Karine Picot-Coupey, Jean-Laurent Viviani and Paul Amadieu
Why do some retail networks operate shop-in-shops along with stand-alone units while others do not? Drawing on a resource-based and intellectual capital (IC) perspective as a…
Abstract
Purpose
Why do some retail networks operate shop-in-shops along with stand-alone units while others do not? Drawing on a resource-based and intellectual capital (IC) perspective as a broad theoretical lens, the purpose of this paper is to focus on retailer-run shop-in-shops and examine the determinants of their adoption.
Design/methodology/approach
To gain a comprehensive understanding of shop-in-shop adoption by retail branded networks, a research design mixing a quantitative study (n = 170) and a qualitative study (n = 19) was adopted to test nine hypotheses regarding these determinants of the adoption of retailer-run shop-in-shops and explore in greater depth the processes whereby they actually occur.
Findings
The main findings show that intangible resources are major determinants of the choice to operate shop-in-shops while tangible resources are minor determinants. The more robust results of the analysis lie in the positive effect of own-label merchandise range, premium pricing strategy, positioning based on symbols, retail concept fast renewal and high sector specialisation on the choice to operate a shop-in-shop. The effect of financial constraints on the decision to expand via shop-in-shops is limited.
Research limitations/implications
The authors emphasise the importance of marketing-related and company-related characteristics in differentiating the likelihood of retail networks to expand via shop-in-shops. These results lend support to the relevance of a resource-based and IC perspective in explaining the propensity of retailers to develop via shop-in-shops.
Practical implications
The decision to operate shop-in-shops should depend on the extent to which intangible resources – the most important being retail positioning grounded in symbols, an own-label merchandise range, and a high retail branded network reputation – can be valued and enhanced. Expanding a retail network via shop-in-shops does not appear to be a financially constrained expansion strategy: it must be considered as a relevant first best strategy when an independent and young retail company has intangible resources to value but limited tangible resources.
Originality/value
The study contributes to channel management and retailing research in four ways. First, it precisely delineates the specific characteristics of shop-in-shops. Second, it provides theoretical explanations – based on a resource and IC perspective – of determinants that influence the choice of shop-in-shops. Third, it empirically tests the influence of marketing-related and company-related characteristics when adopting shop-in-shops. Fourth, it provides insights into how adopting shop-in-shops. To the authors’ knowledge, the research is on the first to analyse theoretically and test the determinants for the choice of retailer-run shop-in-shops.
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This paper aims to explore the methodological and epistemological assumptions that have foregrounded the author's research into discursive activism in Australian feminist blogs…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the methodological and epistemological assumptions that have foregrounded the author's research into discursive activism in Australian feminist blogs, and a discussion of her research methods and why they were appropriate to this study. In particular, it seeks to discuss internet research methods and approaches toward the study of a feminist network online in order to make a case for methodological approaches that are feminist in themselves and aimed toward discursive change. The author recognises the political and personally affective nature of research.
Design/methodology/approach
The project design and methodology of the study draws on traditions of feminist online ethnography and feminist standpoint methodology, using a combination of face‐to‐face semi‐structured interviews, modified grounded theory, network analysis, and participant observation.
Findings
The author used a community‐curated online “carnival” to minimise problems of researcher navigation, and explore the pitfalls of insider research, and she discusses the success of looking for contradiction as a method of privileging disagreement in research.
Originality/value
The original contribution of this paper is toward the uses of disagreement, contradiction, discursive rupture, and dislocation in modified grounded theory analysis. The theoretical perspectives discussed in this paper are compatible with a view of subjectivity that allows for discursive political agency, and also encourage an ethics of listening and respect for difference that includes considerations of affect, inequality and power relations in the study of online communities.
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As fully‐socialised beings, all human experience is characterised by communication and primarily facilitated by language. Every society seeks legitimation for its ideologies and…
Abstract
As fully‐socialised beings, all human experience is characterised by communication and primarily facilitated by language. Every society seeks legitimation for its ideologies and practices and it legitimates itself chiefly through language. When employed as an instrument of governance, it can bring about social cohesion, also has the power to cause disintegration when consensus is absent, and can have serious consequences when its constituent parts are dismembered. This paper addresses the context in which value‐attribution and labelling takes place and examines the idea of CSR in terms of its lexicology or theoretical lexicography. In particular, the demands and imperatives incumbent on the word responsibility are explored according to its use as part of language, discourse and most significantly as a referent within the expression, corporate social responsibility. In the first part, it is suggested that this approach may provide clues as to the alleged failure, in spite of recent national and international endeavours, to provide any useful universal framework for ethically‐sound corporate behaviour. The second part constitutes a tentative inquiry into whether an alternative to the word responsibility might produce a better result. To this end, a specific definition of the word love is posited as a substitute or at the very least, acknowledged as a worthy driving force for responsible corporate citizenship.
W.N. Shaw, A.H. Clarkson and M.A. Stone
Aims to examine the competitive characteristics of Scottishmanufacturing industry as perceived by the companies themselves. Reportson an empirical survey of all medium (over 100…
Abstract
Aims to examine the competitive characteristics of Scottish manufacturing industry as perceived by the companies themselves. Reports on an empirical survey of all medium (over 100 employees) to large manufacturing companies located in Scotland. The high response rate reflects the topicality of the subject‐matter at director level. Begins by providing a brief profile of respondents, then focuses on the present situation facing Scottish manufacturing companies. Themes discussed in this section include: marketing practices; current competitive features; buying/purchasing effectiveness; planning, control and appraisal methods and finally the critical factors which are currently providing a competitive edge to companies′ activities. The next section briefly discusses present and future issues relating to exporting and Europe. Finally looks to the future by examining issues such as internal factors of importance to business success, proposed investment in engineering/ manufacturing techniques, future challenges from external sources and lastly, likely strategic directions over the next five years.
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THE problem of the spinning nose dive has been the subject of much experimental work in recent years. These researches have been chiefly prompted by the fact that the spin has…
Abstract
THE problem of the spinning nose dive has been the subject of much experimental work in recent years. These researches have been chiefly prompted by the fact that the spin has existed as a potential source of danger since the earliest days of flying. Innumerable accidents have been caused by machines getting into a spin near the ground, generally as a result of engine failure while climbing steeply. Modern tendencies in design have also led to certain types of aeroplane being unable to recover from prolonged spins under adverse conditions of loading. Accordingly, the immediate object of this work is to gain a sufficient knowledge of the principles underlying the motion to enable designers to produce aeroplanes which will not fall into an involuntary spin, however careless or inexperienced the pilot may be; and further, to ensure that an immediate recovery from any spinning motion will be possible without an undue loss of height. There is a growing body of opinion that the spin is no longer necessary as a tactical manoeuvre for fighting aircraft. The ultimate object of research on spinning may thus be the evolution of an aeroplane which will not be capable of spinning in any circumstances.
The paper is a study of Clarice McNamara, née Irwin (1901–1990), an educator who advocated for reform in the interwar period in Australia. Clarice is known for her role within the…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper is a study of Clarice McNamara, née Irwin (1901–1990), an educator who advocated for reform in the interwar period in Australia. Clarice is known for her role within the New Education Fellowship in Australia, 1940s–1960s; however, the purpose of this paper is to investigate her activism in an earlier period, including contributions made to the journal Education from 1925 to 1938 to ask how she addressed conditions of schooling, curriculum reform, and a range of other educational, social, political and economic issues, and to what effect.
Design/methodology/approach
Primary source material includes the previously ignored contributions to Education and a substantial unpublished autobiography. Used in conjunction, the sources allow a biographical, rhetorical and contextual study to stress a dynamic relationship between writing, attitudes, and the formation and activity of organisations.
Findings
McNamara was an unconventional thinker whose writing urged the case for radical change. She kept visions of reformed education alive for educators and brought transnational progressive literature to the attention of Australian educators in an overall reactionary period. Her writing was part of a wider activism that embraced schooling, leftist ideologies, and feminist issues.
Originality/value
There has been little scholarly attention to the life and work of McNamara, particularly in the 1920s–1930s. The paper indicates her relevance for histories of progressive education in Australia and its transnational networks, the Teachers Federation and feminist activism between the wars.
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Ethnoracial categories and classifications can change over time, sometimes leading to increased social mobility for marginalized groups or nonelites. These ethnoracial changes are…
Abstract
Ethnoracial categories and classifications can change over time, sometimes leading to increased social mobility for marginalized groups or nonelites. These ethnoracial changes are often attributed to emulation, where nonelites adopt the elite's social, cultural, and political characteristics and values. In some cases, however, nonelites experience ethnoracial shifts and upward mobility without emulating elites, which events can help explain. I argue that the type of event, whether endogenous or exogenous, affects the ability of elites to enforce their preferred ethnoracial hierarchy because it will determine the strategy – either insulation or absorption – they can pursue to maintain their power. I examine this phenomenon by comparing the cases of Irish social mobility in 17th-century Barbados and Montserrat. Findings suggest that endogenous events allow elites to reinforce their preferred ethnoracial hierarchy through insulation, whereas exogenous events constrain elites to employ absorption, which maintains their power but results in hierarchical shifts. Events are thus critical factors in ethnoracial shifts.
A collection of essays by a social economist seeking to balanceeconomics as a science of means with the values deemed necessary toman′s finding the good life and society enduring…
Abstract
A collection of essays by a social economist seeking to balance economics as a science of means with the values deemed necessary to man′s finding the good life and society enduring as a civilized instrumentality. Looks for authority to great men of the past and to today′s moral philosopher: man is an ethical animal. The 13 essays are: 1. Evolutionary Economics: The End of It All? which challenges the view that Darwinism destroyed belief in a universe of purpose and design; 2. Schmoller′s Political Economy: Its Psychic, Moral and Legal Foundations, which centres on the belief that time‐honoured ethical values prevail in an economy formed by ties of common sentiment, ideas, customs and laws; 3. Adam Smith by Gustav von Schmoller – Schmoller rejects Smith′s natural law and sees him as simply spreading the message of Calvinism; 4. Pierre‐Joseph Proudhon, Socialist – Karl Marx, Communist: A Comparison; 5. Marxism and the Instauration of Man, which raises the question for Marx: is the flowering of the new man in Communist society the ultimate end to the dialectical movement of history?; 6. Ethical Progress and Economic Growth in Western Civilization; 7. Ethical Principles in American Society: An Appraisal; 8. The Ugent Need for a Consensus on Moral Values, which focuses on the real dangers inherent in there being no consensus on moral values; 9. Human Resources and the Good Society – man is not to be treated as an economic resource; man′s moral and material wellbeing is the goal; 10. The Social Economist on the Modern Dilemma: Ethical Dwarfs and Nuclear Giants, which argues that it is imperative to distinguish good from evil and to act accordingly: existentialism, situation ethics and evolutionary ethics savour of nihilism; 11. Ethical Principles: The Economist′s Quandary, which is the difficulty of balancing the claims of disinterested science and of the urge to better the human condition; 12. The Role of Government in the Advancement of Cultural Values, which discusses censorship and the funding of art against the background of the US Helms Amendment; 13. Man at the Crossroads draws earlier themes together; the author makes the case for rejecting determinism and the “operant conditioning” of the Skinner school in favour of the moral progress of autonomous man through adherence to traditional ethical values.
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The purpose of this paper is to investigate access to grocery retailing in Nantes, France.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate access to grocery retailing in Nantes, France.
Design/methodology/approach
The spatial distribution of all grocery retailers in Nantes was mapped. Socio‐demographic data as supplied by INSEE was mapped for Nantes, and these data used to determine areas of poor access to healthy food, e.g. fresh fruit and vegetables retailing.
Findings
There are six areas of Nantes which appear to have both poor physical access to grocery retailing and a socio‐demographic profile which suggests people living there may have difficulties in travelling to remote shops. These six areas generally do not coincide with the officially‐recognised ZUS deprived areas of Nantes.
Research limitations/implications
Data on obesity and related medical conditions were absent from INSEE, limiting the analysis that could be performed. The data were also liable to errors such as MAUP and ecological fallacy; however, the spatial detail was sufficient for meaningful conclusions to be drawn.
Practical implications
Previous food and dietary research in France has concentrated on economic factors mediating diet. There has been less research on spatial access to food and any correlations with areas of poverty or areas with other populations, e.g. pensioners, who may find travel to remote shops difficult. This research investigates these spatial linkages. Officially‐recognised areas of poverty in Nantes (ZUS areas) are not the areas presenting the most problematical physical access to healthy food retailing, therefore research based on financial aspects alone may miss some areas of difficult food access.
Originality/value
The spatial patterns of food access in Nantes, and the implications for targeting research and policy initiatives to these areas, have not previously been researched.
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Mairi Maclean, Charles Harvey and Gerhard Kling
Bourdieu’s construct of the field of power has received relatively little attention despite its novelty and theoretical potential. This paper explores the meaning and implications…
Abstract
Bourdieu’s construct of the field of power has received relatively little attention despite its novelty and theoretical potential. This paper explores the meaning and implications of the construct, and integrates it into a wider conception of the formation and functioning of elites at the highest level in society. Drawing on an extensive dataset profiling the careers of members of the French business elite, it compares and contrasts those who enter the field of power with those who fail to qualify for membership, exploring why some succeed as hyper-agents while others do not. The alliance of social origin and educational attainment, class and meritocracy, emerges as particularly compelling. The field of power is shown to be relatively variegated and fluid, connecting agents from different life worlds. Methodologically, this paper connects biographical data of top French directors with the field of power in France in a novel way, while presenting an operationalization of Bourdieu’s concept of the field of power as applied to the French elite.