Copyright (c) 2009 All rights reserved. http://works.bepress.com/sdolnicar Recent documents in Professor Sara Dolnicar en-us Sun, 31 May 2009 11:57:11 PDT 3600 http://works.bepress.com/sdolnicar/230 http://works.bepress.com/sdolnicar/230 Thu, 23 Apr 2009 21:24:30 PDT This paper first investigates the impact of New Public Management (NPM) practices, particularly competitive grant funding, on Bushcare New South Wales (NSW), an Australian environmental volunteering organisation. Secondly, identifying such local volunteering organisations as repositories of valuable social capital, it explores the link between volunteering and social capital. Using mixed methods and institutional theory, the study reveals that an increased level of professionalism and accountability is required of Bushcare groups, and that local coordinators face a challenge in balancing local, regional and national priorities without sacrificing Bushcare's mission. These dynamics, it is proposed, have potentially serious social capital implications. H. Irvine http://works.bepress.com/sdolnicar/229 http://works.bepress.com/sdolnicar/229 Sun, 19 Apr 2009 18:46:09 PDT Response styles can distort survey findings. Culture-specific response styles (CSRS) are particularly problematic to cross-cultural and empirical tourism researchers using multi-cultural samples because the resulting data contamination can lead to inaccurate conclusions about the research question under study. This is particularly the case when constructs such as satisfaction are measured, which are difficult to operationalise. Nevertheless, possible culture-specific response style effects are typically ignored, thus jeopardizing the validity of reported findings. This chapter raises awareness of the problem, illustrates the problem empirically and presents a method that enables researchers to assess the robustness of empirical findings on cross-cultural differences in satisfaction to CSRS. This approach avoids the disadvantages of ignoring the problem and interpreting spurious results or choosing one single correction technique that potentially introduces new kinds of data contamination. S. Dolnicar http://works.bepress.com/sdolnicar/228 http://works.bepress.com/sdolnicar/228 Sun, 19 Apr 2009 18:46:06 PDT Market segmentation has been widely employed to give tourism destination planners market understanding, identify attractive target segments, and develop a marketing offer customised to their needs. While a number of authors have proposed general criteria for assessing the attractiveness of segments, measurable indicators of attractiveness have not been proposed to date. This study uses a set of indicators to make "Segment Attractiveness" measurable and illustrate the usefulness of the proposed measure in the context of a generic tourism destination and a destination focusing on reachability. Results indicate (1) the proposed indicators discriminate between different market segments, thus guiding destination managers, and (2) weighting of indicators can help destinations with specific aims select segments in line with their priorities. K. Lazarevski http://works.bepress.com/sdolnicar/227 http://works.bepress.com/sdolnicar/227 Sun, 19 Apr 2009 18:46:03 PDT The aim of this paper is to propose a novel strategy for attracting vacation tourists to destinations, especially destinations that are not in the favourable position of having a strong positive brand image as a tourism destination. This involves the conversion of involuntary first time visitors, such as business travellers, to tourists who spend leisure time at the destination. An empirical study was conducted to investigate if this proposed strategy is practically viable. Results indicate that involuntary first time visitors with a high intention to return as tourists in their leisure time have distinctly different characteristics in terms of how they perceive the destination as well as their vacation preferences, which makes them a distinct market segment that could actively be targeted by tourism destinations as well as accommodation businesses and attractions. G. Kerr http://works.bepress.com/sdolnicar/226 http://works.bepress.com/sdolnicar/226 Sun, 19 Apr 2009 18:46:00 PDT The popularity of online surveys is rising, yet the validity of survey data collected online is frequently questioned. This study compares online surveys versus paper surveys administered via regular mail in the tourism context, and examines in detail the extent and nature of survey bias resulting from survey format specific respondent self-selection. Results suggest that (1) both online and mail samples deviate from census data population statistics regarding socio-demographics to the same extent (but differ in nature), (2) no differences exist in the contamination of data by response styles, (3) online respondents have a lower dropout rate and produce less incomplete data, and (4) responses to tourism-related questions differ significantly, indicating that survey format can dramatically influence results of empirical studies in tourism. Our findings show that neither pure online surveys nor pure paper surveys administered through regular mail are unbiased. Format-specific self-selection of respondents to participate leads to systematic biases in both cases, making multi-method survey approaches the most reliable way of data collection at present. S. Dolnicar http://works.bepress.com/sdolnicar/225 http://works.bepress.com/sdolnicar/225 Sun, 19 Apr 2009 18:45:57 PDT Environmental sustainability in tourism has received significant attention among destination managers and researchers alike. Yet the range of measures proposed to reduce the environmental footprint of tourists at a destination remains limited to measures taken at the destination, as opposed to marketing measures which aim to attract truly green tourists. The potential of using green tourist as a market segment, however, has not been established to date. We review published profiles of green tourists and assess the managerial usefulness of this segment using theoretical criteria of segment attractiveness. Results indicate that much is known about the distinctive characteristics of green tourists. Very little, however, has been done to assess whether green tourists are substantial enough to represent a useful target market, whether a customized marketing mix can be designed, whether they can be reached through specific communication channels and whether green tourists can be identified repeatedly. These results provide a clear direction for future research into the green tourist market segment which is essential for a marketing-oriented approach to sustainable tourism to be successful. S. Dolnicar http://works.bepress.com/sdolnicar/224 http://works.bepress.com/sdolnicar/224 Sun, 19 Apr 2009 18:45:54 PDT Market segmentation has a long history in empirical tourism research. So does satisfaction research. Yet, little work has been done at the cross-roads of these two areas. This chapter makes a step towards filling this gap by (1) reviewing prior work in data-driven market segmentation with a specific focus on satisfaction, (2) analysing managerial recommendations resulting from these studies, and (3) providing empirical examples of how commonsense and data-driven segmentation studies could be conducted using satisfaction as discriminating criterion between tourists. S. Dolnicar http://works.bepress.com/sdolnicar/223 http://works.bepress.com/sdolnicar/223 Sun, 19 Apr 2009 18:45:51 PDT The basis for successful marketing is to understand and satisfy consumer needs. Sometimes it is even possible to satisfy one individual customer's needs. In the tourism industry an individually customized tourism experience can be developed, but the market for such high-end tourism products is small. This does not, however, mean that the only alternative is to appeal to the mass market. The intermediate solution is to understand which groups of tourists have similar needs and develop tourism products that match group needs. This approach is referred to as market segmentation. The aim of this chapter is to analyze market segmentation studies in tourism research over the past decade, review recent prototypical examples of different segmentation approaches and discuss theoretical and methodological issues related to market segmentation studies. Recommendations are presented that provide guidance to researchers and students with respect to how to best avoid potential pitfalls that may lead to misinterpretations of segmentation solutions and, consequently, sub-optimal strategic decisions. S. Dolnicar http://works.bepress.com/sdolnicar/222 http://works.bepress.com/sdolnicar/222 Sun, 19 Apr 2009 18:45:49 PDT Despite increased competitive pressures in the volunteering industry, the structure of competition within this non-profit sector has not been examined in the past. This study uses selected respondents from the 1999-2002 World Values Survey who have previously volunteered for multiple organisations. Based on the patterns of organisations that volunteers donated their time for, competition between volunteering organisations with different missions was analysed, resulting in five dimensions of volunteering missions within which volunteering organisations appear to be competing: altruistic, leisure, political, church, and other missions. The altruistic mission groups is the broadest and includes a wide variety of volunteering goals, whereas the church seems to stand without much competition, thus being confronted with the least competitive threat in the fight for volunteers. Such analyses would be useful for managers faced with the challenge of retaining current volunteers and recruiting new volunteers in an increasingly competitive volunteering marketplace. As such, the proposed approach represents a way of analysing the competitive market structure analysis in the volunteering market, thus providing volunteering organisations with a useful tool from the marketing toolbox. S. Dolnicar http://works.bepress.com/sdolnicar/221 http://works.bepress.com/sdolnicar/221 Mon, 02 Feb 2009 14:41:53 PST Many countries' water resources are limited in both quantity and quality. While engineering solutions can now safely produce recycled and desalinated water from non-potable sources at a relatively low cost, the general public is sceptical about adopting these alternative water sources. Social scientists need to better understand what is causing this lack of acceptance by the general population and how acceptance levels for recycled and desalinated water can be increased.This study is the first to conduct a comparative analysis of knowledge, perceptions, acceptability, and determine segments of residents who are more open-minded than the general population toward the use of recycled and desalinated water.The Australian population once perceived desalinated water as environmentally unfriendly, and recycled water as a public health hazard. The general level of knowledge about these two concepts as potential water sources has historically been low. After nearly five years of serious drought, accompanied by severe water restrictions across most of the country, and subsequent media attention on solutions to water scarcity, Australians now show more acceptance of desalinated water for close-to-body uses, and less resistance to recycled water for garden watering and cleaning uses.The types of people likely to be strong accepters of the two alternative water sources are distinctly different groups, and can be reached through different media mixes. This finding has significant implications for policy makers. S. Dolnicar