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This mainly exploratory study was a one‐point‐in‐time survey of the situation in one English county. This study involved a survey of all social care homes in the county, followed by measures of quality of life/service for a random sample of 30 people identified by the survey, interviews with home managers, service users, family carers and care managers, and focus groups with members of four community learning disability teams. The total number of people placed from out‐of‐area was estimated to be close to 2,000 (1,500 were placed by the local authority within the county). The main reason for such placements was lack of good local services, but cost also seemed important. For many of those who had been in long‐stay hospital, locality appeared not to be important. Effects varied, but at least a third of people were experiencing very poor service quality and quality of life. Family carers generally felt their relative was happy, but fear of losing the placement was a strong theme. Distance was a major difficulty for both family and care manager involvement. For local community learning disability teams, the main problems included increased workload, reduced provision for local residents, difficulty in dealing with placing authority and the poor quality of the homes. Challenges for public agencies include provision of better local services, management of the cost incentives, especially for London Boroughs, and a system where funding follows the person wherever they chose to live.

Engagement in meaningful active and relationships is important for quality of life but, for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities, engagement depends on the quality of support received from those around them. This paper describes the process of implementing person‐centred active support in the Avenues Trust, and the findings from the evaluation of the implementation in six pilot residential services. Attention was paid both to training staff and to the motivational structures within the organisation. Both the quality of support provided by staff and the level of engagement increased significantly after the introduction of person‐centred active support. In addition, people experienced decreased self‐stimulatory and injurious behaviour, increased opportunities for choice and control, and higher levels of participation in tasks of daily living, without compromising their community involvement. Staff experienced more and better practice leadership, and staff morale improved within the services, with staff generally more positive about management, more satisfied and less likely to leave. Lessons learnt about the implementation are provided.

All nursing auxiliaries with over five years service were given the opportunity to receive both NVQ training and assessment to level 2 and a small financial inducement. New job descriptions, pay and grading systems have been introduced resulting in considerable progress towards changing the culture of the organization.

An increasing number of organizations are addressing the issue of trade union recognition, particularly NHS trusts considering introducing local pay determination. Burnley NHS Trust developed a strategic approach to the issue, establishing pre‐determined outcomes and measurable criteria to determine which organizations – if any – would have recognition extended for the purpose of local pay determination. The staff side case is examined in detail along with three other options: a staff association, recognition for some and recognition for none. Four organizations – representing 95 per cent of the unionized workforce – accepted recognition, with safeguards for 14 others.

The purpose of this paper is to check for the effects of brand familiarity, customer brand engagement and self-identification on word-of-mouth (WOM) communication.

A systematic review of the literature regarding brand familiarity and customer brand engagement CBE) was conducted and data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

The results revealed that brand familiarity had a positive impact on CBE; self-identification also had a positive impact on WOM communication.

The model was tested in the context of service sector; future research may investigate in different context.

The framework advances insight into customer engagement and service dominant logic, which, despite having been recognized for their significant theoretical fit, have remained largely disparate in the literature.

This study is among the first few attempts to examine the impact of brand familiarity on different dimensions, namely, cognitive, affective and activation dimensions of CBE. This study contributes to a more detailed description of the brand familiarity construct and improves understanding of WOM communication. The study provides implications for practitioners and marketers.

The purpose of this paper is to examine brand familiarity, extrinsic attributes, self‐confidence, perceived quality and six dimensions of perceived risk for their effects on purchase intentions between the prototypical and me‐too brands of MP3 players.

A self‐administered survey was employed to collect data from 348 lead users of MP3 players. Existing scales were selected for their tested reliability in buying situations and adapted to suit the context of the current study. Hypothesized relationships were examined with structural equation modeling.

Brand familiarity had positive effects and extrinsic attributes had negative effects on the perceived equivalent quality of the MP3 players for both the prototypical and me‐too brands. Further, brand familiarity and extrinsic attributes produced direct effects on purchase intentions for the me‐too and prototypical brands respectively. While perceived equivalent quality had a positive mediating effect on the brand familiarity‐purchase intentions relationship for the me‐too brands, it had a negative mediating effect on the extrinsic attributes‐purchase intentions relationship for the prototypical brand. Finally, perceived social/physical, financial/performance, time and psychological risks produced negative mediating effects on the perceived equivalent quality‐purchase intentions relationship for the prototypical brand, while social/physical risk produced a positive mediating effect for the me‐too brands.

Previous empirical research has focused primarily on the individual effects of these antecedents. A research model integrates these antecedents with the dimensions of perceived risk and tests their hypothesized effects on purchase intentions. Comparisons between the prototypical and me‐too brands of MP3 players provide insights for practitioners when managing their brands.

This study aims to investigate the moderating role of cultural value orientations on the relationship between brand ownership and customer brand engagement behavior through brand responsibility and self-enhancement.

Respondents came from firm-managed online smartphone brand communities in South Korea and the USA. Convenience sampling yielded 197 valid responses, with 98 coming from South Korea and 99 coming from the USA.

The study results provide empirical evidence that cultural value orientations influence customer brand engagement behavior. As expected, the findings indicate that individualism-collectivism and power distance significantly moderate the indirect effect of brand responsibility and self-enhancement on the relationship between brand ownership and customer brand engagement behavior.

Prior research has focused mainly on customer engagement behaviors that target the firm, employees and other customers, with little research examining customer engagement behavior that targeted the brand (customer brand engagement behavior). This exploration is important because customers could serve as brand missionaries, become less apt to switch brands and provide feedback, leading to a sustainable competitive advantage.

This paper sets out to address the issue of conspicuous consumption among middle age consumers (40‐60), focusing on the psychological and brand antecedents, using the context of automobile buying behaviour. Existing literature does not clearly conceptualise psychological and brand antecedent and their effect on conspicuous consumption due to usage of inconsistent measurement techniques and being largely targeted at the youth segment.

Two scales of measurement (psychological antecedent scale, brand antecedent scale) were employed to measure the impact. The study involved a quantitative research methodology employing a structured questionnaire and quota sampling with a total sample of 302 within the region of the South‐East of the UK.

The findings suggest that psychological and brand antecedents are of crucial importance among middle‐aged consumers in influencing their conspicuous consumption.

Using the examples of present communication strategies adopted by conspicuous product marketers, the paper argues how they are missing an opportunity and provides them with a novel way to market their brands, focusing on how consumers associate themselves with these brands.

The paper is the first of its kind to explicitly investigate the impact of brand and psychological antecedents among middle‐aged consumers – one of the most significant segments for conspicuous marketers, yet so far understudied.