Jason Sit

Entertainment-seeking shopping centre patrons: the missing segments

Entertainment is increasingly an integral part of the marketing strategy used by shopping centres to entice consumers. Further, entertainment can be a means of image differentiation for shopping centres, given that the image of a competitive retail institution is a critical determinant in consumer patronage decisions. However few studies have examined the contribution of entertainment to shopping centre image. Moreover, using entertainment as a means of identifying distinct market segments has not been explored. Hence, the purpose of this study was twofold. First, a model of attributes that represented the shopping centre image was identified. Three essential attributes that have been neglected in most shopping centre studies were revealed, namely entertainment, food and security. Second, six market segments of shopping centre patrons were identified and labelled the “serious” shopper, the “entertainment” shopper, the “demanding” shopper, the “convenience” shopper, the “apathetic” shopper and the “service” shopper. In particular, the “entertainment” shopper and the “service” shopper are identified as entertainment‐seeking segments. Managerial implications of the findings and future research directions are addressed.

An Exploratory Study of Residents’ Perception of Place Image The Case of Kavala

Studies on place image have predominantly focused on the tourists’ destination image and have given limited attention to other stakeholders’ perspectives. This study aims to address this gap by focusing on the notion of residents’ place image, whereby it reviews existing literature on residents’ place image in terms of whether common attributes can be identified, and examines the role of community-focused attributes in its measurement. Data collected from a sample of 481 Kavala residents (Greece) were subjected to exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The study reveals that the existing measurement tools have typically emphasized destination-focused attributes and neglected community-focused attributes. This study contributes to the residents’ place image research by proposing a more holistic measurement, which consisted of four dimensions: physical appearance, community services, social environment, and entertainment opportunities. The study also offers practical insights for developing and promoting a tourist place while simultaneously enhancing its residents’ quality of life.

Mapping Mobile Touchpoints in Sport Events

Todays’ customers seemingly desire company and brands to be constantly in contact with them during the consumption journey. By consequence forward-looking companies and brands are increasingly embedding technology-enabled (often mobile) touchpoints into the consumption journey in order to establish a relationship with consumers and support their needs and wants. This research analysed the consumption journey of sport events, and identified five major categories of activities performed by sport fans: sensing, performing, linking, organizing and navigating. These major activity categories, which can be seen as relationships co-creation between companies/brand and their customers, are then assessed in terms of the possibility of being enabled or enhanced with mobile devices thus creating mobile touchpoints.

Computer animation data management

The reviewers comments on the issues of criteria and sources have been used to develop the literature review.We have included a new section titled Literature review explaining the process and stages involved in searching the literature, selecting the literature, and analysing the literature.The criteria and sources used for each stage have been included in the section of Literature review. The computer animation industry has been booming and prospering in recent thirty years. One of the significant changes faced by this industry is the evolution of computer-animation data and, yet, extant literature has offered very little insights into the evolution process and management issues pertinent to computer- animation data. Hence, many questions have surfaced in the extant literature of computer- animation data management. For example, to what extent has the data content expanded in terms of quantity and quality? To what extent has the information technology used to store and process the data changed? To what extent have the user and the community groups diversified in terms of their nature and number? Knowledge pertaining to these issues can provide new research directions to academics and also insights to practitioners for more effective and innovative management of computer- animation data. This conceptual paper, therefore, takes the pioneering step to address these issues by proposing four factors prudent for examining the evolution phases associated with computer-animation data management: technology, content, users, and community. Next, this paper presents a conceptual framework illustrating the inter- dependent relationships between these four factors together with associated theoretical and managerial issues. This paper, albeit limited by its conceptual nature, advances the extant literature of computer animation, information system, and open-product model.

Residents’ place image: a meaningful psychographic variable for tourism segmentation?

ABSTRACT While there has been a considerable body of research on tourists’ place image, there remains limited attention on residents’ place image, specifically, in relation to its segmentation utility. This study seeks to address this oversight by a) clustering the local residents based on the image held of a tourism place, and b) exploring the extent to which the identified image-based resident clusters share similar (dissimilar) demographic characteristics and attitude towards tourism development. Empirical analysis was based on a sample of 481 residents of a Greek city. The findings support the utility of residents’ place image as a psychographic segmentation variable revealing the existence of three distinct resident groups – termed “Nature Loving”, “Apathetic” and “Advocate.” Results also suggest that these resident groups exhibit dissimilar demographic characteristics and dissimilar attitude towards tourism. In comparison with other segments, the Apathetic exhibits the least favourable image and the least supportive attitude towards tourism.