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According to construal theory, the desirability of a product influences consumers’ choices from a temporally, socially, spatially and hypothetically distant perspective. The purpose of this study is to test the temporal dimension of such theory with reference to hotel room prices, also distinguishing by firm size. Temporal distance is measured through the days of advance booking, in a varying-coefficient model reflecting both the dynamic pricing behaviour of the supply and the seasonal oscillation pattern of the demand. Results support the appropriateness of the temporal construal theory as an interpretative framework for the effectiveness of dynamic pricing, from the perspective of behavioural psychology. On average, the influence of quality on price in small hotels is lower than in large hotels; however, its variability is higher in small hotels. Large hotels charge a premium price during peak season dates, while small firms apply discounts, likely aiming to reach full occupation.

Big data analytics constitute one of the driving forces of the fourth industrial revolution and\ud represent one of the founding pillars of Industry 4.0. They are increasingly leveraged to create\ud business insights from online reviews of products and services by a wide range of organizations\ud and firms. In this work, we develop a typology of online review platforms (ORPs) and describe\ud a novel platform, research-driven online review platform (RORP), that combines the science\ud and rigor of very large-scale, low-cost, fast-paced, and complex digital experimentation using\ud real-world customers on digital platforms with the power of modern AI-based big data analytics\ud capabilities (BDAC) to generate novel innovation insights for the digital age. Using multiple\ud real-world case studies, we illustrate how RORPs operate and deliver value through innovation\ud analytics, and serve as a powerful tool for digital innovation experimentation, enabling firms\ud to innovate more effectively and transform their business models to adapt to rapidly changing\ud market conditions. We shed light on the BDAC requirements, as well as the benefits and\ud challenges of using RORPs and innovation analytics, particularly in the post-COVID-19 world,\ud and offer strategic and operational implications for entrepreneurs and innovation managers.

The field of CSR in family firms has experienced remarkable growth recently. Therefore, a literature review\ud on the topic is needed to provide an updated overview of extant research and draw guidelines for future\ud research. Using bibliometric mapping, we conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) on corporate social\ud responsibility (CSR) in family business drawing on the Web of Science (WOS) and Scopus databases. The\ud bibliographic coupling conducted suggests that family involvement, corporate governance, and sustainability\ud are the most frequently studied topics. Furthermore, through our SLR, we systematized the studies into an\ud interpretative framework, identifying the drivers and outcomes of CSR practices, processes, and strategies in\ud family business. The study reveals and organizes the state-of-the-art of CSR research in family business,\ud outlines important theoretical implications and develops a future research agenda.

This work introduces, develops, and empirically applies an innovative approach aimed at assessing selling prices based on the value perceived by the customers, as measured by electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) in the guise of online reviews. To achieve this aim, it applies a constant return to scale Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approach where the price is the input, and the value attributes are the outputs measured through eWOM in the form of online reviews. We empirically apply the model to the hotel sector by considering both the prices and the service attributes (i.e., staff, location, cleanliness, comfort, facilities and free wi-fi) of 364 hotels based in two leading Italian tourism destinations: Milan and Rome. Our findings suggest that online review analytics can be suitably embedded into analytical models to assess prices. The index developed innovatively supports value-based pricing by means of online review analytics and it is easy-to-perform, and parsimonious as it is based on widely available information on the Internet.

In a gradually more hypercompetitive global tourism arena, destination marketers are increasingly seeking effective ways to promote places through appealing place brand messages. Local residents can be valuable ambassadors for the place, as well as co-creators of place-related brand communication. However, research focusing on place advertising from the residents’ perspective is scant. To address this gap, this work identifies three main antecedents of residents’ intention to share a place brand message online: place attachment, place ad–brand congruity, and self-expressiveness. A model is developed and tested on a sample of current and former residents of a Swedish city. Structural equation model results support that these antecedents have a positive influence on current as well as former residents’ intention to share a place brand ad online. Place attachment also has a significant indirect influence on intention to share, with place ad–brand congruity and self-expressiveness as partial mediators. Furthermore, place ad–brand congruity mediates partially the relationship between place attachment and self-expressiveness.

This work explores how the National Tourism Organizations (NTOs) of the top 10 most visited countries by international tourists strategically employ Facebook to promote and market their destinations. Based on big data retrieved from the NTOs’ Facebook pages, and leveraging advanced metrics for capturing user engagement, the study sheds light on the factors contributing to superior level of social activity. The findings indicate that the way Facebook is tactically employed varies significantly across sampled NTOs. The panel data regression analyses suggest that engagement is positively affected by posting visual content (namely photos), and posting during the weekends, and negatively affected by evening posting. Post frequency displays no statistically significant effect on social engagement. The study also shows that most of the NTOs (except for Italy, Spain, Turkey and the UK) deploy Facebook with a top-down approach, and spontaneous user generated content (UGC) is allowed to a very little extent.

The purpose of this study is to continue the discussion initiated by Mellinas et al. (2015, 2016) on the effects of the Booking.com rating system and more widely on the use of the OTA as a data source in academic tourism and hospitality research. We enrich and complement the original work by Mellinas et al. (2015) by empirically investigating the effects of the Booking.com rating system on the distribution of hotel ratings for the overall population of hotels located in London over two years. Based on more than 1.2 million online reviews, we show that the overall distribution of hotel scores is significantly left-skewed. Moreover, we find that the degree of skewness is positively associated with hotel class: lower-class hotels exhibit distributions of ratings that are statistically less skewed than higher-class hotels.

This paper adopts a managerial perspective to revisit an original case study of the “Pink Night” festival presented by Giovanardi et al. (2014) in an earlier issue of this journal. Our in-depth qualitative study contributes to the event tourism planning and management literature in three ways. First, we shed light on how and why competing Destination Management Organisations (DMOs) cooperate to plan, develop and manage event tourism. Second, we introduce and describe the brand new concept of the meta-event, which is the main theoretical contribution of this work. Third, we elucidate the role of meta-events as brand architecture tools to rebrand and reposition wide tourism areas. We illustrate the theoretical and managerial implications of the meta-event concept for event tourism studies and destination managers.

The book Tourism management, marketing and development: the importance of networks and ICTs provides an overview of state-of-the-art research related to the implications of ICT in tourism, and on the main evolutions in the management of destinations. The book includes twelve articles from a diverse international group of academics, displayed in two parts, 'ICT and Tourism' and 'Tourism systems and Networks'.; L'ouvrage, Tourism management, marketing and development: the importance of networks and ICTs fait un point sur les implications des TIC dans le tourisme, et sur les principales évolutions dans le management des destinations. L'ouvrage contient douze chapitres, présentés en deux parties, 'ICT and Tourism' et 'Tourism systems and Networks'.

The purpose of this study is to explore whether the UNESCO World Heritage Site (WHS) designation affects tourists’ evaluation of the local destination hosting the site, building on a large sample of about 0.8 million tourists who visited Italy over the period 1997–2015. We find that the inscription onto the UNESCO World Heritage List exerts surprisingly a negative effect on the overall evaluation of the destination and also on the evaluation of its artistic assets though the magnitude of the latter is lower. The effect is heterogeneous across visitors, depending on evaluation levels, as well as origin/destinations and demographics. Nonetheless, the presence of multiple WHSs in the same destination tends to increase evaluation, suggesting that destination stakeholders with previous experience in dealing with WHS designations are better equipped to manage the complicated relationship between tourism and preservation. Managerial and policy-making implications are discussed.

This paper develops and tests an innovative DEA model in the hospitality sector, by originally embedding online customer ratings among the outputs of the model. Based on a sample of 268 independent hotels located in Rome (Italy), we test a eWOM-informed DEA model and find that the introduction of online ratings among the outputs of the model significantly affects the assessment of hotels’ efficiency regardless of hotel category. The efficiency rankings generated by the DEA models embedding eWOM are radically different compared to those resulting from DEA models exclusively based on financial variables. The number of hotels improving their position in the efficiency rankings is lower than the number of hotels decreasing in the ranking. However, the average efficiency variation is positive and higher for 2- and 3- stars hotels than for 4- and 5- stars hotels. Implications for researchers in hospitality and tourism, managers and practitioners are discussed.

In this study, we propose to model how intellectual capital (IC) attributes affect the performance of organizations operating in the performing arts sector, more specifically opera companies. In particular, the aim of this paper is twofold in that it seeks: (1) to analyze the role IC plays in performing arts organizations; and (2) to propose research hypotheses that suggest how IC affects the performance of these organizations. An in-depth qualitative approach was adopted. The research methodology deployed consists of a longitudinal case study of a major Italian opera house. The main findings of this study are two: (1) the identification of six attributes of IC that are deeply grounded in management theories and that make the definition of the IC construct more theoretically robust with respect to other studies that are less evidence-based; (2) the development of a model that shows how IC attributes affect the three different performance dimensions of performing arts organizations. © 2009 Operational Research Society. All rights reserved.