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This article reports the development, application and results of a baseline investigation of contract research staff in 2007 in the Medical School at the University of Sheffield which was carried out in order to develop a specifically tailored training and career development programme and allow for future impact evaluation of the scheme. Postdoctoral researchers reported on their perceived skill levels, academic achievements, career motivations and the current research environment. Results indicated that transferable skills related to communication and awareness of the process of research (i.e. the process of acquisition of funding, commercialisation of research outputs) were lacking. Furthermore, these skills were associated with higher publication outputs, and improved with mobility between institutions at postdoctoral level. This paper also describes how the findings from the baseline evaluation were used to develop a programme to address the lower ranking skills and evaluate the impact of the programme.

Drawing on the corporate association framework and attribution theory, the purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to examine the shield effects of CSR-linked sport sponsorship on consumer attitudes toward a sponsor, attribution patterns in a sponsor’s service failure and repurchase intentions and second, to investigate the halo effect of CSR-linked sport sponsorship on corporate ability (CA) associations and the relationship between CA associations and consequential variables in the context of service failure.

A scenario-based two-factor (sponsorship types: baseline vs sport sponsorship vs CSR-linked sport sponsorship × service failure types: flight delay vs cancellation) experimental design was employed.

The results indicate that CSR-linked sport sponsorship outperforms non-CSR sport sponsorship in forming CSR association and developing CA association. Both CSR and CA associations are found to positively influence the consumer’s attitude toward a service provider. Consumers with positive attitudes attribute the sponsor’s service failure to external factors, leading to repurchase intention after a service failure.

This study connects two fields of research, service failure and sport sponsorship, thereby providing evidence on how CSR-linked sport sponsorship can play a shield role in the context of service failure and whether CSR-linked sport sponsorship can be a proactive strategy for service providers in industries where service failures are inevitable. Additionally, this study provides empirical evidence on whether CSR-linked sponsorship can lead consumers to perceive service quality as “doing right leads to doing well” by creating a halo effect.

The purposes of the study were (1) to examine whether directional dominance between co-existing athlete brands and sponsor brands exists; (2) to explore whether directional dominance influences consumers' memory interference; and (3) to test whether brand interference interacts with directional dominance among brands to influence consumer evaluation and behaviors under multiple endorsement and sponsorship portfolios.

The research is a 3 (directional dominance: symmetric dominance vs. asymmetric dominance with existing vs. asymmetric dominance with newly endorsed brand) x 2 (brand memory interference: interference vs. no interference) between-subjects factorial design.

The results indicate that (1) directional dominance influenced consumer brand interference, and directional dominance interacted with brand interference on (2) brand evaluation and (3) purchase intention in multiple brand portfolios.

Considering that conventional single-sponsor sponsorship or single-endorser endorsement portfolios are increasingly rare, research on concurrent circumstances of multiple endorsers and multiple endorsed brands in multiple brand portfolios was necessary. By expanding and reconceptualizing the context of brand networks, this study provides empirical evidence on how the dominance and directionality between endorser and (existing and newly) endorsed brands—an athlete endorser's strong pre-existing association with an existing endorsed brand in particular—influenced consumer brand interference and the brand evaluation in multiple brand portfolios.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the location of sport brands in sport consumers’ minds using a perceptual map of multiple positions; and examine whether there is congruence between the sport brands’ purported images and the targeted consumers’ perception of the brands’ images.

A mixed method was used. Four steps of data collections (i.e. face-to-face, focus group interviews, and questionnaires) and analyses (i.e. content analysis, MDS analysis, PROXSCAL analysis, multiple regressions analysis, frequency analysis, and congruence score) were performed.

Four positioning typologies (i.e. great quality equipment, equipment for professionals, innovation, and tradition) were identified; each brand’s positions in consumers’ minds were distinctly portrayed in the perceptual map; and the congruence between intended and perceived positions was found in two brands – Titleist and Ping – implying they established a high position-congruity and providing evidence of positioning effectiveness.

The findings will aid practitioners and scholars in positioning and its effectiveness: the results provide information for managers to select, implement, and manage effective positioning strategies and the study provides initial evidence about whether companies and their brands are well-positioned in the sport consumer’s perception.

The authors attempt to examine how consumers perceive brands and how effectively brand positions are portrayed in consumers’ minds. The effectiveness and competitiveness of positioning strategies were examined via a perceptional map.

Higher education notices the need to support minorities and students with dis/abilities and may have additional programs to support their student populations, but students with a history of foster care are largely invisible in higher education. Using prismatic phenomenology, this study seeks to create a platform for the voices of adults in higher education who experienced the intersection of foster placement, ethnic minority, and dis/ability as children. This chapter focuses on the life story of one young woman. The goal of identifying these formative childhood experiences is to better understand how to respond to the inequities experienced as well as develop equitable practices to support students, whether in the higher educational classroom, in the preservice teacher classroom, or in K-12 educational arena.

Life studies are a rich source for further research on the role of the Afro‐American woman in society. They are especially useful to gain a better understanding of the Afro‐American experience and to show the joys, sorrows, needs, and ideals of the Afro‐American woman as she struggles from day to day.

The shopping and consumption habits of consumers in industrialized countries are leading causes of environmental degradation. There are many women entrepreneurs stepping up to the challenge of changing our purchasing habits to begin to repair the damaging effects of decades of frivolous consumption. This chapter highlights several young women entrepreneurs who are creating unique retail experiences in apparel, beauty, and fashion products and changing the way customers feel about sustainability.

Studies have suggested that entrepreneurship is a key mechanism for rejuvenating and facilitating economic growth in deprived areas. To provide further understanding of the persistently low entrepreneurial intentions found in deprived areas this chapter identifies key mechanisms and theoretical frameworks that link the formation of appropriate human capital to the prevailing environment, and that influences may flow in both directions. This contributes to the existing literature to provide a fuller understanding of interest to policy-makers of why past interventions have struggled to boost entrepreneurial intentions and where new interventions may be most effective in generating more positive entrepreneurial intentions in deprived areas.