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This study aims to examine the role of the servicescape in the customer experience management (CEM) of a themed amusement park following the COVID-19 pandemic. Considering the managers’ and customers’ perspectives, this study specifically addresses the following three research questions: first, What changes have occurred in the servicescape following the adoption of safety measures in the park in response to the COVID-19 pandemic? Second, What are the effects of these safety measures in relation to CEM? Third, What are the changes that could be maintained in the future to continue improving the customer experiential journey in the park?

A single case study method was adopted. Gardaland Park was selected as the case for this study. Data were collected from several sources: in-depth interviews with managers of Gardaland Park, focus group interviews with customers, and the corporate website and documentary. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to examine the data.

The findings reveal that safety measures affect the physical, social and digital (e- and smart) servicescape by influencing the aesthetic (reassurance), entertainment (relaxation), escapist (enjoyment and distraction) and educational (learning) experiences. Among the various changes implemented, the digital servicescape can be improved in the future when the pandemic is over by providing flexible solutions in relation to services at the park (e.g. virtual queuing) or on the website (e.g. dynamic booking).

The findings provide park managers with practical advice about servicescape organization to facilitate offering safe and memorable customer experiences.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to address the effects of safety measures on the servicescape and CEM in themed amusement parks after the COVID-19 pandemic.

This paper aims at examining the prospects and possibilities of autoethnography in trust research. The focus of this study is on trust-building in a management team from an esthetic leadership perspective. The empirical context of the study is the organization of higher education during a funding reform.

This study adopted a qualitative research strategy with co-produced autoethnographic methods. The data comprised the researcher's diary, field notes and written texts from informants. Autoethnographic methods were applied in data gathering; more precisely, the data were collected by the moving observing method of shadowing and complemented with the management team's written texts reporting their feelings. The data were analyzed by constructing autoethnographic vignettes and a critical frame story.

The findings of the study contribute to the methodological discussion of autoethnographic research when studying a complex phenomenon such as trust-building. The findings suggest that the role of authenticity in trust-building may vary depending on the esthetic leadership style. Furthermore, the findings contribute to the esthetic leadership theory by a proposal of esthetic reassurance as intentional leader-embodied communication aiming to reinforce follower trust in a leader.

Co-produced autoethnography is applied in studying trust-building. Furthermore, this paper provides an inside view of the meaning of esthetics in leader-follower relationships in higher education organizations.

Because consumers nowadays face a wide diversity of wine labels – from very traditional to a range of modern styles that include color and various images – the purpose of this paper is to better understand the effects of the presence of fun elements on wine labels. Specifically, it aims to identify the underlying mechanisms that explain why fun elements on labels can lead to a decrease in consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) and purchase intentions. The authors also test whether consumers’ risk propensity acts as a boundary condition for this effect.

This research uses an online experiment conducted among a sample of 271 US residents. Multivariate analyses – including analyses of mediation, moderation and moderated mediation – are performed to test the theoretical model of the effects of fun elements on WTP and purchase intentions through reassurance impressions and quality perceptions, and the moderating role of risk propensity.

This research demonstrates that when consumers face a wine label that incorporates a high degree of fun elements, they perceive the label as less reassuring, leading to a decrease in perceived quality, and ultimately exhibit lower WTP and purchase intentions. Importantly, this research also shows that the effects of such wine labels are moderated by the individual variable of risk propensity; consumers react more positively to funny wine labels when they have a higher level of risk propensity.

A limitation of this research lies in that it has been conducted online, while an experiment in a real purchase setting may have yielded results that are more likely to mimic response in the marketplace.

By showing that fun elements in a wine label can negatively affect consumers’ WTP and purchase intentions, this research suggests that wine marketers should be cautious when designing labels. Nevertheless, because consumers who are risk-loving exhibit less negative responses to funny wine labels, wine producers should consider segmenting their consumers on the basis of risk propensity and design front labels with fun elements only for customers who can be classified as risk-loving (vs risk averse).

While prior research recognizes the wide diversity of wine labels and the increasing use of fun elements in labels, no research to date has proposed and validated a model of their effects. This research fills this gap by empirically demonstrating that fun elements in labels have an overall effect of making consumers feel less reassured, leading to a decrease in perceived quality, and ultimately lower WTP and purchase intentions.

The purpose of this paper is to add to theoretical and empirical work on the rhetoric of narratives and pictures in annual reporting by using the lens of repetition to examine the Annual Reviews of British Telecommunications (BT) plc.

The study constructs a conceptual framework of repetition in signifiants (from rhetoric) and signifiés (from philosophy, notably Barthes, Deleuze, Eliade and Jankélévitch). Signifiants are established by reference to rhetorical figures based in repetition: anadiplosis, anaphora, alliteration/rhyme and lists. Signifiés are indicated as conscious rhetorical emphasis, and unconscious reflections of sameness and difference; networks and links; and, of particular interest during the “dot.com” years, exuberance and compulsion; differentiation, ritual and reassurance. The framework is used to analyse BT plc's Annual Reviews from 1996‐2001.

The application of the framework is enlightening: repetition is shown to be prevalent in BT plc's Annual Reviews, especially during the “dot.com” years. Repetition emphasises BT plc's intangible assets; less consciously, repetition reflects BT plc's corporate identity and its participation in the “dot.com” era.

The paper provides a model which may be applied to the wealth of discretionary narratives and pictures in contemporary annual reporting. It would also benefit from the assessment of readership impact.

The analysis is of interest to accounting researchers, practitioners, trainees, auditors and any user of accounting and accountability statements. It illuminates the way in which discretionary words and pictures highlight and supplement accounting information.

The paper augments theoretical and empirical work on the significance of narratives and pictures in accounting.

Using customers' evaluations of electronic service quality (e‐SQ), the purpose of this paper is to analyze internet buyer behavior and propose a typology of online buyers for wine web sites based on e‐SQ dimensions.

In all, 1,813 French internet customers filled in an online questionnaire after completing a specified task on 18 selected web sites selling wine directly to customers.

Analysis of the results confirmed the structure of the NetQual scale for wine web sites using structural equation modeling and identified three groups of customers: the “disappointed” the “reassurance seeker” and the “opportunist”.

This study has some limitations. One of them is related to the fact that the target population is representative of the French internet buyer population and not of the customer profile for the web sites analyzed. Future research should integrate customers of the different web sites analyzed and, in order to have an intercultural comparison, non‐French wine web sites should also be included in future studies.

The seven dimensions of the NetQual scale are important for consumers when they evaluate wine web sites and contribute to identify three groups of internet buyers of French wine web sites. For each group, this study provides recommendations for practitioners in order to transform visitors into buyers.

The increasingly systematic use of the internet in consumers' decision‐making processes, combined with the growth in the number of wine web sites, has led researchers and practitioners to examine service quality issues in an online context. Existing typologies do not take into account the importance of e‐SQ dimensions. This paper's typology shows how these dimensions contribute to differentiating the groups.

Sociologists studying the rise of postmodernism have generally concentrated on either macro-level structures of economy or micro-level subjectivities of individuals. Few have specified how meso-level actions within concrete institutions have produced both these macro- and micro-changes. Bourdieu's concept of field provides a meso-level concept that allows sociologists to explain the transition to a postmodern society by changes in the composition and competition of producers and consumers struggling for advantage in the economy and culture. The chapter focuses on architecture, revealing that the rise of a postmodern aesthetic was the result of internal changes of this field and their complex interrelation with the external changes of an economy in transition from Fordism to post-Fordism.

The purpose of this paper was to identify whether the promotional materials used by government bodies and private producers to stimulate the mass market for electric vehicles (EVs) embodied themes deemed attractive by a sample of motorists in Greater London.

The EV websites and advertisements of EV manufacturers and the EV websites of relevant public bodies were subjected to semantic network and categorical content analyses. Outcomes were inputted to a conjoint analysis, the results of which were clustered into customer segments using the NORMCLUS generalized market segmentation procedure.

Substantial disparities between, on one hand, the EV characteristics emphasized in manufacturers’ and public bodies’ EV promotional materials and, on the other, potential EV buyers’ views regarding the key qualities of EVs became evident.

The sample size of motorists was limited and the research was completed in a single country.

Social marketing campaigns initiated by government and private bodies concerning EVs need to incorporate specific themes reflecting the preferences of various segments of motorists.

A “one-size-fits-all” approach is unlikely to be appropriate for the mass marketing of EVs.

This was the first study to explore the appeal to potential EV purchasers of the value of the contents of EV marketing messages used by government bodies and vehicle manufacturers.

The paper aims to go through signage management from the standpoint of the user in a service quality perspective and by three principal means. First, it gives a literature review on the theme. Second, it identifies the needs that users expect to be satisfied when using signage. Third, it proposes a conceptual framework that encompasses user assessment determinants on signage management quality (SMQ).

Conceptual analysis is based on extensive research through literature on signage management contained in contributions on the theme of physical surroundings, atmospherics and servicescape.

Users, when they enjoy use of signage, may find satisfaction of implicit, expected and unexpected needs. User assessment of SMQ depends on the discrepancy between expected and perceived wayfinding. In particular, personal needs (cognitive-rational and psycho-emotional) affect expected wayfinding. User interactions with servicescape components, including signage, impact on perceived wayfinding.

The paper is conceptually developed, but lacks empirical validation. This study does not pretend to be thorough in any way. It leaves several questions open for future research.

Service managers must understand, from user behavior, how the signage is used, where users make their decisions and where the key points in the servicescape are located. The goal is to permit the user to develop a wayfinding process through the signage components he encounters in the servicescape. Signage should be designed and managed from the standpoint of attractive quality.

Previous research has essentially analyzed signage in terms of design. Signage management has received little and fragmented consideration in a service quality literature. The paper fills this gap. It is one of the first attempts to analyze signage management in a service quality perspective.

The provision of home and community supports can enable people to successfully age-in-place by improving physical and mental health, supporting social participation and enhancing independence, autonomy and choice. One challenge concerns the integration of place-based supports available as older people transition into affordable housing. Sustainable solutions need to be developed and implemented with the full involvement of communities, service organizations and older people themselves. Partnership building is an important component of this process. The purpose of this paper is to detail the intricacies of developing partnerships with low-income older people, local service providers and nonprofit housing associations in the context of a Canadian housing development.

A community-based participatory approach was used to inform the data collection and partnership building process. The partnership building process progressed through a series of democratized committee meetings based on the principles of appreciative inquiry, four collaboration cafés with nonprofit housing providers and four community mapping workshops with low-income older people. Data collection also involved 25 interviews and 15 photovoice sessions with the housing tenants. The common aims of partnership and data collection were to understand the challenges and opportunities experienced by older people, service providers and nonprofit housing providers; identify the perspectives of service providers and nonprofit housing providers for the provision and delivery of senior-friendly services and resources; and determine actions that can be undertaken to better meet the needs of service providers and nonprofit housing providers in order to help them serve older people better.

The partnership prioritized the generation of a shared vision together with shared values, interests and the goal of co-creating meaningful housing solutions for older people transitioning into affordable housing. Input from interviews and photovoice sessions with older people provided material to inform decision making in support of ageing well in the right place. Attention to issues of power dynamics and knowledge generation and feedback mechanisms enable all fields of expertise to be taken into account, including the experiential expertise of older residents. This resulted in functional, physical, psychological and social aspects of ageing in place to inform the new build housing complex.

The time and effort required to conduct democratized partnerships slowed the decision-making process.

The findings confirm that the drive toward community partnerships is a necessary process in supporting older people to age well in the right place. This requires sound mechanisms to include the voice of older people themselves alongside other relevant stakeholders. Ageing well in a housing complex requires meaningful placemaking to include the functional, physical, psychological and social aspects of older people’s everyday life in respect to both home and community.