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Prior research has documented a generally positive relationship between employees’ standing on constructs that are commonly studied by positive psychologists and workplace outcomes, such as job performance and retention. Constructs such as adaptability, empowerment, hope, optimism, and resilience are believed to reflect psychological resources that employees can draw upon when facing adversity and challenges in their work, while also reflecting a general tendency or disposition to experience positive emotions and engage with others in ways that reflect such positive emotions. As such, positive psychology constructs may be particularly important for performance in jobs characterized by high levels of social interaction, stress, and challenge. In order to explore the manner in which different positive psychology constructs are related to sales performance, this chapter presents findings from a meta-analytic investigation into the relationships between sales performance and a variety of positive psychology constructs. Findings based on data from 59 unique samples and 14,334 salespeople indicate that some positive psychology constructs exhibit moderate to even strong relationships with the performance of salespeople, although the strength of these relationships appears to have been substantially inflated by common-source bias. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for selection and training within sales occupations, and advance an agenda for future research.

The luxury segment of the hospitality industry has experienced substantial growth in the past decade. Unfortunately, the notion of perceived luxury values has received scant attention, and there is a lack of valid framework to capture consumers’ value perceptions in the context of luxury hospitality services. Using luxury restaurant as an example of luxury hospitality services, this paper aims to establish the structure of luxury hospitality values and their measures and to investigate the relationship between luxury hospitality values and purchase intentions.

A survey questionnaire was developed to test the proposed luxury value framework. Confirmatory factor analysis and hierarchical linear regression were used to test the hypotheses.

Four luxury restaurant value dimensions including functional value, hedonic value, symbolic/expressive value and financial value were identified. The study results further reveal that a consumer’s purchase intention is influenced primarily by hedonic value, followed by functional value and financial value. Interestingly, unlike in the context of luxury goods, the purchase of luxury restaurant services is not substantially influenced by symbolic/expressive value.

Hospitality firms catering to the affluent might use the luxury value framework to better understand what drives their customers’ purchase intentions, and use such knowledge to create new services or to improve current product offerings. In addition, luxury hospitality companies can use this luxury value framework to position their brands/products.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first that empirically tests a luxury value framework in the luxury hospitality context and investigates the relationship between luxury hospitality values and purchase intentions.

The purpose of this paper is to celebrate the remarkable work of the late Emeritus Professor Michael J. Thomas, as Editor of Marketing Intelligence & Planning (MIP ) over 21 years, and Founding Editor in perpetuity.

His long‐time Assistant Editor and eventual successor trawls the back issues and plumbs the depths of his own memory, to formalise the story of the man and his creation.

The undoubted success of MIP, at the time of the editorial handover the third‐most downloaded title in Emerald's massive stable, was entirely attributable to the work of its Founding Editor: his clear vision of an academic journal that was applicable to the real work of intelligence gathering and strategy planning; his extensive personal networks, his professional status, and the sheer force of his personality.

In the overheated current climate of academic research and publication, more journals should consider the merits of editorial prerogative as a precursor to formal double‐blind reviewing in the acceptance process. A strong and focused Editor is a prerequisite, of course.

The paper celebrates the history of MIP and, in the process, the life of Michael Thomas.

The relationships between luxury and tourism are manifested in meaningful customer experiences which are focused on exclusive products and services. This paper aims to examine the visual communication of hotels in the Middle East to identify what luxury features are represented.

The digital communication of four luxury hotels in the United Arab Emirates was analysed based on a visual content and semiotic analysis of their Instagram’s posts (N = 1,866).

Results show that customers and views of the hotel and from the hotel are the most representative features of the social media communication of luxury hotels.

Theoretical and practical implications derived from the results are described, and opportunities for further research are identified in relation to digital marketing communication and the effect on consumers in hospitality and tourism.

This paper aims to investigate the mediating effect of brand love on purchase intention and word-of-mouth through mystery, sensuality and intimacy as brand image dimensions in the context of neo-luxury brands. It also explores the moderating effect of duration and intensity of consumer-brand relationships on brand image dimensions.

The data collection was done via an online survey of a representative group of Millennials. Data analysis was performed using structural equation modeling and multi-group analysis.

The paper suggests that brand love mediates the relationship between brand image, purchase intention and word-of-mouth for both Apple and Michael Kors brands. This study also identifies differences in the effects of intimacy, sensuality and mystery on brand love. Additionally, it is demonstrated that the moderation effect of intensity and duration of consumer-brand relationships varies among the two neo-luxury brands.

Further research should aim at investigating other categories of products and services in the field of neo-luxury, as this study focus on fashion and mobile brands. Other antecedents and outcomes of brand love should also be evaluated, as well as other moderating variables.

This paper contributes to the fast-growing consumer-brand relationships literature by exploring the role of brand love in the context of the emergent neo-luxury paradigm. It also intends to provide a better understanding of how to build and nurture an effective brand image through a multidisciplinary approach that combines mystery, sensuality and intimacy.

The aging research community and current research accountability frameworks raise concerns about developing future researchers who have the capacity and commitment to undertake and lead quality research in the future. The aim of this paper is to focus on the support that Australian universities currently provide to build the capacity of their ECR staff and how ECRs are experiencing this support.

Email interviews were used with early career education researchers (ECRs) to ask them how they experienced the research support structures provided by their institutions.

It was found that the anxiety and frustration some ECRs feel about their research careers may stem from the appropriateness or otherwise of the kinds of immediate goals they are choosing for themselves and, perhaps more important, the extent to which they see themselves working in isolation from their colleagues.

While different kinds of material support, such as reduced teaching loads and access to internal grant funds will always be important, it is argued that more attention needs to be given to realistic goal-setting for ECRs and a more patient, long-term approach to producing high-quality research.

Developing a sustainable research community means building a supportive environment in which ECRs can achieve satisfaction and success. The research presented in this paper seeks to contribute to this goal by trying to learn more about the support ECRs currently experience in Australian universities.

Attempts to define “relationship marketing” have been varied and many, neatly reflecting the diverse academic and socio‐political backgrounds of RM scholars. This paper lists 26 such definitions, collected as a by‐product of a literature review. Presented alongside this resource are the results of applying a content‐analysis‐based methodology to these definitions. These results suggest that seven RM “constructs” enjoy general support. In a discussion of this, it is concluded that any integration of disparate RM theories implied by these findings is at best superficial and at worst misleading. It is further suggested that “true” and complete integration of RM theory must wait until a coherent understanding of these fundamental concepts has been developed. From the 26 definitions listed, one is judged as being more comprehensive and generally acceptable, and a new definition is presented as an inducement to further discussion.