Outi Niininen

The case for process approaches in loyalty research in tourism.

The article reviews the literature on loyalty in consumer behaviour with particular emphasis on the difficulties of interpreting repeat purchasing in terms of loyalty. Problems of conceptual definition and measurement are examined in the context of tourism. A case is made for seeing the concept of loyalty as a process rather than as a state. In this respect two approaches related to information processing are suggested as possible research approaches. Psychological cost-benefit technique and methods associated with optimum stimulation level are discussed. Copyright

An integrative approach to diagnosing service quality of public parks

Purpose – Aims to examine the services and facilities provided by public parks revealing that the attributes corresponding to performance of service delivery involve the interaction between non‐human aspects of physical environment and emotional experience of users which differ from common human aspects of service quality. Also, a service quality programme without reference to other service providers can easily lead to misguided or counterproductive service improvement strategies.Design/methodology/approach – The present study suggests an integrative approach to diagnosing service quality of public parks that comprises an assessment of performance outcomes and desires to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of service quality and visitor satisfaction as regards frequent users and low users of public parks. Measures pertaining to this approach were examined by a survey of nine public parks in the county of Derbyshire in the UK.Findings – The results show the effect of individual attributes on visitor ...

Building a place brand: a case study of Surrey Hills.

Although branding of goods has received increased attention in both the academic and practitioner communities, research on place brand-building process has been sparse. This study seeks to address this lacuna and proposes a four-component place brand-building framework. namely: determining a brand vision, communicating the brand vision, managing partnerships, and measuring brand performance. The validity of this conceptual framework is assessed using Surrey Hills as a case study. Drawing on the findings of the case study, important challenges are identified that face emerging work on place brands. Some of the emerging issues include control, funding, and stakeholder commitment.