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Describes the outcome of a pilot study in which a number of hotel managers were interviewed at length in order to ascertain their understanding of “communications and social skills”. The objective was to investigate how these skills might be taught effectively by educators through the medium of tailor‐made courses within colleges and universities. Analyses managers′ perceptions in order to investigate the possibilities of producing “customer‐led” courses, the customer in this respect being the employers; and then discusses these perceptions in terms of their consequences for educators.

This article looks at the outcome of a questionnaire designed to explore factors relevant to engendering consumer loyalty in restaurant choice. The sampling frame comprises people with relatively homogeneous characteristics who dine out with some frequency. The overall objective was to question certain assumptions that have become current in academic discussions of consumer behaviour with particular relevance to consumer loyalty. Findings suggest that the quality and range or type of food are key determinants in consumer loyalty, but that the concept of “quality of food” offers a range of interpretations and thus requires more careful investigation. Additionally, the concept of the “meal experience” as a holistic abstraction in the consumer’s mind is called into question as a consequence of the analysis. Tangible rather than intangible factors are identified as being of greater importance in consumer loyalty.

This article looks at the outcome of a questionnaire designed to explore factors relevant to engendering consumer loyalty in restaurant choice. The sampling frame comprises people with relatively homogeneous characteristics who dine out with some frequency. The overall objective was to question certain assumptions that have become current in academic discussions of consumer behaviour with particular relevance to consumer loyalty. Findings suggest that the quality and range or type of food are key determinants in consumer loyalty, but that the concept of “quality of food” offers a range of interpretations and thus requires more careful investigation. Additionally, the concept of the “meal experience” as a holistic abstraction in the consumer’s mind is called into question as a consequence of the analysis. Tangible rather than intangible factors are identified as being of greater importance in consumer loyalty.

The purpose of this paper is to use the case of the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Hobart, Tasmania, to investigate the role of entrepreneurial marketing (EM) in shaping an arts enterprise. It draws on the notion of effectuation and the process of EM in explaining new venture creation and assesses the part played by David Walsh, the entrepreneurial owner/manager.

This case study analysis enables an in-depth appraisal of the impact of EM and effectuation within the growing domain of arts marketing.

The paper offers a glimpse into how creativity and business interact in the creation of new markets. It demonstrates how formal methods of marketing are bypassed in the search for owner/manager constructed versions of situational marketing. In addition, it provides insight into dominance of entrepreneur-centrism vs customer-centrism in entrepreneurship marketing. An additional contribution to knowledge is the use of effectuation to assist in better understanding of the role of EM in the market creation process.

The research carried out here builds on a growing body of work adopting the EM lens to better understand arts marketing and new venture creation.

This paper aims to examine how instructional videos produced by retail employers and tech companies have modelled cashier roles and skills in service encounters over time, providing insights into cashier training and job responsibility evolution across different retail eras.

Online video research is used, with YouTube as data source and the theory of practice architectures and related concepts as analytical framework, to examine 50 instructional video narratives produced between 1917 and 2021.

Cashiers’ selling practice comprises transactions and customer service, which are often taught separately. Technology has explicitly influenced changes in cashier work and training at three points in history: mechanised checkout (1917), computerised checkout (1980) and connected checkout (2010). “New technology” involves a combination of arrangements with the potential to transform the semantic, physical and social dimensions of cashiers’ selling practice. However, despite technological advancements, employers’ cashier training videos have not evolved significantly since the 1990s and still focus on emotional labour skills.

The findings indicate a need for transforming training for service work in the connected service encounter.

The relationship between technological innovations and changes in frontline service work and workplace learning is examined through the lens of instructional videos produced by retail employers and tech companies, giving rise to insights into limitations of current training methods for service workers. This paper suggests the need for a more holistic perspective on service encounters to understand service work and workplace learning changes.

Competence development is seen as one of the critical strategic factors ensuring companies’ competitiveness. This has given rise to much discussion on how to create organisational and learning environments, such as learning organisations, which foster employees’ skills and sense of initiative and responsibility. This paper examines the experiences of a number of European manufacturing and process companies, which on the surface appear to have similar innovative competence development strategies. However, when analysed more closely, it emerges that these firms have different perspectives on the position competence development holds in the hierarchy of company values and strategies. The kinds of competencies developed in these companies and the learning approaches used are also discussed.

Universities constantly try to balance the need to be seen as research institutions contributing new knowledge to society with the need to be seen as effective teaching institutions. This article describes one way in which the two requirements have been effectively resolved in teaching short courses to non‐university students. The methodology incorporated students and research teams, thus drawing on the strengths of both. The result is enhanced student participation and motivation, greater access to data and new insights for the faculty members. The paper concludes by describing other applications of such an approach.

Knowledge management (KM) is associated with higher performance and innovative culture; KM can help the public sector to be fiscally lean and meet diverse stakeholders’ needs. However, hierarchical structures, bureaucratic culture and rigid processes inhibit KM adoption and generate inertia. This study aims to explore the nature and causes of this inertia within the context of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) public sector.

Using an in-depth case study of a UAE public sector organisation, this study explores how organisational inertia can be countered to enable KM adoption. Semi-structured interviews are conducted with 17 top- and middle-level managers from operational, management and strategic levels. Interview data is triangulated with content analysis from multiple sources, including the UAE Government and case organisation documents.

The results show transformation leadership, external factors and organisational culture mediate the negative effect of inertia on KM practices adoption. We find that information technology plays a key role in enabling knowledge creation, access, adoption and sharing. Furthermore, we uncover a virtuous cycle between organisational culture and KM practices adoption in the public sector. In addition, we develop a new model (the relationship between KM practices, organisational inertia, organisational culture, transformational leadership traits and external factors) and four propositions for empirical testing by future researchers. We also present a cross-case comparison of our results with six private/quasi-private sector cases who have implemented KM practices.

Qualitative data is collected from a single case study.

Inertia in a public section is a result of bureaucracy and authority bounded by the rules and regulations. Adopting a qualitative methodology and case study method, the research explores the phenomena of how inertia impacts KM adoption in public sector environments. Our findings reveal the underlying mechanisms of how internal and external organisational factors impact inertia. Internally, supportive organisational culture and transformational leadership traits positively effect KM adoption, which, in turn, has a positive effect on organisational culture to counter organisational inertia. Externally, a progressive national culture, strategy and policy can support a knowledge-based organisation that embraces change. This study develops a new model (interactions between internal and external factors impacting KM practices in the public sector), four propositions and a new two-stage process model for KM adoption in the public sector. We present a case-comparison of how the constructs interact in a public sector as compared to six private/quasi-private sector cases from the literature.