Exploring the UK high street retail experience: is the service encounter still valued?

Purpose: The relationship between service quality, the service encounter and the retail experience is explored within a changing UK retail environment. Design: Data was gathered from forty customers and twenty staff of an established UK health and beauty retailer with a long standing reputation for personal customer service. A qualitative analysis was applied using both a service quality and a customer value template. Findings: Customers focused more on the utilitarian features of the service experience and less on ‘extraordinary’ aspects, but service staff still perceived that the customer encounter remained a key requisite for successful service delivery. Research implications: Recent environmental developments - involving customers, markets and retail platform structures - are challenging traditional service expectations. Practical Implications: Retailers may need to reassess the role of the service encounter as part of their on-going value proposition. Originality/value: There has been limited research to date on the perception of shoppers to the service encounter in a changing retail environment and to the evolving notions of effort and convenience

Where have we been and where are we going? The state of contemporary health promotion

This paper seeks to critically discuss the current state of health promotion, arguing that ambiguity remains in its conceptual foundation, practice and education which is contributing to its decline in several parts of the world. Drawing on relevant literature, the paper re-examines the status of health promotion as a specialist discipline in its own right and suggests that the reaffirmation of this status can move health promotion from the margins to the mainstream of public health policy and practice. The paper briefly rehearses some common conceptualisations of health promotion before suggesting four tensions which, if resolved, could offer greater conceptual clarity and galvanise the contribution of the discipline in addressing individual and community health across the globe

The Demand for Wine Tourism in Canyon County, Idaho

Many commercial wineries produce a dual product: commercial wine and wine tourism. Since Idaho wineries charge no entry price, wine tourism demand can only be ascertained with a shadow price for winery visitation. Demand for wine tourism visits for Canyon County in southern Idaho was estimated using the travel cost method. Trip demand was inelastic (-0.4 to -0.6) with respect to own price. The average value of Canyon County wine tourism ranged from $6 to$12 per person per trip, depending upon the assumed opportunity cost of travel time. Elasticities of tastes and preferences, closely related goods, and income were estimated with a view to understanding the market for Idaho's emerging wine tourism industry.Travel cost model, Wine tourism, Wine marketing, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

VALUING IDAHO WINERIES WITH A TRAVEL COST MODEL

Many commercial wineries produce a dual product; commercial wine and wine tourism. Growth of wine tourism throughout the US has been phenomenal. In contrast to the price of wine, which is reflected in the market, the demand for wine tourism can be only ascertained with a shadow price for winery visitation. The demand for wine tourism visits for Canyon County in southern Idaho was estimated using the Travel Cost Method. The value of wine tourism in Canyon County was estimated to be $5.40 per person per trip and trip demand was highly inelastic at 0.5. Elasticities of other trip demand function variables were estimated and analyzed, with a view to informing the marketing of Idaho's emerging wine tourism industry.Community/Rural/Urban Development, Crop Production/Industries,

The Contribution of the Grape and Wine Industry to Idaho’s Economy: Agribusiness and Tourism Impacts

The impact of Idaho’s wine and grape industry was assessed as an agribusiness and as a tourist industry. Idaho’s grape and wine industry is in its infancy, with wine sales of $15 million from 15 wineries and growers cultivating about 1,000 acres, primarily in southwestern Idaho’s Canyon County. Synthesized output multipliers for wine tourism were virtually identical to the agribusiness output multipliers (1.86 and 2.10 for Canyon County and the state of Idaho, respectively). The wine and grape industry’s agribusiness impact is$15 million in sales and 120 jobs in Idaho, and $23 million and 140 jobs for Canyon County. In contrast, tourism expenditures stimulate other businesses in addition to the agribusiness linkages of grape and wine production. Thus, only about three-fourths of the current wine production would be required to be sold to out-of-region tourists to equal the impact of the wine and grape industry as an agribusiness industry.Idaho, impact analysis, input/output models, tourism, wine, wine agribusiness, Agribusiness, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Why has the health promoting prison concept failed to translate to the US?

Two decades since the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe published a report on health promotion in prison that stimulated further debate on the concept of the “health-promoting prison,” this article discusses the extent to which the concept has translated to the United States. One predicted indicator of success for the health-promoting prison movement was the expansion of activity beyond European borders; yet 2 decades since the European model was put forward, there has been very limited activity in the United States. This “Critical Issues and Trends” article suggests reasons why this translation has failed to occur

Analysis of the People's Panel Healthy Communities Consultation

Introduction Public Health England (PHE) carried out a consultation exercise with its People’s Panel, a group of approximately 1000 lay members who regularly participate in engagement exercises with the organisation. The aim of the consultation was to find out what members of the public think the public health system can do to put communities at the heart of public health. Method An online survey was designed by PHE. Questions covered demographics and five open questions. Members of the People’s Panel were invited to complete the survey. Data were coded and analysed thematically by Leeds Beckett University. Results In total, 342 respondents completed the survey (female, 70.5%; 55 years or over, 66.6%). Three quarters (75.7%) of respondents were members or part of social/ neighbourhood/ sports/ volunteer/ political/ faith-based/ community groups. Respondents reported that public sector organisations could best support communities and encourage involvement by: understanding local needs and priorities; raising awareness of existing provision as well as providing inclusive activities and better infrastructure. Factors considered to get in the way of or weaken community strengths and vitality included: austerity; disengagement; social isolation; political will; no ‘heart’ to the community; poor communication; and crime and anti-social behaviour. Suggestions for improvement were provided. Conclusion For the health system to put communities at the heart of public health, lay members feel more ‘local thinking’ surrounding co-production and shared decision making is needed. Improvements to communication/ information sharing within the health system as well as the promotion of the social model of health are suggested. Funders This work was funded by Public Health Englan

Marine plastic: The solution is bigger than removal

Despite the increase in the documentation on, and interest in marine debris, there remains a gap between the analytic information available and the recommendations developed by policy and decision makers that could reduce this pollutant. Our paper summarizes some successful initiatives across policy, industry, infrastructure and education; and where they sit in the value chain of plastic products. We suggest that a multidisciplinary approach is required to most effectively address the marine plastic litter problem. This approach should emphasize (1) minimizing plastic production and consumption (where possible), and waste leakage; by (2) improving waste management (taking into consideration the informal sector) rather than focussing on clean-up activities. We then suggest some steps that once addressed would assist policy professionals, and a wide variety of entities and individuals with decision-making to reduce marine plastic litter. We suggest the creation of a user-friendly framework (tool) would facilitate transparency and democratization of the decision-making process across stakeholders and the wider community. This tool would be most useful if it comprised information on (i) defining appropriate metrics for quantifying plastic waste for the study/work case; (ii) providing a list of possible interventions with their key associated enabling and disabling factors, (iii) identifying the main influential factors specific to the situation/region; (iv) recognizing the risks associated with the selected interventions and the consequences of these interventions on the most influential factors; (v) objectively ranking solutions using the information gathered (metrics, targets, risks, factors) based on the regional, national, and/or international context. This tool then provides an opportunity for user groups to explore different suites of options for tackling marine plastic pollution and co-create a suite that is optimum for them