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Article
Publication date: 24 May 2011

Alison E. Lloyd and Sherriff T.K. Luk

This study seeks to investigate the service interaction behaviors that elicit a sense of comfort for the customer in the service encounter, and to investigate the mediating role…

7094

Abstract

Purpose

This study seeks to investigate the service interaction behaviors that elicit a sense of comfort for the customer in the service encounter, and to investigate the mediating role of comfort on assessments of quality, customer satisfaction and positive word‐of‐mouth in two industries.

Design/methodology/approach

In‐depth interviews were used to create an initial list of interaction behaviors displayed by service employees in an encounter. A quantitative study was then used to collect data to empirically examine the relationship between the constructs of interest.

Findings

Two key groups of interaction behavior are identified and contain specific behaviors that create a sense of overall comfort for the customer. Overall comfort positively impacts both overall quality and customer satisfaction, and this ultimately leads to positive word‐of‐mouth.

Research limitations/implications

The research focuses on two industries only: fashion apparel retailing and casual dining restaurants. Future research needs to examine other industries, experiential or credence services, level of involvement or the impact of culture.

Practical implications

Managers are recommended to incorporate interaction behaviors into front‐line employee training and design of comfort‐enhancing strategies.

Originality/value

Research on employee behaviors and emotional aspects of the encounter is relatively scant, and this study investigates the specific behavioral repertoire that gives rise to an overall feeling of comfort in the service encounter. Although employee behavior is widely acknowledged to have an immense impact on the customer's evaluation of the encounter, there still exists much room to explore specific behaviors that are important for successful service delivery.

Details

Journal of Services Marketing, vol. 25 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0887-6045

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Article
Publication date: 6 April 2023

Annemaree Lloyd and Alison Hicks

The study focussed on information literacy practices, specifically on how higher education staff managed the transition from established and routinised in-person teaching…

337

Abstract

Purpose

The study focussed on information literacy practices, specifically on how higher education staff managed the transition from established and routinised in-person teaching, learning and working practices to institutionally mandated remote or hybrid working patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design/methodology/approach

The qualitative study forms part of a broader research project, examining how information literacy and information practices unfolded during the COVID-19 pandemic. Phase Three of this project, which forms the subject of this paper, employed semi-structured interviews to explore the impact of COVID-19 on the workplace and, in particular, the role that technology and digital literacy plays in enabling or constraining information literacy practices necessary for the operationalisation of work.

Findings

The complexities of the COVID-19 pandemic precipitated a fracturing of workplace information environments and worker information landscapes by disrupting all aspects of academic life. The study recognises that whilst the practice of information literacy is predicated on access to modalities of information, this practice is also shaped by material conditions. This has implications for digital literacy which, in attempting to set itself apart from information literacy practice, has negated the significant role that the body and the corporeal modality play as important sources of information that enable transition to occur. In relation to information resilience, the bridging concept of fracture has enabled the authors to consider the informational impact of crisis and transition on people's information experiences and people's capacity to learn to go on when faced with precarity. The concept of grief is introduced into the analysis.

Originality/value

This study presents original research.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 79 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

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Article
Publication date: 27 June 2019

Alison Hicks

The purpose of this paper is to present the emergent grounded theory of mitigating risk, which was produced through an analysis of the information literacy practices of…

1251

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present the emergent grounded theory of mitigating risk, which was produced through an analysis of the information literacy practices of English-speakers who are learning a language overseas as part of their undergraduate degree.

Design/methodology/approach

The grounded theory emerges from a qualitative study that was framed by practice theory and transitions theory, and employed constructivist grounded theory, semi-structured interviews and photo-elicitation methods to explore the information activities of 26 language-learners from Australia, Canada, the UK and the USA.

Findings

The grounded theory of mitigating risk illustrates how academic, financial and physical risks that are produced through language-learner engagement overseas catalyse the enactment of information literacy practices that enable students to mediate their transition overseas.

Research limitations/implications

This study’s theory-building is localised and contextual rather than generalisable.

Practical implications

The grounded theory broadens librarians’ and language-educators’ knowledge of student activities during immersive educational experiences as well as extending understanding about the shape that information literacy takes within transition to a new intercultural context.

Social implications

The grounded theory develops understanding about the role that local communities play within intercultural transition and how these groups can respond to and prepare for increasingly fluid patterns of global movement.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to an increasingly sophisticated theoretical conceptualisation of information literacy while further providing a detailed exploration of transition from an information perspective.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 75 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

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Article
Publication date: 22 February 2021

Annemaree Lloyd and Alison Hicks

The aim of this study is to investigate people's information practices as the SARS-CoV-2 virus took hold in the UK. Of particular interest is how people transition into newly…

851

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this study is to investigate people's information practices as the SARS-CoV-2 virus took hold in the UK. Of particular interest is how people transition into newly created pandemic information environments and the ways information literacy practices come into view.

Design/methodology/approach

The qualitative research design comprised one-to-one in-depth interviews conducted virtually towards the end of the UK's first lockdown phase in May–July 2020. Data were coded and analysed by the researchers using constant comparative and situated analysis techniques.

Findings

Transition into new pandemic information environments was shaped by an unfolding phase, an intensification phase and a stable phase. Information literacy emerged as a form of safeguarding as participants engaged in information activities designed to mitigate health, legal, financial and well-being risks produced by the pandemic.

Research limitations/implications

Time constraints meant that the sample from the first phase of this study skewed female.

Practical implications

Findings establish foundational knowledge for public health and information professionals tasked with shaping public communication during times of crisis.

Social implications

This paper contributes to understandings of the role that information and information literacy play within global and long-term crises.

Originality/value

This is one of the first studies to explore information practices during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 77 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

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Article
Publication date: 21 December 2021

Annemaree Lloyd and Alison Hicks

The purpose of this second study into information literacy practice during the COVID-19 pandemic is to identify the conditions that influence the emergence of information literacy…

455

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this second study into information literacy practice during the COVID-19 pandemic is to identify the conditions that influence the emergence of information literacy as a safeguarding practice.

Design/methodology/approach

The qualitative research design comprised one to one in-depth interviews conducted virtually during the UK's second and third lockdown phase between November 2020 and February 2021. Data were coded and analysed by the researchers using constant comparative techniques.

Findings

Continual exposure to information creates the “noisy” conditions that lead to saturation and the potential for “information pathologies” to act as a form of resistance. Participants alter their information practices by actively avoiding and resisting formal and informal sources of information. These reactive activities have implications for standard information literacy empowerment discourses.

Research limitations/implications

The paper is limited to the UK context.

Practical implications

Findings will be useful for librarians and researchers who are interested in the theorisation of information literacy as well as public health and information professionals tasked with designing long-term health promotion strategies.

Social implications

This paper contributes to our understandings of the role that information literacy practices play within ongoing and long-term crises.

Originality/value

This paper develops research into the role of information literacy practice in times of crises and extends understanding related to the concept of empowerment, which forms a central idea within information literacy discourse.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 78 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

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Article
Publication date: 13 September 2013

Margee Hume and Michael Mills

Given an increasingly volatile and competitive fashion environment, the purpose of this paper is to qualitatively explore current consumer behaviour and psychological perspectives…

17877

Abstract

Purpose

Given an increasingly volatile and competitive fashion environment, the purpose of this paper is to qualitatively explore current consumer behaviour and psychological perspectives of luxury in women's undergarment fashion purchasing, with specific examination of whether this under‐investigated area of discrete or inconspicuous fashion appraisal is consistent with other luxury purchases.

Design/methodology/approach

The study employs an interesting methodological approach using multiple qualitative techniques including research interviews, group forums, and narrative capture, to investigate women's undergarment purchasing in a changing fashion environment in relation to the issues of branding, self‐image, perceived self‐image, motivational perspectives, and consumer behaviour, as identified by 119 female consumers aged between 18 and 60.

Findings

This study supports in part previous research that indicated consumer behaviour is determined by the congruency between the consumer's self‐image and the consumer's image of brands, although early research suggested this only applied to conspicuous products and social consumption. The current study confirms the self‐image link in the area of inconspicuous fashion, and strongly relates inconspicuous products consumed privately to self‐esteem and perceived sexy self.

Practical implications

The findings indicate that for intimate apparel marketing to be effective and credible, the marketed fashion items, and actions taken by designers, and retailers need to be consistent with the consumer's personal style, value perceptions, and self‐image.

Originality/value

This research examines several neglected areas in fashion and consumption research, and contributes to our understanding of key motivational elements important in the consumption of inconspicuous fashion, and the relationship of self‐image to inconspicuous consumption.

Details

Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal, vol. 17 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1361-2026

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Article
Publication date: 8 October 2019

Alison Hicks

Information literacy has been consistently undertheorised. The purpose of this paper is to contribute in the ongoing theorisation of information literacy by exploring the meaning…

774

Abstract

Purpose

Information literacy has been consistently undertheorised. The purpose of this paper is to contribute in the ongoing theorisation of information literacy by exploring the meaning and implications of the emergent grounded theory of mitigating risk for information literacy research and practice.

Design/methodology/approach

The grounded theory was produced through a qualitative study that was framed by practice theory and the theoretical constructs of cognitive authority and affordance, and employed constructivist grounded theory, semi-structured interviews and photo-elicitation methods to explore the information literacy practices of language-learners overseas.

Findings

This paper provides a theoretically rich exploration of language-learner information literacy practices while further identifying the importance of time, affect and information creation within information literacy research and practice as well as the need for the continued theorisation of information literacy concepts.

Research limitations/implications

The paper’s constructivist grounded theorisation of information literacy remains localised and contextualised rather than generalisable.

Practical implications

The paper raises questions and points of reflection that may be used to inform the continued development of information literacy instruction and teaching practices.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to an increasingly sophisticated theoretical conceptualisation of information literacy as well as forming a basis for ongoing theoretical development in the field.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 76 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

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Article
Publication date: 14 February 2023

Alison Hicks

The purpose of this conceptual paper is to suggest that the growing sociocultural theorisation of risk calls for a more robust research focus on the role that information and in…

178

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this conceptual paper is to suggest that the growing sociocultural theorisation of risk calls for a more robust research focus on the role that information and in particular, information literacy, plays in mediating hazards and danger.

Design/methodology/approach

Starting by tracing how information has been conceptualised in relation to risk through technoscientific, cognitive and sociocultural lenses, the paper then focuses on emerging sociocultural understandings of risk to present a research agenda for a renewed sociocultural exploration of how risk is shaped through the enactment of information literacy.

Findings

The paper identifies and examines how information literacy shapes four key aspects of risk, including risk perception, risk management, risk-taking and “at-risk” populations. These four aspects are further connected through broader themes of learning, identity, work and power, which form the basis of the sociocultural risk research agenda.

Originality/value

This paper is the first study bringing together the many understandings related to how risk is informed and establishes risk as a key area of interest within information literacy research.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 79 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

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Article
Publication date: 13 November 2017

Latisha Reynolds, Amber Willenborg, Samantha McClellan, Rosalinda Hernandez Linares and Elizabeth Alison Sterner

This paper aims to present recently published resources on information literacy and library instruction providing an introductory overview and a selected annotated bibliography of…

7222

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to present recently published resources on information literacy and library instruction providing an introductory overview and a selected annotated bibliography of publications covering all library types.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper introduces and annotates English-language periodical articles, monographs, dissertations and other materials on library instruction and information literacy published in 2016.

Findings

The paper provides information about each source, describes the characteristics of current scholarship and highlights sources that contain unique or significant scholarly contributions.

Originality/value

The information may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.

Details

Reference Services Review, vol. 45 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0090-7324

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Article
Publication date: 14 August 2017

Ruth Lewis-Morton, Sarah Harding, April Lloyd, Alison Macleod, Simon Burton and Lee James

The purpose of this paper is to explore the process of co-producing a formulation alongside a service user and the clinical team within a secure inpatient service. This paper has…

478

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the process of co-producing a formulation alongside a service user and the clinical team within a secure inpatient service. This paper has been co-authored by the service user and members of the multi-disciplinary team (MDT).

Design/methodology/approach

An open-ended focus group discussion was facilitated with the service user and members of her MDT. The process of thematic analysis was applied to the focus group transcript.

Findings

The following themes highlighted important outcomes of co-producing a formulation within a secure inpatient setting; “Meaningful Collaboration”, “Co-Produced Understanding” and a “Shift in Power Differential”. This paper demonstrates the importance of meaningful co-production within a secure inpatient service whilst also highlighting the challenges and tensions of working in a co-produced way within this context.

Research limitations/implications

This paper explores the process of co-producing and developing a formulation from the perspective of one service user and their MDT within a secure inpatient setting. It would be unhelpful to extrapolate broad assumptions from this case study although this study does raise important considerations for future research and encourages an emphasis on a co-produced design and dissemination.

Practical implications

This case study highlights the importance of co-production in clinical endeavours, service delivery and development perspectives and in the dissemination of this information.

Originality/value

The importance of co-producing and co-authoring alongside service users have been highlighted in this paper. This approach to co-production and co-authorship is highly recommended in future research endeavours.

Details

Mental Health and Social Inclusion, vol. 21 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-8308

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