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Globally, guesthouses provide an important source of accommodation to visitors and tourists. Surprisingly, research into this sector is rather sparse. The purpose of this paper is to examine the dimensions of experience value, determine guests’ perceptions of experience value, analyse the influences of various profile variables on experience value, and investigate the relationship between experience value, satisfaction, and customer behavioural intentions regarding guesthouses in Ghana.

A quantitative research design was followed. A total of 541 useable questionnaires were received from 650 guests conveniently selected from 51 guesthouses in Ghana. The guesthouses were selected by means of stratified random sampling.

The results of the study reveal that atmospherics, enjoyment, entertainment, escape, efficiency, excellence and economic value measure guests’ perceptions of experience value. Atmospherics and economic value attracted the highest positive rating while escape had the most negative rating. In addition, the study showed that there is a strong positive relationship between experience value, satisfaction and behavioural intention.

The first limitation relates to the sample. Only the major city from each of four regions was selected for the study. These regions include Accra, Koforidua, Cape Coast and Kumasi. Future research should investigate perceived value provided by guesthouses in the remaining six regions of the country in the quest to generalise the findings. Lastly, the study derived the experience value dimensions from the literature and verified these. While this is not regarded as a limitation, future research could investigate further dimensions of experience value such as novelty, nostalgia and social interaction.

Guesthouse managers could use the outcome of this study as a form of differentiation. Second, managers should take note of the positive relationships between experience value, satisfaction and respondents’ intentions to return to the guesthouse and tell others about their experiences (behavioural intentions). This can strengthen the organisation’s competitive position within the accommodation industry. Finally, the research resulted in a fairly simple instrument guesthouse managers can use to assess their guests’ perceptions of value provided by the guesthouse. It is recommended that guesthouse managers measure guests’ perceptions of value on a regular basis.

Theoretical implications and recommendations following the empirical findings and recommendations are provided. First, defining the concept of value is complex. While the underlying foundation of value as benefits relative to sacrifices (Zeithaml, 1988) remains relevant, affective forms of value should also be considered. This suggests that organisations that focus only on providing benefits may be at a competitive disadvantage. Second, experience value is multidimensional. Seven dimensions, namely atmospherics, enjoyment, entertainment, escape, efficiency, excellence and economic value were shown to contribute to the guesthouse experience. These included emotional factors in addition to the conventional functional factors.

Total quality management resulting from total customer satisfaction today can mean giving every customer a product tailored specifically to his or her needs. In the past, manufacturing was usually characterized by keeping costs down with economies of scale. Mass customization can result in a challenging manufacturing environment typified by both high volume and an excellent product mix, where customers expect individualized products at the same price as they paid for mass‐produced items. Meeting this challenge requires profound changes in the manufacturing process and in organizational dynamics. Despite the potential offered by mass customization it is necessary that organizations ensure that such a strategy is the optimal route for their business before embarking on full scale mass customization.

Total quality management resulting from the quest for total customer satisfaction implies giving every customer a product tailored specifically to their needs at a price comparable to that of mass produced products. Mass customisation offers several benefits, but are organisations ready for the paradigm shift? Three sets of factors that are indicative of the move from mass production to mass customisation were tested empirically in selected South African organisations, namely: industry, competitive and environmental considerations; products/services and structural arrangements; and organisational orientation. If the organisation is ready to make the paradigm shift, it still needs to determine the kind of customisation required to create unique customer value within the limits of its capabilities and orientation.

Research has proved that total quality management is crucial to the success of many organizations. This article points out that intensified competition and developments in a turbulent environment necessitate a shift in the quality mindset to also include providing delight to all stakeholders by offering them superior value and satisfaction beyond what is expected. Reasons for the paradigm shift are discussed, requirements for an orientation of stakeholder delight are highlighted and ways of delighting stakeholders are suggested.

After identifying those underlying consumer value dimensions associated with the private game reserve experience, and their contribution to visitors’ behavioral intentions, the purpose of this paper is to compare managers’ and visitors’ perceptions of value experienced and value delivered.

Two similar questionnaires with five-point Likert scales gathered the perceptions of 30 managers and 162 visitors. Data analysis included factor analysis, multiple regression analysis and an independent-samples t-test.

Consumer value comprises seven dimensions. Managers’ perceptions of value delivered exceeded visitors’ perceptions of value experienced on all seven dimensions. Statistically significant differences existed for emotional value, monetary price, behavioral price, novelty and social value, but not for reputation and quality.

Results cannot be generalized and must be interpreted with caution due to the small samples and the South African wildlife focus. The resulting measuring scale can be further refined and applied to a larger sample of reserves and visitors in an international environment, particularly in African countries known for wildlife tourism.

The results suggest a need to align managers’ and customers’ perspectives to optimize consumer value. Identifying perception gaps will prevent resources being spent on elements not valued by customers, and closing gaps will help improve visitor satisfaction and retention.

Few studies have examined consumer value in a wildlife context, or simultaneously from a manager and customer perspective. This study identified latent value dimensions and gaps in value perceptions associated with private game reserves.

This study aims to determine similarities and differences in business travellers' expectations and managers' perceptions of the service provided by guest houses.

Two questionnaires with seven‐point Likert scales were used to measure travellers' expectations of guest house service and managers' perceptions of these expectations. Data was analysed using Statistica Version 6.1 by employing factor analysis and ANOVA tests.

Business travellers deemed secure parking and the professionalism of staff as the most important attributes, while guest house managers thought it would be friendliness of front desk staff and efficient handling of complaints. Both groups indicated that cleanliness of rooms and services performed by staff adequately the first time, were of particular importance. The importance rating of the different service dimensions was not significantly influenced by the business travellers' gender, managerial position, nights of stay or by the guest house grading. Managers mostly overestimated guests' expectations.

The limitation of the study is the relatively small sample used (50 guest house managers and 300 business travellers within one city). Future research needs to examine a broader sample of guest house managers and could compare the expectations of different types of guests.

It is worth noting that guest house managers had overestimated the expectations of business travellers regarding the service provided. Management should focus on service dimensions important to guests and not those based on own opinions.

An understanding of business travellers' expectations could lead to their needs being more closely addressed and satisfaction levels being raised.

Knowledge of brand awareness and its role is important for the design of an organisation's marketing strategies. This study aims to determine the brand awareness of high‐ and low‐involvement products among Black and non‐Black students enrolled at a South African university.

A self‐administered survey was completed by a convenience sample of 300 students of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. The focal high‐involvement product was sportswear clothing and the low‐involvement product, coffee.

The results indicated a higher awareness of high‐involvement product brands than of low‐involvement product brands. Advertising played an important role in the awareness of sportswear clothing brands, but seemed unimportant in the case of coffee. The brand name was important for coffee, while the name and the logo played a role in students' awareness of sportswear brands.

This study was limited to students of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) in Port Elizabeth, South Africa and to sportswear clothing and coffee product categories. Future studies could comprise larger samples, different contexts and other product or service categories.

The findings suggest that marketers employ different strategies to create and increase brand awareness for high‐ and low‐involvement products.

Previous research found that brand awareness played an important role in low‐involvement products; however, little is known about brand awareness differences between high‐ and low‐involvement products, particularly with respect to the brand awareness of South African students.

The ability of small businesses to make and adjust to the paradigm shift needed to benefit from the Japanese production theory has been questioned in the literature. Zangwill (1992) questioned the limits of the Japanese Production Theory (JPT) and in a subsequent paper (Zangwill, 1994) held on to his argument about the limits of the Japanese Production Theory. In this paper, the Japanese Production Theory is first discussed, followed by a discussion of the consistency between the traditional EOQ theory and the Japanese production theory, critique of the Zangwill’s argument, and issues related to the relevance of the Japanese production theory to small businesses.