On the morning of November 3rd, Professor Li Xiang of Temple University was invited to give a lecture titled “Making Value-added (Theoretical) Contributions” to the School of Management. The lecture is one of a series of Lectures by Famous Experts of the School, hosted by Professor Sun Ping of the Department of Culture and Tourism, and attended by faculty and students of the Department.
Thinking about the fragmentation problem of tourism knowledge production in the past 50 years, Professor Li pointed out that the world has entered a new phase of turbulence and transformation, and changes unseen in a century are accelerating. Many scholars began to reflect on the significance and value of the research, think about how to make substantive contributions to the progress of mankind, and put forward the topic of “Making Value-added (Theoretical) Contributions” in the context. The topic is introduced in three aspects, namely, “What are theoretical contributions”, “Theoretical contributions in thesis writing”, and “Summary and personal reflection”. With the help of a lot of examples from literature and personal experience, Professor Li introduced what are theoretical contributions, how to make theoretical contributions, three important criteria for judging theoretical contributions, how to write a paper with theoretical contributions, and other important issues. Finally, he called on tourism academics to focus on conceptual thinking, embraced the idea that theoretical contributions should be important, interesting and practical, and emphasized that the importance of maintaining the creativity of looking forward and the alertness of looking outward. The style of the lecture was humorous and the content was rich in philosophy, which aroused the resonance and reflection of participants. During the exchange session, students left messages or spoke to ask questions, and Professor Li discussed topics such as the selection of reference books, the experience of writing and publishing theory-constructing papers, the selection of variables for empirical papers, the cultivation of conceptual thinking, and the path of academic advancement for undergraduates, etc.
Li Xiang, Professor (tenured faculty) of the Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management at Temple University, Director of the U.S.-Asia Center for Tourism and Hospitality Research, and Senior Researcher of Arthur McGonigal, is a globally renowned expert in international destination branding and traveler loyalty research. He has published more than 240 papers/chapters in various categories (including more than 90 papers in SSCI journals) and is ranked second globally in the total number of tourism papers published in six top tourism and hospitality journals during 2010 to 2019. He is currently an associate editor of Tourism Management (IF:12.879) and an editorial board member of more than ten journals in the field of tourism, hospitality, and leisure, such as the Journal of Travel Research. He has received more than $2.3 million in funding from the World Travel & Tourism Council, the U.S. Department of Commerce, Destination Canada, China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the U.S. Travel Association (USTA), the National Tour Association (NTA), and Disney. The research results have been widely reported by the New York Times, Washington Post, The Economist, Forbes, the Globe and Mail, and other multinational media.
