Zoekresultaten

Psychological barrier and coping strategies in business transfers explored: towards a conceptual model

Letting go of the firm or “my baby” as some entrepreneurs describe their creation, leads to a certain amount of stress (Rahim 1996, Kets de Vries 1999). Dealing with stress in singular events as the transfer of a business, is hardly been subject of research (Uy et al. 2012). Improving coping strategies in business transfers for the incumbent could be of importance as statistics indicate the continued aging of owners in the European Union. Expanding the possibilities of incumbents to sell their business and move on to their next phase in their life would help to offset such negative effects to each national economy. The number of failed business transfers of viable SMEs now threatens innovative driven European economies (European Commission 2003, Van Teeffelen 2010, Stone et al. 2004). A recent study calculated that the Dutch economy suffers 20,000 unnecessary SME liquidations and approximately 10,000 failed successions per annum, with a projected economic damage of 80,000 jobs, a loss of turnover of almost € 4 billion and a destruction of assets of about € 2 billion yearly (Van Teeffelen 2012). Therefore we believe that coping strategies and psychological barriers in business transfers deserve more academic attention. Our aim is to check and add items to the list of psychological barriers and finally to relate barriers to coping styles. Therefore we engaged in a qualitative study that seeks to explain a particular issue and allows the researcher to study issues in depth and produces detailed data on a small number of individuals (Hyde 2000).

DinsdagColumn: Brieven uit de Anderwereld 2: “A Winner is you”

The association between stress and injury

The demanding environment that contemporary dance students are exposed to could result in high stress levels, which can influence injury susceptibility. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the association between stress and injuries. In the period between September 2016 and March 2020, four cohorts of first-year dance students (N = 186; mean age 19.21 ± 1.35 years) were followed for one academic year. Each month, general stress was assessed on a 0-100 visual analogous scale. The Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center Questionnaire on Health Problems was used on a monthly basis to monitor injuries. Injuries were defined as "all injuries" (i.e., any physical complaint irrespective of the need for medical attention or time-loss from dance) and "substantial injuries" (i.e., leading to moderate/severe/complete reductions in training volume or performance). Mann-Whitney tests were performed to measure differences in general stress levels between injured and injury-free students, while repeated-measures ANOVA were performed to investigate whether general stress scores increased before and during injury occurrence. The overall average monthly general stress score over all cohorts for all students was 39.81. The monthly general stress scores ranged from 31.75 to 49.16. Overall, injured and substantially injured students reported higher stress scores than injury-free students, with significant differences in 3 out of the 9 months for all injuries (September, October, March, p < 0.05), and in 5 months for substantial injuries (September, October, November, December, April, p < 0.05). Within the 3-month period before and during injury occurrence, a (marginally) significant linear effect of general stress across the time periods was found for all injuries [F(1.87,216.49) = 3.10, p = 0.051] and substantial injuries [F(2,138) = 4.16, p = 0.018]. The results indicate an association between general stress and injuries. Future research should focus on effects of varying stress levels on injury risk using higher sampling frequency, for instance by measuring weekly since stress levels are likely to fluctuate daily. Practically, strategies aiming at stress reduction might have the potential to reduce the burden of dance injuries and may have positive outcomes for dancers, teachers, schools, and companies.

Travel psychology (in Persian)

The section - Travel Psychology - contains 3 chapters. Chapter 1 starts by listing different types of travel constraints facing all citizens. For travelers who negotiate their travel constraints and are able to travel, two seminal models for tourism motivations are reviewed. First, the pull and push factors are mentioned along with examples. In a second model, travel motivations are categorized into traveling to gain something and, travelling to get away from something.After reviewing various travel constraints and motivations, Chapter 1 continues by discussing how travelers’ mood and tendencies at any given time could affect the type of travel destination they pursue – historical vs. natural vs. manmade; warm vs. cold; urban vs. country; crowded vs. quiet; familiar vs. novel vs arousing; and, the type of experiences and activities travelers pursue on their vacation. Also, the relationship between less dynamic personality traits and travel decision-makings are discussed: who to travel with, where to stay, what to do; perceived risks; and information seeking behavior. Chapter 1 ends by discussing how travel service providers could play a significant role in helping customers make more informed and authentic decisions that would eventually feed their psychological needs, wants, and wellbeing. This wellbeing perspective to travel is contrasted with a service quality and money-driven perspective in tourism industry and research. Chapter 2 starts by reviewing the fundamentals of the science of positive psychology, defining wellbeing, happiness, and quality of life, and how tourism could be accounted as one element linked to all the above. A page is dedicated to memorable tourism experiences and its different dimensions such as hedonic and eudaimonic experiences, and how some of these memorable experiences positively impact travelers’ subjective wellbeing. In the core of chapter 2, travelers’ diverse needs are discussed under: (a) physiological needs such as quality and attractive local food and drinks, physical activity, and adequate sleep on vacations; (b) mental needs including topics such as expressing emotions before, during, and after vacation, causes and fluctuations of emotions; mood regulations on vacations; mindfulness; technology use; stress recovery mechanisms during vacations namely relaxation, detachment, control, mastery; and optimal challenge and flow states for individuals and group of travelers; (c) interpersonal needs of the traveler including interaction with host community, service providers, and other travelers, e.g., joint experiences of romantic partners and family members. Throughout chapter 2, how service providers and experience designers could more effectively monitor, identify, and address these physiological, mental, and social needs are thoroughly discussed. Moreover, evidence and research-based travel tips are offered to general travelers for observing, attending to, appreciating, and enhancing positive emotions during the anticipation phase of a vacation, during the actual trip, on the way home, and up to two weeks post-vacation. A small section at the end of Chapter 2 is devoted to the psychology of holidays and staycations for employees with stressful jobs. Chapter 3 discusses how small occasions during vacations can accumulate and sometimes have long-term psychological effects on travelers. This chapter reviews the psychological of souvenirs, savoring, and photography on vacations. It continues by talking about the concepts of self-awareness, learning, growth, meaning and transformation, related to vacations, using examples. Chapter 3 ends by encouraging travel planners and designers to invest in long-term benefits of vacations.This handbook contains a total of 42 chapters on a range of topics aimed at educating employees at tourism service providers in Iran. This book is in press and distribution, and will be the official source for the national exam for the national travel agency certification in Iran. Topics of this book include the following: tour design and operations, travel psychology, air travel, tour marketing, human resource management, accounting, travel technology, travel start-ups, strategic management, and ethics.

CO2 reduction through shared mobility: A review of psychological factors for the switch from a private car to shared transport