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The purpose of this paper is to examine customer, management, and contact personnel perceptions of consumer-based brand equity (CBBE) and its dimensions utilizing a services branding triangle framework in the banking industry.

Data were collected from customers, managers, and contact personnel of three types of banks in Turkey – state, private, and foreign.

The study finds significant external branding gaps between the perceptions of managers and customers and interactive branding gaps between the perceptions of contact personnel and customers, but no internal branding gaps between the perceptions of managers and contact personnel with respect to CBBE dimensions.

The sample was limited to Turkish adult citizens of a single major metropolitan area in Turkey and bank personnel in three cities.

The services branding triangle framework used in this study allows service brand managers to understand not only the differences in the perceptions of brand equity dimensions of bank customers, managers, and contact personnel, but also provides an opportunity to identify the external, internal, and interactive branding gaps of each of the brand equity dimensions. The findings provide an empirical test for the three promises theory and identifying potential branding gaps resulting from differences between consumer, management, and contact personnel perceptions of CBBE and its dimensions. The paper discusses the implications of the findings in developing a strong services brand and brand equity.

The purpose of this paper is to examine different aspects of Chinese immigrants' perceptions in San Francisco.

Survey data gathered from 198 Chinese immigrants were utilized to assess respondents' evaluations of the local police.

It was found that Chinese immigrants' satisfaction with police contact and perceptions imported from countries of origin were significantly associated with ratings of the police in the city. In addition, length of residence in the USA was inversely associated with evaluations of the police.

The sampling method adopted in this study, not a probability procedure, to some extent may possibly reflect the perceptions of Chinese immigrants who were in need of cultural support and services from various social and community organizations in San Francisco. It should be noted from the descriptive statistics that the average education level for this sample is comparatively lower than it is for the overall Asian population in the USA. Also, only 11 percent of the respondents were under 24 years old. It is acknowledged that this sample may under‐represent the constituency of younger people or more established immigrants who do not need as much ethnic support or various types of services.

There is no other empirical research that specifically examines the Chinese community's perceptions of the police in San Francisco. The findings thus provide police administration a clear strategy to improve Chinese immigrants' perceptions of the police. Training in cultural sensitivity and communication skills, as well as professional attitudes of enforcement, may improve immigrants' satisfaction with the police during the contact, which can enhance Chinese immigrants' perceptions of the police.

This paper aims to use three theoretical perspectives to understand variation in public opinion regarding the frequency with which police use race/ethnicity unfairly in making stops: procedural and instrumental justice, local government responsiveness, and intra‐racial differences.

The paper looks at data from a telephone survey of 1,431 Oregon residents: 741 from a stratified state‐wide random sample by county; 164 African‐Americans and 161 Hispanics over samples.

Perceived negative treatment during recent involuntary police contacts is related to a perception that police are more biased. Instrumental judgments regarding local government responsiveness to constituent needs and personal safety showed a negative relationship to perceptions of police bias. African‐American respondents exhibited the strongest police bias opinions; however, intra‐racial analyses showed that perceptions of government responsiveness weaken bias perceptions across race/ethnicity.

Research needs to explore how the public's relationship to their local government influences perceptions of police. The conclusions of the study are limited by the cross‐sectional design.

The study illustrates that proper police‐citizen communication tactics, stop and investigatory procedures, and ethical decision making should continue to be reinforced along with better promotion of local government and police success in meeting constituent needs through the media.

The paper examines the influence of both procedural and instrumental justice perceptions, and voluntary and involuntary police contacts. The sample contains sufficient numbers of African‐Americans and Hispanics and diverse communities (urban, suburban, and rural) to gain a representative view.

The purpose of this paper is to explore police officer perceptions of their contacts with the mentally ill and examine outcomes of an innovative police training program designed to improve police handling of cases involving the mentally ill.

The study utilizes a sample of 126 police officer respondents from five departments in northern Indiana to understand their perceptions of important aspects of their contacts with the mentally ill.

Results show the actual dispositions for the mentally ill frequently do not match the outcomes officers desire, police training on responding to the mentally ill is not sufficient, and the training component of an innovative reform holds promise for improving officers' ability to respond to situations that involve the mentally ill.

The study is limited to one community and results may not generalize to communities with distinct mental health resources. Perceptions of police contacts with the mentally ill were not obtained from mental health service providers, advocates, and persons with a mental illness.

Contacts between the police and the mentally ill pose complex challenges for officers. Advocates contend that too many persons with a mental illness end up in jail as a result of police contacts and, thus, promote jail diversion programs. For jail diversion to succeed it is critical to understand officer perceptions of the outcomes they desire for the mentally ill and the obstacles that inhibit appropriate dispositions. Evidence about the outcomes of specialized police training can improve officers' knowledge and perceived ability to respond to the mentally ill.

Tribeca is a predominantly wealthy, white neighborhood in New York City and is a microcosm of the service-and-information-based economy that characterizes many communities in global cities today. Tribeca residents are mostly affluent and work in high-end, service-oriented professions, consuming low-end personal services produced locally. Many of the people who provide these personal services in Tribeca are foreign-born. This chapter explores the nature of intergroup contact between native residents and immigrant service workers to understand how they navigate social boundaries of race/ethnicity, nation-of-origin, occupation, and social class.

This chapter is based on six years of ethnographic data collection and participant observation, in addition to interviews with 66 informants, including both immigrant service workers and Tribeca residents.

This research highlights the importance of local contextual factors in shaping how people perceive one another and interact. Although in Tribeca this intergroup contact fails to alter boundaries of race, class, and nation-of-origin, residents and immigrants still have meaningful interpersonal contact, which is the result of bridging, or overlooking, existing social boundaries.

The results of this research challenge the assumption that relations between natives and immigrants in stratified settings are characterized by resentment or hostility. Instead, contextual factors in Tribeca shape intergroup perceptions and contact in a way that allows for positive interpersonal, albeit largely superficial, relationships to take root.

By using a core element of culture, human values, the paper seeks to identify patterns in the way individuals perceive other countries and their products. Based on the above a conceptual framework and a set of hypotheses were developed. Variables such as direct contact with a country, fluency in a country’s language as well as demographic differences are included as control variables. Results indicated that human values can predict better country of origin images than other variables. However, the predictive ability of different human values was inconsistent across the two samples, suggesting that the context within which values are developed is important.

The qualitative study examines the development of purposely created interpersonal relationships in an intercultural context. Contact with a local host is a way of helping expatriates deal with the challenges of an international assignment. Since the quality of contact with the host is pivotal to benefit most from this experience, the purpose of this paper is to examine which factors influence contact quality.

The authors conducted a case study analysis of 33 expatriates and ten accompanying partners who were put in touch with a local host, with whom they undertook a broad range of activities during a period of nine months.

Nine factors influenced the development of the contact (similarities, motivation, benefits, anxiety, expectations, busy schedules, suboptimal timing, communication breakdown, and cultural differences). Key factors were similarities, motivation, and benefits.

While some of the factors (e.g. similarities) are predictable according to the Social Penetration Theory, four factors were uniquely applicable to purposely created relationships such as contact with a local host: motivation, expectations, anxiety, and suboptimal timing.

The study provides suggestions that could stimulate the contact with a local host, making the intervention more valuable for organisations who wish to support their expatriates in this way.

This longitudinal study is one of the first to examine in detail the process of development of purposely created interpersonal relationships in an intercultural context. Furthermore, the study is new because it also examines unsuccessful relationships.

While research on intergenerational service learning has focused on the benefits for the students, very few studies have focused on the older adults who are the recipients of the service learning. For the current study, we were interested in the benefits of service learning for both the college students and the older adults who participated in a service-learning course. Qualitative data were collected from both the students in a sociology of aging service-learning class and the older adults who participated as recipients of the service learning. Data from the students were collected via student journals and open-ended questionnaire responses written by the students. Data from the older adults were collected via interviews by the students as well as open-ended questionnaire responses written by the older adults. The following themes emerged as benefits to students: (1) a better understanding and less fear of aging; (2) a desire to learn more about older adults; (3) a desire to engage more with older adults. The themes for the benefits to the older adults included (1) improved social connections and companionship and (2) becoming family. We found that engaging in intergenerational service-learning courses is beneficial to all those who are involved.

Extant research suggests that salespeople can significantly impact consumers’ outcome perceptions. Examines the importance of initial contact with salespeople on consumers’ perceptions of value and the impact of salesperson service failure on perceptions of value among non‐purchasers. An exit survey of shoppers was conducted to realistically study these issues. Results show that outcome perceptions were significantly lower when either there was no contact with salespeople, or the consumer had to initiate the contact. The retailer that had the highest percentage of salesperson initiated contact, earned the highest perception ratings and also had the highest ratio of buyers to browsers. Furthermore, non‐purchasers that experienced service failures (slow service or offended by a salesperson) discounted not just the perception of that retail visit, but also overall value compared to other retailers. These results suggest that retailers must encourage their sales staff to initiate consumer contact.

This study aims to develop and test a service‐based demographic framework for studying service quality perceptions. Specifically, the effect of level of service contact and key demographic variables of age, gender and income on service quality perceptions is examined.

A total of 224 customers of high‐ and low‐contact passenger transport services were surveyed using a self‐administered questionnaire.

The findings indicated that service quality perceptions differed according to the level of contact inherent to the service. Consumer age was also found to affect service quality perceptions; however, no differences in service quality perceptions on the basis of gender or income were found.

The results of the study enhance the understanding of service quality perceptions and provide useful insight for the management and delivery of service quality. Overall, the results suggest that managers in the train travel industry need to take the level of contact as well as the views of certain demographic segments into account if they want to maximize perceived service. Demographics provide managers with a means of determining which segments of the market are feasible in terms of achieving greater market penetration. The findings of this study show the importance of considering variables relating to individual characteristic or the service itself when investigating service quality.

Prior research has not examined empirically whether service quality dimensions vary on the basis of service type; thus, this paper contributes to knowledge in this field.