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This study aims to explore passionate labour in the fashion blogosphere and addresses two research questions: How does passion animate passionate labour? How does the emotion of passions and the discipline of labour fuse within passionate labour?

This study presents a three-year netnographic fieldwork of replikate fashion blogger-preneurs. Data are based on in-depth interviews, blogs, social media posts and informed by the relationships developed across these platforms.

Throughout the findings, this study unpacks the “little passions” that animate the passionate labour of blogger-preneurs. Passions include: passion for performing the royal lifestyle, the mobilisation of passion within strategic sociality and transformation and self-renewal through blogging. Lastly, the cycle of passion illustrates how passions can be recycled into new passionate projects.

This study offers insight on how passionate labour requires the negotiation and mobilisation of emotion alongside a calculated understanding of market logics.

This study raises implications for aspiring blogger-preneurs, luxury brand managers and organisations beyond the blogging context.

The contribution of this study lies in the cultural understanding of passion as a form of labour where passion has become a way of life. The theorisation of passionate labour contributes to existing research in three ways. First, this study identifies social mimesis as a driver of passionate labour and its links to class distinction. Second, it offers insight on how passionate labour requires the negotiation and mobilisation of emotion alongside a calculated understanding of market logics. Third, it advances critical debate around exploitation and inequality within digital labour by demonstrating how passion is unequally distributed.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the special issue that critically examines topics informing long‐standing disputes concering the status of theory and practice in management studies. Contributions explore the character of the imputed relationship between theory and practice.

The editorial introduction sets the discussion of topics in the context of institutional change influencing the production, circulation and consumption of knowledge products in the economy of relevance and reputation. It also presents an overview of the papers included in the special issue.

The main themes addressed in the papers represent a call for change; a call to radicalize the approaches to understanding ways of knowing; a call to re‐evaluate relations with practitioners; and a call to reimagine ways of representing knowledge to various constituencies, including fellow academic practitioners, management practitioners, students, and policy‐makers and other opinion‐formers.

The key message is one of the importance of encouraging broad discussions concerning the direction and impact of flows of knowledge and the various products in which that knowledge is embedded. It calls for a more market‐oriented approach to understanding the knowledge economy and the mediating role of various institutional players, including the academy, in the circulation, creation and destruction of knowledge products.

That a more‐market oriented approach to arrangements for the distribution of research resources in management studies calls for the development of more market‐oriented institutions capable of shaping relationships of collaboration, involvement and accountability.

Contributions expand the understanding of the problems and opportunities of imputing links to theory and practice.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the virtual consumption communities which cohere around the object of the car. Focusing upon the cultural practice of debadging, the paper intends to reveal forms of connectivity and resistance within communities of car customization.

A netnography in the form of non‐participant observation is used to explore the talk of car aficionados around issues of customization and affiliation.

The paper discusses the importance of internet discussion boards as forums for the exchange of information and advice, but also as a site to express their passion for cars and their affiliation with like‐minded others. The research reveals that the question of aesthetics is a significant one for car aficionados. This enables us to theorize such consumers as akin to designers for whom the discussion boards exist as key reference points.

This is an exploratory study and its primary limitation is one of scope and method. Netnography provides access to web‐based communication. In this sense, a novel channel of access to new forms of expression and ways of doing social relations is employed. Clearly, the insights generated from this study are mediated by the character of the empirical site and the limits of non‐participatory netnography.

The originality of the paper resides in its attempt to theorize the significance of the cultural practice of debadging as a key constituent in community‐formation.

The purpose of the article is to describe the consequences for the purchasing and supply management field of its current focus on the behaviours and concerns of extremely large corporations.

This is a short viewpoint article.

It is found that there is a lack of research in purchasing and supply management in SMEs. Small and medium sized companies are in need of a deeper understanding of dyadic relations. Sadly, as fashion in the field has embraced metaphors‐fit‐only‐for giants, it may be increasingly difficult to get studies published that adopt this ancient, diminutive metaphor.

The main contribution of the piece is to draw attention to the current lack of research in the field to the dominant form of company in every economy – the SME.

The purpose of this short opinion piece is to focus on the role of marketing, its theory and practice, and its relevance now and in the future.

The article analyses the present situation – which is not new – the perceived divide between marketing theory and marketing practice and, therefore, the issue of what academics should research and teach that might be of relevance to practitioners.

The article shows that if marketers – both academic and practitioner – are to meet and resolve the present challenges then they need to be customer focused, build long‐term relationships with customers, and think of their life‐time value as opposed to their short‐term profitability.

The article highlights issues of relevance to those involved with marketing theory and practice.

This paper seeks to develop our understanding of consumer attitudes towards bank delivery channels. Accordingly, a questionnaire was designed to obtain information about which delivery channels consumers had used when acquiring four types of financial service. This information was then contrasted with data on how these consumers would acquire the same services if they had to purchase them again at some time in the future. The questionnaire also obtained information about the factors which consumers believed to be important in encouraging and discouraging the adoption of home‐based banking. In concluding, the paper discusses and assesses some of the strategic implications of the study’s findings for financial service providers.

Our paper is centred on exploring the experiences of opening up closed doors to strangers in the context of home exchange.

This paper is based on a year-long research project which has drawn on multiple qualitative methods of data collection. A bricolage approach was adopted to enable the authors to gather data which is sensitive to multivocality and conscious of difference within the consumer experience.

Our findings demonstrate that home exchangers treat their home as an asset to be capitalised, to allow them to travel to places and communities otherwise unreachable. Home exchangers simultaneously engage in the symbolic creation of home in a temporary environment and utilise the kinship and community networks of their home exchange partner.

Our paper adds depth and an insight to the increasing media coverage of the home exchange phenomenon.

As a consumption practice that is witnessing widespread appeal, home exchange uncovers evidence of trust amongst strangers. While it is common practice to open the home in order to build friendship, it is less common for this invitation to be extended to strangers.

We extend the extensive theorisation of the home as a symbolic environment and reveal that the home can also be used in an enterprising fashion.

The purpose of the paper is to examine bank customer involvement and the importance of risk when contemplating the purchase of financial products.

The paper is a discussion of the literature on customer involvement, risk and interaction forms the basis for a series of focus discussion groups and facilitates the design of a questionnaire. The questionnaire is used to collect information on bank customer involvement and confidence when purchasing a comprehensive range of financial products. The data is analysed using cluster analysis.

The paper finds that the clusters provide evidence to suggest that the market consist of a number of distinctive customer segments. Although the research suggests that the market might be changing and becoming more “active”, the majority of bank customers are still essentially “passive”.

The sample size means that it is not fully representative of the UK banking population. The findings also raise a number of issues, which require further research, such as, the possibility that customer involvement could be used as the basis for segmenting the customer base.

There appears to be an overwhelming customer need for more product information and more involvement with banks. This has major implications for the banks in formulating and implementing relationship management strategies.

The paper provides new insights into the importance of customer involvement when purchasing a range of financial products.

This paper seeks to highlight the significance of the recent debate on the “academic‐practitioner divide” for postgraduate marketing education in terms of informing objectives, chosen scope and structure and service provision.

Data were collected on 60 programmes at 45 UK higher education institutions (HEIs) by desk research and from 129 PG students enrolled at five British Universities by means of a questionnaire.

It was found that these were close parallels between PG and UG programmes in the UK. From the perspective of students intending to become marketing practitioners, five key strengths and weaknesses of current marketing education provision were identified.

Data on current PG marketing programmes was only collected from a sample of UK HEI's and not internationally. Data from students was collected only from five UK Universities.

Suggestions are made for the ways and means by which PG programmes can be enhanced pedagogically and made more relevant to practice. Brief proposals are also made in respect of improving input into programme and class design by current practitioners – especially programme alumni.

It is hoped that all sections of this paper will be of value to postgraduate programme leaders in directing, leading and developing their courses strategically and tactically.