Scarcity is a universal phenomenon shaping human behaviour across multiple life domains. Yet, the tourism literature has not developed a coherent theorisation of scarcity. Drawing on interdisciplinary research from marketing and psychology, this article advances conceptual understanding of scarcity in tourism by integrating dominant perspectives on supply-driven scarcity, demand-driven scarcity, and resource scarcity. The paper identifies key gaps and proposes a future research agenda focussed on integrating resource-scarcity perspectives, examining the dynamics of both supply-driven and demand-driven scarcity, and unpacking the interplay between different forms of scarcity. Additional research avenues include investigating the interaction between situational and chronic scarcity, and embedding scarcity more explicitly within grand tourist decision-making models. Our article aims to guide and stimulate further theoretical development and empirical inquiry into how scarcity shapes tourists' behaviours and responses.

This case study investigates the entrepreneurial challenges faced by Karen and Lua hill tribe women in northern Thailand, focusing on their production and commercialisation of traditional handicrafts. The main challenges identified in our research include geographical isolation, limited access to capital, and insufficient marketing expertise. While government initiatives provide support for design, production, and marketing processes, these efforts fail to adequately address the unique needs of hill tribe women. Seasonal agricultural priorities, along with a dependence on traditional crafts, further restrict their ability to diversify their products in response to fluctuating market trends. Other challenges include educational barriers, health and well-being concerns and economic instability, complicated by potential risks of cultural commodification as artisans struggle to balance authenticity with market demands. To overcome these obstacles, there is a need for tailored interventions such as cooperative networks, capacity-building programs, and marketing strategies. These solutions aim to bridge the gaps between tradition and modernity, ensuring indigenous handicrafts are both preserved and economically sustainable while also strengthening community-based ethnic tourism. Enhancing resilience and empowering women not only fosters inclusivity but also offers a roadmap for sustainable entrepreneurship in marginalised communities. © The Authors 2025

Self-employed women are vital to the tourism industry, yet they often face the difficult task of navigating a complex socio-economic landscape where supportive factors and are intertwined with discouraging social and cultural barriers. To understand such dynamics, drawing on entrepreneurial orientation and psychological empowerment, this study profiles self-employed women working in the wellness tourism sector. Data were collected from 379 self-employed massage therapists in Thailand. Multiple discriminant analysis identifies three distinct combinations of entrepreneurial orientation and psychological empowerment, categorising self-employed women as Challengers, Explorers, and Visionaries. Reflecting on the socio-economic context they operate, our findings offer a nuanced characterization of self-employed women shared identities. The profiles are manifested in a similar work but with differing entrepreneurial and psychological dispositions, offering theoretical and practical insights at the intersection of employment and tourism research that can be extended to other disciplines.

This article investigates how conflicts emerge and unfold among newly cohabiting couples during the daily practices of making and sharing dinner. Adopting a ‘moments approach’, findings from an ethnographic study involving 12 couples reveal how conflictual moments emerge from clashes between individuals’ dispositions regarding responsibilities (who does what), standards (what is appropriate) and techniques (how things are done). Clashes are reflected upon through a process of zooming in and zooming out where conflicting gendered, classed and cultural dispositions emerge. At the conceptual level, conflictual moments are identified as epistemic and affective scenarios revealing broader structural and socio-cultural inequalities permeating domestic life of heterosexual couples.

Digital platforms are transforming traditional business models and practices across industries, setting new foundations for market competition. As the platform economy expands, new challenges emerge around innovation, stakeholder engagement, sustainability, and governance. This editorial introduces the special issue on 'Managing the Platform Economy and Market Competition in the Digitalization Era', offering a synthesis of contemporary articles, identifying key themes of competitiveness in digitally mediated, multi-sided markets. The special issue features a collection of 23 high-caliber articles that reflect the latest advancements and rigorous scholarships in the field. In particular, the articles cover four broad themes: innovative business strategies, stakeholder behaviors, sustainability integration, and adaptive governance. We propose an integrative framework that highlights the interdependence of these thematic aspects and illustrates how platform strategies, trust mechanisms, regulatory adaptation, and sustainability practices collectively shape market outcomes. The special issue advances theoretical discussions on platform business model innovation, ecosystem orchestration, stakeholder trust and engagement, technological transparency, and ethical governance. Our special issue exposes gaps, particularly in generalizability, impact assessment, and regulatory alignment that call for deeper empirical and conceptual inquiry. We conclude by outlining a future research agenda that prioritizes cross-context theorization, robust evaluation of sustainability initiatives, and new models of governance to address the evolving complexities of the platform economy, particularly considering the transformative impact of Generative AI. This editorial provides an integrative foundation for scholars and practitioners seeking to understand and enhance market competition in the digital era.

Purpose - Food is a key element in tourism experiences. This study aims to investigate the interplay of sensory and non-sensory factors in food tourism experiences and models their influence on satisfaction and behavioural intentions.Design/methodology/approach - The study focuses on the culinary experiences of 304 tourists dining at ethnic restaurants and uses causal relationship discovery modelling to analyse data.Findings - Sensory factors are important in tourists' culinary experiences with cleanliness, noise levels and room temperature at the top of the causal chain. Results also indicate the interplay between sensory and non-sensory factors to explain overall satisfaction, intention to return and intention to say positive things.Originality/value - Using embodied cognition theory, the study offers novel insights into the role of senses in food tourism experiences at rural destinations.

Integrating Torbiorn’s theory of adjustment and Lazarus’ theory of stress, this study examines the antecedents, consequences, and mitigating factors of international business travel adjustment. Results from two studies, a unique pre (Time 1) and post (Time 2) travel survey conducted before COVID at two airports in North and South America, and data collected post-COVID using an online panel of business travelers illustrate how and why adjustment mediates the travel stress/leisure exploration–trip satisfaction relationship. Our findings guide managers and practitioners to mitigate the negative impact of travel stress by allowing time for leisure exploration while on international business trips. Tourism businesses should continue to explore and design experiences that satisfy the general adjustment needs of the international business travel market.

Generation Z (Gen Z), also known as digital natives, constitutes one-third of the world' population. Despite notable contributions and progress explaining Gen Z's behavior, significant gaps remain in our understanding of digital natives, their interactions with new-age technologies and how these technologies can be utilized to provide a better quality of life for this group of consumers. In this review article, we provide a background on Gen Z's consumer psychology and interactions with new-age technologies, followed by an overview of the articles published in our special section. Finally, we suggest new areas for future research on Gen Z's consumer psychology and interactions with new-age technologies. Specifically, we propose four main themes for future research in this area: (1) Gen Z and new-age technologies, specifically generative artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing, the metaverse, virtual influencers, and live streaming; (2) Gen Z consumers and global issues, specifically economic and social issues, sustainability and environmental issues, and health and wellbeing; (3) combining theories, concepts and disciplines to understand Gen Z and new-age technologies; and (4) new methods and forms of collaboration.

Herding is a social phenomenon where individuals act collectively as part of a group and make decisions based on the behaviour and choices of others. In this study, we conceptualise herding behaviour on social media via a two-step flow communication model and measured through Google and YouTube search volume. The estimated herding behaviour is used to develop a novel index to measure the online consumption of Korean cultural products. Monthly data between 2013 and 2019 were used to analyse tourist arrivals from 10 countries. Findings confirm that Korean wave, captured by the index, is statistically significant in predicting tourist arrivals. The study provides a generalised proxy of cultural consumption, applicable to other destinations.

Smart shopping malls integrate a range of smart technologies such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality and augmented reality. However, there is a lack of research on the personalisation-privacy paradox in the context of consumer interaction with smart technologies in shopping malls. Integrating the trust-commitment theory, the privacy calculus theory and interface design literature, this study develops a model for customer interactions with smart technologies in shopping malls. The model examines the mediating effects of personalisation and the moderating effects of consumer privacy concerns on the relationships between consumer interactions with smart technologies and shopping mall loyalty. Data were collected from 1139 millennial customers patronising two smart shopping malls in the United Kingdom and United Arab Emirates. The findings highlight the significant mediating effects of personalisation on the positive relationships between dimensions of consumer interactions with smart technologies (interface design, trust, consumer peer interaction and relationship commitment) and shopping mall loyalty. In addition, our findings reveal a personalisation-privacy paradox, with consumer privacy concerns, unlike prior research, not exerting a moderating role in our proposed model. This study contributes to the literature by proposing a model on consumer interaction with smart technologies in shopping malls, addressing the roles of personalisation and privacy concerns.

Adopting state-of-the-art practices, this article systematically reviews the extant body of knowledge on children sustainable behaviour. Our review uncovers and synthesises core themes of children sustainable behaviour into an organising framework and offers implications for theory, policy and practice. The paper acknowledges the relevance and interplay of the family and other socialisation agents such as the media and nature, with children to shape sustainable behaviours. The review identifies several gaps in the literature and advances a theoretical and methodological agenda for future research. Our article serves as a strong foundation for consumer researchers interested in contributing to knowledge on children sustainable behaviour.

A decade of research has produced substantial results but the theorization of memorable tourism experience, often drawing on positive and environmental psychology, remains fuzzy and fragmented. Adopting state-of-the art practices, this study systematically reviews, synthesizes, and integrates the extant body of knowledge across multiple literature streams on memorable tourism experience. Our review indicates that research in this field has a geographical bias, largely neglects negative experiences, and mainly employs quantitative methods. We identify several gaps in the literature and propose the following seven recommendations for future research: (1) caution when using the memorable tourism experience scale; (2) the need for cross-cultural studies; (3) positive and negative dimensions in conceptualizing memorable tourism experience; (4) overcoming the limitations of self-report measures; (5) engaging in mixed methods research; (6) integrating suppliers' perspectives; and (7) combining theories, concepts, and disciplines. This study serves as a foundation for researchers and provides a holistic understanding of memorable tourism experience.

Drawing on practice theory, this ethnographic study investigates how meal practices are co-performed by 13 newly cohabiting couples. Findings reveal how practices previously performed by individual consumers become co-performed through a synergetic and chronologically multi-phased process. Disruption, the first phase, is characterised by misalignments of individually performed practices and their elements. The second phase, incorporation, is characterised by initial collective re-alignments of practices and their elements. The third phase, synergetic outcomes, shows three different ways in which alignments can shape a co-performed practice, namely blending, combining and domineering. Theoretically this paper offers two contributions to practice theory and domestic meal consumption. It reveals the synergetic process through which meal practices become coperformed over time and provides a typology of co-performed practices.

The theorization of emotion receives considerable attention in contemporary tourism literature. Remarkably, existing studies largely ignore the operationalization of emotion in tourism research. Drawing on extant knowledge from psychology, marketing, and tourism literatures, this article describes methodological and theoretical concerns and provides guidance for selecting highly useful-for-the-context (HUFTC) emotion measures. To help researchers choose HUFTC measures, this study proposes a new model: Emotionapps. The article here highlights the need for tourism researchers to account for the complexities in measuring emotions and how such measurement impacts theory construction.

This article provides an overview of extant literature addressing consumer interaction with cutting-edge technologies. Six focal cutting-edge technologies are identified: artificial intelligence, augmented reality, virtual reality, wearable technology, robotics and big data analytics. Our analysis shows research on consumer interaction with cutting-edge technologies is at a nascent stage, and there are several gaps requiring attention. To further advance knowledge, our article offers avenues for future interdisciplinary research addressing implications of consumer interaction with cutting-edge technologies. More specifically, we propose six main areas for future research namely: rethinking consumer behaviour models, identifying behavioural differences among different generations of consumers, understanding how consumers interact with automated services, ethics, privacy and the blackbox, consumer security concerns and consumer interaction with new-age technologies during and after a major global crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic.