Understanding consumer responses to special event entertainment (SEE) in shopping centres

This paper reviews the literature on the use of entertainment in shopping centres and outlines the constructs believed to impact upon consumer’s responses to special event entertainment. Special event entertainment (SEE) refers to entertainment events or activities that are offered on an occasional, temporary or discontinued basis in shopping centres. Examples of SEE include school holiday entertainment and fashion shows (Parsons, 2003; Sit, Merrilees, & Birch, 2003). Using SEE, shopping centre management seeks to entice consumer patronage, increase patron traffic or promote the shopping centre brand. Despite the popularity of SEE in shopping centres, very little academic research (e.g. Parsons, 2003; Sit, Merrilees, & Birch, 2003) has either conceptually or empirically examined how consumers perceive or respond to SEE. This research presents a conceptual model that examines the determinants and outcomes of consumer responses to SEE, In particular, consumer responses to SEE are represented by SEE proneness and overall appreciation of SEE. These SEE responses are proposed to be determined by sensation-seeking tendencies and perceived value of SEE. Eight propositions are presented to explain the relationships of SEE responses with their determinants and outcomes. These relationships will be empirically tested in future research. Research implications of the conceptual model are also presented

Measuring the dramaturgical quality of the entertainment event experience in shopping centres

The purpose of this study is threefold: i) identify the dramaturgical quality elements relevant for measuring the shopping centre entertainment event experience; ii) examine the interrelationships amongst those dramaturgical quality elements; and iii) determine the effect of those dramaturgical quality elements on shoppers' behaviours. Four dramaturgical quality elements are identified to constitute the entertainment event experience in a shopping centre and are labelled as "setting", "performer", "crowd", and "behavioural response". These four dramaturgical quality elements, albeit distinctive, are positively related. In particular, the "behavioural response" is a function of the "setting", "performer", and "crowd" and each with varied degree of relationship strength. These findings were based on a self-completion survey administered to 280 participants at two varied family-oriented entertainment events. Implications and limitations of this study are also discussed

Redefining ‘entertainment value’: A qualitative inquiry of shopping centre managers’ perspectives

Shopping centres stage entertainment events (e.g. children workshops, mini concerts, and mini festivals) to add ‘entertainment value’ to the retail experience and in turn build customers’ loyalty and approach behaviours (e.g. extended stay and increased spending). Despite the relationship between delivery of entertainment value and retail entertainment events, there are gaps in the extant literature, including: i) existing definitions of entertainment value have been mostly examined in retail contexts outside of entertainment events; ii) prior studies have primarily utilised a unidimensional approach to measuring customer value. Customer value is complex in nature and the extent to which a multidimensional approach would be more relevant for understanding entertainment value within the retail entertainment event context remains unknown; and iii) shoppers have been the primary unit of analysis with other stakeholders’ perspectives (e.g. managers) about entertainment value and its dimensionality rarely being considered. To address these gaps in the extant literature, this study involved in-depth interviews with eight shopping centre marketing managers who were highly experienced with staging entertainment events. The qualitative results contribute to the extant literature in three ways: i) a multidimensional definition is proposed as more insightful and practical for examining the entertainment value within the context of shopping centre entertainment events; ii) the multidimensional definition potentially comprises affective, activity, and aesthetic dimensions (evident in extant literature), as well as, functional, social, and altruistic dimensions (emerging from this research) and iii) altruistic value identified in this study highlights the increasing use of entertainment events for cause-related purposes by retailers, reflecting the ‘selfish altruism’ phenomenon (Fairnington, 2010). Theoretical and managerial implications arising from the qualitative findings are discussed together with opportunities for future research

An Exploratory Study of Residents’ Perception of Place Image: The Case of Kavala

Studies on place image have predominantly focused on the tourists’ destination image and have given limited attention to other stakeholders’ perspectives. This study aims to address this gap by focusing on the notion of residents’ place image, whereby it reviews existing literature on residents’ place image in terms of whether common attributes can be identified, and examines the role of community-focused attributes in its measurement. Data collected from a sample of 481 Kavala residents (Greece) were subjected to exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The study reveals that the existing measurement tools have typically emphasized destination-focused attributes and neglected community-focused attributes. This study contributes to the residents’ place image research by proposing a more holistic measurement, which consisted of four dimensions: physical appearance, community services, social environment, and entertainment opportunities. The study also offers practical insights for developing and promoting a tourist place while simultaneously enhancing its residents’ quality of life

Computer animation data management: Review of evolution phases and emerging issues

The computer animation industry has been booming and prospering in recent thirty years. One of the significant changes faced by this industry is the evolution of computer-animation data and, yet, extant literature has offered very little insights into the evolution process and management issues pertinent to computer-animation data. Hence, many questions have surfaced in the extant literature of computer-animation data management. For example, to what extent has the data content expanded in terms of quantity and quality? To what extent has the information technology used to store and process the data changed? To what extent have the user and the community groups diversified in terms of their nature and number? Knowledge pertaining to these issues can provide new research directions to academics and also insights to practitioners for more effective and innovative management of computer-animation data. This conceptual paper, therefore, takes the pioneering step to address these issues by proposing four factors prudent for examining the evolution phases associated with computer-animation data management: technology, content, users, and community. Next, this paper presents a conceptual framework illustrating the inter-dependent relationships between these four factors together with associated theoretical and managerial issues. This paper, albeit limited by its conceptual nature, advances the extant literature of computer animation, information system, and open-product model

Showrooming and retail opportunities: A qualitative investigation via a consumer-experience lens

Showrooming represents a shopper behaviour prevalent in today’s retail landscape, referring to consumers inspecting a desired product at a retailer’s physical store and then buying it online, usually from a competitor. Showrooming has been examined frequently from a negative standpoint (e.g. free-riding and channel-hopping), via the theoretical lens of multichannel shopping and using a quantitative (theory-testing) approach. The present study seeks to investigate showrooming from a positive standpoint and help retailers to diagnose and appreciate potential opportunities that may be presented by this shopper behaviour. Our investigation is guided by the theoretical lens of consumer experience and a qualitative (theory-building) approach, based on convergent interviews with eleven self-proclaimed showroomers and the shopping context of consumer electronics. The present study contributes to retail theory and practice by illustrating that showrooming can be conceived and managed as a positive shopper behaviour. Its potential opportunities can be better appreciated when retailers consider fully its experiential aspects, such as decision activities and emotions

Residents’ Place Image: A Meaningful Psychographic Variable for Tourism Segmentation?

While there has been a considerable body of research on tourists’ place image, there remains limited attention on residents’ place image, specifically, in relation to its segmentation utility. This study seeks to address this oversight by a) clustering the local residents based on the image held of a tourism place, and b) exploring the extent to which the identified image-based resident clusters share similar (dissimilar) demographic characteristics and attitude towards tourism development. Empirical analysis was based on a sample of 481 residents of a Greek city. The findings support the utility of residents’ place image as a psychographic segmentation variable revealing the existence of three distinct resident groups - termed “Nature Loving”, “Apathetic” and “Advocate.” Results also suggest that these resident groups exhibit dissimilar demographic characteristics and dissimilar attitude towards tourism. In comparison with other segments, the Apathetic exhibits the least favourable image and the least supportive attitude towards tourism

Corporate brand rehab: Diagnosing trust repair mechanisms in the service sectors

Purpose and objectives In recent times, a number of spectacular organizational transgressions have damaged consumers trust towards corporate brands. To survive, these damaged brands must ‘spend some time in the trust rehabilitation clinic’ to repair and regain trust. Trust repair is a complex brand-specific rehabilitation process. According to Bachmann, Gillespie and Priem (2015), a combination of multiple approaches is required for trust rehabilitation across levels. In 2017 Bozic has called for new studies to adopt an interpretivist perspective to empirically explore consumer trust repair process. In this paper, we respond to Bozic’s call and our research purpose is to evaluate consumer responses to trust repair mechanisms adopted by corporate brands. We address the research purpose by exploring the following research objectives: (1) to evaluate consumer understanding of trust; (2) to evaluate trust damage; (3) to identify the mechanisms which contribute to consumer trust repair. Originality The present study examines an important gap in the literature. On the one hand, there is an established body of theoretical work around trust repair mechanisms within the organizational context (Bachmann et al., 2015). On the other hand there is a paucity of empirical research addressing how consumers respond to trust repair strategies adopted by corporate brands. Our research addressed the latter gap by integrating theoretical ideas of Bachmann et al. (2015) to evaluate consumer responses to trust repair mechanisms adopted by corporate brands. Research methodology This study opts for an interpretivist approach to address three research objectives. We employed the focus group discussion method. This decision was driven by two rationales: the cases under investigation are high profile (misspelling of Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) policies, HR issues in Sports Direct and safety issues in Alton Towers) and have had wide coverage across varied mass and social media. This study comprised a total of six focus groups, with two focus groups per case. In total, 48 participants, with roughly equal gender distribution with ages ranging from 18 years to over 75 years agreed to participate in this study. Analysis of the focus group data employed the template analysis approach and procedure. Focus group transcriptions were imported into the NVivo interface. Findings and discussion Discussion of the findings is organised around the three objectives of the research. Firstly, in line with existing research (Schoorman, Mayer & Davis, 2007; Dietz & Gillespie 2012) when defining consumer trust, participants in this study have mostly discussed the trustworthiness of corporate brands and what shapes the trustworthiness. Participants across all groups primarily defined consumer trust in terms of competence and integrity. We also know that trust is context specific (Bozic, 2017). Our results, however, suggest that the trust dimensions may change as a result of trust damage, whereby those dimensions that most closely match the cause of the trust damage shape consumers’ trusting behaviour. Secondly, the transgressions appear to have caused the greatest impact on cognitive trust. Consumers tend to continue relationships with corporate brands where trust erosion impacted others (i.e. employees) or where consumer choice is limited due to an unconditional trust in competences of financial brands (i.e. PPI case) or due to market-based manipulations of service elements (i.e. low price in the Sports Direct case). So far, it has been theoretically discussed in the context of healthcare services only (Fotaki, 2014). Thirdly, we found that despite severity of trust damage, our research illustrates that corporate brands can recover. However, in line with existing research (Bozic 2017; Bachmann et al. 2015), our findings suggest that not all trust repair mechanisms are equally applicable to all service contexts. Hence, context specific nature of trust affects choice of trust repair mechanisms. We also found that corporate brands in the service sectors should focus on sense-making, relational approaches and transparency. Conclusion Evaluation of consumer responses to trust repair mechanisms adopted by corporate brands in the service sectors confirms previous theoretical work in that consumer trust varies by context. Transgressions may however change consumers’ perception of trust as they reflect on the incident. To our knowledge, no studies suggest that corporate brand rehabilitation of consumer trust requires careful examination of what trustworthiness components consumers expressed before and after the trust erosion incident. In doing so, effective diagnosis of trust repair mechanisms against trust damage is most likely to guarantee a successful rehabilitation. Our results also suggest that trust erosion mainly impacts cognitive consumer trust. Theoretical and practical implications We have illustrated that it is important to reconsider conceptual models of trust repair process and integrate post-transgression consumer research that investigates general trustworthiness components in a particular corporate brand situation. With our empirical research we also evidenced that there is a complex relationship between consumer choice and consumer trust: it also raises quite important theoretical question on whether consumer choice can replace consumer trust. Research limitations Although this study provides a better understanding of consumer responses to trust repair mechanisms adopted by corporate brands, findings need to be interpreted with caution. Our findings are limited and applicable to specific service sector cases we examined. Brand crisis and trust damage, as a result of it, is not restricted to the service sector as the Samsung phone incident and labor violation of Apple’s suppliers in developing countries have demonstrated. There is therefore scope to extend our work into other industry sectors

Fake news, social media and marketing: A systematic review

There is growing concern amongst policy makers, managers and academic researchers over the role that social media plays in spreading misinformation, widely described as ‘Fake News’. However, research to date has mainly focussed on the implications of fake news for political communication and debate. There has been less focus on the implications of social media misinformation upon marketing and consumers. Given the key role of social media as a communication platform, there is a gap in our understanding of fake news through a consumer lens. We address this gap by conducting an interdisciplinary systematic review of the relevant literature. Through critical evaluation and synthesis of the literature, we identify five themes that explain the fake news phenomenon: the dissemination process, spreading channel features, outcomes, fabricated legitimacy and attitudes. Finally, we propose a theoretical framework that highlights themes’ relationships and research propositions to guide future research in this area