Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Hotel, Restaurant, Institution Management & Dietetics / Ki-Joon Back / Understanding association members’ meeting participation behaviors is the key to the well-attended meeting, which is a common goal of both associations and host destinations. However, little research has contributed to theoretical development in this area, and the lack of a theoretical framework has negatively influenced the validity of existing research. Thus, this study attempted to explain association members’ meeting participation behaviors, using a conceptually sound model of meeting participation, which was developed based on existing human behavior theories: the theory of reasoned action (TRA) and the theory of planned behavior (TPB). Another main objective of this study was to test the validity of the meeting participation model (MPM). By comparing the utility of three competing models (TRA, TPB, and MPM), this study confirmed the effectiveness of the meeting participation model (MPM) in explaining association members’ intentions to attend the annual meeting. The proposed meeting participation model was empirically examined using the data collected from 245 members of the International Council on Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Education (CHRIE). The results of model development revealed that the MPM fits the data very well, providing a systematic view of the decision-making process of association meeting participation. In addition, the findings of the model comparison using the structural equation modeling (SEM) revealed that all three competing models successfully provide a theoretical base for understanding association members’ meeting participation behaviors. Specifically, the MPM provided a fuller understanding of meeting participation intention by adding two predictor variables (destination image and past meeting participation experience) to the TPB. This study is the first research effort to investigate what makes association members attend, or not attend, association meetings based on theoretical frameworks. TRA and TPB provided the necessary theoretical ground to develop the meeting participation model (MPM). By adding a domain specific predictor variable (destination image) and a non-volitional habitual construct (past experience) to the original latent constructs conceptualized in pure TRA/TPB models, the MPM emerged as a theoretically strong and parsimonious framework for understanding association members’ meeting participation behaviors. The results of the current study present a strong step toward providing practical as well as theoretical implications for future convention research.

The purpose of this thesis is to identify the destination site selection criteria for internationalconferences from the perspectives of the three main players of the conference industry,conference buyers (organizers and delegates) and suppliers. Additionally, the researchidentifies the strengths and weaknesses of the congress cities of Stockholm and Vienna.Through a comparison with Vienna, the top city for hosting international conferences, a roadmap for Stockholm has been designed, to strengthen its congress tourism opportunities, thus,obtaining a higher status as an international congress city. This qualitative research hascombined both primary and secondary data methods, through semi-standardized expertinterviews and secondary studies respectively, to fulfil the study’s aim. The data have beenanalysed by applying the techniques of qualitative content analysis; the secondary dataadopting an inductive approach according to Mayring (2003) while the expert interviewsusing a deductive approach according to Meuser & Nagel (2009). The conclusions of thesecondary data have been further compared and contrasted with the outcomes of the primarydata, to propose fresh discoveries, clarifications, and concepts related to the site selectioncriteria for international conferences, and for the congress tourism industry of Stockholm. Theresearch discusses the discoveries of the site selection criteria, the implications of thestrengths and weaknesses of Stockholm in comparison to Vienna, recommendations forStockholm via a road map, and future research areas in detail. The findings andrecommendation, not only provide specific steps and inceptions that Stockholm as aninternational conference city can apply, but also propose findings, which can aid conferencebuyers and suppliers to cooperate, to strengthen their marketing strategies and developsuccessful international conferences and destinations to help achieve a greater competitiveadvantage.

Over the past decade, many studies have provided some understanding on what influences association members‟ decision to attend a meeting; however, more systematic and theoretical research is necessary. The decision making process of attendees is a complicated human behavior practice. The major contribution of this study is adopting the sense of community (SOC) model from psychology to gain a better understanding of the attendee behavior. By doing so, this study will add a theoretical foundation to the existing research in the meeting industry. Also, this study will contribute to the SOC research in psychology by applying the concept to a different setting. This study investigates whether annual conferences build a SOC among association members. First, the SOC of association members at the conference will be analyzed. Second, the influence of SOC on members‟ satisfaction with the conference will be studied. Lastly, the direct and indirect relationship between SOC and future intentions (i.e., return to next meeting, membership renewal, and membership recommendation) will be examined. Data was collected through an intercept survey approach at three annual conferences of national/international associations. The questionnaire consisted of four sections: sense of community, satisfaction with the conference, future intentions, and member profile. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to test the factor structure and structural equation modeling was used to examine the relationships, and Spearman‟s rank order correlation was used to see the strength of the relationship between respondent characteristics and sense of community. The results showed that sense of community was a strong predictor of future iv intentions. Implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research are discussed in the final chapter.