50107 research outputs found
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Does Governance Matter in Hotel ESG? The Role of Resource Orchestration
No full textEnvironmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) considerations have become fundamental to hotel operations, with governance practices distinguishing ESG from traditional corporate social responsibility frameworks. However, governance-oriented research remains fragmented within hospitality ESG literature, overshadowed by environmental and social aspects. This study integrates resource orchestration theory with materiality assessment to examine how hotels leverage governance indicators to enhance overall ESG performance. Using a sequential mixed-method approach in Hong Kong and mainland China, Study 1 employs multiple case studies analyzing hotel industry ESG reports and interviews with 35 hotel managers, while Study 2 validates findings through hotel survey data. The research extends existing hotel governance literature by developing a resource orchestration-based framework that elucidates effective resource deployment for material governance indicators. The findings will provide hotels with strategic guidance for prioritizing governance practices to optimize ESG performance
Creative In-flight Safety Video: Exploring the Collaborative Marketing Outcomes of Airlines and Destinations Marketing
No full textIn an attempt to capture passengers’ attention, some airlines have adopted creative approaches in in-flight safety videos as a collaborative platform for destination marketing. This study employs a 2 (Destination attribute: Presence vs. Absence) x 2 (Video style: Animation vs. Live-shot) between-subject experiment design to assess the outcomes of in-flight safety videos for both airline branding and destination marketing, with the originality-appropriateness dimension of creativity as a mediator. The findings reveal that destination attributes simultaneously influence airline purchase intention and affective image, with both effects fully mediated by originality. Furthermore, originality and affective image form a chain mediation that impacts visit intention. Additionally, live-shot video styles outperform the animation styles when destination attributes are present. We highlight the potential of nontraditional collaborative marketing platforms, such as in-flight safety videos, to generate win-win outcomes. Showcasing live-shot scenery and cultural objects will be especially effective
Assessing the Usefulness of Social Media and Generative AI in Pre-Travel Planning for Individuals with Mobility Challenges
No full textIntroduction Emerging technologies, like social media and generative artificial intelligence (GAI), have provided valuable tools for modern travelers when planning their travel experiences (Xiang et al., 2015). For instance, GAI tools like ChatGPT can output a comprehensive and personalized itinerary within seconds for those seeking recommendations for things to do during their trip. Similarly, requests for recommendations from anonymous users on social media platforms can result in tailored suggestions from other users who choose to share their advice, experiences, and opinions. In both cases, the suggestions can be relevant to individuals with mobility challenges, such as people who use wheelchairs, canes, or other walking aids to get around and may decide to use these technologies to help make their planning more beneficial. These tools support the resilience, resourcefulness, and unique travel perspectives of individuals facing mobility challenges. Although social media and GAI offer personalized recommendations and itinerary suggestions, they each have platform-specific limitations that should be considered. For instance, despite its convenience and seemingly “all-knowingness”, GAI is not immune to making errors and often fabricates its responses with unnerving confidence. This behavior has become known as “AI hallucination”. Additionally, social media responses may lack relevance or be intentionally disruptive feedback from those described as “internet trolls” by Mkono and Tribe (2017). These types of social interactions can limit the benefits received in their feedback. For people with mobility challenges who use social media or GAI to develop accurate and comprehensive travel itineraries, it is worth exploring how useful these tools are in the early stages of one’s travel process. However, this is not a straightforward task, as the meteoric rise of GAI in the past few years has changed the digital travel planning landscape in ways that have not been fully explored or understood. Therefore, this study applies the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) to compare social media’s and GAI's perceived usefulness for accessible pre-trip travel planning by travelers with mobility challenges. UTAUT2 factors such as performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and habit will guide the comparison between these tools. It is necessary to acknowledge that mobility challenges encompass a broad spectrum of experiences, ages, and temporalities. This study includes individuals with permanent or temporary/situational mobility challenges, irrespective of age or cultural background. Although the types can vary widely, this study focuses on individuals who use mobility aids such as wheelchairs, canes, walkers, crutches, prosthetic devices, motorized scooters, and other mobility aids tailored to individual needs. Literature Review The travel planning process is typically divided into three distinct phases: pre-trip, during-trip, and post-trip travel (Fotis et al., 2012). Within the scope of the pre-trip phase, effective planning is helpful to build excitement and stay informed about the destination before their departure (Wong et al., 2023). Planning becomes even more crucial for those with limited mobility, highlighting the importance of considering the needs, experiences, and perceptions of individuals with mobility challenges (Park & Kim, 2024). Individuals with mobility challenges often consult multiple information sources to ensure informed decision-making (Eichhorn et al., 2007). Fortunately, the availability of the Internet has made it much simpler for such individuals to plan several aspects of their lives and maintain their independence, which was much more difficult before the Internet (Ritchie & Blanck, 2003). Yet, in this new digitally-influenced era, destination managers and marketers often fail to ensure that their online content is inclusive and made with accessibility needs in mind (Cloquet et al., 2018). Recent internet-enabled advances, such as social media and GAI, have transformed how potential travelers access and evaluate information. For instance, social media and social networking sites, such as Reddit, Facebook, and Instagram, each offer users content that is generated by other users and is considered to be a more reliable source of information than the content generated by destination managers (Arsal et al., 2008). Social media allows individuals with mobility challenges to maintain social connections with others through participation and learning (Altinay et al., 2016). Similarly, GAI tools, like ChatGPT, are effective ways to plan one’s trip while receiving customized recommendations. GAI tools can analyze one’s preferences and quickly process the data across multiple sources simultaneously to create personalized recommendations for a variety of travel-related elements, including giving recommendations for where to stay or eat (Wong et al., 2023), offering virtual tours of the destination before the trip begins (Dwivedi et al., 2024), and more. GAI chatbots enable travelers to customize itineraries in a way that aligns with their specific needs and preferences (Suanpang & Pothipassa, 2024). Yet they also make mistakes, just as humans do, since they are trained on data available on the internet, which people have created. For example, while GAI can create an accurate itinerary for permanent destinations, it is less reliable with non-permanent ones, such as ski hills or pop-up events (Volchek & Ivanov, 2024), which leaves tourists vulnerable when used in isolation. In their study on GAI’s impact on traveler autonomy and decision-making, Dogru et al. (2023) note that the loss of autonomy in building one’s itinerary or using a human guide rather than a GAI-based one can negatively affect their overall experience as a direct result of this lost autonomy, ultimately leading to value co-destruction. While there is extensive research that explores the applications and impacts of using AI-generated content among social media marketers (Alqurashi et al., 2023; Gupta et al., 2024; Kshetri et al., 2024), there is limited understanding of how these two distinct forms of modern digital communication tools compare within the context of pre-trip planning from the tourist’s perspective, particularly within the context of accessible tourism. Therefore, this study will seek to compare social media and GAI tools from the perspective of travelers during the pre-trip phase who experience at least one form of physical mobility challenge. Methodology This study will use Reddit data to compare and understand social media's and GAI's complementary roles in accessible pre-trip travel planning. The decision to use Reddit data was due to the vast range of anonymous user-generated discussions and diverse inputs among its users within the context of accessible travel. Using Communalytic, Reddit posts and comments related to accessible travel will be scraped. The posts will then be compared with responses generated by several popular GAI tools, including OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude, and Microsoft CoPilot, focusing on themes of usefulness and accessibility. A semantic similarity analysis will be conducted, followed by Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) to map perceptual differences between the two sources. This will allow for identifying latent themes regarding the usefulness of AI versus peer-generated content in accessible travel planning. Conclusion and Discussion With over one billion people worldwide experiencing some form of disability (Benjamin et al., 2021), many report taking fewer trips due to travel-limiting disabilities (Bureau of Transportation, 2024). This research is crucial for improving accessible travel experiences by identifying which technologies are most effective in helping travelers with mobility challenges plan their trips. The results from this research will provide insights into the best combinations of these tools for pre-trip planning by identifying the aspects of each that are done most effectively and combining them to support more effective travel planning. The results of this study will help guide destination managers, marketers, and tourism businesses to implement universal design principles that emphasize inclusive, user-friendly services that empower travelers with mobility challenges and address the needs of this underserved community. References Altinay, Z., Saner, T., Bahçelerli, N. M., & Altinay, F. (2016). The Role of Social Media Tools: Accessible Tourism for Disabled Citizens. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 19(1), 89–99. Arsal, I., Backman, S., & Baldwin, E. (2008). Influence of an Online Travel Community on Travel Decisions. In P. O’Connor, W. Höpken, & U. Gretzel (Eds.), Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2008 (pp. 82–93). Springer Vienna. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-211-77280-5_8 Benjamin, S., Bottone, E., & Lee, M. (2021). Beyond accessibility: Exploring the representation of people with disabilities in tourism promotional materials. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 29(2–3), 295–313. https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2020.1755295 Bureau of Transportation. (2024, April 18). Travel Patterns of American Adults with Disabilities Statistics. https://www.bts.gov/travel-patterns-with-disabilities Cloquet, I., Palomino, M., Shaw, G., Stephen, G., & Taylor, T. (2018). Disability, social inclusion and the marketing of tourist attractions. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 26(2), 221–237. https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2017.1339710 Dogru, T., Line, N., Mody, M., Hanks, L., Abbott, J., Acikgoz, F., Assaf, A., Bakir, S., Berbekova, A., Bilgihan, A., Dalton, A., Erkmen, E., Geronasso, M., Gomez, D., Graves, S., Iskender, A., Ivanov, S., Kizildag, M., Lee, M., … Zhang, T. (2023). Generative Artificial Intelligence in the Hospitality and Tourism Industry: Developing a Framework for Future Research. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 10963480231188663. https://doi.org/10.1177/10963480231188663 Dwivedi, Y. K., Pandey, N., Currie, W., & Micu, A. (2024). Leveraging ChatGPT and other generative artificial intelligence (AI)-based applications in the hospitality and tourism industry: Practices, challenges and research agenda. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 36(1), 1–12. Eichhorn, V., Miller, G., Michopoulou, E., & Buhalis, D. (2007). Enabling disabled tourists? Accessibility tourism information schemes. https://openresearch.surrey.ac.uk/esploro/ Fotis, J., Buhalis, D., & Rossides, N. (2012). Social Media Use and Impact during the Holiday Travel Planning Process. In M. Fuchs, F. Ricci, & L. Cantoni (Eds.), Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2012 (pp. 13–24). Springer Vienna. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-1142-0_2 Mkono, M., & Tribe, J. (2017). Beyond Reviewing: Uncovering the Multiple Roles of Tourism Social Media Users. Journal of Travel Research, 56(3), 287–298. https://doi.org/10.1177/0047287516636236 Park, E. (Olivia), & Kim, S.-B. (2024). Exploring travel-related perspectives and experiences of physical disability communities. International Journal of Tourism Research, 26(4), e2684. https://doi.org/10.1002/jtr.2684 Ritchie, H., & Blanck, P. (2003). The promise of the Internet for disability: A study of on‐line services and web site accessibility at Centers for Independent Living. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 21(1), 5–26. https://doi.org/10.1002/bsl.520 Suanpang, P., & Pothipassa, P. (2024). Integrating Generative AI and IoT for Sustainable Smart Tourism Destinations. Sustainability, 16(17), Article 17. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16177435 Volchek, K., & Ivanov, S. (2024). ChatGPT as a Travel Itinerary Planner. In K. Berezina, L. Nixon, & A. Tuomi (Eds.), Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2024 (pp. 365–370). Springer Nature Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-58839-6_38 Wong, I. A., Lian, Q. L., & Sun, D. (2023). Autonomous travel decision-making: An early glimpse into ChatGPT and generative AI. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 56, 253–263. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhtm.2023.06.022 Xiang, Z., Magnini, V. P., & Fesenmaier, D. R. (2015). Information technology and consumer behavior in travel and tourism: Insights from travel planning using the internet. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 22, 244–249
How childhood socioeconomic status influences travel insurance decision
No full textChildhood experiences shape individuals’ behavioral and psychological tendencies in adulthood. Yet we know little about how these early environments influence decision-making in response to potential travel risks. In this study, we propose that individuals' childhood environments and current income levels influence their preference for travel insurance based on different coverage appeals: peace of mind, prepaid amount protection, and future loss protection. We find that people who grew up in poorer environments prefer insurance covering their prepaid investments, while those from wealthier childhood backgrounds favor protection against future losses. Interestingly, this preference pattern remains consistent across different current income levels. However, the results reveal that the current income does not moderate the relationship between insurance coverage types and preference strength. Overall, our work provides future research avenues by presenting how and why childhood environments affect tourists' decision-making
New Designs in Perovskite-Organic Hybrid Materials with Enhanced Properties and Functionality
No full textLead halide perovskites (APbX3) are an unusual class of ionic semiconductors that first entered the scene as efficient solar absorbers in photovoltaics, and have since been adapted into colloidal nanocrystal (NC) form. The latter emit bright light and bear unique optoelectronic properties that set them apart from their metal chalcogenide quantum dot (QD) forerunners, including a bandgap that is tailorable across the visible range by halide selection (X = Cl, Br, I), a soft, dynamic lattice that undergoes facile ion-exchange and chemical rearrangement, extremely fast photoluminescence decay rates, and an innate defect tolerance the lifts the need for epitaxial passivation to achieve high luminescence. Unlike bulk polycrystalline films, reducing the ABX3 dimensions to the nanometer scale opens a large surface area and renders them dispersible in organic media, permitting intimate mixing with organic polymer and optoelectronic components than can lead to emergent new properties.
Several volumes could be dedicated alone to the study of the inorganic chemistry, morphology and photophysics of nanocrystalline perovskites; in the first part of Chapter 1, a condensed, holistic description of their crystal structure, optical properties, ion-exchange behavior, shape-control mechanisms, chemical transformations, and unconventional surface chemistry is presented. In the second half, recent progress in the area of perovskite-organic hybrid materials is interpreted against this backdrop.
In the ensuing chapters, efforts to design novel perovskite-organic designer materials are described. In Chapter 2, amphiphilic, zwitterion block copolymers are synthesized and used directly in the hot injection synthesis of CsPbBr3 NCs, permitting their direct attachment to the NC surface without intermediate ligand exchange steps. In Chapter 3, polystyrene derivatives with ammonium halide pendant groups are used to tune nanocomposite color in thin films and control the kinetics of inter-NC halide exchange. In Chapter 4, precise-length, π-conjugated zwitterions are introduced as replacements for the typical aliphatic ligands used on CsPbBr3 surfaces, demonstrating the impact of doing so on energy transfer (between ligand and perovskite) and NC-packing geometry in films. In Chapter 5, the photocatalytic activity of the perovskite NC is exploited in a new photolithography process for patterning fluorescence color (and shape) into nanocomposite films. Lastly, Chapter 6 entails a discussion of the future of this field, with commentary on lead-free perovskite NC compositions.NSF-CHE-2203578
Mitsubishi ChemicalDoctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.
Family-Level Diversity of Hymenopteran Parasitoid Communities in Agricultural Drainage Ditches and Implications for Biological Control
No full textAgricultural drainage ditches contain a variety of non-crop vegetation, including potential sources of alternate hosts and food for hymenopteran parasitoids that provide conservation biological control on adjacent farm fields. To assess the patterns of family-level diversity of hymenopteran parasitoids, we surveyed ditch and adjacent crop habitats during June, July, and August 2021-2023, using yellow sticky traps over one week. We sampled two agricultural drainage ditches on each of five farms on the Delmarva Peninsula, eastern USA. We collected 36,725 specimens and identified 29 families across 738 sticky traps. Parasitoid diversity was greater in agricultural ditches than in adjacent fields. While parasitoid family diversity and abundance varied across the farms, ditches within a farm were similar. Within crop fields, diversity was greater at 1.5 m from agricultural ditches than at 9.1 m from the ditches. For several well-sampled families, greater abundance on one farm relative to others extended to both ditches and adjacent crops. Our findings indicate that agricultural drainage ditches serve as an existing beneficial semi-natural habitat for parasitoids on farms. Further research into ditch management practices may reveal methods of enhancing parasitoid abundance and conservation biological control while requiring relatively little investment from farm managers
A new spotted fever group Rickettsia genotype in Haemaphysalis leporispalustris from Maine, USA
No full textSpotted fever group (SFG) rickettsioses are increasingly recognized worldwide as threats to public health. Rickettsia rickettsii, Rickettsia parkeri, and Rickettsia rickettsii subspecies californica cause spotted fever rickettsioses, including Rocky Mountain spotted fever. These disease agents are transmitted to humans by various tick vectors in the United States. There is growing concern that other tick species, such as Haemaphysalis leporispalustris, may also transmit new and potentially unrecognized SFG rickettsial pathogens. In this study, we found that 6.1 % of 296 questing H. leporispalustris ticks (21 larvae, 260 nymphs, 9 males, and 6 females) collected from 38 towns across nine counties in Maine, USA, were positive for Rickettsia spp. Further multilocus sequence typing and phylogenetic analysis revealed that this is a new Rickettsia genotype (Rickettsia sp. ME2023) belonging to the SFG group and close to Candidatus Rickettsia lanei. Tick vectors and rickettsial species associated with SFG rickettsioses in New England warrant further investigation. Additionally, the role of H. leporispalustris in pathogen enzootic cycles and transmission requires further study
Three Essays on Shacklean Decision Theory
No full textG.L.S. Shackle was a major critic of probability based economic theory. During the 1980s and 1990s, his alternative framework of decision-making was mathematically reconstructed by Katzner. In this dissertation, I aim to advance Shacklean decision theory, as reformalized by Katzner, by exploring its mathematical foundation, methodological underpinnings, and applications to financial decision-making.
In the first paper (chapter 1), we will construct an axiomatic system of ordering relation defined on the σ-field F* as the space of hypotheses about the future states in order to derive the functional representation of potential surprise formalized by Katzner. For this task, we introduced a base space, called monad F spanning all imaginable hypotheses by union operations in F. In addition, to investigate necessary topological conditions, we introduced the degree space F ̅, a quotient space of total preorder on monad F. Based on this, we will derive various continuous order-preserving functional representation of potential surprising ordering from F ̅ to [0, 1].
The second paper (chapter 2) presents a new interpretation of Shacklean theory by focusing on the common stage structure of decision-making in relation to expected utility theory. This paper shows that the characteristics of Shacklean framework can be explained as: (1) potential surprise, a non-distributive and non-additive, almost ordinal measure of subjective uncertainty defined on the incomplete list of imaginable future states, (2) attractiveness function, the valuation of “importance” reflecting various types of loss-psychology, and (3) decision-index, the final choice function of the action on the set of importance intervals.
The third paper (chapter 3) explores individual portfolio adjustment behavior and potential scenarios that may trigger a panic response in asset portfolio management, using the Shackle-Katzner framework. It begins by examining a portfolio consisting of money and a single non-monetary asset, followed by an analysis of a portfolio containing two non-monetary assets. This study argues that if an investor relies solely on a dominant aspect—whether optimistic or pessimistic—in anticipating future payoffs shaped by market conditions, then not only abrupt and sharp updates of negative information but also a continuous and gradual increase in negative anticipation can lead to a sudden panic response upon crossing a critical tipping point.Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.
Datasets for climate change impacts on biocontrol agents and their targets
No full textA. Filename: Literature_information
Database of articles that were included in the systematic review and/or meta-analysis of climate change impacts on biological control agents and their targets. Data include unique study ID number, year of publication, authors, and title of publication.
B. Filename: systematicReview_data
Database of information used for systematic review of climate change on biological control agents and their hosts. Data include study ID, application setting, source of information (on application setting), type of study, biocontrol species, biocontrol agent category, target species, target species category, biocontrol mechanism, environmental variables examined in article, types of biocontrol and target responses measures and additional notes about the articles.
C. Filename: Meta-analysis_data
Data used for meta-analysis on the effects of temperature on the efficacy of arthropod biocontrol agents and their targets. Data include studyID, species names, species information, control and treatment temperatures, control and treatment variance, sample sizes, biocontrol and target responses, temperature treatment information, data sources, notes, and meta-analysis statistics including Hedge's d effect sizes and variances
Three Essays in Environmental and Behavioral Economics
No full textIn this dissertation, I explore how environmental and behavioral factors shape cooperation and the effectiveness of policies designed to address collective action problems. The first essay employs a laboratory experiment to investigate how group identity and communication structures influence cooperation in the face of shared environmental risk. Participants were divided into politically distinct groups and faced the possibility of losing a shared resource unless they collectively contributed to reduce that risk. The findings reveal that, divided societies with salient group identities contribute more than unified ones. Moreover, cooperation is significantly higher when communication is allowed within groups rather than across the broader society, highlighting the role of targeted peer encouragement and group identification in fostering collective action.
The second essay extends this analysis by introducing economic inequality into the experimental setting and examining how it interacts with political identity to shape cooperative behavior. The results show that inequality reduces contributions among more progressive individuals in the absence of communication. However, this effect diminishes when communication is introduced, suggesting that deliberation may help overcome divisions caused by both identity and economic status.
The third essay turns to a real-world context to assess the impact of a unit-based pricing policy—known as Pay-As-You-Throw (PAYT)—on household waste behaviors in Massachusetts municipalities between 2011 and 2023. Using an event study framework with panel data, the analysis identifies sustained reductions in trash disposal following PAYT adoption, but finds no corresponding increases in recycling. The effects are heterogeneous: stronger reductions are observed in towns with higher incomes, more children, and where households do not receive curbside collection services, underscoring the importance of both socioeconomic factors and program design in shaping behavioral responses.
Together, these essays contribute to the literature on behavioral economics and environmental economics by highlighting the conditions under which cooperation emerges in the face of shared risks, and the design features that enhance the effectiveness of environmental interventions.Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.