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The purpose of this paper is to advance the understanding of brand love by studying its intensity and the nature of extreme forms of it, rather than its presence or absence. The love of a sports team is a type of brand love and is a valuable context to study of brand love intensity because the intensity of love can become more extreme than for products; it has two distinctive features that are theoretically, management and policy relevant; and it is an under-researched context in marketing that is socially and economically significant.

The authors empirically develop and test a multidimensional hierarchical higher-order measure of the intensity of team love and a model of its drivers and outcomes using a sample of supporter club members of a professional sports team who vary in their intensity of love for the team.

The results support our measurement model and its distinctive features, especially the importance of the perceived two-way bond fans have with their team. While overall intensity of team love is not related to social influence or on-field performance, as hypothesized, they are related to sub-dimensions of team love, reflecting its multidimensionality. As hypothesized, the intensity of team love and social influence are related to the intention to renew club membership even with increased costs and poor performance and social influence is directly related to word of mouth and game attendance.

The research is limited to the club members of one sports team in a particular sport in one country and one cultural context. Future research opportunities include: extending it to other sports and brand contexts, refining the methodology and addressing other issues highlighted by the research.

The results indicate the limits of management control of team love intensity because it develops over time independently through social processes. However, firms can help facilitate these processes. The social dimensions indicate the need to develop socially, as well as individually-focussed relationship management strategies. Most devoted fans are valuable customers, but some hardcore elements can be dysfunctional and sabotage the brand.

Sport is personally, social and economically significant in most cultures and love of a sports team love can be an important glue that binds people and communities. However, the existence of extreme hardcore fans and heated rivalries can also be divisive and pose challenges for social policy. Hence, the need to better understand the factors driving more extreme forms of team love to better inform the development of social policy.

The authors focus on the intensity of brand love rather than its presence and absence as in prior research. The authors develop and test a new hierarchical measure of sports team love intensity and a model of its drivers and outcomes. The sports context is under-researched in marketing but reveals the important role played by dimensions that are obscured in studies of product brand love – its social nature and the perceived reciprocal relation with devoted fans. The results contribute to developing extended theories of brand love, open up new research opportunities and have management and policy implications.

Service uniforms have often been studied from the customers’ perspective, as they contribute to service expectations and evaluations. Proposes that the influence of uniform should also be considered from the service provider’s perspective. Discusses the first stage in the development of a 17‐item scale to assess service providers’ perceptions of their uniform. Identifies four dimensions of these perceptions: service approach, the look, customer influence and company identification. The emergence of the dimensions entitled service attitude and the look draws attention to issues concerned with how uniform wearers feel about themselves, and highlights the importance of the aesthetic uniform needs of the wearer. Suggests that management should give due consideration to uniform requirements as perceived by the service provider, as this is likely to impact positively on service employees and thus service orientation.

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between behavioural intentions and its antecedent factors in online services settings.

Data were collected from a national survey of Australians with experience purchasing online. A conceptual model linking behavioural intentions and its key antecedents was tested using partial least squares.

The results suggest that behavioural intentions are directly influenced by online service quality, online service value and online service satisfaction. Online service satisfaction, in turn, is affected by online service value and quality; whereas online service value is determined by the online service quality and related sacrifice.

These findings suggest that existing services marketing models developed in offline settings can be adapted to online settings to explain behavioural intentions. Although the sample included a wide range of people, generalisations of the findings should be made with caution. In addition, further scale development and theory building are needed to improve the proposed conceptual model.

Managerially, results of this study suggest that online service managers do not need to reinvent their business models. Instead they should modify the way in which some of the constructs like service quality are measured.

The study is unique in that it comprehensively addresses an extensive set of factors affecting behaviour intentions in online service contexts. Thus, it adds knowledge to the growing field of online services research.

The importance of customer orientation has been widely discussed although few studies have specifically measured this construct. Describes a study that compares the service providers’ self‐perception of customer orientation with customer perceptions of this dimension in a health care setting where both nurses and patients are surveyed. Customer orientation is measured using a modified SOCO scale adapted to a hospital context. Finds significant differences between the nurses’ and patients’ mean scores for the customer orientation scale (COS). Discusses an analysis of scale item differences together with item variation between patient groups. Suggests that two dimensions may exist within the customer orientation construct, information exchange and professional relationship. Discusses the managerial implications of these results.

There is an immense public health concern about the effects of binge drinking across the Western world, in particular about British youth on holiday abroad. While existing UK research has shed some light on binge drinking and its consequences, this has largely been restricted to surveys. Therefore, an analysis of the social context of British youth and binge drinking abroad currently remains absent. This article attempts to fill that gap by offering an insight into the social context of binge drinking in a holiday resort in Ibiza. It is based on ethnographic fieldwork and makes use of one field note to highlight what Hunt and colleagues (2010) refer to as ‘important relationships between youth, pleasure and context’, to explore the social interactions of binge‐drinking British youth abroad.

The behavior of British youth abroad has caused considerable concern over recent years. This is because many British youth engage in binge drinking, drug use, sex behavior and other risk behaviors – especially in the Balearics, Spain. While research has documented levels of alcohol use, drug use, risk and sex behaviors on these islands, it tends to rely on survey data. This article aims to offer some contextualization to the British youth holiday experience and to examine why such behaviors might take place.

The study uses ethnographic methods (observation, open‐ended focus groups) with British youth in San Antonio, Ibiza. Over the course of one week in July 2010, 17 focus groups were undertaken (n=97 aged between 17 and 31). Observations were conducted in bars, clubs, beaches, and general tourist areas.

The data suggest that young people engage in these behaviors not only to escape the constraints of work and family but also because they are exciting. The data also indicate that these behaviors appeared to help British youth construct life biographies which were integral to their identity construction. The findings are also considered within the social context of Ibiza which also played a role in promoting these behaviors.

No ethnographic research exists on the topic of British youth and their behaviors abroad. Previous research is mostly epidemiological survey research which does not adequately consider the social meaning and context for the behavior of British youth abroad.