Search Results (8)

The association between stigma and drug use has been widely researched. However, to fully understand the nuances of stigma, as experienced by people who use drugs (PWUD), it is argued that we must look at the situations within which stigma is encountered. To obtain an ‘up close’ look at situated stigma, data are drawn from two ethnographic studies—one set in a homeless hostel in the South of England and the other at a substance use service in South Wales. This article explores how PWUD experience and negotiate stigma at different stages of their drug use. We identify three notable themes across these settings. Firstly, ‘othering’ occurs in two distinct ways, by othering the past self or distancing from other PWUDs. Secondly, ‘drug exceptionalism’ is used to justify an individual’s drug use and express frustration at the associations between legality, social harm, and stigma. Finally, in ‘negotiating identities’, individuals present alternate identity roles to either demonstrate clashes in identity or to promote a conventionally positive sense of self. This article contributes to the existing literature on stigma, firstly, by comparing the stigma management strategies of those in active drug use and recovery and, secondly, by using this to highlight the importance of ethnography and situated stigma within this field. Full article

This research describes a detailed analysis of the enactment of a lean Tool, the Last Planner System during pandemic period which helps in optimizing resources for better coordination among all stakeholders in a pandemic period. The LPS, as it is known, focusses on minimizing factors such as uncertainties, barriers, and variability to make construction projects more flexible for better project management. These include variations and deviations, supervision, delays in approvals, change resistance, and subcontractor dedication, which are all related to various stakeholders in the project. Following that, a Design Science Research technique is used to evaluate the effect of applying the LPS in buildings to address and achieve the objective of reducing the impact of setbacks created by the stakeholders such as architects, consultants, clients, project management team, etc., during the implementation of the LPS during any pandemic so as not to reduce the progress of execution. An action strategy is being used to attain this goal, and four case studies are documented which concern the implementation of the LPS in the building of the Boy’s Hostel, Research Scholar Quarters, Faculty Housing, and Girls’ Hostel at Chennai, Tamilnadu, India. Data was gathered by observation of site activities, interviews, documentation analysis, and a questionnaire survey and grouped into various factors. While adopting the LPS tool in research, the factors affecting the implementation in the COVID-19 pandemic period were found. Further, these factors were analysed, measured, ranked, and validated for adopting in projects. Full article

Globalisation, commercialisation, commodification, and mass communication have led to a loss of uniqueness and a cultural uniformity in places, known as “placelessness”. This study proposes a novel business concept called “placeful business” that addresses this issue. A placeful business incorporates local heritage, showcases unique architecture and aesthetics, engages with the community, and promotes place sustainability and identity. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 20 stakeholders, and a salience-valence analysis was performed on 874 online reviews from Google Maps, TripAdvisor, Booking.com, Agoda, and Hostelworld. This analysis aimed to reveal the key factors contributing to positive experiences and gain insights into the representation and manifestation of placeful characteristics. Through a mixed-method case study of Once Again Hostel in Bangkok, this research identified several salient attributes of the hostel that reinforce the characteristics of a placeful business and have a positive impact on the community. The authors also observed the interconnected and mutually reinforcing nature of placeful and successful factors. However, it was noted that guests’ perception and understanding of placeful characteristics remained limited. While the placeful business model has not yet gained widespread recognition in the business and academic domains, it offers practical implications for small businesses seeking to differentiate themselves in the global market by infusing their operations with a distinct sense of place. Furthermore, place managers can play a crucial role in promoting and fostering placeful business practices as a means to counteract the growing homogenization of places. The adoption of the placeful business model enables the continuous reinforcement of place identity, which, in turn, contributes to the long-term enhancement of place sustainability. Full article

Green human resources management (GHRM) has proven its efficiency in many industries and services, including the hospitality and hostel industries. Additionally, applying green human resources management practices reflects an organization’s environmental awareness and responsibilities. Given that the adoption of these practices cannot be accomplished without the appropriate support from decision makers, the aim of this paper is to analyze the relationships between green human resources management and the hotel industry, identify the possible barriers they may face and provide decision makers with the ability to choose the appropriate combination of GHRM practices based on an understanding the full picture presented in this study. This study depended on a systematic review technique to analyze the scientific production in this area. A total of 59 GHRM articles were extracted from Scopus and WoS and analyzed using three primary levels of analysis. This study revealed that: (i) Green human resources management practices can be summarized into four main categories (employees, marketing systems and corporate social responsibility, leadership and management, and organizational behavior and culture); (ii) the importance of green human resources management goes beyond environmental objectives; and (iii) there are significant barriers that should be taken into consideration when applying GHRM practices in the hotel industry. Full article

Although many studies have explored business resilience during crisis, most subjects are large companies with abundant resources. Hardly any research has explored how small and medium companies with limited resources overcome crisis. This study aims to fill this void by investigating the process of resilience and transformation of small firms during and post-COVID-19. The multiple case study method was applied under the framework of entrepreneur mindset, adaptive capacity and social capital. Small hostels in Thailand and their reaction towards COVID-19 are explored as they were hugely impacted by the pandemic. Four hostels were selected as representative cases of business resilience during September 2020–2021. The results show that these hostels managed to utilize bonding social capital to reshape the business in the short term. In response to the prolonging of the COVID-19 pandemic, bridging social capital was employed to develop a new business model and business sustainability. The entrepreneur mindset is essential for succeeding in the proposed business and helping the owner to be aware of and engage with specific social capital. The entrepreneur mindset also helped to create trust between owner and staff, which enhances adaptive capacity in the firm for resilience and transformation of the business. The findings can guide SMEs to become aware of having a good entrepreneur mindset as well as to utilize their social capital and create business innovation and sustainability to survive the crisis. Full article

The complexity of modern tourism and hospitality management because of competition in the destination market, and especially in urban tourism destinations, has created a demand for creativity and innovation. To satisfy heightened tourist expectations for a specialized experience, hospitality organizations emphasize local culture characteristics and the urban community. The purpose of this paper is to examine how an urban hospitality organization emphasizes community and social values in its hostels, and how the tourist experience is adapted to each city’s culture and atmosphere (Nazareth, Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv). The theoretical framework is based on the link connecting urban hospitality with the tourist experience, and how tourism innovation and creativity is managed, during this age of competition and specialization. The qualitative methodology includes participant observation, document review, and in-depth interviews. The findings of this study add a new dimension to the existing knowledge, namely the role of creativity and innovation in helping the management of an urban hospitality organization to shape the tourist experience. The study developed a new unique model for “implementing innovation in urban hospitality management” which describes the framework of connections and interactions between the various sustainable community based and social aspects. The novelty of this research model lies in the emphasis on how management uses innovation and creativity to brand the whole chain so as to realize the vision and values it wishes to promote. This also entails a system of sub-positioning that aligns the vision and values with the distinctive culture of each city and with each local community’s nature and traditions. Full article

Green roofs and green walls are a potential strategy to increase green spaces in the urban environment. These solutions bring multiple benefits to the cities at the economic and socio-environmental levels. However, from the point of view of private investors, green roofs and green walls often have a negative financial evaluation. Concerning this, the quantification of the benefits according to building use and occupancy could be an important tool to assist the decision-making process and guarantee returns on investment. This study aims to support the decision-making process by managers and owners of youth hostels regarding green roofs and green walls implementation. Using a structured questionnaire, users’ perceptions were assessed through a five-point Likert scale. The survey was conducted in five youth hostels in Lisbon, Portugal. Analyses were performed in two phases. Firstly, using the original sample (n = 345), and subsequently grouping homogeneous individuals through cluster analysis. The results showed that most respondents support green infrastructure installation in the hostel and consider that these solutions could provide a greater sense of individual well-being and local aesthetic improvement. However, there is no strong evidence that green infrastructure solutions are considered a deciding factor to select local lodging, despite the fact that it can be a tiebreaker factor between two similar options. Furthermore, findings have shown that 90% of the respondents from Cluster 1 and 92% from Cluster 4 are probably not willing to pay higher daily rates for youth hostels that have green infrastructure solutions in place. On the other hand, 67% of the respondents from Cluster 2 were potentially willing to pay an additional amount. For the 345 respondents, the most preferred green infrastructure typologies are indoor living wall and the accessible green roof. Moreover, findings support the gender socialization and identity theory showing that women have a greater environmental concern compared to men. Full article

The construction of this research was developed to reflect the way information and communication technologies (ICT) have transformed the tourist distribution channel. This phenomenon has caused, in the first place, the direct interaction between tourists and tourism operators and, second, the appearance of real virtual intermediation actors, a situation that disadvantages the activity of traditional travel agencies and causes immersions in reintermediation processes at risk of compromising its permanence in the market. On the other hand, in a sustainable tourism context, this work represents an opportunity for intermediation agencies in terms of a value management practice as they can develop sustainable promotion processes that promote, for example, the protection of the territory, the conservation of resources, and cultural rescue. Therefore, according to travel agencies, to directly influence the distribution chain, we verified this work to demonstrate the use of digital language as a benefit in the design of sustainable tourism products. Thus, from the methodological discipline of discourse analysis, we created sets of words with semantic content that were valued through the sentiment scales of the Facebook social media network. The results showed that digital promotion favors airline companies and hostels more than a sustainable tourism environment as such. Finally, from the study of probability and density equations, predictive models were used to configure linguistic icons in promoting sustainable tourism. Full article