Abstract
The competitive environment of business is becoming more complex day by day and every business needs basic methods in creating, presenting and acquiring value in order to continue its activity, growth and development in this field. The tourism industry in Iran is facing many challenges, one of which is the lack of proper understanding of the principles of providing services and making money. Among the things that help businesses, especially tourism businesses, to be able to create, present and acquire value with a basic structure, is the proper design of a business model. The purpose of this is to design a business model with the Osterwalder's approach in the tourism industry. This research is practical in terms of the type of goal, descriptive-survey in terms of data collection, and qualitative in terms of the nature of the data. In this research, data was collected through semi-structured interviews. As required by the snowball method, these interviews continue until data saturation is reached. In order to analyze them, qualitative content analysis method with inductive approach has been adopted. Based on the research findings from both library and field study methods, all the constituent elements of the business model were identified in the form of 89 categories. Each of these elements separately and according to the conceptual background they had, were included in the 9 sections of the business model with Osterwalder's approach and formed the business canvas.
Keywords: Business model, Business model canvas, Tourism, Value proposition
1. Introduction
Always a specific business model is formed along with the establishment of any business. This can be conscious or unconscious. In any case, if a business continues its activity regardless of the business model, it has a target market in an unwritten form; It has ways to earn money, cooperates with other companies and generally has components that can be seen in business models such as Osterwalder, Gary Hamel and other experts. The existing gap between the desired situation and the current situation is revealed when in many businesses, not much attention is paid to the efficient business model and its effect on the organization's profitability. In fact, the design of the efficient business model is not taken seriously.
The solution of any problem depends on correct diagnosis. If the business model, which is the foundation of all the activities of a business unit in the direction of creating and providing value, is not correctly identified and it is not determined which components need more attention in each business, The highest possible profit will not be achieved. The first question in the business model is who are the customers of the company's products or services and what are their interests and tastes? (Osterwalder & Pigneur, 2010)
Despite the many studies that have been done on various aspects of the tourism industry, no detailed and thorough studies have been done from the point of view of the business model. Schematic design of the business model canvas makes every business continue to move in the right direction. The business model describes the company's logic in how to create, deliver and capture value. Value proposition represents a package of services and products that create value for a specific group of customers. In fact, value proposition is the reason why customers prefer one company over another (Osterwalder & Pigneur, 2010).
The most comprehensive approach in business model design is the Osterwalder approach. Osterwalder's business model for creating, delivering and capturing value includes 9 parts, which are: key partners, key resources, key activities, value proposition, channels, customer relationship, customer segments, cost structure and revenue streams.
In this research, the following questions are answered:
How is the business model in the tourism industry of Iran?
Which items make up the parts of the business model with Osterwalder's approach?
2. Literature Review
The business model answers following questions: Who make up your customers and what values are important to them? How do you balance the value you provide with what the customer will pay? (Casadesus & Ricart, 2010). Teece (2010) believes that the business model of an industry should reflect its current state and vision for the future. In his opinion, the business model should be continuously reviewed and modified to eliminate possible weaknesses. Amit and Zott (2012) believe the business model of a company shows a system of interdependent activities that actually underlies all the activities of a system in the direction of making profit. According to their belief, any business can use the business model to determine what activities to do in what way, by whom and for which customers, in order to achieve the highest possible profitability. The business model describes the company's logic in how to create, deliver and acquire value (Osterwalder & Pigneur, 2010). To express the logic of the company in creating, providing and acquiring value, the business components are separated into 9 separate sections. these 9 parts form the structure of a business in creating and providing value to customers and making money. Customer segments represent different groups of people or organizations that the company intends to reach and provide services to. A value proposition describes a package of products and services that create value for a specific customer segment. Channels express how the company communicates and has access to its target customer segments in order to provide the proposed value. Customer relationship refers to the types of relationships that the company establishes with certain segments of customers. The revenue streams describe how the company earns from each customer segment. The key resources component describes the most important assets required for the business model to function properly. Key activities describe the most important tasks required for the business model to function properly. Key partnerships describe the network of suppliers and partners that make the business model function properly. The cost structure describes all the costs that the components of the business model incur. Michael Carter and Chris Carter (2020) concluded in their business model research findings that few studies have been done in the field of creating creative business models for artists. However, due to the different spiritual values that artists have compared to commercial values, it is difficult to increase productivity through the implementation of business model principles. Quantitative research examines the perceptions and subjective values of visitors involved in local tourism (Zhang et al., 2023). Focusing on strategy without considering the business model can lead to the loss of customers and change their behavior and makes the company vulnerable to competitors (Braun et al., 2019). Companies should seek to embrace business model innovation as a core competency and a tool for sustainable competitive advantage (Wrigley et al., 2016).
3. Methodology
This research is qualitative in terms of the type of data, descriptive-survey based on the method of data collection, and applied based on the purpose. The data collection tool is semi-structured interviews, and the statistical population of this research is formed by senior managers of Iranian tourism companies who have at least 5 years of experience in this field. For sampling in this research, a judgmental or purposeful method is used. In this research, according to the snowball method, the interviews will continue until the data reaches saturation. The method of data analysis is qualitative content analysis and open coding method is used to extract primary codes and then categories. MAXQDA software is used for coding in this research. Here is the data analysis process:
Getting to know the data
Summarizing texts
Basic coding
Extracting categories
Classification
4. Results
To collect data in this research, active managers and experts in the field of tourism were interviewed. Based on the findings of the analysis, 464 initial codes extracted from the text of interviews. Later, these initial codes turned to 89 categories based on their meaning background (Table 4).
5. Conclusion
The purpose of this research is to design a business model in the tourism industry with Osterwalder approach. For this purpose, a number of semi-structured interviews were conducted with senior managers in this field. Using the qualitative content analysis method, 464 primary codes were identified and then 89 primary codes were extracted (shape 4). Based on their meaning, the categories are included in 9 sections of the Osterwalder business model. The customers are the mass market, government departments, private companies, content production freelancers and students. The proposition values are: "Providing up-to-date and high-quality information about places, services, and tourism facilities, along with making it possible to compare them for free, and providing a distinct travel plan according to the limitations of travelers in a simple and accessible way". "Providing high-quality content in the form of an attractive website to attract the largest possible audience in order to increase the income of freelancers, increase the number of advertisements and enrich the customer databases for organizations and government institutions". "Providing free consultations as well as leisure-related services for those who do not want to travel, such as virtual tourism." "Providing well-being and security for customers along with providing additional services and facilitating passenger communication with other tourism sectors, which reduces additional costs and time costs for customers, as well as providing service guarantees". "Providing various services such as conducting educational tourism and selling products related to tourism at a fair price". The channels used in the tourism industry are: face-to-face communication, internet, messengers, social media, website, intermediaries and call support center. Businesses in the field of tourism use various types of communication, including self-service, dedicated response, personal response, customer community (forum, etc.), automatic services, and joint creation through feedback. Income streams include: direct sales of tourism and travel services, providing educational and consulting services, advertising income, brokerage fees, sales of customer databases, sales of tourism equipment and sales of membership services. Key resources in the tourism industry are: location, information resources, professional business ethics, proper communication with colleagues, competent human resources, creativity and innovation, specialized knowledge and skills, cloud storage space, licenses, tools and equipment, and brand name. The most key activities among tourism companies are: obtaining insurance, concluding contracts, training employees, obtaining permits, hiring, programming, advertising, research and development, content production, maintenance of tools and equipment, and knowledge management. Key partners for tourism companies include: accommodation service providers, transport companies, other tourism companies, investors, content production freelancers, hardware equipment suppliers and repairers, government departments, insurance companies, programming and software companies and intermediaries. The cost structure for tourism companies includes: the cost of computer affairs, content production outsourcing, advertising and marketing costs, equipment and hardware maintenance, salaries, ancillary services, administrative costs and staff training costs. In their study, Getz and Peterson (2005) found that businesses that are able to innovate in providing value to their customers perform better. Diaz et al. (2019) showed that using a business model canvas helps tourism managers integrate digital technologies more effectively into their business models. Reinhold et al. (2017) emphasize the importance of flexibility and innovation in business model design to adapt to technological changes.
Abstract Wearable devices are increasingly integral to our daily lives but raise significant concerns about the security of personal data. In contrast, users often skip reading privacy policies when installing apps on wearable devices. This gap between the concerns and behaviors has spurred disputes regarding business ethics between app providers and users when private information is leaked. While much research has explored the reasons underlying users’ skipping behaviors on mobile phones or tablets, there has been limited attention given to wearable devices despite their prevalence. Unlike mobile phones or tablets, wearable devices often have limited capabilities, necessitating users to install essential apps and perceive a strong sense of necessity. This research, using both eye tracking and self-report methods, investigates how this perceived necessity affects users’ attention to privacy policies on wearable devices during app installations and how it interacts with the presence of threat clues – a key factor that influences behaviors toward privacy policies. In Study 1, eye tracking technology is applied to observe the variation in users’ attention toward privacy policies. Results indicate that when users perceive a high (vs. low) necessity for an app, they pay less attention to its privacy policy. This effect is amplified when there are strong threat clues present. In Study 2, based on the process-dissociation procedure (PDP), the cognitive mechanisms underlying user reading behavior are uncovered. The findings show that users with high perceived necessity are less inclined to engage in analytical processing when reading privacy policies, and this tendency is further strengthened by strong threat clues. This research supplements the existing literature on users’ behaviors toward privacy policies on wearable devices, and it also provides practical insights for prompting users to pay more attention to privacy policies and enjoy a secure digital experience.
History of scholarship and learning. The humanities, Social Sciences
Strategic leadership deals with, for example, ethical dilemmas. The article addresses differing worldviews in relation to decolonising the curriculum, and how to assist cross-cultural professionals’ behavioural learning. Within pedagogics, critical thinking, based on normative rationales, allowing educational interventions, or concepts, other than empirically proven only is revealed. The common denominator of worldviews appears to be virtues. Descriptions of virtues need translation to touch on professionals. A practical intervention is introduced.
Independence in financial auditing is a topic with extensive research, due to the ethical values expected from accountants and the conflicts with agency pressures and commercial interests. However, there is a lack of research on the benefits of ethical behaviors in the dynamic interactions between auditors and clients. This study aims to achieve through a qualitative approach an in-depth understanding of the self-perceived auditor independence and how it intervenes in the relationship with clients. Ten semi-structured interviews with auditors from the five major audit offices in the city of Porto were conducted. The results explore conflicts of interest between auditor independence and customer relationships. However, the findings highlight that improving auditor’s independence allows at the same time the development of a better professional relationship with the client, mitigating the conflicts of interests identified in previous literature. This paper presents a formula in which audit firms can leverage the concept of independence when they promote communication, transparency, and an open market. Regulation and supervision should work in favour for the same goal.
Nombuso Princess Khwela, Steven Kayambazinthu Msosa, Bhekabantu Alson Ntshangase
In recent years, the skincare industry in South Africa has witnessed a surge in the popularity of skincare products among female students. With the increase in social media platforms and the rise of influencer marketing, there is growing interest in understanding the influence of social media influencers on the purchase patterns of South African skincare products. Therefore, this study analyzed social media influencers and their role in the purchase pattern of South African skincare products among female students at university. An exploratory and qualitative study was undertaken, and data was collected from a purposive sample of 15 respondents at a selected university. The study shows that students are influenced to purchase skincare products based on influencer fidelity and expertise, attractiveness, confidence and consistency, and brand and influencer connection. This study is significant as it has explored the evolving dynamics of consumer behavior in the skincare industry, particularly among young women in South Africa. Understanding how social media influences purchasing decisions could help skincare companies modify their marketing efforts to better resonate with their target demographic. Furthermore, the findings of this study could help educational institutions, marketers, and practitioners understand the impact of influencer marketing on consumer purchasing decisions. Ultimately, the insights can help to improve ethical marketing methods and drive long-term growth in the skincare business.
Green competencies (GCs) are recognised in the business management literature as those related to all the dimensions of the concept of sustainable development (SD). However, the relationship between GCs and sustainable business practices (SBPs) is not well defined; GCs are often presented in the context of selected organisational activities or the sector of the economy. This paper aims to present the influence of SBPs on employees’ GCs in the transport and logistics sector. To achieve this goal, the combination of the methods was employed. First, a classical and semi-bibliometric literature review was undertaken to explore the connection between GCs and SBPs in the literature. Subsequently, the collection of good sustainable practices gathered by the Polish business ethics organisation Forum Odpowiedzialnego Biznesu [Responsible Business Forum] (FOB) was re-analysed qualitatively and quantitatively as a source of SBPs in subjective and objective focus. The analysis of the secondary data collected in FOB indicated those SBPs which influence employees’ GCs in the transport and logistics sector. As a result of this study, the combined orientation of the SBPs and their influence on GCs is conditional for the creation of green jobs (GJs). In this paper, future research avenues are also proposed for studying employees’ competencies in the narrow context of both subjective and objective perspectives and for research into “golden” GJs, the conditions of the sustainable green labour market and green self-employment development.
Möser, Martin, Hermkes, Rico, Filmann, Natalie
et al.
Objective: Previous research on problem-based learning (PBL) describes that videotaped observations develop meaningful insights into cognitive processes in tutorial groups. Analysis regarding the amount of prior knowledge on learning achievement has not been investigated in medical education so far, although both are key factors of PBL success. Thus, we intended to analyse videos of digital problem-based learning (dPBL) sessions, focusing on knowledge acquisition and interaction dynamics among groups with different levels of prior knowledge to reveal any distinctions.Methods: This study employed a pilot design by dividing 60 dental students into twelve subgroups with less or more prior knowledge, determined by a pre-semester multiple choice test (MCQ). The groups engaged in videotaped dPBL cases, which were examined regarding group interactions and tutor effectiveness. The learning achievement was assessed through a post-semester MCQ, an oral and practical exam.Results: The video analysis showed that dPBL groups with less prior knowledge achieved significantly higher tutor effectiveness and group interaction utterances, but that the percentage of time in which utterances occurred was similar in both groups. Related to the MCQ results, the students with less prior knowledge learned four times more than those with profound previous abilities, but no significant difference was found in the results of the oral exam and practical exam.Conclusions: The interaction dynamics in dPBL depend on the group’s amount of prior knowledge. Especially groups including participants with less prior knowledge seemed to benefit from dPBL in comparison to groups with more prior knowledge. The dPBL groups acquired knowledge in different ways during the courses but, finally, all students arrived at a similar level of knowledge.
Purpose: Online retailing has grown tremendously over the last decade, particularly in the COVID 19 period but little attention has been given to ethical problems arising from it. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of e-retailing ethics on consumer repurchase intention aiming to highlight the significance of ethical consideration in e-retailing business..
Design/Methodology/Approach: This is a quantitative study and the sample size is 212 participants. Male participants were 129 and Female participants were 83. Respondents mainly included consumers with varying frequencies of online purchasing. The conceptual framework comprised of reliability, non-deception, security, trust and e-service quality as independent variables moderated by shopping habits. The dependent variable was repurchase intention. PlS-SEM was used to analyze the data. The participants mostly were residents of Karachi.
Findings: The repurchase intention of consumers is directly impacted by three independent variables of e-retailing ethics out of five tested in the study i.e. E-service quality, reliability and non-deception while remaining variables trust and security proved insignificant. The study results further revealed that reliability, non-deception, and e-service quality are also positively moderated by shoping habits while security and trust proved insignificant.
Implications/Originality/Value: The findings can be used by online retailing outlets to design marketing strategies for successfully running their store.
Ramat Titilayo Salman, Peter Sanni, Taiwo Azeez Olaniyi
et al.
This paper summarizes the arguments and counterarguments within the scientific discussion on the issue of governance and taxation revenue performance. The main purpose of the research is to examine the influence of management on tax revenue performance in West African countries. Specifically, the study aimed to investigate the impact of regulatory quality (political stability) and (voice and accountability) on tax revenue performance in West African countries; and to assess the effect of governance efficiency (the rule of law and control of corruption) on the performance of tax generation of West African countries. Secondary data were sourced from Governance indicators which cover 2005 to 2017. Regression analysis was employed to test the research hypotheses: regulatory quality does not significantly influence tax revenue performance in West African countries; and government efficiency does significantly affect tax revenue in West African countries. Sixteen West African countries were purposively chosen because of governance issues such as political instability and government ineffectiveness. The paper presents the results of an empirical analysis, which showed that regulatory quality, political stability and absence of violence, and voice and accountability have insignificant impacts (p-value>5% level of significance) on tax revenue performance. Moreover, government effectiveness, the rule of law and control of corruption have positive and significant impacts (p-value<5% level of significance) on tax revenue performance in West African countries. The study concludes that governance affects tax revenue performance in West African Countries; thus, the study recommends, among others that government should come up with realistic policies that will increase public and civil service quality.
Digital technologies and the resulting changes have a massive impact on economic, political, and social levels. The challenges this creates result in both opportunities and threats for numerous sectors. Successfully managing the transformations arising from digital technologies will be a formidable challenge in the future. These changes are also having a massive impact on the retail sector, which is also facing unprecedented challenges. The purpose of this paper is to deliver a contribution for management research, by providing a systematic overview of which digital technologies are being used within the brick-and-mortar stores’ POS (point of sale) in the DIY sector, and how successful they are. The underlying methodology of this paper is a systematic literature review of academic research on digital technologies used within DIY (do-it-yourself) stores to provide a current state of research in a gathered, examined, and synthesized manner. To achieve this objective and ensure consistency in the execution of the review, it has been completed following a detailed review protocol. Based on a search on Business Source Premier, EconLit, IEEE Xplore Digital Library and ACM Digital Library databases over a recent period of ten years, all relevant studies on digital technologies in the DIY sector were identified and applicable information from each study was systematically extracted. The paper yields a systematic overview and important insights into digital technologies being used in the DIY sector. A comprehensive conceptualization of these technologies has been provided, categorizing them into the most important main areas. There are numerous studies in the scientific literature on digital technologies and the resulting digital transformation. However, explicit investigations into the area of the DIY sector are minimal. This is, even though sales in the DIY sector were 701 billion euros worldwide in 2020 (DIY International, 2021). For this reason, the added value of this article for scientists and practitioners lies in providing a comprehensive conceptualization of the scientific literature on the application of digital technologies in the DIY sector. In addition, appropriate proposal recommendations for action for decision-makers in this and additional industries are presented.
The main purpose of the research is to identify the effectiveness of implementing family-friendly practices in reducing turnover amongst academicians in private higher education institutions, with the mediator effect on job satisfaction. Systematization of the literary sources and approaches for solving the employee turnover problem indicates that friendly family practice includes three dimensions: flexible working arrangements, parental leave and childcare benefits. During the investigation, these three variables will be evaluated for their relationship with turnover and whether there is any significant or effective association among the variables. The research proves that for many private higher educational institutions, the expansion required a considerable effort to have knowledgeable academicians and skillful employees. Thus, they could deliver their professions and skills to achieve education goals. However, retaining the employee is always the main issue faced by many institutions and many scholars have formulated strategies to minimise turnover. Most of them claim that if the strategies are properly implemented, organization turnover will be reduced, thus developing a highly committed and motivated employee. Hence, this study has developed five (5) research questions and ten (10) hypotheses. To test the hypotheses, a sample of 316 employees from different educational institutions was selected through a cluster sampling method to respond to the questionnaire. The methodological tools of the conducted research were methods of multivariate statistical analysis, and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The outcome of the research provided researchers with an understanding that flexible work arrangements, provision of parental leave and childcare benefits have a significant negative relationship with employee turnover intention. Besides that, the outcome also confirmed that there is a mediation effect of job satisfaction towards family-friendly practices and turnover intention.
The application of business ethics is a very important aspect and needs special attention, because the quality of good school services can be obtained if the application of business ethics runs effectively. The purpose of this study is to determine the relationship of business ethics and teacher work discipline to the quality of school services. The research method in this journal uses a descriptive qualitative approach, with a critical data analysis model based on data collection in the form of library research, namely the research method for collecting and analyzing data and references to texts/literature. Ethics refers to ordinary human conduct on what is permissible and what is not permissible. Discipline is a particular type or pattern of character developed by the habit of performing those acts, which can be formed by training the desired behavior patterns and expected behaviors in an attitude that leads to living performance. Service quality refers to all economic activities that generate results that meet prime expectations, whether physical goods or services (non-physical). Discipline is a particular type or pattern of character developed by the habit of performing those acts, which can be formed by training the desired behavior patterns and expected behaviors in an attitude that leads to living performance. Service quality refers to all economic activities that generate results that meet prime expectations, whether in the form of physical goods or services (non-physical). The results of this study indicate that the application of business ethics is in the high category. In addition, the influence of teacher work discipline on the quality of school services is in the medium category. Based on the research results, there are several recommendations that are needed to improve the effectiveness of quality management, including making continuous improvements and optimizing the total quality management (TQM) approach
The paper analyzes the reasons that led, in the years following the nineteenth century, to a vision of economic phenomena distant from ethics. After a brief introduction on the meaning of the concept of economics in the ancient world, the article describes which factors contributed most to developing an image of human behaviour motivated only by perfect rationality, self-interest, wealth maximization, showing the reasons that have separated economics and finance from ethics. The paper then deals with the theme of how to bring finance closer to the real economy starting from the need to search for solutions capable of producing radical changes in the business models of companies and in the financing investments aimed at maximizing social inclusion and collective well-being. The final part describes the initiatives promoted by the EU for the development of the Capital Market Union and the instrument recently introduced by the EU to develop finance long-term investments, the ELTIFs. In the conclusion, we present a proposal for the creation of a new innovative asset class, the Infrastructure Mortgage Backed Security, for the promotion of investments in infrastructures responding to the needs of investors and requiring business models based on shared ethic values and on the responsibility of all the agents working inside and outside the companies.
Economic growth, development, planning, Economics as a science
Küreselleşmeyle birlikte gelen uluslararası anlaşmalarda yaşanan güven sorunları, kıt kaynaklar, artan rekabet koşulları, işsizlik, toplumsal baskılar, medyada sık sık gündeme gelen yolsuzluk skandalları vb. faktörler iş ahlâkı kavramının günümüz dünyasındaki önemini daha da ön plana çıkarmıştır. Bu bağlamda çalışma kapsamında yöneticiler açısından iş ahlâkı kavramı ele alınmış, Kant’ın ahlâk felsefesi ve literatürdeki diğer çalışmaların ışığında iş ahlâkının evrensel olup olmadığı konusuna değinilmiş ve iş ahlâkının işletmelerin ve toplumların geleceği açısından önemli bir konu olduğu üzerinde durulmuştur. Ayrıca yöneticilerin iş ahlâkı konusundaki yeri, önemi, sorumlulukları ve astlarla olan ilişkileri ortaya konularak incelenmeye çalışılmıştır. Çalışma literatür incelemesi kapsamında yürütülmüştür. Sonuç olarak, küresel ekonominin ilgilendiği konular arasında yer alan kıt kaynakların doğru bir şekilde kullanılarak sürdürülebilir bir dünya oluşturulması konusunda yöneticilere büyük görevler düşmektedir. Yöneticiler işletmelerin imajının sağlamlaştırılması, topluma karşı olan sosyal sorumluluklar, müşteri memnuniyetinin gözetilmesi, müşteriye ve çalışanlara dürüst davranılması, çalışanların hak ve özgürlüklerinin gözetilmesi ve çalışanlarının ahlâki değerlere uygun davranmasını sağlanmak noktasında birtakım sorumluluklara sahiptir. Geçmişten günümüze yönetim kuramcıları da bu konulara değinmiş ve çalışma kapsamında Frederick Taylor, Chester Barnard ve Peter Drucker’ın yönetim kuramlarına kısaca yer verilerek kuramcıların iş ahlâkına ilişkin uygulamalarına değinilmiştir.