Gastronomy experiences are becoming a fundamental factor that influences the making of a decision regarding choosing a travel destination, as well as being a crucial factor in shaping tourists’ satisfaction regarding their overall travel experience. The aim of the study is to identify and explain the simultaneous impact of the key factors that influence a gastronomic experience and their impact on tourists’ satisfaction with a trip and the destination’s brand. These issues were addressed within the context of Ukraine, as this is an overlooked area of academic research, and an online survey was conducted, targeting domestic and international tourists. Structural equation modeling was used to assess and reveal the proposed hypotheses in the model. The study contributed to the theoretical understanding of the key factors that increases the occurrence of a memorable gastronomic experience and the relationship between the experience of food and its role in the satisfaction of and the perceived brand of a destination. Moreover, the finding showed that past experience and prior knowledge have a positive influence on the gastronomy experience, while tourists’ prior knowledge effects the perceived quality of a destination’s cuisine, as well as the food activities in the destination. Linkages in the model were empirically supported by statistical analyses. Nonetheless, the various level of the tourists’ involvement with gastronomy might be used as an input to examine and improve the memorable gastronomic experience on-site. The research simultaneously highlighted the importance of gastronomy to tourist destinations for positioning on international and domestic markets. The paper not only provides theoretical but also practical implications. The hospitality and tourism businesses benefit from acknowledging the importance of local food and the local food market. The findings of this study are also deemed to assist destination marketers who observe that tourists have become more demanding in search of unique experiences offered by destinations.

Drawing on the growing literature that has addressed the role of Management Control Systems in innovation and the literature on institutional theory, this study explores the case of Amorim Cork Composites to analyse how the situated rationalities within the company get reflected in the management control practices in use, and then how these practices are used to communicate and provide guidance when innovation is part of the strategy. The study uses a single case study approach at an innovative company, collecting data from 32 interviews, direct observations, and documentation of the company. Based on that data, this study is able to perceive the existence of a rationality that is constructed around the importance of innovation, which becomes a paramount part of the defined strategy and leaves signs on to the internal control practices of the company. After that, through a mix of strategic objectives, well-defined cascaded process of these objectives, values, mottos, objectives related to that situated rationality within the company, and with the commitment created within the “signing” of objectives contracts, managers are able to communicate strategically and provide guidance to the collaborators, driving them to action that makes them more aware.

In the last twenty years the relationship between Management Control Systems (MCS) and strategy has become a relevant issue to management control investigation. This study aims to understand how managers use the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) to support the processes of implementation and formulation of strategy. The research adopts an exploratory case study approach and was conducted on a business unit of a large industrial Portuguese company. Results were analyzed from the standpoint of Simons’ four control levers (1995, 2000), and demonstrate that the BSC methodology may be used under a diagnosis mode to implement deliberated strategies and, simultaneously, under an interactive mode to promote learning, support strategy revision, and provide conditions for new strategies. The research provides insights into the relationship between MCS and strategy, as it identifies the characteristics of using the BSC in the several levers of control.

Purpose: By designing a pilot time-driven activity-based costing (TDABC) model, this study aims to examine in depth the suitability and the complexity of TDABC in a manufacturing company. Design/methodology/approach: To obtain a deeper understanding on the matters to analyse, this research adopts an interventionist approach. The host organisation is GP, a Portuguese company in the frozen food sector. Findings: The authors’ experience allows them to assert that TDABC is suitable for a manufacturing company and it is able to deal with the variability of the industrial processes. Nonetheless, through a comparison with the models presented in the literature, TDABC appears to be more complex for manufacturing. The authors argue that this happens for two reasons. First, the two types of resources (human labour and machinery) used in production areas create a need to split tasks and to create two equations for each process, something that does not happen in service companies. Second, times are difficult to individualise for certain highly automated procedures, which could also give rise to some errors. Research limitations/implications: The designed model is compared to other models presented in the literature. Practical implications: This study shows a real example of TDABC in manufacturing and the procedural innovation of the time equations. Originality/value: As the TDABC literature has been mostly focused on examples of service companies, the authors examine the technical suitability and the complexity of TDABC in manufacturing companies.

This study investigates the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on society, business, and management, using a qualitative approach centered on the analysis of interviews and a review of literature. Text mining techniques were applied through the KH Coder tool, allowing for a detailed exploration of how AI is transforming these three dimensions. The results reveal significant changes in management practices, deep economic impacts, and relevant social changes brought about by the rapid adoption of AI. The originality of this study lies in the combination of qualitative analysis with the exploration of textual data, providing a comprehensive view of the ethical and practical implications of AI. It also acknowledges limitations, such as the rapid pace of technological development and the potential bias in the perceptions collected. This work contributes to a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities presented by AI, and suggests pathways for ethical and effective integration.

This study analyses whether country-level innovation performance and firm-level innovation commitment are associated to adopting the integrated reporting in Europe. The empirical analysis relies on a logistic regression model applied to 388 firm-year observations regarding firms located in Europe and data between 2016–2019. The results show a positive and significant association between country-level innovation performance and integrated reporting uptake. Moreover, at a firm level, the data partially support that the influence of innovation commitment on the likelihood of publishing integrated reports is higher for firms with a higher-level of sustainability performance. This research contributes to the literature by focusing simultaneously on the impact of country-level innovation performance and firm-level innovation commitment on integrated reporting acceptance in the European setting. In addition, the adopted country-level conceptual support is based on the institutional theory combined with the framework of the national innovation systems. The latter, to the best of our knowledge, has not yet been applied in this line of research.