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This study aims to uncover managerial representations of achieving competitive advantage in architectural practices operating within the United Kingdom (UK).

A sequential qualitative methodology is applied, underpinned by nine managerial interviews in five architectural practices, which are analysed using computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software.

In all, 108 representations are identified, with highly rated concepts including reputation, client satisfaction, fees and staff resources discussed in detail. The need for architectural practices to develop a competitive advantage within their sector is increasingly apparent, particularly during times of market turbulence. A total of 20 themes identified are clustered into four main groups focused on People (including Calibre of Staff, Attract Graduates; Qualified Staff); Product (including Emphasis on design, Specialisation, Competitive Fees): Process (including Low Overheads, Office Efficiency) and Potential (Reputation, Ability to Undertake Large Projects, Repeat clients, Ability to expand, Parent Company, Market Understanding and New Offices).

Despite numerous studies conducted on this subject, there has been no research to date documenting managerial representation on achieving competitive advantage in the context of architectural practices in the UK. This paper closes this gap in knowledge by contributing to underlying research on competitive advantage, focusing on the managerial representations within UK architectural practices.

The aims of this study were to evaluate fitness levels in a cohort of police trainees and compare these results to other police trainees and the general population.

Retrospective data for 274 male and 152 female police trainees were supplied. Measures included height, body mass and physical appraisal test (PAT; 2.4 km run, vertical jump, push-ups and grip strength) results, assessed twice, prior to commencement of training, separated by several months. Wilcoxon signed rank tests were used to analyze non-parametric initial and final PAT scores and Mann–Whiney U tests were used to determine variance between groups.

Male trainees were significantly quicker in the run (−12%, p < 0.001), completed more push-ups (+74%, p < 0.001) with greater grip strength (+52% left and +50% right, p < 0.001) when compared to female trainees. Following the second PAT assessment, the significant differences between male and female trainees remained (p < 0.001). Only female trainee 2.4 km run times improved significantly between initial and final PAT (−4%, p = 0.002).

When compared to the general population from which they were drawn and to other law enforcement trainees, the police trainees in this study were quicker, more powerful and stronger. While there was no loss of fitness between initial and final PAT performance, a conditioning program, spanning the periods between initial and final PAT may be of benefit to increase fitness prior to training commencement especially for female trainees who were generally less fit than, yet must complete the same training as, male trainees.

This study aims to investigate city branding as a post-pandemic COVID-19 outcome factor on brand satisfaction, brand experience, perceived risk and revisit intention. In addition, this research contributes to the discussion of post-COVID-19 city branding that needs to be considered in the development of future tourism marketing.

A quantitative approach was used with PLS-SEM statistical analysis and a 263-tourist sample. The study was conducted on tourists from Malang Regency in Indonesia by distributing questionnaires modified from previous studies in a similar context.

The results of this study found that there were significant influences of city brand personality on brand experience, brand satisfaction, brand experience on perceived risk, brand satisfaction on revisit intention and perceived risk on revisit intention. This study also presents the mediating role.

The study was only conducted on a small regency in Indonesia, and therefore the results cannot be generalized for other cities over the world.

The proposed study model suggests that stakeholders must seek to socialize services to potential tourists, so that tourists can understand the description of tourism activities that can be enjoyed during the COVID-19 pandemic and the way they travel in the future.

Understanding the determinant factors of city branding post-COVID-19 was valuable for developing marketing strategies to cope with intense competition among the city.

This study emphasizes the determinants of COVID-19 perceived risk and revisit intentions as explained in the tourism marketing literature by considering the role of brand satisfaction, brand experience and city brand personality which significantly contribute to build the city competitiveness. Therefore, various creative strategies should be implemented to promote the city as well as escalate tourist visits without ignoring the pandemic’s risks.

This study aimed to test some dynamics related to YouTube advertising clutter and viewers' attitudes towards YouTube channels operated by traditional television (TV) companies (These YouTube channels tend to have a greater ad clutter since their videos have embedded ads of programme sponsors in addition to regular YouTube advertisements).

Employing a positivistic, quantitative methodology, the study collected data through an online survey from a sample of 295 YouTube viewers in Sri Lanka. Data were analysed using the regression-based PROCESS macro, utilising the SPSS software.

Ad clutter has a negative impact on viewers' attitudes towards the YouTube channel, but only indirectly, through irritation. Skippability of advertisements does not moderate the relationship between ad clutter and ad irritation, but non-skippability increases ad irritation (direct relationship).

YouTube channel owners should pay careful attention to having an optimum level of advertising because clutter resulting in high ad irritation leading to a negative attitude towards the channel could reduce subscriptions. Offering an ad skippability option is unlikely to reduce irritation if there is high clutter.

Although ad clutter is well-researched, its impact on viewer responses to online media channels is uncommon. With YouTube poised to become a top ad revenue-generating medium, this study contributes by examining some dynamics related to ad clutter in a possibly high-clutter context.

This study aims to investigate the relationships between firms’ strategic planning (SP), leadership and technology transfer competence (TTC) by specifically incorporating the mediating role of strategic quality management (SQM).

This study performs structural equation modeling using AMOS on survey data collected from 200 Turkish firms operating in multiple industries and sectors.

This study finds that leadership in Turkish firms operating in multiple sectors is positively associated with SQM. This study further finds that SQM positively influences Turkish firms’ TTC and mediates the roles of SP and leadership in TTC.

A key research implication from this study relates to the mediating role of SQM in TTC in an emerging economy context. This study highlights that SP and leadership can play an essential role in TTC through the mediating mechanism of SQM. Consequently, SQM emerges as a crucial linking pin in conveying the impact of quality management practices on technology transfer in emerging markets.

An essential managerial implication of this study relates to the critical roles of leadership, SP and SQM in TTC. For the managers of firms operating in a relatively uncertain emerging context such as Turkey, it is essential to adopt a supportive and empowering leadership style, where open communication and innovative activities are viewed positively and SQM is adopted holistically. Also, SP should be streamlined throughout the firm and followed by SQM to support TTC.

This paper links the technology (and knowledge) management and the strategy and leadership literature streams by focusing on the mechanisms of technology transfer and delving into the linkages between SQM, leadership, SP and TTC. It specifically presents SP and leadership as precursors to SQM in their joint influence on TTC. Accordingly, this research bridges technology, strategy and leadership research and provides a broader picture of technology transfer that encompasses the joint role of different processes in firms’ TTC.

The link between confidence and economic decisions has been widely covered in the economic literature, yet it is still an unexplored field in tourism. The purpose of this paper is to address this gap, and investigate benefits in forecast accuracy that can be achieved by combining the UNWTO Tourism Confidence Index (TCI) with statistical forecasts.

Research is conducted in a real-life setting, using UNWTO unique data sets of tourism indicators. UNWTO TCI is pooled with statistical forecasts using three distinct approaches. Forecasts efficiency is assessed in terms of accuracy gains and capability to predict turning points in alternative scenarios, including one of the hardest crises the tourism sector ever experienced.

Results suggest that the TCI provides meaningful indications about the sign of future growth in international tourist arrivals, and point to an improvement of forecast accuracy, when the index is used in combination with statistical forecasts. Still, accuracy gains vary greatly across regions and can hardly be generalised. Findings provide meaningful directions to tourism practitioners on the use opportunity cost to produce short-term forecasts using both approaches.

Empirical evidence suggests that a confidence index should not be collected as input to improve their forecasts. It remains a valuable instrument to supplement official statistics, over which it has the advantage of being more frequently compiled and more rapidly accessible. It is also of particular importance to predict changes in the business climate and capture turning points in a timely fashion, which makes it an extremely valuable input for operational and strategic decisions.

The use of sentiment indexes as input to forecasting is an unexplored field in the tourism literature.

This study aims to examine the relationships between the rules that a cooperative membership decides upon and members' motives for action. It considers individual self-interest in relation with motives that are consistent with the values of cooperation.

This paper comprises two parts. The first is theoretical and discusses cooperative governance's features in the context of individual motives. The second part is empirical and based on survey data from Italian multistakeholder, worker-run social cooperatives. It uses cross-sectional data gathered from 4,134 workers and 310 managers in 310 cooperatives in Italy to provide evidence of rules and individual motives. Regression analysis confirms the existence of a linkage between individual self-interest and motives.

Rules mainly, but not exclusively, play an enabling function, which implies responding to both nonmonetary and monetary individual motives. With greater articulation within institutions – through the definition of multiple rights for accessing decision-making – the authors expect increases in individual capabilities to match motives with specific organizational rules in pursuit of consistent ends. This is confirmed by the association that the authors found between individual motives and commitment.

The authors’ illustration is limited to one specific type of cooperative, the social cooperative, in which prosocial motives are expected to be stronger than in other cooperative forms, although one could say that all cooperative models emphasize procommunity and prosocial aims. Data are cross-sectional and do not allow for the identification of causality, only of statistical relations' strength.

The continuous scrutiny and adaptation of motives and means imply that cooperators communicate and engage in a learning process.

While the institutional spheres that support investor-owned organizations and self-interested profit-maximizing behavior have been analyzed, a framework that accommodates personal control rights and a richer view of individual motives is lacking. The value added from the paper is to suggest one.

This study assesses the impact of marital status towards customer-centric measures in a Canadian ski resort using the importance-performance map analysis (IPMA) as the analytical framework. For the purpose of this paper, the three groups that were assessed included singles, partnership without children and partnership with children as marital status indicators. From the theoretical and especially managerial point of view, knowing the importance and the performance of the relevant ski resort-related customer-centric perceptions is of key importance.

A survey was completed to assess customer-centric measures including customer satisfaction, repurchase intent, value for money, willingness to recommend, overall performance in terms of meeting expectations, relationship quality and skiing service quality. An IPMA was conducted with partial least square-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) to assess the importance-performance perceptions of the three marital status groups.

The results indicated that for five of the seven customer-centric measures, there were significant differences between the marital status groups. Overall, singles appeared to have the lowest values in customer-centric measures, whereas respondents living in partnership with children had the highest. This was also the case with the value for money perceptions, although the cost for the ski resort visit was likely to be the highest for the respondents living in partnership with children. There were also differences between the marital status groups in terms of the importance-performance evaluations.

Results of this research have implications for ski resort management as the three marital status groups appear to perceive the customer-centric measures quite differently in the IPMA framework.

This study aims to propose a theoretical framework and provide empirical evidence on the most successful marketing strategies for obtaining behavioural loyalty in small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

The data are based on 475 telephone surveys conducted among Spanish hairdressers. The authors have used ordinary least squares to estimate the empirical model.

Pricing, services and communication (Web page and in-store communication) are the main drivers of customer loyalty. SMEs have to be cautious with the use of social networks to avoid damaging loyalty. In addition, those positioned at high-price segments should pay more attention to communication on the Web, and all companies should find a balance between in-store communication and the sale of products for use at home.

Further research should try to replicate the findings with data from consumers and firms.

Service managers need to understand the optimal strategy to succeed in the market. The key insights of this study could also apply to other sectors, such as health, personal care and wellness services.

Previous research focussed mainly on large companies, while the role of loyalty in the success of SMEs has been poorly studied, with focus only on the antecedents and the measurement of loyalty. This study contributes to the previous research by analysing the effect of the strategy (price, range of services, communication, size and location) in the achievement of loyalty in SMEs.

Este trabajo propone un marco teórico y aporta evidencia empírica sobre las estrategias de marketing más exitosas en la consecución de lealtad comportamental en PYMEs.

Se ha realizado una encuesta telefónica a 475 peluqueros españoles. El modelo utilizado para la estimación es el de mínimos cuadros ordinarios.

Precio, servicios, y comunicación (página web y comunicación en la tienda) son los principales generadores de lealtad. Las PYMEs tienen que ser cautelosas con el uso de las redes sociales para evitar dañar la lealtad. Además, aquellas posicionados en altos precios deben prestar más atención a la comunicación en la web y todas deben encontrar un equilibrio entre la comunicación en el tienda y la venta de productos para su uso en casa.

Investigaciones futuras podrían replicar este estudio usando datos de consumidores y de empresa.

Los gerentes necesitan entender la estrategia óptima para tener éxito en el mercado. Las ideas claves de este trabajo podrían aplicarse a otros servicios personalizados de salud y bienestar.

La investigación previa se centra principalmente en grandes empresas mientras que el papel de la lealtad en el éxito de las pymes ha sido escasamente investigado y se ha centrado en los antecedentes y la medición de la lealtad. Este estudio realiza una contribución al analizar el efecto de la estrategia (precio, surtido de servicios, comunicación, tamaño y localización) en la consecución de la lealtad en las pymes.

Lealtad; pequeñas y medianas empresas; Pymes; peluqueros; estrategia de marketing; salon

Artículo de investigación