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Travel time and working time: What business travellers do when they travel, and why
Abstract
Many business travellers today use some of their travel time as working time. However, interviews with frequent business travellers and travel managers in Sweden show that individual travellers differ very much in their attitudes and practices regarding travel time and working time, and that employers generally make no explicit demands about work during travel time. Also, although travellers often appreciate having good working conditions while travelling, the first priority for many frequent travellers is to minimize time spent away from home and family, rather than to make productive use of their travel time.
... Furthermore, based on the results of the study, responding to calls depends on the type of the mobile phone, and its ability to be used easily (i.e., hands-free). The conditions when travel time is converted to work time are investigated by Gustafson (2012), who studies business travels, too. The scholar shows that more than half of the business travelers conduct work-related tasks during their travel time. ...
... In current study, it is highlighted that the availability of ICT tools encourages travelers to be engaged in working activities onboard. In the meanwhile, space (e.g., seat space and objects), noise (e.g., vehicle and passengers), services, work type (e.g., privacy), procedure (e.g., check-in at an airport), and crowding affect mode selection and the utilization of travel time (Gustafson, 2012;Hamadneh and Esztergár-Kiss, 2021a;Wardman et al., 2020). In the future, travelers might select their transport modes based on the offers, which mode provides more opportunities to utilize travel time, regardless of other factors (Gustafson, 2012). ...
... In the meanwhile, space (e.g., seat space and objects), noise (e.g., vehicle and passengers), services, work type (e.g., privacy), procedure (e.g., check-in at an airport), and crowding affect mode selection and the utilization of travel time (Gustafson, 2012;Hamadneh and Esztergár-Kiss, 2021a;Wardman et al., 2020). In the future, travelers might select their transport modes based on the offers, which mode provides more opportunities to utilize travel time, regardless of other factors (Gustafson, 2012). Thus, transport operators and vehicle manufacturers shall consider this possible phenomenon in future developments. ...
To mitigate the negative impact of travel time, travelers are predisposed to multitask onboard when traveling. The preferences of people determine how the travel time is utilized. Travelers try to minimize the unused part of travel time or convert it into a productive time by doing onboard activities and choosing the proper transport mode. Current study focuses on the travelers’ behavior onboard when traveling to their main destinations. The research studies the urban areas where the travel time is relatively short. Generally, most studies examine multitasking onboard of one or more conventional transport modes (CTMs) without defining the area type of the trips. Moreover, there is a demand on those papers that concern multitasking onboard of autonomous vehicles (AVs). Thus, current research focuses on one case of AVs while studying onboard multitasking, i.e., the shared autonomous vehicle (SAV). A survey is designed and distributed in Budapest, Hungary, and a sample size of 276 travelers is collected. Respondents choose the onboard activities and the tools that are carried and used onboard during their travel. The onboard activities are examined with SAV. During the analysis, the following methods are used: multiple response analysis, central tendency, Chi-square, Cramer's V, Cochran's Q test, and A Kruskal-Wallis. As a result of analyzing the differences between the activities onboard of SAVs and CTMs, the factors that affect onboard activities are found. Factors influencing the usage of the travelers’ carried tools and those that negatively affect the travel time and the acceptability of SAVs are identified, too. In conclusion, travelers’ onboard behavior is studied, and it is found that SAVs are preferred over CTMs to maximize the onboard activities and consequentially, increase the utilities.
... Such meals are taken for many different reasons, e.g., lunches with potential customers, a quick bite between meetings or at a conference, dinners with colleagues after a day's work, or at a gas station in the middle of the countryside on the way to the next work destination, all depending on the situation and the specific type of traveller. Business travellers are frequently, and often narrowly, represented as being part of a highly autonomous workforce consisting of senior management and professionals (Aguilera, 2008;Gustafson, 2012). However, such a limited conceptualisation of the business traveller is not transferable to the business traveller group as a whole, since the group also includes people holding a wide variety of jobs at the operational level, e.g. ...
... Engaging in, as well as organising meals in the context of a business journey, thus add to the complexity of everyday life for the business traveller; something that already requires much strategizing to balance work and family (Lassen, 2010;Saarenpää, 2018). Contrary to the glamorous public perception of the business travellers' lives, they consider their work-life as stressful and complex due to factors such as the need to manage work-space on the go (Brown and O'Hara, 2003); difficulties following diets (Lee and McCool, 2008); increased alcohol consumption (Gustafson, 2012;Rogers and Reilly, 2000); and feeling negligent toward the family because of their long working hours (Gustafson, 2014;Saarenpää, 2018). ...
... Business travellers are known to formulate various strategies to handle the stress related to the spending of extended time away from home (Gustafson, 2012;Lassen, 2010;Saarenpää, 2018). Thus, as meals are an important part of everyday life, the management of those meals in a less-known environment, and where individuals have less control than in their own habitual space, could add to the stress they experience. ...
Business travellers are a significant component of the hospitality industry and range from the managerial to the operational level of the firms they work for. These different positions come with different contextualised reasons for engaging in eating situations or meals when travelling. Research has begun to map out the activities related to those meals, although the sense-making and organisational aspects are still largely unexplored. Thus, this article aims to elucidate the organisation of business travellers’ meal practices. The study is theoretically framed within Schatzki’s social practice theory and semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine business travellers of different ages, working in different sectors, and at different levels within their firms. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using thematic analysis. It was found that the meals were organised around, and understood through, two themes; significant social interactions and meaningful material properties, that was related to the teleoaffective, organising, structure of the practice. The interactions described in the first theme were mainly driven by how the interactions were perceived within the group the business traveller represented, as well as interactions between the group and the restaurant staff. Moreover, business travellers could find themselves in the role of acting both as a host and a guest within the same context. In the second theme, the material properties that influenced the understanding, and thus the sensemaking of the meal were focused on the physical environment, such as the interior of the restaurant, the food and drinks, as well as the economic circumstances of eating out. As illustrated through business travellers’ meals, the study mainly contributes to our understanding of the contextuality of meals as contexts and how those are experienced as good meals.
... Academia is another actor with potential interest as very little is known of the particularities of the business travellers' meals, and as such, it is hard to decide a relevant entry point to the field. However, food and in the extension the meal is usually just touched upon rather tangentially, and when the focus is directed towards it, the topics tend to focus on dietary aspects such as alcohol consumption (Gustafson, 2012b;Rogers & Reilly, 2000), maintenance of dietary regimes (Lee & McCool, 2008), or on travel managers event bookings (Davidson & Cope, 2003). In contrast with this reluctance towards inquiring about the business travellers' meals qua contexts, I make them the central aspect of my approach. ...
... The meal of business travellers, which is the object of study in this thesis, is a phenomenon that exists in the intersection between two social contexts: the meal qua social context and the context of business travel, each with their own sets of norms. When business travellers are travelling, inserting themselves in contexts different from those of everyday family life (Aguilera, 2008;Gustafson, 2012bGustafson, , 2014Lassen, 2010;Lee & McCool, 2008;Saarenpää, 2018), they are put in a position where they need to organise meals in an environment less known to them than their habitual one, adding to the intricate nature of the business travel. Meals, in themselves, are multifaceted social phenomena steadily recurring throughout life in a, somewhat, repetitive and patterned manner, e.g. ...
... The managerial perspective concerned about the phenomenon of business travel (Aguilera, 2008;Beaverstock, Derudder, Faulconbridge, & Witlox, 2009;Thurlow & Jaworski, 2006), interested in cost-efficiency (Latta, 2004), travel planning (Gustafson, 2012a), and resource maximization (Kashyap & Bojanic, 2000;Wootton & Stevens, 1995). The traveller perspective, in contrast, is more concerned with health (Gustafson, 2014;Lee & McCool, 2008;Rogers & Reilly, 2000;Saarenpää, 2018), time management (Brown & O'Hara, 2003;Gustafson, 2012b), and the travellers' own rationalities (Gustafson, 2014;Lassen, 2010;Millán, Fanjul, & Moital, 2016;Unger et al., 2016). ...
Meals are an important part of everyday life, both for the persons who engage in them and for the industry that makes them. For business travellers, meals are engaged in differently when they are travelling compared when they are home. Tens of millions of meals are engaged in each year by persons who are conducting business trips. Even though this group of people make up the largest group of customers for the Swedish hotels, research into their meals are virtually non-existent.
The aim of this thesis is to extend and deepen the knowledge about business travellers’ meals. This aim is approached by using both quantitative and qualitative methods, through a survey study and an interview study.
The results were then interpreted thought a practice theoretical framework. The results indicate that the meals of business travellers are contextual in nature and that their organisation is influenced by the practice bundle currently carried on by the business traveller. The meal is, furthermore, understood as part of practice-arrangement mesh, where the material arrangement conditions the facilitation of good meals. The meals of business travellers’ contain different ends than meals engaged in with friends and family, as such, a meal in which food of inadequate quality is served in an loud environment making the business traveller change behaviour could still be perceived as good due to the experiences of the business traveller’s clients.
The thesis proposes that the industry should engage more with their customers in order to accumulate knowledge of the different ends existing in their meal practice as a way of facilitating good meals. It does, furthermore, contribute to the theory on meals and eating out as it brings about a new way to conceive of good meals. It has also, as it is basic research, opened up for future inquiry into the meals of business travellers.
... Eating while traveling introduces new properties to the meal that are not present when eating at home or while traveling for leisure purposes. Where the leisure traveler might want to explore, or to take a break from the daily routine, business travelers develop temporal strategies to minimize time away from home (Gustafson, 2012b), strategies to handle family life while working away from home (Lassen, 2010;Saarenpää, 2018), or travel as a way to further their careers (Gustafson, 2014). ...
... Strategies within three temporal stages-before, during, and after business travel-have been identified in research, such as setting clear borders between work and family (Saarenpää, 2018). Some travelers develop strategies to maximize the amount of rest they can get in an otherwise stressful career by treating travel time as personal quality time (Gustafson, 2012b). Taking leave in connection with business travel, in order to go on vacation as a leisure tourist, is also a strategy used by business travelers (Lassen, 2010). ...
... While the physiological health problems might not be linked to domestic business travel, the psychosocial factors do very much occur in the domestic context (Gustafson, 2014). To a large extent, business travel is not considered to be glamorous by business travelers themselves, but is rather considered to add to the complexity of everyday life due to factors such as the need to manage work space on the go (Brown & O'Hara, 2003), difficulties in following diets (Lee & McCool, 2008), increased alcohol consumption (Gustafson, 2012b;Rogers & Reilly, 2000), and feeling negligent toward the family with long working hours (Gustafson, 2014;Saarenpää, 2018). While the health problems are known, workers and managers within a corporation might still see traveling as a way to further their careers, that is, to travel is to show commitment to the job, regardless of the problems associated with it (Gustafson, 2014). ...
Over half of the annual guests at Swedish hotels are supplied by the corporate sector. These guests are
made up of individuals who travel for meetings, conferences, or presentations as a part of their job.
Access to meals while travelling is essential and introduces added complexity to business travelers’
everyday lives. These meals, and the pattern in which they are consumed, are part of the individual
traveler’s personal and group identities. Therefore, the aim of this article is to study if business
travelers deviate from their habitual meal patterns and, if so, what changes they make. To further
the understanding of this group’s meal patterns, a questionnaire was created and distributed. It was
answered by 538 self-identified business travelers. These business travelers were made up of three
groups: solo travelers, group travelers, and individuals who traveled both in groups as well as alone.
Pearson’s chi-squared test was used to analyze differences in actions related to the meal pattern
between groups. The analysis showed that changes in the meal pattern did occur in some instances.
However, the majority of the business travelers adhered to their habitual meal pattern while adjusting
their behavior depending on the time of day. Managers of catering suppliers gaining insight into
the meal habits of business travelers could help to ease an otherwise stressful situation by supplying
meals, as a context, that fit with the business traveler’s habitual patterns and meal contexts.
... Para os consumidores em viagens de negócio os principais aspectos identificados nesse atributo são a qualidade da cama, dos travesseiros, o controle da temperatura (Chen, 2017) e o tipo do colchão (Stefanini et al., 2012). Segundo Gustafson (2012), esses consumidores aproveitam as viagens de trabalho também para relaxar e descansar, e para isso, necessitam de silêncio. Outro tipo de viajante que costuma apreciar a qualidade do sono são os amigos, conforme verificado por Rhee e Yang (2014). ...
... O quarto foi o atributo que mais contribuiu para a satisfação desse consumidor, possivelmente por eles usarem o quarto tanto para descanso, quanto para trabalho (Gustafson, 2012;Stefanini et al., 2012). Ao compararmos as contribuições do quarto entre todos os tipos de viajantes, percebe-se que os consumidores que tendem a ficar mais tempo dentro do hotel ou pousada -casais ou executivos -valorizam mais o quarto do que os viajantes que tendem a permanecer menos tempo -sozinhos ou em família (Kim, & Park, 2017). ...
... Por último, chama a atenção o fato de a localização ter sido significante para Categoria 3. Tal fato ensejou novas análises, que mostraram a significância para o atributo localização apenas entre quem se identificou como "Negócio" (ver APÊNDICE). Infere-se desse resultado que embora a localização não tenha sido significante para todo o grupo "Negócios", ela foi sim significante para um grupo específico, de possíveis executivos que estavam dispostos a pagar um preço maior pela diária para ter maior comodidade gerada pela localização (Gustafson, 2012). As avaliações desses consumidores tiveram a capacidade de influenciar os resultados da regressão do grupo "Categoria 3". ...
A presente pesquisa busca avaliar a contribuição dos atributos da hospedagem disponibilizados no site TripAdvisor — atendimento, custo-benefício, limpeza, localização, qualidade do sono e quarto — para a satisfação dos consumidores de hotéis e pousadas localizados no Espírito Santo. A pesquisa segue a abordagem metodológica quantitativa, utilizando-se de dados secundários coletados automaticamente no site TripAdvisor. Os dados foram analisados por meio da estatística descritiva e da regressão linear múltipla. Os resultados indicam que os atributos pesquisados contribuem de maneira diferente para a satisfação do consumidor dependendo do “Tipo de viajante” informado (“Amigos”, “Casal”, “Família”, “Negócios” e “Sozinho”) e da categoria de preços dos meios de hospedagem.
... The experience that commuters have with the use of public transportation like the railways causes an increase in relevant trip-based knowledge (Dziekan, 2008) - Gustafson (2012) describes this as a form of expertise, with regards to the knowledge of specific travel information like departure and arrival times, or different transportation links. This expertise has an influence on information processing and decision making. ...
... Finally, while the commuters do mention having cost-related concerns (Commuters 1 and 3 don't consider the season pass to be worth the money it costs, for instance), their main comments regarding the tickets purchased -in contrast with the leisure travellers -revolved around the type of tickets they buy (season or Advance ticket and why, for example), their choice to reserve seats to ensure a comfortable journey (Commuter 7), or their opinions on mobile ticketing (Commuter 1 stated a desire for mobile tickets, while Commuter 6 doesn't see it as a requirement for him and Commuter 3 uses them already). This reduced concern surrounding planning and ticketing mirror the existing literature regarding the reduced information-seeking behaviour of experts (Shanteau, 1988) and regular travellers (Gustafson, 2012). ...
... As highlighted through the analyses, there are differences in the manner in which these two groups of participants approach processes of journey planning and information-seeking. Matching existing theories around expertise (Shanteau, 1988) within rail traveller behaviour (Gustafson, 2012), the commuters seem to require less information, and place a higher level of importance on shorter journeys and practical improvements to their travel. Further, as mentioned, there is a clear distinction between the more immediate and "instrumental" concerns of the commuters, as opposed to the leisure travellers (Anable & Gatersleben, 2005). ...
The present study was conducted in order to glean an in-depth understanding of the journey experiences of rail passengers, with an investigation into the informational priorities of frequent travellers and leisure travellers. 16 semi-structured interviews were carried out with the participants within their travel environment, with the aim of collecting rich qualitative data about their commutes. The paper uses the idea of expertise to propose that different types of travellers have varying requirements, influenced by the personal characteristics of their individual journeys.
... Thus, waiting may be conceived as an 'interstitial time par excellence' (Gasparini, 1995, p. 29). Conversely, it has been noted that waiting actors often put waiting time to good use; Gustafson (2012) highlights the substitute activities in which actors engage to 'fill the time' while waiting for a train. It might be conjectured that different types of wait, for example, in terms of the length, cause and context, may give rise to different options in terms of the use of the waiting time. ...
... Viewed from an intensified-organisational perspective, waiting is a temporal interlude that paradoxically serves to pack the day with ever growing levels of activity and anxiety via the felt need to 'keep busy'. While social actors proactively sought appropriate activities to fill these nooks and crannies of time, the unpredictability of waiting on the one hand often led to the acceptance of low-grade 'filler' tasks or, on the other, to 'empty' time that could not be put to effective use, leading to feelings of guilt and anger (Gustafson, 2012;Minnegal, 2009). Either way, under intensifiedorganisational temporalities, waiting serves to bolster a sense of being stuck in the present (Tang, 2012) and unable to progress. ...
Research on the lived experience of organisational temporalities has thus far overlooked the potential significance of what happens in the interstices that arise between temporal structures. To address this gap, we examined how individuals in three occupations experienced one such interstitial temporal form: waiting. Our analysis of waiting time uncovers two distinct and overarching temporal macro-structures that govern how workers use and experience time in organisations: intensified-organisational-the speeded-up, intensified temporality of modern forms of work organisation-and adaptive-organic, that represents natural and human temporalities. Waiting emerges as a paradoxical temporal experience which individuals simultaneously welcome yet seek to eliminate; one that stands outside temporal structures yet serves to reinforce them. From a human perspective, waiting furnishes moments during which time can be 'undone', affording us micro-moments to reclaim and re-centre time in organisations as human time.
... Certain job profiles related to knowledge practices, control, and innovation, as well as the status signaling that comes with them, are associated with more frequent business travel (Becken & Hughey, 2021;Jones, 2007;Unger et al., 2016;Wickham & Vecchi, 2009. Third are the personal attitudes and preferences of the traveler, which can be strongly individual and variable (Gustafson, 2012b(Gustafson, , 2014Kesselring & Vogl, 2010;Lassen, 2010a;2010b). ...
... The more positive the attitude towards business travel, the stronger the preference for FtF meetings. (Gustafson, 2012b(Gustafson, , 2014Lassen, 2010a;2010b) H6.2. The more positive the attitude towards VC, the smaller the probability of choosing FtF. ...
COVID-19 has accelerated the substitution of videoconferencing for business travel. However, little research exists about the decision-making behavior of business travelers considering virtual alternatives. We fill this gap by reconceptualizing the decision-making process and investigating the fundamental choice between face-to-face (FtF) and virtual communication (VC) using an adaptive choice-based conjoint analysis. We argue that the process of decision making of business travelers is distinct to that of leisure travelers, as the fundamental decision between FtF and VC occurs prior to subsequent travel decisions. We show that the purpose of the meeting, the character of the message, and the location of the meeting are the decision attributes of greatest importance. Using a novel methodology we present a holistic decision model that increases the theoretical understanding of business traveler decision-making and provides practitioners with comprehensive insights relevant to travel policy development, and executives in the business travel market with guidance with management decisions.
... In tourism research, the topic regarding the difference of business travelers' behavior patterns and preferences has long raised great interest (Chu & Choi, 2000;Gundersen, Heide, & Olsson, 1996;Gustafson, 2012Gustafson, , 2014. The poor sleep quality, busy schedule, traveling alone and limited opportunities to go sightseeing are regarded to be the potential reasons for shaping their common characteristics (Burkholder et al., 2010;Chen et al., 2018;Medina-Muñoz, Medina-Muñoz, & Suárez-Cabrera, 2018;Striker et al., 1999). ...
... Prior studies found that business travelers always own a stressful schedule (Doyle & Nathan, 2001;Espino et al., 2002;Gustafson, 2012Gustafson, , 2014Unger, Uriely, & Fuchs, 2016) and have feelings of disorientation, loneliness, and isolation (Cohen & Gössling, 2015). A more convenient hotel can better support their work-related obligations and reduce their negative emotions; thus, many prior studies have found that business travelers would emphasize convenience in their trips. ...
Few studies thus far have examined add-on services associated with mitigating hotel location disadvantages. Drawing on the
Elaboration Likelihood Model, we in this study consider the variety of transport amenities as a peripheral cue and propose an
econometric model that explores the impact of the transport amenities on customer satisfaction. We estimate the model using
187447 reviews assembled from a well-known online travel community in China. The results show that the variety of transport
amenities has a significant positive impact on customer satisfaction. Furthermore, we find that the travelers’ type and transport
convenience have a moderating effect on this relationship. From the perspective of the three-factor theory, we further reveal
that the transport amenity is a basic factor for business travelers but an excitement factor for leisure travelers. A variety of
robustness tests show that the conclusion of this study is robust.
... Our understanding as a community of these different dimensions of multitasking and mobile work remains superficial, which is partly why Keseru and Macharis (2018) advocate for papers using mixed methods, to gain an in-depth understanding of such practices. Qualitative methodologies have been used in a few cases to investigate travel behavior and the use of travel time (Brown and O'Hara, 2003;Gustafson, 2012;Pudāne et al., 2019). However, to the best of our knowledge, a comprehensive exploratory study focused primarily on the issue of productivity of mobile working and its drivers has not been undertaken to date. ...
... In other words, mobile work was rarely an activity that would occur spontaneously. A number of previous studies offered reasons behind those specific motivations for planning, related to personal attitudes to travel (Gustafson, 2012), organizational expectations (Hislop and Axtell, 2007), or purpose of the trip (Molin, Adjenughwure, de Bruyn, Cats, & Warffemius, 2020). At a more granular level, we observed that the planning would usually reflect intricate interactions between the mobile environment, use of ICT and privacy concerns. ...
It is now recognised in travel behaviour research that travel time can be, and in fact is, used to undertake productive, work-related activities. The phenomenon, also referred to as travel-based multitasking, has in recent years been compounded by the proliferation and sophistication of mobile information and communication technologies (ICT). Accordingly, several research efforts have made attempts to measure and model the effectiveness of work activities during travel. Yet reliance of those studies on rather simple and proxy metrics has led to a limited understanding of mobile work productivity. This has been especially the case for knowledge workers, whose job involves handling or using information and is often characterized by intangible work outputs. To address this shortcoming, the current paper presents a systematic analysis of 22 semi-structured interviews of employees of a major IT company regarding their mobile work practices, use of ICT and perception of productivity with use of ICT. Analysis of the interviews led us to adopt an ‘inverse’ approach, i.e. discussing factors hampering productivity. This emerged from our observation that individuals experienced difficulties speaking about productivity and productive tasks while finding it easier to discuss what made them unproductive. With the lens of what we term ‘unproductivity’, we are able to provide a new perspective on how to characterize the impacts of journey, technology and individual factors on productivity during episodes of mobile work. In addition, we find a strong link between productive mobile work, planning of the journey and the working activities during the course of travel.
... Experience with the use of public transportation like the railways causes an increase in relevant trip-based knowledge (Dziekan, 2008), which is constantly being tuned based on the experiences of the traveller (Bissell, 2014). Gustafson (2012) describes this as a form of expertise, with regards to the knowledge of specific travel information like departure and arrival times, or different transportation links. Based on this familiarity, frequent commuters tend to develop a series of strategies to deal with aspects of the journey like waiting times (Gustafson, 2012). ...
... Gustafson (2012) describes this as a form of expertise, with regards to the knowledge of specific travel information like departure and arrival times, or different transportation links. Based on this familiarity, frequent commuters tend to develop a series of strategies to deal with aspects of the journey like waiting times (Gustafson, 2012). The implication of expert knowledge and decision-making is that travellers arrive rapidly at their decisions. ...
High quality information is a key element of passenger experience, and a current area of research and innovation for the transport sector. While there is research on obtaining feedback and opinions from rail passengers on information provision, there is a knowledge gap around industry perspectives on information delivery. Addressing this gap is useful to develop a holistic understanding of the requirements for future rail information provision, both in terms of technology and content. The aim of this study was to identify industry perceptions of information provision during rail travel, along with the role of underpinning factors, including disruption and traveller knowledge. Twenty participants affiliated with the rail industry were interviewed regarding their views. Interview transcripts were analysed thematically. Key themes included journey planning, disruption, experiential dimensions such as trust and control, and the importance of traveller types. The study highlighted that information is not a silo but is integral to the whole operation of the railways. As well as highlighting the major factors that industry considers important for future passenger information, the themes extracted led to a conceptual model of how different components of passenger information system fit together the deliver high quality passenger information. This emphasises that the underpinning data quality, and the need to tailor that information, is vital to targeted passenger information provision.
... e author presents the importance of onboard technology, such as whether the cellphone is smart or not. is study focuses only on car-journey where business travelers are the concern while other types of trips and travelers are not studied. Gustafson [37] studies business travels and demonstrates that half of the business travelers is involved in onboard activities related to their work during travel. e study is conducted in Sweden, where the work onboard during traveling might be paid by the employer while in others not. ...
... For instance, in "to work" journeys, part of the travel time is used for working purposes, while "from work" journeys are more used for relaxation. Gustafson [37] highlights the importance of ICT on multitasking, as well. ...
Travelers conduct onboard activities while using the tools they bring with them onboard to convert part of their travel time to a productive time. Productive travel time contributes to the reduction in the disutility of travel time. This paper discusses the influence of travelers’ onboard activities and the tools carried by travelers on the perceived trip time. 10 onboard activities and 12 tools carried by travelers are introduced and studied in this work. A questionnaire focusing on the main trip of each respondent in urban areas is conducted, where a sample size of 525 participants is collected. Statistical methods such as central tendency, chi-square, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), rank-based nonparametric test, and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) are applied. The main findings are the following: almost all of the onboard activities and the tools carried by travelers impact the trip time positively (i.e., the perception is enhanced). For each transport mode, the most frequent onboard activities that impact the trip time positively is obtained, and the connection between each onboard activity and each tool carried by travelers is found (i.e., moderate to strong association). EFA uncovers the underlying relationship between those onboard activities and those tools carried by travelers that influence travelers’ perception. In this case, instead of the full list, fewer onboard activities and tools carried by travelers are produced to simplify the finding of their impacts on the perceived trip time. The participation in onboard activity is ranked across certain groups, such as the tendency of women to be engaged in onboard activities is higher than men’s tendency. Regarding the positive impact on trip time, a statistical difference is demonstrated between groups, where the use of the tools carried by travelers is varied across the transport mode, trip purpose, and trip time, gender, age, education, and job variable. Besides, the involvement in onboard activities is statistically dependent across the transport mode, gender, income, and car ownership variable. The output of this study helps decision-makers and mobility planners in understanding the behavior of travelers onboard in more detail, such as the availability of onboard tools affecting the choice of transport mode.
... The core business and management strategies dictate business trips, as each company has unique needs, locations, tax tactics, engineering developments, customer distribution, sales projects, etc. Generally, business travelers prioritize suitable working conditions and aim to minimize their time away from home [22]. Traveling employees usually do not travel during holidays or vacation periods, making the seasonal factor less relevant; this contrasts with tourist travelers, who prioritize cost, planning their trips well in advance and with more extended periods of stay [23]. ...
Global corporations frequently grapple with a dilemma between fulfilling business needs and adhering to travel policies to mitigate excessive fare expenditures. This research examines the multifaceted nature of business travel, delving into its key characteristics and the inherent complexities faced by management in formulating effective policies. An optimal travel policy must both be practical to implement and contribute to budget optimization. The specific requirements of each company necessitate tailored policies; for instance, a manufacturing company with scheduled trips demands a distinct policy, unlike a consulting firm with unplanned travel. This study proposes a modified regression decision tree machine learning algorithm to incorporate the unique features of corporate travel policies. Our algorithm is designed to self-adjust based on the specific data of each individual company. The authors implement the proposed approach using travel data from a real-world company and conduct simulations in various scenarios, comparing the results with the industry standard. This research offers a machine-learning-based approach to determining the optimal advance booking policy for corporate travel.
... Several respondents stated they prefer to take advantage of their bleisure trips by taking their families along and sharing the leisure portion of their trips with them, especially if the destination is attractive to them. Since business travelers often face heavy workloads and time constraints (Gustafson, 2012), they mostly feel stressed and overwhelmed, leaving little room for planning leisure activities. Thus, those who travel with their families prefer to delegate responsibility for the leisure part to their partners. ...
... The management strategy drives the business trips; each company has unique needs, locations, tax tactics, engineering developments, distribution of customers, sales projects, etc. In general, business travellers prioritize good working conditions and try to minimize the time away from home, [14]. Business travellers usually do not travel on holidays or vacation periods; the seasonal factor has low relevance. ...
There is a constant conflict in global corporations between satisfying the business needs and complying with the travel policy to avoid paying over-priced fares. This article reviews the nature of business travel, discusses its main characteristics, and the complexity for management in defining the policy. A travel policy must be feasible to comply with and contribute to optimizing the budget. Each company requires a different policy according to business needs; a manufacturing company with planned trips requires a different policy than a consulting firm with unpredictable trips. We adapted the machine-learning algorithm of regressive decision trees to include the characteristics of business travel policy; our algorithm self-adjusts to each company's data. We test our results using travel data from a company and simulating different scenarios. Our findings support management with a quantitative method to determine the optimal travel policy.
JEL Classification: M10 , M19 , C610 , C630
... As our U.S. respondent do not favour the additional travel requirements and hope to reduce the time spent at the airport checkpoint, the efficiency of these procedures is of great importance. From another perspective, the difference in the value of time saved could also be explained by how business travellers perceive the ownership of their travel time (Lyons et al., 2007;Gustafson, 2012). It is likely that our U.S. sample tend to regard their business travel time as belonging to their employers, thus having a statistically significant WTP for the time saved since they will be compensated by the company. ...
This study empirically identifies business travellers’ preferences during the COVID-19 pandemic across different regions. A stated preference study was conducted during April to June 2021 on respondents in the U.S., the city of Shanghai in mainland China and Hong Kong. Generalised mixed multinomial logit (GMXL) models are estimated incorporating attributes of travel characteristics, severity levels of the pandemic, and health control measures at the airport. When an online meeting is inapplicable, respondents from Shanghai and Hong Kong highly value heath control measures, and are not sensitive to the time spent at airport health checkpoints. In comparison, U.S. respondents are averse to the time spent for health check, the reporting of personal information, travel history, symptoms, and the requirements of compulsory mask wearing and onsite sample testing. However, when online meeting is applicable, all the respondents show no appreciation for health control measures, while the U.S. respondents are twice more averse to the time spent at airport health checkpoints. Online meeting reduces the intention of international business travel amid the pandemic for passengers in Shanghai and Hong Kong, but imposes no significant effects on U.S. travellers. Such significant heterogeneity in traveller preference partly explains the different recovery patterns observed in various aviation markets, and justifies individualized travel arrangements and service priority in fulfilling pandemic control requirements across different regions. Our study also suggests that there are commonly accepted areas for global cooperation such as the sharing of vaccination record, and the option of online meeting calls for convenient travel arrangements amid pandemic to all countries.
... The proliferation of international business in the era of the pre-COVID-19 global economy generated constant growth in the number of individuals who engaged in long-distance travel for work-related activities (Gustafson, 2012). Derudder and Witlox (2016) typifies the literature on this growth. ...
Background: This article presents findings from research conducted before the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on companies located in the Zurich airport region of Switzerland, regarding the needs for global business travel and its impacts.
Methods: The study involved a mixed methods approach. Five hypotheses were tested using inferential statistics on data obtained from pre-tested closed questions in a web-based survey. Deeper context was explored through an interview-based case-study conducted at a Swiss pharma company.
Results: Supporting alternative hypothesis 3 (Ha(3)), a significant positive relationship was found between travel frequency and business growth, F(1, 100) = 11.31, p = 0.0011. Supporting Ha(4), corporate culture had a significant positive relationship with business travel frequency (F(1, 100) = 15.50, p = 0.0002) and average trip length (F(1, 100) = 6.39, p = 0.01). And thirdly supporting Ha(5), corporate social responsibility had a significant relationship with global business travel (91%). Ho(2) and Ho(3) were accepted. The case study found that smart corporate travel policies and regulations should be instantiated to enhance our environment, which would also benefit employee wellbeing. Travel can be reduced significantly despite being demonstrated that physical co-presence is important for building trust. The case study suggests tools to support the monitoring and management of global business travel by organizations.
Conclusions: COVID-19 has impacted travel for business significantly, and future research will be necessary to assess its impact. The article explores the ongoing research in this area, and several relevant implications are proposed for future leaders. The case study found willingness to pay both corporate and individual green taxes, and a deficiency in corporate communication around the environment. Business travel is needed to build trust; however, it can be reduced.
... Taken the traveller's perspective, Gustafson (2014) exploits semi-structured interviews with frequent travellers and travel managers to explore positive and negative effects of business travel on both the private and professional level. Gustafson (2012) also utilises semi-structured interviews exploring what business travellers actually do when they travel (e.g. working or relaxing) and how they perceive travel time. ...
The modern working environment is changing at a fast pace due to factors such as globalisation, digitalisation, and demographic trends. Taking an exploratory approach, this study examines how prevailing factors shaping the working world may influence the perception of business air travellers. Relevant factors are identified through a literature review, which results are confirmed by expert interviews (N = 11). Business travellers are surveyed (N = 67) at Munich Airport regarding their personal experiences and their evaluations of these identified factors. Their perceptions concerning the psychological and physical experience, digitalisation, age, and gender are examined in detail.
Findings provide insights into the development of business air travel, with a focus on German business travellers. Despite the influence of advanced information and communications technology, survey results reveal that air travel might stay an essential part of the working world, as face-to-face meetings are not fully replaceable. Increasing multi-partner project work and flexible work structures could even lead into an increase of air travel. The study also delineates recommendations and research potential, such as the extension of the study in the light of the global COVID-19 pandemic. The question of how trends within the working world influence the perception of business related air travel is rarely studied. This study contributes to this gap in the scientific community.
... All these may lead to a high level of stress and exhaustion, deteriorating business travellers' physical health and psychological well-being in a long term. The travel stress could further cause negative organizational outcomes by reducing employees' work performance and job satisfaction (Gustafson, 2012). Therefore, it is meaningful and urgent for both individuals and organizations to understand and cope with possible effects of business travel. ...
Business travel as a form of work-related mobility has been an integrated part of working life in the global economy, generating great impact on individuals. Although prior studies address some relevant health consequences, there is a lack of research considering multiple dimensions of health or providing a deeper contextual analysis. Drawing on the multi-dimensional health concept and the framework of mobilities and health, the present study further demonstrates the complexity and dynamic of this issue. Through in-depth interviews with frequent business travellers, it was found that frequent business trips as a part of work and life bring about a range of physical, psychological and social health impacts, which shows different characteristics and interact with each other. Perceptions of these health consequences vary among respondents with different travel patterns and personal situations. Moreover, the findings indicate that there may exist a paradoxical fact: as business travellers with longer experiences of traveling work tend to become more aware of the potential health cost of highly mobile lifestyles, however, the health impairment has generated and accumulated at the later life stages and can hardly be reversed even they stop traveling. Therefore, it is significant and meaningful to raise the public concern on this issue by stressing the dark side of business travel instead of only glamorizing it. This study contributes to previous literature on mobility and health by demonstrating the characteristics of business travel as a mobile working context and how it affects travellers’ health in multi-dimensions. It also provides managerial implications for individuals and organizations.
... What is more, as meals are an important part of everyday 41 life, managing these meals away from home, in a less known environment, add to the possible 42 complexity of their situation. To handle this emerged complexity business travellers are 43 known to create strategies to handle their work life, e.g. by minimising the time they spend at 44 a destination (Gustafson, 2012b), trying to manage family life while being away from home 45 (Lassen, 2010;Saarenpää, 2018), or by adapting their meal patterns while travelling to better 46 suit their situation and situational identity (Authors, 2020). 47 48 1.1 Meal as part of daily routine 49 50 ...
Business travellers make up a large part of the customer base for the Swedish hospitality industry, accounting for 54% of the occupancy rate of Swedish hotels in 2018. Yet, very little is known about their meal habits while being at the destination of a business trip. This, even though the handling of meals in an environment that is less known to the traveller could add to the complexity of everyday life. Therefore, this study is aimed to explore actions performed by business travellers at the destination of travel as part of their meal practice with the purpose of elucidating the meal habits of this group. The research is theoretically framed within the context of social identity theory and social practice theory. A questionnaire was filled out by 538 Swedish business travellers recruited by means of self-sampling; 77% of the respondents were men, and 77% were above 45 years of age. The majority of the respondents, 67%, travelled over 50 days per annum, and 59% were located in the highest income quartile. The analysis of the data generated a general overview of the actions performed in relation to the meal, while also showing differences in actions taken based on income and gender. Women were significantly more price conscious than men and to a larger extent used technical assistance to find somewhere to eat. When travelling alone they also reported eating faster than at home and bringing back food and eat at the hotel room more often than men did. Men, in contrast, exhibited an inclination towards seeking social contexts to insert themselves in during dinners when travelling alone, as to be able to eat together with other people. The, relatively, lower income group showed more price consciousness as well as used the help of technical assistance to find somewhere to eat.
... Most of these studies focused on measuring which onboard activities are conducted and explore the factors that influence the engagement in those activities (e.g., Berliner et al., 2015;Frei et al., 2015;Gustafson, 2012;Gripsrud and Hjorthol, 2012;Jain and Lyons, 2008;Kenyon and Lyons, 2006;Lyons and Urry, 2005;Lyons et al. 2007;Ohmori and Harata, 2008;Shaw et al., 2018;Susilo et al., 2012;Tang et al., 2017;van der Waerden et al. 2009;Zhang and Timmermans, 2010). These studies revealed a long list of activities that can be conducted onboard of trains, such as sleeping/snoozing, reading for leisure; working (reading/writing/typing/thinking), talking to other passengers, window gazing/people watching, playing games, cracking a puzzle, listening to music/radio, phone calls/text messages (work), making phone calls/text messages (personal), watching movie, eating/drinking, entertaining children, romancing, and being bored/anxious. ...
... El viajero por negocio, es un tipo de viaje que, generalmente, se realiza con poca antelación y por períodos de tiempo específicos y breves. Además la decisión de viajar y de dónde ir, está en gran medida fuera de control del viajero, ya que el propósito del viaje está decidido por el empleador, quién también maneja los gastos principales del desplazamiento (Gustafson, 2012). Es por esto que, los usuarios de estos viajes, estarán menos preocupados por el costo de éste. ...
El presente Seminario busca analizar cuál es la imagen de Chile como destino turístico
internacional. Para ello estudia tres variables en específico: beneficio hedónico, beneficio
funcional y satisfacción percibida, cómo es la relación entre los dos primeros y cómo
éstos afectan a la satisfacción percibida.
... Similarly, work on travel decision-making generally indicates that traveller knowledge is not neutral to travel decisions, and that regular travellers can be viewed as experts (Gustafson, 2012;Kurup et al., 2017). The implication of expert knowledge and decision-making is that travellers arrive rapidly at their decisions. ...
Transport sharing describes a growing set of practices, systems and services that sit between traditional notions of private and public transport provision, and may have benefits in terms of both improving mobility in society and helping to address environmental challenges. This report highlights those factors relevant to a human or user-centric adoption of shared travel, with a view to identifying the factors that currently encourage or discourage shared travel, and the emerging social and technological developments that will influence both the varieties and the appeal of future transport sharing.
Available from https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/future-of-mobility
... The effect also resembles the more general impact of ICT, which has been called 'technostress' (Ayyagari et al., 2011) -the feeling that the ever higher pace of communication and availability enabled by ICT should be matched by their users. This also relates to blurred boundaries between work and life afforded by ICT, and perhaps also AVs (Wheatley & Bickerton, 2016;Gustafson, 2012). ...
Automated Vehicles (AVs) are expected to allow their users to engage in a broad range of non-driving activities while travelling, such as working, sleeping, playing games. The impact of this possibility on the satisfaction with travel and on travel demand has been extensively discussed in the literature. However, it has been hardly recognised that the availability of on-board activities influences the (time-geographic) constraints of daily activities and may alter the selection, location, and sequencing of other activities in the day. This hampers correct representation of travel behaviour in activity-based models aiming to predict the effects of AVs on mobility and environment (e.g., greenhouse gas emissions). To help fill this gap, we gathered and analysed qualitative data from focus groups, in which 27 commuters discussed their expectations concerning on-board activities and daily schedules in the AV-era. Among the core insights are the following three. First, it is useful to separate in modelling the satisfaction with travel and the potential for on-board activities during travel: they have different determinants and different consequences for activity schedules and individual travel demand. Second, on-board activities may be classified in 4 quadrants according to their novelty and priority level: this classification is helpful in understanding the potential re-arrangements of daily activities. Third, performing new activities during travel may lead to complex re-arrangements of daily activity patterns; the re-arrangements may ease or also increase time pressure. These, and other reported insights may facilitate more realistic representation of activity-travel behaviour in future travel behaviour models.
... If the analyst does not account for such possibilities (which is the case when AV-implications are conceptualised using the travel time penalty approach), then he/she implicitly assumes that all activities that are executed in the AV are added to the existing daily activity schedule of the traveller, rather than being transferred. Note that the share of work activities transferred to the business travel time is explicitly modelled in Hensher's equation (used to obtain the value of business travel time savings, Hensher, 1977), and empirical evidence for such transfer of work activities is available (e.g., Gustafson, 2012). 2. Changes in on-board time-use can lead to more travel, as is commonly argued. ...
Automated Vehicles (AVs) offer their users a possibility to perform new non-driving activities while being on the way. The effects of this opportunity on travel choices and travel demand have mostly been conceptualised and modelled via a reduced penalty associated with (in-vehicle) travel time. This approach invariably leads to a prediction of more car-travel. However, we argue that reductions in the size of the travel time penalty are only a crude proxy for the variety of changes in time-use and travel patterns that are likely to occur at the advent of AVs. For example, performing activities in an AV can save time and in this way enable the execution of other activities within a day. Activities in an AV may also eliminate or generate a need for some other activities and travel. This may lead to an increase, or decrease in travel time, depending on the traveller's preferences, schedule, and local accessibility. Neglecting these dynamics is likely to bias forecasts of travel demand and travel behaviour in the AV-era. In this paper, we present an optimisation model which rigorously captures the time-use effects of travellers' ability to perform on-board activities. Using a series of worked out examples, we test the face validity of the model and demonstrate how it can be used to predict travel choices in the AV-era.
... Some travelers strive for new experiences, novelty and challenges or want to promote their career through having international experience. Such experiences have also been associated with increased social and professional status and a cosmopolitan identity (Gustafsson, 2012). ...
‘This book is an invaluable resource for scholars in the field of global careers, for people experiencing or contemplating such a career, and for those who manage them. The team of experts assembled provides a wonderful breadth of perspectives and a rich coverage of the field.’
—Hugh P. Gunz, Professor, University of Toronto Mississauga
‘A rich collection of knowledge about diverse types, experiences, and issues of global careerists... an indispensable resource for global career researchers, educators, and practitioners.’
—Margaret Shaffer, Michael F. Price Chair of International Business, University of Oklahoma
Exploring global career issues in-depth, this important collection works at the intersection of career management and international HRM. It uses a multitude of perspectives to explore global career drivers, experiences and outcomes for individuals, as well as career systems and management within organisations and societies. Both long-term and short-term careers are discussed and examined alongside the impact that they have on elements of family life, providing a useful guide for academic scholars, HR managers and professionals operating in global environments.
... Some travelers strive for new experiences, novelty and challenges or want to promote their career through having international experience. Such experiences have also been associated with increased social and professional status and a cosmopolitan identity (Gustafsson, 2012). ...
“Every boring or mundane activity you experience at home is, when you move to a foreign country, suddenly transformed into an exciting adventure” according to Reannon Muth, a travel writer. Indeed, it has long been known that some of the key drivers for global careers are adventure, excitement and learning (Hippler 2009; Doherty et al. 2011). While global careers and these worldwide talent management and knowledge flows are key ingredients for organizational success (Scullion and Collings 2011), our understanding of international work and careers has dramatically advanced in the last decades. This book outlines a vast array of recent insights into global careers and charts this dynamic field in order to allow global careerists and their families, multinational corporations (MNCs) and other key stakeholders to make better informed decisions. In so doing, the book moves beyond the basic insights depicted above to reflect the huge diversity of global career contexts and actors.
... Business travel can be described as a trip that is conducted with the aim of conducting commercial or formal transactions, or activities that are linked to the traveller's job for example visiting a client, signing deals or negotiating a contract. Whilst business travel is undertaken for the benefit of the company, it does mean that the traveller has less time for productive work (Gustafson 2012b). According to Sherry (2015) the efficiency with which employee travel is undertaken is crucial to the productivity of the organisation. ...
Generational differences in the workplace, particularly in the area of technology usage, have become an area of increasing interest, both for academia and industry. Mobile travel applications have found a distinct role in business travel and support the business traveller at any stage of the travel cycle. The dynamic nature of the business environment, business travel and mobile technology requires research to ascertain the nature of the use of mobile travel applications by business travellers, how this usage differs between generations, and how these applications should be developed in future to meet the needs of the changing workforce. An internet based survey was completed by 232 business travellers with the results showing that mobile travel applications are currently more frequently being used by older generations than younger generations, but that younger generations are more likely to use certain applications in the future than older generations. This study answers the call by previous researchers for future research to focus on emergent transaction channels and communication platforms (such as mobile computing) that could affect different generations by providing a generational analysis of business travellers’ use of mobile travel applications. It should also assist managers in better understanding their travellers, especially in terms of their technology usage, enabling them to manage the company’s travel programme more effectively.
... Locals, on the other hand, can be helped, through the actors noted earlier, to acknowledge and come to terms with the broader social context in which they are immersed, and realize that processes of migration can hardly be stopped. Migrants, wanted or not, however, can hold key assets to foster economic and social developmental processes, as the literature of amenity/lifestyle migration has noted [45,[69][70][71][72][73]. Rather than retreating to futile defensive positions, locals can take an active stance in voicing their view and working with the migrants towards shared identities and goals. ...
Within the context of domestic amenity/lifestyle migration, we are interested in understanding the way local rural residents and migrants: (1) view each other; and (2) how those views affect an integrated community development. Using alterity theory as a guiding framework, we engaged in a qualitative study to examine such views and their effects along the lines of three axes: an epistemological (what people know about the other), an axiological (how people value the other), and a praxeological (how people interact with the other) one in the Chilean community of Malalcahuello. Findings suggests that, overall, both types of residents know little of the other, have and constantly reproduce negative value judgments of the other, and relate only in mundane non-significant ways. We provide explanations of how these relate to the reported diminished community development efforts in town.
... Brown and O'Hara (2003) n.a. UK IDI D 4 car, train Gustafson ( 2012Gustafson ( , 2014 n.a. Sweden IDI 4 all Hislop and Axtell (2009) n.a. ...
This paper reviews 58 studies with empirical evidence on travel-based multitasking, identifies gaps in terms of data collection methods and provides a comprehensive review of findings about the significance of variables with an impact on the prevalence and type of multitasking. We identified the limitations of quantitative or qualitative surveys and advocate a mixed methods approach to provide an in-depth understanding of travel-based multitasking. We revealed that cross-country comparisons are missing due to the lack of empirical evidence outside the developed countries. While there are indications of increasing multitasking with mobile devices, we found only two longitudinal surveys that provide evidence. We call for a standardisation of definitions of multitasking activities to enable more longitudinal research. We identified 75 variables that were tested for impact on travel-based multitasking in previous research, of which 60 were found to be significant. Sufficient evidence (i.e. minimum three papers), however, only exists for age, gender, trip duration, travel mode, trip purpose, time of the day and day of the week of the trip and the presence of a travel companion. Therefore, more research is suggested to determine the influence of attitude, comfort, availability of equipment, time use and spatial attributes on the type and prevalence of travel-based multitasking.
This chapter investigates the challenges encountered by Bleisure travelers, individuals who combine business travel with leisure activities, through a comprehensive review of existing literature, surveys, and interviews conducted with Bleisure travelers, particularly IT professionals, due to their unique expertise. This study aims to provide insights into the obstacles faced by this segment of travelers and offer practical solutions to enhance their experiences. Key challenges identified include time constraints, balancing work and leisure, managing expenses, navigating unfamiliar destinations, and maximizing leisure opportunities within limited schedules. In light of the conclusions, this chapter presents strategies and recommendations including careful itinerary planning, leveraging technology for time operation, optimizing trip prices, adopting stress relief methods, and exploring destination-specific resources. By addressing these challenges, Bleisure travelers can optimize their experience, achieve outstanding work-life balance, and derive maximum pleasure.
As the era of autonomous vehicles (AVs) approaches, understanding how passengers' time use during a trip may change from a traditional vehicle (non-AV) to an AV is important to the adoption and use of AVs. In this study, a latent class analysis (LCA) as well as a latent transition analysis (LTA) are adopted to investigate the choice of travel activities of individuals as passengers in a traditional vehicle, such as a car or transit, and the anticipated shift in these activities in an AV. Since individuals may perform different activities during different trip purposes, activity choices and non-AV to AV transition dynamics are explored from two different perspectives: commute trips (e.g., to work or school) and non-commute trips (e.g., leisure, errands, or medical). Findings from the LCA models show three distinct groups of individuals with varying activity preferences in a traditional vehicle and four distinct groups that could emerge in an AV. AV users exhibited a higher preference for activities such as texting/browsing social media, relaxing, and working, suggesting that AVs may offer passengers a more productive use of their travel time. Furthermore, the LTA model shows that there is a good portion of individuals who were performing one or two activities in a traditional vehicle now becoming variety seekers that could perform at least four different activities in an AV, further corroborating the findings that AVs could provide a more productive and efficient use of travel time.
The objective of this study is to gain a better understanding of how hotel management perceives the role of the hotel room from the customers’ perspective and what role the room plays as regards the hotel management business. Previous research has focused on the hotel’s location, the attributes of the hotel and the room, revenue management, pricing, hotel guest experiences, and customer satisfaction. In this study, 19 managers operating in Finland were interviewed: ten hotel managers from 4-5-star hotels and nine from 2-3-star hotels. An inductive approach to the data analysis was adapted and the research findings indicated that the hotel managers were deeply concerned about the customer expectations of their hotel stay. The role of the hotel room as the core element of hotel accommodation was acknowledged by the interviewees. Even though accommodation in the room is regarded as the major product of a hotel, the hotel overnight stay may be different for the customer depending on the hotel’s facilities, their services and the customers targeted. In the case of business customers, accommodation with a good bed and the necessary services is all that is seen to be required. While for leisure customers, the overnight stay is perceived to be similar to a home experience during a holiday. However, the findings of this study reveal that there is a contradiction between the management’s perception of the role of the room and the everyday practices of the hotel management in terms of marketing the amenities the hotel offers. Although hotel managers follow room- based accounting metrics to measure the performance of the hotel they also simultaneously attempt to grasp the intangible feelings of the guests. In order to sell experiences, hotel managers first need to sell the room.
Transit-oriented development (TOD) is receiving increasing attention from planners and policymakers as an essential strategy for addressing urban travel inequalities and air pollution. As an analytical method based on the conceptual construct of TOD, the node-place-design (NPD) model is utilized by researchers to assess TOD in urban public transport systems. However, current research prioritizes local perspectives of station development and fails to identify the functions of stations at the system level. In addition, few TOD-related analyses have considered the ecological aspects of cities. In the present study, we used an NPD model to evaluate TOD development at rail stations in Greater Manchester. We incorporated extended indicators of systemic importance and green space coverage in our analysis to provide additional insight into the model. First, we found a low level of TOD integration around stations in Greater Manchester, and some differences in development levels around train stations and Metrolink stations. Second, a comparison with the extended system importance indicators revealed the potential for significant differences in the NPD index and the system importance indicators of stations. This identified some stations that have the potential to take on new routes and some areas that are worthy of transit-oriented development. Finally, we found a specific negative correlation between the NPD index and the green space indicator. This indicated that the TOD model sacrifices green space to a certain extent and demonstrated the importance of including ecological indicators in the TOD assessment. The present study provides additional insight into the NPD model by introducing extended systemic and ecological indicators.
Research on the lived experience of organisational temporalities has thus far overlooked the potential significance of what happens in the interstices that arise between temporal structures. To address this gap, we examined how individuals in three occupations experienced one such interstitial temporal form: waiting. Our analysis of waiting time uncovers two distinct and overarching temporal macro-structures that govern how workers use and experience time in organisations: intensified-organisational - the speeded-up, intensified temporality of modern forms of work organisation, and adaptive-organic, that represents natural and human temporalities. Waiting emerges as a paradoxical temporal experience which individuals simultaneously welcome yet seek to eliminate; one that stands outside temporal structures yet serves to reinforce them. From a human perspective, waiting furnishes moments during which time can be ‘undone’, affording us micro-moments to reclaim and re-centre time in organisations as human time.
Background: This article presents findings from research conducted before the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on companies located in the Zurich airport region of Switzerland, regarding the needs for global business travel and its impacts.
Methods: The study involved a mixed methods approach. Five hypotheses were tested using inferential statistics on data obtained from pre-tested closed questions in a web-based survey. Deeper context was explored through an interview-based case-study conducted at a Swiss pharma company.
Results: Supporting alternative hypothesis 3 (Ha(3)), a significant positive relationship was found between travel frequency and business growth, F(1, 100) = 11.31, p = 0.0011. Supporting Ha(4), corporate culture had a significant positive relationship with business travel frequency (F(1, 100) = 15.50, p = 0.0002) and average trip length (F(1, 100) = 6.39, p = 0.01). And thirdly supporting Ha(5), corporate social responsibility had a significant relationship with global business travel (91%). Ho(2) and Ho(3) were accepted. The case study found that smart corporate travel policies and regulations should be instantiated to enhance our environment, which would also benefit employee wellbeing. Travel can be reduced significantly despite being demonstrated that physical co-presence is important for building trust. The case study suggests tools to support the monitoring and management of global business travel by organizations.
Conclusions: COVID-19 has impacted travel for business significantly, and future research will be necessary to assess its impact. The article explores the ongoing research in this area, and several relevant implications are proposed for future leaders. The case study found willingness to pay both corporate and individual green taxes, and a deficiency in corporate communication around the environment. Business travel is needed to build trust; however, it can be reduced.
Background: This article presents findings from research conducted before the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on companies located in the Zurich airport region of Switzerland, regarding the needs for global business travel and its impacts.
Methods: The study involved a mixed methods approach. Five hypotheses were tested using inferential statistics on data obtained from pre-tested closed questions in a web-based survey. Deeper context was explored through an interview-based case-study conducted at a Swiss pharma company.
Results: Supporting alternative hypothesis 3 (Ha(3)), a significant positive relationship was found between travel frequency and business growth, F(1, 100) = 11.31, p = 0.0011. Supporting Ha(4), corporate culture had a significant positive relationship with business travel frequency (F(1, 100) = 15.50, p = 0.0002) and average trip length (F(1, 100) = 6.39, p = 0.01). And thirdly supporting Ha(5), corporate social responsibility had a significant relationship with global business travel (91%). Ho(2) and Ho(3) were accepted. The case study found that smart corporate travel policies and regulations should be instantiated to enhance our environment, which would also benefit employee wellbeing. Travel can be reduced significantly despite being demonstrated that physical co-presence is important for building trust. The case study suggests tools to support the monitoring and management of global business travel by organizations.
Conclusions: COVID-19 has impacted travel for business significantly, and future research will be necessary to assess its impact. The article explores the ongoing research in this area, and several relevant implications are proposed for future leaders. The case study found willingness to pay both corporate and individual green taxes, and a deficiency in corporate communication around the environment. Business travel is needed to build trust; however, it can be reduced.
Background: This article presents findings from research conducted before the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on companies located in the Zurich airport region of Switzerland, regarding the needs for global business travel and its impacts.
Methods: The study involved a mixed methods approach. Five hypotheses were tested using inferential statistics on data obtained from pre-tested closed questions in a web-based survey. Deeper context was explored through an interview-based case-study conducted at a Swiss pharma company.
Results: Supporting alternative hypothesis 3 (Ha(3)), a significant positive relationship was found between travel frequency and business growth, F(1, 100) = 11.31, p = 0.0011. Supporting Ha(4), corporate culture had a significant positive relationship with business travel frequency (F(1, 100) = 15.50, p = 0.0002) and average trip length (F(1, 100) = 6.39, p = 0.01). And thirdly supporting Ha(5), corporate social responsibility had a significant relationship with global business travel (91%). Ho(2) and Ho(3) were accepted. The case study found that smart corporate travel policies and regulations should be instantiated to enhance our environment, which would also benefit employee wellbeing. Travel can be reduced significantly despite being demonstrated that physical co-presence is important for building trust. The case study suggests tools to support the monitoring and management of global business travel by organizations.
Conclusions: COVID-19 has impacted travel for business significantly, and future research will be necessary to assess its impact. The article explores the ongoing research in this area, and several relevant implications are proposed for future leaders. The case study found willingness to pay both corporate and individual green taxes, and a deficiency in corporate communication around the environment. Business travel is needed to build trust; however, it can be reduced.
The spatial needs of knowledge workers — especially high-tech, digital workers — are of concern to digitizing companies. In order to attract and anchor talent, companies are experimenting with workplace strategies like “flexwork”, at the core of which is worker autonomy through flexible hours and workplaces. While flexwork is not new, it has been popularized by the rise of coworking, especially among the digital elites. Meanwhile, cities looking to promote economic growth are also focusing on the spatial preferences of such workers. This paper explores the motivation behind the adoption of flexwork, how this has been affecting office real estate, and how planners have reacted to these changes. Drawing from fieldwork and in-depth, semi-structured interviews with corporate consultants, real estate professionals and city planners in Canada's Silicon Valley North, I show how flexwork translates into a demand for flexible leases, which landlords seize as an opportunity to extract higher rents. This intensifies the need for flexibility, only this time for cost-saving purposes. City planners, while cognizant of this circular relationship between flexwork, flexible workplaces and rising rents, feel limited in their capacity to influence the real estate market. These insights are important considering the widespread adoption of flexwork at the onset of the Covid-19 crisis.
While many people see taking a vacation as a way to rejuvenate, escape and relieve monotonous life to get away from the stress they may experience in other aspects of their lives, but travelling can also be stressful for a lot of people. A total of 15 international tourists hailing diverse origins participated in qualitative semi-structured interviews. It was found that people, in general, do encounter the most travel stress before and on a vacation or trip. Acknowledging that things might go wrong is the first step in making sure they don't. Managerial implications are recommended for travel organizations, airline companies, airport customer dealing staff to assist to make the occasion less anxiety-provoking for the traveller.
The study of urban dynamics from spatio-temporal information contained in massive human-tracking data has become a hotspot in research. As numerous human mobility patterns and fine-grained varying dynamics of the urban environment have been ascertained using various data and methods, the people shaping such diverse urban vitality remain poorly understood. This study aimed to profile different mobility patterns of typical subgroups in the actual population of the city and then quantify the differences among subgroups. Based on one-month data of mobile phone users with the recorded presence in Beijing, 8 subgroups with different purposes of visit and related spatio-temporal patterns were ascertained. By combing the short-term phenomenon with long-term observations, the varying urban dynamics structured by residents, usual travelers and visitors over time were explained. The mobility patterns of different subgroups were compared according to spatial and temporal indicators, including population distribution by time, average length of stay, distribution of visited places by ring roads, and Land-use Visitation Intensity. These findings have been successfully referenced in Beijing's planning practices. This study is of high implication to optimize the allocation of urban resources and enhance the capacity of urban facilities to satisfy the demands of the actual population in the city.
Travel-based multitasking, also referred to as travel time use, is now a well-established concept, whose existence is supported by the technological trajectories, with mobile information and communication technologies (ICT) and vehicle automation working together to allow travel time to be more productive and enjoyable. Despite existence of reviews of travel-time multitasking studies, the systematic overview of the role digital activities, i.e. those that necessarily require modern ICT equipment to participate, has been limited, often wrapped under the umbrella term “use of ICT”, potentially obscuring their complexity and sophistication. Similarly, the role of connectivity and its attributes, e.g. speed (bandwidth), reliability, price, ease of use, data allowance or security, deserves a more systematic overview given its key role in enabling digital online activities and hence the travel-based multitasking options. This paper provides a review of 77 empirical travel-based multitasking-studies that explored the role of digital activities or connectivity. In particular, the review discusses the existing typologies of digital activities, dividing them into hardware-centric, function-centric or a combination of both (mixed). Subsequently, key contributions are discussed with respect to the treatment of digital activities and connectivity and its attributes. Based on the review, it is possible to observe that the existing studies have looked only at a handful of rather restricted online activities that do not sufficiently capture the sophistication with which individuals interact with the virtual world nowadays. Furthermore, the role of connectivity, although deeply embedded in the “C” of the “ICT” concept, has not been looked at or modelled in any detail in studies related to travel time use or its quality. This existing shortcoming might have resulted in an insufficient understanding of the mechanisms driving travel time use, the associated experience indicators of customer satisfaction, productivity or the consequences for relative attractiveness of transport modes. All of these considerations remain, however, crucial for designing, appraising and operating transport infrastructure and services that are able to take the advantage of lifestyle digitisation to meet the increasing customer needs while also delivering broader economic, social benefits and possibly also environmental benefits.
Screen time once referred to television. Nowadays, it includes various screen sizes that are internet-enabled devices, and the pervasive smartphone. Regardless of what kind of screen is used, screen time comprises much of life itself. Being online and offline is now fairly blurred because of the ubiquitousness of technologies, Wi-Fi and screens. This paper puts forth the notion of ‘temporal digital control’ to explain the choice of when and why smartphones and other portable digital devices are used in today’s cultural milieu, and it theorizes the ‘why’ of contemporary smartphone use is so prominent suggesting it enables temporal digital control in an autonomous space. Coupled with the engrossment of such use, the article elaborates how gazing at a digital device comprises a temporal connection, alongside a disconnection from real life, and a possible inauthenticity that could affect well-being. Recently published literature on ‘waiting’ is included to help theorize why actors choose to use digital technologies while waiting. Being preoccupied, or busy, or doing something with one’s smartphone while waiting creates a sense of alleged status, importance or connection in the form of digital temporal control. An array of vignettes is provided to demonstrate agentic disengagement with the present in a preference for moving into a temporal autonomous space of ‘perceived’ digital control. When gazing at and using a digital device, users are arguably disengaging with the temporal present, disconnecting with others who may be beside them, in preference to the creation of temporal (and digital) autonomous spaces. Regardless of what the user is doing on their smartphone or device, the use of technologies can provide a temporal autonomous space of digital control.
The current study explores the destination experiences of business travelers by focusing on their social contacts with local colleagues. By crossing out of the local “tourist environmental bubble” (TEB), as conceptualized by Erik Cohen, business travelers are expected to experience difficulties associated with the strangeness of the visited destination but to gain an authentic experience in return. Based on in-depth interviews (n = 28) and a quantitative survey (n = 231) of Israeli business travelers, this mixed-methods study confirms that the supposedly inconvenient extra-TEB experience (particularly confronting strangeness) turns out to be rewarding, and the assumed benefits of crossing out of the bubble (mainly experiencing authenticity) are limited. By focusing on business travelers, the current study provides insight into guest–host interactions and the subjective experiences of travelers who cross out the TEB, mainly with respect to the complex and multidimensional sense of authenticity.
Waiting is a pervasive feature of organisational life and, as such, is likely to be important for a range of individual and organisational outcomes. Although extant research has shed light on the waiting experiences of diverse groups such as those suffering from illness, waiting in detention centres or queuing, there have been no previous attempts to theorise waiting specifically from the perspective of the employee. To address this gap, we draw on theories of temporality and waiting in fields such as consumer behaviour as well as the wider social sciences to develop the notion of ‘situated waiting’ which uncovers the complexity of the lived experience of waiting from the perspective of the employee. This experience is associated with factors at the level of the individual, the wait itself, and the broader waiting context. We outline the implications for future research on this hitherto hidden domain of the employee experience.
This paper presents results of a comprehensive literature review of empirical studies investigating travel for work and how it relates to individual lives. The paper presents information on how work travel has been operationalized in the literature. The paper describes findings concerning how feelings about travel, individual well-being, the work/family interface, family relationships and social connections have been found to be affected by work travel. The empirical articles on workers who travel have been conducted in multiple countries and via diverse methodologies, which provides richness to the findings. The lack of uniformity in how work travel has been operationalized presents challenges for drawing conclusions about the effects of work travel. Recommendations concerning how to move the field forward are presented, including uniting the employment-related literature with the family literature to provide more holistic and useful implications for the study of work travel.
This chapter argues for the value of taking a more relational and situated understanding of the temporality of mobility practices. While there are dominant meanings of how temporal dichotomies relate to mobility practices, these are challenged by the multiplicity and relativity of meanings people attribute to their practices. Drawing on research conducted in Birmingham, UK, the chapter details how people’s experiences of mobility are made meaningful in relation to different dimensions of temporalities, as well as wider, complex intersections of temporalities, practices and materialities. Focusing on the temporal dimensions of speed, duration and rhythmicity, it argues that since multiple temporalities are already embedded in people’s understandings of mobility, these should be more carefully represented and analysed in discussions of sustainability and possible mobility transitions.
Can we speak of a totally normal chaos (Lash, Individualization in a Non-Linear Mode, 2002, [21]) of mobility in the second age of modernity? The current essay draws its inspiration mainly from the findings of systems theory and sociology about nonlinearity and individualization with particular application to mobility systems. Its first part analyzes the societal system of the second modernity as an open system with high nonlinearity. The second part applies reflections from the construction of hypotheses about the usage dynamics of an intelligent concept of social interaction on the move.
South African corporations with a substantial travel expenditure of between R1 million and R300 million per annum are faced with two main issues. The first is the management and control of travel expenditure and the second is the management of the travel process to ensure required service levels at an optimum cost-benefit ratio. T he corporation depends heavily on numerous interactive relationships to achieve this. In this article the key elements of corporate travel management are identified and the results of a survey conducted on the way in which corporate travel is managed in terms of each of these elements in selected South African organisations is reported. A conceptual model, based on a " soft value management model " which highlights conflicting values of participants and their commitment to goals is proposed as a foundation on which further research can be conducted. JEL G30
Contents, 1. Introduction, "Donald Hislop", Work Space/Place, 2. Working on the move: Subverting the logic of non-space, "John Holm & Gavin Kendall," 3. Working on the Move: The Social and Digital Ecologies of Mobile Work Places, "Laura Forlano", 4. Voluntary ghettos and mobile bureaucracy: Civic activity and acts of citizenship under threat, "Tommy Jensen," Work-Related Travel, 5. Travelling to Work: A Century of Change, "Colin G. Pooley", 6. The Business of Train Travel: A Matter of Time Use, "Glenn Lyons, David Holley & Juliet Jain", 7. Geographies of Business Travel in the Professional Service Economy, "James R. Faulconbridge & Jon V. Beaverstock", Mobile Work Practices, 8. The Lonely Life of the Mobile Engineer?, "Carolyn Axtell & Donald Hislop", 9. Re-Space-ing Place: Towards Mobile Support for Near Diagnostics, "Mikael Wiberg", 10. 420 Years of Mobility ICT Enabled Mobile Interdependencies in London Hackney Cab Work, "Silvia Elaluf-Calderwood & Carsten Sorensen", 11. Context Matters: Un-ubiquitous Use of Mobile Technologies by the Police, "Daniel Pica & Carsten Sorensen", Home Work Dynamics, 12. Mobile Phones, Spillover and the 'Work-Life Balance,' "Diannah Lowry & Megan Moskos", 13. Freedom and Flexibility with a Ball and Chain: Managers and their Use of Mobile Phones, "Keith Townsend & Lyn Batchelor", 14. Travel, availability and work-life balance, "Ann Bergman & Per Gustafson", 15. Do Mobile Technologies Enable Work-Life Balance? Dual Perspectives on BlackBerry Usage for Supplemental Work, "Catherine Middleton," Public Policy, 16. Mobile Work and Challenges for Public Policy, Dan Wheatley, Irene Hardill, "Anne Green"
This article argues that there is a need to understand business travel time in the context of the wider organization of work time. It considers why travel time use is potentially changing with the use of mobile technologies by the increasing number of individuals engaged in `knowledge work', and examines existing evidence that indicates that travel time use is part of a wider work-related `taskscape'. However, it not only considers material productive output, but suggests that travel time as `time out' from work-related activities also plays a vital role for employees. It also suggests that business travel time use that is not of benefit to the employer may not be at the employer's expense. This is contrasted with the assumptions used in UK transport appraisal. Data gathered from the autumn 2004 wave of the National Rail Passenger Survey (GB) is used to illustrate some key issues concerning productivity and `anti-activity'. A case study of an individual business traveller then points towards the need for a new approach to exploring the role played by travel time in the organization of work practices to be considered.
"Work environment," as a conceptual framework for reforming working life, may not be readily transferable from the tangible conditions of the industrial context in which it was conceived to the more flexible conditions of modern labor. Since the flexible conditions of work generally presuppose an increased responsibility and some sort of personal commitment on the part of the worker, isolating the environmental conditions from the personal abilities of the worker is becoming more difficult. As a consequence, only to a limited extent can the problems of modern labor be interpreted as work environment issues and subjected to work environment measures. With the propagation of flexible working conditions, work environment institutions and their reform ambitions will be passed by. And work environment reforms, rather than being a practical task of coordinating different protective measures at workplaces, will be reduced to an argument within the ideologically motivated rejection of an increasingly polarized labor market.
This book presents conceptual tools and theoretical perspectives that can be used to sociologically analyze labour markets in modern capitalist societies. It makes use of the rich heritage of sociological thinking and draws on the classical work of Marx, Weber and Durkheim as well as structural-functionalist contributions. Contemporary sociological thinking is criticized for its tendency to exaggerate change in labour markets while the need to consider continuity is emphasized. Conceptual tools and perspectives are applied based on concrete phenomena, as the author combines abstract theoretical reasoning with theoretically founded reflections on actual labour market developments.
Profit arises out of the inherent, absolute unpredictability of things, out of the sheer brute fact that the results of human activity cannot be anticipated and then only in so far as even a probability calculation in regard to them is impossible and meaningless. (Knight, 1921: 311) In 1921, Frank H. Knight made a classic distinction between “risk” and “uncertainty” in economic endeavors, claiming that while risk can be calculated, uncertainty cannot. Since then, a variety of methods for assessing and reducing risk have been developed and used, while essentially ignoring uncertainty. In the 1970s, however, in the face of increasing international competition, oil crisis, floating currencies, political unrest, and the idiosyncratic demands of lifestyle consumption, turning a blind eye toward the uncertainties of enterprising was no longer a feasible option. Rather, uncertainty had to be recognized as a fundamental precondition of modern corporations. Out of Japan came the realization that planning and organizing for it, and not just against it, could provide a competitive advantage (Ouchi, 1981; Porter, 1990). The general strategy for coping with uncertainty, introduced by the Japanese, was to increase the flexibility of production (Piore and Sabel, 1984). The principles of flexibility have since been introduced into almost every aspect of corporate life.
Work organizations today often depend on communication and interaction between persons working in geographically dispersed locations. As a consequence, business travel has increased considerably over the past few decades, and large companies and public authorities often employ travel managers to implement efficient travel routines. The present paper investigates the professional practice of travel management. Using interviews, policy documents and existing literature, it examines recent developments in this field and identifies a number of dilemmas and challenges that travel managers experience in their attempts to control travel behaviour and travel costs in their organizations. These dilemmas occur in travel managers’ relations with other stakeholders in the business travel process – travellers, senior managers, suppliers, and travel agents. An additional dilemma concerns the role of ‘virtual meetings’ (via telephone, video or the Web) and their potential to serve as substitutes for or complements to travel and face-to-face meetings.
This article uses national travel surveys from Sweden to examine the relationship between family situation, sex and work-related overnight travel. The results indicate that family obligations have an impact on travel activity, but that women and men differ in this respect. Cohabiting men travel more than men living alone, whereas there is no such effect among women. Having young children reduces the travel activity of women, whereas there is no consistent such effect among men. However, regardless of family situation, men travel considerably more than women and this largely reflects women’s and men’s different positions in working life. It is therefore argued that the relationship between work-related travel and family obligations involves both individual adaptation and structural factors, such as a gender-segregated labour market and ‘gender-typing’ of travel as a predominantly male activity, all of which reflect traditional gender and family role expectations.
With the globalisation of the economy, more people travel for business purposes, doing much of their work while on the move. Business travellers spend a lot of time at airports and are likely to want to use this time productively. Already, airports have transformed from people processors into places where you can shop, dine, drink and sleep, so why not work there? This article shows that business travellers spend a large part of their waiting time checking their e-mail, making phone calls, reading reports and working on their laptop. The question is whether they need special facilities to perform these activities. Do business travellers need a dedicated workplace with facilities ranging from colour printers and Internet access, to showers and a good cappuccino? Or just a place to sit with a network connection? This article tries to answer this question by studying the activities and needs of business travellers during their stay at an airport. It is based on a survey and in-depth interviews among Dutch business travellers.
Although alternatives to business travel exist, many business activities rely on direct, personal contact and communication between individuals. The tragic events of 11 September 2001 will have to be overcome since business travel is vital to conduct commerce, negotiate transactions, and nurture personal relationships. In this context we present an integrated individual- and organizational-level business travel stress model. The starting point in constructing the business travel stress model is the person-environment (P-E) fit model. The core premise of the P-E fit model is that stress arises not from the person or environment separately, but rather by their fit with one another. Using the P-E fit model as the initial framework, the present paper contends that a business travel stress model can provide a needed framework for managers to learn about and study travel stressors, outcomes, and moderators that effect their business traveller colleagues and the organization. A purposeful, parsimonious sample of 18 propositions to test and study a limited number of relationships and dimensions represented in the business travel stress model are provided. The paper also proposes future business travel stress research directions and discusses practical management implications.
This paper considers the rationality of travel practices with regard to journey times. The problem can be formulated as follows: to what extent is modal choice determined by a qualitative rather than a quantitative comparison between journey times? Modal choice for home-to-work trips in the conurbations of Grenoble, Geneva, Lausanne and Berne among a representative sample of 2,000 employed persons faced with an alternative is analyzed. The study on which the paper is based explores two directions: the first examines the perception of journey times and the second considers the rationality of users' modal choice with regard to real and perceived travel times. This dual analysis reveals that although users do not necessarily attempt to minimize their home-to-work travel time, they do try to avoid time spent travelling that is impossible to put to good use because of a lack of comfort or flexibility. Furthermore the results show that the quality of time and the speed at which time passes are linked: when use can be made of the journey time it passes quickly, when it cannot it passes slowly and is viewed in the same way as a long waiting time. Such poor quality is a frequent characteristic of public transport. Ultimately, the study shows that while the comparison between journey times is a criterion for modal choice it only takes on meaning in relation to the form and content of the time. While most respondents prefer their car to public transport it is as much on the grounds of flexibility and quality of the time as on the grounds of speed.
The interpretation of travel time in economic terms has played a fundamental part in shaping our transport systems. The time consumed in order to travel to a destination has been seen as the price paid for fulfilling the purpose of reaching that destination. By interpreting travel time as a disutility or burden, transport policy has been driven by the goal of quicker journeys. Drawing upon multidisciplinary literature and new qualitative research, this paper articulates an alternative perspective. It suggests that travel time, at least for the individual, can (sometimes) be perceived and experienced as a gift rather than a burden. This is examined in the context of (co-present) participation in social networks and in terms of two forms of travel time experience from which positive utility can be derived: transition time and time out – both facilitated or supported by a third notion, namely equipped time.
Transportation activity generated by businesses has been analyzed mainly with reference to freight flows and commuting trips. The area of employee business trips has been largely ignored, even though the literature – particularly that dealing with industrial economics – has endeavored to show both the central role played by face-to-face encounters in economic contact, and the decreased need for proximity as a prerequisite to such contact taking place in the first place. This paper takes this literature, both theoretical and empirical, as its base, and then aims to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the need for business travel and the profiles of mobile workers. It also investigates how the workers involved perceive, and how companies account for such mobility.
This paper contests the conventional wisdom that travel is a derived demand, at least as an absolute. Rather, we suggest that under some circumstances, travel is desired for its own sake. We discuss the phenomenon of undirected travel – cases in which travel is not a byproduct of the activity but itself constitutes the activity. The same reasons why people enjoy undirected travel (a sense of speed, motion, control, enjoyment of beauty) may motivate them to undertake excess travel even in the context of mandatory or maintenance trips. One characteristic of undirected travel is that the destination is ancillary to the travel rather than the converse which is usually assumed. We argue that the destination may be to some degree ancillary more often than is realized. Measuring a positive affinity for travel is complex: in self-reports of attitudes toward travel, respondents are likely to confound their utility for the activities conducted at the destination, and for activities conducted while traveling, with their utility for traveling itself. Despite this measurement challenge, preliminary empirical results from a study of more than 1900 residents of the San Francisco Bay Area provide suggestive evidence for a positive utility for travel, and for a desired travel time budget (TTB). The issues raised here have clear policy implications: the way people will react to policies intended to reduce vehicle travel will depend in part on the relative weights they assign to the three components of a utility for travel. Improving our forecasts of travel behavior may require viewing travel literally as a “good” as well as a “bad” (disutility).
In the face of a society that exhibits an increasing dependence on motorised mobility, the response of transport policy is one that remains grounded in the pursuit of quicker journey times. Less time spent travelling is assumed to convert ‘unproductive’ time into economically valuable time. This paper explores an alternative perspective on travel time. It seeks to examine the notion that travel time, rather than being wasted, can and does possess a positive utility. This brings into question the extent of assumed economic benefits derived from schemes and policies intended to reduce journey times. Specifically the paper reports on a national mail-back questionnaire survey of 26,221 rail passengers in Great Britain conducted in autumn 2004. The survey examined how passengers used their time on the train, how worthwhile that time use was considered to be and the role of mobile technologies. The results paint a picture of travel time use in which the behaviour and opinions of commuters, business travellers and leisure travellers are compared and contrasted. A substantial if not overwhelming incidence of positive utility of travel time use is revealed, especially for business travel but also for commuting and leisure travel. In light of the survey evidence the paper points to the challenge of understanding the notion of productivity and offers some critical comments concerning the current approach to economic appraisal in Britain.
In this paper we examine the spatial practices of mobile workers -- how mobile workers manage their use of technology and place. Data from interviews with highly mobile workers and 'hot-deskers' are used to explore the reciprocal relationship between practice and place: how places change work, but also how work changes places. Mobile workers often need to configure their activities to take account of the different places in which they find themselves. This can involve considerable 'juggling' of their plans, humble office equipment, and their coworkers. In turn mobile workers change places, as they appropriate different sites for their work. Specifically, technology allows for the limited reappropriation of travel and leisure sites as places for work (such as trains and cafés). Time is also an important practical concern for mobile workers. Although mobile work may be seen as relatively flexible, fixed temporal structures allow mobile workers to 'accomplish synchronicity' with others. Although this paper focuses on the specific practices of mobile workers, it also explores how 'grand social theory' can help us understand the practical details of mobile work, yet how practice cannot be simply reduced to theory.
Institut for Økonomi, Politik og Forvaltning
- C Lassen
Travel remedy kit: Interventions into train lines and passengers. Paper presented at the Centre for Transport and Society Seminar
- L Watts
- G Lyons