Patrick J. Murphy, Jack Smothers, Milorad M. Novicevic, John H. Humphreys, Foster B. Roberts and Artem Kornetskyy
This paper examines the case of Nashoba, a Tennessee-based social enterprise founded in 1824 by Scottish immigrant Frances Wright. The Nashoba venture intended to diminish the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper examines the case of Nashoba, a Tennessee-based social enterprise founded in 1824 by Scottish immigrant Frances Wright. The Nashoba venture intended to diminish the institution of slavery in the USA through entrepreneurial activity over its five years of operation.
Design/methodology/approach
This study methodology entailed mining primary source data from Wright’s letters; communications with her cofounders and contemporaries; and documentations of enterprise operations. The authors examined these data using social enterprise theory with a focus on personal identity and time-laden empirical aspects not captured by traditional methodologies.
Findings
The social enterprise concept of a single, self-sustaining model generating more than one denomination of value in a blended form has a deeper history than the literature acknowledges. As an entrepreneur, Wright made strategic decisions in a context of supply-side and demand-side threats to the venture. The social enterprise engaged injustice by going beyond market and state contexts to generate impact in the realms of institutions and non-excludable public goods.
Research limitations/implications
This study generates two formal implications for the development of new research questions in social enterprise studies. The first implication addresses the relation between social entrepreneurs and their constituencies. The second implication pertains to the effects of macro-level education, awareness and politics on social enterprise performance and impact. The implications herald new insights in social enterprise, such as the limits of moral conviction and the importance of social disruption.
Originality/value
This paper broadens the current understanding of how social enterprises redress unjust and unethical institutions. It also contributes new insights into social enterprise launch and growth based on shared values within communities and coordinated strategic intentions across communities.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to highlight a selection of poetry titles from the Poets House Showcase of 2006.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to highlight a selection of poetry titles from the Poets House Showcase of 2006.
Design/methodology/approach
This article provides reviews of selected titles from the 2006 Poets House Showcase.
Findings
This review represents a wide‐ranging selection of contemporary poetry collections and anthologies.
Originality/value
This list documents the tremendous range of poetry publishing from commercial, independent and university presses, as well as letterpress chapbooks, art books and CDs.
Details
Keywords
Ailton Conde Jussani, Eduardo Pinheiro Gondim de Vasconcellos, James Terence Coulter Wright and Celso Cláudio de Hildebrand e Grisi
Studies about product customization decision are especially relevant for organizations that decide opening a subsidiary overseas. This scenario requires the company to decide…
Abstract
Purpose
Studies about product customization decision are especially relevant for organizations that decide opening a subsidiary overseas. This scenario requires the company to decide which products should be customized and which products should be standardized when selling products in international markets. The main purpose of this paper is to identify which factors influence the decisions on the customization of industrial products and consumer products to a particular country in the marketing function of a global company.
Design/methodology/approach
To do so, a literature review was conducted addressing the following topics: internationalization, international marketing and product customization factors. With regard to methodological aspects, an initial qualitative phase was conducted with four exploratory case studies. In the quantitative phase, an online survey was developed, obtaining 123 records of an intentional non-probabilistic sample.
Findings
As a result, six factors were deemed essential to the product customization decision: customers’ characteristics, sustainable return on investment, sustainable profit, legal requirements, sales of other products in the portfolio and weather differences.
Originality/value
The authors expect that the results of this research contribute academically for the management knowledge about the meanings that product customization can assume in internationalized companies, and, additionally, in a business way, the authors expect that they help companies make strategic decisions on the appropriate measure to take regarding product customization in international markets, whether industrial products or consumer products. With these findings, the authors expect to make a valid contribution about product customization decision and suggesting future studies from other perspectives.
Details
Keywords
John P. Blair and James E. Larsen
The purpose of this study is to test the hypothesis that neighborhoods characterized by satisfying social relationships among residents have higher housing prices than areas where…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to test the hypothesis that neighborhoods characterized by satisfying social relationships among residents have higher housing prices than areas where people are less satisfied with their neighbors.
Design/methodology/approach
A semi‐logarithm regression model is used to test whether the extent of satisfaction with neighbors is significantly related to transaction prices of houses in 59 neighborhoods in Dayton, Ohio.
Findings
The results are consistent with, and more specific than, previous studies linking social capital to neighborhood stabilization. Resident satisfaction with their neighbors is found to be an important determinant of property value controlling for housing characteristics.
Practical implications
The findings support stabilization and economic development strategies that seek to enhance social relationships in urban neighborhoods.
Originality/value
This study is the first effort to examine the impact of relations among neighbors on housing prices while controlling for traditional housing characteristics. The paper is an important step in unbundling the social capital concept and points policy makers in directions that can improve community property values.
Details
Keywords
Kathryn M. Young and Cary L. Cooper
The Occupational Stress Indicator (OSI) was used to investigate jobstress in an ambulance service in the north‐west of England. Sevendifferent aspects of the stress‐strain…
Abstract
The Occupational Stress Indicator (OSI) was used to investigate job stress in an ambulance service in the north‐west of England. Seven different aspects of the stress‐strain relationship were assessed and the findings compared with those from the fire service. Ambulance service employees were found to be experiencing major stress outcomes of low job satisfaction and poor mental and physical health. Fire service employees revealed significantly poorer physical health. Assesses the sources of job stress, type A behaviour, locus of control and coping styles and discusses them in the light of change in the public services.
Details
Keywords
James E. Larsen, Marlena L. Akhbari and Brandon C.L. Morris
This paper reports the results of an investigation of the use of instalment land contracts (ILCs) in the Montgomery County, Ohio commercial real property market.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper reports the results of an investigation of the use of instalment land contracts (ILCs) in the Montgomery County, Ohio commercial real property market.
Design/methodology/approach
Generalised spatial two-stage least squares regression is used to analyse data from 164 ILC financed commercial property transactions and 918 traditionally financed commercial property transactions, all of which were initiated between January 1, 2016 and December 31, 2023.
Findings
In our sample, the use of ILCs for the acquisition of commercial real estate is concentrated on relatively low-value properties. A bargaining power imbalance was discovered; the price ILC vendees promised to pay was more than buyers using traditional financing paid for similar property.
Practical implications
The results suggest that some commercial property investors use ILCs because they cannot qualify for a loan from an institutional lender, and some may benefit from the additional regulations that ILC critics have proposed.
Originality/value
This is the first published empirical study of ILC use in a local commercial property market.
Details
Keywords
Kendall Goodrich, Mark Benden, James Munch and Wakiuru Wamwara
This study aims to examine the impact of college students’ health and wellness orientations on the perceived importance of health benefits for an innovative new brand of standing…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the impact of college students’ health and wellness orientations on the perceived importance of health benefits for an innovative new brand of standing desk, which is hypothesized to positively affect students’ attitudes and intentions. Research in this domain for the college student market is sparse.
Design/methodology/approach
An online survey was conducted among business students at a large Midwestern US University, with class credit offered for completion. Of the 325 students given the opportunity to participate, 210 completed the survey.
Findings
Health motivation is positively related to calorie reduction importance, whereas wellness orientation is positively related to back health and cognitive enhancement. Calorie reduction and potential cognitive benefits significantly affect attitudes toward standing desks, which positively impact intentions to use, pay a school usage fee and buy the product.
Research limitations/implications
Different health orientation factors are associated with specific health benefits, providing greater insight into consumer attitudinal motivations for health-related products. Future research can further evaluate the generalizability of the results.
Practical implications
Marketers can tailor more effective communications based on underlying consumer motivations for health-related product benefits, resulting in better marketing outcomes.
Social implications
Obesity is a growing societal issue, which could be ameliorated by improved daily behaviors, including the use of standing desks to assist in countering sedentarism.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, neither academic research has yet examined standing desk purchase decision factors for the college student market, nor the effects of different health orientations on perceived health benefits.
Val Larsen, Newell Wright and James Busbin
American business enterprise is increasingly seeking export markets for products as a means of expansion, and in some instances to offset loss in domestic business due to…
Abstract
American business enterprise is increasingly seeking export markets for products as a means of expansion, and in some instances to offset loss in domestic business due to declining markets or international competitors. This paper deals with market segmentation and its role in the successful positioning of products in foreign markets. More specifically, the focus here is how consumer political identifications and ideological values can be used as a basis for effectively segmenting markets. To U.S. firms, the potential benefit of gaining this insight is twofold. First, firms may thus have at their disposal a segmentation tool as yet unrecognized by competitors. Second, politics and political ideology have constructs which appear to be common to most election‐based governmental forms; thus the segmentation applications explored here would be transferable to foreign markets, whereas many other more conventional means of segmentation transfer poorly from the U.S. to other countries.
The aim of this Education Briefing is to comment on the problematic issues that sometimes arise when using the internal rate of return (IRR) and/or the net present value (NPV) as…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this Education Briefing is to comment on the problematic issues that sometimes arise when using the internal rate of return (IRR) and/or the net present value (NPV) as a measure of expected investment performance. The briefing looks at the sometimes conflicting signposts that each benchmark presents and highlights ways that decision-makers can overcome or mitigate the effects of those problematic issues.
Design/methodology/approach
After a short review of the IRR and NPV techniques, this Education Briefing provides numerous examples of problematic issues that arise with certain cash flow profiles and suggests how to address them.
Findings
Both the IRR and NPV provide simple benchmarks that can mislead the decision-maker who is not familiar with the nuances of both techniques.
Practical implications
This review should heighten the reader’s ability to spot characteristics of proposed investments that may signal that a quick decision based on performance metrics may lead to disappointing results. These characteristics include: scale effects, unusual cash flow patterns and/or investments with dissimilar expected lives. Mutually exclusive investments merit special attention.
Originality/value
This is a review of existing performance measurement models.
Details
Keywords
States that there has been a recent explosion in the publication of reference works in the field of African American studies which indicates the mature field of scholarship being…
Abstract
States that there has been a recent explosion in the publication of reference works in the field of African American studies which indicates the mature field of scholarship being achieved in this area. Provides a bibliographic guide for those wishing to identify and use research tools for studying African American literature.