Teresa P. Gordon and Mary Fischer
Performance measures have long been a topic of interest in higher education although no consensus on the best way to measure performance has been achieved. This paper examines the…
Abstract
Performance measures have long been a topic of interest in higher education although no consensus on the best way to measure performance has been achieved. This paper examines the extent and effectiveness of service efforts and accomplishment reporting by public and not-for-profit U.S. colleges and universities using survey data provided by the National Association of College and University Business Officers. Effectiveness is evaluated using the Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB) suggested criteria. Regression analysis suggests an association between the extent of disclosure and size, leverage, level of education provided, and regional accreditation agency. Private institutions rate themselves as more effective communicators. Effectiveness of communication is also associated with the extent of disclosure, level of education provided and accreditation region.
Eric J. Arnould and Craig J. Thompson
This paper reflects on the development of Consumer Culture Theory, both as a field of research and as an institutional classification, since the publication of Arnould and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper reflects on the development of Consumer Culture Theory, both as a field of research and as an institutional classification, since the publication of Arnould and Thompson (2005).
Methodology/approach
This paper takes a conceptual/historical orientation that is based upon the authors’ experiences over the course of the 10-year CCT initiative (including numerous conversations with fellow CCT colleagues).
Findings
The authors first discuss key benchmarks in the development of the CCT community as an organization. Next, the authors highlight key intellectual trends in CCT research that have arisen since the publication of their 2005 review and discuss their implications for the future trajectories of CCT research.
Originality/value
The paper by Arnould and Thompson (2005) has proven to be influential in terms of systematizing and placing a widely accepted disciplinary brand upon an extensive body of culturally oriented consumer research. The CCT designation has also provided an important impetus for institution building. The 10-year anniversary of this article (and not incidentally the CCT conference from which the papers in this volume hail) provides a unique opportunity for the authors to comment upon the broader ramifications of their original proposals.
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The purpose is to argue that market-generated and brand-related phenomena such as fandoms work as a social and institutional force beyond the market and to showcase their…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose is to argue that market-generated and brand-related phenomena such as fandoms work as a social and institutional force beyond the market and to showcase their influence on the society as a whole.
Methodology/approach
The influence of fandoms on many societal institutions is explored through the literature on fandom studies and consumer research.
Findings
The research indicates that market-generated resources and their related sociocultural dynamics play a significant role in shaping the evolution of many institutions of current societies.
Research limitations/implications
The research is exclusively focused on fandoms despite the varied facets of market-related sociocultural dynamics, opportunity exists for research beyond the exploratory work done here shifting the focus from fandoms to brand systems.
Practical implications
Researchers, especially in Consumer Culture Theory (CCT), may use the perspective shift from market to society to enlarge the scope to new fields of study, out of the market.
Social implications
The research provides new lenses to understand emerging phenomena in fields such as religion and/or politics difficult to understand with traditional frameworks.
Originality/value
This paper provides exploratory research identifying market-related social and institutional processes and emphasizing how they influence other societal institutions, such as family, religion, corporations, professions, and politics; rather than bringing social and institutional processes into the marketplace.
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Silvia Biraghi, Rossella C. Gambetti and Stefano Pace
Purpose: This study explores how the interplay between a passionate consumer and his embeddedness in the lively network of a consumer tribe represents a fertile environment for…
Abstract
Purpose: This study explores how the interplay between a passionate consumer and his embeddedness in the lively network of a consumer tribe represents a fertile environment for the emergence of an entrepreneurial venture that is able to combine micro- and macro-level concerns bridging tribe and marketplace needs.
Design/methodology/approach: The research, set within the context of an exemplar consumer’s entrepreneurial project, was conducted following a netnographic methodological approach.
Findings: By fluidly moving from within to outside the tribe in the wider marketplace, the entrepreneur crafts his own new space in the market through a cultural mediation work that effectively combines the affective, immaterial labor characterizing the social glue of the tribe collective ethos with entrepreneurial spirit and sharp marketing and consumer insight abilities. The entrepreneur acts as a resource integrator of traditional firm-driven and emerging consumer-driven marketplace without opposing existing market structures, but rather valorizing them through his intermediation work.
Research limitations: This is a single-case study that, although exemplar, needs to be expanded and consolidated with further empirical evidence.
Originality/value: The study contributes to extant literature on consumer-driven market emergence and new market system dynamics by uncovering the role of consumer entrepreneur as a reconfigurator of the existing market resources.
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Scholarship has demonstrated important consequences of segregation on health and health care outcomes, yet the mechanisms behind this association remain poorly understood. Several…
Abstract
Scholarship has demonstrated important consequences of segregation on health and health care outcomes, yet the mechanisms behind this association remain poorly understood. Several recent studies have shown inequities in the distribution of a wide variety of health-related organizations across urban neighborhoods, which may account for some portion of this negative health association. Though, within this literature, relatively little attention has been given to the distribution of health care facilities in particular.
Here, I consider how segregation is related to the distribution of several auxiliary health care practitioners in a series of spatial regression models of zip codes across the United States using data from the 2010 US Census and County Business Patterns (CBP).
I find that both Black and Latino segregation is negatively related to the density of a number of auxiliary health care practitioners, including mental health providers, dentists, physical/occupational/speech therapists, chiropractors, optometrists, podiatrists, and miscellaneous health care practitioners. However, this association is reduced (in certain instances to non-significance) with the inclusion of socioeconomic indicators, chiefly the percent of college educated individuals and the unemployment rate of the zip code. This is association is reduced for both Black and Latino segregation, with a larger reduction in the size of the effects for Latino segregation.
This research suggests that segregation plays an important role in the distribution of health care facilities, but that policy and public health interventions should focus on the intersection between racial residential segregation and socioeconomic considerations.
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F.G. Rammerstorfer, W. Auli and F.D. Fischer
The present paper deals with the numerical calculation of the behaviour of vertical wind‐loaded cylindrical shells (large liquid storage tanks) with a very flexible bottom plate…
Abstract
The present paper deals with the numerical calculation of the behaviour of vertical wind‐loaded cylindrical shells (large liquid storage tanks) with a very flexible bottom plate resting on an elastic foundation. The base of the tank, i.e. the lower boundary of the shell and the bottom plate, may partially uplift due to the shell deformations under the dead load, a hydrostatic pressure and due to wind forces. This behaviour represents non‐linear boundary conditions of the tank wall. Hence, the stability of the wind‐loaded tank is extremely influenced by the uplift conditions. This non‐linear problem (large deformations and variable contact) is solved by the FE method.
Lydia Ottlewski, Johanna F. Gollnhofer and John W. Schouten
Purpose: Market logics have increasingly dominated consumer life worlds. Consumers may embrace marketization, or they may resist it, try to escape it, rebel against it, or…
Abstract
Purpose: Market logics have increasingly dominated consumer life worlds. Consumers may embrace marketization, or they may resist it, try to escape it, rebel against it, or actively manage its effects. This chapter examines the marketization of elderly care (in the form of transactional service provider relationships) and how consumers apply humanizing strategies to market relationships.
Methodology/Approach: This is a qualitative interpretive study using in-depth interviewing, observations, and the analysis of media coverage.
Findings: Drawing on institutional theory, this study shows how consumers humanize a marketized service relationship by weaving social logics into existing market logics. Our research finds consumers engaging in three humanization strategies: (1) moving beyond transactional relationships; (2) sharing consumption experiences; and (3) reinforcing social bonds through giving. The end result is the do-it-yourself (DIY) creation of extended family relationships from market resources.
Social Implications: The context of this study is a government-supported, non-profit, exchanged-based retirement support scheme that addresses the challenges of global population aging and the increasing anonymization and estrangement in our society. The authors tentatively suggest that our findings represent a move to mitigate adverse effects of neoliberalism.
Originality/Value of the Paper: Prior research has shown that consumers embrace marketization, resist it, try to escape it, rebel against it, or actively manage its effects. The authors identify another strategy used by consumers to address the increasing marketization of their life worlds, namely humanization. This study shows that consumers assemble market resources and humanize transactional service provider relationships by weaving social- into market logics resulting in the creation of a DIY extended family.
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Gry Høngsmark Knudsen and Erika Kuever
Using the example of LEGO Friends, we investigate the discourses that develop when second-order consumers attribute moral weight to the production and marketing of toys perceived…
Abstract
Purpose
Using the example of LEGO Friends, we investigate the discourses that develop when second-order consumers attribute moral weight to the production and marketing of toys perceived to sharpen and enforce gender norms.
Methodology/approach
We analyze reactions to LEGO Friends through a discourse analysis of online data collected from English-language blogs and news sites. The data is coded iteratively within the two primary categories of gender and the market.
Findings
We argue that children’s toys have reemerged as a moral battlefield where consumers stake out positions on the feminization and sexualization of young girls, forcing companies to take strong ideological stances while competing for market share. We show that in the debate over LEGO Friends, consumers’ discursive constructions of moral play were embedded in a heteronormative middle-class ideal that discourages expressions of stereotypical femininity.
Research limitations/implications
Our data is limited to a number of online forums blogs and web sites. We do not claim to have exhaustively catalogued the reactions to LEGO Friends, but merely to have explored discursive positions staked by consumers in the unfolding debate.
Practical/social implications
This research shows that companies can benefit from addressing second-order consumers’ negotiations of brand meanings in their marketing research and campaigns, and thus avoid becoming the next target of a moral panic.
Originality/value
Our paper addresses brand meaning negotiations by second-order consumers, in this case buyers of children’s toys.
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What happens when leaders are unable to keep leading? Leaders are often expected to be enthusiastic, innovative and help lead their organization forward. However, sometimes they…
Abstract
What happens when leaders are unable to keep leading? Leaders are often expected to be enthusiastic, innovative and help lead their organization forward. However, sometimes they can find themselves so emotionally and physically depleted that they are unable to function, even at the most basic level. Years of stress, heavy responsibilities, personal issues and unhealthy work hours can take a toll in the form of ‘burnout’. The battery is flat and the car cannot start. There are many contributing factors to burnout. It comes at a high cost to the leader, his family and his organization. This chapter will look at the nature of burnout and examine how the leader’s personality, work role, leadership style and life experiences can all contribute to the development of this condition. The impact of burnout, pathways to recovery and some preventative measures will also be examined combining current research findings with the author’s own experience of burnout. This chapter aims to highlight the need for leaders to look after themselves and for organizations to help support their leaders in an effective way. Although recovery from burnout may be a difficult and long journey, leaders can regain their strength and motivation and return to the role stronger and with more effective coping strategies.