Commonly, supermarkets are perceived as more sustainable than discount stores, which are accused of following an aggressive price and no-frills approach. Therefore, the purpose of…
Abstract
Purpose
Commonly, supermarkets are perceived as more sustainable than discount stores, which are accused of following an aggressive price and no-frills approach. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate whether supermarkets and discounters differ substantially in their sustainability communication.
Design/methodology/approach
Sustainability reports and in-store communication are two important channels for retailers’ sustainability communication. To analyze both communication channels, the authors use a multi-method approach with data triangulation, analyzing sustainability reports and store observations of eight German retailers (two supermarket chains, six discount chains).
Findings
The study reveals no major differences between supermarkets and discounters regarding the readability of sustainability reports and the number of key figures on sustainability presented. However, supermarkets perform significantly better in translating sustainability to the store level than discounters. Furthermore, the results indicate that poor quality in the readability analysis is reflected in fewer concrete data provided in the sustainability reports and poorer translation of sustainability to the retail store.
Originality/value
This paper presents an empirical analysis of how well German retailers communicate about sustainability on both the report and the store level for the interest of academia and retail managers. It reveals different performance qualities among retail chains and retail formats and identifies the shortcomings within current reporting legislation with a clear indication toward policy makers.
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Anna-Katharina Jäger and Anja Weber
This study investigates the potential of two different digital in-store technologies and advertisement message framings according to the construal-level theory for increasing…
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates the potential of two different digital in-store technologies and advertisement message framings according to the construal-level theory for increasing sustainable consumption. This paper aims to provide managerial implications for the promotion of sustainable products at the point of sale as well as to theoretically contribute by integrating the literature streams of perceptual research, point-of-sale marketing and construal-level theory.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors tested their hypotheses in a two-week field experiment with a 2 (product label: organic vs local) × 2 (message framing: high vs low construal level) × 2 (presentation technology: digital signage vs augmented reality) between-subjects factorial design. The study was conducted in two grocery stores of different sizes using milk as a test product. Purchase data, as well as attention data gathered by facial recognition software, were analyzed.
Findings
Even though the magic mirror augmented reality application attracted significantly more attention, it did not significantly boost sales compared to the digital signage technology. In the larger store, the sales of the advertised sustainable products were significantly higher in both technology conditions than in the control condition without advertisement. If consumers pay enough attention to the promotion, results indicate that using messages with a concrete low-level construal is more useful for organic goods.
Originality/value
This study is the first investigating a combination of in-store technology and construal-level message framing for the promotion of sustainable products. It extends the retailing literature by proposing a two-step approach on how to use in-store technology effectively: (1) gaining attention and (2) matching messages to existing cognitions.
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Abstract
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Cathrine Filstad, Trude Høgvold Olsen and Anja Overgaard Thomassen
This paper aims to contribute to the literature on distributed sensemaking by studying how the police establish and develop their new position as police contacts during the police…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to contribute to the literature on distributed sensemaking by studying how the police establish and develop their new position as police contacts during the police reform.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors studied how the position of police contact, a cornerstone of the recent Norwegian police reform, was interpreted and practised. The authors interviewed police contacts at two different times during reform implementation to explore how they made sense of and practised their job.
Findings
The authors identified three interpretations of the position of police contact and describe them as ideal types: an administrative position, a professional position and a strategic position. The ideal types were reinforced rather than developing towards a shared understanding. Our data demonstrate that the sensemaking processes and experimentation to settle into the new position involved local actors internally in the police and externally in relation to local authorities, and reinforced local interpretations.
Originality/value
This study supports the notion of sensemaking as distributed but extends previous research by suggesting that “ideal types” help us understand the content of interpretations. This study also extends the understanding by showing that distributed sensemaking takes place as individuals make sense of more open-ended problems. This challenges the understanding of the term distributed, because unless challenged, distributed sensemaking in isolated pockets of the organization remain local, and the authors suggest that the term local distributed sensemaking captures this phenomenon.
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The purpose of this paper is to examine the relational consequences of electronic patient records based on co-produced data from pregnant women’s IT supported self-reporting. The…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relational consequences of electronic patient records based on co-produced data from pregnant women’s IT supported self-reporting. The analysis unfolds how the clinical encounter between patient and professional is reconfigured in the digitized society.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper provides a grounded theory analysis based on observations and interviews in an antenatal care unit. The study draws on empirical material generated through observations of the clinical encounters between pregnant women and midwifes, interviews with managers and midwifes, field notes and policy documents.
Findings
The author argues that the use of technology and co-produced data displace tasks and relations between healthcare professional and patient. The analysis shows that four modes of organizational patient involvement are enacted: involvement in administrative tasks, involvement in professional resistance, individualized involvement, and homogenized involvement of patients that tends to categorize the pregnancy roughly as either “normal” or “abnormal.”
Originality/value
This study contributes to qualitative research in digitization and patient involvement in health organization studies by showing how digital technology distributes the midwife’s autonomy, tasks and knowledge about the patient with both intended and unintended consequences. The argument goes beyond the prevalent prescriptive approaches to e-government and co-production, instead providing a critical analytical perspective on the promises of delivering efficient and patient-centered healthcare.
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Anja Hagen Olafsen, Etty R. Nilsen, Stian Smedsrud and Denisa Kamaric
Future organizations must focus on their ability to change to be sustainable, and this calls more attention to sustainability as an organizational issue. However, change…
Abstract
Purpose
Future organizations must focus on their ability to change to be sustainable, and this calls more attention to sustainability as an organizational issue. However, change initiatives often fail because of a lack of employee commitment. The purpose of this study is to examine how organizational culture and individual readiness for change (IRFC) relate to types of commitment to change.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey data from a sample of 259 employees in a Norwegian public organization undergoing major strategic changes were used to test the hypothesized relations.
Findings
The results show that flexible and stable organizational cultures did not relate differently to types of change commitment. This may indicate that the strength, rather than the type, of organizational culture is vital for change commitment. Nevertheless, a flexible organizational culture had a clearer relation to positive change commitment; in part through its positive relation with both change self-efficacy and negative personal valence. These are important dimensions of IRFC.
Originality/value
The study contributes to a nuanced understanding of the role of contextual and individual factors in explaining various types of commitment to organizational change, in particular, by examining the distinction between flexible and stable organizational culture, as well as separate dimensions of IRFC. A flexible culture together with both of the included dimensions of IRFC is shown to be of importance in fostering affective commitment to change – the gold standard of change commitment. Recognizing sustainability as an organizational issue underscores the need for creating a culture conducive to change.
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Anja Špoljarić and Đurđana Ozretić Došen
This review article offers an insight into employer brand and its importance for organizations, as well as an overview of international employer brand based on research on this…
Abstract
Purpose
This review article offers an insight into employer brand and its importance for organizations, as well as an overview of international employer brand based on research on this topic available to date.
Design/methodology/approach
An examination and critical evaluation of 37 research articles, two scientific monographs and a chapter was conducted. The selection of articles was based on conducted content analysis.
Findings
Having an employer brand has become of utmost importance for many organizations since it was first described in academic literature in mid-1990s. Despite its key role in organizational success, there is a certain lack of recognition of employer brand in academic literature. While employer brand research is somewhat scarce, international employer brand research is almost non-existent. Organizations that operate on different international markets often recruit their employees internationally as well. However, employer brand developed and managed locally differs from the one developed and managed globally.
Research limitations/implications
This review is based on a small number of articles available in the databases. Additionally, only the research papers written in English were included in the review.
Originality/value
This review paper offers a much-needed overview of literature on employer branding within international context. International employer brands and international employer branding have so far been neglected within employer branding literature, despite the obvious need for differentiation. Therefore, this article seeks to provide a systematic overview and identify relevant characteristics of the international employer brand.
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Morten Balle Hansen, Anja Overggaard Thomassen and Dag Olaf Torjesen
The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of e-government reforms on street-level bureaucrats’ professionalism and relation to citizens, thus demonstrating how the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of e-government reforms on street-level bureaucrats’ professionalism and relation to citizens, thus demonstrating how the bureaucratic encounter unfolds in the digital era.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on an ethnographic study of frontline work at a citizen service centre in a Danish municipality, and draws on empirical material generated through observations, field notes, interviews and policy documents.
Findings
The paper shows that e-government changes the mode of professionalism in citizen service from service to support. An ethnographic account of how digital reforms are implemented in practice shows how street-level bureaucrat’s classic tasks such as specialized casework are being reconfigured into educational tasks that promote the idea of “becoming digital”. In the paper, the author argues that the work of “becoming digital” in client processing entails two interconnected changes in frontline agents’ practice: de-specialization of the task and intensified informality in relation to citizens. As a result, the frontline agent works as an explorative generalist whose professional skills and personal competencies are blurred.
Originality/value
The study contributes to ethnographic research in public administration by combining two separate subfields, e-government and street-level bureaucracy, to discern recent transformations in public service delivery. In the digital era, tasks, control and equality are distributed in ways that call for symmetrical and relational approaches to studying street-level bureaucracy. The argument goes beyond technological or social determinism to find a fruitful intermediary position pointing at technological change as having both constraining and enabling effects.
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Pascal Kottemann, Anja Plumeyer and Reinhold Decker
The purpose of this paper is to apply the (advanced) brand concept maps (BCM) approach to reinvestigate previous findings on feedback effects resulting from brand extension…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to apply the (advanced) brand concept maps (BCM) approach to reinvestigate previous findings on feedback effects resulting from brand extension information (BEI) and to explore whether this information affects the structure of a brand’s associative network.
Design/methodology/approach
This research builds on the associative network memory model, as well as Keller’s conceptualization of customer-based brand equity, and uses a series of empirical studies with a total of 839 respondents in two different countries.
Findings
The findings reveal that BEI has no significant impact on the structure of the parent brand’s associative network at the individual level. Furthermore, key brand image dimensions (i.e. favorability, strength, and uniqueness of brand associations) are not affected.
Research limitations/implications
By applying the (advanced) BCM approach, this paper is able to address shortcomings that are incorporated with the use of Likert scales for measuring a brand’s image and for investigating feedback effects in the field of brand extension. As the results indicate that the identification of feedback effects might be influenced by the approach used to measure a brand’s image, this paper calls for further investigations of feedback effects on a brand’s image.
Originality/value
Data from three empirical studies provide insights into the cognitive processing of BEI and their impact on a brand’s associative network.