Search results

It has, until recently, been usual to argue that the small group of pure public goods is made up of defence and “law and order” and that these are inviolably the true province of governments. These pure public goods are defined as being both non‐excludable in supply and non‐rival in consumption, that is, they must be equally available to everyone and one individual's consumption of them must not affect the benefit accruing to any other individual. Peston and others have, however, demonstrated a general definitional confusion in the literature and it is increasingly being argued that “law and order” is a mixed or quasi‐public good and that the fact that it has historically been publicly provided does not necessarily imply that it is, in principle, a public good. In the same vein Blaug, has also argued that education, health care as well as internal law and order are all examples of quasi‐public goods. In the case of pure public goods we may be able to establish the marginal cost schedule but it may be very difficult to determine the marginal benefit schedule, without which we cannot identify the optimal level of public goods provision.

Of all social relations the withdrawal of individual liberty by the State is arguably the most discussed and the least understood. Although there has latterly been an increasing interest in the issue of crime, relatively little attention has been paid to the consequential issue of punishment and especially to its most severe manifestation (in many cultures), imprisonment.

This research responds to a growing interest among cultural organizations regarding how to use emerging digital technologies in the communication of cultural content. The need to investigate various aspects of digital transformation for cultural organizations has been heightened during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This paper explores how city cultural organizations can utilize digital stories for impression management to enhance public perceptions of a city. The aim of this study is to understand how end-users are affected by a city cultural digital storytelling information system and the benefits of using such a system.

An interpretive case study was conducted on a digital storytelling initiative carried out by three cultural organizations in a medium-sized city in Canada. Data collection included 95 interviews with the general public, questionnaires and the gathering of documents.

Findings suggest that digital storytelling can be a viable tool to share city cultural heritage information and positively affect end-user perceptions of a city. The overall outcome of creating/maintaining a positive favorable impression is shaped through a layered experience of benefits by users. Through digital stories, users are first personally engaged and informed about a city's cultural heritage, and then they are influenced and inspired positively toward the city. Further, factors, such as leisure learning, cultural heritage information and cultural organizations, situate this context of use.

The study sheds light on how the art of storytelling in the digital age can serve as a powerful tool for conveying information effectively and influencing public perceptions. This paper provides a context-specific model to understand the use of digital storytelling by city cultural organizations for the purpose of impression management. Theoretical insights and practical recommendations are provided to explore the utilization of digital storytelling for raising interest and awareness in a city and managing public perceptions.

This study aims to identify the content in introductory business sustainability courses in the USA to determine the most frequently assigned reading material and its sustainability orientation.

In total, 81 introductory sustainable business course syllabi reading lists were analyzed from 51 US colleges and universities. The study utilized frequency counts for authors and readings and R analysis of key words to classify readings along the sustainability spectrum.

The study reveals the most frequently assigned authors and readings in US sustainable business courses (by program type) and places them along the sustainability spectrum from weak to strong. In total, 55 per cent of the top readings assigned in the sample advocate a weak sustainability paradigm, and 29 per cent of the top readings advocate a strong sustainability paradigm.

This study focused on reading lists of introductory courses in the USA; cases, videos and supplemental materials were excluded, and the study does not analyze non-US courses.

The findings of this study can inform instructors of the most commonly assigned authors and readings and identify readings that align with weak sustainability and strong sustainability. Instructors are now able to select sustainable business readings consistent with peers and which advance a weak or strong sustainability orientation.

This is the first research to identify the most commonly assigned authors and readings to aid in course planning. This is also the first research to guide instructors in identifying which readings represent weak versus strong sustainability.

Brian Vickery has been a prolific writer as this list — which covers a period of forty active years — indicates. There are almost certainly omissions. He has, for example, been an incisive if gentle reviewer, in this and other journals, of the contemporary literature. Only a few of his extended reviews are included here. The bibliography illustrates the breadth of Brian's professional interests: from Bradford's law in the forties to expert systems in the eighties, with significant contributions to contemporary developments throughout the interim. The range is formidable and characteristic.

This paper explores openness within new product development (NPD) projects. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of breadth, depth and partner newness on product innovativeness and product competitive advantage. The authors also seek to examine the contingent effects of the appropriability regime. The authors make suggestions to academics and practitioners based on the findings.

The authors use a structured survey instrument producing an empirical analysis of 205 NPD projects in the manufacturing sector in the UK. The authors use an ordinary least squares regression model to test hypothesised relationships between openness (breadth, depth and partner newness), product innovativeness, product competitive advantage and the appropriability regime.

The authors find that each of the three dimensions of openness, depth, breadth and partner newness, have a significant but differing impact on product innovativeness. Specifically, the study indicates that breadth has a positive effect but only in the presence of a strong appropriability regime, partner newness has a direct positive effect, and depth a direct negative effect. The authors also find that product innovativeness has a positive impact on product competitive advantage.

Further research should focus on replicating the findings in other countries, search for further moderating factors, such as the stage of the NPD process, and analyse the longitudinal impact of openness within NPD projects.

Organisations are encouraging managers to be more open in their approach to NPD. The authors’ findings suggest that managers need to think about the three dimensions of openness, breadth, depth and partner newness. Their engagement with each of these dimensions depends on the desired outcomes of the innovation project and the strength of patents.

The research extends the extant supplier involvement in new product development literature to examine the effect of up to 11 types of external actor in NPD projects. The authors test a new multi-dimensional measurement scale for the openness construct. The authors show that each dimension has a different relationship with product innovativeness.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an extensive analysis of contributions to scholarly research on decision tools.

A systematic literature review was used to collect data from 47 articles published in peer-reviewed academic journals between 1980 and 2017. Co-citation analysis was adopted to analyse recent trends in research on decision tools and recommend a framework that places such research into three categories: mature, intermediate and nascent.

The research revealed that a majority of the studies on decision tools describe decision tool implementation in a single company or setting. It also provided a clear presentation of recent trends in the decision tools literature by categorising and comparing papers according to various salient features. The study of decision tools is classified into four macro clusters: conceptualising and defining decision tools; exploring the implementation of decision tools; understanding the relationship between decision tools and other disciplines/approaches/initiatives; and discovering the outcomes of decision tools. Furthermore, the framework proposed in this paper will help scholars identify issues that merit additional theory-building and/or theory-testing research.

To the authors’ awareness, this is the first paper to have adopted both a systematic literature review and co-citation analysis to identify the dominant trends and significant gaps in the field of decision tools research.

Product advantage is consistently identified as the most important product characteristic in explaining the adoption and success of a new product. In small- and medium-size enterprises (SMEs), in particular, improving new product performance is critical in supporting SME survival and growth. Given that SMEs are a vital component of most economies improving their ability to effectively launch new products is an essential activity for sustainability. However, although literature illustrates that developing products with high levels of product advantage and new product development is advantageous, few studies have explored product advantage activities in SMEs and consequently research on product advantage is over-reliant on large firm studies. Given the specific resource constraints which challenge SME new product development (i.e. financial, expertise, access to networks etc.) context-specific research is critical. The purpose of this paper is to address these gaps in literature by exploring the product advantage activities in four manufacturing SMEs actively engaged in product development.

The research question centres on exploring the antecedents of product advantage in SMEs (market uncertainties, competitive intensity, resource uncertainties and technological uncertainties) in the context of multi-dimensional perspective of product advantage (consisting of product innovativeness, product superiority and product meaningfulness). A qualitative interpretivist approach was used to explore the research question exploring the antecedents to, and nature of, product advantage in SMEs. Case studies were used to inductively and holistically view SMEs in their entirety, this approach facilitated in-depth understanding of the reality of the SME and allowed for the interpretation of the SMEs owner/managers perspectives on product advantage.

The empirical findings suggest that the most significant antecedent of product advantage in the case SMEs was competitive intensity followed by technology uncertainty and resource uncertainty and then market uncertainty. Product advantage was found to be strongly based on product meaningfulness with elements of product innovativeness and product superiority also defining their perspective of product advantage.

There are several implications for SME owner/managers arising from this study. In the context of these findings, SMEs need to carefully consider three issues in supporting their new product development: first, their dependence on letting existing customers drives their new product development; second, owner/manager perceptions of product advantage are focused on delivering guaranteed sales, this focus nurtures incremental continuous product development rather than radical discontinuous innovation. While this strategy is low risk and supports SME sustainability, it could lead to less ambitious innovation strategies and slower growth for SMEs; third, antecedents of product advantage such as competitive intensity, technology uncertainty and resource uncertainty and market uncertainty need to carefully managed.

This study illustrates the complex nature of the antecedents and nature of product advantage in SMEs. The study provides insight into the product advantage characteristics that SMEs consider important in the development of new products. Different elements of each of the three product advantage constructs (product meaningfulness, product superiority and customer meaningfulness) are considered important under different conditions. Throughout this analysis, market needs and wants, technology, competitors and resources emerged as the defining conditions upon which product advantage decisions are based. More specifically knowledge regarding the market, technology, competition and the availability of resources dictated the type and levels of advantages that were presented in new products.

Milk, the universally perfect food, its compositional quality and bacteriological purity causing few qualms nowadays in this country and outbreaks of milk‐borne disease relatively rare, it may come as a surprise that there is another aspect of milk consumption causing discussion and not a little controversy in medical circles. There is an increasing awareness of milk allergy in infancy and in certain adult disorders, evidenced less by serological tests than by the relief afforded by milk‐free diets and the return of symptoms on the re‐institution of a milk diet. Skin tests also are not particularly reliable but the serological tests have at least demonstrated anti‐bodies to milk proteins in most artificially fed babies after the age of seven weeks (Gunther, M. et al, 1960).

The purpose of this paper is to provide a biographical sketch of Pauline Arnold focusing on her pioneering contributions to the field of market research.

Archival source material included the Pauline Arnold Collection at the University of Minnesota and the Lucy Sallick Papers including correspondence, unpublished documents, and the transcript of a 1995 oral history interview with Matilda White Riley, who was Pauline Arnold's stepdaughter. Primary historical source material includes the scholarship, both published and unpublished, of the subject. An important primary, published source for this study is the periodical, Market Research, to which Arnold contributed under the auspices of the Market Research Corporation of America from 1934 through to 1938.

Pauline Arnold's contributions to the field of market research are documented.

Pauline Arnold has been cited as having made important but neglected contributions to market research, including her advocating an understanding of customers' motives, needs, and wants. However, there is no published account of Arnold's life and work.