Prestige Benefits Research Articles

The damages of stigma, the benefits of prestige: Examining the consequences of perceived residential reputations on neighbourhood attachment

This study examines how perceived residential reputations – that is, how people think non-residents assess the reputation of their neighbourhood – affect neighbourhood attachment, including residents’ sense of belonging, local civic membership, social relationships and compliance with social rules and norms in the neighbourhood. We focus on Santiago, the capital city of Chile: a highly segregated context. We use data from the Chilean Longitudinal Social Survey (ELSOC, 2016–2019) and information on neighbourhood characteristics. Results show that perceived residential reputations affect neighbourhood attachment, even after adjusting for time-invariant individual heterogeneity and lagged dependent variables. Specifically, perceived stigma reduces residents’ neighbourhood identification, physical rootedness, trust and sociability with neighbours, while positive perceived reputations improve these components of neighbourhood attachment, although to a lesser extent. However, perceived residential reputations do not affect the formation of strong ties between neighbours or local participation, suggesting that residential reputations mainly influence affective components of neighbourhood attachment. We conclude that perceived residential reputations reinforce the influence of individual characteristics and objective neighbourhood conditions in producing diverging patterns of neighbourhood attachment, with broader implications for social inequality in the city.

Personal prestige through travel? Developing and testing the personal prestige inventory in a tourism context

PurposeLeisure travel has long been seen as a means of conspicuous consumption in pursuance of personal prestige; yet, there is no empirical evidence that travel affects personal prestige of tourists. The aims of this study are to develop a scale measuring personal prestige and to experimentally test prestige evaluations based on amount of leisure information, tourism participation and different types of leisure.Design/methodology/approachIn an experimental online survey, 477 respondents were presented with a manipulated social media profile and asked to evaluate personal prestige of the person on the profile.FindingsResults present evidence that representation of travel experience has a positive effect on personal prestige evaluations of tourists. The authors found significant differences in personal prestige depending on experimental variations.Originality/valueThis study advances methodological approaches towards the study of tourists’ prestige by providing a reliable, multidimensional measurement scale for personal prestige. The findings yielded by subsequent application of the scale in an experimental setting provide empirical evidence that sharing travel experiences has measurable and experimentally testable personal prestige benefits for tourists.

The use of food quality and prestige-based benefits for consumer segmentation

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify consumer segments based on the importance of food quality and prestige benefits when buying food for a special occasion; dinner party with friends.Design/methodology/approachUsing cluster analysis, the importance of food quality benefits (quality, taste and health) and prestige benefits (prestige quality, hedonic, uniqueness, price and social) were investigated. The consumer segments were profiled using individual consumer characteristics (involvement in luxury, willingness to pay and socio-demographics).FindingsFood quality benefits are the most important benefits when buying food for a party with friends and the authors identified four distinct consumer segments based on 20 different food quality and prestige benefits: perfectionists, premium, luxury seeking and value focussed. Three of the four consumer segments (perfectionists, premium and luxury seeking) find conventional food quality benefits important but differ in the importance they attribute to the different prestige benefits. The value focussed segment is not driven by prestige consumption but wants high quality at an affordable price.Research limitations/implicationsThis study demonstrates that consumers are driven by different food and prestige benefits when buying food for a special occasion.Originality/valueThis study suggest some important differences between premium consumers, looking for food quality and hedonic benefits, and luxury seeking, with a relatively higher focus on prestige quality, uniqueness and social benefits. This study also identifies a significant distinction between perfectionists and value focussed consumers. Both segments are focussed on food quality benefits but differ in their focus on value and prestige benefits.

Was it worth it? A qualitative exploration into graduate perceptions of doctoral value

ABSTRACTThe recruitment of doctoral graduates yields collective knowledge, skills, networking, and prestige benefits to organisations, and to UK industries. As individuals though, do graduates experience overall benefit from their doctorate, and how do they perceive the value that engaging with doctoral study confers? This interview study used a critical, interpretive lens to examine perceptions of value across experiences of doctoral education and asked specifically about the utility of doctoral skills, behaviours, and competencies when translated into different workplaces. It presents some of the first insights into how doctoral value is perceived by graduates and the costs and benefits of doctoral study within and beyond the academy. Doctoral graduates (n = 22) identified four domains of doctoral value: (1) career value; (2) skills value; (3) social value; (4) personal value. These were influenced by factors experienced both during and after their degrees: (1) time since graduation; (2) supervision; (3) accrued social connectivity; (4) employer value of the doctorate. Our conceptual model of doctoral value contributes to international higher education knowledge by providing a structure for enhancing the doctoral experience and its benefits, both during study and for entering the job market.