Demanding business travel: The evolution of the timespaces of business practice

Abstract

To date, virtual ways of working have yet to substantially reduce demand for business travel. Emerging research claims that virtual and physical work complement rather than substitute for one another. This suggests travel demand stems from business strategies and achieving business outcomes. In building on these ideas, this chapter draws upon Schatzki’s conception of timespace to capture changes in how two UK-based global construction and engineering consulting firms organise work and the implications in terms of demand for business travel. Over time, particular forms of spatially stretched organisations which have developed are found to require the interweaving of timespaces through travel. As such, how each firm has evolved has in turn created the contemporary situation of significant and hard to reduce demand for travel.