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Previous research suggests that emotional intelligence (EI) may benefit managers when resolving conflicts. However, past studies relied on self-reports of EI and conflict management styles, and a theoretical model explaining the mechanisms of the link between EI and conflict management outcomes for managers is still missing. This study aims to test a theoretical model proposing that during conflicts, managers with higher performance-based ability EI are perceived as warmer and more competent, which in turn contributes to higher conflict management effectiveness.

A total of 108 Executive MBA students with managerial experience completed a performance-based EI test designed for the workplace and engaged in a conflict management exercise during which they were videotaped. In the exercise, managers spontaneously responded to video-based vignettes in which “employees” addressed them regarding a work-related conflict (e.g. a disagreement regarding tasks and working hours). Independent observers (n = 262) rated the managers’ videotaped responses on items tapping warmth, competence and conflict management effectiveness.

Managers with higher performance-based EI (in particular, emotion regulation in oneself and emotion management in others) received higher observer ratings on warmth, competence and conflict management effectiveness. Warmth and competence fully mediated the link between EI and effectiveness.

These results demonstrate that managers’ performance-based EI translates into actual work-related behaviors and outcomes. Implications for training EI and effective conflict management are discussed.

Research on relational maintenance of long-distance or cross-residential romantic relationships is limited. Moreover, relatively little is known about relational maintenance among non-marital intimate partners in later life, many of whom prefer to live-apart-together (LAT) rather than cohabit. This research paper examines how older adults from the United States maintain their romantic relationships across residences. The authors conducted a grounded theory study drawing on interviews collected from 22 older adults in LAT relationships. The data revealed that older LAT partners engage in a process of safeguarding autonomy to maintain their partnerships and relationship satisfaction. Two broad strategies were identified: upholding separateness and reshaping expectations. While safeguarding autonomy was paramount, participants also emphasized the importance of having a flexible mindset about the physical copresence of their relationships. The findings have implications for practice, suggesting that creating an interdependent couple-identity may undermine, or at least have little bearing on, the relationship stability of older LAT couples. Future research is needed to determine how LAT experiences among racially/ethnically or socioeconomically diverse samples might differ.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the attitude declared by the tourists towards the local gastronomy as a variable of tourist interest in a WHS destination. Gastronomic tourism strengthens and consolidates the tourist destinations.

The methodology is based on a survey conducted on foreign travellers who visited the city of Quito. In total, 516 valid surveys of foreign tourists were conducted, using convenience sampling. As for the data analysis, a multivariate technique of grouping cases (K-mean clusters) was applied with the objective of analysing the similarity existing among those surveyed, taking as a reference variables that indicate greater or lesser interest in the local gastronomy.

The results show evidence on the existence of different attitudes towards gastronomy as a variable of interest in the choice of a tourist destination. There is a direct relationship between their attitude towards gastronomy and their expenditure.

The principal limitation of this research is found in the time period in which the surveys were conducted.

The study allows the hotel/restaurant companies and tourism rooted in the city of Quito to know the importance of the local gastronomy as variables of interest for the foreign tourists as well as the segmentation carried out with regard to their attitudes.

Gastronomy is used as a source of inspiration in tourist destinations. This research reinforces this theme, taking on the study of food tourism in an important heritage destination, such as the city of Quito, in a geographic area, Latin America, characterised by a recognised gastronomy, but still little studied in the scientific literature.

This chapter develops a theoretical model of a collaborative inquiry-based group development process with a grounded theory approach. The purpose of this research study is to examine how educators engage in collaborative inquiry-based group development processes that transform their professional identity and pedagogical practices. Qualitative research data comes from the Livingstone Inquiry Group (LIG) in Vancouver, Canada. It is a longitudinal case study of inquiry-based pedagogies (IBPs) in a community of learners. They started in 2007 with members representing K-12 teachers, resource staff, administrators, higher education, and union organizations. The model outlines generative dynamics between social capital and relational learning which support pedagogical paradigm shifts in the group’s collaboration. Implications of this study provide direction for research regarding inquiry-based learning in higher educational institutions as an important forum for sustainable professional development of teachers as life-long learners.

Focussing on the links among people, places and traditions, this study aims to present the reflections derived from five in-depth personal interviews on traditions regarding wine, fish, cheese making and rural hospitality, collected in a journey across the province of Reggio Calabria in southern Italy. It provides an original view of the “stories” behind the places and the products, useful to inform local development strategies centred on traditional food products.

The article presents a novel approach in conducting research that involves collecting information via empathetic interviews and presenting the findings in a reflexive, narrative storytelling style.

Empathetic personal interviewing is key to elicit information useful to frame the links among people, places and traditions. The economic motivation is not the main one for people to remain engaged in the production of traditional food products in the province of Reggio Calabria. Pride in linking their activities and the products they make to the territory, its traditions and the culture embedded therein, clearly contribute to define a sense of place that might be further drawn upon in participatory, rural development initiatives.

Due to the way in which the interviewees have been selected, not all findings can be generalized as applicable to the entire Province or beyond.

Recognizing the people and the stories behind a product may offer insights on how to design effective, socially sustainable policies that would preserve important traditions. Personal food narratives might contribute, in a unique way, to an effective branding of the products and the territory.

Doing more empathetically participatory research, rather than taking a “neutral” stance in data collection and data crunching, which has traditionally characterized the work of agricultural economists, may help in making the institutions being perceived as less distant by the ultimate beneficiary of development policies and make participatory planning much more effective.

The article contributes to an emerging area of research at the intersection between agricultural economics and rural development policy. How to highlight and protect the people and their stories as fundamental aspects of the “places”, “products” and “traditions”, remains an area of research that has not yet been fully explored, at least in the rhetoric and discourse on integrated rural development in Italy.