Emma Stockdale, Laura Catherine William and Lilith Whiley
Prospective job applicants tend to use signals that are presented on corporate websites to form perceptions about the organizations. Specifically, they decide whether they would…
Abstract
Purpose
Prospective job applicants tend to use signals that are presented on corporate websites to form perceptions about the organizations. Specifically, they decide whether they would “fit in.” The purpose of this paper is to examine the explicit and implicit signals presented by Financial Times Stock Exchange 250 Index (FTSE250) companies on their corporate websites.
Design/methodology/approach
A content analysis was carried out on FTSE250 corporate websites.
Findings
While many corporate websites do include general references to diversity, they do not engage with different protected characteristics on an equal basis. Furthermore, corporate websites often espouse the legal and business cases rationale for engaging with diversity.
Research limitations/implications
The authors were restricted by the information presented on corporate websites. Further research could use a multi-modal approach and include analysis of images.
Practical implications
Companies need to consider their overall rationale for engaging with diversity. Fostering a culture of inclusion where diversity is celebrated will allow companies to showcase their genuine commitment to diversity on their websites and avoid sending disingenuous signals to minority groups.
Social implications
Increasing the perceived “fit” of minority groups in an organizational culture will foster inclusion and diversity and support minority group engagement.
Originality/value
This research examines diversity signals and relates these to job applicants’ perceptions.
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The management of children′s literature is a search for value andsuitability. Effective policies in library and educational work arebased firmly on knowledge of materials, and on…
Abstract
The management of children′s literature is a search for value and suitability. Effective policies in library and educational work are based firmly on knowledge of materials, and on the bibliographical and critical frame within which the materials appear and might best be selected. Boundaries, like those between quality and popular books, and between children′s and adult materials, present important challenges for selection, and implicit in this process are professional acumen and judgement. Yet also there are attitudes and systems of values, which can powerfully influence selection on grounds of morality and good taste. To guard against undue subjectivity, the knowledge frame should acknowledge the relevance of social and experiential context for all reading materials, how readers think as well as how they read, and what explicit and implicit agendas the authors have. The good professional takes all these factors on board.
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This paper aims to join a growing movement in marketing history to include the voices of consumers in historical research on retail environments. It aims to show that consumer…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to join a growing movement in marketing history to include the voices of consumers in historical research on retail environments. It aims to show that consumer perspectives offer new insights to the emergence and reception of large-scale, pre-planned shopping centers in Australia during the 1960s, and allow one to write a history of this retail form from below, in contrast to the top-down approach that is characteristic of the broader literature on shopping mall development.
Design/methodology/approach
Written testimonies by consumers were gathered using a qualitative online questionnaire. The methodology is related to oral history, in that it seeks to capture the subjective experiences of participants, has the capacity to create new archives, to fill or explain gaps in existing repositories and provide a voice to those frequently lost to the historical record.
Findings
The written testimonies gathered for this project provide an important contribution to the understanding of shopping centers in Australia and, particularly Sydney, during the 1960s, the ways that they were envisaged and used and insights into their reception and success.
Research limitations/implications
As with oral history, written testimony has limitations as a methodology due to its reliance on memory, requiring both sophisticated and cautious readings of the data.
Originality/value
The methodology used in this paper is unique in this context and provides new understandings of Australian retail property development. For current marketers, the historically constituted relationship between people and place offers potential for community targeted promotional campaigns.
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Joaquin Cestino, Joseph Macey and Brian McCauley
This paper studies early stages of actor mobilization for institutional change within Swedish esports.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper studies early stages of actor mobilization for institutional change within Swedish esports.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors employ interpretative phenomenological analysis.
Findings
The authors’ findings explain how actors become motivated to act in critical reflections linked to conflicting legitimacy judgments and emotionally charged personal struggles. Moreover, the findings show how, as actors get activated in collective action, they identify efficacy lines around valid domains and experience emotionally charged collective endeavors. Furthermore, the findings explain how particularities in early experiences project legitimacy aspirations that orient collective action toward validity ends and particular values and ideals shaping actors' grassroots movements.
Originality/value
This study adds to legitimacy and institutional change theory through individual actors' perspectives, providing key insights into how they are motivated, activated, and oriented. This study is the first to investigate grassroots activists' personal stories in esports.
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Faced with an increasingly open society, retail concentration and population change, the purpose of this paper is to consider the challenges and potential for small towns to…
Abstract
Purpose
Faced with an increasingly open society, retail concentration and population change, the purpose of this paper is to consider the challenges and potential for small towns to compete for custom from their residents.
Design/methodology/approach
Retail challenges and potential are considered through exploring the attitudes and behaviour of residents in a range of towns, where the key factors affecting trade are identified using regression analysis and then explored further using more open‐ended approaches.
Findings
The resident surveys illustrate a sizeable leakage of retail expenditure out of the towns, particularly for comparison goods. Regression analysis shows that this leakage is more part of a general trend rather than being associated with high levels of migration into the towns. Residents seem to fit into two different groupings: first, those whose expectations can be met at the small town level; and second, those wanting a different offer and tending to go elsewhere. Encouraging trade from the former provides the most realistic policy objective.
Practical implications
Key issues relate to getting the basics right, providing support to independent/specialist shops, encouraging firms to fill missing key elements of the retail offer and, where population change is occurring, ensuring that the expansion of services does not have detrimental effects for town centres.
Originality/value
This paper illustrates that although there are many retail challenges‐facing small towns, there is potential for them to maintain their viability and vitality.