scholarly journals “Is it all just lip service?”: on Instagram and the normalisation of the cosmetic servicescape

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria Rodner ◽  
Amy Goode ◽  
Zara Burns
Keyword(s):  
Cosmetic Surgery ◽  
Service Industry ◽  
The Body ◽  
Visual Storytelling ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Emotional Labour ◽  
Mediated Discourse ◽  
Body Dysmorphia ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Depth Interviews

Purpose To better understand the uptake of cosmetic procedures in the wake of Instagram, this study aims to unravel how the aesthetic labour of influencers acts as the packaging of the cosmetic servicescape. In doing so, the authors contribute to theorising of aesthetic and emotional labour within the services marketing literature, fleshing out the bodywork of influential others not as employees but endorsers, who act like the “walking billboards” (Zeithaml and Bitner, 2003) for the cosmetic service industry. Design/methodology/approach This study adopts a dual qualitative approach to data collection, coupling netnographic material from Instagram posts with 16 in-depth interviews with female Instagram users who have undergone or hope to undergo cosmetic surgery. Using mediated discourse analysis, the authors weave their visual and discursive data together for a richer account of the commoditisation of cosmetic surgery. Findings Adopting a postfeminist neoliberal lens, where women are viewed as aesthetic entrepreneurs who are constantly working on the body and the self, the findings of the study reveal how influencers’ aesthetic and emotional labour help package, propagate and demystify the cosmetic servicescape. Through their visual storytelling, we see how influencers help endorse (local) cosmetic services; commoditise cosmetic procedures through the conspicuous display of their ongoing body projects whilst masking the labour and pain involved; and how face-filters that use augmented reality (AR) technology foster new forms of (digitised) body dysmorphia. Originality/value The authors shed light on the darker side of social media and body-enhancing technologies, where tales of body transformation trivialise cosmetic intervention and AR technology induces a digitised body dysmorphia.

Is emotional labour a positive experience for teachers? A qualitative study

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shiji Lyndon ◽  
Preeti S. Rawat ◽  
Darshana Pawar
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Regulation ◽  
Service Industry ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Emotional Labour ◽  
Higher Educational ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Practical Implications

PurposeEmotional labour is an important area of research in organizational psychology especially in the context of service industry. Past research in this area has primarily focused on the negative consequences of emotional labour. The present study is carried out to explore whether professors working in higher educational institutes experience emotional labour and how does it impact them.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopted a qualitative approach. Twenty in-depth interviews were conducted.FindingsThree broad themes emerged from the study: (1) work environment leading to emotional labour (2) factors facilitating emotional regulation and (3) consequences of emotional labour. The findings revealed that the consequences of emotional labour are context specific and in the context of educational setting, it has interesting positive outcomes.Practical implicationsThe findings of the study provide critical insights regarding how to deal with employees who experience emotional labour at work.Originality/valueThe study adopts an inductive approach to explore the experiences of emotional labour of professors in higher educational institutes.

A picture is worth a thousand words! How visual storytelling transforms the aesthetic experience of novel designs

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (7) ◽  
pp. 913-926 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christin Seifert ◽  
Veena Chattaraman
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Visual Design ◽  
Cognitive Responses ◽  
Holistic Model ◽  
Significant Interaction Effect ◽  
Visual Storytelling ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Holistic Understanding ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Aesthetic Judgments

Purpose This study aims to provide a holistic understanding of how visual storytelling influences the objective and subjective cognitive responses of consumers, namely objective aesthetic impression and subjective aesthetic association, and aesthetic judgments in response to differing levels of novelty in design innovations. Design/methodology/approach A mixed-factorial experimental study manipulating the novelty of chair designs (moderate/high) and visual design stories (present/absent) was conducted among 263 female US consumers to test the proposed research model. Findings With respect to the main effects of novelty and visual design stories, consumers had more positive cognitive responses and aesthetic judgments to: product designs with moderate (vs high) novelty; and products with visual design stories than without. A significant interaction effect uncovered that visual design stories particularly aided products with high (vs moderate) design novelty with respect to objective aesthetic impressions. Examination of the structural relationships between the variables revealed that subjective aesthetic associations mediate the relationship between objective aesthetic impressions and aesthetic judgments. Practical implications To mitigate risk in radical design innovations, marketers should use visual storytelling to communicate product form associations and enable consumers to successfully decode the meaning of novel designs during initial encounters. Originality/value By examining a holistic model involving both perceptual and conceptual product concepts, this study fills a critical research void to develop insightful implications on bridging the gap between novel product designs and consumer understanding.

The creative minds of extraordinary pastry chefs: an integrated theory of aesthetic expressions – a portraiture study

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (9) ◽  
pp. 3015-3034
Author(s):  
Kai-Sean Lee ◽  
Denise Blum ◽  
Li Miao ◽  
Stacy R. Tomas
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Qualitative Methodology ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Wassily Kandinsky ◽  
Integrated Theory ◽  
Theoretical View ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Material Artifacts ◽  
Depth Interviews

Purpose This paper aims to demystify the creative experiences of an extraordinary group of pastry chefs – The Malaysian World Pastry Team, champions of the 2019 World Pastry Cup. The authors adopted an expressionist theoretical lens informed by two aesthetic philosophers – John Dewey and Wassily Kandinsky. Design/methodology/approach A two-year portraiture was conducted – a qualitative methodology that draws features from phenomenology and narrative inquiry, rendering artistically and empirically written “portraits” that reflect themes and patterns of participants’ experiences. In-depth interviews, observations and material artifacts were collected amid a journey alongside nine extraordinary Malaysian pastry chefs. Findings Presented in story structures, the authors offer three “portraits” of culinary creativity, each representing a core essence of the creative phenomenon: creative harmony in the form of sensorial and symbolic poetry; imaginative episodes as a hypnotic state of inspiration and incubation; and the creative duality of scientific rationalism and artistic fashion. The authors delineated the intricacies of each theme by presenting them as individual narratives. Research limitations/implications The portraits indicated that culinary creativity reflects an organic and emancipating aesthetic experience that is unbounded by formative structures or sequential processes. This provides a novel theoretical view that moves beyond conventional studies’ capitalistic frameworks, and toward the intimate viewpoints of the chef-creators. Specific contributions are discussed. Originality/value Through a unique qualitative approach and an aesthetic theoretical framework, this study provided a novel perspective on the culinary creative process. The aesthetic view captures culinary creativity through the eyes of the creator, a viewpoint less considered, yet imperative to the culinary profession.

scholarly journals The role of social media in managing supplier attractiveness

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (5) ◽  
pp. 625-646 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zsófia Tóth ◽  
Martin Liu ◽  
Jun Luo ◽  
Christos Braziotis
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
The Body ◽  
Strategic Decision ◽  
Senior Managers ◽  
Supplier Relationships ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Specific Investments ◽  
Depth Interviews

Purpose Managing attractiveness is a constant challenge to mobilize relationship-specific investments, especially in a business environment increasingly enhanced by social media (SM) activities. There is limited knowledge on how SM activities contribute to supplier attractiveness, so decisions about strategizing with SM and consequent resource allocations become highly uncertain. The purpose of this paper is to examine how suppliers’ SM activities influence supplier attractiveness. Design/methodology/approach Altogether, 57 senior managers were interviewed: 32 semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with senior managers in strategic decision-making roles regarding SM on the supplier side, along with 20 senior managers responsible for purchasing or looking after supplier development; one-to-one interviews were complemented by a focus group with 5 senior managers on the buyer side. Findings The study reveals an inverse U-shaped relationship between the intensity of the supplier’s SM activity and its attractiveness and offers a set of propositions about the influence of SM on supplier attractiveness, with special regard to the perceived risks of increased transparency and becoming “too social” on SM. Practical implications The study highlights SM management results for supplier attractiveness and their impact areas on business growth and supply chain development. Originality/value This paper provides in-depth insights into the role of SM in managing supplier attractiveness. Various effects of SM activities are identified that aim to contribute to the body of literature on supplier attractiveness as well as SM management in buyer–supplier relationships.

Negotiating Gender: Bodybuilding and the Natural/Unnatural Continuum

2001 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 162-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer K. Wesely
Keyword(s):  
Gender Identity ◽  
Cosmetic Surgery ◽  
Identity Negotiation ◽  
Hard Work ◽  
The Body ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Work In Progress ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Body Technologies

Bodybuilding is a body technology that involves the building of muscle through hard work lifting weights. Although technologies like bodybuilding can reify dominant constructions of gender. I suggest that bodybuilding also reflects the attempts of participants to be active agents in the choices they make about their bodies. This article addresses the body as a work in progress and uses in-depth interviews with male and female bodybuilders to examine the ways that gender identity is consistently negotiated as participants reshape their bodies. This ongoing identity negotiation is reflected in the ways participants assess various body technologies, like bodybuilding, muscle-enhancing drugs, and cosmetic surgery as natural or unnatural. Based on the responses, I explore the idea of a natural/unnatural continuum as a framework for understanding the ways that the participants fluctuate in their assessments of hugely built and other technologized bodies.

scholarly journals Road towards Lean Six Sigma in service industry: a multi-factor integrated framework

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 812-834 ◽  
Author(s):  
Loukas K Tsironis ◽  
Alexandros G. Psychogios
Keyword(s):  
Six Sigma ◽  
Success Factors ◽  
Service Industry ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Great Majority ◽  
Lean Six Sigma ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Depth Interviews

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to adopt a multiple case-study approach, of three companies, in order to identify the factors affecting Lean Six Sigma (L6σ) implementation in service industry. Design/methodology/approach – Secondary data were collected through companies’ documents, written procedures and quality assurance policies. Primary data were collected through a number of in-depth interviews with managers and quality experts. Findings – The analysis of qualitative data gathered through in-depth interviews with managers in all three cases resulted in the emergence of variety of critical success factors (CSFs) regarding L6σ implementation in service industry. As it can be seen the great majority of the factors have been identified in all three cases. Moreover the analysis shows that there are two categories of factors emerged. Originality/value – This study has four major contributions. First, it provides an intergraded multi-factor framework regarding the implementation of L6σ in service industry. In particular, this study contributes with three more particular factors that influence the implementation of L6σ in services, namely, top-management active involvement, HR support activities, and practices and systems. Second, it focusses on the responses of managers, who play the critical role in the adoption of L6σ. Third, supports and expands current literature on the key success factors of L6σ application. Finally, it provides future ideas to explore and develop more the suggested L6σ framework.

Innovation strategies and performance: are they truly linked?

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haim Hilman ◽  
Narentheren Kaliappen
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Performance ◽  
Service Industry ◽  
Hotel Industry ◽  
Service Innovation ◽  
Process Innovation ◽  
The Body ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Innovation Strategies ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Hotel Managers

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to test the linkage between innovation strategies (process innovation and service innovation) and organizational performance in the context of Malaysia hotel industry. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 475 sets of questionnaires administrated through mail to all three star and above rating hotel managers in Malaysia, and only 24 percent of it, which is 114 were usable. Regression was utilized to test the link of innovation strategies and performance. Findings – The results showed that hotels in Malaysia used process innovation and service innovation as their functional-level strategy. Specifically, both process innovation and service innovation strategies positively linked with performance. But, the paired sample t-test result indicated that process innovation has slightly greater effect on performance than service innovation. In addition, this study found that hotel size significantly affected the performance. Research limitations/implications – This study is one of the limited number of studies which has empirically addressed the effect of innovation strategies on performance in hotel industry. Additional researches are needed to address effect of potential mediators or even moderators in innovation strategies and performance linkage. Practical implications – This study found that implementation of process innovation and service innovation as their functional strategy could assist to attain better performance in Malaysia hotel industry. Entirely the findings provided new insight to the hotel management in understanding the role of innovation strategies in generating enhanced performance. Originality/value – Process innovation and service innovation in the service industry have received very limited empirical attention in current innovation literature. This study extended the body of knowledge in innovation literature, particularly in hospitality sector in Malaysia.

Morphological Freedom and Medicine: Constructing the Posthuman Body

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luna Dolezal
Keyword(s):  
Common Sense ◽  
Cosmetic Surgery ◽  
The Body ◽  
Popular Imagination ◽  
Gender Reassignment ◽  
Common Parlance ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Body Practices ◽  
Health Function ◽  
At Will

The notion that the body can be changed at will in order to meet the desires and designs of its ‘owner’ is one that has captured the popular imagination and underpins contemporary medical practices such as cosmetic surgery and gender reassignment. In fact, describing the body as ‘malleable’ or ‘plastic’ has entered common parlance and dictates common-sense ideas of how we understand the human body in late-capitalist consumer societies in the wake of commercial biotechnologies that work to modify the body aesthetically and otherwise. If we are not satisfied with some aspect of our physicality – in terms of health, function or aesthetics – we can engage with a whole variety of self-care body practices – fashion, diet, exercise, cosmetics, medicine, surgery, laser – in order to ‘correct’, reshape or restyle the body. In addition, as technology has advanced and elective cosmetic surgery has unapologetically entered the mainstream, the notion of the malleable body has become intrinsically linked to the practices and discourses of biomedicine and, furthermore, has become a significant means to assert and affirm identity.

scholarly journals User-driven efforts in creating knowledge graph information system

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-111
Author(s):  
Stanislava Gardasevic
Keyword(s):  
Information System ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Information Needs ◽  
Resource Discovery ◽  
The Body ◽  
Knowledge Graph ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Study Objective ◽  
Content Type

Purpose This paper presents the results of a qualitative study that involved students of an interdisciplinary PhD program. The study objective was to gather requirements to create a knowledge graph information system. The purpose of this study was to determine information-seeking practices and information needs of this community, to inform the functionalities of a proposed system, intended to help students with relevant resource discovery and decision-making. Design/methodology/approach The study design included semi-structured interviews with eight members of the community, followed by a website usability study with the same student participants. Findings Two main information-seeking styles are recognized and reported through user personas of international and domestic (USA) students. The findings show that the useful information resides within the community and not so much on the program website. Students rely on peer communication, although they report lack of opportunities to connect. Students’ information needs and information seeking are dependent on their progress through the program, as well as their motivation and the projected timeline. Practical implications Considering the current information needs and practices, a knowledge graph hosting both information on social networks and the knowledge produced by the activities of the community members would be useful. By recording data on their activities (for example, collaboration with professors and coursework), students would reveal further useful system functionalities and facilitate transfer of tacit knowledge. Originality/value Aside from the practical value of this research that is directly influencing the design of a system, it contributes to the body of knowledge on interdisciplinary PhD programs.

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