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The paper has a twofold purpose: (1) to test the application of means-end theory to providers of hospitality goods and services, and (2) to explore this question in the context of winery tasting rooms when they had a unique opportunity to restructure their hospitality experience due to government restrictions in response to COVID.

A qualitative approach was adopted, and a convenience sample was used to conduct semi-structured laddering interviews. Forty interview transcripts were coded as means-end ladders, which were analyzed using a custom computer program to develop the implication matrix and the hierarchical value map.

This paper demonstrates that means-end is a useful approach to investigate the values and behaviors of the producer, specifically hospitality hosts. It finds that the principal goal of tasting rooms is to generate sales, and offering a compelling guest experience is the characteristic that contributes the most to achieving that goal. The staff and the atmosphere created for the guests are the two factors with the greatest influence on the guest experience.

This is the first paper to use means-end theory to study the hospitality host, or the producer of goods and services in general, and the first to study winery hospitality primarily through the lens of means-end theory. The study also helps fill a gap in research on tasting room sales focused on the winery’s goals.

This paper aims to inform the promotion of sustainable modes of transport. For this purpose, it deploys a means-ends framework as a type of second-order cybernetics and uses it to explore cognitive transport mode choice structures.

The empirical study relies on a purposive sample and a qualitative research methodology known as laddering. It is aimed at the identification and comparative analysis of the cognitive means-ends structures of transport users.

The results reveal more positive and complex associations for the car than for public transport. Two main positive means-ends structures are identified for public transport, one related with the relaxation and the other with doing useful things while travelling. Dominant positive structures for the car are related with self-confidence, satisfaction and personal freedom. Negative means-ends structures in addition reveal important justifications and rationalizations for car use.

Based on the identified distinct means-ends elements and structures, this study holds important implications for developing a communications strategy and policy interventions seeking to promote public transport.

Means-ends theory is proposed as an integrative cybernetic framework for the study of stakeholders’ (customers’) mental models. The empirical study is the first to concurrently and comparatively examine positive and negative means-ends chains for the car and for the public transport modes.

The purpose of this study is to present and explain a new customer segmentation approach inspired by failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) which can help classify customers into more accurate segments.

The present study offers a look at the three most commonly used approaches to assessing customer loyalty:net promoter score, loyalty ladder and loyalty matrix. A survey on the quality of restaurant services compares the results of categorizing customers according to these three most frequently used approaches.

A new way of categorizing customers through loyalty priority number (LPN) is proposed. LPN was designed as a major segmentation criterion consisting of customer loyalty rate, frequency of purchase of products or services and value of purchases. Using the proposed approach allows to categorize customers into four more comprehensive groups: random, bronze, silver and gold – according to their loyalty and value to the organization.

Survey will bring a more accurate way of categorizing customers even in those sectors where transaction data are not available. More accurate customer categorization will enable organizations to use targeting tools more effectively and improve product positioning.

The most commonly used categorization approaches such as net promoter score, loyalty ladder or loyalty matrix offer relatively general information about customer groups. The present study combines the benefits of these approaches with the principles of FMEA. The case study not only made it possible to offer a view of the real application of the proposed approach but also made it possible to make a uniform comparison of the accuracy of customer categorization.

This paper is a response to a frequently asked question from prospective industry partners searching for opportunities to collaborate with the Computer Science Department of Swansea University, UK. This paper seeks to provide structured guidance in the form of what is titled the Industry Engagement Ladder.

The Industry Engagement Ladder presents a selection of collaboration opportunities, outlining the possible cooperation mechanisms between an industry partner and the academic institution.

Opportunities are described and ranked according to the amount of investment required by the industrial partner, and therefore risk, from low to high.

This concise paper provides a quick reference for perspective industry academia collaboration opportunities, the risks involved with each, the possible funding available to help foster these partnerships and the benefits to industry. These collaborative activities (and variations thereof) can be incorporated by any university department. The manuscript offers an ideal starting point for industry–university collaboration.

This paper aims to show the aligned development that took place in public administration and public financial management toward serving public values. By analyzing the mode of institutions’ interaction, the paper attempts to pinpoint the changing trends in budget institutions in Egypt, probing the extent to which they can be read from an administrative perspective and the possibility of enhancing budgetary outcomes under the existing administrative arrangements.

An analytical framework for public management administrative and budgetary institutions’ alignment is presented. A ladder analysis is developed to highlight the consistency of rationale between the two sets of institutions. The alignment is demonstrated at three consecutive levels: control and discipline, efficiency and effectiveness and openness and communication.

The international experience reveals that the alignment of administrative and budgetary institutions is both theoretically traceable and practically applicable in the case of developed economies. Whereas, in the case of Egypt, both sets of institutions have been exposed to best practices; yet, they are not seen as complementary and enforcing each other. The internalization of the benefits of reforms in the two tracks into an integrated public management context in the case of Egypt is not reached.

Egypt needs to ensure the alignment of both dimensions to maximize the benefits of reform.

The ladder approach sorts the developments in both administrative and budgetary institutions into three levels to help assessing the maturity and conformity in countries’ public management systems.

This study aims to increase the understanding of the emergence of a values-based (VB) premium private label (PL) brand reputation within a multiple-tier PL brand portfolio in retailing.

By building on the research on PLs, brand image, brand reputation and consumer values, this study creates a conceptual foundation for the emergence of VB PL brand reputation within a multiple-tier brand portfolio among consumers and examines the emergence of such reputation empirically using interpretive exploratory qualitative laddering interviews in the context of fast-moving consumer goods.

The findings of this study illustrate that the VB reputations of the premium PL product brand and the PL brand store intertwine, ultimately relating to two terminal values: pleasure and doing good. These reputations differ remarkably from the VB reputations of the economy PL brand and the umbrella brand of the retail chain (not doing good and financial security).

This study explains the emergence of VB brand reputation within a multiple-tier brand portfolio and introduces the use of the laddering technique in such research.

This study reminds brand managers to carefully design the relevant brand strategy for brands and their relationships under a brand umbrella.

Although much is known about PL brands and brand reputation, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study might be the first to increase the understanding of how a VB premium PL brand reputation emerges and accumulates from brand images within a multiple-tier brand portfolio.