The Servicescape As An Antecedent To Service Quality And Behavioral Intentions, Daire Hooper, Joseph Coughlan, Michael Mullen

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Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the servicescape should be subsumed as a dimension within service quality conceptualizations or whether it is a unique construct in itself which precedes service quality evaluations and behavioral intentions. We both propose and operationalize this model and in doing so make a theoretical contribution by demonstrating how a delineation between these two constructs is necessary in order for theory to progress in this area.

Design/methodology/approach: A total of 355 customers were intercepted as they exited a retail store and surveyed using a structured questionnaire. The data was then analyzed using …

Technology Readiness In A B2b Online Retail Context: An Examination Of Antecedents And Outcomes, Roisin Vize, Joseph Coughlan, Aileen Kennedy, Fiona Ellis-Chadwick

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This paper develops and empirically tests a model that examines the role of Technology Readiness (TR) in the Business-to-Business (B2B) context. It examines how the antecedents of TR affect the construct, and how the construct affects evaluations of a complex credence based B2B service. The research investigates how the retailers’ TR impacts their evaluation of web solution service providers (WSSPs). It responds to previous research calls by extending the TR construct from the business-to-consumer (B2C) perspective that is traditional in the extant literature into the B2B domain. The key findings of a survey conducted with 133 firms in the retail …

An Investigation In Culinary Life And Professional Identity In Practice During Internship, Frank Cullen

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The primary objective of this research was to investigate the selection process used by consumers when choosing a restaurant to dine. This study examined literature on consumer behavior, restaurant selection, and decision-making, underpinning the contention that service quality is linked to the consumer’s selection of a restaurant. It supports the utility theories that consumers buy bundles of attributes that simultaneously combined represent a certain level of service quality at a certain price. The findings of the research displayed a preference by Dublin consumers for Italian and Chinese styled restaurants and identified quality of the food, type of food, cleanliness of …

An Exploration Of The Effects Of The Servicescape On Customer And Employee Responses In A Grocery Retail Context, Treasa Kearney, Joseph Coughlan, Aileen Kennedy

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This research investigates the impact of the servicescape on the responses of both the customer and the employee within a retail grocery setting and is exploratory in nature. The paper has its theoretical underpinning in servicescape theory (Bitner, 1992; Homburg and Stock, 2004), physical work environment literature (Davis, 1984; Kuenzi and Schminke, 2009) and the Service Profi t Chain (SPC) (Heskett et al., 1994). Interviews with grocery retail store managers were carried out to contextualise the paper though the main research instrument is a large-scale survey of customers and employees. The fi ndings suggest that almost 50 per cent of …

Young Men Consuming Newspaper Prostitution: A Discourse Analysis Of Responses To Irish Newspaper Coverage Of Prostitution., Joseph Fitzgerald, Brendan O'Rourke

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In this article we look at how young men consume coverage of prostitution in Irish newspapers. This is important for a number of reasons. Firstly, because the media, and newspapers in particular, seem to be an important source of information for people (Meade, 2008). This is especially true in the case of prostitution, as the only contact the citizenry generally have with sex-workers is through the media (Hallgrimsdottir, Phillips and Benoit, 2006). In many Western countries consuming media is one of the main activities that people, particularly young people, engage in and therefore is the prism through which they view …

Towards A Decision Making Model For City Break Travel, Gerard Dunne, Sheila Flanagan, Joan Buckley

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Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the city break travel decision and in particular to develop a decision making model that reflects the characteristics of this type of trip taking.

Method

The research follows a sequential mixed methods approach consisting of two phases. Phase One involves a quantitative survey of 1,000 visitors to Dublin, from which city break and non city break visitor cohorts are separated and compared. Phase Two entails a qualitative analysis (involving 40 in-depth interviews) that specifically examines the decision making behaviour of city break visitors.

Findings

City break trips were shown to be …

The Diffusion Of Microgeneration Technologies.: Assessing The Influence Of Perceived Product Characteristics On Home Owners’ Willingness To Pay, Marius Claudy, Claus Michelsen, Aidan O'Driscoll

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This study presents empirical insight into willingness to pay (WTP) for microgeneration technologies and the relative influence of subjective consumer perceptions. First, we apply a double-bounded-contingent valuation method to elicit Irish home owners’ willingness to pay for micro wind turbines, wood pellet boilers, solar panels and solar water heaters. Utilizing findings from the adoption of innovation literature, in a second step, we assess the influence of different antecedents on WTP for each of the four technologies, including (1) home owners’ perception of product characteristics, (2) normative influences, and (3) socio demographic characteristics. Our results show that WTP varies significantly between …

Questioning The Currency Of Marketing Planning Today, Sarah Browne, Laura Cuddihy

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While marketing planning has received considerable scholarlv
attention from academics, particularly on how it should be approached,
extant research does not explicate in any great detail how this process is actually performed in practice. The limited existing empirical research suggests a lag between theory and practice in terms of marketing planning and strategy making. Therefore, in order to 'market' marketing in B2B organisations, and close this apparent academic-practitioner divide, a greater awareness of who is actually involved in marfceting planning and strategy making processes is needed. The emphasis in this paper thus is to place the 'how' and 'who' in …

Including The Customer In Efficiency Analysis:Evidence Of A Hybrid Relational-Transactional Approach, Joseph Coughlan, Estelle Shale, Robert Dyson

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Purpose This paper illustrates the effect of including the customer as a resource in efficiency measurement. Variations in counting the customer illustrate the different impacts on efficiency between a transactional and a relational approach to bank branch marketing. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to analyse the efficiency of the branch network under consideration. This technique, while well established in the bank branch efficiency literature, is used here to gain insight into how relationship and transactional paradigms are affecting performance. Findings Although the average profile of the efficiency scores was similar, the scores of the individual branches differed …

No Longer, But Not Yet: Tweens And The Mediating Of Liminal Selves Through Metaconsumption, Kevina Cody, Katrina Lawlor, Pauline Mcclaren

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Using the anthropological theory of liminality as a lens of analysis, the following paper outlines specific elements of a research project exploring the consumer culture of a liminal group – tweens. The lived experience of a tween is explored using a multi-method approach incorporating personal diaries, in-depth interviews and accompanied shopping trips. Outcomes of one aspect of this longitudinal research project – the theory of metaconsumption - are presented, suggesting an important divergent theoretical path from the ‘effects’ - dominated consumer socialization approach to researching young people and their relationships with consumption. We conclude that those in a shadowed reality, …

Threshold Lives: Exploring The Liminal Consumption Of Tweens, Kevina Cody, Katrina Lawlor, Pauline Maclaren

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The intervening spaces of socio-cultural organisation have proved sources of fascination and powerful theory development in the fields of sociology, psychology and anthropology (e.g. Douglas, 1966; Van Gennep, 1961; Freud, 1950, Foucault, 1977). Consumer culture research has hitherto acknowledged the potency of studying transitional phenomena, spaces and places and the interactions of varied ontologies with the consumption experiences of the individuals or group in flux and evolution (e.g. Davies and Fitchett, 2004; Maldonado and Tansuhaj, 1999; Gentry, 1997; Schouten, 1991). But what of those whose reality is the threshold between two ordered and defined worlds, the centre of nowhere? This …

Consumer Awareness In The Adoption Of Microgeneration Technologies: An Empirical Investigation In The Republic Of Ireland, Marius Claudy, Claus Michelsen, Aidan O'Driscoll, Michael Mullen

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Despite major policy and marketing efforts, the uptake of microgeneration technologies in most European countries remains low. Whereas most academic studies and policy reports aim to identify the underlying reasons why people buy these new technologies, they often fail to assess the general level of consumer awareness. The process of adopting an innovation, however, shows that awareness is a prerequisite which needs to be understood before adoption can be addressed. This paper takes a closer look at awareness of microgeneration and presents the results from a nationally representative study conducted in the Republic of Ireland. Findings from logistic regressions clearly …

Young People's Use Of Online Social Networking Sites :A Uses And Gratifications Perspective, Aine Dunne, Margaret-Anne Lawlor, Jennifer Rowley

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Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore why young people use and participate in social networking sites (SNS) with specific reference to Bebo. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative approach is employed in this study with a view to exploring the uses and gratifications that girls aged 12 to 14 years, both seek and obtain from the Bebo social networking site. The research was conducted in a school setting in Ireland. Findings – The findings indicate that the participants are actively using Bebo for their own personal motives and gratifications in terms of presenting and managing a certain …

The Mexican Economic Crisis Of 1982 And The Brazilian Economic Crisis Of 1999:Critical Junctures In Economic Policy?, Ana Maza

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This paper utilises a new critical juncture framework to help us determine whether changes to Mexican macroeconomic policy in the early 1980s, and Brazilian macroeconomic policy at the turn of the century, were clean breaks with the past, or continuations of previously established policy pathways. The framework consists of three elements, which must be identified in sequence in order to declare, with some certainty, if an event was a critical juncture. These are crisis, ideational change, and radical policy change.

Motivation And Decision Making In City Break Travel, Gerard Dunne

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The demand for city breaks has been one of the major growth areas in travel and tourism in recent years. The city break product is generally considered to be different from other holiday products, particularly in a spatial and temporal context. However marketing strategies targeting this important tourism niche continue to be based on data that is often anecdotal and frequently inaccurate. This book explores the distinctive characteristics of this form of travel and in particular the motivations and decision making involved in taking such trips. The book presents a decision making continuum that highlights the variation that exists between …

The Coke Side Of Life:An Exploration Of Pre-Schoolers' Constructions Of Product And Selves Through Talk-In-Interaction Around Coca-Cola, Olivia Freeman

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Abstract Purpose – This paper proposes the activity-based focus group as a useful method with which to generate talk-in-interaction among pre-schoolers. Analytically, it aims to illustrate, how transcribed talk-in-interaction can be subjected to a discourse analytic lens, to produce insights into how pre-schoolers use ‘Coca-Cola’ as a conversational resource with which to build product-related meanings and social selves. Design/methodology/approach - Fourteen activity-based discussion groups with pre-schoolers aged between two and five years have been conducted in a number of settings including privately run Montessori schools and community based preschools in Dublin. The talk generated through these groups has been transcribed …

Beyond Economics: A Behavioural Approach To Energy Efficiency In Domestic Buildings, Marius Claudy, Aidan O'Driscoll

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This paper argues that the moderate success of policies aiming to stimulate the uptake of Sustainable Energy Systems (SES) in the domestic sector is grounded in a poor understanding of the ‘consumer’. The predominant economic approach behind most policies assumes that improving the cost-benefit ratio of technologies via grants and subsidies and providing sufficient information will automatically incentivise householders’ to invest into SES. Yet, policymakers often neglect behavioural determinants such as attitudes, social norms or personal capabilities. Drawing on key findings from the economics, technology and behavioural literature, this paper proposes an integrated model to identify behavioural and contextual influences …

City Break Motivation: The Case Of Dublin, A Successful National Capital, Gerard Dunne, Sheila Flanagan, Joan Buckley

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This paper investigates why people take city break trips. The main objective of the study was to reveal the underlying push and pull motivational factors associated with taking a city break holiday to Dublin. In-depth interviews with 40 city break visitors uncovered six push factors and eight pull factors. The main push motives involved were, ‘escape,’ ‘socialising,’ and ‘self esteem (gift giving).’ City breaks were generally viewed as active or ‘doing’ holidays, with the ‘relaxation’ motive hardly featuring at all as a reason to visit. Pull factors were found to be particularly important in terms of the travel decision. Factors …

Informed Retail Location Decisions: A Critical Concern For Irish Smes, Edmund O'Callaghan

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No abstract provided.

The Technological Gaze In Advertising, Norah Campbell

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This article is concerned with what a technological gaze might mean; what regimes of truth and what new modes of subjectivity are filtered through it. By drawing on television and print advertising, we can see the pervasiveness of a gaze that is technological in contemporary Western consumer culture. This article argues that, far from being a simple “ high-tech” effect, a technological gaze is a way of seeing that may be deconstructed. To this end, it will call on visual culture studies, feminism, film theory and Derridean deconstruction to highlight how high-tech images are cultural artefacts, which underscore contemporary imaginings …

Electronic Customer Relationship Management (Ecrm): Opportunities And Challenges In A Digital World, Aileen Kennedy

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Electronic customer relationship management (eCRM) is seen to arise from the consolidation of traditional CRM with the e-business applications marketplace and has created a flurry of activity among companies. ECRM is the proverbial double-edge sword, presenting both opportunities and challenges for companies considering its adoption and implementation. This challenges companies considering its adoption and implementation. This paper explores the marketing opportunities eCRM creates for companies such as enhanced customer interactions and relationships as well as personalisation options, all of which are potential sources of competitive advantage. It also explores the challenges confronting companies implementing eCRM such as managing an on-line …

The Weight Of The World: Consuming Traditional Masculine Ideologies, Andrew Dunne, Olivia Freeman, Roger Sherlock

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This paper explores the relationship between the body, masculinity and the consumption of body-focussed activities. It examines the meaning and importance of strength training for men.
Strength training is of interest because its increase in popularity is occurring at a particular point in time when a growing number of men are experiencing insecurities over their masculine identities as a result of recent socio-economic changes. This paper proposes that men today are facing a dilemma in terms of masculine identity. This dilemma hinges on the growing objectification of the male body in the media and its cultural messages regarding masculinity.

Children's Understanding Of Television Advertising Intent, Margaret-Anne Lawlor, Andrea Prothero

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Over the last three decades, a substantial body of research has accumulated seeking to address how exactly advertising, and in particular, telelvision advertising, influences children. Yet, given the diversity of methodologies used and the findings presented, it has been suggested that a common consensus on how exactly advertising affects children has not been reached. This paper presents a brief overview of the literature addressing chidlren's understanding of advertising with a view to identifying the contributions to date in this area and the accompanying gaps, omissions and under-resesearched perspectives. Findings are then presented from an exploratory study of eight and nine …

On Researching Music In Everyday Life:Assessing The Musician As Producer Of Commercialised Music, Alan Bradshaw, Roger Sherlock, Pierre Mcdonagh

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Adorno & Horkheimer (1998) argue that the Culture Industry generates cultural artefacts that fail to develop human consciousness and hence support the domination of the capitalist system. Steinert (2003) states that the pressures facing musicians to negotiate between the demands of the culture industry and the traditional role of the artist generates a fundamental contradiction within art which is symbolically enacted through artistic production. This study, which draws on on-going postgraduate research aims to develop a research framework that investigates how musicians negotiate this contradiction. The study considers if a more reflexive approach to art exists, typified by the Pop …

The Sustainability Of Sustainable Consumption, Paddy Dolan

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This article examines the limitations of the concept of sustainable consumption in terms of the inadequate attention given to the social, cultural and historical contextualization of consumption. I argue that Macromarketing should adopt modes of inquiry that more fully engage with this contextualization. The implicit assumptions of ‘sustainable consumption’ center on the rational individual and his or her needs and wants, and neglect the significance of consumption practices as embodying the relations between individuals. Acts of consumption are not in opposition to, and prior to, macro structures and processes, they are macro processes at work. Consumer practices are cultural and …

The Established And Potential Mediating Variables In The Child's Understanding Of Advertising Intent: Towards A Research Agenda, Margaret-Anne Lawlor, Andrea Prothero

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This paper aims to explore in detail the issue of advertising intent, with particular reference to the child. The literature review examines the importance of age, and cognitive and social development in this field, and considers whether or not children can distinguish between television programming and advertising. What the literature review illustrates is that research studies thus far have conflicting viewpoints on these areas. Within the research to date, there are also a number of important issues which do not seem to be addressed. Most notably, there is little research which considers the impact of advertising upon children, from the …

Integrating The Activities Required To Recruit And Retain Profitable Customers In Contemporary Retail Banking, Susan Walsh

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Today’s high street retail bank faces a major challenge in integrating the marketing activities required both to recruit new customers and to retain existing profitable ones. The challenge involves a judicious mix of “transaction marketing” – mainly aimed at winning new clients – and of “relationship marketing”- largely aimed at retaining present ones. Evidence from a detailed qualitative study of marketing practice in a UK high street bank, a subsidiary of an Irish headquartered bank, demonstrates just how problematic achieving this balance can be. The date indicates that this bank underinvested in a number of activities that are of primary …

The Strategic Response Of Dublin's Traditional Department Stores To Intensifying Competition, Edmund O'Callaghan, Mary Wilcox

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In Dublin city competition within the retail sector is intensifying and city-centre department stores, in common with other traders, face many challenges. Indigenous retailers must contend not only with each other, but also with an on-going invasion of international retailers who have been attracted by Ireland’s booming economy. UK multiples have made major in-roads into Dublin's retail scene and the city centre's latest shopping mall, The Jervis Centre, is so dominated by UK retailers that it has been christened 'Little Britain' In the past fifty years, many of Dublin's once dominant department stores have succumbed to the vagaries of retailing. …

Facilitators And Inhibitors Of Supply Chain Innovation-Prospects For Supply Chain Managment In The Irish Grocery Sector, Joan Keegan, Edmund O'Callaghan, Mary Wilcox

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Supply chain management is one of the most significant strategic challenges currently facing the Irish grocery sector. The UK grocery market with its emphasis on composite deliveries via regional distribution centres is extremely sophisticated; the Irish grocery sector, however, is in the embryonic stage of implementing central distribution. The potential to develop innovative supply chain systems is mediated by both national logistic-related variables and company characteristics. In addition to competitor activity and market forces, drivers and inhibitors such as economic growth, consumer preferences, the regulatory environment and physical and technological infrastructure influence the evolution of supply chain systems. This paper …

Euroclicking And The Irish Sme: Prepared For E-Commerce And The Single Currency, Pierre Mcdonagh, Andrea Prothero

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There is much technological hype (see Gates, 1999) as to the consequences of operating within cyberspace (Gibson, 1994) in an e-commerce capacity, at a time of operationalising European economic union within "Euroland". Debates centre on the need to theorise cyberspace (Besser, 1995) and the individualisation offered from organisations in serving e-customers, both from business to business to consumer perspectives. There is however, limited investigation as to how small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are preparing for this electronic or euro transmogrification. This article seeks to redress this by providing insight into these issues and draws upon an empirical analysis of …