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The paper examines how product innovation in the UK banking industry has been affected and is likely to be affected by changes in regulation and in government policy. It considers the issues faced by banks in pursuing a market‐oriented approach in this environment.

The rapidly changing regulatory environment in the UK is described and analysed, primarily in the context of the market for mortgage products and medium‐ to long‐term savings products. The paper describes the main events of the last 20 years and analyse their immediate impacts. The paper examines the most recent changes, identify the direction of policy change and consider the implications.

Empirical evidence suggests that the development of mortgage and pensions products has been closely linked to changes in regulation and government policy. This has resulted in an adverse impact on the brand values and reputations of banks. An analysis of the most recent events identifies two different regulatory approaches which banks now have to manage.

A review of the literature shows that very little detailed research has been carried out into the impact of regulation and government policy on banks and financial services companies.

With this lack of systematic research and analysis, and in the absence of a theoretical framework, it is difficult for banks, regulators and government to make informed decisions.

The paper highlights and analyses an increasingly important issue which has not been addressed in any detail in the literature. The paper puts forward an agenda of research questions and propositions for further research.

This paper explores how hospitality frontline employees understand, interpret and practice “hospitality” in a hotel industry context.

Framed by interpretivist and phenomenological approaches a dual-stage semi-structured interview study design was conducted. A sample was drawn from hotel employees in Australia.

Findings support the proposition that the hospitality workforce tends to favor service management and service processes as the guiding paradigm. The essence of what it means to be hospitable, and the host-guest model, appears to be largely absent in practice.

This paper contributes to a scarcity of literature exploring the understanding of hospitality, and how this understanding can translate into hospitable behavior, from the employee perspective. Our main implication is that service management terminology colonizes hospitality within a commercial context, while the essence of hospitality and the “hospitality” lexicon is concomitantly diminishing. The authors advocate for developing an inter-paradigmatic view of hospitality management.

While the study revealed that the majority of frontline hotel employees struggle with grasping and verbalizing their understandings and perceptions of the hospitality construct, although some acknowledged the importance of hospitality as being an integral component to service delivery. We identified consistent organizational practices and intrinsic employee traits that either enabled or obstructed hospitable behavior in hotel settings.

The study reveals tensions between the hospitality and service paradigms in hospitality literature and practice. We uncover hotel management practices that may help to conserve and foster the essence of hospitality in hospitality organizations.

The Sanitary Committee of a certain County Council, strong with the strength of recent creation, have lately been animated by a desire to distinguish themselves in some way, and, proceeding along the lines of least resistance, they appear to have selected the Public Analyst as the most suitable object for attack. The charge against this unfortunate official was not that he is incompetent, or that he had been in any way negligent of his duties as prescribed by Act of Parliament, but simply and solely that he has the temerity to reside in London, which city is distant by a certain number of miles from the much favoured district controlled by the County Council aforesaid. The committee were favoured in their deliberations by the assistance of no less an authority than the “Principal” of a local “Technical School”;—and who could be more capable than he to express an opinion upon so simple a matter? This eminent exponent of scientific truths, after due and proper consideration, is reported to have delivered himself of the opinion that “scientifically it would be desirable that the analyst should reside in the district, as the delay occasioned by the sending of samples of water to London is liable to produce a misleading effect upon an analysis.” Apparently appalled by the contemplation of such possibilities, and strengthened by another expression of opinion to the effect that there were as “good men” in the district as in London, the committee resolved to recommend the County Council to determine the existing arrangement with the Public Analyst, and to appoint a “local analyst for all purposes.” Thus, the only objection which could be urged to the employment of a Public Analyst resident in London was the ridiculous one that the composition of a sample of water was likely to seriously alter during the period of its transit to London, and this contention becomes still more absurd when it is remembered that the examination of water samples is no part of the official duty of a Public Analyst. The employment of local scientific talent may be very proper when the object to be attained is simply the more or less imperfect instruction of the rising generation in the rudiments of what passes in this country for “technical education”; but the work of the Public Analyst is serious and responsible, and cannot be lightly undertaken by every person who may be acquainted with some of the uses of a test‐tube. The worthy members of this committee may find to their cost, as other committees have found before them, that persons possessing the requisite knowledge and experience are not necessarily indigenous to their district. Supposing that the County Council adopts the recommendation, the aspirations of the committee may even then be strangled in their infancy, as the Local Government Board will want to know all about the matter, and the committee will have to give serious and valid reasons in support of their case.

Purpose — This chapter considers how transport policy and planning has been developing in Victoria in tandem with the research program described elsewhere in this book. Developments in policy and planning are discussed with particular regard to transport disadvantage and social inclusion.

Methodology — The chapter commences by providing a policy and planning context in terms of the geography and demography of travel needs, the relevant jurisdictional responsibilities in Australia and the policy history. It then describes the evolution of transport policy in the past decade and outlines the way in which the findings of this research are being incorporated into the development of programs and projects to support social inclusion. Additionally, some key policy challenges are outlined, at least some of which may provide fruitful areas for undertaking further research to support the development of future policies and programs.

Findings — The results show that applied research can be a highly successful endeavour, particularly when policy and planning perspectives are integrated into the development of the research design and strong collaboration is an ongoing feature of the research program.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the associations between attachment styles, work centrality and job satisfaction with turnover intentions.

A self-report questionnaire that included psychometrically sound measures of the key constructs was completed by a sample of 125 employees. A structural equation model was conducted to test the proposed relations and mediating hypotheses.

Attachment styles were found to be linked directly to turnover intentions, and not mediated by job satisfaction and work centrality, as predicted. Avoidant and anxious employees showed higher levels of turnover intentions. A positive relationship was found between work centrality and job satisfaction; job satisfaction was negatively related with turnover intentions.

Although the study involved cross-sectional self-report data, it shed light on the associations between attachment theory and the costly organizational phenomena of voluntary turnover.

Managers should pay particular attention to employees characterized by an insecure attachment style. Efforts should be made to improve work centrality and job satisfaction among employees.

The study adds attachment styles as an additional tool available to managers in their efforts to manage turnover.

The purpose of this paper is to report on an empirical research study which investigated the factors influencing productivity in hotels in Northern Cyprus.

The empirical data was collected via a structured questionnaire from middle and senior managers of four and five‐star hotels in Northern Cyprus.

According to the research findings staff recruitment, staff training, meeting guest expectations, and service quality are the main productivity factors in hotels; while crises, technology, marketing, and forecasting are ranked relatively low. It emerged from the findings that hotel managers in Northern Cyprus have a narrow view of productivity and follow a more input‐oriented approach to managing productivity.

Based on the research findings and their discussions, this study provides several recommendations for future research in this area.

The research results highlight the importance of training middle and senior managers about the importance of productivity and how they can follow output‐oriented productivity management strategies.

The literature on productivity management in small island hotels is limited. As being one of the first studies on this area, the research findings of this study are particularly valuable for practice and future studies.

Existing research on sponsorship effects shows that the congruence (i.e. fit) between sponsor and sponsored cause is critical for a change in brand image. Congruence between sponsor and sponsored cause is seen as static in nature. From a dynamic perspective it is unclear why congruence should be seen as constant, and why it is critical for sponsorship effects. This paper aims to address this issue.

This paper analyzes effects of sponsorship evaluative congruence on brand image over time using individual difference measures. Individual level data were obtained from two surveys before and after the 2006 FIFA World Cup™, including 268 respondents who participated in both surveys.

Findings show significant positive effects of learning and remembering of a sponsorship stimulus on brand image over time. In contrast to existing literature, positive incongruence of brand image (i.e. sponsor) and event image (i.e. sponsored cause) in the pre‐analysis results in a significant increase of brand image over time. Moreover, a change in event image over time has a positive effect on the change in brand image.

Further research should replicate this study in different contexts, including event‐ and brand‐related contexts. Future studies should use a more detailed scale to measure brand (event) image, which would allow a more rigorous assessment of image transfer on an attribute level. A replication of the relationship between event image and brand image over time would be especially interesting in a setting, in which event image is negative or a negative Δ event image could be expected.

Linking explanatory variables such as (Δ) event image and Δ brand image over time is important for a reliable assessment of the positive (negative) consequences of sponsorship activities. A sponsorship that might have been positively incongruent in the beginning can turn out to be congruent over time. Hence, the current view that incongruent sponsorships are less promising might be misleading.

In experimental studies, congruence between sponsor and sponsored event is seen as static in nature. From a dynamic perspective, this viewpoint can be challenged. Both sponsor and event image are subject to change over time. Hence, this study determines the impact of event image change over time on brand image.

The purpose of this paper is to review the existing literature on sponsorship‐linked marketing and to present a set of research propositions.

The approach to the research propositions was to explore the existing literature to discover areas where opportunities for further research exist.

The authors propose that not only does sponsorship‐linked marketing influence attitudes towards the sponsor, but that the relationship is that of an S‐shaped curve where the incremental impact of sponsorship is slight for brands with very little or very strong attitudes established towards the brand. The most dramatic influence that sponsorship‐linked marketing will have is for those sponsors with a moderate amount of established brand attitude. The authors also present an argument that extreme congruity or extreme incongruity will drive brand awareness more dramatically than an expected level of sponsor‐property congruity, thus suggesting a U‐shaped relationship between awareness and congruency. Moreover, while an extremely incongruent partnership may gain widespread attention, it is unlikely to positively influence an emotional or behavioral response for either the property or sponsor.

The majority of the previous literature regarding sponsorship‐linked marketing proposed or assumed a linear relationship between current brand attitudes and the impact of a sponsorship. This paper suggests that this relationship is actually non‐linear and is, in fact, an S‐shaped relationship. Further, while congruency was believed to be linearly related to awareness, this paper proposes that the association between awareness and congruency is a U‐shaped phenomenon.