Training exercise in interpreting causal maps in tourism research

Description
The purpose of this paper is to describe how to go about interpreting causal maps and
provides an introduction to the literature of causal mapping.

International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research
Training exercise in interpreting causal maps in tourism research
Arch Woodside
Article information:
To cite this document:
Arch Woodside, (2007),"Training exercise in interpreting causal maps in tourism research", International
J ournal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, Vol. 1 Iss 2 pp. 175 - 179
Permanent link to this document:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17506180710751704
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Training exercise in interpreting
causal maps in tourism research
Arch Woodside
Department of Marketing, Carroll School of Management, Boston College,
Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe how to go about interpreting causal maps and
provides an introduction to the literature of causal mapping.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper includes two international causal maps showing the
favorable antecedent conditions of Germans towards visiting Britain and the negative antecedent
conditions of Brits towards visiting Germany. The paper provides training exercise questions with a
solution in interpreting causal maps.
Findings – The training helps make implicit, automatic, thinking explicit and provides clues for the
marketing strategist of actions necessary to changing long-term negative implicit associations that
potential visitors retrieve regarding tourism destinations.
Research limitations/implications – This report does not include the results of applying the
exercise in executive training programs. Does completing the exercise help improve decision making?
Practical implications – Executives need to experience speci?c training exercises to improve
decision-making skills. Obvious solutions usually only become so only following experiencing
the process of making decisions; such training exercises as the one this paper presents builds on this
premise.
Originality/value – This paper breaks new ground in participative learning by executives to
improve their skills by solving real-life tourism marketing problems.
Keywords Tourism, Research, Germany, United Kingdom
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
This report introduces to causal mapping in the study of tourism behavior (Woodside
et al., 2004). The ?rst section states the premise for preparing causal maps. The second
section de?nes causal mapping. The third section includes an example causal map of
antecedent variables affecting how Germans think about visiting Britain. The fourth
section explicates the implicit propositions of causal mapping. The ?fth section
includes training questions for the reader to answer to increase skills in interpreting
causal maps. The sixth section provides answers to the training exercises.
The premise for preparing causal maps
Weak psychological ties stimulate or inhibit tourism behavior. Many of these ties are
held unconsciously (Bargh et al., 1996), and some ties may be retrievable automatically
when thinking about a tourism-related proposal. Figure 1 shows what the previous two
sentences express. Both tourists and researchers may fail to recognize the importance
of weak ties leading to behavior when attempting to explain travel or nontravel to
speci?c destinations. This training exercise looks at visualizations of both travel and
nontravel reports of tourism behavior.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1750-6182.htm
Causal maps in
tourism research
175
Received November 2006
Revised January 2007
Accepted February 2007
International Journal of Culture,
Tourism and Hospitality Research
Vol. 1 No. 2, 2007
pp. 175-179
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1750-6182
DOI 10.1108/17506180710751704
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De?ning causal mapping
Causal mapping of the stories tourists tell about their trips – their lived experiences is
a method helpful for uncovering/identifying weak ties affecting the behavior in their
reports (Woodside et al., 2007). Causal mapping is applicable for visualizing news story
reports on the antecedents, behaviors, and outcomes – such as the causes, tourism
activities, and levels of expenditure and satisfaction that relate to leisure travel.
De?nition: a causal map (Huff and Jenkins, 2002) is an illustration using boxes and
arrows of relationships found in reports (stories) – causal maps sometimes indicate
strength of relationships by the thickness of the arrows in the illustration; causal maps
sometimes indicate time in hours, days, months, or decades by organizing the
illustration by phases or including units of time in the boxes (Tufte, 1990).
Causal map of Germans thinking about leisure travel to Britain
Figure 1 is a causal map that includes a characteristic in the national character of
Germans (box 2) that affects the automatic image retrieval of the tourist brand, Britain,
by Germans – the positive, multiple-surface, image of Britain helps to stimulate lots of
holiday visits to Britain by Germans. Germans are unlikely to report explicitly that
TV news reports relating to British culture in?uences their plans to visit Britain – such
in?uences are likely held subconsciously, implicitly rather than explicitly. The
research literature on customer thinking supports the proposition that most thinking
occurs implicitly not explicitly (Zaltman, 2003).
The actions of ZDF (box 5) nurture this image as well as help to keep the brand
easily retrievable (box 4) among Germans. Note that three separate nodes appear that
help stimulate leisure trips to Britain by Germans – nodes 2, 3, and 5.
Figure 1.
Tourism exporting
behaviour of Germans
visiting Britain
3. Image of Britain
held by Germans:
• Tradition
• Pageantry
• Liberating chaos
(t = 1960 to 2007)
• Germans
(t = present)
5. Marketing/ environmental force
affecting visits: ZDF, German state-owned
TV, puts out 20 stories a week on British
news and culture (t = -1950 to 2007)
6. Visiting Britain:
2.5 million Germans
visit Britain annually
(t = 2007)
+
+
+
4. Top-of-mind
awareness of Britain
as foreign holiday
Destination
(t = 2007)
+
+
2. Relevant national
characteristic: high
culture important to
German middle-class
(t = 1965 to present)
+
+
+
+
Source: Original drawing
based on news stories
(e.g., Economist (2003)).
Note: thick arrows indicate dominant influence
IJCTHR
1,2
176
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The impact of national character is one of those background factors that often go
unnoticed in identifying inhibitors and drivers affecting tourism behavior. For
example, The Economist (2003, p. 49) points out that the British “don’t mind the
BMWs, the Volkswagens, and Miele dishwashers, but they are not much interested in
the high culture so important to the German middle class.”
Explicating implicit relationships
Causal mapping is helpful in uncovering streams of antecedents and multiple paths
that encourage or block speci?c outcomes. For example, antecedents may in?uence
other antecedent variables that consequently affect tourism behavior – certain
antecedent variables may have a strong indirect, but no direct, in?uence on tourism
behavior. Figure 1 shows box 5 having an indirect in?uence on the relationship of
Germans to visiting Britain but no direct relationship. Box 5 affects the relationship
between boxes 1 and 6 in indirect paths – box 5 in?uences boxes 3 and 4 and both
boxes 3 and 4 in?uence the relationship between boxes 1 and 6.
Thus, causal mapping implicitly illustrates the proposal that observable behavior is
the result of multiple paths of multiple layers of antecedent variables. This proposal
runs counter to the more simplistic view that key success factors exists that in?uence
behavior. Causal mapping implies that certain factors may serve to block or enhance a
stream of antecedent linkages leading to a behavior but that no one factor alone is a
key to success in encouraging a speci?c behavior.
Causal mapping helps to capture the complexity and the dynamics in implicit and
explicit thinking processes (streams of unconscious and conscious thoughts) within
contexts that affect an individual’s behavior. Rather than only identifying the importance
of antecedent factors in affecting behavior; causal mapping illustrates how antecedent
factors ?t together – affect each other – and the multiple routes leading to behavior.
Figure 2 shows a second causal map. This map summarizes the multiple streams of
antecedent factors affecting British leisure travel to Germany. The advanced training
exercise asks for a paragraph report that summarizes Figure 2 in 100 words or less.
Training exercise questions
(1) Which of the following statements most accurately re?ects the ?ndings in the
causal map of Figure 1?
(a) Advertising is a key tool for building national brand image.
(b) Top-of-mind-awareness towards a country as a leisure destination is a
useful measure of preference toward the country.
(c) The impact of publicity on tourism behavior is felt immediately.
(d) Britain has little to offer for German visitors.
(2) In Figure 1 what is the major antecedent affecting the image of Britain held by
Germans?
(a) No way to tell.
(b) Top-of-mind-awareness of Britain as a leisure travel destination.
(c) Prior trips to Britain by Germans
(d) Marketing and environmental forces such as TV programming.
Causal maps in
tourism research
177
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(3) Figure 1 suggests that the Germans’ ?rst thoughts about Britain express which
of the following images?
(a) It rains all day, everyday, in Britain.
(b) I can let myself go in Britain, it is crazy – everybody is free to do what they
want.
(c) The British love to gamble and eat ?sh-and-chips.
(d) Britain is the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution.
(4) Which of the following streams represents the most indirect path shown in
Figure 1?
(a) 5 !4 !3 !1.
(b) 5 !3 !4 !2 !1 !6.
(c) 5 !3 !4 !1 !6.
(d) All of the above.
(5) Advanced training exercise. Write a paragraph report of six to ten sentences of 100
words or less describingthe key?ndings inFigure 2 ontourismexportingbehavior
of British visiting Germany. Figure 2 appears after Figure 1 in the exercise.
Answers to exercise questions
(1) b.
(2) d.
(3) b.
(4) c.
Figure 2.
Tourism exporting
behaviour of British
visiting Germany
2. Current dominant image
of Germany held by British:
• Hitler
• World War II
• Horror & dark glamour
1. British
6. Marketing/environmental
force affecting visits:
• Cheaper air flights
• 80% of history British
A- Level students study
Nazi Germany
• 12 programs on TV per
week about WW II
8. Visiting Germany:
.6 million Brits
visit Germany
annually
+
_
_
5. Prior dominant image
of
Germany held by British:
• Home of Romanticism
• Land of Schiller, Goethe,
and Thomas Mann
?
+
9.
Brits visiting
France:
7.4 million annually;
Brits visiting Spain:
8.2 million annually
+
3. Relevant national
characteristic: Brits
much lower interest in
high culture compared
to Germans
+
4. Marketing /
Environmental
Force
Affecting
Visits:
German
Exhibitions
In London,
e.g., Albrecht
Durer
+
?
7. Brand imprinting:
First foreign package
holiday a tour of
Germany organized
by Thomas Cook
In 1855
+
+
?
Note: thick arrows indicate dominant influence
IJCTHR
1,2
178
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(5) Few Brits visit Germany. Brits now consider Germany a land of dark forces;
this image forms among the British in their youth in school and from watching
continuing TV reports about Nazi Germany – World War II continues to be
studied extensively in secondary school in Britain as well as in TV
programming in Britain. The British have a much lower interest in high culture
in comparison to Germans; the older image of Romanticism that Brits attached
to Germany is dead now for most Brits (word count ¼ 85).
References
Bargh, J.A., Chen, M. and Burrows, L. (1996), “Automaticity of social behavior: direct effects of
trait construct and stereotype activation on action”, Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, Vol. 71 No. 2, pp. 230-44.
(The) Economist (2003), “Germany and Britain: bringing back the romance”, The Economist,
Vol. 368 No. 8331, 5 July, p. 49.
Huff, A.S. and Jenkins, M. (2002), Mapping Strategic Knowledge, Sage, London.
Tufte, E.R. (1990), Envisioning Information, Graphic Press, Storrs, CT.
Woodside, A.G., Caldwell, M. and Albers-Miller, N.D. (2004), “Broadening the study of tourism”,
Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, Vol. 17 No. 1, pp. 1-6, available at: www.
haworthpress.com/store/SampleText/J073.pdf
Woodside, A.G., Cruickshank, B.F. and Ning, D. (2007), “Stories visitors tell about Italian cities as
destination icons”, Tourism Management, Vol. 28, pp. 167-74.
Zaltman, G. (2003), How Customers Think, Harvard Business School Press, Cambridge, MA.
Corresponding author
Arch Woodside can be contacted at: [email protected]
Causal maps in
tourism research
179
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This article has been cited by:
1. Hugo García-Andreu, Guadalupe Ortiz, Antonio Aledo. 2015. Causal Maps and Indirect Influences
Analysis in the Diagnosis of Second-Home Tourism Impacts. International Journal of Tourism Research
17:10.1002/jtr.v17.5, 501-510. [CrossRef]
2. John R. Fairweather, Lesley M. Hunt. 2011. Can farmers map their farm system? Causal mapping and the
sustainability of sheep/beef farms in New Zealand. Agriculture and Human Values 28, 55-66. [CrossRef]
3. Yi Wang, Marcelo Royo Vela, Katherine Tyler. 2008. Cultural perspectives: Chinese perceptions of UK
hotel service quality. International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research 2:4, 312-329.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
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