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Following Bitner's well-known "servicescape" model, the propensity of physical surroundings to facilitate organisational as well as marketing goals is now well researched. Their importance is, in general, more important in service settings because of the unique characteristics of services, particularly their intangibility and perishability, the inseparability of production and consumption, and heterogeneity in delivery quality. E-businesses, whether offering products or services, ultimately share many service characteristics. For example, the benefits consumed are often not solely in the products purchased, which could have been purchased elsewhere, but rather in the intangible benefits of interaction with the website, i.e. saved time, convenience, and a reduced risk of dissatisfaction with an enhanced availability of information. This paper adapts Bitner's model to encounters in "cyberspace", where the key characteristics of the service "product" are still present, with the result that, just as in the physical setting, stimuli may be planned and designed to engender approach behaviour. In so doing, it borrows from the motivational psychology construct of "flow", a metaphor for optimal experiences.

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Purpose -The present study aims to examine girls' perception of gender roles and gender identities in Hong Kong.Design/methodology/approach -A total of 16 girls aged 10 to 12 were asked to take pictures from the media that could illustrate ''what girls or women should or should not be; and what girls or women should or should not do''. Qualitative interviews were conducted.Findings -Analysis of interviews and images captured found that tween girls' perceived gender roles for females were based on a mixture of traditional and contemporary role models. Girls in Hong Kong demonstrated conservatism in sexuality. Sexy outlook and pre-marital sexual relations were considered inappropriate. Tween girls showed concern about global as well as domestic social agendas. They used a variety of media and showed interest in contents primarily for adults.Research limitations/implications -The study was based on a convenience sample. The interviewees came from middle to lower income families, limiting the validity for generalization. Further quantitative study is needed to establish benchmarks.Practical implications -This study will help in understanding the kinds of media images that attract the attention of female tweens and what those images mean to them. The study can serve as a guideline for marketing communication aimed at this target group, particularly for skincare, beauty, and cosmetic marketers.Originality/value -The first novel idea that is being used in this research is the combination of visual method and the application of qualitative methodology to the study of media effects. The second novel idea is the use of interviewees as data-collectors. The methodology enables contextually relevant questions and to understand the meaning of the images captured.

Introduces the business community to the new science of memes. The roots of the meme concept from Richard Dawkins’ original work in the area of biology to the social (business) world are outlined, and the value of its study (memetics) proposed. One claim from memetics is that it can help provide an understanding of the human mind. This claim is explored within the context of advertising and management theory. The conclusion from this project to operationalise the meme concept for a business audience is, however, mixed. Whilst memetics has an intuitive appeal to it, much more is still needed before mankind’s mind may be understood, “filled” and manipulated at the discretion of advertisers and management thinkers using a memetic understanding.