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Founded in 2015, the Impact Valuation Roundtable (IVR) is an informal group of companies who wish to operationalise the emerging field of Impact Valuation. IVR participants consider Impact Valuation a groundbreaking approach to measure and value the effects of business activities on the health and well-being of people and the planet – in economic, environmental, social and human dimensions.

Impact Valuation can support large and small companies alike. It uses the language of business, supports strategic decision-making by adding fact-based insights into business operations and strengthens the communication and engagement of business with stakeholders. This is showcased in case studies from adidas, Ambuja Cements Limited, BASF, Cementos Argos, Maersk, Natura, Novartis, Syngenta and UPM.

Although there is an increased recognition of the benefits of Impact Valuation, comparability in the calculation and communication of the results of Impact Valuation assessments across companies is one of the key challenges to the credibility and uptake of the concept. The IVR supports and encourages the development of consistent frameworks and standards that strive for maximum commonality across industries, pragmatism in their application, and allow for scaling up.

As importance and interest rises, the IVR continues to welcome other practitioners willing to contribute knowledge and experience to accelerate convergence and mainstreaming of Impact Valuation.

In early 2017 I was watching YouTube, and being bounced around by its algorithmic recommendations. One suggestion appearing down the side bar column of jpegs was MARROW, from Anohni’s 2016 album Hopelessness. It figures a black background and foregrounds an ageing, smiling, bejewelled woman lip-syncing to the song. She is the American artist Lorraine O’Grady. Watching it felt odd, as if something was `out of place’.

Anohni speaks through her, using ventriloquist tactics to displace her own body and O’Grady’s voice. This interested me. It was the first time I had been presented with the body of an ageing woman without knowing what she looked like in youth (unlike Madonna or Aretha Franklin for example). And it was the first time I had seen lip syncing done in such an eerie fashion. The tactic is used on other music videos for tracks taken from the album where ageing women and women of colour are centre stage.

Using the idea of a place that it is ‘out of time’, in that the music videos are set in a blank space and the lip- syncing upsets the idea of a single sutured speaking author, the chapter explores the idea of `queer temporality’ by using Judith Halberstam’s 2005 work. It suggests that the music videos are potentially transgressive in their presentation of a non-normative and fractured bodies. It uses work from ageing studies (Baars, 2012) and trans-ageing (Moglen, 2008) to suggest the transgressive potential of Anonhi’s music videos in how they position transgendered voices and ageing bodies.

Today, collaborative fashion approaches are a popular method of reimaging and positioning in contested markets. Fashion collaborations see brands, designers, artists, and companies come together, offering consumers new, alternative products. While shopping continues to be a popular leisure and touristic activity, it is becoming comparable across cities. At present, scholars and practitioners have paid scant attention to collaborative fashion consumption (Botsman & Rogers, 2010). This chapter considers how destinations should become involved with fashion collaborations and drop culture from the offset, establishing specific events for tourists to experience. Ultimately, changing the culture and behavior of shopping tourists to one of event experience and not solely product ownership.

This chapter treats the luxury hotel concept and practice and its recent trends in the tourism industry. This niche market is expanding rapidly with changing global income structures and increasing complexity of the hospitality sector. Its clientele comprises quality-seeking, prestige-striving, and high-spending customers. The chapter first explores the concept of luxury in relation to hotels. It further groups various associated assets into tangibles and intangibles to discuss their recent trends across the world. It is suggested that companies and destinations active in the luxury hotel market or contemplating entry take these trends into account to gain and/or maintain competitiveness.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the process of analysing online discussion and argue for the merits of mixed methods. Much research of online participation and e-learning has been either message-focused or person-focused. The former covers methodologies such as content and discourse analysis, the latter interviewing and surveys. The paper discusses the strengths and weaknesses of these approaches in the context of a study of an online social educational network for gifted students.

The design of this study included the use of content analysis, visualisation diagrams, interviews and questionnaire survey to understand the nature of online discussion and the experience of taking part.

It was found that the message-focused analysis provided insight into participation and interaction patterns, whereas the surveys and interviews enabled access to members’ preferences and attitudes.

The contribution of the paper is to argue for a mixed approach in which different types of data can be compared and contrasted. While the use of mixed methods in social research in general has long been suggested, its adoption in the field of online learning is yet to be widely established, possibly because of its time-consuming and demanding nature. Despite these constraints, a mixed-methods approach is advocated, as it allows for a comprehensive picture of the use of the network and the experience of online participation.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential for utilizing a unique resource, such as the Historic Portsmouth Harbor, in order to differentiate the local brand.

The objective of the paper is to examine the role of unique local resources and attractions as a source of competitive advantage through destination branding.

The main findings of the paper indicate that policy makers and destination managers should more proactively utilize the unique elements of the Historic Portsmouth Harbor “brand,” as opposed to the commonplace “waterfront city” brand. This could be achieved by staging events of international significance or through a bid for gaining world heritage status. In addition to that, the paper argues that in order for this branding initiative to have a higher impact, a prominent high profile individual should be appointed. This individual could act as a leader or “brand ambassador” in order to attract stakeholder interest and participation.

The paper could be of value to destination managers and marketing organizations in a local, sub-regional and regional level.

This chapter discusses the combination of structure plans and urban megaprojects. It shows the characteristics and shortcomings of this combination in different urban contexts, in Western as well as in emerging countries. The chapter draws on case studies of megaprojects and urban planning processes in different cities: Abu Dhabi, Milan, and others. This chapter suggests that the tensions between branded megaprojects and structure plans are not due only to economic, planning, and political constraints. The publicly stated rationale of this combination is to trigger and harness the real estate market in order not only to create private revenue, but also to contribute to the overall city development. In many cases, this rationale induced significant changes not only in terms of architectural design and financial arrangements of individual projects, but also in terms of the urban structure. Reflecting over current global trends in urban development, these findings seem relevant both for reconsidering the roles of architectural branding and the weakening of large-scale urban planning devices in Western cities and for allowing emerging countries to learn from past experiences in this field.

The purpose of this paper is to take the case of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as a starting point for the analysis of the blend between the notions of halal and luxury in the Arab region because the UAE presents an interesting multicultural yet Islamic blend, which has yet not been investigated. Scholarly calls for the assessment of the relationship between consumption and wellbeing have raised interest in conspicuous consumption research. The global phenomenon of luxury consumption has drawn researcher interest at recent times. Despite consumer affluence in the oil-rich Arabian Gulf, research into this phenomenon at this emerging region to-date is still lacking. As the Arabian Gulf is also particularly Islamic, a significant body of literature has addressed halal purchasing yet had failed to examine the intersections between luxury and halal consumption.

The research takes a qualitative methodological approach utilizing unstructured observation and content analysis of 138 visuals collected from prominent shopping malls in Dubai and Abu-Dhabi during the occasion of the minor Islamic Eid following Ramadan.

The results show that the UAE consumer culture combines authenticity with modernity portraying highly savvy cosmopolitan consumers sharing the global values of urbanization within the halal parameters.

The limitations relate to the utilization of the qualitative methodological approach; hence, the research findings need to be generalized with caution to relevant contexts. This research should be regarded as a critical starting point in analyzing the syllogisms between the notions of halal and affluence.

The findings are relevant to consumer culture research which looks at the implications of modern consumption within the boundaries of halal. The research presents a critical approach and questioning of the overlaps between halal consumption, responsible consumption and luxury consumption in a unique multicultural and affluent setting which is the UAE.

The present paper invites academics and practitioners to introspect into the dimensions of responsible consumption, luxury consumption and halal consumption. It asks the critical metaphorical question of whether halal and luxury consumption are two faces of the same coin.

The research concludes with raising critical questions around the boundaries of luxury consumption from an Islamic perspective, thereby combining elements of religion and cultural approaches to Islamic marketing.

The purpose of this research is to identify the sustainable practices of luxury fashion brands through their communications via official reporting documents to classify practices used for communicating sustainability performance.

This research uses the qualitative content analysis of Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)-oriented sustainability reports to examine the sustainable practices of 31 companies within the top 100 global luxury brands.

The authors classify the sample into four clusters: sustainability driven, sustainability newcomers, sustainability potential and sustainability passive. Results indicate that companies in this sector are focused on the issue of sustainability even though there is a remarkable fragmentation in terms of practices.

The study contributes to a better understanding of sustainability reporting activities and approaches in the fashion luxury industry by describing best practices and the effect of sustainability in corporate communications.