Search results

This paper aims to study neighbourhood attachment and satisfaction in a middle-class, high-density and semi-gated neighbourhood in Hong Kong.

Drawing on the findings of survey on 356 households, a principal component analysis and hierarchical regression analysis were conducted to assess how attachment and satisfaction were manifested and whether they were manifested as separate phenomena.

Attachment and satisfaction in neighbourhoods were manifested as separate phenomena. It was further found that residents were broadly attached to and satisfied with their neighbourhood. Of the neighbourhood characteristics identified as influencing satisfaction in previous research, the support was found only for the physical environment and safety but concluded that satisfaction was also influenced by status, neighbourhood youths’ ambition and schools. Contrary to the expectation, the authors did not find support for deeper social bonds as an element of satisfaction. The hierarchical regression analysis indicated that satisfaction may lead to increased attachment.

This study offers policymakers and housing managers’ valuable insights into the management of increasingly large and complex residential neighbourhoods. It helps us understand which initiatives are likely to lead to greater attachment.

Previous studies have focused on neighbourhood attachment and satisfaction in typical low/medium-density settings. This study extends previous efforts to a high-density housing estate of Hong Kong.

The cost to supermarkets from shoplifting is a growing problem. Despite huge investments in formal security measures, supermarkets experience shrinkage and face heavy financial losses. Hence, this paper explores an alternative approach to shoplifting prevention. The purpose of this paper is to propose that quality relationships between a supermarket and its customers could be a viable strategy for shoplifting prevention. A conceptual model is presented at the end of this paper for encouraging shoplifting prevention using a theory of planned behaviour perspective.

A systematic search of literature on relationship quality was conducted. Research papers were shortlisted from peer-reviewed journals published between 2007 and 2016. For the convenience of readers, studies on relationship quality are presented in six cross-checked information categories in a table.

This study produced two results. First, it finds three antecedents of supermarket-customer relationship quality. These are as follows: a supermarket’s participation in corporate social responsibility and cause-related marketing initiatives, a supermarket’s service quality, and a customer’s attachment to a supermarket’s place/location. Second, there are three major effective dimensions of relationship quality. These are as follows: satisfaction, trust, and commitment. The proposed model incorporates factors from both findings, to measure a supermarket-customer relationship quality that may influence intention of customers to engage in shoplifting preventive behaviour.

This research paper has reviewed the existing literature to utilise it in the context of shoplifting prevention, and developed a novel model/framework for effective shoplifting prevention with a theory of planned behaviour perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the concept of gathering places in disaster recovery, and describe types of active gathering places where residents and aid workers in Southern Texas, USA, came seeking resources, information and emotional support one month after Hurricane Harvey.

Semi-structured interviews in the field with 81 residents and 44 aid workers identified active gathering places and their functions. Researchers utilized a snowball sample design to identify and visit further gathering places until saturation. Field observations and a regional damage survey conducted by car add further context to interview data.

In total, 22 distinct types of gathering places were identified from the 123 unique gathering places documented. Overall, the displacement of residents created an obstacle to their recovery and access to resources and gathering places; residents characterized a lack of formalized emotional support centers – primarily relying on informal gatherings with friends and neighbors to meet their needs; and gathering places were limited in their ability to foster a communal recovery among the residents.

This study addresses a gap in the research, focusing on where and how individuals access resources, information and emotional support in the short-term recovery following a disaster event. This research combines two traditions, hazards geography and disaster sociology, to investigate what gathering places exist one month after a major disaster, where those places are located, and what purpose they serve.

This study aims to investigate how city dependence and city social bonding determine city brand love. In addition, the study examines whether there are different resident segments that exhibit distinct behaviour in relation to city brand formation.

The study is based on primary responses collected from 595 residents from Khulna city in Bangladesh. The research model is tested using partial least square (PLS) structural equation modelling. The resident segments were identified using PLS prediction-oriented segmentation method.

Results show that city dependence (i.e. dependence on urban facilities and services provided by the city) and city social bonding (i.e. social interactions amongst residents in the city) lead to city brand love through city satisfaction and city identification. In addition, the study finds that city social bonding and city satisfaction are important for the relationship-reliant residents, whereas city dependence and city identification are important for the resource-reliant residents.

Future research can investigate the relationship between the length of residence and native vs non-native residents’ influence on city brand love formation.

The city brand managers and planners should adopt a resident-inclusive approach that considers the different needs of the residents to engender city brand love.

The study contributes to city branding literature by empirically investigating the under-researched topic of city brand love by identifying the key constructs and their role in determining city brand love. Further, it shows that the route to city brand love formation is different based on residents’ needs.

This paper aims to investigate the association of neighborhood location with place attachment and residential satisfaction.

First, the authors reviewed the literature on place attachment and residential satisfaction, and then generated a questionnaire based on the scales from the literature. The authors surveyed 135 respondents in two neighborhoods of Ankara, a metropolitan city in Turkey: one in the city center, the other in a suburb. To analyze the data, first, factor analysis, and later, multivariate analysis of variance and correlation tests were conducted.

The results indicated that place attachment and residential satisfaction were positively correlated, in congruence with the related literature; however, neighborhood location appeared to be associated only with residential satisfaction. The theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed with respect to the recent issues on housing.

The effects of neighborhood location on place attachment and residential satisfaction (by comparing two different residential areas of the city) have not been adequately examined in earlier studies. The study results provide an understanding of the effectiveness of residential location on improving place attachment and residential satisfaction and contribute to the existing literature. Although the study findings may not be generalized to other locations in Turkey, this study contributed to the previous studies on place attachment and residential satisfaction by providing data from Turkish residents, which is less often examined.

The purpose of this study is to ascertain the effects of place attachment on brand loyalty. This study further ascertains whether the effects of emotion-based attachment on brand loyalty are stronger for customers who have a positive experience with a restaurant brand. Additionally, the authors investigate whether emotion-based attachment mediates the relationships between identity-based attachments, place dependence and brand loyalty in the restaurant setting.

The authors administered the questionnaire to customers (diners) of restaurants in Ghana, and they were completed via a paper and pencil/pen approach. The authors tested their hypotheses using structural equation modeling.

The findings show that identity-based and emotion-based attachment enhances brand loyalty within a restaurant setting. The results also show that place dependence attachment promotes emotional bonding with restaurant brands. The study's findings also show that place dependence attachment does not have a direct and positive significant effect on brand loyalty except when an emotional response is produced.

Place attachment studies in a restaurant setting are rare. This study thus contributes to the place attachment literature in restaurants setting.

The pandemic has accelerated the use of virtual learning spaces and led to rethinking post-pandemic course delivery. However, it remains unclear whether students’ online engagement in e-servicescapes can influence attachment to a place, i.e. a physical servicescape. This study conducted an exploratory study to inform place attachment and actor engagement literature in an online service context.

Quantitative survey design was used and 98 usable responses were collected from undergraduate and postgraduate students at a major New Zealand university during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The questionnaire consisted of 23 items relating to three dimensions of online student engagement and 19 items referring to six dimensions of campus attachment.

Results of the exploratory study indicate that classmate community in online lectures, referring to student–student interactions, can positively influence five of the dimensions of campus attachment, including place identity, place dependence, affective attachment, social bonding and place memory, even though students are physically not on campus. However, it cannot influence place expectation. Moreover, instructor community (student–instructor interaction) and learning engagement (student–content interaction) in online lectures have insignificant impact on campus attachment.

This study emphasises the social dimension when interacting in e-servicescapes. Person-based interactions are more influential than content-based interactions for student engagement. Educational service providers should integrate the e-servicescape and the physical servicescape by encouraging more student–student interactions to contribute to service ecosystem well-being at the micro, meso and macro levels.

This study indicates that customer-to-customer interaction serves to integrate customer engagement across the digital and physical realms for process-based services like education.

This paper aims to draw on Seamon’s(2012a, 2012b, 2014, 2015, 2018) theories on the “processes of place attachment” to understand the influence of place attachment on community leadership and the management of four towns in the Barossa region of South Australia.

The research methodology combines photo-elicitation, participant observation and in-depth interviews with 12 community leaders across four town groups. Scannell and Gifford’s(2010) tripartite model for place attachment is used to segment qualitative interview data to understand the nature of place attachment of community leaders. This was followed by thematic analysis using Seamon’s(2012a, 2014, 2018) six processes of place attachment to understand how the dynamics of place attachment as a series of processes interact to influence community leadership and place-based action.

The research revealed that community leaders in the Barossa region regularly confront a tension between the “Being” and “Becoming” of Place. It also suggests that place attachment for new residents is accelerated by engaging multiple place attachment processes; these can be measured using the research methodology in this study. The result is a tipping point where place leadership from new residents can accelerate towards the “Being of Place” showing a tendency towards protectionist behaviour commonly seen amongst long-term residents.

Testing the findings in this paper in other rural regions and other cultural contexts will add further insight and validation of these findings. It is recommended that future research could further develop this approach through engaging multiple place-based community groups in the same town and across different locations to understand the pattern language of communities with more accuracy.

This study has enabled a deeper understanding of place-based community groups and their motivations to protect the status quo or promote change in the development and management of the place. Each community requires a tailored approach to place management and development to activate community resources and partnerships successfully. This research also provides knowledge on how to accelerate place attachment for new residents to improve their sense of belonging, value and purpose by engaging programs that engage all six place attachment processes.

The research reveals that place relations are dynamic, complex and often political. Rural towns display a pattern language for how they engage networks and resources that government needs to understand to engage community stewardship of place – its social, environmental and economic setting. This research offers a method to better understand the pattern language of place attachment that drives community leadership and place management to help communities sustain themselves and adapt to change.

The research explores the inter-relationship between the place attachment of community leaders and their response to change from different types of community impacts such as bushfires or the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding these processes is valuable in informing place management partnerships between community, business and government.