Wine Tourists’ Destination Region Brand Image Perception and Antecedents: Conceptualization of a Winescape Framework

This study conceptualizes the winescape framework using a wine region's image as perceived by wine tourists, in the process integrating grounded theory, namely servicescape, destination choice, and place-based marketing theories. Using an a priori approach, it identifies the winescape construct in a framework of eight dimensions within the wine tourism environment in a study with 996 respondents in a well-known Canadian wine region. The most important dimension of the winescape is the region's natural beauty/setting (landscape). Other high impact characteristics are the service staff and friendly local people, overall ambience and the diversity of wine estates. The dynamic of first-time and repeat visitation plays a key role in visitors’ wine tourism behavior and their perception of the winescape. The decision to engage in wine tourism is generally impulsive, even spurious, and the motivations guiding the visitors’ behavior predominantly hedonic in nature.     

What European Union in the “Age of Uncertainty”? Weathering the Geopolitical Storms in a World of Perpetual Crises

Intereconomics - A world of risks and uncertainties can also be a world of opportunities. How and how quickly the EU adapts to the socio-political, economic, energy and climate transitions at hand,...     

Productivity and Wage Effects of Firm-Level Collective Agreements: Evidence from Belgian Linked Panel Data

How do firm-level collective agreements affect firm performance in a multi-level bargaining system? Using detailed Belgian-linked employer–employee panel data, our findings show that firm-level agreements increase both wage costs and labour productivity (with respect to sector-level agreements). Relying on approaches developed by Bartolucci and Hellerstein et al., they also indicate that firm-level agreements exert a stronger impact on wages than on productivity, so that profitability is hampered. However, this rent-sharing effect mostly holds in sectors where firms are more concentrated or less exposed to international competition. Firm agreements are thus mainly found to raise wages beyond labour productivity when the rents to be shared between workers and firms are relatively big. Overall, this suggests that firm-level agreements benefit both employers and employees — through higher productivity and wages — without being very detrimental to firms’ performance.     

Examining emotions linked to live chat services: The role of e-service quality and impact on word of mouth

The purpose of this article is twofold: (1) to investigate the emotions experienced by banking customers when using live chat services and their impact on positive word-of-mouth intentions; and, (2) to identify which dimensions of e-service quality (accessibility, customer service and support, perceived security/privacy and design) impact these emotions. A survey was conducted with 682 members of a Web-based panel. Findings demonstrate that emotions, both positive and negative, significantly impact word of mouth. Results further reveal that customer service and support followed by design of live chat services mostly influence consumer emotions. On a practical level, the recommendations provided will improve consumer experience and encourage consumers to use live chat services. This is all the more important since such services are now part of the promotion and contribution of a sustainable mode of consumption that is accessible to all.