Helen Woodruffe-Burton

Private desires, public display: consumption, postmodernism and fashion’s “new man”

This article sets out to explore the role of clothes as compensatory consumption in men’s lives from an experimental perspective, presenting preliminary findings from the current research based on case studies of three adult males. This is part of a much larger study into compensatory consumption currently being undertaken by the author. The article examines the men’s relationship with fashion and their shopping behaviour in the light of current literature on fashion, identity and consumer behaviour. The implications for fashion retailing are considered and proposals for future research put forward.

Dimensions Driving Business Student Satisfaction in Higher Education.

Purpose – This study aims to identify the dimensions of business student satisfaction in the Malaysian private higher educational environment and evaluate the influence that demographic factors have on satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire was developed and distributed to 1,200 undergraduate business students at four private higher educational (PHE) institutions in Malaysia. Exploratory factor analysis was used to identify the underlying dimensions that drive student satisfaction. ANOVA and t-tests were conducted to evaluate the influence that demographic factors have on the results. Findings – Factor analysis resulted in the adoption of a 12-factor solution from an original set of 53 satisfaction items. The results also indicated the influence of demographic factors on the level of business student satisfaction. Originality/value – This study identified 12 factors or the underlying dimensions that drive business student satisfaction in the Malaysian PHE. The 12 factors are: professi...

The disabled student experience: does the SERVQUAL scale measure up?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to empirically test a new disabled service user‐specific service quality model ARCHSECRET against a modified SERVQUAL model in the context of disabled students within higher education.Design/methodology/approach – The application of SERVQUAL in the voluntary sector had raised serious issues on its portability into this sector in general and its ability to measure the experience of the disabled service user in particular. In consequence, a disabled service user‐specific service quality model – ARCHSECRET – was developed which led to this research being designed to compare ARCHSECRET and a modified SERVQUAL model in terms of their ability to predict and explain the variation in the service quality experience of disabled students in higher education.Findings – ARCHSECRET was superior to the modified SERVQUAL in terms of its overall predictive power; ARCHSECRET key drivers were different and better in predictive power than those of the modified SERVQUAL; and ARCHSECRET w...

Countering Heteronormativity; Lesbians and Wellbeing in the Workplace

The aim of this chapter is to examine the ways in which lesbians manage their identity in the heteronormative environment of the workplace and to consider the impact sexual orientation has on wellbeing at work. A comprehensive review of the extant literature and theory forms the basis of the discussion, illustrated by examples from previous studies.

Franchising Research in a European Context

Despite references to franchising’s rapid growth as ‘spectacular’ an ‘explosion’ (Chan, 1994), there remains a notable lack of research into franchising in a European perspective. Studies of contemporary literature show a lack of franchising research generally (Hamilton and Watts, 1998), and little on international franchising issues (Elango and Fried, 1997), (Hoffman and Preble, 1995). This paper presents an overview of franchising in the existing literature, considers marketing issues relevant to European franchising from a critical perspective and poses key questions and directions for future research.