generic motivations of volunteers to consider specific choice of NPO. Unlike previous literature, the authors bring together theory on brand, cause, and role with personal needs. The authors are also the first to apply MEC methodology to the nonprofit context to uncover the personal underlying, less salient reasons behind NPO choice and the relationship between them.

This chapter reflects upon the trajectory of research in the geography of tourism in Spain. It begins with a review, including the evolution of the main topics present in the subdiscipline, with a special focus on developments since the 1990s. This is followed by an analysis of the current role and potential impact of academic tourism geography and a discussion on the recent growth in the publication of research results in international journals. Of importance are the institutional factors that explain the increasing recognition of research on the geography of tourism in Spain. Finally, the chapter discusses the hegemony of positivist approaches pivoting on land use, local and regional development, impact analysis, and landscape transformation, as well as the emerging links between Spanish tourism geography and the international mainstream schools of thought.

The purpose of this paper is an investigation into the experiences of professional development of human resource (HR) practitioners in the North of Scotland, and the use of non-formal learning in that development.

In-depth semi-structured interviews from a purposively selected sample of HR practitioners were conducted. Data from these interviews was analysed on a phenomenographic basis, to discover the qualitatively different ways in which HR practitioners describe, experience, understand and analyse their professional development and the use of non-formal learning in that development.

What emerged from the analysis were two sets of categories of description, one for each of the phenomena. An outcome space for each of the phenomena emerged, illustrating the hierarchical relationship within each set of categories of description as well as the dimensions of variation relating to the phenomena. These outcome spaces represent the collective experience of the practitioners on the subjects of professional development and non-formal learning.

Sample size and the specific geographical area are acknowledged as limitations. Another factor which may be considered a limitation is that the author's position as an HR lecturer with a keen interest in the subject could lead to this being considered an “insider” study. All these factors are acknowledged. These have been mitigated against by the careful preparation undertaken during the research process which resulted from the author's awareness of these limitations.

This study has given a voice to the HR practitioners in the North of Scotland with regard to their experiences and attitudes towards their professional development and the role of non-formal learning in that development. This study gives employers, other practitioners and professional bodies an opportunity to learn from the practitioners themselves as to how they can help practitioners in terms of their development.

The aim of this paper is to explore the role of relevant policies in the professional development of HR practitioners in the UK.

A review of literature was carried out on the subject of the role of relevant policies in the professional development of HR practitioners in the UK. In doing so, the issues of profession and professionalism in the context of the HR occupation were explored.

The paper highlights the importance of HRD in the improvement of HR practitioners’ practice, and as a result, enhancing the status of the occupation.

A number of areas which are potentially worthy of further empirical investigation have been identified as a result of the review in this paper.

The paper highlights the importance of policy and changing working environments on professional practice. It illustrates the importance of HRD on improving that practice and suggests the use of informal learning mechanisms as a cost effective means of going some way to achieve that improvement.

The value of this paper is its contribution to the discussion on professional development in the context of the HR occupation.

Travel and tourism have had a long history in the Nordic countries, but research on tourism has a relatively short tradition in the region. Recently, academic interest in the Nordic tourism space has grown and diversified especially as a result of increasing numbers of academics and institutions involved with tourism geographies and studies and education in the region. The Nordic context has provided thematic focus areas for empirical studies that characterize tourism geographies in the region, with topics including nature-based tourism, utilization of wilderness areas, second-home and rural developments, impacts in peripheries, and tourism as a tool for regional development. In addition, there are emerging research themes outside of the traditional core topics, such as urban, events, and heritage tourism.