Entertainment is increasingly an integral part of the marketing strategy used by shopping centres to entice consumers. Further, entertainment can be a means of image differentiation for shopping centres, given that the image of a competitive retail institution is a critical determinant in consumer patronage decisions. However few studies have examined the contribution of entertainment to shopping centre image. Moreover, using entertainment as a means of identifying distinct market segments has not been explored. Hence, the purpose of this study was twofold. First, a model of attributes that represented the shopping centre image was identified. Three essential attributes that have been neglected in most shopping centre studies were revealed, namely entertainment, food and security. Second, six market segments of shopping centre patrons were identified and labelled the 'serious' shopper, the 'entertainment' shopper, the 'demanding' shopper, the 'convenience' shopper, the 'apathetic' shopper and the 'service' shopper. In particular, the 'entertainment' shopper and the 'service'shopper are identified as entertainment-seeking segments. Managerial implications of the findings and future research directions are addressed.

Today's more "mindful" consumers' food consumption decisions are changing as they attempt to balance egoistic and altruistic motivations. This study explores the relative importance of these types of motivations in influencing Australian consumers' attitudes towards, and purchase frequency of, local food. Factors examined include ethical selfidentity, environmental consciousness, health consciousness and food safety. Results indicate egoistic motivations may influence local food consumption decisions more strongly than altruistic motivations. Recommendations for producers and retailers of local food in appealing to more "mindful" consumers suggest more focused marketing and communication strategies, clearer branding and labelling of produce, and training of service staff.

Rapid advances in educational and information communications technology (ICT) have encouraged some educators to move beyond traditional face to face and distance education correspondence modes toward a rich, technology mediated e-learning environment. Ready access to multimedia at the desktop has provided the opportunity for educators to develop flexible, engaging and interactive learning resources incorporating multimedia and hypermedia. However, despite this opportunity, the adoption and integration of educational technologies by academics across the tertiary sector has typically been slow. This paper presents the findings of a qualitative study that investigated factors influencing the manner in which academics adopt and integrate educational technology and ICT. The research was conducted at a regional Australian university, the University of Southern Queensland (USQ), and focused on the development of e-learning environments. These e-learning environments include a range of multimodal learning objects and multiple representations of content that seek to cater for different learning styles and modal preferences, increase interaction, improve learning outcomes, provide a more inclusive and equitable curriculum and more closely mirror the on campus learning experience. This focus of this paper is primarily on the barriers or inhibitors academics reported in the study, including institutional barriers, individual inhibitors and pedagogical concerns. Strategies for addressing these obstacles are presented and implications and recommendations for educational institutions are discussed.

Purpose -This paper explores the drivers and barriers to seafood consumption in Australia and investigates attitudes toward pre-packaged fresh chilled seafood products.Design/methodology -A two-stage study of seafood consumption in Australia was conducted comprising ten focus groups across six states (n=60) and a national online consumer survey (n=1815).Findings -The main drivers for seafood consumption in Australia are health, taste, convenience, and a desire for diet variety. The main barriers to seafood consumption are price, concerns regarding origin, concerns about freshness, difficulty in evaluating seafood quality, and not liking the taste or texture of fish. The main appeals of pre-packaged fresh chilled seafood products are convenience and ease of preparation, while barriers include price and concerns about origin and freshness.Research limitations/implications -The survey focussed on the main or joint grocery buyers in households and thus may not be representative of the entire Australian population. Practical implications -The findings provide important insights for the Australian seafood industry indeveloping and delivering seafood offerings that will appeal to Australian consumers and thus stimulate seafood consumption. This knowledge will also assist the Australian Government and health educators to more effectively campaign to encourage increased seafood consumption.Originality/value -While research on antecedents to seafood consumption in Europe has been extensive, research into the drivers and barriers to seafood consumption in western countries such as Australia and strategies for increasing seafood consumption is less evident.Keywords Consumers, Seafood consumption, Seafood, Drivers, Barriers Paper type Research PaperAn executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of the article. IntroductionSeafood is widely accepted to be an important part of a balanced and healthy diet (Trondsen, et al., 2003). Seafood consumption is related to significant health benefits including lower instances of cardiovascular disease (Sidhu, 2003;Verbeke and Vackier, 2005). While annual per capita seafood consumption in Australia is increasing, at approximately 25 kg per year, it remains well below the recommended levels of two serves per week and average consumption for other Asian and European countries, such as Korea (54 kg), Netherlands (52 kg), Spain (41 kg) and France (35 kg) (FAO, 2007). There has been a substantial amount of research concerning consumers' motives and barriers to seafood consumption in European countries; however, there is a lack of research about seafood consumption in western countries such as Australia. Recent concerns about the lack of seafood in the diet of consumers in western countries and the negative consequences for both physical and mental well-being have placed a greater urgency on the need to understand reasons for low seafood consumption. A 2010 London meeting of The Royal Society of Medicine involving the world's foremost authorities in neu...

Most consumers have positive attitudes toward seafood and consider it to be an important part of a healthy and balanced diet. However when purchasing seafood, consumers also weigh up various risks which may act as barriers to consumption. In this paper, the findings of an online survey of Australian consumers (n=899) which explored both drivers and barriers to seafood consumption are discussed. The primary focus of this paper is to explore the perceived risks of seafood consumption and how these vary across consumption levels. Perceived risks associated with seafood consumption include functional, social, physical, psychological, and financial risk. With the exceptions of physical and financial risk, perceptions of risk varied across regular, light and very light seafood consumption segments. Lighter fish consumers were more likely to perceive functional risk associated with being less informed and less familiar with fish, experience more difficulties with selecting fish, recognising if fish is fresh, and preparing and serving fish than more regular fish consumers. Regular seafood consumers were less likely than lighter seafood consumers to perceive social risk arising from other members of their household not liking fish. Moreover, regular seafood consumers were less likely to perceive psychological risks associated with unpleasant past experiences or unpleasant sensory qualities, such as not liking the smell of fish and not liking to touch fish. Based on these results strategies for reducing perceived risks as a means of stimulating fish consumption are proposed for further investigation.

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The study was conducted as an online survey among 521 Australian consumers. Binary logistic regression modeling was used to profile the consumers. Findings: Identifies education, familiarity, food neophobia, symbolic value of food consumption, health consciousness, as well as snacking behaviour as significant predictors of likelihood to eat seaweed products. Consumers with a university degree (i.e., undergraduates and postgraduates) are four-times more likely to eat seaweed products, and those familiar with seaweed products have a 7.6 higher likelihood to eat seaweed products. Food neophobia (FNeo) makes the largest contribution to the consumer´s likelihood to eat seaweed. A oneunit increase in the FNeo score is associated with a 77% decrease in the predicted odds of eating seaweed products in the next 12 months. The symbolic value of food consumption and health consciousness both doubled the likelihood of eating seaweed products. Snacking behaviour increases the likelihood by 185%. The study reveals that early adopters of seaweed food products in Western societies are people with higher educational levels, who are adventurous in their food choices and perceive seaweed consumption to have symbolic value. They are also health conscious "snackers". Originality/value: One of the first attempts to provide insights about consumption of seaweed products and it reveals the consumer groups in Western societies that are most likely to eat seaweed products and who can be targeted as potential early adopters.

Online discussion boards are being used increasingly by tertiary educators as a tool for encouraging greater student interaction and developing learning communities. In particular, educators who have adopted a learner centered, socio-constructivist approach to teaching have sought to facilitate collaborative learning in which students reflect upon and share their experiences and perspectives, and construct knowledge together through developing shared meanings. This paper presents the findings of an electronic survey of the perceptions of 70 distance education EFL and ESL students concerning a compulsory assessment item involving contribution to an online course discussion board. The study revealed that the majority of the students enjoyed the assessment item and agreed that posting to the online course discussion board had allowed them to achieve a range of cognitive and social learning outcomes, as well as to develop some important graduate skills. In particular, ESL students reported the benefits of posting to the discussion board in terms of sharing their experiences with others and reducing the feeling of isolation. Further, when considering social outcomes, ESL students perceive the discussion board provided them with an opportunity to meet and develop a closer relationship with other students in the course and encouraged them to keep up with their studies.