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This paper aims to examine small business’ participation in digital marketing and to integrate the do-it-yourself (DIY) behavior model and technology acceptance model (TAM) so as to explore the motivations and expected outcomes of such participation.

Data from 250 small business owners/managers who do their own digital promotion are collected through an online survey. Structural equation modeling is used to analyze the relationships between the models.

The results contribute to the understanding of small business’ digital marketing behavior by finding support for the idea that the technological benefits may not be the only motivators for small business owner/managers who undertake digital marketing. Moreover, and perhaps more importantly, the authors find that the DIY behavior model applies to small business owner/managers who must perform tasks that require specialized knowledge.

The limitations of this research are that the motivations to undertake digital marketing are limited to those contained in the DIY and TAM models, and the sample may not be representative of all owners and managers who perform digital marketing for their small businesses. Therefore, future research is needed to determine if further motivations to conduct digital marketing exist and whether other samples produce the same interpretations.

This study presents empirical evidence supporting the application of the DIY model to a context outside of home-repair and extends the understanding of digital footprint differences between large and small businesses.

In the strategic management literature mission statements are said to be an inseparable part of corporate strategy. It has been argued that they have an impact on the performance of the organization, yet the evidence is unclear. This study is an investigation into the relationship between the financial success of hospitality enterprises and their mission statements. Mission statements of 30 top hospitality enterprises were evaluated. This sample is of significance as it represents some of the largest corporations, and about 200 of the largest brands in the hospitality industry. The mission statements were scored and these scores were tested for correlation with three financial performance indicators. The results indicated that while there was a statistically significant correlation between the mission statements and the annual turnover, there was no significant correlation with the net profit margin or the return on equity. The article concludes by considering how firms may improve their performance by better managing their mission statements.

The hospitality sector, via resort mini-clubs also referred as kids' clubs, has put in place initiatives to empower children to be responsible tourists. This is all the more important as children are the tourists of the future. In their endeavour to educate children during their holidays, many of the activities developed by resort mini-clubs are nature-based; on the long term, this strategy is likely to contribute to the long-term sustainability of the industry. Indeed, the closer an individual is to nature, the more likely this person is to be respectful of the environment. Developing these types of activities could also contribute to the competitive advantage of resorts as most resort mini-clubs are not offering yet this type of sustainability-orientated activities. From a theoretical perspective, resort-mini clubs could be assimilated to lieu de mémoire, and as a result they have the potential to influence the sustainability attitude of the future young adults, and adults whom the children will be.

WE are pleased to devote this Special Number of THE LIBRARY WORLD to a discussion of Irish libraries and librarianship. Our contributors are all distinguished members of the profession in Ireland, none more so than Dermot Foley, to whom we are greatly indebted for having convened this issue.

This study aims to differentiate the brand personality of four basic hotel categories (e.g. limited-service, selected-service, full-service and luxury hotels) to draw an overall landscape of the lodging industry on symbolic attributes.

An online survey was conducted to assess the brand personality of eight popular hotel brands competing in the US market (two brands for each price category) by using Aaker’s (1997) brand personality scale. The categorical difference in brand personality was compared at both of the dimensional and individual trait level.

This study draws a picture of brand personality for four prevailing hotel categories in the US market. It suggests exciting luxury hotels, sincere select-service hotels and rugged limited-service hotels, but no distinctive personality for full-service hotels. This study positions the pros and cons of each hotel category. For instance, it shows at the dimensional level, full-service hotels advance select-service hotels in excitement but fall behind in sincerity. At the individual trait level, full-service hotels strike customers as contemporary, up-to-date and good-looking, but disappoint customers on the features like honest and wholesome.

This study informs hotel brand companies and hotel investors with the pros and cons of each hotel category to assist them to improve their marketing or investment strategies.

Although brand personality has been often used to assess hotel brand’s difference, it has been rarely used to capture the categorical difference. This study adds new insights to hotel banding practice by comparing different categories on symbolic attributes.

Conspicuously absent from the branding literature is research on the brand-to-brand (Br2Br) interface enabled by social media. The author proposes how networked brands-as-actors integrate their resources as Br2Br interactions that co-create consumer–brand value. As a secondary contribution, the author provides an empirical baseline exploration of the value co-creating impact of Br2Br interactions on consumer–brand evaluations and social media engagement.

Three streams of research aid in conceptualizing the value co-creating process of Br2Br interactions. A follow-up exploratory study uses a controlled Br2Br interaction stimulus in a 2 × 2 × 2 between-subjects design, where brand familiarity and product category complementarity are manipulated, and interaction spillover effects are analyzed using structural equation modeling.

The author finds Br2Br interactions positively affect consumer–brand evaluations and social media engagement likelihood. Spillover effects of these interactions are symmetric for consumer–brand evaluations for both brands. However, brand familiarity moderates the effects of Br2Br interactions on consumer–brand evaluations.

The author lays the groundwork for future research on the complexities of Br2Br interactions – including brand personality conflict, interaction duration and paratextual language – and the boundary conditions for Br2Br and brand-to-consumer relationships.

Purpose: The purpose of this chapter is to critically evaluate the implementation of technologies from the perspective of guest services, innovation and visitor experiences. The paper focuses on the value of robots, service automation and artificial intelligence in hospitality and examines their influence on service quality

Design/methodology/approach: The chapter is a critical and conceptual overview of the emergence and implementation of robots, service automation and artificial intelligence in the hospitality with an emphasis on service, service quality and guest experience. A comprehensive overview of the academic literature of customer service and guest experience is combined with industry examples from various service operations in hospitality in order to examine the implementation of RAISA in the hospitality industry from a range of academic and practical viewpoints.

Findings: The chapter argues that despite the global acceptance of technologies in service industries in general and hospitality in particular, it remains difficult to find the right balance between digital and human interactions. In the context of service quality, the implementation of robots and service automation is increasingly important for gaining a competitive advantage, but the provision of more personalized guest experiences remains controversial.

Originality/value: The study provides a comprehensive and systematic review of RAISA in a hospitality context and examine their impacts on service quality. The chapter is a critical examination of the potential of RAISA to transform the service experience and raises some fundamental questions regarding the need for RAISA, its practical implications and impact over the understanding and measurement of service quality.

Start‐up Driver's Mart applies the latest management ideas to a much maligned business.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role that enduring consumer emotional traits play in brand constellation formation. Theories of self-image and brand-image congruence are used as the foundation to explain how complex brand constellations are a reflection of emotional dispositions.

A clustering technique based on 24 consumption emotion set items was used to analyze data from 287 consumers and 66 different consumer brands. A conjoint analysis was also performed to examine the degree of brand congruence within each cluster.

Results reveal four unique consumer clusters (Sad, Passionate, Joyful, and Balanced Middle) with unique brand constellations and differing degrees of brand congruence. Of significance is the Sad cluster, which shows a strong brand congruence to seemingly hedonic products.

Given the nature of self-reported data, an inherent potential bias because of a single source for both dependent and independent variables exists. Also, this research design is based on an inductive form of reasoning, and thus, results may not be falsifiable.

Implications of brand constellations based on emotional dispositions for marketing theory and practice are discussed. Given this exploratory research on brand constellations defined by emotional disposition, limitations and avenues for future research are also presented.

In this paper, the consumer’s enduring psychological traits act as the grouping mechanism, and from this psychometric profile, brands group to reflect the collective self-image of consumers based on emotional disposition. By introducing the emotional disposition approach to constellation formation, the authors demonstrate that psychometric variables offer a new methodology by which brands may be categorized.

Using a cluster analysis to essentially reverse-engineer consumption patterns is novel and reflects a valid approach toward demonstrating how otherwise unrelated brands may be consumed together.