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The issues surrounding the scholarship on children-inclusive events management are explored in depth to provide a context for this chapter. Focus then turns to the city of Winchester in the United Kingdom as a case study for potential events aimed at this age group. Through a synthesis of the findings from a thorough new research study along with emerging theories in narrative and storytelling as experience co-creation, a proposed design for a new event is put forward. It is hoped that this approach in the academic literature will encourage other researchers to include innovative proposals in their synthesis and conclusions. Finally, additional considerations of integrating city branding with a wider regional branding are explored through ethnobotany. Lessons are drawn from an example of brand management based on a city event for children in Scotland.

This chapter aims to explore the means by which rural food business networks can contribute to sustainable rural development.

This chapter explores the role of rural food business networks in sustainable rural development. This is conducted initially through a literature review. This is followed by presentation of case studies of two Irish rural food business networks; a discussion of the evident rural development brought about by the actions and activities of these networks; and an exploration of some of the factors that influence the capacity of the networks to bring about rural development.

This chapter presents evidence that demonstrates the important contribution rural business networks can make to rural development. It also finds that factors such as autonomy, embeddedness and place can influence the effectiveness of a network in bringing about and sustaining rural development.

Despite several interesting findings emerging from this research, the level to which these findings can be generalised is limited. Future research of aspects of network operation such as access to infrastructure and services would assist in ascertaining the importance of place for rural business networks and their ability to bring about rural development.

Given the significant role that networks now play in the rural development strategies of place-based organisations, this chapter has important implications for how those organisations initiate and structure those networks.

This chapter can serve as an encouragement to rural entrepreneurs to engage in networking activities to reduce rural isolation, create stronger links with their consumers and to sustain their businesses.

The focus of this chapter on factors such as embeddedness, autonomy and place and their impact on rural business networks, provides a rare opportunity to the reader to appreciate the influence of these factors on networks and their capacity to bring about and sustain rural development.

The consumer behaviour literature is evolving towards the assumption that products are inherently experiential bundles, and after all, all businesses are operating within the experienced economy. Experiences are much more advantageous for the consumers because they advance happiness or enjoyment of life (instead of survival or maintenance). Experiential purchases lead to greater happiness levels compared to material purchases. Reliance on materialism and material purchases is shown to be the reason of low happiness levels in even the most affluent countries.

In this chapter, based on theoretical as well as empirical papers, I analyse experiences and the consumption of experiences in the Turkish context. The arguments are supported by up-to-date market analysis of related industries conducted by independent market research agencies. The first section looks at the rise of experientialism in retail industries, such as in the case of shopping malls. The following sections touch upon main experiential categories such as tourism, dining and sports. Finally, the social aspects of experiences are discussed in the context of third-place experiences, and some empirical findings are presented. The chapter concludes with some recommendations for practitioners, experience designers, service providers as well as researchers.

Drawing on the confirmation–disconfirmation paradigm and the elaboration likelihood model, this study builds and tests a conceptual model that examines the effect of perceived authenticity on affective and behavioural outcomes as well as the moderating role of consumer involvement on the link between authenticity and satisfaction. The model was tested on data collected from 224 members of a theatre audience using structural equation modelling. Results indicate that perceived authenticity associated with both the core arts product and the venue enhances audience satisfaction which is a strong predictor of intention to recommend. Audience involvement with theatre moderates the link between authenticity of venue and satisfaction, with this association being stronger for low-involvement consumers.

While access to devices and connectivity remain key issues in Latin America and the Caribbean, a growing body of literature also recognises the importance of media literacies and competencies necessary to navigate an information-rich society. This media literacy movement highlights skills that lead to critical analysis and the assembly and production of knowledge. In the Caribbean region, information literacies have been linked to competency in exploiting opportunities for informal and lifelong learning. This paper builds on the literature dealing with media literacies by drawing on ethnographic interviews with women in Trinidad and Tobago.

The methodology consists of an 18-month long ethnography including participant observation data as well as transcripts of 90 interviews.

The research shows how women in a lower middle class community dubbed ‘Belleton’ build and refine their digital media skills through lifelong adult learning. These informal learning processes that are facilitated by digital technologies that are spaces of learning where these women construct knowledge and build fluency and larger life skills.

This research makes a contribution to the literature on media literacy and digital skill-building. It ethnographically analyses the social practices of Trinidadian women who interact with digital media in a wide range of daily life activities including DIY consumption and small-business entrepreneurship.