Editorial

Citation

Jauhari, V. and Thomas, R. (2013), "Editorial", Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, Vol. 5 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/whatt.2013.40805caa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, Volume 5, Issue 3

Emerald has led the way for many years in widening access to online networked knowledge. It is now easier than ever before to reach a wide audience and WHATT’s stature – as reflected by the volume of article downloads – is growing rapidly. WHATT’s main objective is to provide a forum to explore strategic issues that matter to industry. The process is led by academics who are passionate about the question they are exploring and this theme issue highlights the importance of this form of collaboration. I have often heard practitioners question the relevance of management education and this issue provides many ways of avoiding the risks of a “reality gap” between industry and education.

I have long admired the work of co-theme editors Rhodri Thomas and the inspirational leadership and energy of Vinnie Jauhari. Exceptionally, Vinnie has held executive roles in both industry and education and she has managed university partnerships for one of the world’s leading information technology companies. The significance of their work in this theme issue is reflected in the point they make in the introductory article: “Although some excellent work has been published on this issue (university-industry partnerships) most usually in the form of case studies, we are not aware of a single publication that has sought to bring together a collection of well-informed papers on this topic.” Thank you Vinnie and Rhodri for the exceptional contribution you have made – together with your eminent team of writers, researchers and practitioners.

WHATT aims to make a practical and theoretical contribution to hospitality and tourism development and we seek to do this by using a key question to focus attention on an industry issue. If you would like to contribute to our work by serving as a WHATT theme editor, do please contact me.

Richard TeareManaging Editor, WHATT

How can effective university-industry partnerships be developed?

It has been a pleasure to assemble this WHATT theme issue and together with the writing team to explore the question: How can effective university-industry partnerships be developed?

This question has great relevance in an economic context. There are regions of the world which have witnessed enormous growth on account of the synergy between universities and industry. Celebrated examples include Silicon Valley in the US, the Bangalore region in India, and Cambridge in the UK. The growth has been attributed to effective collaboration between universities, industry and the government. The hospitality and tourism industries offer enormous opportunities for growth. In this, universities can play a key role in a number of ways: by nurturing talent, research leadership, and by encouraging lifelong learning. This theme issue argues that the vision of universities should encompass usable research and partnerships that help them to build competencies that matter to industry and to other professionals. The scope for engagement is wide ranging from short term projects to partnerships characterized by a shared vision for collaboration across a range of activities. The theme issue highlights some good practice and it also provides some provocation by critically examining notions of relevance and role expectations. The perspectives offered here are from different countries and reflect a diversity of views. We hope that you will enjoy reading this issue!

We should like to thank Richard Teare for providing us with the opportunity to lead the research on this important question and we are most grateful to all the authors for their wonderful contributions.

About the Theme Editors

Dr Vinnie Jauhari is Director, Institute for International Management and Technology (IIMT), Gurgaon, India. Prior to this she was the Region Lead for HP Labs Open Innovation Office, India where she was part of a global team bringing together expertise from around the world to foster discovery and develop next generation technologies. She was earlier Professor and Head, School of Management and Entrepreneurship at IIMT. Dr Jauhari is the founding editor of the Journal of Services Research and the author of more than 100 journal articles. Dr Jauhari has authored eight books and serves as an editorial board member and reviewer for numerous international journals.

Dr Rhodri Thomas is Professor of Tourism and Events Policy at the International Centre for Research in Events, Tourism and Hospitality (ICRETH), Leeds Metropolitan University, UK. His research interests are in the broad area of public policy, notably in the context of business influence on policy formation and the effect of policy on business behaviour. He is Editor of the Journal of Policy Research in Tourism, Leisure and Events and sits on the editorial boards of eight international journals. Rhodri has recently been re-appointed to the Economic and Social Research Council’s (ESRC) Peer Review College.

Vinnie Jauhari, Rhodri ThomasTheme Editors