The global luxury travel market is in a constant state of flux, and traditional players have to adapt to the rising challenges in various areas of their business model. As new players emerge, using technology and the global reach of the Internet and social media to reach out to a discerning group of travelers, they speak to the changing expectations and behavior of international consumers. Our study will shed light on these consumption and travel patterns, on ways new disruptors in the field of luxury hospitality successfully differentiate themselves from their more traditional competitors and on the implications this will have on the business models of five-star hotels in Switzerland. While limited in scope, this study will provide insight relevant to academics and professionals in the field of luxury hospitality.

Background In this research, we want to explore the role of experiential marketing in improving patients’ satisfaction through valuable hospitality management in hospital experiences. The impact of three experiential marketing dimensions on overall Satisfaction is assessed: Physical Environment, Empowerment & Dignity and Patient-Doctor Relationship. Methods 259 structured interviews were performed with patients in private and public hospitals across Italy. The research methodology is based in testing mediation and moderation effects of the selected variables. Results The study shows that: • perceived quality of Physical Environment has a positive impact on patient’s overall Satisfaction; • perceived quality of Empowerment & Dignity and perceived quality of Patient-Doctor Relationship partially mediate this relationship; • educational level is the only relevant moderator in the relationship between perceived quality of Patient-Doctor Relationship and overall Satisfaction. Conclusions: Physical Environment items are enablers of both Empowerment & Dignity and Patient – Doctor Relationship and play a significant role in offering a strong value proposition to patients. Designing a hospital, beyond technical requirements that modern medicine demands and functional relationships between different medical departments means dealing with issues like the anxiety of the patient, the stressful working environment for the hospital staff and the need to build a sustainable and healing building.

The goal of this paper is to examine whether and how brand licensing can be an appropriate marketing tool for the development of a brand strategy in footwear SMEs. The article is based on a qualitative research methodology by adopting the multiple case study approach. Main results shows that licensing proves to be effective and that a multi-stage process of development exist that is common within footwear SMEs using brand licenses.

Manganese is an alloying element that improves the hardenability of steels. It could be a valid substitute in sintered steels, increasing mechanical properties. The hardenability of three low alloy Mn steels was studied to establish the influence of manganese on the heat treatments. The Grossmann approach was adopted, which uses cylinders with different diameters to induce different gradients of cooling rate in the cross section. The correlation of microstructure and microhardness to the actual cooling rate makes the results independent on the process parameters and applicable to each industrial condition, once the actual cooling rate in the parts is known.

Ceramic-Metal Functionally Graded Materials (FGM) are of great interest for application as Thermal Barrier Coating (TBC) or Wear Resistant Coating (WRC). Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) is a promising techniques for time-saving consolidation of laminated/graduated powder systems: SPS is a pressure-assisted electrical sintering method which directly applies a pulsed DC current as heat source. In the present work, production of FGMs by means of Spark Plasma Sintering is considered; effect of sintering condition on density, hardness and fracture toughness is studied. Problems correlated to this new processing technology are discussed.