| Learning objectives |
This course aims to introduce to the students the
complexity of a sharing (or platform) economy in a tourism and
hospitality context´. The specific learning objectives of the
course are the following:
- Describe and to discuss the assumptions that underlie
sustainable strategies and principles from the perspectives of
organisation theory, supply chain, sharing economy, collaborative
consumption and service management.
- Identify and analyse the relationship between relevant models,
concepts and theories from the curriculum.
- Analyse and explain the differences between commercial,
platform and cooperative hospitality service suppliers and their
sustainable management practices.
- Evaluate different organisational solutions to align business
strategies with the principles of sustainable and collaborative
management.
- Apply these models and concepts, singly or combined to fit a
concrete case situation under study and critically assess the value
and relevance of models, concepts and theories presented throughout
the course in relation to their practical application in a relevant
case.
- To follow academic conventions in the written
presentation.
|
| Course prerequisites |
| Please note: an undergraduate-level knowledge of
the basic principles of management and organisation theory is
expected of all students. |
| Examination |
|
Sharing
Economy and Tourism:
|
| Exam
ECTS |
7,5 |
| Examination form |
Home assignment - written product |
| Individual or group exam |
Individual exam |
| Size of written product |
Max. 10 pages |
| Assignment type |
Case based assignment |
| Duration |
2 weeks to prepare |
| Grading scale |
7-point grading scale |
| Examiner(s) |
One internal examiner |
| Exam period |
Winter |
| Make-up exam/re-exam |
Same examination form as the ordinary exam
if the student fails the ordinary
exam they have to do the re-exam with the same case, but new
questions regarding the case.
|
Description of the exam
procedure
The exam is an individual, home written assignment (written
product; take-home exam) with a maximum of 10 pages. The student
will receive a specific case and detailed questions regarding the
case. In a 2 weeks’ time the students should analyse the case and
apply knowledge gained through the course to answer these questions
as written in the learning
objectives.
|
|
| Course content, structure and pedagogical
approach |
|
Within less than a decade, the sharing (or platform) economy has
radically disrupted and transformed the production and consumption
of tourism. Peer accommodation rental, house swapping, ridesharing,
free guided tours, couchsurfing, dinner hosting and similar
innovative and collaborative enterprises are shaking the very
bedrock of an industrial system that has been traditionally
sustained along commercial value chains. This course will provide
you with an entry-level understanding of sharing economy operations
in the tourism and hospitality sector, and with a wide range of
tools to analyse its variegated impacts on incumbents, host
societies and destinations in different contexts. You will learn
about different types of sharing platforms, ranging from global
platform corporations (such as Airbnb and Uber) to local platform
cooperatives. You will develop in-depth knowledge platform business
strategies and sharing economy consumers. You will discuss how
public and private actors address current challenges presented by
sharing economy disruptions, including skewed competition,
misbehaving customers, precarious labour and social discrimination.
You will work with complex dilemmas related to new sustainable
practices offered by the sharing economy and in your assessment of
business models, you will address ethical, social and economic
rationales. Through exploring the character, scope,
opportunities and challenges of sharing economy disruptions, you
will gain both theoretical and practical insights into the digital
and collaborative prospects of tourism management.
This elective is a cross-disciplinary and research based course,
integrating the latest advances from sustainable operations
management, organisation theory and service management. The diverse
thematic and theoretical perspectives will be synthesised in a
competitive case format, where students in groups will explore and
solve a sustainable design challenge for a given hospitality
business. This course requires no previous knowledge of hospitality
management (but an undergraduate-level knowledge of the basic
principles of organization theory and management is expected).
|
| Description of the teaching methods |
| Through providing an overview of relevant
literature about content and methods, as well as some hands-on
insights from research practice the course is designed to be highly
interactive. The course builds upon the principles of active
learning: students are expected to comment on readings, and do
group exercises discussing cases and two workshops on sharing
economy operations. The introductory session informs about the aims
and structure of the course, the compulsory and recommended
readings as well as the workshop exercises. The final module
entails an in-class feedback session and briefing about the
exam. |
| Feedback during the teaching period |
| Students will receive feedback in various forms
during the course: For instance, through discussions in class,
obligatory group assignments with oral feedback, and written
feedback after the exam. |
| Student workload |
| Preparation |
126 hours |
| Teaching |
30 hours |
| Exam |
50 hours |
|
| Expected literature |
|
Dredge, Dianne & Gyimóthy, Szilvia
(2017). Collaborative Economy and Tourism: Perspectives,
Politics, Policies and Prospects. Cham: Springer
International. Tourism on the Verge. (available online at CBS
library)
+ 10-12 selected academic journal articles
|
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