Frequent Business Travelers Research Articles

Exploring Intention & Reactance in Social Norm Interventions for Rail Business Travel

Abstract Shifting continental business travel from carbon-intensive modes to rail is crucial for emissions reduction. Behavioral interventions are a way to achieve this, but a gap exists in understanding their efficacy for sustainable business travel behavior. Based on online experiments with frequent business travelers, we scrutinize the impact of descriptive social norm interventions on mode choice intention, considering potentially negative employee reactions. While revealing factors influencing reactance and intention, contrary to expectations derived from the theory of planned behavior, behavioral interventions literature, and psychological reactance theory, our social norm treatments did not significantly impact mode choice intention and resulted in low reactance levels. Despite these unexpected results indicating that our interventions did not yield the desired changes, our study underscores the challenges of influencing sustainable business travel behavior and emphasizes the need for tailored interventions and incentives in practice, suggesting avenues for further research.

Challenges when identifying migration from geo-located Twitter data

Given the challenges in collecting up-to-date, comparable data on migrant populations the potential of digital trace data to study migration and migrants has sparked considerable interest among researchers and policy makers. In this paper we assess the reliability of one such data source that is heavily used within the research community: geolocated tweets. We assess strategies used in previous work to identify migrants based on their geolocation histories. We apply these approaches to infer the travel history of a set of Twitter users who regularly posted geolocated tweets between July 2012 and June 2015. In a second step we hand-code the entire tweet histories of a subset of the accounts identified as migrants by these methods. Upon close inspection very few of the accounts that are classified as migrants appear to be migrants in any conventional sense or international students. Rather we find these approaches identify other highly mobile populations such as frequent business or leisure travellers, or people who might best be described as “transnationals”. For demographic research that draws on this kind of data to generate estimates of migration flows this high mis-classification rate implies that findings are likely sensitive to the adjustment model used. For most research trying to use these data to study migrant populations, the data will be of limited utility. We suspect that increasing the correct classification rate substantially will not be easy and may introduce other biases.

Mobility and health: The perceived impact of frequent business trips on travelers’ health

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.

Examining key hotel attributes for guest sleep and overall satisfaction.

Despite the fact that hotels provide a venue for sleeping, there is surprisingly little research that has explored sleep among hotel guests. The aim of this study is to identify the relationship between hotel attributes (e.g., light in the guestroom, bed linens), guest sleep, and overall guest satisfaction. Cross-sectional survey data were obtained from frequent business and leisure travelers (N = 609). Guest sleep satisfaction and overall guest satisfaction were measured on 5-point Likert scales. Participants were asked to report the extent to which hotel attributes (e.g., "Room too light or too dark") related to their sleep on a scale from 1 (not at all) to 5 (very much). We used ordinal logistic regression to predict guest sleep and hotel satisfaction using hotel attributes as predictors while controlling for age, sex, and relationship status. Hotel guest sleep did not differ between business and leisure travelers. Hotel guest sleep was inversely associated with "uncomfortable bed linen," "uncomfortable pillows," and "sound from the air conditioning unit or heater." Regression revealed that sleep satisfaction was a strong predictor of overall hotel satisfaction. Our study suggests that guest sleep is be a critical component of the guest satisfaction equation. Importantly, our study illuminated the hotel attributes that offer the biggest contribution to hotel guest sleep and the specific steps for improving guest sleep.

Analysing travel mode and airline choice using latent class modelling: A case study in Western Australia

• Estimating travel mode and airline choice using air and non-air passengers’ stated preference data. • Accommodating passengers’ preference heterogeneity using latent class models. • Investigating the differences in travel mode choice, socio-demographics and trip characteristics among passenger segments. • Examining willingness to pay (WTP) of the travellers. This paper investigates travel mode and airline choice using stated-preference data. Both air and non-air passengers’ data were collected in Western Australia, which allows easier generalisability of the findings to a wider population. A market segmentation approach, using latent class modelling, was applied to identify passenger segments. The results shown a significant difference between identified segments in terms of demographics, economics and trip characteristics. One segment, comprising travellers with higher income and more frequent business travellers, was sensitive to service-factors. The other, comprising personal travellers with lower incomes, placed higher sensitivity on price. The findings highlight the importance of understanding mode choice behaviour based on market segmentation and provides insights to policy-makers and airlines for developing more effective polices and strategies.

Business Travel

Abstract. Control over business trips has been considered an important resource for frequent business travelers. Building on past research and conservation of resources theory, this two-wave study among 210 frequent business travelers investigated whether work meaning moderates the relationship between two kinds of control, job control and trip-scheduling control, and two important work outcomes, work satisfaction and perceived task performance. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that when work meaning was lower, trip-scheduling control was negatively related to work satisfaction and perceived task performance 6 months later. However, there were no significant interactions between job control and work meaning on the two outcomes. Findings support the reasoning that trip-scheduling control is of specific importance in the context of business travel and that this particular kind of control is not per se positive but contingent on work meaning and thus the larger context.

The impact of preventive coping on business travelers' work and private life

SummaryFrequent business travel can be a burden for travelers' work and private life. We tested whether preventive coping (the proactive accumulation of resources in advance of potential stressors) makes such trips beneficial despite their potential to be stressful. In a longitudinal three‐wave study, we investigated whether frequent travel relates to an increase or decrease in work–life balance, emotional exhaustion, work engagement, and relationship satisfaction depending on preventive coping. Findings from a sample of 133 frequent business travelers revealed significant indirect effects for emotional exhaustion, work engagement, and relationship satisfaction through work–life balance. Among employees who engaged less in preventive coping, a higher number of business trips was related to a decrease in work–life balance, which, in turn, was related to more emotional exhaustion, less work engagement, and lower relationship satisfaction. Among those who reported higher preventive coping, we found opposing indirect effects: Frequent travel was related to an increase in work–life balance and, in turn, to less emotional exhaustion, more work engagement, and higher relationship satisfaction. These findings advance our knowledge in the field of business travel, future‐oriented coping, and work–life balance. They highlight that travelers and their organizations should resort to preventive coping to make frequent travel more beneficial.

Control and Meaning in the Context of Business Travel

Control over business trips has been generally regarded as an important resource for frequent business travellers. Building on past research and conservation of resources theory, we investigated in...

Medical evacuations in the oil and gas industry: a retrospective review with implications for future evacuation and preventative strategies.

Businesses increasingly conduct operations in remote areas where medical evacuation [Medevac(s)] carries more risk. Royal Dutch Shell developed a remote healthcare strategy whereby enhanced remote healthcare is made available to the patient through use of telemedicine and telemetry. To evaluate that strategy, a review of Medevacs of Shell International employees [i.e. expatriate employees (EEs) and frequent business travellers (FBTs)] was undertaken. A retrospective review of Medevac data (period 2008-12) that were similar in operational constraints and population profile was conducted. Employee records and Human Resource data were used as a denominator for the population. Analogous Medevac data from specific locations were used to compare patterns of diagnoses. A total of 130 Medevacs were conducted during the study period, resulting in a Medevac rate of 4 per 1000 of population with 16 per 1000 for females and 3 per 1000 for males, respectively. The youngest and oldest age-groups required Medevacs in larger proportions. The evacuation rates were highest for countries classified as 'high' or 'extreme risk'. The most frequent diagnostic categories for Medevac were: trauma, digestive, musculoskeletal, cardiac and neurological. In 9% of the total, a strong to moderate link could be made between the pre-existing medical condition and diagnosis leading to Medevac. This study uniquely provides a benchmark Medevac rate (4 per 1000) for EEs and FBTs and demonstrates that Medevac rates are highest from countries identified as 'high risk'; there is an age and gender bias, and pre-existing medical conditions are of notable relevance. It confirms a change in the trend from injury to illness as a reason for Medevac in the oil and gas industry and demonstrates that diagnoses of a digestive and traumatic nature are the most frequent. A holistic approach to health (as opposed to a predominant focus on fitness to work), more attention to female travellers, and the application of modern technology and communication will reduce the need for Medevacs.

The dark side of business travel: A media comments analysis

The publication of ‘A darker side of hypermobility’ (Cohen and Gössling, 2015), which reviewed the personal and social consequences of frequent travel, led to considerable media coverage and sparking of the public imagination, particularly with regards to the impacts of business travel. It featured in more than 85 news outlets across 17 countries, engendering over 150,000 social media shares and 433 media comments from readers, with the latter a source of insight into how the public reacts online when faced with an overview of the negative sides of frequent business travel. The present paper is theoretically framed by the role of discourse in social change and utilises discursive analysis as a method to evaluate this body of media comments. Our analysis finds two key identities are performed through public responses to the explicit health and social warnings concerned with frequent business travel: the ‘flourishing hypermobile’ and the ‘floundering hypermobile’. The former either deny the health implications of frequent business travel, or present strategies to actively overcome them, while the latter seek solace in the public dissemination of the health warnings: they highlight their passivity in the construction of their identity as hypermobile and its associated health implications. The findings reveal a segment of business travellers who wish to reduce travel, but perceive this as beyond their locus of control. Business travel reductions are thus unlikely to happen through the agency of individual travellers, but rather by changes in the structural factors that influence human resource and corporate travel management policies.

The business travel experience

The study explores the business travel experience as a framework of time with four phases: trip preparations, passenger experience, destination experience and homecoming. In-depth interviews with frequent business travelers indicate that their experience as passengers includes “moments of relaxation” and is perceived as a sort of “time off”, in which they enjoy their familiarity with airports, the comforts provided to privileged passengers and the limited connectivity during flights. The other phases of the trip are devoted mainly to work-obligations and shape the nature of the trip as primarily a vocational experience. These findings add insight to mobility research of tourism, conceptualizations of the nexus between work and tourism, and the literature on business travelers.

Married, mom and manager – how can this be combined with an international career?

The purpose of this paper is to examine the experiences of females combining global careers, in particular, frequent international business travel and a dual-career family. With the increasing popularity of alternate forms of expatriation, females have the opportunity to follow a global career while being in a dual-career partnership and having children. Previous research has suggested that alternatives to long-term expatriation, such as international business travel, are considered more family friendly. Integrating family and international business travel, however, still poses many challenges to women. This paper examines the ways in which they handle this challenging situation according to social capital theory. It presents initial exploratory insights stemming from interview data including 25 female international business travelers living in dual-career families from four Western and non-Western countries on four different continents. These interviews, which were analyzed using template analysis, show common ways and similar experiences and understanding of integrating family and career life as female non-traditional expatriates across cultures. Differences remain, however, because of conditions in the local environment.

Business Travel from the Traveller’s Perspective: Stress, Stimulation and Normalization

For growing numbers of businesspeople, managers and public officials, work involves travel. This study investigates what business travel means to travellers. What are their experiences of travel and what are the consequences of travel for their professional and personal lives? Qualitative interviews with frequent business travellers and corporate travel managers show that travel may be both stressful and stimulating. It may be associated with physical and psychological strain, increased workloads and difficulties in balancing work and private life, but also with enriching experiences, social and professional status and a cosmopolitan identity. It may also promote travellers’ professional careers. However, in some respects, an ongoing normalization of travel seems to have moderating effects on both stress and stimulation among travellers. This normalization occurs on three different levels: the societal, organizational and individual.

Business Travelers' Risk Perception of Infectious Diseases: Where Are the Knowledge Gaps, and How Serious Are They?

Many studies have explored the risk perception of frequent business travelers (FBT) toward malaria. However, less is known about their knowledge of other infectious diseases. This study aimed to identify knowledge gaps by determining the risk perception of FBT toward 11 infectious diseases. Our retrospective web-based survey assessed the accuracy of risk perception among a defined cohort of FBT for 11 infectious diseases. We used logistic regression and the chi-square test to determine the association of risk perception with source of travel advice, demographic variables, and features of trip preparation. Surveys were returned by 63% of the 608 self-registered FBT in Rijswijk, and only the 328 completed questionnaires that adhered to our inclusion criteria were used for analysis. The majority (71%) sought pre-travel health advice and used a company health source (83%). Participants seeking company travel health advice instead of external had significantly more accurate risk knowledge (p = 0.03), but more frequently overestimated typhoid risk (odds ratio = 2.03; 95% confidence interval = 1.23-3.34). While underestimation of disease risk was on average 23% more common than overestimation, HIV risk was overestimated by 75% of FBT. More accurate knowledge among FBT seeking company health advice demonstrates that access to in-company travel clinics can improve risk perception. However, there is an obvious need for risk knowledge improvement, given the overall underestimation of risk. The substantial overestimation of HIV risk is probably due to both public and in-company awareness efforts. Conversely, typhoid risk overestimation was statistically associated with seeking company health advice, and therefore specifically reflects the high focus on typhoid fever within Shell's travel clinic. This study serves as a reminder that a knowledge gap toward infectious diseases besides malaria still exists. Our article will explore the future requirements for more targeted education and research among FBT in companies worldwide.

Travel time and working time: What business travellers do when they travel, and why

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.

Tourists’ Perceived Risks Toward Overt Safety Measures

This study aims to assess tourists’ perceptions toward overt safety measures. The study segments tourists into four different groups depending on their perceptions toward overt safety measures, type of accommodation, and purpose of visit. A total of 476 respondents were segmented into special occasion tourists, leisure mid-priced tourists, frequent business travelers, and backpackers. A two-step cluster analysis and ANOVA were used to analyze the data. The results show that, all clusters, except the backpacker segment, feel quite safe toward overt safety measures. Whereas the special occasion tourists at luxury hotels felt the safest toward overt safety measures, they concurrently were the most likely discouraged with too-stringent overt safety measures. Although most tourists feel safe about overt safety measures, a stringent increase in safety measures could frighten them because such measures could create a false perception that something untoward has previously happened at the destination. Hence, the old claim that stringent safety measures frighten tourists remains a classic rule of thumb. Therefore, hoteliers must find an appropriate balance in the extent of overt safety measures so as not to exceed the acceptable safety threshold of tourists.

Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Toward Malaria Risk and Prevention Among Frequent Business Travelers of a Major Oil and Gas Company

Despite significant morbidity and mortality among business travelers due to malaria, very little has been published on knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) toward malaria risk. The aim of this study was to assess KAP among frequent international business travelers (FBT) and to identify recommendations for improving malaria prevention that could be applied to the wider FBT community in occupational health. A retrospective web-based survey was conducted in 2005 among self-registered FBT of an oil and gas company based in the Netherlands. The survey was completed by 328 of the 608 self-registered FBT (54%). Fifty-four percent of respondents had visited a high-risk area for malaria. Most respondents (96%) were experienced travelers; the majority (71%) sought health advice before their trip and made use of a company health resource. Fever was recognized as a malaria symptom by all FBT; travel to high-risk malaria areas was correctly identified by 96%, and 99% of these travelers adhered to use of adequate personal protective measures. The proportion of travelers carrying appropriate anti-malaria drug regimen was positively associated with receiving company advice among FBT traveling to high-risk destinations (RR = 2.10, 95% CI: 1.21-3.67), but not for those traveling to low- or no-risk destinations. Only 8% (14) of those going to a high-risk area were not carrying malaria prophylaxis. One in five of FBT traveling to no-risk areas were unnecessarily carrying malaria prophylaxis. The majority of KAP results were excellent. We postulate that a company culture with a strong focus on health, safety, security, and environment can positively contribute to high KAP scores. Notwithstanding the excellent findings, this study also provides a cautionary tale for company health functions against overprescribing of malaria prophylaxis. It demonstrates the need for constant review and audit of adherence to quality criteria.

Frequent business travelers across Europe: Career aspirations and implications

AbstractIn human resource management (HRM) and career research, the focus has typically been on traditional expatriates (e.g., Mayrhofer, Sparrow, & Zimmermann, 2008). Even though alternative forms of international mobility, such as flexpatriates (i.e., frequent business travelers and international commuters; Mayerhofer, Hartmann, & Herbert, 2004), have become quite common, this trend still seems to be neglected in research (e.g., Harris, Brewster, & Erten, 2005). This empirical article presents career aspirations of Austrian flexpatriates as well as perceived consequences of frequent flying on future careers, private life, and well‐being. The results are compared with selected theoretical concepts from career and career‐success literature. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Spouses' Experiences of Their Partners' Absences Due to Frequent Business Travel

This study explores spouses' experiences of their partners' absence due to frequent business travel. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with five male and five female participants, all of whom had at least one child living with and dependent on them. The findings indicate that respondents generally do not find their spouses' absence to be inherently stressful. However, negative outcomes were more common than positive ones. Various dynamics operate in the remaining spouses' appraisal of the situation. The main coping resources utilised included work flexibility and social support. Spouses used both problem and emotion-focused coping strategies to cope with their partners' absence. Women in the sample tended to make greater use of coping strategies as well as having more extensive and varied coping repertoires, particularly with respect to emotion-focused coping.

In the air again: frequent flyer relationship programmes and business travellers' quality of life

AbstractThis research explores whether frequent flyer programmes somehow add to the quality of life of the frequent business traveller (defined in this study as business flyers who had flown round trip 26 or more times in the past 12 months). A questionnaire was mailed to subscribers of a newsletter for members of frequent air and hotel programmes. Results indicated that frequent flyer programmes contribute positively to frequent business travellers' lifestyles and to their quality of life, perhaps by countervailing some of the negative aspects of frequent business travel. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.