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11 – 20 of over 194000Kanika Meshram and Aron O’Cass
The purpose of this paper is to offer a framework of third-place value offering that explains how specific consumer groups’, senior citizens, customer-to-customer engagement in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to offer a framework of third-place value offering that explains how specific consumer groups’, senior citizens, customer-to-customer engagement in third places can develop their value experiences.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected for two studies from senior citizen clubs in Australia. Study 1 uses focus group (12) and is analysed with QSR NVivo software following content analysis. Study 2 is based on 324 surveys and is analysed with AMOS version 24 software.
Findings
Study 1 identifies eight themes based on 29 main codes to develop a framework on the value offerings of third-place value and its consumer-centric effect on seniors’ loyalty and social capital. The themes under social capital and loyalty contributed to a better understanding of how consumers engage with each other in social clubs and develop their social capital. The results of Study 2 support the conceptualisation of third-place value offering as a reflective model and confirm the model’s nomological validity in relation to seniors’ loyalty and social capital outcomes.
Research limitations/implications
The only limitation of the paper is that it presents findings based on data collected in a regional place in Australia.
Practical implications
The findings provide three practical implications for managers to consider in relation to service places: improve consumer patronage through community engagement, improve local business practices via consumer–owner friendship and redesign spatial settings to deliver meaningful consumer experiences.
Social implications
The present study has three social implications; first, it highlights the significant role of third places in bringing isolated groups of community together for regular interaction and socialisation. It also extends understanding on senior citizen customers and their consumption experiences within third places for value creation. The study also contributes to understanding how senior citizen customers develop loyalty towards third places and enhance their social capital through social engagement in the place.
Originality/value
This paper uses consumption experience to develop the consumer value in third places. It provides a consumer-centric focus to servicescape and incorporates recent works on third places, value, social capital and loyalty.
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Barbara Farbey, Frank Land and David Targett
This paper considers the problems of evaluating the benefits of an investment in information technology and systems against a background of institutional change. It is based on a…
Abstract
This paper considers the problems of evaluating the benefits of an investment in information technology and systems against a background of institutional change. It is based on a case study in the National Health Service and follows the progress of a project to introduce benefits realisation in NHS Trusts. The case illustrates the importance of personal, hands‐on attention to benefits management and calls attention to the different contingencies faced by managers in attempting to introduce evaluation or benefits realisation schemes. It concludes that, where managers face “certain” contingencies, formative evaluation will be beneficial, but where the contingencies are uncertain, structural changes in the organisation may be more effective in achieving benefits. The paper ends with a plea for evaluation activities to be re‐integrated into their organisational context.
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The purpose of this paper is to introduce restorative servicescapes. The work demonstrates that younger‐aged consumers may remedy symptoms associated with directed attention…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to introduce restorative servicescapes. The work demonstrates that younger‐aged consumers may remedy symptoms associated with directed attention fatigue, including adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), by patronizing third places, such as video arcades and coffee shops.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper evaluates a servicescape's restorative potential by drawing on established measures. Attention restoration theory (ART) has been explored in natural and environmental psychology, rather than marketing. The first study uses survey methodology to explore whether teenagers who patronize a video arcade sense its restorative potential. The second study uses survey methodology to explore the relationship between patronizing a restorative third place and being at risk for ADHD.
Findings
Study 1 reveals that video arcade patrons sense the arcade's restorative potential. Therefore, commercial servicescapes may possess restorative qualities. Study 2 reveals that college‐aged students, who patronize a restorative servicescape, are significantly less likely than other students to be at risk for experiencing ADHD.
Research limitations/implications
Although the data reveal a relationship between restorative servicescapes and ADHD risk, a diagnosis is not obtained. Furthermore, because survey methodology is employed, the causal influence of restorative servicescapes cannot be evaluated on their customers' health. However, commercial servicescapes can mimic the restorative properties found in nature. Thus, the health potential of public places on health may be profound.
Practical implications
Educational institutions, governmental agencies, and parents should consider publicly supporting third places for teenagers because doing so can remedy symptoms associated with mental fatigue.
Originality/value
The paper brings ART into the marketing discipline.
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High-speed rail, as a distinct subset of rail systems, has been in operation since 1964, first introduced in Japan and subsequently adopted widely in heavily populated countries…
Abstract
High-speed rail, as a distinct subset of rail systems, has been in operation since 1964, first introduced in Japan and subsequently adopted widely in heavily populated countries across Europe and Asia with plans in place to extend to America and Australia. Development of technologies has been continuous such that maximum speed in service operation has safely increased from 210 to 350 km/h with further advances to come in the next decade. Its economic and social effect through reducing journey time between cities while also offering very high capacity, reliability and safety with a low-carbon footprint means it is no longer considered by sponsoring governments on its merits as a transport system but rather as part of a wider set of strategic policies around housing settlement and employment. Analysis techniques continue to be developed to estimate true benefits alongside construction, environmental impact and operational costs.
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James Scott Vandeventer, Javier Lloveras and Gary Warnaby
The purpose of this paper is to conceptualise how place management practices in UK housing associations (HAs) involve processes of ecological place management.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to conceptualise how place management practices in UK housing associations (HAs) involve processes of ecological place management.
Design/methodology/approach
Ethnographic fieldwork focusing on how communal spaces are organised on a housing estate in a UK city revealed the importance of negotiation with other actors, including an HA which is responsible for managing the estate. The authors draw on extensive participant observation with residents, as well as interviews with both residents and employees of the HA, to show the wider forces and complexities involved in these ecological place management practices.
Findings
This paper identifies hybrid socio-ecological, socio-political and political-economic dynamics unfolding as places are managed and organised. These widen the scope of place management research and practice to account for multiple ways places are organised.
Research limitations/implications
This paper offers a critical perspective on place management, developing an ecological approach that is applicable both to the relatively new context of housing and to more established sites in town and city centres.
Practical implications
This paper’s findings point to ways that housing and place management practitioners, both in the UK and elsewhere, can use an ecological approach to re-frame their strategic and practical actions with regards to “place”.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to unveiling the complexity involved in place management and organisation, thereby encouraging place managers to embrace ecological thinking capable of addressing future challenges.
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To provide a critical appraisal of the UK Government's proposals for the introduction of business improvement districts (BIDs) into England considering statute and case law…
Abstract
Purpose
To provide a critical appraisal of the UK Government's proposals for the introduction of business improvement districts (BIDs) into England considering statute and case law against the proposed regulations, while drawing on the experience of BID models in North America.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper analyses the proposed regulations against the existing statute and common law position in England.
Findings
The regulations will not levy all hereditaments as stated. The voting and taxation provisions are not defined and transparent in connection with those paying less than full rates. Implications of the House of Lords decision in Edison appear to have been overlooked in the drafting.
Research limitations/implications
The paper is specific to the Draft Business Improvement Districts (England) Regulations 2004. The paper identifies key issues for those involved in the local economy and property management in England. It is relevant across jurisdictions to those considering proposals for the implementation of BID schemes.
Practical implications
The paper is relevant to those occupiers and owners, and their advisers, who have an interest in property that is, or may be, included in a BID area.
Originality/value
The paper considers in an original manner the detailed proposals for the implementation of BIDs in England. It researches a number of areas of concern to those seeking to implement or pay a BID levy. It identifies a number of areas in which the regulations will not achieve the stated aims. Weaknesses in the voting and taxation provisions are identified.
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The main research questions critically examine online videos that draw attention to a local community of musical practice, noticing how these can potentially be included within…
Abstract
Purpose
The main research questions critically examine online videos that draw attention to a local community of musical practice, noticing how these can potentially be included within the tourism promotion strategies. This paper develops a case study of four videos realised by the Louth County Board of the organisation Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann (CCÉ) in Co. Louth, Ireland, as a part of the FleadhFest 2021 initiative. It highlights the role that virtual spaces have in enhancing a sense of belonging to a music/festival community as well as the possibility that visual and audio supports have in promoting and celebrating a destination and its cultural features.
Design/methodology/approach
The analysis involves a netnographic examination of these videos (Janta, 2017), informed by the concept of “tourist gaze” (Urry, 1990; 2002) and influenced by film-induced tourism studies (Beeton, 2005).
Findings
Results show how festival and event organisers responded to COVID-19 social restrictions by creating a virtual space for celebrating music heritage and local musicscape, placing an emphasis on local musical scene.
Research limitations/implications
The research aims to inform future developments in how the organisation operates within and engages with virtual space, its members and a wider audience.
Originality/value
This is the first study to consider the virtual activities of CCÉ from an ethnomusicological as well as tourism, perspective.
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Hansruedi Müller and Brigitte Zaugg
The shortcomings of lobbying in respect of tourism policy are a frequent topic of discussion in tourism circles which lament that there is virtually no voice — and therefore no…
Abstract
The shortcomings of lobbying in respect of tourism policy are a frequent topic of discussion in tourism circles which lament that there is virtually no voice — and therefore no ear — for tourism policy matters in the Swiss Parliament. Is this really the case, or is it merely the customary reaction of a branch that is undergoing major structural change? A review of the achievement record on tourism policy affairs in recent years comes to the conclusion that the successes — at federal level, at least — are actually quite creditable: Innotour has been rejigged and a qualification offensive launched, the special VAT rate — that controversial regulatory policy issue — has been extended, the Schweizerische Cesellschaft für Hotelkredit (Swiss Society for Hotel Credits) was given a new credit, despite considerable opposition, and Switzerland Tourism's federal subsidy looks set to be higher than ever before. And all this at a juncture when savings and cuts are being made on all sides. So there is every indication that tourism lobbying in Switzerland is better than its reputation. It was in this context that tourism lobbying was investigated. The corresponding study, conducted by Brigitte Zaugg (2004), took its lead from the principles of the New Political Economy (Public Choice Theory), which uses as its essential point of departure that the ever‐more‐complex relations between politics and industry generate higher information requirements in all political bodies. Lobbyingprovides a tool for reducing information deficits. Here, information is understood as a swap commodity, because well informed circles can intensify their influence. What is more, with the help of lobbying, it is possible to develop viable legislation characterized by a high degree of acceptance and a broad consensus. Thus, despite certain image problems, lobbying is increasingly perceived as an indispensable form of basic democracy and a legitimate factor in shaping political will. If the influencing of tourism policy decision‐making processes in order to push through specific interests is further increased, the question arises of how lobbying could be modified to make it even more successful. In this connection, the study identifies four focal approaches: 1) the development and nurture of a sustainable network of contacts, 2) the permanent readying of sound information geared to public welfare and a regular exchange of information, 3) the preparation of suggested improvements that are as practical as possible and include own inputs, and 4) the creation of strategic partnerships and the grouping of tasks.
This “Rapport” proposes to examine the function and effect of British social law in the context of the employment/unemployment debate. This debate is a most significant one for it…
Abstract
This “Rapport” proposes to examine the function and effect of British social law in the context of the employment/unemployment debate. This debate is a most significant one for it has not only British, but also European and International dimensions.