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While there is a great deal of support for the integration of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) into higher education, there is still a significant amount of work to be done to move beyond tokenism. Intensive dialogue and robust conceptual outlooks are required. In this paper, this international team of South African and Australian scholars engage in a transcultural and transdisciplinary dialogue in order to chart how discourses and debates about IKS are understood in the different historical and cultural contexts of South Africa and Australia. They combine the theoretical approaches of de Sousa Santos (2014; 2018a and b) about epistemic justice with the theories of Odora Hoppers (2021), Visvanathan (2009), and First Nations Australian scholars Williams, Bunda, Claxton, and McKinnon (2018) about an Indigenous knowledges global decolonisation praxis framework. This dialogue is deliberately jarring and polyvocal because of our desire to go beyond tokenism. The South African team have chosen to apply Bacchi’s (2009) approach of problem formulation and policy as change proposal to discourses about IKS in South African policy documents. The Australian First Nations team have demonstrated how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge systems work through the power of stories. Purposely adopting a polyvocal, multimodal approach, the Australian section includes ethnographic policy analysis and narratives that illustrate how IKS might operate in higher education.

Purpose This commentary extends our 2020 11th SERVSIG Panel The moral limits of service markets: Just because we can, should we?, inspired by Michael J. Sandel’s book What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets. In Sandel’s (2012) book, the pursuit of “the good life” is a common motivation for pushing the moral boundaries of markets and “the good life” is dominated by service consumption. Design/methodology/approach Like Sandel (2012), this commentary begins with a provocation regarding the need for moral development in services marketing. Next, we present three real-life case studies about a modern slavery survivor service, aged care services and health-care services as examples of moral limits, failings and tensions. Findings The commentary proposes four guidelines and a research agenda. As service marketers, we must reignite conversations about ethics and morality. Taking charge of our professional moral development, exercising moral reflexivity, promoting an ethics of care and taking a bird’s-eye perspective of moral ecologies are our recommended guidelines. Morality is an essential condition – a sine qua non – for service marketers. Hence, our proposed research agenda focuses first on the service marketer and embeds a moral gaze as a universal professional protocol to engender collective moral elevation. Originality/value This commentary highlights the need for a moral refresh in services marketing and proposes ways to achieve this end.

The sponsorship of junior sport is a contentious issue with community concerns raised about the appropriateness of some marketing targetted at children. Parents and coaches are guardians of junior sports players and often faced with a moral dilemma. On the one hand they know sponsors, who are trying to generate goodwill through providing financial or in-kind support, are crucial to the affordability of junior sports when competition for securing sponsorships is intense. On the other hand, they hold concerns that some sponsors may exploit their access to these young, vulnerable players. Guardians are caught at a crossroads with equally undesirable alternatives—financially unviable junior sports without sponsors or junior sports with potentially exploitative sponsors. Our study fills a gap in the literature where the tensions of commercial sponsorship agendas and moral concerns in sponsorship has not been well explored with our study being the first to apply the construct of moral judgements in a sponsorship model. Mixed methodology is used to examine the role that moral judgements play in determining sponsor goodwill. A qualitative study ( n = 18) informed an online survey ( n = 306) of Australian junior sports guardians. Structural equation modelling revealed that guardians’ moral judgements mediated the relationships between sponsor fit, perceived sponsor altruism and the outcome variable, sponsorship goodwill. The findings of this study extend scholarly understanding of consumers’ appraisal of sponsorships and provide useful insights to guide practitioners in sponsorship decision making, particularly in contexts that stimulate community interest or concerns.

This paper is a provocation, and its purpose is to give voice and visibility to Aboriginal and Torres Strait peoples in the Australasian marketing academy. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are the First Australians and, like other marginalised groups, are largely invisible in marketing’s discourse. This paper is unapologetic in its truth-telling. The marketing academy in Australia is monocultural. In pursuit of generalisability, marketing research has silenced those outside of the ‘mainstream’; relegating articles by, with and for Indigenous peoples to special section enclaves (like this) at best, but it is more likely editors direct such papers to non-mainstream outlets because they cannot find reviewers with expertise outside of the dominant culture. These practices in and of themselves speak volumes of the Northern/Western knowledge system that dominates marketing. It exemplifies epistemicide, being the non-inclusion or dismissing of Indigenous knowledges and perspectives and foregrounds the need for the decolonisation of marketing in Australia. This paper asks you, the reader, to become uncomfortable and be brutally honest, if only with yourself, as to your blind spots, assumptions, avoidance, rhetoric and essentialist understandings of Australia’s First Nation peoples that furnish your professional perspective and practice. Furthermore, this paper challenges the ANZMAC Executive Committee, Fellows and community to elevate their professional practice voluntarily and authentically with regards to Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islander peoples.

Background: Competitive forces influence social marketing efforts. Indeed, social marketers often find themselves “shadow boxing” various forms of competition throughout their interventions. Despite the seminal role of competition as a threat to social marketing intervention efficacy, few empirical studies have undertaken competitive analysis or compared the usefulness of competitive typologies. Thus, this paper proposes an index approach to categorize competitive typologies relevant to a specific social marketing intervention in terms of their ease of use, intuitiveness and generalisability to the broader social cause domain. The proposed index approach is illustrated with empirical data, undertaking a competitive analysis of forces obstructing efforts to address educational inequality in Australia, then comparing the ease of use, intuitiveness and generalisability of 15 competitive typologies noted in the social marketing literature to produce a competitor analysis index. Research Question: Which competitive typologies most effectively frame forces that inhibit educational equality social marketing efforts in Australia? Methods: Via interviews and focus groups, qualitative data were collected from 46 students from low socioeconomic status (LSES) backgrounds at six universities and sought to understand the influence of their home residence’s geographical remoteness on their university participation. The analysis revealed eight participant-identified differential competitors experienced by students from regional, rural and remote settings (LSES-R, n = 25, 54.4%) that were not experienced by those from metropolitan areas (LSES-M, n = 21, 45.6%). Fifteen competitive typologies were identified in the social marketing literature, and their capacity to frame these eight differential forces in terms of their ease of use, intuitiveness and generalisability was critiqued. Findings: Unlike their metropolitan counterparts, LSES-R participants experienced situational (n = 3), dispositional (n = 3) and goal pursuit (n = 2) competitive forces. The most effective competition typologies comprised two classification options that were distinctly different and could classify both the unfriendly and friendly competition that exists in social marketing. Five competitor typologies were identified as easy to use, intuitive and generalizable to the broader educational inequality domain. Together, these five competitor typologies form a competitor analysis index for educational inequality researchers and practitioners to enhance their intervention efficacy. Recommendations: Despite widespread agreement as to the importance of competitor analysis in social marketing, the efficacy of various typologies has received little attention. Social marketers are encouraged to critique competitor typologies before selecting those which enable effective decision-making. Furthermore, it is recommended that social marketers use a competitor analysis index comprised of multiple typologies to better capture the nebulous nature of the many different types of competitors that exist in a specific social marketing context. Limitations: The educational inequalities cause and qualitative method may constrain generalisability, but they exemplify the importance of competition typology choice and model how competitor analysis indexes can be developed.

PurposeSocial marketing has come of age. Today, we are a legitimate discipline with a wealth of empirical evidence that manifestly demonstrates the ability to bring about behaviour changes for the greater good. As social marketers, we are rapidly expanding the horizons, with a growing interest in the labyrinth of systems that influence the chosen social causes. We have become brave and bold, but is the study now running the risk of romanticising the work and ourselves? It is time to recalibrate, to take stock and to address the elephants in the social marketing room.Design/methodology/approachExpanding on myChange 2020 Driving Systems Changepanel presentation, this viewpoint article is a provocation, a think piece, centred around two observed phenomena.FindingsThe first phenomenon observed is the many identities of the contemporary social marketer – hackers, change agents, heroes, political power brokers and master puppeteers. The second phenomenon observed is the accelerated interest in systems thinking for which the author propose three preconditions are needed – an awareness of the system(s); an acknowledgement that this study is a part of the system(s) and the need to decolonise social marketing.Originality/valueThis article poses challenging questions but offers no solutions as to how social marketers should, could or do square up our blind spots, make peace with our paradoxes or unblinker the views. Not only would it be naïve to proffer solutions but it would also stifle the growth of you, the reader, in your journey to becoming an integrated person and woke social marketing professional.

Increasing the participation of students from low-socioeconomic status (LSES) communities in tertiary education has been a policy focus of successive Australian governments. LSES parents are important influencers, yet are often unsupported in their efforts to help their children. Via two qualitative studies across metropolitan, regional and remote locations in four Australian states, a strengths-based, service-design approach identified four LSES parent personas: magpies, emus, possums and penguin parents. Each parent persona was at a different stage of change, requiring different types of social support. Digital solutions were co-created with LSES parents, reflecting the preferences of each persona. Four additional high-level contributions of this research include identification of the link between stage-of-change and social support requirements, LSES parents’ preference for passive or mid-range levels of digital interactivity, differences in social support needs among LSES parents and the preference for and design of a digital transition-to-tertiary study support portal for LSES parents.

Indigenous Australian identities are enmeshed in racializing discourses that often occlude diversity, hybridity, and intersectionality. Australians who self-identify as Aboriginal are often disbeli...

Extant literature has emerged to shed light on Indigenous tourism peoples, places and partnerships. These studies to date have uncovered a rich diversity of contexts and collaborations, but likewis...

In this article, we discuss the current state of psychological research with Indigenous peoples, with a specific focus on research including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia and the Māori people of Aotearoa (New Zealand). We identify how the mental health of Indigenous people is often significantly poorer than non-Indigenous people and could be contributing to the increased prevalence of comorbidity between mental health and substance abuse. However, we also show that there are concerns about the reliability of these data and that comparing Indigenous to non-Indigenous data is contested and often unreliable. The gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people is discussed within the context of competencies required for psychologists within Australia and Aotearoa (New Zealand), concerning their relevant National Psychology Boards accreditation standards, and core competencies for clinicians. Finally, we show that there is a paucity of research measuring the effectiveness of Western developed psychotherapies with Indigenous people, question their relevance and note the conspicuous silence around Indigenous psychological knowledge. In conclusion, we show that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples are lagging in most health statistics compared to Maori people and other Indigenous peoples which may reflect different experiences of colonisation in each country. However, these statistics also show that progress is possible to help Indigenous people, globally, to achieve their mental health goals.

While attempts to decolonise the school curriculum have been ongoing since the 1970s, the recent Black Lives Matter protests around the world have drawn urgent attention to the vast inequities faced by Black and First Nations peoples and people of colour. Decolonising education and other public institutions has become a front-line public concern around the world. In this article, we argue that poetry offers generative possibilities for the decolonisation of Australian high school (and university) curricula. Inspired by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander approaches to knowledge creation as intergenerational, iterative and intercultural, and by postcolonial and decolonial theories, we explore ways in which poetry events can begin decolonising and diversifying the school curriculum. We suggest that poetry creates spaces for deep listening with the heart (dadirri) that can promote truth-telling about colonial histories and the strengths, achievements and contributions of First Nations Australians. These decolonising efforts underpin the Wandiny (Gathering Together) – Listen With the Heart: Uniting Nations Through Poetry research that we discuss in this article. In these ways, we argue that decolonised curricula create the conditions for cognitive justice in schooling that is an important precursor to other forms of social justice, such as equality, diversity and inclusion.

Due to the kinship ties existing between hosts and guests, any VFR host is likely to experience elevated levels of stress in preparing for such encounters because of the desire to deliver a good experience to their guests. As such, existing literature has sought to unpack VFR hosting behaviour and practices, albeit mostly from an Anglo-Saxon perspective. However, little is known about the influence of East Asian cultures and gendered perspectives of Visiting Friends and Relatives (VFR) hosting behaviour and practices, which is underrepresented within extant literature. From a sample of 91 Taiwanese hosts based in Brisbane, Australia, this research suggests that accommodation considerations are a main factor to Taiwanese VFR hosts in Australia, and that first-time VFR tourists also warrant heightened hosting efforts. These findings contribute to a more nuanced understanding of how East Asian and gendered lenses of VFR hosting behaviour manifests, positions these individuals as potential destination ambassadors, and strategically launch post COVID-19 tourism recovery.

The impetus to decolonise high schools and universities has been gaining momentum in Southern locations such as South Africa and Australia. In this article, we use a polyvocal approach, juxtaposing different creative and scholarly voices, to argue that poetry offers a range of generative possibilities for the decolonisation of high school and university curricula. Australian First Nations’ poetry has been at the forefront of the Indigenous political protest movement for land rights, recognition, justice and Treaty since the British settlement/invasion. Poetry has provided Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples with a powerful vehicle for speaking back to colonial power. In this article, a team of Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers argue that poetry can be a powerful vehicle for Indigenous voices and Knowledges. We suggest that poetry can create spaces for deep listening (dadirri), and that listening with the heart can promote truth-telling and build connections between First Nations and white settler communities. These decolonising efforts underpin the “Wandiny (gathering together)—Listen with the Heart: Uniting Nations through Poetry” research that we discuss in this article. We model our call-and-response methodology by including the poetry of our co-author and Aboriginal Elder of the Kungarakan people in the Northern Territory, Aunty Sue Stanton, with poetic responses by some of her co-authors.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to assist service management academics and providers of positional services (i.e. services that provide status attainment benefits to consumers) to better understand how the envy reflex of outperformed consumers operates as an endemic emotional theme that, if properly managed, can be harnessed to improve consumer engagement outcomes.Design/methodology/approachThe objectives of the research were addressed via two quantitative studies. In a preliminary descriptive study, the types of services consumers classify as “positional” were identified (n=351) and a measure of consumer perceived positional value was developed (n=179). In the main study, a 2 × 2 between-subjects quasi-experimental design was adopted using a sample of positional service consumers (n=265) with the data analysed via SEM and two-way MANCOVA.FindingsThe main study found a significant mediation effect of the envy reflex on the relationship between consumer perceived positional value and the overall likelihood of an engagement intention for outperformed positional service consumers. In addition, specific engagement intentions were predicted for outperformed consumers with a high envy reflex after considering how deserving they perceived a superior performer to be.Originality/valueThis research contributes to the burgeoning scholarly interest in the envy reflex as a consumption emotion by demonstrating its influence on consumer engagement outcomes. The research also demonstrates how tactics informed by appraisal theories of emotion can be used to manage endemic emotional themes in service environments to improve engagement outcomes.

Charities are non-profit services that address diverse social needs. As securing financial donations is critical to their continued operation, they engage in a range of fund-raising activities. Central to successful fund-raising is understanding what motivates people to give money. Thus, this research investigates the role of donors’ perceived fear and empathy, and how these influence the size of self-reported financial donations. Findings from the initial qualitative study (n = 32) informed the subsequent national quantitative main study (n = 400). Logistic regression revealed perceived fear and empathy as significant predictors, with perceived fear playing a lesser role and empathy playing a greater role in the self-reported donation of larger amounts of money to charities. These findings can assist charities with maximising their fund-raising efforts considering the growing competition for donors’ dollars, enabling them to provide a range of services which benefit society.

Purpose The research question addressed is whether an event portfolio analysis rooted in financial portfolio theory can yield meaningful insights to complement two approaches to event portfolios. The first approach is extrinsic and rooted in economic impact analysis where events need to demonstrate a financial return on investment. In the second approach events are valued ally, with every event having inherent value and the entire portfolio being valued for its synergistic effects and contribution to social and cultural goals. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach Data from visitors to four events in the Sunshine Coast region of Australia are analyzed to illustrate key points, including the notion of “efficient frontier.” Findings Conceptual development includes an examination of extrinsic and intrinsic perspectives on portfolios, ways to define and measure value, returns, risk, and portfolio management strategies. In the conclusions a number of research questions are raised, and it is argued that the two approaches to value event portfolios can be combined. Research limitations/implications Only four events were studied, in one Australian local authority. The sample of residents who responded to a questionnaire was biased in terms of age, education and gender. Social implications Authorities funding events and developing event portfolios for multiple reasons can benefit from more rigorous analysis of the value created. Originality/value This analysis and conceptual development advances the discourse on portfolio theory applied to event management and event tourism.

Place is a concept used to explore how people ascribe meaning to their physical and social surrounds, and their emotional affects. Exploring the university as a place can highlight social relations affecting Australian Indigenous students’ sense of belonging and identity. We asked what university factors contribute to the development of a positive sense of place for these students. Findings are presented from two Australian universities, based on focus groups with Indigenous students, and interviews with Indigenous and non-Indigenous staff. Students prioritized relationships with academics as a key theme, stressing academic’s flexibility and understanding enabled their persistence at university. Students situationally manage self-identification, requiring academics to engage effectively with diverse students, but staff felt they required further professional development. We argue that academics can ‘make’ university places in their pedagogies and mentoring roles, but require universities to recogn...

Residents of the Sunshine Coast region in Queensland, Australia, were surveyed on the subject of planned events in their region with the main aim of determining how and why they value events. It was revealed that residents gained considerable use value from events that they attended as audience or otherwise participated in, expressed strong support for a range of events (with a preference for community festivals), and overall did not believe that problems or costs were serious. Residents also indicated strong nonuse values (being existence, option, and bequest values) for events in general. Our findings are positioned within the body of literature concerning impact assessment (specifically, resident perceptions and attitudes towards events), valuation (i.e., the worth of events), and policy and strategy concerning community events and event tourism.

Primary caregivers of very young children are subject to excessive and often disparate information regarding the instilling of healthful eating behaviors. Our study focuses on the integration of the operant resources of primary caregivers (i.e., their knowledge and modeling skills) and that of their very young children (i.e., their self-regulation of energy intake and food preferences) to co-create healthful eating behaviors as a measure to curb overweight and obesity in adulthood. Our two-stage qualitative study makes original contributions demonstrating that primary caregivers' efforts to co-create healthful eating behaviors with their very young children are adversely affected by information overload.

Purpose Sponsorship can be an effective strategic marketing tool yet it attracts criticism as a corporate indulgence shaped by the personal interests of senior executives. While research into the outcomes of sponsorship is extensive, the practices involved in sponsorship selections have been largely ignored. Today, sponsorship selection in large corporations is recommended to be a formal process involving evaluation criteria aligned to corporate policy and strategic priorities. Yet, in reality, corporate culture influences sponsorship selection, as do sponsorship managers’ beliefs about sponsorship types and motivations. The purpose of this paper is to explore sponsorship selection practices and to consider the interplay between corporate culture and sponsorship managers’ beliefs about sponsorship types and their motivations. The findings provide not only new interpretation of the literature but also reveal a detailed picture of sponsorship selection. Design/methodology/approach This exploratory qualitative study comprises in-depth interviews with senior sponsorship managers from eight large Australian companies that use sponsorship as a strategic marketing tactic. Findings This study concludes that the sponsorship selection process is strongly influenced by corporate culture as well as the sponsorship manager’s beliefs about sponsorship types and their motivations. Originality/value This study contributes to the sponsorship management research stream by providing important insights into under-researched factors that influence the sponsorship selection process.

Purpose Global spending on sponsorship continues to rise and many companies now establish portfolios containing a range of sponsorships across sport, arts and cause-related activities. Yet a lack of practical methodologies for the measurement and comparison of sponsorship performance within a portfolio context remains a challenge. Sponsors often rely solely on proxy measures for brand exposure drawn from advertising. These do not capture the higher-level outcomes of sponsorship awareness and goodwill transfer, often attributed to sponsorship as a ‘halo effect’. This paper aims to present a matrix tool that combines consumer awareness of and goodwill for a sponsorship so the halo effects of sponsorships within a portfolio can be quantified and compared. Design/methodology/approach This archival analysis study is based on six years of brand tracking data (comprising some 15,500 consumer surveys) supplied by a large Australian company. A sponsorship portfolio matrix is developed to measure the halo effect. Findings This study demonstrates that a sponsorship’s halo effect can be measured and comparisons can be drawn across sponsorship types within a portfolio. The study shows that despite the significantly higher levels of brand awareness achieved by commercially oriented professional sports sponsorship types, community relations oriented sponsorship types achieve a greater halo effect because of their more positive impact on the sponsor’s brand attributes. Originality/value The matrix provides a valuable tool by which sponsorships can be compared, evaluated and managed to meet the longer-term brand and marketing objectives of a company.

Consumer retention is central to service firm objectives and is often the focus of firm initiated activities. However, consumer-driven processes that operate independently of firm initiated activities also influence retention. By understanding the consumption goals of service consumers, management can encourage behavioural engagement with service offerings and improve retention outcomes. Positional services provide opportunities for social status enhancement (e.g. higher education) and attract consumers seeking the positional benefits offered. Service consumers compete for positional benefits and monitor their success relative to other service consumers via positional comparisons. Envy, an emotion with benign and malicious types, is experienced if the positional comparison with another service consumer is unfavourable and influences behavioural engagement. This study proposes and qualitatively tests a conceptual model linking positional comparison and envy to changes in consumers’ behavioural enga...

Issues addressed: This research explored primary caregivers' awareness of food neophobia and how food preferences develop in young children aged between 1 and 2.5 years. Methods: This qualitative study used case study methodology and comprised interviews with 24 primary caregivers of young children aged between 1 and 2.5 years. Results and conclusions: Primary caregivers of young children are unaware of food neophobia and food preference development in young children. So what? Raising primary caregivers' awareness of food neophobia and how food preferences develop in young children may encourage caregivers to decrease their children's exposure to non-core foods.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore festivalgoer/camper perceptions of and responses to the non-urban festival service environment (blended festivalscape). Design/methodology/approach – For this exploratory study a quantitative approach was adopted. A self-administered online survey was administered to recipient members of an Australian non-urban festival e-newsletter database resulting in 398 usable responses from festival campers. Findings – Environmental beliefs held by festival campers’ influenced their perceptions of naturescape, socialscape and overall satisfaction. Festival campers’ who attended more than once were found to have stronger pro-environmental beliefs than those who attended once. Festival camper perception of naturescape has a positive moderating influence leading to greater overall satisfaction and the likelihood of repeat attendance and positive word-of-mouth. Research limitations/implications – It is very important to know how festivalgoers perceive and relate to their festival service environment. Critical to the appeal and success of the non-urban festival is the alignment of festivalgoer environmental beliefs to the natural setting in which they are held. Limitations include use of a single case study context. Originality/value – This paper responds to lack of research on non-urban festivals when compared to urban festivals and the surprisingly little interest shown in the central role of natural settings and the camping experience. A closer understanding of the environmental beliefs of campers at non-urban festivals has the potential to provide beneficial outcomes for people, profit and planet.

Increased competition for the international student market has motivated universities to modernize their marketing strategies. Community engagement is an important component of students' international university experience and represents a potential point of competitive advantage. Developing marketing strategies around university–student–community engagement (U–S–CE) requires an understanding of the perspectives of international students, the university and the community. We anchored our study in value co-creation which is a principle of the service dominant logic framework found in the marketing literature. With limited research in the area, a qualitative approach was appropriate. Interviews were undertaken with key university members (n = 4) and community members (n = 5) concurrently with focus groups of international students (n = 22) at a single university. Based on the degree of co-creation by international students in U–S–CE, three groups emerged: consumers, collaborators and co-designers. This stud...

The purpose of this exploratory study was to ratify empirically the relationship between festivalgoers' personal values and their perceptions of the natural and social aspects of the festival environment. Personal values, such as the need to be self-fulfilled or the need for fun and enjoyment, are known to affect decisions about what people do. In the case of this research, we were interested in ascertaining the impact of festivalgoers' personal values and their subsequent evaluation of a non-urban festivals natural (naturescape) and social (socialscape) settings. The quantitative study was set in Australia and presents the results of an exploratory study (n = 50) of the perceptions of Woodford Folk Festival past festivalgoers. Drawing from and adapting existing scales, the results of our online survey found that there is a significant relationship between personal values of festivalgoers and their perceptions of naturescape and socialscape. Thus, the value of our study is that it confirms the int...

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between perceived susceptibility to alcohol retailers' sales promotion strategies and young, female university students' intention to buy alcohol and attitude towards alcohol consumption.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from a convenience sample of three universities in three OECD countries with high alcohol consumption per capita: Australia (n=305), Germany (n=323) and Wales (n=361). A self‐administered survey approach was used to collect data from female university students between the ages of 18 and 24 years in one university in each country. The four alcohol sales promotion strategies of interest were price reductions, quantity specials whereby the more you buy the less you pay on a pro rata basis, bulk purchasing of alcohol, and purchasing from more than one store to take advantage of low prices.FindingsThe study found that except for retailer price reductions, the association between Welsh university students' intentions to buy alcohol and their susceptibility to the remaining retailers' sales promotions was greater than that of university students in Australia and Germany, respectively. Significant differences between the countries were found in terms of the salience of perceived susceptibility to retail sales promotion strategies and their correlation with students' attitude towards alcohol consumption.Originality/valueThe paper's findings provide insights particularly for upstream, legislative strategic interventions to combat the issue of alcohol drinking of young female university students.

PurposeMuch of the success of a relationship marketing program rests on the consumers' choice to participate in a service relationship in the first instance. The purpose of this study is to examine the degree to which this desire of the consumer to engage in a relationship impacts on their perceived cognitive‐state gains (motivation, confidence and affiliation) and key measures of consumer‐to‐business relationship success (relationship strength, satisfaction and retention intentions).Design/methodology/approachFollowing a qualitative study, the main quantitative study used a self‐administered survey of 334 service consumers to understand relationship perceptions. Structural equation modeling was then used to test the hypotheses.FindingsAnalysis revealed that consumers desire to participate in a relationship influenced their level of motivation, degree of confidence and these, in turn, impacted on the consumers' sense of affiliation with the service provider. A consumer's sense of affiliation subsequently influenced the strength of their relationship and their level of satisfaction with the relationship. Additionally, the effect of relationship desire on relationship strength and satisfaction was apparent. Consumers' desire indirectly impacted on retention intentions, suggesting that service managers should be careful not to assume that consumers' deliberate choice to participate in a relationship will routinely result in loyalty.Originality/valuePractitioners and academics have sought to determine why some consumers, and not others, participate in relationships. This study adds to knowledge in this area by empirically demonstrating the extent to which the desire of a consumer to participate in a service relationship effects the gains accrued to the consumer and the relationship outcomes.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to understand the effect of price promotions, venue and place of residence on low‐risk, risky and high‐risk alcohol consumption behaviour of young women between 18 and 24 years of age who attend university in Australia, Wales and Germany.Design/methodology/approachThe quantitative, self‐administered questionnaire collected data from a convenience sample of three universities in three OECD countries with high alcohol consumption being: a regional Australian university (n=305), a city Welsh university (n=354) and a rural German university (n=325).FindingsFirst, the multinomial logistic regression results revealed that price promotions and venue influenced alcohol consumption in Wales alone while place of residence influenced alcohol consumption in Australia; however, price promotions, venue and place of residence had no effect on young women attending university in Germany. Second, the binomial logistic regression results for Wales reported a sensitivity to price promotions for all three alcohol consumption risk classifications; however, location was of little consequence to risky drinkers when compared to high risk drinkers. For Australia, the place of residence did not influence alcohol consumption for both risky and high‐risk drinkers.Originality/valueThe value of this study lies in the examination of three levels of alcohol consumption – low‐risk, risky and high‐risk – for the same cohort across three countries using the same test instrument and standard alcohol consumption metrics. As such, this study provides a more meaningful macro view of alcohol consumption; thus has the capacity to contribute to effectual intervention strategies.

Stemming first year student attrition is the subject of extensive research. The novelty of this study is that it seeks to identify relationship marketing constructs that can significantly differentiate between three types of transfer intentions of first year students—those intending to stay at their current university, those intending to transfer to another university and those who are undecided. Many regional universities in Australia employ relationship marketing tactics in an attempt to avert the loss of first year students. Of interest to this research is the role of relationship benefits, relationship strength and switching barriers as predictors of students transfer intentions. A qualitative study preceded a quantitative main study ( n=334) that was conducted across three regional universities in Australia. Logistic regression revealed that the strength of the relationship formed between students and teaching staff and perceived switching barriers can secure students’ continuance of study at their current university.

This article identifies the major elements of festivalscapes at nonurban festivals and their implications for sustainable site management by event organizers. While research on the need to maintain and reinvigorate the servicescapes of retail precincts (e.g., shopping malls) and hotels is well documented, the same cannot be said of event venues and sites. There is a notable absence of research that explores how nonurban festival sites can maintain their unique natural environment attributes while sustaining consumer interest through incremental changes in the overall festivalscape. Two Australian festivals, Woodford Folk Festival (Woodford, Queensland) and the national Country Music Muster (Gympie, Queensland), are used in this article to illustrate the need for management intervention to create blended festivalscapes that achieve environmental, social, and economic goals—a Triple Bottom Line (TBL) measure of success.

Self-concept is an important yet underresearched aspect of the consumer behavior of the tourist/festivalgoer. Self-concept is explored via on-site focus groups at the Woodford Folk Festival in Queensland, Australia. Findings suggest that "festivalgoers" actively disassociate themselves from the "tourist" tag in reaction to its perception as a less authentic participation and potentially negative impact on social self-image. This qualitative study proposes that based on the findings, further research into self-concept and festivals is justified in terms of its potential to better focus on the provision of marketing messages that more closely align with festivalgoers ideal self-image and ideal social self-image.

PurposeCountry‐of‐origin (COO) effects are concerned with buyers' opinions regarding the relative qualities of goods and services produced in various countries. It is the aim of this study to test a framework for investigating the match/mismatch between consumers' product category and country image perceptions. Specifically, the paper seeks to examine whether consumers perceive all products emanating from a particular country favourably simply because consumers associate favourable attributes with that country or whether this effect is specific to particular product categories.Design/methodology/approachThe study employed a structured survey administered through mall intercepts. Data were collected from a sample of 188 Australian consumers. While Australian consumers were the focal country of study, countries selected for evaluation included Japan, Korea, the USA, Canada, China and New Zealand. The products selected included beer, automobiles, watches, leather shoes and stereos.FindingsThe findings suggest that when a strong favourable match exists between country and product image then COO will positively influence product evaluation and willingness to buy. Conversely, when an unfavourable mismatch is evident COO would negatively influence consumers' product evaluations and willingness to buy.Originality/valueGiven that most products originating in foreign countries are subject to country stereotyping or image effects, it is important for marketers and retailers to understand and manage the potential impact of COO effects. This study tests a framework that can be applied by marketers to determine the effect of product and country matches in relevant domestic or international markets.

PurposeBuilding and maintaining strong customer relationships has been suggested as a means for gaining a competitive advantage. Despite this, few studies have examined the link between written communication and relationship perceptions. Yet understanding the establishment of this link is a necessary precursor for the development of concrete relationship management strategies. This paper aims to test the effectiveness of well‐known and cited written communication elements in enhancing relationship perceptions. The paper specifically seeks to identify which elements of written communication are relationally conducive by examining the impact of these elements on customers' perceptions of the relationship they have with their service provider.Design/methodology/approachThe paper reports the results of an empirical survey of 422 distance education customers in which customers were asked to assess relationally conducive written communication elements and the importance of these elements on relationship development.FindingsIt was found that four components of written communication – message clarity, aesthetics, accuracy and physical features – were perceived by customers as relational cues that influence their relationship with the service organisation.Originality/valueThese findings are of value to service managers developing written communication that is conducive to relationship development. The contribution of the paper is that it empirically establishes a link between written communication and service relationships; an untested link that has been presumed in the literature. This basic empirical foundation is a necessary first step in the development of this research area.

Like other Western countries, Australia too reports record numbers of overweight and obese individuals with young Australian adults in a particularly high-risk position. It is suspected that the transition from dependent living in the family home to independent living during young adulthood influences food choice. As such, this study sought to investigate if attitudes toward healthy eating varied by the place of residence (dependent or independent) of these young adults. Using a self-administered questionnaire, quantitative data from 310 Australians between the ages of 18 to 24 years found that young adults who lived independently displayed a significantly more positive attitude toward healthy eating than those who remained in the family home. Furthermore, we found that a significant, positive relationship between attitude toward healthy eating and the number of recommended serves consumed in both independent and dependent living arrangements. Being an unexplored area, these findings are novel and provide valuable insights for the implementation of an inducement process for planned social change as well as informing the education and motivation elements of intervention strategies.

PurposeUnderstanding the drivers of young adults' healthy food choices is vital to addressing the public health issue of obesity. The healthy eating motives that underlay such consumer choice behavior are particularly important to the well‐being of society. This research is novel in that it aims to investigate the food motives of young Australian adults in relation to five socio‐demographic factors, namely place of residence, gender, age, gross income and work hours. While overseas studies have examined some of these factors, the Australian context and its nuances is one that is notably absent. Thus, this research aims to provide meaningful contributions to the extant literature from an Australian perspective.Design/methodology/approachFor this study of 18 to 24‐year‐old Australians, quantitative data from a total of 310 respondents (93.7 percent response rate) were collected using quota sampling.FindingsThe paper finds that gender and work hours significantly influenced food motives; however, place of residence, age and gross income while successful with young adults in other countries, did not influence healthy food choices in Australia.Research limitations/implicationsWhile the findings corroborate some aspects of overseas studies, they contradict others and also add new information. Collectively, they contribute useful insights for social marketing intervention strategies concerned with influencing food choice among young Australian consumers.Originality/valueThis study indicates that intervention campaigns that are based upon residence, age and gross income in relation to healthy eating, while possibly successful with young adults in other countries, are likely to be ineffective in Australia.

PurposeRisky and high‐risk alcohol consumption is prevalent amongst young females and university students. Relatively little research in Australia has focused on these groups. This study aims to use social marketing and consumer behavior principles to examine the attitudinal, normative and demographic factors which influence alcohol consumption amongst 18‐24‐year‐old, female university students.Design/methodology/approachA total of 230 female students in this age group were surveyed utilizing a personally administered, self‐report questionnaire. These participants were categorized as either low risk alcohol consumers (n=122) or high‐risk alcohol consumers (n=108).FindingsThe findings from this research indicate that a mixture of attitudinal, normative and demographic factors influence alcohol consumption amongst young, female university students.Originality/valueThis study aids in the development of targeted interventions to mitigate risky and high‐risk alcohol consumption amongst this cohort.

This research used consumer behavior and social marketing principles to examine alcohol consumption among young female university students in Australia. Due to the high prevalence of risky alcohol consumption among this cohort, this study sought to examine the factors that influence the behavior of these individuals (Dowdall and Wechsler 2002; Shim and Maggs 2005). To date, this area of research has remained relatively unexplored. This article reports on the behavior of consumers in this cohort with a particular focus on reference group influence, in an attempt to make a contribution to future social marketing campaigns aimed at changing high risk behavior in the context of alcohol. The article also provides some insights into the possible components of a successful social marketing intervention program.