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This paper aims to explore how the Zaltman metaphor elicitation technique (ZMET) can be adopted in services marketing to provide deeper customer experience insights.

This paper explores how ZMET interviews, which use images selected by the participant to facilitate discussion, can be used by researchers. This paper draws upon a study of 24 student experiences at a UK university.

Adopting this qualitative method for services marketing can counter depth deficit when compared to other qualitative approaches, because it is participant led. However, the method requires competent interview skills and time for the interview and analysis. We find that ZMET has not been widely adopted in academia because of its commercial licenced use. The paper illustrates how to use the ZMET process step-by-step.

Findings are limited to student experiences. Further research is necessary to understand how researchers could use ZMET in other areas of services marketing.

This paper provides guidance to researchers on how to use ZMET as a methodological tool. ZMET facilitates a deeper understanding of service experiences through using participant chosen images and thus enabling researchers to uncover subconscious hidden perceptions that other methods may not find.

ZMET has been used commercially to gain market insights but has had limited application in service research. Existing studies fail to provide details of how ZMET can be used to access the consumer subconscious. This paper makes a methodological contribution by providing step-by-step guidance on how to apply ZMET to services marketing.

Networking is a key element of entrepreneurial and SME activity. The skills required to network share similarities to those of a marketer and can be associated with feminine traits, such as relationship building. Yet, little is known about how female SME marketers engage in networking. This study aims to address this gap by exploring how self-employed female services marketers build, use and value networks over the lifetime of their business.

In-depth narrative interviews were conducted with 26 self-employed women working in the UK marketing services sector. Template analysis was used to analyse the materials.

A model encapsulates the fluid nature of the networking activity throughout the lifetime of the participants’ businesses by illustrating which networks the women used and their perceived value. Networking led to multi-directional outsourcing opportunities and philanthropic marketing activity, all of which supported the success of the SME. Despite support from family, friends and the community, these were not regarded as networks by the women.

At the individual level, insights are offered into which networking activity is more valuable for female entrepreneurs working in the sector. For policymakers, the study indicates that participants did not see value in the formal, government networks and the women did not engage with professional bodies. More creative solutions to supporting female marketing entrepreneurs are required.

The study is original, in that it offers qualitative insights into how self-employed female marketers use and value networks throughout the lifetime of their business. It concentrates on one sector (marketing services) and so answers criticisms that studies in entrepreneurship do not consider specific sectors. In contrast to studies which focus on one stage of the business lifecycle, this research contributes to a holistic, longitudinal understanding of entrepreneurial female networking activity in marketing. More generally, it contributes to the paucity of literature which explores the reality of working in the marketing services sector.

The aim of the paper is to explore how hypothetical scenarios can be used to study individual employee attitudes towards diversity and equality initiatives in retailing.

In total, 40 semi‐structured interviews were conducted with a range of staff working in three business units belonging to a UK retailer. As part of the interviews, respondents were asked to comment on four work‐based scenarios exploring customer and employee diversity issues.

The paper proposes that scenarios can be a useful method for exploring the hidden meanings retail employees have towards ethical issues such as diversity management. However, they may not always be useful for furthering knowledge of the area. This is because responses to the scenarios in this study frequently contradicted the respondent's real‐life work experiences explored in the rest of the interview. This suggests that, when commenting on the scenarios, interviewees did not always ground their responses so that they reflected their role in the retailer and their own diversity.

The paper argues that hypothetical scenarios, if used in retail research or for retail training and development purposes, should have ecological validity. In order to obtain an accurate picture of individual attitudes and to tease out what an individual might do (the rhetoric) from what they have actually experienced (the reality), those researching in the retail industry should use a range of qualitative methods to study the same issue.

The corporate branding concept places an emphasis on employees' attitudes and behaviours. This has given rise to internal branding and employer branding, which argue for a closer alignment between the employees' values and those of the corporate brand. However, few studies have attempted to provide a platform by which the two concepts could be synergised to achieve a strong, consistent corporate brand. This paper therefore seeks to explore and demonstrate how the three concepts of branding are interrelated through a new framework.

Three bodies of literature (corporate branding, internal branding, and employer branding) were selected for review and examination in terms of their implications for the proposed framework that conceptualises the relationships between the three areas.

The review of the literature highlights the importance of employer branding and internal branding, and its potential to support the corporate brand‐building initiatives, whilst maintaining their distinctiveness in the literature. It also sheds light in terms of the inter‐relationships among the three concepts of branding.

The analysis of the literature reveals a degree of synergy and integration between employer branding and internal branding. It also facilitates a comprehensive understanding of the implications of the two concepts for branding and integrated corporate brand management.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the implementation of talent management interventions in UK public sector organisations.

This paper draws upon the findings of a qualitative study of talent management in two UK public sector case study organisations.

Implementing talent management was found to present particular tensions for public sector managers, particularly in terms of its alignment with well‐embedded diversity and equality policies and their own perceptions of fair treatment in the workplace. Despite an acknowledgement that the sector needs to attract, develop and retain the most talented individuals to achieve its modernisation agenda, interventions which require singling out those individuals for special treatment challenges many of its established practices for recruitment and selection, employee development and career management.

Public sector organisations need to invest both time and effort into developing appropriate and relevant approaches to talent management, which take proper account of line managers' perceptions of fair treatment and established organisational approaches to diversity and equality.

Talent management is a topic of growing interest from employers concerned about their work force demographics, specific skills shortages and the retention of high potential employees but the concepts that inform talent interventions are often unclear or are an uneasy fit with the beliefs and understandings about fair treatment of those who have to implement them.

This paper reports findings from a small scale study exploring the role gender plays in the interactions between customers and front‐line staff in DIY retailing. Drawing on materials gathered through observations, informal discussions with staff and focus groups, this study suggests that “maleness” pervades many aspects of DIY retailing. For the respondents the image of the case retailer, B&Q, and the products sold had male connotations. Furthermore, male customers perceived male customer‐facing staff to have better knowledge of technical DIY than female employees, even though this was not always the case. Given the rising interest from women in home improvements, it would appear that measures need to be put in place to create a more “inclusive” DIY store environment for female customers, and one that challenges the stereotypical assumptions held by many male home improvement customers.

This study aims to explore the role of marketing in small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) and to consider how amendments can be made to the UK higher education (HE) teaching curriculum to inform marketing teaching and learning around a small business context.

A qualitative, exploratory approach using semi‐structured in‐depth interviews amongst ten owners of SMEs in the East Midlands region of the UK was used.

Marketing in SMEs is centred on customer engagement, networking and word of mouth communication. HE academic institutions should take account of these findings and work towards introducing SME‐specific marketing material in its teaching and learning curricula.

This study uses a small number of SME companies in one region and therefore the generalisability of the findings may be limited. Further research could extend the number of SME companies and to other regions of the UK.

The findings have a bearing on the UK HE marketing curriculum. This study offers insights into how the marketing curriculum in HE needs to be adapted in light of the findings to ensure marketing graduates are equipped to enter SME employment.

Studies aligning how marketing in SMEs is practiced compared to HE teaching curriculum are limited. This research contributes to the body of literature by further exploring the characteristics and marketing activities of SMEs and highlighting the need to align teaching and practice of marketing in UK HE institutions.

The aim of this paper is to highlight the factors that limit and support female career progression in the retail industry.

The research used a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods. Data were collected from employees and managers working in 31 stores belonging to national stores operating in the East Midlands as well as ten SME independent retailers based in the region.

The women in this study can be categorised into those women who are not interested in pursuing a career in retail, those that seek promotion but have difficulties balancing the demands of their work and domestic circumstances and those who have actively pursued a career in the industry. Despite these categorisations, the study suggests that the career progression of all female staff is helped and hindered by a number of interrelating factors, such as whether they have a role model, are loyal to the store they work in or have children.

It is proposed that career initiatives in retailing need to be more adaptable so that they take account of the different development needs of these three types of women.

This is a large‐scale study that uses a mixed method approach and considers the opinions of store staff working in a range of roles.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between service quality, the service encounter and the retail experience within a changing UK retail environment.

Data were gathered from 40 customers and 20 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.

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.

Recent environmental developments – involving customers, markets and retail platform structure – are challenging traditional service expectations.

Retailers may need to reassess the role of the service encounter as part of their on-going value proposition.

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.