Lee Phillip McGinnis, Tao Gao, Sunkyu Jun and James Gentry
The understanding of the motives for consumers’ support of business underdogs is generally limited. The purpose of this paper is to help address this important research topic by…
Abstract
Purpose
The understanding of the motives for consumers’ support of business underdogs is generally limited. The purpose of this paper is to help address this important research topic by conceptualizing underdog affection as a theoretical construct capturing the emotional attachment held by some consumers toward underdog business entities and advances two perspectives (self- and other-oriented) to unravel its motivational underpinnings.
Design/methodology/approach
To test the conceptual model, a survey study was conducted involving 365 respondents drawn from an electronic alumni association list from a medium-sized Midwestern university in the USA. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analyses were used to validate the scales, and the structural equations modeling method was used to test the hypothesized effects.
Findings
The data support most of the hypotheses (eight out of nine). Under the self-oriented perspective, commerce underdog affection is positively influenced by underdog orientation, need for uniqueness, nostalgia proneness, and hope, and is negatively impacted by their materialism level. Only hope did not impact consumer underdog affection. Under the other-oriented perspective, balance maintenance, top dog antipathy, and empathic concern positively influence underdog affection. The other-oriented factors, especially top dog antipathy and balance maintenance, show stronger effects on commerce underdog affection than self-oriented factors.
Research limitations/implications
The sample was geographically restrictive in the sense that it measured only one group of respondents in the USA. The conceptual model is limited in terms of its coverage of the consequences of underdog affection. While discriminant validity is established in the scale development phase of the study, relatively close relationships do exist among some of these theoretical constructs.
Practical implications
Given the significant evidence linking consumers’ underdog affection to underdog support in commerce, small locally owned businesses could use underdog positioning advertising to differentiate themselves against national retailers. Due to their tendency to display higher underdog affection in commerce, people with higher levels of balance maintenance, top dog antipathy, underdog orientation, emphatic concern, and nostalgia proneness, and lower levels of materialism can be segmented for marketing purposes.
Social implications
This research indicates that there are ways in which small business entities and non-profits alike can operate in a business setting that is increasingly more competitive and challenging for underdog entities.
Originality/value
This study integrates the various underdog studies across contexts to examine motives to underdog affection, a construct not yet operationalized in business studies. In addition, hypotheses linking eight specific antecedents to commerce underdog affection, via two theoretical perspectives, are empirically examined to assess relative as well as absolute effects.
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Robert Harrison, Risto Moisio, James Gentry and Suraj Commuri
Despite years of research into consumer socialization, little research examines men’s roles in consumer socialization processes. The purpose of this paper is to attend to this gap…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite years of research into consumer socialization, little research examines men’s roles in consumer socialization processes. The purpose of this paper is to attend to this gap and to investigate consumer socialization processes in single-father households.
Design/methodology/approach
To study consumer socialization processes, this paper develops its insights using grounded theory, deploying qualitative data to develop theory. The data include long interviews with both fathers and their children used to understand the processes of consumer socialization.
Findings
This paper finds six socialization processes: entrustment, entrainment, education, emprise, estrangement and elevation. These processes emerge based on different types of household resource gaps or aspects of men’s gender identity.
Research limitations/implications
The main implications are to study the roles played by cultural context and family type in socialization processes. Studies could examine whether the processes uncovered here occur in other family settings, as well as whether they vary based on children’s age and gender.
Practical implications
Household brands, products and services could target resource-scarce households using appeals that portray offerings as a means to develop children’s responsibilities, independence and involvement in household management. Marketers could also use advertising appeals that depict playful product usage and learning situations or more broadly position brands as identity brands making them more appealing to men who are striving to be better fathers.
Originality/value
This paper uniquely identifies a number of previously uncovered consumer socialization processes, as well as factors that influence them.
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James A. Gentry, Paul Newbold and David T. Whitford
The objectives of this study are to offer cash based funds flow components as an alternative to financial ratios for classifying the financial performance of companies; to test…
Abstract
The objectives of this study are to offer cash based funds flow components as an alternative to financial ratios for classifying the financial performance of companies; to test empirically the ability of funds flow components to distinguish between failed and nonfailed companies with special emphasis on working capital components; to analyse the empirical results and make recommendations for future study.
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Patriya Tansuhaj, James W. Gentry, Joby John, L. Lee Manzer and Bong Jin Cho
Do consumers in countries that differ widely in cultural values andin economic development also differ in their resistance to innovations?And, if so, why? Addressing these…
Abstract
Do consumers in countries that differ widely in cultural values and in economic development also differ in their resistance to innovations? And, if so, why? Addressing these questions will help international marketing managers formulate an appropriate strategy for a successful product introduction in diverse foreign markets. In this five‐country study, the cultural values of fatalism, traditionalism, and religious commitment were found to explain cross‐cultural variation in innovation resistance in Senegal and in the United States, but not in India, South Korea, or Thailand. Even though the results were different for every country, fatalism was generally associated with less willingness to try new non‐technical products and with higher levels of perceived product risk. Differences were found to be related to entertainment and media innovations as opposed to technical or fashion‐oriented innovations. The results do not support the contention that a global, standardised marketing strategy may be appropriate for the introduction of new products in foreign markets.
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Robert L. Harrison, Ann Veeck and James W. Gentry
The purpose of this paper is twofold: to describe and evaluate the life grid as a methodology for historical research; and to provide an example application investigating the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is twofold: to describe and evaluate the life grid as a methodology for historical research; and to provide an example application investigating the dynamics of family meals over a lifetime by pairing life course theory with the life grid method of obtaining oral histories.
Design/methodology/approach
To explore how the meanings and processes of meals change, the authors conducted interviews with 15 respondents aged 80 years old and over, on the topic of family meals.
Findings
The paper discusses the merits of using the life grid method to analyze lifetime family consumption behavior. The findings of this example study provide insight as to how the roles, responsibilities, and loyalties of our participants had changed through births, deaths, marriages, wars, economic periods, illnesses, and the process of aging, leading to changes in dining.
Originality/value
The benefit of the life grid method described in this paper is its ability to minimize recall bias. In addition, the overt process of cross‐referencing events throughout the course of the interviews via the life grid method proved to be a helpful aid in identifying patterns and symmetries during the interpretation stage.
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The librarian and researcher have to be able to uncover specific articles in their areas of interest. This Bibliography is designed to help. Volume IV, like Volume III, contains…
Abstract
The librarian and researcher have to be able to uncover specific articles in their areas of interest. This Bibliography is designed to help. Volume IV, like Volume III, contains features to help the reader to retrieve relevant literature from MCB University Press' considerable output. Each entry within has been indexed according to author(s) and the Fifth Edition of the SCIMP/SCAMP Thesaurus. The latter thus provides a full subject index to facilitate rapid retrieval. Each article or book is assigned its own unique number and this is used in both the subject and author index. This Volume indexes 29 journals indicating the depth, coverage and expansion of MCB's portfolio.
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The purpose of this paper is to assess the usefulness of financial ratios derived from working capital‐based funds flow information to predict the failure of US industrial firms…
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to assess the usefulness of financial ratios derived from working capital‐based funds flow information to predict the failure of US industrial firms. Unlike cash‐based funds flow ratios, used in the previous papers, capital‐based funds ratios are less volatile, therefore they are expected to be better predictors of business failure. Moreover, the paper utilizes a more general definition of business failure than the legal definition. The analysis is carried out using a stepwise logit procedure. The results indicate that working capital‐based funds flow measures are superior to cash‐based funds flow measures in business failure prediction models.
Marko Grünhagen, Stephen J. Grove and James W. Gentry
Americans who travel internationally are often shocked to discover retail outlets closed during weekend and evening hours in cities such as Paris, Rome and Berlin. Based on the…
Abstract
Americans who travel internationally are often shocked to discover retail outlets closed during weekend and evening hours in cities such as Paris, Rome and Berlin. Based on the implicit assumption that demand clearly exists, retailers at various locations throughout the globe have increased their hours of operation. While political debate regarding a variety of issues (costs, the rights of labor, religion, etc.) often rages, there has been an implicit assumption that latent demand for longer hours of operations exists. This study investigates through a longitudinal examination consumer perceptions of Saturday shopping in a country where such an activity was previously restricted. Specifically, studies perceptions of Saturday shopping among a sample of German college students who were raised with limited Saturday shopping hours. Data were gathered in 1996 – the year German legislation allowed expanded hours for retailers – and again in 1999, and comparisons are made. Strong differences are found between consumer attitudes towards Saturday shopping at the time of expansion and three years later, indicating the need for differentiating retail strategies in Germany and in other parts of the world that may soon be providing similar expanded retail access.
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Ann Veeck, Fang Grace Yu, Hongyan Yu, Gregory Veeck and James W. Gentry
– This study aims to examine the major influences of food choices of Chinese teenagers within a dynamic food marketing environment.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the major influences of food choices of Chinese teenagers within a dynamic food marketing environment.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper reports findings from semi-structured interviews with high school students which examine teenagers’ guidelines for selecting food, along with their actual eating behavior.
Findings
The results reflect on how four major influences – personal, family, peer and retailer – may intersect to affect the eating behaviors of Chinese adolescents, as they navigate an intense education schedule during a time of rapidly changing cultural values. Different norms of food choice – nutrition, food safety, taste, body image, price, convenience, sharing, friendship and fun – are evoked according to the social context and concurrent activities of the teenagers.
Social implications
The findings offer tentative insights related to the potential for promoting healthier eating habits for adolescents in urban areas of China.
Originality/value
The study demonstrates how, within this rapidly changing food environment, food retailers are creating alliances with teenagers to meet needs of convenience, speed, taste and social interaction.