Editorial

This issue of the Irish Journal of Management features the first article in our “Research Insights” series. The “Research Insights” is a series of invited pieces by distinguished scholars in the field of management. The articles offer a critique and/or retrospective contribution on issues and debates relevant to the field of management in a short, thought provoking manner. The first contributors to the series are Prof. David G. Collings and Ms. Ruthanna Sheeran from Dublin City University in their contribution titled “Global mobility in a post-covid world”. Collings and Sheeran address one of the key issues in the field of international human resource management (IHRM), namely the impact of Covid-19 on global mobility. In particular, the focus of their “Research Insights” article is on the challenges facing global mobility – these include questions around what work can be done remotely, people's willingness to accept an international assignment and health and safety concerns. The article is a timely contribution to a key contemporary debate and raises a number of issues as areas for future research.

The regular articles in this edition of Irish Journal of Management offer new insights which are particularly relevant in the context of heightened societal tensions internationally and also Covid-19. A strong area of exploration in recent editions of IJM has been labour market trends and this continues with an article from Tom Turner and Christine Cross which examines the experiences of immigrants in Ireland. Their article extends research on immigrants by analysing whether first and second generation immigrants have similar or divergent experiences in relation to political and social integration. This is an important issue in the context of rising right wing and anti-immigrant sentiment in some EU countries. Staying with a focus on Ireland is an article by Samantha Morris, Tomás Dwyer and Julie Mulligan which investigates tourist attitudes to local food on destination choice, travel motivation, satisfaction. This article has heightened relevance in context of Covid-19 as tourism has plummeted globally. In recent months, with expectations about a vaccine roll-out, attention has turned to discussions about impending competition between countries and regions as they seek to attract tourists back to their localities. The article highlights the importance of tourists’ interest in local food, thereby offering a pathway for tourism bodies to market destinations. Also in the tourism field but with an international perspective is a case study of Airbnb by Caoimhe Walsh, Deepak Saxena and Laurent Muzellec. This teaching article considers the evolution of Airbnb and raises contemporary issues and tensions that have accompanied the rapid development of a large-scale digital platform and it assesses the impact of Covid-19 on the business. As a case study, the article offers useful teaching questions and additional teaching notes are available from the authors.

This issue also marks the end of our term as Co-Editors of the Irish Journal of Management. We are grateful for the opportunity to play a role in this prestigious journal, one that has a long history of publishing management related research in Ireland and internationally. We would sincerely like to thank the various Irish Academy of Management Councils during our term, the various Editorial Boards that supported us, contributors, reviewers, publishers, sponsors and readers of the Irish Journal of Management. Finally, we would like to wish Dr. Marian Crowley-Henry (Maynooth University) and Dr. Kristel Miller (Ulster University) the very best as incoming Co-Editors. Both Dr. Crowley-Henry and Dr. Miller bring a wealth of experience to the role and we look forward to the continued development of the Irish Journal of Management under their leadership.