Business, Events and Hospitality
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Item Stakeholders: a source of competitive advantage? An analysis of the influence of stakeholders on the strategies of independent, rural, Scottish museums during their organisational life cycle.(Queen Margaret University, 2008) Halcro, K.Data indicates that Scottish museum attendance is rising annually, yet anecdotal comments appear to contradict this evidence. Explanations for this dichotomy are inevitably complex and varied, but variations in organisational performance have been explained by the Resource-Based View, which argues an organisation's competitive advantage stems from its ability to access and use resources. This perspective is examined through the concept of stakeholder theory. This thesis investigates the influence stakeholders have on independent, rural Scottish museums during the organisational life cycle, and whether this is a source of competitive advantage. The research involved an exploratory survey to scope the characteristics and environment in which Scotland's museums were operating, but also a typology for further research. The outcome was to adopt a phenomenological approach to investigate fourteen independent, rural, museums strategies during the organisational life cycle, drawing on stakeholder models proposed by Mitchell, Agle & Wood (1997) and Jawahar & McLaughlin (2001). This process involved interviewing 141 stakeholders to discuss their experiences in shaping these museums' strategies. Using narrative analysis, it emerged that these museums' strategies were influenced by different stakeholders during the organisational life cycle and this is reflected in a model developed from these findings. Growth museums were characterised by either an entrepreneurial leader or a board of trustees working in collaboration with key paid staff to access resources, particularly funding. By contrast, mature stage museums were dominated by a definitive stakeholder centred on a group of trustees who also occupied other stakeholder groups, notably volunteers and the community. This definitive stakeholder provided these museums with many of their resources, which proved to be an organisational strength, but also a weakness. The museum in decline and which ceased trading during this study, closed as a result of losing the definitive stakeholder's confidence and withdrawing funding. It was evident that stakeholders did influence museum strategy, but the definitive stakeholder explained a museum's competitive advantageItem The development of an assessment framework for Etourism capability in Scotland(Queen Margaret University, 2009) Reino, Sofia PardinasInformation and Communication Technologies (ICT) are claimed to provide businesses with a competitive advantage, to the extent of reshaping entire industries. In tourism, an information-intensive activity and the impact of ICT has been extensively documented at the industry, destination and business level. eTourism Capability refers here to the contribution of ICT to tourism business performance. Therefore, the work is based within the Tourism domain. However, its methods are mainly emerging from the adapted combination of previous research in business and eBusiness. Previous work has urged for the development of wide-angle studies, assessing the eTourism Capability of a destination. However, existing research addressing this issue, tends to place the focus on only one specific aspect of technology adoption, it is not sector specific and/or does not take into consideration the different levels of contribution to performance made by systems. In order to develop an eTourism Capability Assessment Framework for Scotland, and to provide the baseline for its strategic benchmarking with other tourism destinations, the work included an extensive literature review of Tourism and eTourism, developed of a conceptual framework. This supported the selection of key tourism industry stakeholders, i.e. the accommodation sector within the established context. An electronic questionnaire enabled the data collection. Through a mix of statistical techniques, the data treatment provided answers to the research questions, which related to the most suitable approach for ICT indexing in the accommodation sector, the level of contribution to performance by the different ICT elements, patterns describing the impact of business characteristics on ICT uptake, and the predictive models for this uptake. The results suggested the suitability of IT-based indexes for assessing the ICT uptake of this sector. Additionally, the results suggested important differences in the contribution that each system makes to business performance. This even varies across systems supporting similar business functions. Furthermore, the results emphasised the influence of the individual ICT on their own adoption, and suggested several dimensions to describe systems, which underlie the association between business characteristics and ICT adoption by the accommodation sector. These are compatibility observability, physical accessibility, verticality of systems and whether these support standardisation of processes across branches. Since the influence of business characteristics on ICT uptake seem to be system-specific, the predictive models are developed for each individual system. Finally, recommendations for further research have also been made.Item An investigation into the host's relationship with the commercial home(Queen Margaret University, 2008-05) Sweeney, MajellaThe research presented in this thesis is an investigation of the views of commercial home owners within Scotland. The thesis is designed to deepen understanding of the commercial home sector, and more specifically, the relationship the host has with the commercial home. The host's relationship with their commercial home contributes to the provision of commercial hospitality within a home setting. The review of the literature points to a number of conceptual gaps in our understanding, notably that there has been no study directly focusing upon the host perspective of the commercial home and how this relationship with the home might potentially impinge upon the guest experience. The specific aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between the host and their commercial home and its influences on product construction. As the hospitality product is more of a total sensory experience than has perhaps been acknowledged to date, it is appropriate to seek to understand the host perspective. Prior studies have very largely focused on readily accessible 'objective' issues, rather than below the surface issues accessing the inner self, the intangible dimensions of self, which may determine aspects of the hospitality product. The field research involved the researcher taking photographs of the commercial home properties and then using the photographs as prompts to interview the hosts and explore intangible elements such as memories, emotions and senses. A conceptual framework was developed from the data, identifying the main components of the host home relationship, and was revised as each commercial home was analysed. The framework is divided into three sections; Home, Host, and Business. In relation to the Home section themes that emerged include, Meanings of Home, Décor, and Artefacts. In relation to the Host section, themes include Family and Lifestyle. With regards to the Business section, themes include Feelings, Space, Guests, Performance, Target Market, Tourist Board and Competitors.Item Networking between small tourism businesses and its contribution to destination development.(Queen Margaret University, 2004) Tinsley, RossThis thesis aims to further understanding of networks in tourism. Specifically, it focuses on networking between small tourism businesses and its contributions to destination development. These networks are understood in terms of social, communication and exchange relations. The research is located within the context of contemporary debates regarding small businesses and networking. Within tourism, it can be located in wider research regarding destination development and community tourism. The literature review examines early sociological studies on networks, providing a background to small business literature on networks. Early research tends to be quantitative-driven whilst later research stresses the need for a greater cultural understanding of network phenomena. Within tourism development, there is a move away from rigid models based on physical expansion to ones which stress the socially constructed nature of tourism destination evolution. This is complimentary to the 'organic' nature of networks. Field research was undertaken using a methodology called interpretative anthropology. Data was collected in two destinations with differing levels of tourism infrastructure development. One was in Scotland and the other was in India, resulting in in-depth interviews with a total of 34 respondents. Participant observation was additionally used in the Indian context. Collective templates were developed from the data and presented in two main areas. The first provided a social background to the business community and the second illustrated business networking as an integrated part of wider social norms. These were then discussed in relation to social, communication and exchange networks and their contributions to destination development. Practical implications of the findings are identified in relation to business growth and tourism destination development. A key outcome is that less developed tourism infrastructure results in greater reliance on networking between businesses, whilst more developed infrastructure reduces direct business contribution. The former results in a more directly significant contribution to tourism destination development than in the latter. The key is to achieve equilibrium between horizontal and vertical network support, rather than a transition from informal to formal. A further significant outcome is the influence of destination size and social network density. This impacts on the nature and effectiveness of the tourism businesses' contribution to destination development. Destination size and social network density are also significant success factors when viewed from an internal destination perspective i.e. sub-communities and/or tourism sectors. These are identified as crucial to understanding and supporting tourism business communities. The community embeddedness of networks means smaller business communities have much greater control and regulation of their own members, and their contribution to tourism destination development. This is achieved through stronger social norms. Support agencies need to be aware of this when assisting business communities, with advice tailored accordingly.Item An Investigation into Information and Communication Technologies-Based Applications for Sustainable Tourism Development of Destinations(Queen Margaret University, 2009) Ali, AlishaSustainable tourism is a heavily researched concept but in reality there has been limited implementation of the principles and practices of sustainable tourism for destinations. Adopting a destination focused perspective, this thesis presents research which expounded Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as a practical, new and innovative approach to sustainable tourism development i.e. computer-supported sustainability. A literature review revealed that there was no specific study focusing on the uses and applications of ICT for sustainable tourism development despite the mention and benefits of doing so. However it did identify that several opportunities existed in destination management for using ICT as well as a collection of ICT-based tools/applications which can be used for managing different aspects of sustainable tourism. Therefore an investigative analysis was necessary in building a solid body of work on the uses and applications of ICT for sustainable tourism as a practical approach for destination managers. These findings formed the input for the primary research which was conducted in two phases: surveys administered to destination managers and eTourism experts followed by semi-structured interviews with experts in this domain identified from the surveys. The primary research alongside the literature findings led to the development of a descriptive framework which identified, categorised and described the uses of these ICT-based tools/applications for managing tourism's impacts. Assessment procedures based on the sustainability goals of the destination were then developed in order assist destination managers selecting the ICT-based tools/applications that were best suited for managing the sustainable tourism development of their destinations. The conclusion of this research clearly identifies that destination managers' sophisticated application of ICT to sustainable tourism is the next logical and practical step they can take in making sustainable tourism a workable reality for their destinations. This research is the building block for prospective research in the ICT-sustainable tourism domain. Future research avenues would be to use the results presented to determine the suitability, applicability and feasibility of the ICT-based tools/applications presented for destination managers. This existing research can be used to develop a more co-ordinated approach to theory development and engage in more empirical research to address tourism challenges with regards to using ICT for sustainable tourism development.Item Internal barriers to small business development: a study of independent retailers from the Edinburgh South Asian community(Queen Margaret University, 2009) Welsh, RitaThis thesis presents a conceptual model of the nature/interaction of internal factors shaping individual ethnic minority micro-enterprise owners' response to external threats in the business environment aimed to assist business support agencies developing/targeting appropriate help/support to enhance business development. Focus of the empirical research is Edinburgh Pakistani community owned convenience stores, as the failure to survive will adversely affect this community disproportionately reliant on the c-store sector and provision of related local social and economic benefits. The intangible influences on business approaches (education, experience, access to finance/business advice, personal values, goals, motivation, role models and cultural background) demands a qualitative, postmodern constructivist methodology, utilising social science adaptive grounded theory methods for sample selection, data collection/management, and theory generation. The initial conceptual model emerging from constant comparison analysis of qualitative interviews with a theoretical sample of 21 Edinburgh Pakistani c-store owners indicates key internal factors as start-up motivation, cultural influences and changing aspirations, awareness and acknowledgement of these influences on predominantly reactive responses to trading challenges varying widely. Comparison with wider ethnic minority/micro-enterprise research develops a conceptual model of the interacting internal barriers to minority community micro-enterprise development. Within any minority community and/or micro-business sector the owner's response to changing business environments is shaped by three factors: motivation for self-employment and changing sojourner mentality; cultural influences and depth of social embeddedness; and generational aspirations and degree of economic embeddedness in the mainstream community. By taking the complex, multi-layered, individual, dynamic nature of these factors into account when developing and marketing business advice, support agencies can design and deliver products and services relevant to specific needs and resource availability. Raising owners' awareness of the factors influencing business decisions will increase the potential for micro-enterprises to react proactively to external threats, with related benefits to individual owners, minority populations and the local community.Item Food Choice: the Shopping Experience of Older Consumers in Scotland(Queen Margaret University, 2001) Hare, Caroline AnneThis thesis investigates the food shopping experience of older consumers (aged 65+) in Scotland. The aim was to develop the shopping dimension of food choice research and broaden the understanding of older consumers within this context. The need for such a study is borne out of the political impetus on food choice research, with the older age segment being particularly important due to: increasing numbers of older people; their vulnerability in terms of nutrition; the changes in food shopping that they have experienced in their lifetime; and their potential for being disadvantaged consumers. The growing numbers of older people present a number of challenges within the food choice discipline. The food retail sector, which is highly competitive, is faced with meeting the needs of a growing market segment which it has previously neglected. There have been efforts by governments to integrate the food retailing sector into the policy for improving the dietary health of the nation. However, these recommendations have been limited and the specific issues for older people in terms of food shopping not fully described. This thesis provides four major findings which provide an original contribution to knowledge. The first is that the characteristics of the older consumer result in a diverse shopping activity. This is reflected in the diversity of their personal circumstances, their preferences and their shopping activity. Secondly, the disadvantage experienced by older consumers is more complex than previously recognised. Thirdly, a comprehensive framework for investigating the shopping dimension of food choice research has been developed, and specifically applied to older consumers. Finally, there is a lack of inter-dependence and integration both between sectors influencing food choice and across the disciplines investigating it, and this must be addressed. There are several implications of these findings. First, academic research in the field of food choice should seek to undertake more multidisciplinary research and the conceptual model provides a framework from which to develop future studies. Secondly, specific recommendations can be made for retailers, both at a store level and concerning their contribution to the wider shopping environment. Thirdly, the findings are a catalyst for debate on the extent to which policy-makers should seek to integrate members of a multidisciplinary team in more detailed planning of recommendations.Item The Connecting School: A Qualitative Evaluation of Intranet Development and the Role of the School Librarian in Scottish Secondary Schools.(Queen Margaret University, 2004) Cater, M.This study investigates the development of intranets in Scottish secondary schools and within that development the role of the school librarian. There is little written on the development of intranets in schools. There has been a lack of recent research on the role of the school librarian in the UK, and in particular there have been no studies investigating their involvement in ICT. This research adopted an interactionist approach which has been used in studying the social impact of computing (see Hiltz 1992). A grounded methodology has produced original substantive theory. Methods include a questionnaire to Scottish education authorities and semi-structured interviews with key individuals at authority level and in fifteen Scottish secondary schools. Schools which have successfully developed their own intranets were found to have a supportive culture which enabled key individuals to work on the intranet and develop content relevant to the internal curricular needs and ethos of the school. Examples of materials on the intranet was important in encouraging further content through a snowball effect. The key individuals were defined as activators (people with the technical skills to create content), mediators (people willing to encourage, provide ideas and examples) and to a lesser extent gatherers (who collected content from school staff). A predictive model for intranet development has been produced based on these findings. There appears to be flexibility within the role of the school librarian for individuals to take on a variety of roles. This research on intranet development found that the librarians who qualified within the last five years focussed on the intranet as a way of developing and promoting their role. Their involvement with the intranet has put school librarians in the role of intranet builder, intranet manager and content creators. Most significantly they have operated as activators and mediators in intranet development. Some librarians have broadened into network administration roles. This is increasing the difference between recently qualified librarians and longer serving school librarians. However it was found that the more recent graduates involvement with these more technical roles is not distancing them from their traditional areas of work. There is evidence that through these new roles, close curriculum cooperation has been achieved.Item Environmental management practices in the independent accommodation sector: a motivational perspective(Queen Margaret University, 2005) Tzschentke-Hamilton, N. A.This thesis seeks to develop an understanding of hospitality businesses and their relationship with the environment, thereby developing the subject discipline by addressing an under-researched area. Specifically, it seeks to provide an empirically based understanding of the rationale and process behind the decision to adopt environmental management practices, with a view to encourage their wider adoption in the industry through the successful promotion of environmental initiatives. Accordingly, the study addresses three main dimensions: the process of decision-making and the decisional factors leading to the decision; the rationale behind it; and the outcome of the decision. To suit the explorative nature of the investigation the research adopts an interpretivist, qualitative approach using semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with a sample of purposively selected owner-managers of serviced accommodation establishments in Scotland. Participating businesses were all members of the Green Tourism Business Scheme, an environmental accreditation scheme for tourism businesses. The data is analysed following Crabtree and Miller's (1992) template approach to coding in the first stage of analysis, and a cognitive mapping approach based on Kelly's Personal Construct Theory (1955) in the secondary stage of analysis. The analytical software used for the development and analysis of cognitive maps is Decision Explorer. The trustworthiness of the study is ensured by addressing the four criteria of credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability. The study found that the decision to adopt environmental management practices reflected a lifestyle choice, was driven by personal values and beliefs and influenced by a wealth of personal, socio-cultural and situational factors. Four distinct motivational groups were identified based on the emerging rationale for action: Profit-motivated Greens (financially driven), Practival Greens (both financially and ethically driven), Ethical Greens (ethically driven) and Holistic Greens (also ethically driven but to a greater extent). Variations in personal environment ethic, personal construct of environmental practices and the type of value attributed to action further distinguished respondents in the four typologies. Attitudinal, operational and financial factors were found to act as constraints to further action. A range of intrinsic benefits (personal satisfaction and peace of mind) as well as extrinsic benefits (financial, operational and marketing) were acknowledged following adoption of environmental practices and participation in the scheme. It is concluded that whilst promotion strategies should continue to promote the financial benefits of environmental involvement, equal consideration should be given to appealing to the moral conscience of individual business owners. Efforts should also seek to educate operators on action strategies and on the value of their contribution. A need for improved support and infrastructure is identified. Finally, in order to attract participation, environmental accreditation schemes such as the Green Tourism Business Scheme, which provides the context for this study, must prove commercially beneficial to businesses. This, it is argued, can only be achieved through improved promotion, and consequently, widespread consumer recognition. Recommendations are provided as a basis for action in this direction.