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The paper argues the need for an appraisal of the symbolic meaning of the “pub” and derivative managerialist concepts from the perspective of the consumers’ experience. Set against background developments of the “pub”, the paper explores the use of semiotics as a means of examining the symbolic meaning of pre‐modern, modern and post‐modern pub formats. The paper draws on extensive interviews with a stratified purposive sample of customers of pub formats in the north‐west of England to undertake a semiotic appraisal of the reason why consumers “think the thoughts they do” about managerial developments of this distinctly social phenomenon.

The literature on the history of the pub presents an invaluable background to any study of the industry, the very special place it fills in our society, and the wider context of its role in British tourism heritage. Most authors acknowledge that the pub is changing with the times, although a mere glance through such comment bears testatment to the way in which the pub's enduring qualities have survived by gradual evolution and adaptation. Of more topical interest, newspaper articles draw the public's attention to the latest developments and trends in the entertainment and leisure spectrum, and comment on their implications for the community and specifically the public house. For the most part, these are of a nationally introspective nature and the pub is not portrayed as a tourist attraction in its own right This article contrasts the views of three stakeholders within the retail pub industry, namely, the tourist, the landlord and the brewer. It charts their views on the evolution of the public house.

The decline of the British public house (pub), well documented over the past three decades, is often linked to detrimental social and economic conditions in communities. The purpose of this study was to explore brewery responses to turbulent market conditions for the pub trade, with a focus on innovation through design.

A longitudinal, qualitative study was conducted over 12 months, with 4 months of close participant observation within the company, to explore the experiences of a design team located within a medium-sized UK brewery.

The “pubscape” emerged, extending and augmenting earlier models of the “servicescape”, driven by an entrepreneurial shared vision recognising the importance of design and innovation in delivering the modern pub.

A single case – one brewery – formed the basis for a longitudinal qualitative study, with the associated benefits and disadvantages typical of single case research in providing insights rather than measurable outcomes. Other cases and other research methods would allow testing of ideas, rather than exploration, and generate different perspectives.

The research indicates the value of adopting an entrepreneurial approach to address challenging trading conditions and shows the practical role that design can play in rethinking service offerings to fit consumer needs and aspirations.

New insights into modern pub management have emerged from this study, positioning design innovation as a route to delivering successful British destination pubs by innovating while retaining traditional brand values and local identity markers, using the “pubscape” as a specific way to envisage innovative servicescape environments.

The aim of this study is to identify some of the reasons for the failure of firms, particularly within the licensed trade, so as to offer some advice to assist practitioners. This will be done by a review of the general literature on business failure, looking particularly the small and micro‐business. The trading conditions within the public house sector are examined, and the importance of business knowledge is recognised. In addition, several people who have experienced serious financial problems have offered their comments. These include one owner of a free house who was obliged to close the doors; two tenants and one lessee whose businesses were repossessed; one lessee who suffered serious financial difficulties but survived, and a wholesaler who went into receivership. It is not suggested that these are representative of the trade as a whole. However, an expert in insolvency, with much experience of pub failure, added his views, so that some conclusions could be drawn.

This paper aims to examine the relationship between community-owned enterprises and social capital in urban neighbourhoods. Focussing on community-owned pubs (COPs), the paper investigates how social capital elements have a role in generating these innovative organizations, which foster benefits for community members.

This qualitative research based on data gathered through 23 semi-structured interviews, in an in-depth case study analysis of three COPs located in Carshalton, Nunhead and Tottenham (all suburbs of London).

The paper shows how COPs foster the creation and accumulation of social capital both among their members (bonding capital) and the people living in the neighbourhood (bridging capital). Because of their missions and governance models, COPs create linkages among different people and enable citizens to act together for the common good, thus strengthening the development of a local community and contributing to enhancing the urban regeneration process.

COPs are a recent trend, and there is a lack of scientific literature on this topic. The paper can help social scientists to understand new features of community development processes and the effects of the Localism Act (2011). Furthermore, the research can support organizations involved in assisting local communities, which aim to start up collective-owned pubs. It provides valuable scientific results, in relation to social aggregation and a positive impact on local contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to ask if customer experiences in public houses (pubs) go wrong because of poor initial and subsequent training for front-line staff, while questioning if enough is being made of employee engagement and socialization as a means to improve consistency within the pub service encounter.

The study applies a critical review of the literature with a focus on the initial and subsequent training of front-line employees in the context of managed and entrepreneur-led pub-retailing operations.

The delivery and impact of a well-designed initial training programme may not only enhance long-term employee engagement and loyalty, but also provide competitive advantage for pub-retail operations through a more consistent service delivery. The paper questions the suitability of the approach currently being adopted within the sector and suggests that change is needed in order to ensure the longer-term survival of pub-retail businesses.

Can reliable and consistent customer experiences be delivered without a more progressive approach to the initial training and engagement of front-line employees?

While the importance of initial and subsequent training is widely accepted, the potential for its poor delivery has an almost predictable impact on many customer experiences. The paper recommends a review of the methods used by managed house and entrepreneurial (tenanted and leasehold) pub-retailing businesses to enhance employee socialization, engagement and loyalty to fuel the sector’s drive to generate greater competitive advantage.

Customers′ experience of service encounters remains an area blessed with a rich folklore but little fundamental understanding. Reports on a pilot study for an exploration of women′s experiences of public houses, which used idiographic methods on a small sample of middle‐class women: role repertory grids, “critical‐incident” questionnaires, individual comparatively unstructured interviews and group “focus” interviews. Group interviews were most useful for coming quickly to a consensus picture, and the critical incident questionnaires allowed extreme examples of good and bad practice to be explored. The other two methods produced rich data on the variations within and between women′s experiences. Concludes that there is considerable variation in what women are looking to find in pubs, but that they agree on their dislike of male‐dominated atmospheres in which they are harassed or made to feel unwelcome.

Using two complementary ideographic approaches, investigates the impact of the servicescape on women′s experience of the public house service encounter. Preliminary findings from both the focus group and the in‐depth interviews conducted indicate that women perceive their desired pub experience as diametrically opposite to that provided by the traditional male‐dominated pub. In the latter, barriers to enjoyment arise from the dynamic interplay between the physical environment and the behaviour of staff. The latter, unless carefully managed, can act as reinforcement of the behaviour of other established male customers, whose actions have the effect of signalling to women that they are unwelcome. These barriers are seen to be particularly strong on entry, when getting served and when being seated. Explores how publicans can make use of these crucial stages and shape the servicescape to facilitate a more satisfactory encounter, thus enhancing loyalty among female customers.

The British pub is part of the face of Britain presented to the world and the theme running through this article is to set British pubs within the context of heritage tourism. The thesis contained within this article is to focus on one of the elements of community life, the pub, in order to examine its characteristics and value within the wider spectrum of visitor attractions set within the context of the tourism industry. The article reviews the literature in ascertaining whether the British pub is a tourist attraction for overseas visitors, and why. Whilst the pub has an important role in domestic tourism, the main emphasis of this article is on the national factors that predetermine its survival and the nature of its appeal to visitors from abroad.

The service sector has dominated the economy of most advanced capitalist societies for some time but the branding of services has received much less attention than the branding of products in the literature. This case study of J.D. Wetherspoons, the UK’s leading pub brand, offers a simple and exploratory examination of a prominent services brand and as such looks to add to the growing number of studies in this field. The case outlines the development of pub brands within the UK and the origins and growth of J.D. Wetherspoons and its definition of its own brand attributes. The empirical investigation goes on to explore customers’ perceptions of the Wetherspoons brand. The case study suggests that the company has been successful in establishing a distinctive brand identity as a pub that sells a wide range of beers at cheap prices, but that some of the company’s other brand attributes are much less clearly perceived by customers and that staff behaviour is not always very effective in supporting and enhancing the brand.