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This study evaluated and compared the abilities of women (n = 50) between the ages of 25 and 45 residing in the UK to locate and manipulate information on nutrition labels prepared in accordance with US regulations (i.e. Nutrition Facts labels) and those prepared in accordance with the EU Directive and UK Food Labelling Regulations 1996. It also assessed their ability to assess the accuracy of nutrient content claims. Study findings indicate that the women could locate and manipulate information on both labels equally well. However, they were significantly more able to assess nutrient content claims using the Nutrition Facts label. The research findings suggest EU labelling changes that may facilitate consumer use of labels in making dietary planning decisions.

The retail landscape is dramatically changing due to a series of socio-economic and technological challenges, which can be faced through the adoption of smart technologies. Accordingly, a significant number of publications in this field have been produced, albeit with fragmented results. Therefore, this paper aims at both providing a clear and organised overview of the main smart technologies for physical retailing, in terms of application fields and expected impact, while identifying the major shortcomings and future research avenues.

The research conducts a systematic review of the literature concerning the assimilation of smart technologies within physical retail environments, resulting in the analysis of 103 papers published from 2005 to 2023. The review highlights (1) the main smart technologies employed in retail stores, (2) their application area and (3) the beneficiaries of their adoption. Accordingly, these three aspects are initially assessed independently and then examined in combination.

The analysis presents a comprehensive list of 16 key technologies (what) that can support a wide range of processes, spanning from back-end functions to front-end activities, also enabling the connection with online channels (where), catering several and different benefits (why) to both customers and retailers (who). Besides, the research points out many uncovered topics that could be addressed by the academic community.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the review is the first one in the literature offering a thorough and organised overview of the different available technologies for in-store application and their impact on physical retail processes.

Both online and brick and mortar retailers have invested heavily in developing omni-channel service offerings. Though seen as a competitive necessity, these omni-channel service offerings increase costs and complexities. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of strategies involving bundles of omni-channel services related to order fulfillment and returns management on retailer performance.

Archival data were obtained for 152 retailers and analyzed using ordinary least squares regression. Robustness tests using an alternative dependent variable and a model-based classification strategy corroborate our findings.

Retailers offering full sets of high integration omni-channel services (buy online pick up in store, ship from store and in-store returns) have better performance (e.g. sales, growth and competitive position) and web sales than retailers that offer only a partial mix of these high integration services. Retailers offering a partial bundle of high integration services, in turn, have better performance and web sales than retailers that offer none of these services.

The research extends work that has examined the performance effects of omni-channel services on individual retailers. Our results indicate retailers benefit the most when offering a full set of high integration omni-channel services, suggesting retailers who have only adopted a subset of these services could improve performance through broader adoption of services. The results further indicate partial adoption of high integration services is better than no adoption.

This study conceptualizes a form of luxury consumption in which luxury brands collaborate with unconventional non-luxury partners. These unconventional luxury brand collaborations are growing in popularity among Chinese luxury consumers of the post-1990s generation. Luxury brands are exploring new branding strategies due to the growing commercial importance of Chinese luxury consumers.

An in-depth qualitative study informs this paper. Interviews with young adult luxury consumers self-identifying as Chinese reveal a growing interest for luxury brands that collaborate with odd partners in social media and online culture.

Unconventional collaborations between luxury brands and non-luxury partners catalyze shifting meanings of luxury through the following juxtapositions: ephemeral instead of timeless, trendy rather than inaccessible, and playful in contrast with traditional. First, young Chinese consumers construct luxury meanings through ephemerality, like digital possessions, social media fame and fleeting experiences. Second, luxury meanings emerge in trendiness among social media influencers and online culture rather than in the seemingly inaccessible taste regimes of the upper class. Third, younger consumers appreciate fun, rebellious and over-the-top aesthetics in luxury brands.

The study contributes to the nascent field of unconventional luxury by conceptualizing how unusual, odd and unexpected collaborations constitute new forms of luxury consumption. The shifting meanings of luxury consumption that this study conceptualizes raise new opportunities and challenges for luxury brands. One of such is the release of limited collections with non-luxury partners seemingly at the opposite spectrum of design, image and values. Moreover, the study adds nuance to the understanding of luxury consumption among young Chinese consumers.

Luxury companies have expanded globally, but little attention is given to the difficulties associated with expansion to culturally different countries, especially when focusing on training salespeople in rapport-building behaviors. To address this discussion, we answer these research questions: (1) Does the luxury fashion brand country of origin affect the rapport-building strategies of salespeople?; (2) How do luxury fashion employees classify customers from collectivistic cultures with emerging economies, such as that in Brazil?; and (3) What are the rapport-building strategies used by these salespeople for each of these luxury fashion customer segments?

The authors conducted in-depth interviews with salespeople, managers and team supervisors from four global luxury retailers from Britain, France and Italy that operate in Brazil. In total, the authors interviewed 20 employees with an average of greater than 7 years of experience in luxury sales. The authors based their analysis on a theoretically generated coding guide and content analysis theories.

When expanding to culturally different countries, retail companies should adopt glocal strategies, especially when luxury is involved and when customers demand exclusive attention from companies. Additionally, the authors suggest that the effectiveness of rapport building strategies is culturally dependent and should be adapted to the microlevel, especially for continental countries that are culturally diverse.

This is employee-view research, with no inputs from customers or corporate managers. Luxury fashion brand stores did not grant permission for official research within their employees nor the observation of their customers during in-store interactions. Researchers interviewed employees as individual professionals, and their identities will remain anonymous.

When expanding to culturally different countries, luxury retailers should give special attention to the adaption of sales strategies, training and sales guidelines.

This study focuses on customer-employee rapport from the company's perspective.

The pursuit of entrepreneurial opportunities is not always successful. On the one hand, entrepreneurial failure offers an invaluable opportunity for entrepreneurs to learn about their ventures and themselves. On the other hand, entrepreneurial failure is associated with substantial financial, psychological, and social costs. When entrepreneurs fail to learn from failure, the potential value of this experience is not fully utilized and these costs will have been incurred in vain. In this chapter, the authors investigate how the stigma of failure exacerbates the various costs of failure, thereby making learning from failure much more difficult. The authors combine an analysis of interviews of 20 entrepreneurs (who had, at the time of interview, experienced failure) with an examination of archival data reflecting the legal and cultural environment around their ventures. The authors find that stigma worsens the entrepreneurs’ experience of failure, hinders their transformation of failure experience, and eventually prevents them from utilizing the lessons learnt from failure in their future entrepreneurial activities. The authors discuss the implications of the findings for the entrepreneurship research and economic policies.

Although the effects of the empty nest syndrome on mental health have long been examined, middle-aged empty nesters were generally at the focus of this examination. However, the number of older empty nesters, namely, empty nesters 60 years old or above, is expected to increase as the population is aging. Therefore, the purpose of this review was to examine previous studies concerning mental health outcomes specifically among older empty nesters and to identify major contributors to their mental health.

The authors conducted a scoping review by following the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) extension for scoping reviews guidelines.

A total of 18 studies selected for this review had been all conducted in Asia. A majority indicated that older empty nesters were at higher risks of poor mental health than their peers who were not empty nesters. Major contributors to their mental health included gender, education, income, living arrangement, health behaviors, personality, coping styles, resilience, a sense of coherence and social support.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first scoping review which concerns older empty nesters and their mental health outcomes. This review offers recommendations for researchers, policy makers, and healthcare providers based on the findings and knowledge gaps in the current literature.

This paper attempts to study the motives behind a Hong Kong‐Japanese joint venture between two retailers from the perspectives of firm‐specific advantages provided by both partners of the international joint ventures (IJVs). The analysis focuses on the local partner’s motives and how the IJVs have provided the opportunity for it to overcome the increasing Japanese competition in the retail sector after the mid‐1980s. Finally, the IJVs are evaluated according to the available secondary data in terms of how much the local partner has achieved from the IJVs.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship among emotional intelligence (EI), perceived transformational leadership (TFL) and work performance.

Data were collected from a military-based research and development institution. In all, 202 copies of questionnaires were returned, resulting a 67.3 percent return rate. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test this theoretical model.

The data indicated that EI had a positive relationship with work performance; meanwhile, perceived leader’s TFL positively moderated the relationship between subordinate’s EI and work performance.

First, this study increased the understanding of the relationship of EI and work performance in a non-western culture context and therefore confirming the benefit of EI on a positive work psychology. Also, the findings helped the researchers to understand how situational factors, such as leadership, interact with individual factors, such as EI, to produce a positive impact on work output.

Unlike previous studies connecting leaders’ EI with their leadership behaviors and subsequent effect on work outcomes, the present study looked into the moderating role of leader’s TFL on the relationship between subordinate’s EI and work performance.