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The aim of this paper is to highlight the practical utility of using repertory grids with sexual offenders in denial and to demonstrate through a case study how they can be used to bolster both initial assessment and psychological formulation.

The study uses a single case study design and applies a repertory grid methodology, which is underpinned by personal construct psychology, to make sense of the case study. The analysis predominately focuses on the structure of the repertory grid.

The case study appeared to elicit factors that were of clinical utility and which could be used as tentative hypotheses for problem formulation and also seemed to point to an adequate starting point for intervention.

The use of the case study makes generalisation difficult and future research may benefit from more large‐scale research.

Rather than subscribing to fatalist notions of deniers as untreatable, the paper argues that constructive work can be done with this population and that repertory grids can be one way to initially facilitate this process.

Currently “total deniers” are excluded from treatment and are seen as untreatable. It is argued here that this need not be the case and it is demonstrated how repertory grids can inform initial formulation with such offenders. Repertory grids have not been used with deniers before and this is an original feature of this research.

The purpose of this paper is to present George Kelly's The Psychology of Personal Constructs and to discuss how Repertory Grid Technique can aid a better understanding of friends and members in an arts marketing context.

The project is a phenomenological study drawing on Kelly's The Psychology of Personal Constructs. The author conducted 16 unstructured face‐to‐face interviews across the UK during 2007 with individuals who were friends or members of at least five heritage supporter groups as part of a larger mixed methods study. The interviews included the building of Repertory Grids.

Analysis of the Repertory Grids gives a detailed understanding of participants' perceptions of, and involvement in, heritage supporter groups. Five themes emerged from the analysis: Organization; Engagement with the Organization; Involvement; Motivation; and Relationships with other members.

The paper provides a rich understanding of the portfolio of memberships that individuals have and of how they perceive and interact with them.

The paper contributes to the arts marketing literature methodologically by illustrating how to use Repertory Grid Technique in an arts marketing context and by focusing on friends and members, whose perspectives the academic literature does not cover extensively.

This paper presents a new constructivist model of knowledge development in a case study that illustrates how a group of postgraduate students defined and evaluated effective postgraduate supervision. This new model is based on “personal construct theory” and “repertory grid technology” which is combined with interviews and group discussion. It is argued that this approach leads to a more meaningful interpretation of results and facilitates formative evaluation and professional development of supervisors. In this case study we discuss details of our evaluation method and its benefits and limitations. We explain how this approach enables both supervisors and students to participate actively in research and development activities, to develop their own constructs or theories of effective supervision, and to communicate their suggestions for improvement. Further applications of this constructivist model to postgraduate supervision practice and to research in higher education are suggested.

This paper is a contribution to the literature on the branding of cultural institutions. In particular it focuses on visitor motivation in the field of museums and galleries. Measurement of visitor motivations and associated brand strength of cultural institutions is a relatively new concern for marketers. The need to develop further understanding of how best to market museums in the twenty‐first century motivates this research. Repertory grid analysis was used as the survey method in order to get data that were “rich” in terms of concepts, but also malleable in terms of statistical analysis. The results of an exploratory study of museum brand associations are reported, along with a discussion of the method of repertory grid analysis that was used to obtain the data. A total of 11 museums in London were targeted, with a special focus on the Tate Gallery.

While the entrepreneurship and small business research literature has tended to portray women as lesser than men in identifying the differences between them, little research has looked at how gender is construed in business ownership. The purpose of this paper is to provide a new focus, examining how male and female business owners construe each other.

The research employs George Kelly's personal construct theory and repertory grids to examine the constructs associated with male and female business owners.

It is found that there are many constructs used to describe business owners and, counter to predictions from some of the literature review, few differences between the way in which male and female business owners are construed. The paper offers explanations as to why so few differences are found.

The sample is limited to just one area of Britain and the businesses had all been established in the last three years. This will influence the generalizability of the findings.

This paper is able to offer research evidence to demonstrate that male and female business owners do not construe male and female business owners differently.

The purpose of this paper is to adapt a repertory grid technique to investigate fiction readers’ attitudes and beliefs, with a specific focus on minority ethnic fiction.

The study required participants (n=36) to rate on a seven-point Likert scale a series of 16 provided constructs, using ten main elements, namely, the reader of ten fiction genres. Statistical tests investigated participant agreement across construct ratings, where on average fiction readers are rated on a construct continuum, and the extent to which public library work experience affected participants’ perceptions.

Findings were revealed regarding the perceived characteristics of the readers of ten fiction genres, including minority ethnic fiction. The readers of Asian and Black British fiction were similarly rated, but certain exceptions were also noted which had not been reported in previous research. Although intraclass correlations indicated that ratings were consistent for the more established fiction genres, there was little agreement regarding minority fiction.

The research was potentially limited by the ethnic homogeneity of the sample population and the gender imbalance of same, and (in some cases) a lack of knowledge of minority fiction genres. It was felt that the repertory grid was an effective technique via which to build a rich profile of the fiction reader.

This research could inform the development of fiction collections, and its detailed examination of fiction reader profiles could be adapted in three specific ways, as described in the paper.

Little previous research has been conducted to differentiate between readers of different fiction genres, and less still for those of minority ethnic fiction genres.

This paper outlines researcher–practitioner reflections on the use of a visually adapted repertory grid technique (VARGT) with men convicted of stalking. It draws on and assimilates participant experiences of the VARGT as a research engagement tool. Further, it extends discussion to propose its value as a generic engagement tool for when personal insights and collaborative case formulations may otherwise be difficult to access.

The repertory grid technique, developed from Kelly’s Personal Construct Theory (1955), was adapted visually for utility in a mixed methods research study with those who commit stalking offences (Wheatley, in preparation). Analytical and reflexivity processes within this original study highlighted rich and recurrent data across the sample pertaining to the positive participant experience of the VARGT, unrelated to its core research question.

This paper presents reflections and psychological discussion for experiences of using the VARGT. Key features clustered around therapeutic alliance and engagement, enlightenment and a motivation for positive change.

This paper suggests the VARGT has value in participant–client engagement, particularly where sensitive topics are being investigated and participants have difficulty directly articulating their psychosocial functioning.

This novel technique offers potential as an engagement tool for use in research and clinical settings.

Drawing from the Personal Construct Theory, this study aims to analyze the impact of using gamified apps on user behavior by investigating the service-related images and individual preferences of Generation Z (GenZ) consumers, as these emerge from gamified applications in a tourism context.

The repertory grid analysis (RGA) elicited the top elements that reflect GenZer perceptions in tourism from empirical studies in the UK and Greece. Generalized procrustes analysis was used to investigate the structure of the data for the creation of representative consensus biplots of the most important conceptual constructs to advance consumer decision-making modeling via gamification.

As per different gamified app best-practices considered, the authors extract not only common perceptual elements (e.g. place informative aspects, exploration, lodgings, food/catering) but also different image components (e.g. virtual/interactive, business vs commercial traveling, entertainment, heritage/cultural informative aspects) from comparing UK with Greek GenZers’ responses. These extracted attributes are then presented in two dimensional charts, respectively, toward creating tourist perception scales.

Notwithstanding the wide availability of gamified apps, research on gamification design in tourism and hospitality is still in the early phase. This study demonstrates the need to identify and optimize the formation of different images among GenZers. It also highlights the advantageous nature of the proposed combination of procrustes analysis with the RGA.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is among the first empirical ones toward creating scales for measuring tourist perceptions of GenZers coming from different consumer markets. It responds to scholars’ recent calls for better informing gamification design and improving contemporary consumer experience.

This study aims to examine relational norms in cross-cultural business settings. Cross-cultural business partners may differ in their normative orientations toward relational exchange. Owing to the high extent of international trade, there is a need for developing a more nuanced understanding of cross-cultural relational exchange.

The repertory grid method was used to elicit the personal constructs characterizing the perceptions of business-to-business (B2B) relational exchange for 22 Russian and Finnish managers. These items were further categorized into categories of relational elements drawn from relational exchange literature using a content analysis. Then, the category means of scored importance and scored evaluations of domestic and foreign business partners were tested statistically.

Relational norms of flexibility, information exchange, long-term orientation, mutuality and solidarity were equally important to both Russian and Finnish managers. The importance of a business partner’s ability seems to be culturally dependent. Sharing the same cultural background might have an adverse effect when evaluating poorly functioning business relations.

The validity of these findings is limited to this context and material. Future research should repeat cross-cultural comparisons of the relational norms with more data and other nationalities.

Firms should focus on long-term orientation and mutual targets to form well-functioning cross-cultural business relationships.

This study provides new knowledge into B2B marketing literature by revealing the role of relational norms, business partner’s ability and shared cultural background on functionality of cross-cultural business relations. It also demonstrates the use of the repertory grid method in studying perceptions of relational norms.

The higher education system must move closer to society and its requirements, and therefore, the process of transformation in the university context brings new challenges. The purpose of this paper is to present research on a case study that examines the perception of the middle managers’ role from their own perspective: how they describe it, the associated tasks, the skills perceived as necessary and what they think about the need to become academic leaders.

The authors have adopted a mixed-method approach. Data were collected through an in-depth interview and an adapted version of the Personal Construct Grid (Kelly, 1955). Two types of analyses have been carried out: statistical analysis and content analysis following a category system. The participants were academics performing a management position selected in accordance with certain criteria relevant for the study.

The research shows how their perception collides with the traditional characteristics of the university, which focus on the managerial and bureaucratic tasks of the middle managers. The study also reveals evidence of the poor visibility of these managers with no place for action due to their lack of power and decision-making opportunities.

The participants claim that it is necessary for people who hold the position to become agents of change by creating a shared identity through teamwork and collaboration. To this end, this paper presents a proposal for the development of a framework for action.