A study of evacuation efficiency of a hopper-shape exit by using mice under high competition

Exit is the bottleneck of an evacuation from a room and the flow rate through an exit is believed to be depended on its width. A series of experiments were conducted in a bi-dimensional container where mice were driven to pass through two kinds of exit of the identical width, i.e., a conventional exit and a hopper-shape exit. The evacuation efficiency of the two exits was experimentally compared by using mice under competition. The results showed that a hopper-shape exit reduces the escape time by 25% compared with a conventional exit. Further study was conducted with the presence of a column in front of the two exits. The presence of a column in front of the conventional exit increases the escape time by 22.5%. On the contrary, the placement of column in front of the hopper-shape exit reduces the escape time by 48%. The study showed that the escape efficiency could be greatly improved by appropriately redesigning configuration of exit.

Perceived experience value, satisfaction and behavioural intentions

Purpose Globally, guesthouses provide an important source of accommodation to visitors and tourists. Surprisingly, research into this sector is rather sparse. The purpose of this paper is to examine the dimensions of experience value, determine guests’ perceptions of experience value, analyse the influences of various profile variables on experience value, and investigate the relationship between experience value, satisfaction, and customer behavioural intentions regarding guesthouses in Ghana. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative research design was followed. A total of 541 useable questionnaires were received from 650 guests conveniently selected from 51 guesthouses in Ghana. The guesthouses were selected by means of stratified random sampling. Findings The results of the study reveal that atmospherics, enjoyment, entertainment, escape, efficiency, excellence and economic value measure guests’ perceptions of experience value. Atmospherics and economic value attracted the highest positive rating while escape had the most negative rating. In addition, the study showed that there is a strong positive relationship between experience value, satisfaction and behavioural intention. Research limitations/implications The first limitation relates to the sample. Only the major city from each of four regions was selected for the study. These regions include Accra, Koforidua, Cape Coast and Kumasi. Future research should investigate perceived value provided by guesthouses in the remaining six regions of the country in the quest to generalise the findings. Lastly, the study derived the experience value dimensions from the literature and verified these. While this is not regarded as a limitation, future research could investigate further dimensions of experience value such as novelty, nostalgia and social interaction. Practical implications Guesthouse managers could use the outcome of this study as a form of differentiation. Second, managers should take note of the positive relationships between experience value, satisfaction and respondents’ intentions to return to the guesthouse and tell others about their experiences (behavioural intentions). This can strengthen the organisation’s competitive position within the accommodation industry. Finally, the research resulted in a fairly simple instrument guesthouse managers can use to assess their guests’ perceptions of value provided by the guesthouse. It is recommended that guesthouse managers measure guests’ perceptions of value on a regular basis. Originality/value Theoretical implications and recommendations following the empirical findings and recommendations are provided. First, defining the concept of value is complex. While the underlying foundation of value as benefits relative to sacrifices (Zeithaml, 1988) remains relevant, affective forms of value should also be considered. This suggests that organisations that focus only on providing benefits may be at a competitive disadvantage. Second, experience value is multidimensional. Seven dimensions, namely atmospherics, enjoyment, entertainment, escape, efficiency, excellence and economic value were shown to contribute to the guesthouse experience. These included emotional factors in addition to the conventional functional factors.