Ian Michael

• Doctor of Business Administration
• Professor at Zayed University

Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT have taken the world by storm with their ease of adoption and perceived usefulness in performing expedited searches and sourcing for required information online. Such tools have also entered the tourism landscape, with consumers, businesses, and destinations seeking to tap into their imm...

This study focuses on the growing trend of celebrities being used as influencers in marketing, with firms investing substantially in celebrity endorsements. The study examines the effectiveness of celebrity influencers in destination marketing, comparing their influence with that of non-celebrity influencers. Neuroscience tools and methods were use...

This article presents a documentary film produced and enacted by one of the authors as a way of knowing, constructing and representing a specific form of tourist consumption, namely genealogy tourism. The documentary (https://vimeo.com/825001015?share=copy), entitled 'An Gorta Mor' (Gaelic words that translate to 'The Great Hunger', the Irish famin...

Given the need for qualitative research on human resource (HR) practices, this study explores and demonstrates the interrelated HR practices around motivating, engaging, and retaining employees. It employs in-depth interviews to explore such practices adopted by 4- and 5- star hotels in Dubai. The findings reveal that HR practices are classified wi...

Information and communication technologies allow companies to obtain massive amounts of data. These data, known as big data, bring new opportunities for companies and give them competitive advantages. Tourism and hospitality firms may use these data to forecast the demand, and propose more personalised services to visitors. This paper aims to explo...

This study explores the underlying motivating factors of Emiratis and Indian expatriates to visit destinations featured in movies. The results revealed a five-factor structure for Indians: novelty, fantasy-driven, personal connection, prestige and movie connection, vis-à-vis a three-factor structure for Emiratis: novelty, fantasy-driven and persona...

This study examines the effects of push and pull motivations linked to an individual's personal and social identities as key antecedents to escape for travel. In terms of push factors, escape for travel is driven from a personal identity perspective by the need for evaluation of self and regression and from a social identity perspective by the need...

In studying consumer behaviors, the inclusion of neuroscience tools and methods is improving our understanding of preference formation and choice. But such responses are mostly related to the consumption of goods and services that meet an immediate need. Tourism represents a consumer behavior that is related to a more complex decision-making proces...

This research explores the influence of an entrepreneur's personal brand in attracting capital, by examining the validity of the Entrepreneurial Brand Personality Equity (EBPE) model of Balakrishnan and Michael (2011). Its particular concern is whether investors provide funding to an entrepreneur's idea, or, to the entrepreneur behind the idea. Con...

Purpose: This applied neuroscience study aims to understand how direct and unconscious emotional and cognitive responses underlie travel destination preferences. State-of-the-art neuroscience tools and methods were used, including stationary eye tracking and brain scanning electroencephalography (EEG) to assess emotional and cognitive responses to...

The chapter investigates the role Zakat (alms giving) in eradicating poverty around the world. It (Zakat) is one of the five main pillars of Islam; it is the practice of charitable giving by Muslims based on accumulated wealth and is expected to be paid by all practicing Muslims having the financial means. As part of the study, a questionnaire that...

Purpose The purpose of this study is to understand the destination image perceptions about Australia – a Western culture country – as held by the rapidly increasing, high spending, culturally dissimilar new segment of travellers, the Emiratis[1] from the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Design/methodology/approach A qualitative methodology was used t...

Place branding is complex due to its interdisciplinary nature, the highly competitive market, diverse stakeholder needs, and its ability to influence national priorities. This paper looks at the role of visual and auditory branding signatures in forming place attachment within three groups of stakeholders (nationals, expatriates, tourists). While r...

Subject area – Management, Strategy, International business. Study level/applicability – Undergraduate or Graduates. Case overview – This case is suitable for students of international business and strategy at the advanced undergraduate-level or introductory masters-level courses. It can be used for organizational design, brand management and bus...

This text provides an innovative multi-disciplinary social science approach to the pedagogy of contemporary tourism planning processes. The three chapters in Part I review different conceptual aspects of planning, tourism and sustainability, explored from different interdisciplinary perspectives. These perspectives preface and underpin four practit...

The chapter investigates the role Zakat (alms giving) in eradicating poverty around the world. It (Zakat) is one of the five main pillars of Islam; it is the practice of charitable giving by Muslims based on accumulated wealth and is expected to be paid by all practicing Muslims having the financial means. As part of the study, a questionnaire that...

As destinations contest the rights to host international association-based meetings and events, competitive points of difference in the bidding process can mean the success or loss of a bid. One of these points of difference has been the growth of ambassador programs worldwide. These programs consist of influential, high-profile individuals, repres...

Title – HAIER: “Beat the Heat”. Subject area – Marketing, brand management, promotion management and corporate social responsibility. Study level/applicability – Undergraduate and postgraduate. Case overview – How does the “country-of-origin” issue affect brands, and what do brands need to do? The case of unique and small corporate social responsib...

This case was written by Dr Melodena Stephens Balakrishnan and Dr Ian Michael. It was prepared using company information and interviews and its intention was to provide material for class discussion through publication. The authors do not intend to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a managerial situation. The authors may have d...

This research investigates the perceptions of residents of Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) towards the state of Victoria, Australia as a destination and assesses their knowledge of Victoria’s tourism attributes. Focus groups were undertaken with UAE nationals (referred to as Emiratis), expatriate residents and travel agents. In the case of the fo...

Subject area Strategy, Emiratisation (national policy); human resources (recruitment, training and development, organizational culture and values) and marketing (branding, communication), tourism (destination image). Study level/applicability Undergraduate and Postgraduate Business and Management. Case overview This case highlights the strategy a...

A portal is defined as an entrance point to online content. The portal concept has evolved across a number of markets and applications. Customer portals focus on individual customer and offer a one-stop Internet access. By providing a number of services, such as searches, shopping, e-mail, and games, portals allow individuals to avoid browsing the...

This paper investigates the factors that motivate Australian consumers to use the Internet to search and shop for products and services. A qualitative research method was used, utilizing a semi-structured, in-depth interview technique. Twenty in-depth interviews were conducted, using a snowball sampling method. The study found that there were six m...

This paper examines why international students opt for their chosen study destination. It also investigates their behaviour as tourists while studying, whether they hosted visits from friends or relatives and their overall economic contribution. The sample consisted of 600 international students studying in higher education institutions in Melbourn...

This thesis examined the relationship between key consumer behaviour variables and the broad consumption behaviour patterns of consumers who searched and shopped for products over the Internet. The aim was to explore and suggest to marketing managers how and why people behaved as they do whilst searching and shopping online. The literature suggeste...