Professor Allan Williams
Chair in Tourism and Mobility Studies
Qualifications: BSc(Econ), PhD
Email: allan.williams@surrey.ac.uk
Phone: Work: 01483 68 6308
Room no: 46 MS 02
Office hours
Tuesday 3-4
Wednesday 1-3
You may prefer to book an appointment within these time slots. Otherwise, just call in.
Further information
Biography
Allan studied Economics and Geography at University College Swansea, 1969-72, before completing his PhD at the LSE. After completing his doctoral thesis, he worked as a Research Fellow at the LSE on a project on'Change in Urban Britain', and in 1976-8 was Lecturer in Geography at the University of Durham. In 1978 he moved to the Geography Department at the University of Exeter, where he was successively Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Reader and then, from 1995, Professor of Human Geography and European Studies. He was Co-Director of the Centre for European Studies 1987-95. He also jointly established, with Gareth Shaw, an MSc in Tourism, Development and Policy at Exeter in 2000. He was appointed to the Chair in European Integration and Globalization at London Metropolitan in 2006, in the Institute for the Study of European Transformations, and the Working Lives Research Institute. He joined the Tourism Group in the Faculty of Management at Surrey in January 2011.
He is an Academician of the Academy of Social Science (http://www.the-academy.org.uk/), and has been a member of several Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) committees including: the Research Grants Board 2001-5, and the 'One Europe or Several' Commissioning Panel, 1997-9. He chaired the ESRC/NERC Transdisciplinary Seminars competition in 2005, was vice chair of the ESRC First Grants Commissioning Panel in 2006, and was a member of the Commissioning Panel for CASE Studentships, 2006-9.
He is an Adjunct Professor in the National Centre for Research on Europe, at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, where he is researching European-New Zealand migration (http://www.europe.canterbury.ac.nz/).
Within the Royal Geographical Society with the IBG, he has been Chair of the Annual Conference in 2005, Chair of the Research Groups Sub-Committee, 2004-6, a Member of Research Committee, 2004-6, and a Member of Council, 2005-6. He was awarded the Heath prize of the Royal Geographical Society in 1995 for his research on Europe.
He was founding co-editor of European Urban and Regional Studies (http://eur.sagepub.com), 1994-2009, and founding Associate Editor of Tourism Geographies (http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/14616688.asp), 1999-. And he is a member of the editorial boards of several other journals: Mobilities, Annals of Tourism Research and Finisterra.
Research Interests
Research focus.
Allan's central research interests are the relationships between economic development and mobility, innovation and risk. He is particularly interested in the relationship between tourism and migration, retirement migration, return migration, tourism innovation, and the role of risk in mobility. He has undertaken research in a number of European countries, but especially in Central Eastern Europe, Southern Europe and the UK, as well as in New Zealand.
Current research projects:
- ESRC (2007-10). Internationalisation and innovation in the service sector: the role of international migration in the UK hotel (London) sector. Joint co-ordinator with Professor Gareth Shaw, University of Exeter. The project has three main strands: identifying key innovations in recent decades, analysing the influence of different forms of ownership on innovation, and exploring the role of international migrants as sources of knowledge transfer and innovation.
- FP7 SECOA (2009-13). This major 6 million euro project involves partners from 5 EU and 3 non EU countries. It aims to study the impacts of human mobility and urbanization on natural environmental systems. Allan co-ordinates the UK team, involving both Surrey and two research institutes at London Metropolitan University. There are two UK case studies:Thames Gateway and Portsmouth.
- LEVERHULME FELLOWSHIP. Migration, tourism and risk. With his collaborator, Professor Balaz, Institute of Forecasting, Bratislava, he is undertaking a project that aims to identify the influence of risk and uncertainty on tourism and on migration, and the inter-reltaionship between these.
Completed research projects:
- EU Culture Programme (2009), PLACE. This 7 country study investigated the interface between research on urban mass tourism and architecture and planning studies.
- British Academy Readership (2004-6). Two year programme of largely theoretical research on 'International migration, learning and knowledge'.
- ESRC (2003-4). Returned skilled labour migration from the UK to Central Europe, focussing on the acquisition of skills and competences, and their commodification, in both the UK and after return migration. With Vladimir Balaz.
- British Academy (2004). The economic relationships of the Vietnamese diaspora in Europe, and their role in petty trading in Central Europe. With Vladimir Balaz.
- EPSRC/ESRC AIM (2006-8). Intra-firm and inter-firm knowledge transfers and productivity in the retailing sector. A collaborative project in conjunction with Irena Grugulis (Bradford), Jeremy Clegg (Leeds) and Loles Anon (Aston) which was part of the EPSRC/ESRC AIM 'Closing the Gap' programme.
- EPSRC/ESRC AIM (2006-7). The unintended and indirect effects of regulation on UK productivity. Collaborative project with Joseph Antony (Leeds), Gerben Bakker (LSE), Kim Tan (Nottingham), and Kathryn Walsh (Loughborough). Particular focus on the impact of air travel de-regulation on local and regional economies.
- Leverhulme Trust (2000-2). The role of new forms of international mobility in the economic development of border regions in Central Europe. With Valdimir Balaz.
- ESRC (1997-8). The role of tourism in the transition in Central and Eastern Europe. With Vladimir Balaz.
- ESRC (1997-8). International retirement migration from the UK to Southern Europe. In collaboration with Russell King (Sussex) and Tony Warnes (Sheffield) (ESRC 1995-7)
Research Collaborations
Prof. Vladimir Balaz (Institute of Forecasting, Bratislava, Slovakia): on knowledge transfer, risk, migration and tourism in central Europe.
Dr Natasha Chaban and Prof. Martin Holland (National Centre for Research on Europe, University of Canterbury, NZ) on migration and return migration to New Zealand.
Prof. Michael Hall (Faculty of Commerce, University of Canterbury, NZ)): on tourism and mobility, and tourism and innovation.
Prof Michelle Lowe (Business School University of Southampton, UK) on innovation and boutique hotels.
Prof Armando Montanari and Dr Barbara Staniscia (La Sapienza University, Rome, Italy) on cultural tourism, and human mobility and environmental change in coastal regions.
Prof. Gareth Shaw (University of Exeter, UK) on tourism an innovation.
Dr Adi Weidenfeld and Prof Peter Bjork (Hanken Business School, Finland) on cross-border innovation in the service sector.
Publications
Highlights
- .
(2011) 'Diffusion and competition of voice communication technologies in the Czech and Slovak Republics, 1948-2009'. Elsevier Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 79 (2), pp. 393-404.Full text is available at: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/57951/
Abstract
The paper applies concepts of population dynamics to the evolution of communication technologies. The dynamics of voice communication technologies in the Czech and Slovak Republics in 1948-2009 are examined via the Lotka-Volterra equations. Fixed lines and mobile phones are considered predatory technologies hunting for their ‘prey’ – voice service subscribers. Each technology squeezes out carrying capacity from its competitor. Mobile phones, however, exert a far greater impact on numbers of fixed telephone lines than vice versa. The conclusions consider some limitations of population dynamics approaches in economic modelling and discuss the different growth strategies associated with particular types of technologies.
- .
(2011) 'Internationalization and innovation in tourism'. Elsevier Annals of Tourism Research, 38 (1), pp. 27-51.Full text is available at: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/59935/
Abstract
Internationalization and innovation are significant themes in tourism research whose inter-relationship has been largely neglected. Starting from the international economics literature, which focuses largely on the multinational enterprise, and on knowledge issues, the relationship can be conceptualised in three ways: internationalization is a form of innovation, successful internationalization requires innovation, and internationalization requires firms to have superior knowledge. Turning from this generic literature to the specificities of tourism, two aspects of the simultaneity of production and consumption critically shape internationalization: the requirement for co-presence, and consumer mobility. However, a firm-focussed approach fails to address the changing international environment of the enterprise, especially the increasing importance of global connectivity in relation to entrepreneurs, labour and tourists.
- .
(2011) 'Aspects of service-dominant logic and its implications for tourism management: Examples from the hotel industry'. Elsevier Tourism Management, 32 (2), pp. 207-214.Full text is available at: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/56982/
Abstract
This paper introduces the concept of service-dominant logic as a research paradigm in marketing management. It does so in the context of tourism management‟s need to engage with wider debates within the mainstream management literature. Moreover it demonstrates the importance of service-dominant logic in uncovering the role played by co-production and co-creation in the tourism industry. These ideas are developed in detail through a case study of the UK hotel industry that draws on new empirical research undertaken by the authors.
- .
(2010) 'Knowledge transfer and innovation among attractions'. Elsevier Annals of Tourism Research, 37 (3), pp. 604-626.Full text is available at: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/728672/
Abstract
Studies of knowledge transfer and the diffusion of innovations in tourism have largely ignored the attraction sector. This study examines the level and form of knowledge transfer amongst attractions in Cornwall (UK), paying particular attention to the significance of spatial clustering and product similarity. It is based on in-depth interviews with tourist attraction managers and key informants in two contrasting spatial clusters. The findings demonstrate that spatial proximity, product similarity and market similarity have positive impacts on knowledge transfers and innovation spillovers, at both the local and the regional scales. They also show that the influences of product similarity and spatial proximity are closely related, but that the first of these is generally more influential at both the local and particularly, the regional scale. The paper also identifies some of the sources, mechanisms, channels and outcomes of knowledge transfer.
- . (2010) 'Knowledge sharing through face-to-face communication and labour productivity: Evidence from british workplaces'. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 48 (2), pp. 436-459.
- .
(2010) 'The Determinants of Retail Productivity: A Critical Review of the Evidence'. Blackwell International Journal of Management Reviews, 12 (2), pp. 201-217.Full text is available at: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/59936/
Abstract
This paper discusses the literature on the established determinants of productivity in the retail sector. It also draws attention to some neglected strands of research which provide useful insights into strategies that could allow productivity enhancements in this area of the economy. To date, very few attempts have been made to integrate different specialisms in order to explain what drives productivity in retail. Here this paper rectifies this omission by putting together studies from economics, geography, knowledge management and employment studies. It is the authors’ view that quantitative studies of retail productivity should focus on total factor productivity in retailing as the result of competition/composition effects, planning regulations, information and communications technology, the multinational operation element and workforce skills. Further, the fact that retail firms possess advantages that are transferable between locations suggests that investment in strategies enhancing the transfer of explicit and tacit knowledge between and within businesses are crucial to achieve productivity gains.
- .
(2009) 'International migration, uneven regional development and polarization'. Sage European Urban and Regional Studies, 16 (3), pp. 309-322.Full text is available at: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/59942/
Abstract
This article explores four aspects of the underdeveloped conceptualization of the role of international migration in uneven regional development and polarization in cities. First, it emphasizes the way in which human mobility transfers not only human capital but also knowledge and material capital, and that these are interrelated. Second, it considers how changes in the nature of mobility have implications for uneven regional development. Third, it develops the concept of enfolded mobilities, as a way of understanding how individual migrations are directly enfolded with those of other individuals, either through associated or contingent movements, or through consequential migration at later stages in the life course. Finally, it discusses how governance impinges on and mediates the key relationships between mobility and uneven regional development.
- .
(2009) 'Knowledge transfer and management in tourism organisations: An emerging research agenda'. Elsevier Tourism Management, 30 (3), pp. 325-335.Full text is available at: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/59939/
Abstract
This paper reviews current research on knowledge management and knowledge transfer in the context of innovations. Specific attention is focussed on the integration of management perspectives into tourism research. The paper explores some of the key mechanisms and conduits of knowledge transfer within tourism. In doing so it explores such concepts as interlocking directorships, communities of practice, learning regions and labour mobility. There is also an emerging research agenda on knowledge management within tourism but progress is variable with most research being within the hotel sector, where a range of recent studies have examined aspects of knowledge transfer. The paper also draws attention to the need to give closer attention to the nature of innovations within tourism and to consider these in a knowledge management framework.
- .
(2009) 'Low-Cost carriers, economies of flows and regional externalities'. Taylor and Francis Regional Studies, 43 (5), pp. 677-691.Full text is available at: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/59941/
Abstract
Low-cost carriers, economies of flows and regional externalities, Regional Studies. The emergence of low-cost carriers, following air travel re-regulation in Europe, has major implications for individual firms and regional economies. Understanding regions as ‘economies of flows’, the paper explores, largely conceptually, how uneven, fluctuating, and fragmentary changes in air travel and connectivity, resulting from the activities of low-cost carriers, have had substantial impacts on flows of labour migrants, knowledge, business connectivity/investment, and mobile markets, especially tourism. The resulting modifications to institutions and regional externalities contribute to net changes in the transaction costs of individual firms, regional competitiveness, and the unfolding and increasingly interconnected map of uneven regional development in Europe.
- .
(2008) 'International mobility, learning and knowledge transfer: a case study of Slovak doctors'. Elsevier Social Science and Medicine, 67 (11), pp. 1924-1933.Full text is available at: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/59944/
Abstract
International mobility provides opportunities for learning and knowledge transfer by health care workers, with significant potential benefits for countries of destination and, in the case of returned migration, countries of origin. This is examined using a typology that recognizes four types of tacit knowledge: embrained, embodied, embedded, and encultured. There are, however, constraints to learning and knowledge transfer in the form of professional and social recognition as well as language barriers and power relationships. These theoretical ideas are explored through a case study of internationally mobile Slovak doctors after their return to Slovakia. Individual learning and knowledge sharing with colleagues, both abroad and after return, are analysed through in-depth interviews.
Journal articles
- .
(2013) 'Spatial Competition and Agglomeration in the Visitor Attraction Sector'. Taylor & Francis Service Industries Journal, in press
[ Status: Accepted ] - . (2013) 'Tourism, risk tolerance and competences: Travel organization and tourism hazards'. Tourism Management, 35, pp. 209-221.
- . (2013) 'Mobilities and sustainable tourism: path-creating or path-dependent relationships?'. Journal of Sustainable Tourism,
- .
(2012) 'Self-organising
innovation networks, mobile knowledge carriers and diasporas: Insights from a pioneering boutique hotel chain'. Oxford University Press Journal of Economic Geography, 12 (5), pp. 1113-1138.doi: 10.1093/jeg/lbs021Full text is available at: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/723055/
Abstract
This paper provides insights from the UK’s pioneering boutique hotel chain, Hotel du Vin (HduV) to explore the dynamics of self-forming innovation networks within the service sector. In particular, it focuses on HduV’s diaspora of spin-off and follow-on enterprises, examining the nature of innovation and creativity, and the significant role of human mobility in knowledge transfer and in the dynamic reconfiguration of such networks. Through the use of participative’ research methods and ‘close dialogue’, it provides a contribution to understanding processes of innovation in an under-researched industry—utilizing the concept of ‘diasporas’ to encapsulate the temporality and spatiality of those processes. In particular, it explores the various re-uses and re-combinations of the organizational processes and value propositions that defined the innovatory nature of the original chain, showing how those re-combinations were critical to the entrepreneurial nature of the diasporic network which developed around HduV.
- .
(2012) 'Human mobility in functional urban Human mobility in functional urban regions: understanding the diversity of mobilities'. Taylor & Francis International Review of Sociology, 22 (2), pp. 191-209.Full text is available at: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/713653/
- . (2012) 'Migration and Innovation at the Bottom End: Understanding the Role of Migrant Managers in Small Hotels in the Global City'. Taylor & Francis Mobilities, 7 (3), pp. 389-414.
- .
(2012) 'Migration, Risk, and Uncertainty: Theoretical Perspectives'. Population, Space and Place, 18 (2), pp. 167-180.doi: 10.1002/psp.663
- .
(2012) 'Tourism, risk tolerance and competences: Travel organization and tourism hazards'. Elsevier Tourism Management, Full text is available at: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/733317/
Abstract
Research on how individual tourists respond to risk has largely focussed on risk perceptions. This paper draws on behavioural economics to analyse the influence of risk tolerance and risk-related competences on how tourists organize their tourism travel, and the importance that they ascribe to specific types of tourism hazards. Whereas most tourism research on risk has been based on small, or highly age-specific surveys, or particular market segments, this paper utilises an innovative, large-scale survey drawn from the range of the UK population. There were significant differences between package tourists and individual 'drifter' tourists in terms of their socio-demographic characteristics, general and tourism-specific risk tolerance, and competence - both real and illusory - to manage risk. Age, and tolerance of both general and tourism-specific risks, were associated with the importance of hazards as deterrents to tourist behaviour, but the evidence for competences was mixed. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
- .
(2011) 'Diffusion and competition of voice communication technologies in the Czech and Slovak Republics, 1948-2009'. Elsevier Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 79 (2), pp. 393-404.Full text is available at: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/57951/
Abstract
The paper applies concepts of population dynamics to the evolution of communication technologies. The dynamics of voice communication technologies in the Czech and Slovak Republics in 1948-2009 are examined via the Lotka-Volterra equations. Fixed lines and mobile phones are considered predatory technologies hunting for their ‘prey’ – voice service subscribers. Each technology squeezes out carrying capacity from its competitor. Mobile phones, however, exert a far greater impact on numbers of fixed telephone lines than vice versa. The conclusions consider some limitations of population dynamics approaches in economic modelling and discuss the different growth strategies associated with particular types of technologies.
- .
(2011) 'The circular international migration of New Zealanders: Enfolded mobilities and relational places'. Taylor & Francis Mobilities, 6 (1), pp. 125-147.Full text is available at: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/59938/
Abstract
Migrants’ social relations are reconfigured in relation to how the localised and distanciated are recombined in context of how individuals are embedded in the enfolded mobilities of increasingly mobile social networks. The paper is organized around three main propositions. First, that social relations are structured across three main and intersecting domains – family, workplace and community. Second, that social relations and networks are shaped by, and shape, the relational nature of places. Third, that the relational nature of places, and the reconfiguration of localised and distanciated relationships should be analysed across the entire migration cycle. These ideas are explored through a study of the Big OE from New Zealand to the UK, based on in‐depth interviews with returned migrants.
- .
(2011) 'Risk attitudes and migration experience'. Taylor & Francis Journal of Risk Research, 14 (5), pp. 583-596.Full text is available at: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/59953/
Abstract
Although risk and uncertainty are intrinsic to human migration, there is surprisingly little explicit research on the willingness to take risks in this context. This paper analyses whether migrants are more or less likely than non‐migrants to be risk tolerant, and whether these differences are gendered. Attitudes are explored in terms of responses under conditions of both risk and uncertainty, and self‐assessment of capabilities is also taken into account. The research is based on a sample of students who provide a relatively homogeneous group in socio‐economic terms, and relatively large numbers of individuals with experiences of temporary migration. Their attitudes to risk were assessed under experimental conditions, which measured their willingness to take risks on hypothetical gambles under different conditions. While there are some differences between males and females, and between migrants and non‐migrants, the outstanding finding is the far greater risk tolerance of female migrants as opposed to female non‐migrants, especially when compared to males.
- .
(2011) 'Aspects of service-dominant logic and its implications for tourism management: Examples from the hotel industry'. Elsevier Tourism Management, 32 (2), pp. 207-214.Full text is available at: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/56982/
Abstract
This paper introduces the concept of service-dominant logic as a research paradigm in marketing management. It does so in the context of tourism management‟s need to engage with wider debates within the mainstream management literature. Moreover it demonstrates the importance of service-dominant logic in uncovering the role played by co-production and co-creation in the tourism industry. These ideas are developed in detail through a case study of the UK hotel industry that draws on new empirical research undertaken by the authors.
- .
(2011) 'The role of clustering, cooperation and complementarities in the visitor attraction sector'. Taylor & Francis Current Issues in Tourism, 14 (7), pp. 595-629.Full text is available at: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/56947/
Abstract
Cooperation and complementarity are important but understudied components of tourism clusters, in general, and of the tourist attraction sector, in particular. This paper addresses product similarities, in general, and thematic similarity, in particular, in the context of spatial proximity and clustering among tourist attractions. These relationships are examined by exploring cooperation between tourist attractions in two tourism clusters in Cornwall, UK. Interviews with attraction managers and other key informants, and case studies, reveal that tourist attractions have established cooperative–complementary relationships of production based on external economies at both the local and the regional scales. Differences between the two clusters in terms of interviewees' perceptions of the relationships between factors indicate the importance of understanding the specific features of individual clusters.
- . (2011) 'Crossing cultures: Analysing the experiences of NZ returnees from the EU (UK vs. non-UK)'. Elsevier International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 35 (6), pp. 776-790.
- .
(2011) 'Internationalization and innovation in tourism'. Elsevier Annals of Tourism Research, 38 (1), pp. 27-51.Full text is available at: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/59935/
Abstract
Internationalization and innovation are significant themes in tourism research whose inter-relationship has been largely neglected. Starting from the international economics literature, which focuses largely on the multinational enterprise, and on knowledge issues, the relationship can be conceptualised in three ways: internationalization is a form of innovation, successful internationalization requires innovation, and internationalization requires firms to have superior knowledge. Turning from this generic literature to the specificities of tourism, two aspects of the simultaneity of production and consumption critically shape internationalization: the requirement for co-presence, and consumer mobility. However, a firm-focussed approach fails to address the changing international environment of the enterprise, especially the increasing importance of global connectivity in relation to entrepreneurs, labour and tourists.
- .
(2010) 'Knowledge transfer and innovation among attractions'. Elsevier Annals of Tourism Research, 37 (3), pp. 604-626.Full text is available at: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/728672/
Abstract
Studies of knowledge transfer and the diffusion of innovations in tourism have largely ignored the attraction sector. This study examines the level and form of knowledge transfer amongst attractions in Cornwall (UK), paying particular attention to the significance of spatial clustering and product similarity. It is based on in-depth interviews with tourist attraction managers and key informants in two contrasting spatial clusters. The findings demonstrate that spatial proximity, product similarity and market similarity have positive impacts on knowledge transfers and innovation spillovers, at both the local and the regional scales. They also show that the influences of product similarity and spatial proximity are closely related, but that the first of these is generally more influential at both the local and particularly, the regional scale. The paper also identifies some of the sources, mechanisms, channels and outcomes of knowledge transfer.
- .
(2010) 'Clustering and compatibility between tourism attractions'. International Journal of Tourism Research, 12 (1), pp. 1-16.doi: 10.1002/jtr.732
- .
(2010) 'The Determinants of Retail Productivity: A Critical Review of the Evidence'. Blackwell International Journal of Management Reviews, 12 (2), pp. 201-217.Full text is available at: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/59936/
Abstract
This paper discusses the literature on the established determinants of productivity in the retail sector. It also draws attention to some neglected strands of research which provide useful insights into strategies that could allow productivity enhancements in this area of the economy. To date, very few attempts have been made to integrate different specialisms in order to explain what drives productivity in retail. Here this paper rectifies this omission by putting together studies from economics, geography, knowledge management and employment studies. It is the authors’ view that quantitative studies of retail productivity should focus on total factor productivity in retailing as the result of competition/composition effects, planning regulations, information and communications technology, the multinational operation element and workforce skills. Further, the fact that retail firms possess advantages that are transferable between locations suggests that investment in strategies enhancing the transfer of explicit and tacit knowledge between and within businesses are crucial to achieve productivity gains.
- . (2010) 'Mass tourism, culture and the historic city: theoretical perspectives'. Revista del Scienze del Turismo, 1 (2), pp. 9-29.
- . (2010) 'Knowledge sharing through face-to-face communication and labour productivity: Evidence from british workplaces'. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 48 (2), pp. 436-459.
- .
(2009) 'International migration, uneven regional development and polarization'. Sage European Urban and Regional Studies, 16 (3), pp. 309-322.Full text is available at: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/59942/
Abstract
This article explores four aspects of the underdeveloped conceptualization of the role of international migration in uneven regional development and polarization in cities. First, it emphasizes the way in which human mobility transfers not only human capital but also knowledge and material capital, and that these are interrelated. Second, it considers how changes in the nature of mobility have implications for uneven regional development. Third, it develops the concept of enfolded mobilities, as a way of understanding how individual migrations are directly enfolded with those of other individuals, either through associated or contingent movements, or through consequential migration at later stages in the life course. Finally, it discusses how governance impinges on and mediates the key relationships between mobility and uneven regional development.
- .
(2009) 'Knowledge transfer and management in tourism organisations: An emerging research agenda'. Elsevier Tourism Management, 30 (3), pp. 325-335.Full text is available at: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/59939/
Abstract
This paper reviews current research on knowledge management and knowledge transfer in the context of innovations. Specific attention is focussed on the integration of management perspectives into tourism research. The paper explores some of the key mechanisms and conduits of knowledge transfer within tourism. In doing so it explores such concepts as interlocking directorships, communities of practice, learning regions and labour mobility. There is also an emerging research agenda on knowledge management within tourism but progress is variable with most research being within the hotel sector, where a range of recent studies have examined aspects of knowledge transfer. The paper also draws attention to the need to give closer attention to the nature of innovations within tourism and to consider these in a knowledge management framework.
- .
(2009) 'Low-Cost carriers, economies of flows and regional externalities'. Taylor and Francis Regional Studies, 43 (5), pp. 677-691.Full text is available at: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/59941/
Abstract
Low-cost carriers, economies of flows and regional externalities, Regional Studies. The emergence of low-cost carriers, following air travel re-regulation in Europe, has major implications for individual firms and regional economies. Understanding regions as ‘economies of flows’, the paper explores, largely conceptually, how uneven, fluctuating, and fragmentary changes in air travel and connectivity, resulting from the activities of low-cost carriers, have had substantial impacts on flows of labour migrants, knowledge, business connectivity/investment, and mobile markets, especially tourism. The resulting modifications to institutions and regional externalities contribute to net changes in the transaction costs of individual firms, regional competitiveness, and the unfolding and increasingly interconnected map of uneven regional development in Europe.
- .
(2009) 'Future play: tourism, recreation and land use'. Elsevier Land Use Policy, 26 (SUPPL. 1), pp. S326-S335.Full text is available at: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/58164/
- .
(2008) 'International mobility, learning and knowledge transfer: a case study of Slovak doctors'. Elsevier Social Science and Medicine, 67 (11), pp. 1924-1933.Full text is available at: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/59944/
Abstract
International mobility provides opportunities for learning and knowledge transfer by health care workers, with significant potential benefits for countries of destination and, in the case of returned migration, countries of origin. This is examined using a typology that recognizes four types of tacit knowledge: embrained, embodied, embedded, and encultured. There are, however, constraints to learning and knowledge transfer in the form of professional and social recognition as well as language barriers and power relationships. These theoretical ideas are explored through a case study of internationally mobile Slovak doctors after their return to Slovakia. Individual learning and knowledge sharing with colleagues, both abroad and after return, are analysed through in-depth interviews.
- . (2008) 'Knowledge sharing through face-to-face communication and labour productivity: Evidence from british workplaces'. Proceedings of the European Conference on Knowledge Management, ECKM, , pp. 753-762.
- .
(2007) 'Path-dependency and path-creation perspectives on migration trajectories: The economic experiences of Vietnamese migrants in Slovakia'. Wiley-Blackwell International Migration, 45 (2), pp. 37-67.Full text is available at: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/59952/
Abstract
There has been only limited research on the Vietnamese diaspora, and that has mostly focussed on western market economies. This paper explores the distinctive migration from Vietnam to the eastern block countries that was dictated by Cold War geopolitics. It examines how the intersection of migration policies and politicoeconomic conditions, before and after the end of state socialism in 1989, produced two distinctive migration phases. Faced with economic constraints, and mediated by their relationships with the Slovak population, most Vietnamese who stayed in, or migrated to, Slovakia after 1989 survived economically by finding a niche in market trading. This paper adopts a path-creating path-dependent perspective to examine these migration trajectories through an analysis based on in-depth interviews with Vietnamese migrants.
- . (2007) 'Listen to me, learn with me: International migration and knowledge transfer'. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 45 (2), pp. 361-382.
- .
(2006) 'International labour migration and tacit knowledge transactions: A multi-level perspective'. Blackwell Global Networks, 7 (1), pp. 29-50.Full text is available at: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/59943/
Abstract
There has been limited research on the role of international migration in the transfer of tacit knowledge, as opposed to skills and capital. In part, this results from lack of engagement between research on migration and that on knowledge and learning, even in debates concerning the relative importance of distanciated versus localised knowledge transfers. However, positioning international migration in relation to the literature on knowledge management opens up new perspectives on its role in the overall transfer of knowledge in the economy. Starting from the premise that all tacit knowledge transactions are socially situated, this paper sets out a multi-level approach to understanding the role of migrants in knowledge exchanges. The national, the urban and the firm constitute key levels in this analysis, although these are understood as inter-folded rather than as discrete sites of analysis.
- .
(2006) 'Lost in translation? International migration, learning and knowledge'. Sage Progress in Human Geography, 30 (5), pp. 588-607.Full text is available at: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/59948/
Abstract
There are changing but increasingly important ways in which international migration contributes to knowledge creation and transfer. The paper focuses on four main issues. First, the different ways in which knowledge is conceptualized, and the significance of corporeal mobility in effecting knowledge creation and transfer in relation to each of these types. Second, the significance of international migration in knowledge creation and transfer, and how this is mediated by whether migration is constituted within bounded (by company structures) or boundaryless careers, and as free agent labour migration. Third, the situating of migrants within firms, and the particular obstacles to their engagement in co-learning and knowledge translation: especially positionality, intercultural communication and social identities. Fourth, a focus on the importance of place, which is explored through theories of learning regions and creativity, and notions of the transferability of social learning across different public and private spheres. The need to view migrant learning and knowledge creation/transfer as widely dispersed, rather than as elite practices in privileged regions, is a recurrent theme.
- .
(2006) 'Older migrants in Europe: an innovative focus for migration studies'. Taylor and Francis Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 32 (8), pp. 1257-1281.Full text is available at: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/59950/
Abstract
This article introduces the eight papers in this collection, all of which arose from the deliberations and research projects of the members of a European Science Foundation Scientific Network. The thematic focus is the intersection of migration and personal ageing. The article has three aims and themes, the first being to provide a summary account of the diversity of older migrants in contemporary Europe. A key distinction is between older people who migrate, and former labour migrants and those who accompanied them who have `aged in place'. Both groups have attracted innovative research since the early 1990s. Other `aged migrant trajectories', such as those of return labour migrants and those who move internationally in late-life to live near or with close relatives for support and care, have received much less attention, a lacuna that some of the papers in this issue begin to correct. The second aim is to synthesise the principal personal, societal and welfare implications of the growing number of `older migrants' across Europe, emphasising that there are both similarities and surprising differences amongst diverse groups of migrants. Finally, the individual papers will be introduced; in so doing, the design and methodological challenges of research on the variant groups will be drawn out. Raising understanding of the motivations of migration in old age, and even more of the inter-related consequences of migration and ageing, requires longitudinal, biographical or lifecourse perspectives. While such a research agenda is both stimulating and theoretically and empirically fruitful, it also implies profound practical research challenges.
Books
- . (2008) International migration and knowledge. London : Routledge
- . (2008) Tourism and innovation. Routledge
Book chapters
- .
(2012) 'Tourism, migration and human capital: knowledge and skills
at the intersection of flows'. in Gartner WC, Hsu C (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Tourism Research
Routledge , pp. 251-264.Full text is available at: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/713654/
Abstract
This paper starts from two propositions relating to tourism-migration relationships, and knowledge transfer. First, there has been considerable interest in recent years in ideas relating to ‘tourist-migrant’ workers, that is, in the complex inter-relationships between economic and cultural/tourism motivations, particularly amongst young people. However, this represents only one of the many economic relationships between tourism and migration, two phenomena that often have been studied in isolation (Williams and Hall, 2002). There is a need for a better understanding of how these are entwined in an economy of flows (Hudson 2004), shaping economic outcomes in the tourism sector. Secondly, there has also been a neglect of the role of labour mobility in knowledge transfer, innovation, and competitiveness – and this is particularly notable in an industry such as tourism, where demand and, in part, production, are essentially based on mobility. International tourists seek out experiences and services beyond their usual countries of residence, and the resulting demand for knowledge in the labour force that provides these creates a potentially significant role of migrant workers. This paper brings these themes together, in order to explore the role of migration in the creation and transfer of knowledge and skills in tourism.
- . (2010) 'The EU: Between the global and the national, and between neo-liberalism and interventionism'. in Butler R, Suntikul W (eds.) Tourism and Political Change Goodfellow Pub Ltd , pp. 33-44.
- . (2010) 'Tourism SMEs: Changing research agendas and missed opportunities'. in Pearce D, Butler R (eds.) Tourism Research: a 20-20 Vision Oxford : Goodfellow Pub Ltd , pp. 80-93.
- . (2010) 'An accidental career in tourism: people, places and unexpected turning points'. in Smith SLJ (ed.) The Discovery of Tourism Emerald Group Publishing , pp. 93-106.
- .
(2009) 'Employability and International Migration: Theoretical Perspectives'. in McKay S (ed.) Refugees, recent migrants and employment. Challenging Barriers and Exploring Pathways
New York : Routledge Taylor & Francis , pp. 23-34.Full text is available at: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/59951/
Abstract
This collection examines the problems faced by refugees and recent migrants in accessing employment as well as the policy frameworks that address the labour ...
- . (2008) 'International retirement migration, a northern European perspective'. in Balkir C (ed.) Economic and Social Effects of International Retirement Migration: The Case of Antalya , pp. 66-92.
Reports
- . (2007) Rural Tourism and Innovation. in (ed.) Rural Innovation Article number Exploration 01 , pp. 31-42.
Teaching
Tourism and Innovation
Supervision of Masters' dissertations
Affiliations
Academician of the Academy of Social Science
Fellow of the International Academy for the Study of Tourism
Member of the Tourism Research Centre
Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society with the IBG
Associate Editor for Europe, Tourism Geographies
Auxiliary Professor, University of Canterbury, NZ
Innovation Fellow, Advanced Institute of Management (ESRC/EPSRC)
