20 years of Nordic hospitality research: a review and future research agenda

Abstract

Communicating hospitality and tourism research has been at the core of the journal aim since the early start in 2001. The aim of the current paper is to provide an overview of the first 20 years of hospitality research in Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism, to draw some lines to international hospitality research, and to propose a future research agenda. The review provides a brief account of the main themes addressed in Nordic hospitality research including (1) hospitality as a concept and practice, (2) business strategy, (3) hospitality operations, (4) service encounters as performative work, (5) human resource management, and (6) labour market perspectives. Potential research avenues are outlined.

Can human resource flexibility disentangle innovative work behavior among hospitality employees? The roles of harmonious passion and regulatory foci

“…Furthermore, Hon and Lui’s (2016) review of employee innovation in the hospitality sector demonstrates a focus on the predictive role of some specific HR practices such as participative culture and task interdependence, as well as calls for inquiries into other HR practices that can foster innovative behavior. Gjerald et al ’s (2021) review of 20 years of Nordic hospitality research reveals the focus of the current literature on HRM aspects such as working conditions and job quality. On account of the magnitude of HR flexibility in promoting adaptation and innovation (Do et al , 2016), we take a step further to postulate the linkage between HR flexibility and employee innovative work behavior.…”

Service providers’ perspective on the luxury tourist experience as a product

“…This insight may be of interest in all Nordic countries when targeting the luxury tourism market. Furthermore, as luxury tourism may be the first to lead the recovery of tourism in the post-pandemic era (ÓNeill, 2021), luxury tourism may be offering one way for the recovery of Nordic tourism and hospitality industry as well as opening the discussion for potential research avenues (Lundberg & Furunes, 2021) in Nordic service research (Gjerald et al, 2021) and tourism experiences research (Björk et al, 2021).…”

“…The study was conducted in Finland. Even though in the Nordic context tourism experiences (Björk et al, 2021) and hospitality research (Gjerald et al, 2021) have traditionally strong roots (Lundberg & Furunes, 2021), luxury tourism experiences are lacking from the Nordic discussions. Furthermore, previous studies on luxury services and luxury tourism have been conducted mainly in a context that offers traditional luxury tourist products (see e.g.…”

Human capital and sustainability challenges for Airbnb Bed and Breakfast lifestyle entrepreneurs

“…Although the data for this study was collected well before the beginning of the current pandemic, future research on hospitality and tourism is going to be undeniably influenced by the current crisis (Lundberg & Furunes, 2021, p. 8). In reality, the pandemic has already forced the industry to adjust, improvise, and diversifie in order to survive (Gjerald et al, 2021). This, in turn, offers novel fields of investigation for interdisciplinary study research (Falk et al, 2021).…”