Search results

This study aims to focus on the unique challenges of retail service delivery in rural tourism markets. This paper specifically seeks to address: factors attracting individuals to a rural tourism community; factors motivating resident and tourist customers to engage in tourism shopping; satisfaction of resident and tourist customers with local retailers; and strategies to assist retailers in successful service delivery.

Using Dillman's survey techniques, data were collected from two different groups: resident customers and tourist customers in a rural Iowa tourism community. Given the study's exploratory focus, a case study methodology was selected.

Shopping experiences were much less satisfying for resident customers than for tourist customers in this study. Tourism retailers may not be effectively differentiating their customer service and providing adequate attention during the shopping experience, particularly to resident customers.

One limitation is that the study represents an initial test of self‐designed and/or modified scales to capture the variables of interest in a single rural tourism community in Iowa. Therefore findings may only be generalizable to the unique nature of an established tourist population in Midwestern regions of the USA.

An important implication from this study is rural tourism retailers need to develop a comprehensive customer relationship management strategy to encourage repeat shopping and sustained patronage behavior.

This study provides valuable strategic implications for rural tourism entrepreneurs, business consultants and economic development professionals in rural tourism communities, and fills a void in the tourism and patronage literature.

The purpose of this study is to investigate interns’ supervisory support expectations, psychological contract obligations, job satisfaction, perception of advancement opportunities and affective organisational commitment in an attempt to gain a better understanding of how these variables influence interns’ conversion intentions.

This study focuses on college juniors and seniors who were enrolled in retail/service programs at one of three major US universities, and successfully completed a retail/service internship. An online survey was used to assess the influence of interns’ psychological contract expectations regarding employer obligations, supervisory support expectations, job satisfaction, perception of advancement opportunities, and affective organisational commitment on interns’ conversion intentions (intent to accept an offer for full‐time employment).

Findings indicate that employers can establish a foundation for intern retention by fulfilling obligations, both implicitly and explicitly. Furthermore, to ensure continued success of their interns, retailers should rely on supervisors and/or mentors to provide guidance, support and feedback.

Research is limited to students who completed a retail/service internship during 2008.

Results provide practical implications to aid in internship program development, assist in interns’ educational and professional development, and enhance the likelihood of successful conversion of interns to employees for retail/service businesses.

This paper is based on actual feedback from interns. Findings will assist retailers in identifying how they can differentiate their internship programs from their competitors’, and how they can increase internship conversion rates. Additionally, the paper identifies salient factors that motivate interns to accept an offer for full‐time employment from their internship company.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the use of retail customer service as a value added component and potential success strategy for rural tourism retailers. More specifically, service quality expectations and perceptions as a means for segmenting tourism markets are to be examined.

Data were collected using a case study methodology in an established rural tourism community. Local customers, tourist customers, and retailers participated in the study. A canvassing approach was employed for administering a hand‐delivered, self‐report survey that examined parallel sets of service quality expectations and perceptions among the three groups, along with service satisfaction outcomes (i.e. retailer loyalty and purchase intentions). Descriptive analysis, factor analysis, t‐tests, and regression analysis were conducted.

Local and tourist customers' prior expectations for retail service quality were similar; however, local and tourist customers' post‐experience service quality perceptions differed significantly. A modified version of the SERVQUAL scale represented two service quality perception constructs important to local customers and retailers and one service quality perception construct for tourist customers.

Generalizability of findings may be limited as the in‐depth study was conducted within a single rural tourism community in Iowa.

The study sheds light on service quality perception dimensions that are salient to local customers, tourist customers, and retailers. Results aid in the development of customer relationship management strategies for both local and tourist customers and enhanced competitive options for rural tourism retailers.

Findings provide baseline information regarding customer relationship management strategies aimed at establishing rural tourism retailer sustainability by simultaneously meeting service expectations and enhancing service perceptions for local and tourist customers.

The transition from higher education to employment is a major life change for many college seniors (currently, the Generation Y cohort). The purpose of this paper is to enhance the understanding of Generation Y and to present new insights regarding Gen Y's retail career expectations, perceptions of retail careers, future psychological contract/entitlement perceptions of retail careers, and career exploration of the US retailing industry.

Utilizing quantitative research methods via an on‐line survey, the authors examined 193 Gen Y college seniors' retail career perceptions and expectations, and explored the influence these factors have on future psychological contract/entitlement perceptions of employer‐employee obligations and retail career exploration from nine US universities.

College seniors' pre‐entry retail job expectations, perceptions of retail careers, and future psychological contract/entitlement perceptions of employee obligations were significant predictors of career exploration; college seniors' preconceived notions of retail careers, combined with what they feel they would owe their future employer, are instrumental in determining retail career exploration decisions.

Findings suggest directions for university faculty, academic advisors, and industry practitioners on facilitating college seniors' transitions from higher education to the world of work by suggesting recruitment strategies that can attract, retain and motivate Gen Y.

The findings provide useful criteria for organizational development strategies to assist with the transition from higher education to the workforce and may also improve the success of recruiting Gen Y employees. In addition, the conceptualization of psychological contracts (i.e. entitlement perceptions) differentiates this study from prior psychological contract research.

This paper uses newly compiled data from two surveys of female home workers undertaken by the Women’s Industrial Council in London in 1897 and 1907 to investigate various issues related to their work and wages. The reports detail the occupations, average weekly earnings and hours, marital status, and household size, composition, and total income of approximately 850 female home workers, offering a unique, and as yet unused, opportunity to explore the labor market characteristics of the lowest-paid workers in the early twentieth century. Analysis of the data reveals that the female home workers who were surveyed were drawn overwhelmingly from poor households. Home workers were older than female factory workers, most were married or widowed, and the majority of married workers reported that their husbands were out of work, sick, disabled, or in casual or irregular work. Weekly wages and hours of work varied considerably by industry, but averaged about 7–9s. and 40–45 hours per week, with many workers reporting the desire for more work. The relationship between hours of work (daily and weekly) and hourly wages was negative, and the wives and daughters of men who were out of the labor force due to unemployment or illness tended to work longer hours at lower wages, as did women who lived in households where some health issue was present. These findings lend support to contemporary perceptions that women driven into the labor force by immediate household need were forced to take the lowest-paid work, whether because they lacked skill and experience or bargaining power in the labor market.

School counselors are committed to serving students' social-emotional, postsecondary, and academic needs while they navigate primary and secondary school (American School Counselor Association, 2019). Much has been said about the ways in which school counselors can impact postsecondary outcomes and social emotional health. It is important that we also address the ways school counselors can impact positive academic outcomes as it is intertwined in postsecondary options and success. For Black males, academic success has traditionally been met with systemic barriers (i.e., school-to-prison pipeline, lower graduation rates, lower incomes, higher unemployment rates, and lower college going rates (National Center for Edcuation Statisitics, 2019a, 2019b, 2020a, 2020b) and low expectations. School counselors are charged to be leaders and change agents for social justice and equity in our schools by the American School Counselor Association (ASCA, 2019) and can impact systemic change. This chapter will explore ways in which school counselors can impact positive academic outcomes for Black males. School counselors as change agents and advocates are positioned to make a real impact for Black male academic success. The authors will also provide some recommendations and best practices for elementary, middle, and high school counselors as they work with students, teachers, and families from an anti-deficit model as outlined by Harper (2012).