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Much of the current literature on streetscape design emphasizes a need for well-articulated edge conditions to enhance pedestrian-orientation and the reason appears to lie in evolutionary biology: humans have a psychological preference for wall-hugging due to a well-established trait in other species: thigmotaxis.

This study seeks to explore the relationship between urban facades and affective feelings through an empirical study, which asks: how do people perceive edge conditions in urban environments? Through a study of affect relative to edge conditions, greater insight can be generated as to the human experience in the built environment. We conducted a laboratory experiment with 76 subjects who each viewed 40 images of urban facades and rated each based on their emotional reaction.

Each subject also completed two validated individual trait difference measures. We found that those images depicting thigmotaxic facades were more highly rated than other facades.

High quality edge environment resulted in people feeling more pleasant than low quality edges.

Increasingly, diverse urban areas are in growing need of planning and design that include and welcome residents from a wide range of cultural and linguistic backgrounds. This study aims to use a service design framework to assess how the physical design of ten public spaces in New York City impacted visitors’ experience and sense of welcome.

The study used two main approaches to address this question. First, the authors conducted a sentiment analysis and a qualitative content analysis of Twitter data collected from each location as well as Tweets that mentioned each location. Second, they collected data through more traditional means by interviewing staff and visitors at four sites and also performing on site observational research.

These results suggested that certain physical design elements can significantly impact visitors’ sense of welcome and comfort. These include color, natural light, plentiful windows and open space. The study also found that Twitter data can be a useful tool to add a layer of insight into understanding visitors’ experience of a public building and recommends that public agencies should partner with cultural institutions and other community groups to use Twitter to monitor community attitudes and communicate with the public.

The research drew on the emerging service design framework and used novel data collection and analysis techniques.

To review the development of the security zone concept and introduce an approach for transforming these spaces into more effective public places.

The literature review was conducted by examining major books and journal articles in the urban planning, urban design, and landscape architecture literature (1970‐2004).

The review found that an effective response to security zones is to initiate a strategic planning process utilizing local knowledge and design expertise.

Security zones have numerous negative socio‐cultural and aesthetic impacts on their neighborhoods. The findings of the literature review and the new approach introduced can be a good way to strike a delicate balance between providing for necessary security and mitigating against those negative impacts.

This paper fulfills a need in the property management community to understand and manage the openness/security dilemma.

The aim was to study how the working-age population's mental symptoms had a relation to the using of the Internet. In addition, the aim was to analyze how the mental symptoms had a relation to background information. The study was carried out as a cross-sectional study by posting a questionnaire to 15,000 working-age (18-65) Finns. Mental symptoms of responses (6121) were analysed using the model factors age, gender and use of the Internet. Only 0.06% mentioned that they were somehow addicted to the Internet. Based on statistical analyses, age and marital status had an influence on many mental symptoms. The use of the Internet at leisure had an influence on substance addiction and fear situations. The importance of the Internet only had an influence on the fear situations. In the future it will be essential to take into account that the use of the internet can affect mental symptoms.

Purpose – The paper develops a conceptual framework for assessing value-creating service ecosystems that contains four core dimensions: medium, meaning, usage, and network. Its purpose is to identify and discuss the implications of the changes that occur in these dimensions when exchanges within the ecosystem that have long been mediated by physical products become direct instead.

Methodology/approach – The analysis employs the historical method and is based on a systematic investigation of the evolution of the recorded-music market during the past 150 years.

Findings – The analysis shows that the key dimensions of the recorded-music-service ecosystem evolved only gradually and incrementally during the era of physical formats that were dominant until the mid-1990s. With the advent of “liquid” music, the elements of the service ecosystem changed dramatically, leading to instability and redefining roles and exchange mechanisms in the ecosystem.

Research limitations/implications – The investigation focuses on a single ecosystem (music), and conclusions stemming from it are subject to the assumptions inherent in the historical method. Nevertheless, the paper contributes to knowledge in the Service-Dominant Logic (S-D logic) domain by offering a robust framework and a set of core dimensions that are useful for systematically analyzing the nature and consequences of changes that occur in rapidly evolving service ecosystems.

Practical implications – Apart from direct implications for the music market, the proposed framework can help managers working in other ecosystems to adopt a macro perspective in addressing value-creation issues and to pay particular attention to the underlying dynamics that influence value creation in those ecosystems.

Originality/value of paper – The development of a conceptual framework that adopts a macro-level, market-wide perspective for understanding value creation in service ecosystems is a distinct contribution of the paper, as is the application of the historical method in analyzing such an ecosystem.

ON April 23rd this year, when all countries in the world will be celebrating the Quater‐centenary of Shakespeare's birthday, the Shakespeare Memorial Library in Birmingham will have attained a majority of one hundred years. Although founded in 1864 the scope of the library was first envisaged by George Dawson, President of the local Shakespeare club in a letter to Aris's Birmingham Gazette of 1861.

Deodorant, as a hygienic product, becomes a daily necessity product and has significant benefits to its users. Yet, the real motivation for consuming deodorant is not fully understood, and therefore, this study aims to join the extant literature in this context by investigating the effect of personal values.

A qualitative study using the laddering approach (means-end analytic) was used and 50 college students participated in this study.

The hierarchical value maps show that achievement, power, security and benevolent personal values are responsible for millennials deodorant consumption behavior. Fragrance, price and antiperspirant are the most important attributes that appeal to such consumption.

The findings also suggested that three different situational factors generated these different personal values. It includes a pre-career environment, puberty and maintaining self-stability. The strongest attributes that appeal to millennials are fragrance, price, antiperspirant, brand, long-lasting quality and packaging.

This study offers the means-end approach to the framework of millennials deodorant consumption behavior and which can be implemented to investigate millennials consumption decision-making processes.

The purpose of the paper is to present and critically discuss the findings of the ESRC-funded HS2020 project. The aim is to discuss the retail-led change that has happened to the High Streets that participated to the project that, in some cases, is revolutionary and is leading to the reinvention of the place. To do so reference is made to various retail change theories discussing both institutional and consumer-led change.

This is a discussion paper on the findings of the HS2020 project.

The major finding reported in this paper is that the reinvention is a natural learning process that involves the comprehension of change and the development of knowledge that will lead to the reinvention of the High Street.

The findings of the research are based on data that were collected from a total of ten towns across the UK.

The paper suggests that to reinvent the High Street the stakeholders that are involved in the place decision-making processes they should embrace the change as a natural development and try to understand and learn from it rather than resisting to it. The HS2020 project provides a comprehensive guide of the areas that change can be managed and if it happens it can facilitate the reinvention.

The paper is relevant to the academic community, as it offers insight to the theories of retail change, and to the practitioners, as it provides evidence as to how to deal with the change that happens to the High Streets.