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Comparing two different descriptions of the atmosphere of one and the same city allows for interesting insights regarding the production, duration and perception of urban atmospheres. Aspects of time are very important in this context as they form typical atmospheres here and always, ensure that the patina of the city and the people is based on experience, and generate expectations prior to actually felt-bodily perceptions by means of narration. Changes in environmental qualities or modes of perception can provide clues to both typologies of places and the people present. Moreover, this chapter introduces the Atmospheric Portfolio, which illustrates how research on personal atmospheric perception as well as site-specific atmospheres of a location becomes possible. In the sense of further heuristic starting points, methods employed by other research projects will supplement the study.

First, this chapter traces how the concept of atmosphere has evolved in the fields of theology, philosophy, geography, sociology, psychology and architecture. Then it analyses the question of how to describe atmospheres and how to deepen the perception of atmospheres through market research. Finally, the chapter discusses the possibilities and limits of naming and typologising atmospheres.

This chapter proposes a place atmosphere model, which can be used for all types of space, from the landscape to the municipality to the property. In addition to the emotional aspects, this atmosphere model also describes the socio-cultural, economic and ecologic dimensions that can shape an atmosphere. It is modelled in such a way to permit connecting to the theory and practice of brand and destination management in particular and to the model and process ideas of the planning, design and construction industries.

The relationship between work and family has long been the subject of lively debate in the political, public, and academic arena. Employers in the hospitality industry should carefully consider the work–family balance of their employees because maintaining a good balance will result in lower costs, lower sick rates, and lower staff turnover. The term “balance” refers to the way in which work interferes with life at home and how home life interferes with work. It includes both the positive and negative effects that work has on the family domain and vice versa. As research on the psychological contract approach to the employment relationship is scarce with regard to work–family interference, it became the subject of this study. The results demonstrate that psychological contract measures, in particular time commitment, can explain work–family conflict, while job content can explain work–family enrichment. In addition, the study revealed that with the appearance of gender as a moderator, different additional factors may play a role in work–family enrichment and work–family conflict. Furthermore, it revealed that family structure is not a predictor for work–family interference. This paper discusses managerial implications and offers recommendations for further research.

The purpose of this paper is to identify, portray and analyse the frequent drivers of customer service experiences as described by customers in their own words – the voice of the customer.

A critical incident technique study was conducted, based on 122 interviews, including 195 favourable and unfavourable narratives, about customer experiences. The data were analysed in an inductive manner and the results are presented by means of extracts from the narratives.

The findings describe the dimensions of drivers of customers' favourable and unfavourable experiences and the frequent drivers, the social interaction, the core service and the physical context.

Customer experiences are processes and include dynamic interactions and the customer as a co‐producer. The study context is limited to the restaurant setting and Swedish customers.

For managers the results suggest that great effort needs to be put into understanding the process of customer experiences and the various interactions involved, especially social interactions and the crucial roles of contact employees and customers involved in these interactions.

The paper provides a detailed description and analysis of the frequent and less frequent drivers of favourable, and unfavourable customer experiences – the constellation of drivers. The findings are illustrated by extracts from customer narratives and show how experiences occur and that experiences are processes occurring in a social and physical environment when people do things together. Furthermore, the paper introduces customer experience to service dominant logic by describing the dynamics of resource interactions in customer experience formation.

This study aims to find ways to bridge the gap between workplace design and research. Exploring the design process from general design aims to site-specific design makes the process visible to support workplace design research.

Participatory design methods were used to understand employees’ needs and preferences in work-related situations to support the design process. The design process was divided into three phases. The office was temporarily refurbished for the intervention study, and evaluation data was collected with qualitative methods.

Participatory design-generated data revealed typical knowledge work needs, such as the need for privacy, interaction, exposure and preferences for the atmosphere in the workspaces during different situations. The authors identified the following key points to obtain design data: design aims, affordance design and site-specific multidimensional design. An intervention study in a small organisation revealed that lack of activity-supporting spaces created undesirable overlaps for focused work, collaborative work and client communication.

The findings of this paper are explorative and limited to a small knowledge work company. The present approach identifies valuable data collection points in different design phases of workplace design processes. Sharing knowledge from practice to research and vice versa could inform research and improve workplace design.

This study makes the workplace design phases more visible. It supports finding new ways to study the connection between the user-needs and workplaces; and understanding how different design solutions impact workplace experiences, such as satisfaction. This study also brings focus to understanding the versatile needs of small organisations and their workplace design.

Knowledge often is the fundament for strategic competitive advantage. Thus, it is highly relevant to understand better how knowledge is transferred from one generation to the next in family businesses. The purpose of this paper is to link the competitive advantage realisation in family businesses to the success of transferring strategically valuable knowledge in different business environments to the next generation.

Building on the contingency model of family business succession (Royer et al., 2008) knowledge transfer in family businesses from different cultures is investigated in this paper. From a resource-oriented and transaction cost inspired perspective two family businesses with a similar industry background from China and Europe are compared regarding knowledge transfer in the context of family firm succession taking into account the respective transaction atmosphere.

Different successions for two long-lived family firms are illustrated in a systematic fashion: based on the theoretical elements suggested both cases are described to get insights into the usefulness of the theoretical reasoning developed. On the basis of these, the cases are compared with each other and conclusions for both cases are drawn. Implications for theory and practice as well as avenues for future research are sketched.

The focus of the current study is to gain more insight into long-lived family businesses by comparing two cases over a period of more than 200 years with regard to strategically relevant resources as well as the underlying transaction atmospheres. Implications for family firms depending on the resource types and transaction atmosphere are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the nature of knowledge sharing and what is experienced as being shared as knowledge sharing unfolds. In particular, the paper explores affect as a key aspect of knowledge sharing in an organisational context.

A practice theoretical approach is applied to the study combined with a phenomenological research methodology that focusses on the “lived experience” of participants.

Knowledge-sharing practice was found to encompass cognitive, social, bodily and affective dimensions. Affect was found to be a significant component of the practice as revealed by participant emotion and the use of conversational humour.

In light of the findings, the researcher recommends a focus on participant sensings in practice theoretical research, in combination with sayings, doings and relatings.

The approach to the study is significant in that, in contrast to previous practice-based research in information studies, it applied a methodology adapted from phenomenology. This combination of approaches opened the investigation to the multi-dimensional experiential nature of knowledge-sharing practice highlighting the significant role of affect in knowledge sharing.

This article explores consumers' attitudes to the trend of gourmet burgers, notably the gourmet burgers' combination of highbrow food (gourmet) and lowbrow food (fast food). The authors use the case of the NOMA cheeseburger from the iconic New Nordic restaurant NOMA.

The data set consists of interviews (n = 20) with urban Danish consumers attending the NOMA burger pop-up.

The analysis highlights an acceptance among informants of “gourmetfied” burgers. This signals a change in the culinary status of burgers in Danish food culture. The authors also discovered some ambivalence in relation to the highbrow-lowbrow negotiations: while all informants celebrate the casualization of NOMA during the burger pop-up, half of the informants found the burger underwhelming: it did not live up to the edginess of the NOMA brand.

The authors believe this research can inform people working with culinary highbrow-lowbrow mix in their food designs, notably in relation to developing and matching the relation between symbolic and material aspects of the food design.

The authors argue that the concept of transgression can help us theorize how consumers accept, refuse, and negotiate boundaries in relation to gourmet burgers, and more generally between food consumption mixing highbrow and lowbrow elements. More particularly, the authors propose to distinguish between symbolic, social, and material transgressions. This perspective might also be interesting for practitioners in the field.

The purpose of this paper is to identify current marketing initiatives undertaken by UK chain booksellers and analyses them in the context of established retailing and marketing theory. Thus, established scholarly theory is being examined in a novel research setting.

The paper includes evidence and findings from semi‐structured, in‐depth interviews with various book trade experts working at different levels within the trade.

Focusing on the strategies behind the chains' marketing techniques, the paper concentrates in particular upon the new emphasis by UK chains upon serving a wider clientele and their efforts to establish individual identities and be “community responsive”. This has resulted in a re‐emphasis both upon customer service and on the relationship between bookseller and customer. New developments in the facilities to be found in chain bookshops, such as coffee shops and the proliferation of sofas and browsing areas are analysed as to their contribution to bookshop “atmosphere”.

This research is both timely, responding to calls from the trade for research and original, given the dearth of research on the book trade. The findings are examined within the context of academic theory in related fields, such as retailing, marketing and consumer behaviour. As such, findings from this highly original research are relevant both for the trade and for the wider academic community regarding their application and consideration in other scholarly settings.