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Based upon a six-year research study with a community street soccer programme, the purpose of this paper is to focus on the different faces of the researcher undertaking sensitive research – vulnerable, reflexive, reciprocal, and emotionally fatigued, in addition to the potential impacts on others, including research assistants and transcribers.

The paper draws on detailed notes and observations from a research journal kept throughout the project using an auto-ethnographic approach.

The paper discusses how the author attempted to nurture and protect himself as the person within the researcher, and managed the doubts and stresses faced by those undertaking sensitive research with vulnerable communities.

As more research is undertaken with vulnerable communities, and more researchers share their experiences, the self-care strategies, the author and others have employed may become standard practice for research training and practice.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss how the relationship between sport and business has increased the complexity of ethical issues affecting contemporary sport management. Specifically, this paper seeks to define conflict of interest and how it is manifested in both business and sport.

The paper provides a conceptual discussion of the issue of conflict of interest as it relates to the management and governance of sports organizations. Relationships between business ethics, governance and sport management are examined in the quest to understand conflict of interest and its prevalence in and relevance to sport management.

Conflicts of interest within the sport industry may have the same structural elements as those occurring in mainstream business, such as benefits, obligations and issues of trust, but it is the higher societal expectations and values placed on sport and sporting organizations that provide the key points of difference.

Through collaboration with sport management practitioners, via inductive in‐depth research, a clearer definition of conflict of interest and the range of situations in which it may occur can be developed. It is through a continued research effort in this area that sport managers will be better able to both identify and manage conflicts of interest as they occur.

It is the lack of definitive examples or guidelines for recognition of an actual or a potential conflict of interest that appears to cause the greatest confusion within sport management. By drawing together the key concepts found within the extant literature, a clearer understanding of what constitutes a conflict of interest is provided by this paper.

Specifically focusing on one antecedent (information seeker's characteristics) for electronic word‐of‐mouth adoption and credibility assessments, the purpose of this paper is to attempt to shed light on consumer motivations for making and taking online recommendations, and how technically savvy consumers assess credibility online.

To investigate the role and influence of word‐of‐mouth (WOM) amongst technically savvy online consumers, purposeful sampling was used to limit participants to those who have made online purchases and who spend more than three hours a day on the internet. Using an adaptation of the grounded theory method, this study was triangulated via one face‐to‐face interview with each participant, member‐checking, analysis of online communications deemed “not credible” by the participants, and through relevant literature from marketing and information systems (IS).

Analysis shows that participants exhibit more of a “bricks‐to‐clicks” than a “clicks‐to‐bricks” purchasing cycle. In addition to relying on customer reviews online, participants accept online WOM to enhance their self‐worth, avoid risk, or enact negativity bias. Additionally, assessment of online WOM credibility is based on four factors: the polarity and quantity of posts, the logic and articulation of posts, the ability to find corroborating sources, and the previous experience of participants with particular sellers.

Previous research in WOM has not specifically explored how technically savvy consumers assess the credibility of online information and how these consumers may help to identify future trends for online customer exchanges. This qualitative study fills this gap. Conceptual framework and managerial implications are discussed.

This study aims to explore surprising gifts received and given by close relations to identify the variables involved in creating surprising gifts. The analysis of the viewpoints of the giver and the recipient, reflecting their profiles, leads to recommendations for retailers.

An exploratory, small-scale, open-ended questionnaire (48 respondents) produces 43 (38) accounts of surprising gifts given (received), informed further by in-depth interviews (eight informants, both givers and recipients of surprising gifts).

This study identifies and elaborates on the variables (why, when, what, where, who and how, and their combinations) that define surprising gift giving, from both giver and recipient perspectives. The findings indicate a paradox: even if givers or recipients prefer a surprising gift, they might give or wish for an unsurprising gift to avoid disappointment.

Further research should confirm the findings using representative samples. Moreover, gender differences in surprising gift giving should be investigated further. Finally, the exact characteristics and properties that make common objects potential candidates for successful surprising gifts should be studied further.

The discussion has relevant implications for manufacturers and retailers. For example, if recipients are surprised, happy and satisfied, they likely exhibit higher brand recall. The recipient’s (happy versus not happy) emotions also have spillover effects on the giver’s. Thus, retailers should provide assistance in the store and advertise their salespeople as experts who can offer advice about selecting appropriate gifts. The exact characteristics and properties that make common objects potential candidates for successful surprising gifts should be studied further.

The systematic account of all six variables, not previously analyzed in the literature, provides rich insights into surprising gift giving. The discussion of the study of givers and recipients supplements these insights.

This paper aims to use embodied theory to analyze consumer experience in a retail brandscape, Hollister Co. By taking a holistic, embodied approach, this study reveals how individual consumers interact with such retail environments in corporeal, instinctive and sensual ways.

The primary source of data was 97 subjective personal introspective accounts undertaken with the target age group for the store. These were supplemented with in-depth interviews with consumers, managers and employees of Hollister.

The authors offer a conceptualization of consumers’ embodied experience, which they term The Immersive Somascape Experience. This identifies four key touch points that evoke the Hollister store experience – each of which reveals how the body is affected by particular relational and material specificities. These are sensory activation, brand materialities, corporeal relationality and (dis)orientation. These may lead to consumer emplacement.

The authors propose that taking an “intelligible embodiment” approach to consumer experiences in retail contexts provides a deeper, more holistic understanding of the embodied processes involved. They also suggest that more anthropological, body-grounded studies are needed for the unique insights they provide. Finally, they note that there is growing consumer demand for experiences, which, they argue, points to the need for more research from an embodied experience perspective in our field.

The study reveals the perils and pitfalls of adopting a sensory marketing perspective. It also offers insights into how the body leads in retail brandscapes, addressing a lack in such approaches in the current retailing literature and suggesting that embodied, experiential aspects of branding are increasingly pertinent in retailing in light of the continued growth of on-line shopping.

Overall, the study shows how an embodied approach challenges the dominance of mind and representation over body and materiality, suggesting an “intelligible embodiment” lens offers unique insights into consumers’ embodied experiences in retail environments.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the difficulties faced by women with same-sex desire (commonly known as “lalas”) in China in securing defamilisation and familisation. It has two objectives – to show the challenges lalas face in organizing their life in interaction with the family, work economy and government; and to discuss how these challenges make women with same-sex desire difficult to secure defamilisation and familisation. Familisation refers to the extent to which people’s participation in the family is increased; whereas defamilisation refers to the extent to which people’s participation in the family is reduced.

The authors conducted literature review and in-depth interviews with 20 Chinese women with same-sex desire in Beijing to collect and analyze data for fulfilling the two objectives.

Lalas face serious challenges in their daily lives – they receive insufficient support from the government, work economy and family in organizing their life and their freedom is constrained by these three sectors. These challenges render lalas difficult to achieve several types of defamilisation/familisation (the “carer,” “care receiver,” “provider of financial support” and “receiver of financial support”).

Few defamilisation and familisation studies focus on women with same-sex desire. No studies on defamilisation and familisation of lalas in China have been done before. With the focus on lalas, the paper discovers new causes of the difficulties in securing defamilisation/familisation, and possible solutions to these difficulties.

Purpose: In this paper, we focus on the mythic nature of the anonymous Bitcoin creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. Drawing on ideas from Foucault and Barthes on authorship, we analyze the notion of the absence of the author and how that sustains the brand. Design/methodology/approach: Based on interview data, participant observation, archival data, and a netnography, we examine the discourses that emerge in the wake of multiple Satoshi Nakamoto exposés that serve as both stabilizing and destabilizing forces in the Bitcoin ecosystem. Findings: We analyze the different interpretations of Satoshi Nakamoto through his own text and how his readers interpret him. We identify how consumers employ motifs of myth and religiosity in trying to find meaning in Satoshi’s disappearance. His absence allows for multiple interpretations of how the Bitcoin brand is viewed and adopted by a diverse community of enthusiasts.

Implications: Our findings provide a richer understanding of how, in a period of celebrity brands, Satoshi Nakamoto’s anti-celebrity stance helps sustain the Bitcoin ecosystem.

Originality/value: Our analysis examines the nature of anonymity in our hyper-celebrity culture and the mystique of the anonymous creator that fuels modern-day myths for brands without owners.

Purpose: Curatorial consumption studies have hitherto focused on the consumption of family heirlooms. By exploring curatorial consumption within the context of vintage outlets, the authors extend its usage to other consumption sites, allowing them to further develop the construct.

Design/Methodology/Approach: Participant observation was employed at vintage outlets alongside in-depth interviews with 15 vintage traders incorporating object elicitation.

Findings: The authors identify the potential for curatorial consumption to help further develop understanding of individuals’ relationships with their possessions. The authors present a re-contextualization of curatorial consumption, which expands the term beyond caring for family heirlooms, allowing them to incorporate additional contexts. The authors identify vintage traders’ roles as guardians for their merchandise and their sense of responsibility to ensure objects’ circulation to future generations. The authors develop the findings around themes related to curation: acquisition, preservation, and transference. Running through these themes is an overarching concern for historical objects.

Originality/Value: While few studies loosely refer to curatorial consumption, the construct remains underdeveloped. The re-contextualization allows to unpack its potential to enhance understanding of individuals’ relationships with their possessions. In contrast to existing curatorial consumption work that emphasizes the sense of continuity with ancestors, the authors extend this to consider how connections with the past can be maintained beyond local family settings.

People with learning disabilities (LD) often lack necessary support in navigating and coping within the Criminal Justice System (CJS). The purpose of this paper is to explore their experiences, from their own perspective, and identify the supports which need to be implemented.

Focus groups were held with nine patients in a forensic LD service, discussing their experiences and support needs within the CJS. Template analysis was undertaken on the transcripts.

Four themes were identified: negative feelings, professional attitudes, suitability of the CJS, and supports needed.

This research demonstrates the valuable opinions to be obtained from offenders with LD on their experiences and needs. Implications for the CJS include a need for further awareness, training, and expertise to work effectively with people with LD. Participant perspectives also highlight the importance of consistent liaison and diversion schemes, and indicate that CJS services may have something to learn from healthcare settings.

Previous knowledge of offenders with LD overlooked the perspective of the service user. This research has given this group a voice, and has benefited from their insight. This is a timely piece of research in the current landscape of the CJS, and so these findings may be of practical value to the implementation of supports, particularly the liaison and diversion schemes.