IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/touman/v62y2017icp379-389.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The (almost) imperceptible impact of tourism research on policy and practice

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas, Rhodri
  • Ormerod, Neil

Abstract

The need to demonstrate the value of research to non-academic audiences is an increasingly prominent feature of the research policy landscape in many parts of the world. Yet, little is understood about the factors that differentiate academic researchers in terms of their relative influence on non-academic actors. Following a review of the literature, this study uses novel digital methods to undertake a detailed study of the non-academic impact of UK based tourism academics. The findings suggest that non-academic impact is strikingly lower in tourism than in the social sciences more generally. The multiple regression analyses used reveal that researchers who score highly using a range of academic metrics are also cited more by policy-makers and other practitioners. On the basis of the findings, research impact in tourism is theorized. This has implications for individual and institutional tourism research strategies beyond the geographical limitations of the study.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas, Rhodri & Ormerod, Neil, 2017. "The (almost) imperceptible impact of tourism research on policy and practice," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 379-389.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:touman:v:62:y:2017:i:c:p:379-389
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tourman.2017.02.009
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261517717300353
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tourman.2017.02.009?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tho, Nguyen Dinh & Trang, Nguyen Thi Mai, 2015. "Can knowledge be transferred from business schools to business organizations through in-service training students? SEM and fsQCA findings," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(6), pages 1332-1340.
    2. Hall, C. Michael & Page, Stephen J., 2015. "Following the impact factor: Utilitarianism or academic compliance?," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 309-312.
    3. Hjalager, Anne-Mette, 2010. "A review of innovation research in tourism," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 1-12.
    4. Valentina Tartari & Ammon Salter & Pablo D'Este, 2012. "Crossing the Rubicon: exploring the factors that shape academics' perceptions of the barriers to working with industry," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 36(3), pages 655-677.
    5. Banal-Estañol, Albert & Jofre-Bonet, Mireia & Lawson, Cornelia, 2015. "The double-edged sword of industry collaboration: Evidence from engineering academics in the UK," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(6), pages 1160-1175.
    6. Thomas, Rhodri & Wood, Emma, 2014. "Innovation in tourism: Re-conceptualising and measuring the absorptive capacity of the hotel sector," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 39-48.
    7. Clarke, Caroline & Knights, David & Jarvis, Carol, 2012. "A Labour of Love? Academics in Business Schools," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 5-15.
    8. Thomas, Rhodri, 2012. "Business elites, universities and knowledge transfer in tourism," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 553-561.
    9. Gerard P. Hodgkinson & Denise M. Rousseau, 2009. "Bridging the Rigour–Relevance Gap in Management Research: It's Already Happening!," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(3), pages 534-546, May.
    10. Geuna, Aldo & Piolatto, Matteo, 2016. "Research assessment in the UK and Italy: Costly and difficult, but probably worth it (at least for a while)," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 260-271.
    11. Alfred Kieser & Lars Leiner, 2009. "Why the Rigour–Relevance Gap in Management Research Is Unbridgeable," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(3), pages 516-533, May.
    12. Ken Starkey & Armand Hatchuel & Sue Tempest, 2009. "Management Research and the New Logics of Discovery and Engagement," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(3), pages 547-558, May.
    13. Nola Hewitt-Dundas, 2013. "The role of proximity in university-business cooperation for innovation," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 38(2), pages 93-115, April.
    14. Perkmann, Markus & Tartari, Valentina & McKelvey, Maureen & Autio, Erkko & Broström, Anders & D’Este, Pablo & Fini, Riccardo & Geuna, Aldo & Grimaldi, Rosa & Hughes, Alan & Krabel, Stefan & Kitson, Mi, 2013. "Academic engagement and commercialisation: A review of the literature on university–industry relations," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 423-442.
    15. Poria, Yaniv & Schwartz, Zvi & Uysal, Muzaffer, 2015. "IF you can keep your head: The unintended consequences of the Impact Factor on tourism research," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 300-302.
    16. Alfred Kieser & Lars Leiner, 2011. "On the Social Construction of Relevance: A Rejoinder," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(4), pages 891-898, June.
    17. John Lovering, 1999. "Theory Led by Policy: The Inadequacies of the ‘New Regionalism’ (Illustrated from the Case of Wales)," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(2), pages 379-395, June.
    18. Ken Starkey & Armand Hatchuel & Sue Tempest, 2009. "Management Research and the New Logics of Discovery and Engagement," Post-Print hal-00822889, HAL.
    19. Xiao, Honggen & Smith, Stephen L.J., 2010. "Professional communication in an applied tourism research community," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 402-411.
    20. Tourish, Dennis & Willmott, Hugh, 2015. "In Defiance of Folly: Journal rankings, mindless measures and the ABS Guide," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 37-46.
    21. J. C. F. Winter, 2015. "The relationship between tweets, citations, and article views for PLOS ONE articles," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 102(2), pages 1773-1779, February.
    22. Hadas Shema & Judit Bar-Ilan & Mike Thelwall, 2014. "Do blog citations correlate with a higher number of future citations? Research blogs as a potential source for alternative metrics," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 65(5), pages 1018-1027, May.
    23. Barry Bozeman & Daniel Fay & Catherine Slade, 2013. "Research collaboration in universities and academic entrepreneurship: the-state-of-the-art," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 38(1), pages 1-67, February.
    24. Phillips, Paul & Moutinho, Luiz, 2014. "Critical review of strategic planning research in hospitality and tourism," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 96-120.
    25. Barry Bozeman & Monica Gaughan & Jan Youtie & Catherine P. Slade & Heather Rimes, 2016. "Research collaboration experiences, good and bad: Dispatches from the front lines," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 43(2), pages 226-244.
    26. Thomas, Rhodri & Wood, Emma, 2015. "The absorptive capacity of tourism organisations," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 84-99.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Cole, Stroma & Wardana, Agung & Dharmiasih, Wiwik, 2021. "Making an impact on Bali's water crisis: Research to mobilize NGOs, the tourism industry and policy makers," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    2. Wood, Roy C., 2017. "The unspoken question: A response to Thomas and Ormerod," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 390-393.
    3. Thomas, Rhodri, 2021. "Problematising ‘The impact of tourism research’: A reply to Brauer, Dymitrow, and Tribe (2019)," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    4. Sérgio J Teixeira & João J Ferreira & Peter Wanke & Jorge Junio Moreira Antunes, 2021. "Evaluation model of competitive and innovative tourism practices based on information entropy and alternative criteria weight," Tourism Economics, , vol. 27(1), pages 23-44, February.
    5. James A. Cunningham & Kristel Miller & Jose-Luis Perea-Vicente, 2024. "Academic entrepreneurship in the humanities and social sciences: a systematic literature review and research agenda," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 49(5), pages 1880-1913, October.
    6. Anca Băndoi & Elena Jianu & Maria Enescu & Gheorghe Axinte & Sorin Tudor & Daniela Firoiu, 2020. "The Relationship between Development of Tourism, Quality of Life and Sustainable Performance in EU Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-24, February.
    7. Brauer, Rene & Dymitrow, Mirek & Tribe, John, 2019. "The impact of tourism research," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 64-78.
    8. Rene Brauer & Mirek Dymitrow, 2020. "The Language of Sustainable Tourism as a Proxy Indicator of Quality," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-17, December.
    9. John P. Nelson & Barry Bozeman & Stuart Bretschneider & Spencer L. Lindsay, 2024. "How do academic public administration and public policy researchers affect policymaking? Functional groupings from survey data," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 129(1), pages 65-93, January.
    10. Ko Koens & Albert Postma & Bernadett Papp, 2018. "Is Overtourism Overused? Understanding the Impact of Tourism in a City Context," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-15, November.
    11. Gössling, Stefan & Moyle, Brent D. & Weaver, David, 2021. "Academic entrepreneurship: A bibliometric engagement model," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Julia Olmos Peñuela & Paul Benneworth & Elena Castro-Martínez, 2018. "Does usable research face higher obstacles within the academy?," CHEPS Working Papers 201805, University of Twente, Center for Higher Education Policy Studies (CHEPS).
    2. Timothy Clark & Mike Wright, 2009. "So, Farewell Then . . . Reflections on Editing the Journal of Management Studies," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(1), pages 1-9, January.
    3. Bullinger, Bernadette & Kieser, Alfred & Schiller-Merkens, Simone, 2015. "Coping with institutional complexity: Responses of management scholars to competing logics in the field of management studies," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 437-450.
    4. Li, Yanning & Wood, E.H. & Thomas, R., 2017. "Innovation implementation: Harmony and conflict in Chinese modern music festivals," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 87-99.
    5. Trautrims, Alexander & MacCarthy, Bart L. & Okade, Chetan, 2017. "Building an innovation-based supplier portfolio: The use of patent analysis in strategic supplier selection in the automotive sector," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 228-236.
    6. Margaret Fletcher & Pavlos Dimitratos & Stephen Young, . "How can academic-policy collaboration be more effective? A stewardship approach to engaged scholarship in the case of SME internationalization," UNCTAD Transnational Corporations Journal, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
    7. Sonia Cruz-Ros & Diana L. Guerrero-Sánchez & Maria-Jose Miquel-Romero, 2021. "Absorptive capacity and its impact on innovation and performance: findings from SEM and fsQCA," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 235-249, February.
    8. Robin Fincham & Timothy Clark, 2009. "Introduction: Can We Bridge the Rigour–Relevance Gap?," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(3), pages 510-515, May.
    9. Thomas, Rhodri & Wood, Emma, 2015. "The absorptive capacity of tourism organisations," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 84-99.
    10. Ingvild Reymert & Taran Thune, 2023. "Task complementarity in academic work: a study of the relationship between research, education and third mission tasks among university professors," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 48(1), pages 331-360, February.
    11. Joaquín M. Azagra-Caro & Carlos Benito-Amat & Ester Planells-Aleixandre, 2022. "Academic artists’ engagement and commercialisation," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 47(4), pages 1273-1296, August.
    12. Amara, Nabil & Olmos-Peñuela, Julia & Fernández-de-Lucio, Ignacio, 2019. "Overcoming the “lost before translation” problem: An exploratory study," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 22-36.
    13. Raisi, Hossein & Baggio, Rodolfo & Barratt-Pugh, Llandis & Willson, Gregory, 2020. "A network perspective of knowledge transfer in tourism," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    14. Irene Ramos-Vielba & Mabel Sánchez-Barrioluengo & Richard Woolley, 2016. "Scientific research groups’ cooperation with firms and government agencies: motivations and barriers," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 41(3), pages 558-585, June.
    15. Dipan Kumar Sahu & Sucheta Pawar & Prerna Gaur & Sudhir K. Jain, 2023. "Entrepreneurial Engagement of Faculty in Higher Educational Institutions: A Review of Literature 2011–2023," Paradigm, , vol. 27(2), pages 153-171, December.
    16. Malida Mooken & Roger Sugden, 2014. "The Capabilities of Academics and Academic Poverty," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(4), pages 588-614, November.
    17. Carsten Schultz & Oliver Gretsch & Alexander Kock, 2021. "The influence of shared R&D-project innovativeness perceptions on university-industry collaboration performance," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 46(4), pages 1144-1172, August.
    18. Perkmann, Markus & Salandra, Rossella & Tartari, Valentina & McKelvey, Maureen & Hughes, Alan, 2021. "Academic engagement: A review of the literature 2011-2019," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(1).
    19. Eugenia Panfiluk, 2021. "Innovativeness of Tourism Enterprises: Example of Poland," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-17, January.
    20. Williams, Allan M. & Rodriguez, Isabel & Makkonen, Teemu, 2020. "Innovation and smart destinations: Critical insights," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:touman:v:62:y:2017:i:c:p:379-389. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/tourism-management .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.