News

The "International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management" launches a call for papers for a Special issue on "Social Network Analysis in Hospitality and Tourism"

05/10/2021

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A Call for papers for the "International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management" (CiteScore 2020 9.3, Impact Factor 2020 6.514) is now open. Contributions for this Special issue will be related to Social Network Analysis in Hospitality and Tourism. Guest Editors are Marcella De Martino and Alfonso Morvillo (Cnr-Iriss), Giuseppe Giordano (University of Salerno, Italy); Editor-in-Chief is Fevzi Okumus (University of Central Florida, USA)

Social Network Analysis (SNA) has been the subject of specific interest in management and organizational studies. Areas of increasing concern are represented by the study of open innovation networks (Van Der Valk and Gijsbers, 2010), sustainable development (Kang and Park, 2013) and value co-creation processes within and among service networks (Ojuri et al., 2018). Social interaction is the primary interface between parties involved in co-creation networks (Ranjan and Read, 2016) as it enables an actor to enter into value creation processes of other parties, supporting them, and benefitting from them. Interaction processes can be favored by technologies and digital platform (Song, 2018) and, with an increasing level of trust and mutual dependence, by partnerships among network actors (Choi et al., 2020). Furthermore, knowledge is an important resource for exchange in value co-creation (Meynhardt et al., 2016) because it can be shared, developed and learned in social interactions among actors in a network. 

Social Network Analysis has rapidly grown in hospitality and tourism given the interdependences among socio-economic actors in tourism products, services, and experiences. Tourism is a network-based industry and scholars have increasingly adopted network science in the last 15 years (Mariani and Baggio, 2020). Networks are beneficial for hospitality and tourism organizations as well as for destinations. This is because they enable creation of value-adding relationships and fostering innovation by accessing to external resources and knowledge, extending their offerings through new or improved services, reducing costs, and satisfying tourism stakeholders needs (Denicolai et al., 2010; Novelli et al., 2006). Previous studies addressed the collaborative networks at the destination level by focusing on their organizational structures in terms of nodes and ties, edges, or links (Marasco et al., 2018). In this regard, the analysis of network’s density (Farsani et al., 2014; Prats et al., 2008; Sørensen, 2007) and the role of centrality performed by a network/broker actor (Aarstad et al, 2015; Booyens and Rogerson, 2017; Prats et al., 2008; Romeiro and Costa, 2010) have attracted attention with respect to destination competitiveness. In their literature review on SNA studies in tourism and hospitality, Casanueva et al. (2016) highlighted that destination should be approached from a relational and geographic perspectives. Relational studies have analyzed cooperative ties between the stakeholders (firms from different tourism sectors, non-business organizations, government agencies, etc.) while the second group focused on ties in physical space, such as distances and flows between destination and tourism attractions. However, there is a notable absence of longitudinal analysis that could explain the evolution of these ties over the time. Finally, there is increasing number of studies that have applied SNA in bibliometric analysis of scientific production (Casanueva et al. 2016; Chiang, 2020; Okumus et al., 2019; Köseoglu and King, 2019; Mariani and Baggio, 2020).

Respect to other disciplines with a consolidated tradition in Social Network Analysis, its application in hospitality and tourism is still in an early stage (Casanueva et al. 2016). Research should address more in depth the nature, intensity, and direction of inter-organizational ties (formal and informal; horizontal, vertical, and cross-sectional; power vs trust) among actors and the impact of these network structural properties on destination competitiveness. Dense and strong networks are considered structures that can sustain stability, the transfer of specialist knowledge and incremental innovations, whereas less dense and weaker networks allow for more dynamism, the transfer of broad and general information and radical changes, introducing new products and services (Håkansson and Ford, 2002). Furthermore, the understanding of knowledge generation and transfer as well as the development of social capital, resources complementarity and adaptive capabilities generated through collaborative networks can be effectively approached using SNA. With the extraordinary rise of web applications and digitalization, virtual and social media platforms are exerting crucial roles on destination branding and marketing. SNA measurement, such as centrality, betweenness, closeness can offer useful insights on multi-actor engagement and value co-creation processes in online community. At micro level, the analysis of ties internal to the firm - between employers, managers, suppliers, and clients - can enhance the understanding of social interactions that affect motivation and leadership, client engagement and satisfaction. At the policy level, SNA can also contribute to decision making processes for sustainable development of cities and destinations through the analysis of tourist routes and flows, urban mobility, linkages between tourism attractions and peripherical areas.

This special issue welcomes conceptual and empirical research, employing quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods, as well as ego-net analysis drawing on relational data. The guest editors are especially interested in submissions which will explore the application of Social Network Analysis to the study of Hospitality and Tourism, with strong theoretical, methodological, and empirically relevant, contributions.

Submissions related to the following topics are particularly welcome: 

  • Inter-organizational ties and network properties of destination governance structure
  • Collaborative networks and destination competitiveness
  • Social capital and resources complementarity in collaborative networks
  • Adaptive capabilities and resilience of tourism organizations
  • Value co-creation in customers-suppliers’ interactions
  • Knowledge transfer and innovation in service co-design processes 
  • Knowledge mapping in tourism and hospitality
  • Gender, diversity, heterogeneity, and inclusion in hospitality
  • Innovation and productivity in destination and tourism cluster
  • Sustainable development of cultural cities and destinations
  • Social networks transformation into value networks 
  • Multi-actor engagement and value co-creation processes in online community
  • Social media platforms and destination branding and marketing
  • Social interactions, motivation and leadership
  • Client engagement and satisfaction in tourism experience design  
  • Political networks: Governance and sustainable development goals
  • Ethical challenges in social and digital platforms
  • Social media and tourists’ travel choices 
  • Electronic Word-of-Mouth and destination competitiveness
  • Open Innovation Communities and Smart destination 
  • Spatial patterns of accessibility and tourism
  • Tourist attractiveness and peripheral areas

Timeline

Abstracts submissions: 30 November 2021 (email to: m.demartino@iriss.cnr.it)

Abstract decisions: 15 December 2021

FULL paper submissions: 15 March 2022

Revisions and decisions: September 2022  

Publication: Early 2023

Per informazioni:
Marcella De Martino
Cnr - Iriss
Via G. Sanfelice 8,
80134 Napoli
m.demartino@iriss.cnr.it

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