Business travel and mobile workers

Abstract

Transportation activity generated by businesses has been analyzed mainly with reference to freight flows and commuting trips. The area of employee business trips has been largely ignored, even though the literature -particularly that dealing with industrial economics -has endeavored to show both the central role played by face-toface encounters in economic contact, and the decreased need for proximity as a prerequisite to such contact taking place in the first place. This paper takes this literature, both theoretical and empirical, as its base, and then aims to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the need for business travel and the profiles of mobile workers. It also investigates how the workers involved perceive, and how companies account for such mobility.

How to cope with mobility expectations in academia: Individual travel strategies of tenured academics at Ghent University, Flanders

“…Urry's (2007, p. 230) observation that network ties can only be sustained through periodic meetings to "cement the weak ties." This minimal amount of travel is needed to ensure the transfer of tacit knowledge or the knowhow and know-who during informal meetings (see Aguiléra, 2008;Elliott and Urry, 2010 To ensure this highly valued access to opportunities in the future, there is a consensus that academics need to be regularly "in the picture" internationally. This is especially true for younger researchers who still have to put themselves on the map and who still need to get involved in international networks.…”

“…Extensive physical travel has thus burgeoned and evolved "from a luxury form of mobility for the wealthy few into a contemporary form of hypermobility" (Gössling & Peeters, 2007, p.402.). Although business travel may constitute only a limited part of all corporeal mobility, being able to travel frequently has proven to be a very important asset for workers in today's globalizing economy (see Aguiléra, 2008;Millar & Salt, 2008;Wickham & Vecchi, 2009Beaverstock et al, 2009;Faulconbridge et al, 2009). Many have argued that despite the various possibilities of "virtual travel" (i.e., the use of information and communication technologies), certain work practises, especially those that are informal and tacit, simply require corporeal proximity Urry, 2007;Aguiléra, 2008;Beaverstock et al, 2009;Faulconbridge et al, 2009), which Urry (2007) referred to as the "mobility burden."…”

The importance of MPIS on RK for further ITS implementation in Malaysia

“…Moreover, the results from this research would assist bus service managers to better serve their customers, monitor, and develop service quality to achieve the highest level of their passenger's satisfaction. Aguilera (2008) explained that traveler information should be provided before or during a trip. The pre-trip information provides a way to plan path, the mode of travel, and identify stops along the way.…”

International business travel in a digital world economy

“…Defined by Aguilera (2008Aguilera ( pp1109-1110 as 'work-related travel to an irregular place of work (for example: to visit a client, participate in a conference or attend a meeting)', business travel has become one of the defining features of working life for millions of people around the globe and a normal part of their professional routines. As Welch, Welch and Worm (2007, pp174), specialists in the field of international human resource management, • Business travel has improved global productivity, yielding a rate of investment of 10:1;…”

“…Between 1992 and 2007, there was an average year on year growth rate of about +5% for both overseas residents entering the UK and UK residents leaving the country for business purposes (ONS, 2008). In 2008.124 million business visits were made to the UK by overseas residents and 8.920 million overseas trips were made by UK residents.…”