1522 research outputs found
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A Capability Based Framework for Tourism Innovativeness
Get PDFDrawing on the strategic management, innovation, tourism, marketing, and organisational behaviour literatures over the past 50 years, we propose a resource-based (Barney 1991) and dynamic-capability (Wernerfelt 1984; Teece et al. 1997; Eisenhardt & Martin 2000) research approach to theoretically explore how small tourism firms can manage and reconfigure their existing pool of resources through their innovative capabilities to deal with the turbulent environment in which they are embedded. This paper conceptually examines and schematically models the impact of the dynamic capability-generating capacity of firm-level innovativeness on sustainable competitive advantage in small tourism firms.
Keywords: Dynamic-capabilities perspective, resource-based view, firm-level innovativeness, firm performance, competitiveness, small tourism firm, conceptual model
DEFINING AND DIMENSIONALIZING ORGANIZATIONAL INNOVATIVENESS
Get PDFFew research agendas have successfully addressed tourism firm-level innovativeness, and the few studies that do exist typically provide only descriptive data or often remain at a conceptual level (Siguaw et al., 2006). Subsequently, an extensive knowledge gap concerning what constitutes firm-level innovativeness exists. Academics are confusing innovativeness with innovation and innovation orientation; producing many conflicting and inconsistent research results.
Drawing from prior relevant research conducted over the past 39 years in the innovation, tourism, organizational, strategy, marketing, consumer, and psychology literatures; this paper provides an operational definition and conceptualization of innovativeness that is useful to both tourism researchers and practitioners.
Keywords: Innovativeness, Conceptualization, Small Tourism Fir
FÁILTE GO SLÁINTE: UNDERSTANDING THE TOURIST EXPERIENCE CONCEPT
Get PDFThe Tourism Policy Review Group’s “Vision for Irish Tourism 2003-2012” identified that tourism is increasingly driven by more demanding customer requirements, emphasising the need for the Irish tourism industry to provide compelling tourist experiences. In parallel, there has been an emerging consensus in the experience and service development literature that it is not sufficient to invest money in the design of a service, the focus must be on the design and implementation of memorable personal experiences that meet or exceed the expectations of customers (Smith & Wheeler, 2002). However, despite the importance the literature ascribes to the experience concept there is an imbalance in existing work as the area of experiential tourism services has dealt primarily with the characteristics of experiences (Fitzsimmons and Fitzsimmons, 2004; Gupta & Vajic, 2000; Carbone & Haeckel, 1994), or on the enhancers and inhibitors to experience delivery (Anderson et al., 2008) or on the benefits of experience delivery (Voss, 2004; Pullman & Gross, 2004) but with scant attention to conceptualising the tourist experience. It is widely acknowledged that the field of experience creation and design would benefit from further theoretical investigation (Fitzsimmons and Fitzsimmons, 2000; Pullman and Gross, 2003; Stuart and Tax, 2004).
Drawing from prior work found in the tourism, services, management, marketing, and policy literatures and documents, this paper aims to explore the nature of the tourist experience concept from both an academic and practice perspective in an attempt to develop an integrated understanding of the experience concept. In essence, the primary objective of this paper is to dissect the experience concept proposed by both literature and policy in order to identify its key dimensions from the perspective of the firm.
Key words: tourism, experience concept, small fir
The relationship between macular pigment and visual performance
Get PDFThis study was designed to assess whether macular pigment optical density (MPOD) is associated with
visual performance. One hundred and forty-two young healthy subjects were recruited. Macular pigment
optical density and visual performance were assessed by psychophysical tests including best corrected
visual acuity (BCVA), mesopic and photopic contrast sensitivity, glare sensitivity, photostress recovery
time (PRT). Measures of central visual function, including BCVA and contrast sensitivity, were positively
associated with MPOD (p < 0.05, for all). Photostress recovery and glare sensitivity were unrelated to
MPOD (p > 0.05). A longitudinal, placebo-controlled and randomized supplementation trial will be
required to ascertain whether augmentation of MPOD can influence visual performance.
2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved
ILLUMINATING APPLIED SERVICE INNOVATION RESEARCH WITH SMES: THE CASE OF THE RIKON GROUP
Get PDFGenerating absorbable and practical knowledge on the systematic development, design and testing of new and/or improved service offerings, processes and business models, i.e. service innovation, represents a timely and relevant growth area transcending European and Irish innovation, recovery and socio-economic strategies. However, research into the development and practice of service innovation vis-à-vis product innovation is a relatively emerging domain and as such, is at best characterised as emerging. The existing body of research knowledge, derived largely from product innovation, fails to provide concrete processes by which to embed service innovation at the firm-level which has significant implications in terms of industry awareness, deployment and impact. Reflective of this, Irish data emanating from the Community Innovation Survey indicates that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) report the least levels of engagement, expenditure and collaboration with academia in relation to innovation activities, which is a concern when the Irish enterprise landscape is dominated by SMEs.
Mindful of the foregoing; this research, which has received ‘New Ideas’ funding from the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences utilises The RIKON Group based in W.I.T as a knowledge provider within Enterprise Ireland’s Innovation Voucher Programme as a lens to disseminate (1) the application areas and methodologies of service innovation and (2) the range and impact of applied service innovation research and knowledge transfer. Through a combination of desk research and multiple case study developments transcending an end-to-end perspective of service innovation including ideation, business development, market analysis, service design and market development this research (1) synthesises the service innovation challenges faced by Irish SMEs; (2) illustrates the methodologies utilised to deliver service innovation solutions to SMEs; (3) highlights the range of applied service innovation research interventions developed by The RIKON Group; (4) profiles Irish service innovation case studies and (5) demonstrates the various impacts associated with implementing service innovation. This research accordingly impacts at various stakeholder levels, most notably in terms of raising industry awareness and practice, informing policy development through evidence based research and contributes to the emerging academic and applied research agenda surrounding the discipline
RETHINKING INNOVATION POLICY IN IRELAND: A CRITICAL CRITIQUE
Get PDFPrior to the current economic recession, the Irish government has been championing an innovation agenda. However, national and European reports and metrics paint a mixed picture about Ireland’s engagement in and outputs derived from innovation activities. Therefore, a critique of Irish innovation policy is timely and relevant given the renewed emphasis and restricted budgetary support afforded to create new enterprises, markets, export opportunities and employment growth. In short, where innovation policy traditionally focused on funding future opportunities and capacities, micro and macroeconomic forces now requires innovation policy to be responsive to current enterprise difficulties. Through incorporating innovation policy priorities, funding streams and key policy stakeholders we find that there is an imbalance in Irish innovation policy with a legacy of prioritising and funding ‘hard’ science and technology based innovations while ignoring ‘softer’ aspects of innovation i.e. service products, business models and customer/delivery interfaces at a similar level which can be implemented at all enterprise levels, incur less costs and operationalised in a more timely manner. This policy disparity has serious consequences for our progressive innovation ambitions around entrepreneurship, scaling indigenous enterprises, creating and sustaining SME’s. The paper identifies that there is a paramount need to rethink innovation policy in order to reap the rewards of our previous and on-going investments towards achieving our national innovation goals and ambitions. To conclude we provide a roadmap for rethinking this policy around widening innovation concepts, improving SMEs capacity to innovative and addressing the academic-industry applied research and collaboration gaps
Responses of Ammonia-Oxidising Bacterial Communities to Nitrogen, Lime, and Plant Species in Upland Grassland Soil
Get PDFAgricultural improvement of seminatural grasslands has been shown to result in changes to plant and microbial diversity, with
consequences for ecosystem functioning. A microcosm approach was used to elucidate the effects of two key components of
agricultural improvement (nitrogen addition and liming) on ammonia-oxidising bacterial (AOB) communities in an upland
grassland soil. Plant species characteristic of unimproved and improved pastures (A. capillaris and L. perenne) were planted
in microcosms, and lime, nitrogen (NH4NO3), or lime plus nitrogen added. The AOB community was profiled using terminal
restriction fragment length polymorphism (TRFLP) of the amoA gene. AOB community structure was largely altered by NH4NO3
addition, rather than liming, although interactions between nitrogen addition and plant species were also evident. Results indicate
that nitrogen addition drives shifts in the structure of key microbial communities in upland grassland soils, and that plant species
may play a significant role in determining AOB community structure
Impact of wildfire intensity and logging on fungal and nitrogen-cycling bacterial communities in British Columbia forest soils
Get PDFWildfire and logging are common disturbances in the forests of northwestern North America, causing
changes in soil chemistry and microbiology, including fungal and nitrogen-cycling bacterial communities.
These organisms play key roles in nutrient cycling, and affect the regeneration of tree seedlings after
disturbance. We studied the effects of wildfire and logging on fungal and nitrogen-cycling communities
in the rhizosphere of 16 month-old Douglas-fir seedlings as they regenerated in burned and logged
soils. Seeds were planted against root windows that were set up vertically in the soil, with a removable
front panel used to access the seedling rhizosphere soil surface. Windows were established in control,
lightly burned, and severely burned plots, as well as two types of logged plots (clearcut and screefed
clearcut). Soil scrapings from the root window–soil interface were taken and the structure of fungal and
nitrogen-cycling communities was resolved using length-heterogeneity PCR (LH-PCR) of fungal nuclear
ribosomal RNA genes, and terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis of nifH
and nosZ genes. We found striking differences in the community structure of fungal, denitrifying, and
N-fixing communities in response to burning and logging. With the exception of clearcut and screefed
clearcut, which were generally similar, each treatment had a unique impact on community structure for
these genes. Burning and logging also impacted the relative richness and evenness of these communities.
Fungal relative richness and evenness increased in response to logging and severe burning, while
denitrifier relative richness and evenness increased in all disturbance treatments, and N-fixing bacterial
relative richness and evenness decreased in response to burning. The greatest differences in microbial
community structure, relative richness, and evenness were found in the comparisons of lightly burned
and logged treatments. The results suggest that the presence of an intact forest floor influences soil
microbial communities less than the presence of living trees
A Consumer Perspective on Financial Regulation
Get PDFThis presentation examines issues associated with financial regulation in Ireland the experience and expectations of consumers and the population at large as result of the financial crisis. It draws on conceptual dimensions of regulation and seeks to frame them in a way that would contribute to future policy development. It emphasises an interdisciplinary approach and is mindful of the scale of the challenge that the crisis represents on a number of levels