James M. Cronin and Mary B. McCarthy
An effective means to promote optimal nutrition for any group of consumers is to expand nutrition professionals' understanding of the cohort's food choice processes. The purpose…
Abstract
Purpose
An effective means to promote optimal nutrition for any group of consumers is to expand nutrition professionals' understanding of the cohort's food choice processes. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the situated food choice influences of the videogames subculture; a known consumption enclave for calorie dense low nutrient foods. The investigation is conducted by application of an abbreviated version of Furst et al.'s model of the food choice process as a conceptual framework.
Design/methodology/approach
This investigation uses an interpretive research strategy and adopts a qualitative approach to data collection and analysis. In total, 14 purposively sampled semi‐structured, in‐depth interviews were carried out with members of the videogames subculture.
Findings
Informants' food choices and preferences during social gameplay were strongly influenced by beliefs related to appropriate food behaviour and ideal characteristics of foods suitable for grazing. All informants described some constraints imposed by the physical surroundings and environmental nature of gameplay such as issues of messiness and inability to eat with utensils while gaming. Social structure played an important role in informants' food choices, and much of this structure was built around the hedonic intersection of food and gameplay. Informants' food choices were also influenced by poor cooking abilities and unwillingness to devote much effort to meal preparation during gameplay.
Practical implications
Used in conjunction with theories of behavioural change, the insights gathered here should help inform interventions and communications strategies. Both commercial and social marketing domains have a role to play in positively influencing gamers' diets.
Originality/value
The paper offers social marketers insight into the influences that underpin unhealthful food choices within the videogames subculture and how to positively bring about change.
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James M. Cronin and Mary B. McCarthy
The purpose of this paper is to understand how food is used to create identity and community for gamers during core rituals. These meanings are to be explored within the broader…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to understand how food is used to create identity and community for gamers during core rituals. These meanings are to be explored within the broader context of subcultural experience in an investigation of the motives and the self‐concept dynamics underlying this symbolic consumer behaviour.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses an interpretive research strategy and adopts a multi‐method ethnographic approach that includes: netnography: multiple, in‐depth, ethnographic interviews; and prolonged participant observation. Interview informants are young Irish subcultural members aged between 18 and 23. Data analysis proceeds according to a constant comparative method.
Findings
The findings suggest that the social gaming ritual, when intersected with food, is closely linked to issues of identity, community, fantasy and escape, gustatory rebellion and prolonged hedonism. Commensality during the core social gaming ritual contributes to a sense of communitas, while the “junk” nature of the shared food products helps to manufacture the hedonism of the event. The social ritual then is sovereign and bound by its own subcultural parameters, which oppose mainstream culture's norms and dietary regulations. From its role in helping to create a Utopian and rebellious experience, food is then leveraged as part of the gamers' collective identity. Practitioner implications of the results are discussed.
Originality/value
This paper investigates contemporary food consumption behaviour within a postmodern community. The main contribution pertains to providing an insight into a previously neglected group of food consumers.
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Rui Biscaia, Abel Correia, Masayuki Yoshida, António Rosado and João Marôco
This paper aims to assess service quality in professional football and to examine the effects of service quality and ticket pricing on satisfaction and behavioural intention. Data…
Abstract
This paper aims to assess service quality in professional football and to examine the effects of service quality and ticket pricing on satisfaction and behavioural intention. Data were collected among football fans and the results of a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) supported the psychometric properties of the service quality model. A structural equation model (SEM) revealed that the service quality construct impacts both satisfaction and behavioural intention. Also, behavioural intention is influenced by ticket pricing and satisfaction. Managerial implications of these results are discussed and guidelines for future research are suggested.
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Masayuki Yoshida, Jeffrey D James and J. Joseph Cronin
Throughout this study, the authors sought to identify the antecedents and consequences of a multi-dimensional consumption-value construct. Data were collected from sports…
Abstract
Throughout this study, the authors sought to identify the antecedents and consequences of a multi-dimensional consumption-value construct. Data were collected from sports spectators in Japan (n=372) and the United States (n=396). The results indicate that three quality dimensions (functional, technical and aesthetic quality) have a significant impact on their respective value dimensions in the context of sporting events. Moreover, the constructs of entertainment and community prestige have positive effects on customers' behavioural intentions.
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Behzad Foroughi, KhairulAnuar Mohammad Shah, Davoud Nikbin and Sunghyup Sean Hyun
The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between event quality and fan satisfaction and consequent fan attendance of soccer matches in Iran. Data on game quality…
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between event quality and fan satisfaction and consequent fan attendance of soccer matches in Iran. Data on game quality, augmented service, interaction, outcome, environment, fan satisfaction and attendance were gathered from 260 spectators attending an Iranian premier league soccer match by means of a survey. The results show that, except for interaction, all dimensions of event quality have a significant relationship with fan satisfaction. Moreover, the effect of game quality on fan satisfaction is stronger than other dimensions. The results also confirm the significant relationship between fan satisfaction and attendance. Fan satisfaction is shown to be partially mediating the relationship between event quality and game attendance. Practical implications for facility managers and sports marketers are discussed.
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Portia Jordan, Ferestas Mpasa, Wilma ten Ham-Baloyi and Candice Bowers
The purpose of this paper is to critically analyze empirical studies related to the implementation strategies for clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) in intensive care units…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to critically analyze empirical studies related to the implementation strategies for clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) in intensive care units (ICUs).
Design/methodology/approach
A systematic review with a narrative synthesis adapted from Popay et al.’s method for a narrative synthesis was conducted. A search using CINAHL, Google Scholar, Academic search complete, Cochrane Register for Randomized Controlled Trials, MEDLINE via PUBMED and grey literature was conducted in 2014 and updated in 2016 (August). After reading the abstracts, titles and full-text articles, 11 (n=11) research studies met the inclusion criteria.
Findings
After critical appraisal, using the Joanna Briggs Critical Appraisal Tools, eight randomized controlled trials conducted in adult and neonatal ICUs using implementation strategies remained. Popay et al.’s method for narrative synthesis was adapted and used to analyze and synthesize the data and formulate concluding statements. Included studies found that multi-faceted strategies appear to be more effective than single strategies. Strategies mostly used were printed educational materials, information/ sessions, audit, feedback, use of champion leaders, educational outreach visits, and computer or internet usage. Practical training, monitoring visits and grand rounds were less used.
Practical implications
Findings can be used by clinicians to implement the best combination of multi-faceted implementation strategies in the ICUs in order to enhance the optimal use of CPGs.
Originality/value
No systematic review was previously done on the implementation strategies that should be used best for optimal CPG implementation in the ICU.
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Sonali Jain and Sanjay K. Jain
This paper aims to measure outcome quality in banks in India and to make a comparative assessment of its influence on customer service quality perceptions. Though both functional…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to measure outcome quality in banks in India and to make a comparative assessment of its influence on customer service quality perceptions. Though both functional quality (i.e. how service is delivered) and outcome quality (i.e. what is delivered) are important aspects of service quality, it is the functional quality which has primarily been the focus of past studies.
Design/methodology/approach
The data used in the study are based on a survey of bank customers located in Delhi and National Capital Region. Using the exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, validity and dimensionality of the multi-item functional and outcome quality scales used in the study were assessed. A structural model of relationships of functional and outcome quality with overall service quality was tested through use of the structural equation modeling (SEM) approach.
Findings
The study finds outcome quality as being a significant and major determinant of customer service quality perceptions in banks. Inclusion of outcome quality in the analysis is, moreover, found to be helpful in capturing more exhaustively the variations present in customer overall service quality perceptions.
Research limitations/implications
Both the functional and outcome quality in the study have been measured through scales adapted from past studies. But the same have not been found able to fully capture variations in customer service quality perceptions. More psychometrically sound scales to measure functional and outcome quality are needed. Studies in both the developing and developed countries and additional service sectors are called for to increase the generalizability of the study findings. Furthermore, nomological validity of the outcome quality scale needs to be investigated by relating it with other anent constructs, such as customer satisfaction and their behavioral intentions.
Practical implications
Instead of simply remaining preoccupied with functional quality, i.e. process or how part of service delivery, bank management also needs to gauze customer outcome quality perceptions (i.e. what the customers think they are eventually getting out of their transactions with the service provider) and exercise due care to see that customers in fact are getting the core banking tasks performed for which they approach the banks in the first instance.
Originality/value
Present study is first of its kind in investigating role of outcome quality in banking services sector in the context of an emerging market like India. Use of SEM for analyzing both the measurement and structural models constitutes another noteworthy feature of the study.
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Kostantinos Alexandris, Nicholas Theodorakis, Kiki Kaplanidou and Dimitra Papadimitriou
The purpose of this paper is twofold: to investigate if the three service quality dimensions (service environment, interaction and outcome quality), proposed by Brady and Cronin…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is twofold: to investigate if the three service quality dimensions (service environment, interaction and outcome quality), proposed by Brady and Cronin (2001), influence the development of event loyalty, among runners of the “‘Alexander the Great’ International Marathon”, and to test if running loyalty moderates the relationship between event quality and event loyalty.
Design/methodology/approach
In all, 368 runners participated in the study and filled the Sport Event Quality Questionnaire (Theodorakis et al., 2015) and an adjusted version of the Leisure Involvement Questionnaire (Kyle et al., 2010).
Findings
The results indicated that only the service environment and outcome dimensions contributed significantly to the prediction of event loyalty, while, and in contrast to other sport services, interaction quality was not shown to be an important determinant for the development of event loyalty. Furthermore, running involvement was shown to play a moderating role in the relationship between event quality and event loyalty. Service quality is more important for the development of event loyalty among low- than high-involved runners. The theoretical and applied implications of these results are discussed.
Research limitations/implications
The study provided results on how high- and low-involved runners perceive event quality, and for which of these groups the event quality is an important antecedent for the development of event loyalty.
Practical implications
Investigating the moderating role of involvement on the relationship between service quality and loyalty has also applied value. While committed runners have been traditionally seen as a key target group for event marketing professionals, the majority of runners in city marathons today are more leisure oriented. The increase in the number of leisure runners is actually the reason for the rapid growth of city marathons in the last few years. Meeting the needs of these leisure runners and increasing their loyalty levels is therefore a key task for marathon marketers today.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature, as for the first time it explores the moderating role of involvement on the relationship between service quality and loyalty in the context of a sport event.
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This study examines how various characteristics of the discount retail environment and the overall attitude towards a discount retail store, considered to be an abstract and…
Abstract
This study examines how various characteristics of the discount retail environment and the overall attitude towards a discount retail store, considered to be an abstract and global image component, influence consumers’ satisfaction and how consumers’ satisfaction, in turn, affects store loyalty. The data, collected from a sample of 517 discount retail customers in Daegu, Korea, indicate that: (1) forming the overall attitude is more closely related to in‐store services: atmosphere, employee service, after sales service and merchandising, (2) store satisfaction is formed through perceived store atmosphere and value, (3) the overall attitude has strong influence on satisfaction and loyalty and its impact is much stronger on loyalty than on satisfaction, (4) store loyalty is directly affected by most significantly location, merchandising and after sale service in order, (5) satisfaction is not related to customers’ committed store revisiting behavior. The applications in management and implications for future research are discussed.