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This paper seeks to examine the management of General Electric's (GE) Olympic sponsorship and provides insights related to the organizational and transformational leadership dynamics involved in the development, implementation and activation of the sponsorship, as well as the results of pull‐through marketing efforts and the sponsorship's impact on GE's global business practices, brand equity, and revenue.

The case‐study method was used due to the complexity and specificity of the topic, and the fact that only a discrete element of the sport sponsorship sector and a limited number of events and their relationships were addressed.

The primary objective of GE's The Olympic Partner (TOP) sponsorship was to enter the Chinese market and build brand equity across Asia. Using GE's proprietary WorkOut™ and Change Acceleration models, transformational leaders facilitated the development and implementation of a new integrated organizational structure that enabled GE to maximize branding opportunities in Asia, product/service pull‐through marketing opportunities, and return on objectives.

This paper demonstrates how GE has effectively modified the structure of its global sales unit, generated revenue, and increased brand recognition in emerging markets across Asia. GE's management of its TOP sponsorship represents an innovative model for Chief Financial Officers, Chief Marketing Officers, brand managers, and sport marketers considering a long‐term sponsorship investment.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the effect of high-performance human resource practices on job satisfaction across four cultural regions – Asia, Europe, North America, and Latin America. High-performance human resource practices were used to predict job satisfaction for each region and then compared to determine significant differences. Hofstede's cultural dimensions were employed as a basis for structuring hypothesized differences across cultural regions.

Data were collected from a proprietary industry survey on employee work attitudes. The sample consisted of over 70,000 employees from four large multinational organizations with at least four offices in each of the four regions. Data were analyzed using regression analysis and comparison testing across models.

There are significant relationships between job characteristics and job satisfaction across all regions of the world, with a sense of achievement universally the most important driver. Although job characteristics impact job satisfaction across all regions, there are significant differences in the relative importance of job characteristics on job satisfaction, consistent with Hofstede's cultural dimensions.

The findings have implications for tailoring human resource management practices across locations within multinationals.

This research is believed to be the first cross-cultural study of human resource practices affecting job satisfaction using multiple organizations and industries.

This paper aims to look at the exchange context of peer-to-peer (P2P) collaborative consumption (e.g. Uber and Airbnb). Specifically, the paper examines the effect that the sharing of a personal possession, such as a car or apartment, may have on the consumer.

Two studies were conducted via online surveys. The surveys used vignettes that asked participants to imagine service experiences in either a P2P or a business-to-consumer (B2C) context. The participants then answered questions, including their perceptions of social closeness to the service provider, as well as willingness to pay (Study 1) and expectations of satisfaction (Study 2). The analysis used bootstrapping regression models to examine the relationships.

In both studies, the participants in the P2P conditions reported significantly greater perceived social closeness to the service provider than did those in the B2C condition. The P2P condition also resulted in significant indirect effects (i.e. mediated by social closeness) on willingness to pay (Study 1) and expectations of satisfaction (Study 2).

This paper extends the work on social distance to show that the effects are activated by the P2P exchange context. Also demonstrated here is that social closeness acts as an important mediator in the P2P context, affecting outcomes in the consumption and pre-consumption stages. Finally, construal level effects are extended to show that trend interpretation can be influenced by social distance.

What do we need to assure U.S. competitiveness? Participants in the current debate on that question tend to talk as though the economic policies and world competitiveness of U.S. industry were somehow separate when, in fact, world competitiveness is where the economic policies of the nation finally get tested. The crying need is to tie economic policy to business competitiveness, and not treat them like strangers.

New media has emerged as a significant dimension of branding and global sports sponsorship because it provides the capability to communicate with consumers worldwide via a multitude of digital platforms. This paper discusses the results of a systematic review of the development of global sports sponsorship and the importance of new media integration to the sector for the future. Results indicate that a new paradigm is emerging which involves thematically linked, integrated, strategic global marketing initiatives driven by new media applications, which have enhanced the value of sports sponsorship.

Inside every great business leader—whether CEO or shop steward—is a great teacher. And the leader's job is to develop others throughout the company.

The use of celebrities, and particularly athletes, to influence consumers and sell products is not a new practice, but one that is gaining considerable steam in the sports marketplace. However, many academics and practitioners have long questioned the means by which celebrity endorsement is measured and evaluated. Through the use of validated surveys among US students and the inauguration of the Celebrity-Hero Matrix (CHM), some of their questions are answered. Being labelled a 'heroic' athlete does, it seems, have tremendous power for marketers, and provides endorsement clout for the athlete.

The purpose of this study is to investigate characteristics of apparel-related critical incidents that motivate both Generation Z and Y consumers to share electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) via specific online channels.

The current research used an exploratory mixed-methods approach.

Qualitative findings of critical incidents revealed that the main situations that led to the spread of eWOM involved new purchases (49%), product quality (21%), pricing and promotions (19%), complaints (9%) and brand content (48%). Participants were motivated to spread information about the critical incidents by a desire to connect with friends and family (83%), help others (37%), influence others (48%) and express brand loyalty (32%). Quantitative results indicated significant relationships between critical incidents, motivations and eWOM channel choice.

This study has theoretical implications for apparel researchers attempting to gain insight into critical incidents that motivate consumers to engage in eWOM on specific channels in a positive or negative manner.

These findings are important for marketers as it appears that brand content does an efficient job at driving engagement on SM; marketers need to increase efforts to engage with consumers via feedback on websites, as this is an opportunity to counteract negative experiences and retain consumers’ loyalty.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the current research is the first to extend theories of communication and motivation to connect critical incidents with situational intrinsic and extrinsic motivations for spreading eWOM via online channels for Millennial and Generation Z consumers.

If corporate America's love affair with 1970s‐style strategic planning is not over, it is certainly on the rocks. Planning that relies on past experience, extrapolation, and incremental moves cannot meet today's challenges, such as unexpected competition, saturated markets, and changing technologies.

IN 1991, GENERAL ELECTRICS AIRCRAFT ENGINES PLANT IN LYNN, Massachussets, needed new protective shields for its grinding machines. No problem, right? Find some outside vendor to do the job and pay the price.