Tagged / faculty of management

FM Food and Health research team awarded the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Seal of Excellence

BU research, EU, Fusion themes, Impact

The Food and Health research team in the Faculty of Management are delighted that their research into encouraging consumption of plant based dishes has been recognised by the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions ‘Seal of Excellence’.

Their research VeggiEAT and Veg+ has led the way to providing an evidence based body of activity of which VegMAX was part. Plant based eating leads to a large net economic gain for society, as well as improved health outcomes for the population.

We are thrilled and proud with this recognition.

 

 

International conference on insurance marketing is coming to BU

BU research, Events

Following three successful conferences in Paris, France (2015, 2016) and St. Gallen, Switzerland (2017), we are pleased to announce that the 4th International Conference for Marketing in the Insurance industry (ICMI) will be held at the Executive Business Centre, Bournemouth University on the 13th and 14th September 2018.

ICMI is the annual conference of the Association for Insurance Marketing (AIM) which serves as the primary platform to promote research in the field of insurance marketing. Though many academics have investigated marketing related topics in the financial sector, the insurance industry has largely been ignored. In addition, academic accounts of the insurance industry have generally focused on risk, investment and actuarial issues rather than marketing and consequently research that considers the idiosyncrasies of marketing in the insurance industry is urgently needed.

ICMI papers will cover a diverse range of insurance marketing topics including the challenges of multi-channel distribution; claims management and fraud; supply chains and ecosystems; and trust and big data. The programme includes papers from FoM and FMC doctoral students and also past and current students on the MSc Professional Development (Loss Adjusting) course.

Further information about the conference can be found here or contact the chair, Associate Professor, Julie Robson.

How did an archaeologist become a Research Assistant in the Faculty of Management?

Awarded & submitted bids, conferences

My name is Shannon Birch-Chapman and I am currently a Research Assistant in the Faculty of Management at Bournemouth University, working on a QR funded project titled Trust Repair in the Service Sector.

 

Our team is investigating how organisations can repair trust following trust erosion, focussing on three highly publicised cases: 1) the treatment of staff at the main Sports Direct Warehouse in Derbyshire; 2) the Alton Towers rollercoaster crash that caused two women to have leg amputations; and 3) the mis-selling of PPI by banks. These are diverse case studies with different causes and severities of trust erosion and as such, our team consists of people with diverse backgrounds: two in finance (Dr Julie Robson and Samreen Ashraf), two in leisure and hospitality (Dr Caroline Jackson and Dr Elvira Borat), two in retail (Prof Juliet Memery and Dr Jason Sit) and me: an archaeologist!

Figure 1. Excavating on the Bournemouth University Durotriges Project in 2013.

“How did an archaeologist become a Research Assistant in the Faculty of Management?” I hear you ask. Well, as any archaeology graduate knows, finding steady employment in archaeology following your degree (or in my case, an undergraduate degree, an honours degree, a masters and a PhD!) is almost impossible. The great thing about studying archaeology is that we learn a wide range of transferrable skills and are particularly good at sifting through large volumes of quantitative and qualitative evidence, and synthesising this to make informed conclusions. We are essentially the detectives of the past and, as such, make meticulous researchers.

Figure 2. Surveying the architectural remains at the Pre-Pottery Neolithic site of Ba’ja in Jordan in 2015.

In this project, I have put my previous skills to good use, conducting literature searches; compiling and writing background information for our case studies, conference presentations and journal articles; devising the conceptual framework and hypotheses for our project, and linking these to the current theories; analysing data; and writing and presenting results.

I have also developed several new qualitative research skills, particularly relating to the gathering of data through consumer focus groups, stakeholder interviews and questionnaires. As someone who had never done qualitative research of this kind, it was an interesting process working out how to devise the right questions to ask. I hadn’t ever given much thought to how much effort goes into constructing these and analysing the outputs.

One of the most challenging and rewarding aspects of the research to date has been learning how to use NVivo: a program for analysing qualitative data. Our team attended a two day workshop with Ben Meehan from QDA Training, which was tailored for our project. It was then my job to ‘code’ and analyse the data from the consumer focus groups and some of the stakeholder interviews. I used a combination of template and thematic approaches, whereby participant responses were ‘coded’ into pre-existing and emerging themes. The themes related to definitions of trust, the cause and severity of trust erosion, specific trust repair strategies and the success of these for trust repair. Running queries on the coded data, we were able to determine the trust repair strategies that were most successful for each of our three case studies.

The project started around February this year and we have already had the opportunity to present our research at the 3rd International Colloquium on Design, Brand and Marketing (ICDBM) in April and at Bournemouth University’s Festival of Learning in July. We are presenting at the 3rd International Colloquium on Corporate Branding, Identity, Image and Reputation (COBIIR): Current and Future Trends, Developments and Challenges in September and have two journal articles in preparation. We are hoping that our results will guide best practice in industry and the team will be looking to work more directly with practitioners in the next stage of the research.

Figure 3. Presenting at the ICDBM conference in 2017 (left to right: Shannon Birch-Chapman, Caroline Jackson, Julie Robson and Samreen Ashraf).

As for me, I am nearing the end of my contract at Bournemouth University. Being a research assistant here has enabled me to apply and develop even stronger research skills beyond my discipline that I am sure will help me in my search for future employment. I wonder what interesting things I will be researching next…

 

To follow Trust Repair project, tweet at @TrustRepairBU

 

Conference papers

Bolat, E., Robson, J., Ashraf, S., Birch-Chapman, S., Sit, J., Memery, J. and Jackson, C., 2017. Corporate brand rehab: Diagnosing trust repair mechanisms in the service sectors. Paper to be presented at the 3rd International Colloquium on Corporate Branding, Identity, Image and Reputation (COBIIR): Current and Future Trends, Developments and Challenges. 7th-8th September 2017.

Robson, J., Memery, J., Jackson, C., Sit, J., Bolat, E., Ashraf, S., Birch-Chapman, S., 2017. Trust Me: I’m no longer a damaged brand. Paper presented at the 3rd International Colloquium on Design, Brand and Marketing (ICDBM), Bournemouth University, 5th Apr 2017.

 

 

WTM eTourism: Disrupting innovations for Tourism and Hospitality

Events, Fusion, international, Uncategorized

Join Professor Dimitrios Buhalis on Monday 7 November, as part of the World Travel Market 7-9 November, in London.This discussion will take place in our Inspire Theatre, in Fusion, between 10:30am-12:15.

The event will host a series of speakers including: Kevin May, Tnooz.com; Mario Hardy Pacific, Asia Tourism Association, Thailand; Nathaniel Green, DUETTO Research, USA; Richard Hatter Hotel Icon, Hong Kong; Andy Owen-Jones, BD4Travel, Germany; and Matthew Gardiner, UnderTheDoormat, UK.

This session will  discuss how disrupting innovations generate significant market structure changes, modifying the operating practices, industry structure and dominant logic. This structural change is affecting the organisational networks and the services tourism players are supposed to use to perform well in markets. Both opportunities and challenges emerge for the whole tourism and hospitality industry. Relationships between players change as their respective roles change; this is driven by e-commerce / e-business and disruptive innovation. For instance hotels, thanks to e-business technological platforms, can now use algorithms to set yield and revenue management strategies, monitor competition in real time and allow consumers to use mobile devices to access several services. In the tourism industry, many innovations have been initiated from companies in the information technology sector. Generally, Information technology is revolutionizing products, services and markets.

For more information please click here.

The session is free however, to attend you must join the World Travel market, please click here.

Professor Dimitrios Buhalis invited to the University of Pretoria

international

Professor Dimitrios Buhalis Head of Department of Tourism and Hospitality at Bournemouth University was invited to the University of Pretoria, on 9 September 2016, to deliver a keynote speech on Universal Accessibility for Tourism and meet the South Africa’s Minister of Tourism, Derek Hanekom.

The Department of Tourism and Hospitality, Bournemouth University is a partner with the University of Pretoria, one of the oldest and most established Universities in South Africa. Professor Buhalis had discussions with the Head of Department of Tourism Professor Berendien Lubbe and her colleagues about research partnerships that will cover a number of areas including eTourism, accessibility, destination management and marketing, and wildlife tourism.

During the Tourism Symposium Professor Buhalis had the opportunity to reflect on Accessibility as welcoming all everywhere any time and he explored several global best practice examples in accessible tourism. He contributed to the Symposium that included a range of important South African and global operators including SANparks, Sun International, Tourvest and SATSA.

Professor Buhalis had the opportunity to meet the Minister of Tourism of South Africa RH Derek Hanekom and to discuss accessibility issues as well as the marketing of South Africa as a destination and global issues such as Brexit, political uncertainty and emerging markets and how they can contribute to tourism and economic development.

Professor Dimitrios Buhalis, Bournemouth University and Derek Hanekom, South Africa’s Minister of Tourism

Professor Buhalis said “I am very glad to establish collaboration with the tourism team of the University of Pretoria South Africa. They are doing very interesting tourism research and a very challenging and rewarding environment. We look forward to develop our research and academic collaboration with the University of Pretoria and develop our research agenda and impact of our research globally. South Africa has unique resources and opportunities to develop tourism as well as challenges that need to be addressed for the benefit of all stakeholders.”

Tourism Management Institute Annual Convention- 11-12 October 2016

Events, Research news

The Tourism Management Institute Annual Convention will take place over two days, on the 11-12 October 2016.

The TMI Annual Convention is an annual gathering and conference for all those who work in destination management across the UK, whether in DMOs, regions, towns, national parks or events, and is open to all directors, practitioners, academics, consultants and students.

11th October will see a ‘University/Practitioner/Student Summit’ hosted at Bournemouth University Talbot Campus from noon until 3.30pm, which will be especially relevant for our members working in higher education. A selection of study tours will follow then an informal evening get together at the Keywest Restaurant at the Pier at 7.30pm preceeded by the TMI AGM at 7pm. The following day, the TMI 2016 Convention will take place at the new Bournemouth Hilton Hotel, between 9am-4:45pm.

For more information about this event, please click here.