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The purpose of this paper is to focus on a thorough comparison of the broader specialties and subspecialties provided by Greek higher technological education, regarding the employment status and the vocational prospects of the corresponding graduates, and aims to identify and analyze the relevant existing differences.

Original empirical data were collected from 5,183 graduates of Technological Educational Institutes of higher education through a national survey using telephone interviews and a structured questionnaire. The stratified sample consisted of graduates originating from all nine different broader specialties (faculties) and 45 subspecialties (departments). Descriptive, bivariate and multivariate statistical analysis was used for the elaboration of the collected information.

The results showed that there are significant differences among the graduates of different specialties regarding some employment characteristics, such as professional status, type of employment, relevance between present work and Bachelor studies, and satisfaction from employment and wages. Additionally, the results identify distinguished clusters among certain broader specialties and subspecialties regarding graduates’ employment status and characteristics.

The revealed existence of strong relationships between broader specialties/subspecialties and their graduates’ vocational prospects can offer justified advice/guidelines to secondary education graduates for applying to specialties presenting promising employment prospects.

This work, being one of the very few nation‐wide studies, reveals and highlights the most important higher education specialties regarding the vocational status and prospects of the corresponding graduates, providing a guideline for the selection of the subject of studies that leads to a more promising career.

The purpose of this paper is to examine a specialty food loyalty model which includes perceived quality, satisfaction, and motivation, and to assess the model’s applicability in two distinct groups of customers: tourists and residents.

Data were collected from 455 specialty food customers in Bandung, Indonesia. Variance-based structural equation modeling (partial least squares (PLS)) was used to examine the relationship between the drivers (perceived quality, satisfaction and motivation) and loyalty according to the data presented by tourists and residents.

This study indicates that the perception of quality is an important factor affecting tourists’ and residents’ satisfaction with, and loyalty to, a product. Furthermore, this study suggests that motivation factors are important for tourists and residents in regard to developing loyalty to specialty foods.

This study provides a venue for retail managers and producers to improve their business performance by developing specialty foods of high quality. To improve their quality, this research suggests that managers and retailers focus on innovation based on exotic and unique traditional food reflecting the richness of local culture. To ensure their loyalty, customers of specialty foods need to be motivated by internal and external factors.

This study is one of the first to examine the formation of specialty food loyalty in two distinct groups of customers: tourists and residents.

The main aim of this research was to explore specialty coffee experience dimensions and what drives revisit intentions through experiencescapes. The theoretical framework on experience co-creation in food and wine consumption by Carvalho et al. (2021) was employed to explore the dimensions of specialty coffee shop experiences and specialty coffee consumer revisit intentions.

Using the interpretivist epistemology, this research explored these factors from the perspectives of customers, coffee shop baristas, and managers and owners to better understand consumer behaviour in the context of urban coffee shops. In-depth interviews were employed to collect data to obtain first-hand, emic perspectives.

The notion of specialty coffee and its experiencescape were examined in the context of a region of tea-dominated landscapes. This research highlighted the significance of baristas as agents of coffee connoisseurship, being able to introduce the beans and the art of coffee making to customers in active ways. The findings amplified that olfactory encounters triggering a myriad of senses are crucial to the specialty coffee experiencescape.

This is among the first studies to explore the driving factors for customer visits and revisit intentions to urban coffee shops. The findings point to greater sophistication and engagement in-person and online for urban coffee shops. More importantly, the olfactory encounters differed for solo and group customer.

This study aimed to identify, with producers of specialty beers (SBs), producers' perceptions regarding the consumers, besides analyzing the consumer's behavior of SBs regarding consumers' preferences, perceptions and determining buying factors.

In the qualitative analysis, interviews were performed with 14 professionals from the SB industry. In the quantitative study, 301 consumers of SB answered a questionnaire about preferences, perception and determining buying factors of special beer. Techniques such as content analysis, frequency analysis, cross-tabulation and hierarchical cluster analysis were used in this study.

The study demonstrated an important convergence in the perceptions of producers about consumers and the real behavior of SB consumers, mainly on factors of beer packaging, label, style and price. Those respondents consuming just SB were characterized by having higher income, frequency and time of beer consumption and willingness to pay more for the product. Cluster analysis allowed to segment respondents into three groups: (1) beginners in the universe of SBs who also drink commercial beers; (2) regular consumers willing to pay more for SB and (3) legitimate consumers of SB averse to commercial beer.

There are practical implications in this study such as new products development and assertive creation of labels and packaging for special beers.

There are social implications in this study such as the convergence between industry professionals and consumers.

By addressing professionals and consumers, this study generated scientific information and knowledge to assist the specialty brewing industry in developing new products and defining marketing strategies as well as creating actions for bringing producers and consumers closer together to benefit both parties.

The purpose of this paper is about understanding an existing situation in a South Indian village and developing a strategy to produce and market speciality hand knitting yarn, involving the unpaid labour (women) in the handloom industry. An observation method (field study) is used to identify an appropriate method for the design and development of speciality yarns.

Participatory action research is a recursive process that identifies methods leading to the choice of appropriate technology (AT) for the production of speciality yarn. A field study observation method was carried out to identify an AT that is acceptable for the community considering their socio-cultural background of the society. Once the technology (AT) was identified to design the speciality yarn, the research then tests the quality and marketability of the yarn.

The method used for product design and quality testing can be adapted by researchers and designers to develop craft items that can build a platform to start a small-scale business. The research describes a model/framework that could be used/investigated by other bodies in the future.

The limitation of AT and the approach taken for research cannot be clearly identified without testing the production method with the women in the village.

This research confirms that along with identifying a sustainable method of production for speciality yarn, it is very essential to ensure the quality of the product that can compete with other market-available hand knitting yarns.

Defines the nature and use of specialty advertising. Looks at the perceived value of specialty advertising to industrial company marketers and shows the trends as determined by a nation‐wide (US) survey in actual use in specific categories of sales promotion media. Concludes that manufacturers should actively seek ′the right item′ for each of its target markets.

Analyses customer satisfaction with mail‐order speciality foods in the UK and examines the relationship between satisfaction with eight attributes of mail‐order speciality food and their association with overall satisfaction and likelihood of future purchase. Univariate analysis reveals that a high proportion of mail‐order customers experience satisfaction with each of the eight mail‐order attributes, reflected in a high proportion of customers who are satisfied overall and who intend to repurchase the products in the future. Canonical correlation analysis reveals a statistically significant relationship between one set of variables, overall satisfaction and likelihood of future purchase, and another set of variables, the eight mail‐order attributes. Consequently the results indicate that customer satisfaction is associated with service aspects of mail‐order such as the order process and delivery service as well as physical product attributes such as product quality.

A qualitative description of the retail manager's decision to consider global expansion is offered. A case study of a specialty store operation provides a rich idiographic description of this phenomenon and illustrates a thematic structure inherent in the retailers' lived‐experience of global expansion. Three themes, time, doing, and differences are presented as mutually related aspects of the retailers' experience. These themes are also discussed in a holistic context consisting of three higher‐level emergent themes: constraint/freedom, adaptability/changeability, and creativity/innovativeness. The applicability of this retail manager's experience to other similar contexts is discussed.

This paper aims to develop a theoretical framework for the conceptualization of customer experiential knowledge (CEK) by logically combining its different dimensions into one coherent explanatory concept. Drawing on the integration of the literature on customer experience, customer knowledge management and customer insights acquisition, supported by adequate empirical evidence, the framework provides a systematic, comprehensive and accurate understanding of CEK which, could contribute to the identification of relevant customer experience insights useful for customer knowledge management.

The analysis follows an inductive/deductive interpretative approach and it is based on a netnography of specialty coffee bloggers’ narratives in relation to their sustainability practices.

The paper identifies the following six types of CEK: normative, subcultural, epicurean, transcendental, subcultural and symbolic. Accordingly, CEK is defined as the knowledge tacitly possessed by customers in relation to how they live their consumption experiences according to a body of heterogeneous socio-cultural contextual factors (ethos, norms and symbols) and subjective influences (emotions, ingenuity, instincts and senses) deeply embedded into the narrative of a consumption experience.

While CEK has been largely observed and acknowledged, it has not been yet adequately addressed by existing research. The provision of a conceptual definition of CEK which emphasizes its different dimensions will be of use to both academics and practitioners to better identify and categorize the different manifestations of CEK when undertaking empirical observations or managerial decisions.

The liberal arts hobby is a leisure pursuit that entails the systematic and fervent pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the liberal arts hobby as a setting for information behavior research.

The method of interdisciplinary translation work is used to relate existing research from the specialties of leisure studies, adult education, and information behavior. Drawing from leisure studies, the liberal arts hobby is presented within the context of the serious leisure perspective, a theoretical framework of leisure. Also, relevant research.

The basic informational features of the liberal arts hobby and adult learning project are discussed in terms of three issues of current interest within information behavior scholarship. The issues are: first, social metatheory and the ideal level of analysis; second, time and information behavior; and third, information behavior in pleasurable and profound contexts.

Research into everyday life, serious leisure and hobbies is extended and methodological tools are provided.

Information professionals, such as public librarians or systems designers, will have a better understanding of the information experience of a popular hobby group and be better able to meet their information needs.

Awareness and understanding of the liberal arts hobby will be increased across the field of information science, thereby creating a better alignment between the field and society.

The paper is the first to establish an interdisciplinary starting point for information behavior research in the liberal arts hobby.