Anne-Françoise Audrain-Pontevia, Reine Fortunée Alohomin Gantoli and Julien François
Although well documented for physical stores, consumer motives for buying apparel online have been poorly investigated. Drawing on the social exchange theory (SET), the authors…
Abstract
Purpose
Although well documented for physical stores, consumer motives for buying apparel online have been poorly investigated. Drawing on the social exchange theory (SET), the authors tested a framework that relates time savings, effort savings and money savings to satisfaction, e-loyalty and e-word-of-mouth (e-WOM).
Design/methodology/approach
A cross-sectional, web-based survey was conducted in Canada during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Data were collected from 247 participants who made online clothing purchases and analysed using partial least-squares structural equation modelling. The reliability and validity of the measurement model were assessed, and the path coefficients of the structural model were estimated.
Findings
Money savings have a strong effect on e-satisfaction, which in turn determines e-loyalty and e-WOM. Time savings have also been found to influence e-satisfaction, whereas effort savings have no influence. Finally, the results indicate that e-satisfaction competitively mediates the relationship between money savings and both e-loyalty and e-WOM.
Originality/value
Utilising the SET, this study contributes to deepening the knowledge of online clothing purchase in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors provide a comprehensive view of the mechanisms through which time savings and money savings are the strongest drivers of customer satisfaction, which in turn influence customer loyalty and e-WOM when buying clothes online.
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The object of this research is the reconstruction of the existing legal response by European Union states to the phenomenon of immigration. It seeks to analyse the process of…
Abstract
Purpose
The object of this research is the reconstruction of the existing legal response by European Union states to the phenomenon of immigration. It seeks to analyse the process of conferral of protection.
Design/methodology/approach
One main dimension is selected and discussed: the case law of the national courts. The study focuses on the legal status of immigrants resulting from the intervention of these national courts.
Findings
The research shows that although the courts have conferred an increasing protection on immigrants, this has not challenged the fundamental principle of the sovereignty of the states to decide, according to their discretionary prerogatives, which immigrants are allowed to enter and stay in their territories. Notwithstanding the differences in the general constitutional and legal structures, the research also shows that the courts of the three countries considered – France, Germany and Spain – have progressively moved towards converging solutions in protecting immigrants.
Originality/value
The research contributes to a better understanding of the different legal orders analysed.
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In a mechanism for synchronizing multiple prime movers, a liquid pump, a plurality of hydraulic motors in series therewith, there being a hydraulic motor for each prime mover…
Abstract
In a mechanism for synchronizing multiple prime movers, a liquid pump, a plurality of hydraulic motors in series therewith, there being a hydraulic motor for each prime mover, differential means associated with each of said prime movers and operable by the difference in relative speeds of said prime movers and said hydraulic motors, and mechanical connecting means positively connecting a speed control member of each of said prime movers with the respective differential means for governing the speed of each of said prime movers.
Philippe Barbe and François Durrieu
As far as lasting of the great Bordeaux wines is concerned, each critic needs to identify his specificity if he is to maintain or increase market share. History shows, however…
Abstract
As far as lasting of the great Bordeaux wines is concerned, each critic needs to identify his specificity if he is to maintain or increase market share. History shows, however, that each new critic has had to position himself in relation to the market leader, namely the American wine critic Robert Parker. The question of whether or not the differences in evaluation are real or simply part of the critics’ grading strategy can thus be raised. To illustrate this we shall examine the results of Dubourdieu and Parker's evaluation.
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Maxime Bérot, Julien Malrieu and François Bay
Large structures (e.g. plane, bridge, etc.) often include several hundreds of assembly points. Structural computations often use over-simplistic approximations for these points;…
Abstract
Purpose
Large structures (e.g. plane, bridge, etc.) often include several hundreds of assembly points. Structural computations often use over-simplistic approximations for these points; among others, they do not take into account the thermo-mechanical history due to the assembling process. Running computations with each assembly point modelled completely would require too much time to achieve a simulation. There is thus a need to create equivalent elements for assembly points in order to: take into account the mechanical state of the assembly point in the design stage – while reducing the computational time cost at the same time. This paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper introduces an innovative strategy based on a coupling procedure between a finite element tool for modelling the assembly process in order to access to the mechanical state of the assembly point and an optimisation algorithm, in order to identify the equivalent element parameters.
Findings
The strategy has proven to be successful. A connector model easier to use and much faster than the complete model, has been obtained. Results obtained with this element are in good agreement with experimental tests in the case of multipoint assemblies and with the simulation results of the complete numerical model. Finally the connector model appears to be easier to use and much faster than the complete model, more difficult to model properly.
Originality/value
The main innovative aspects of this strategy lie in the fact that the creation of this equivalent element is based on a complete numerical approach. The thermo-mechanical history due to the assembly process is considered – the element parameters are identified thanks to an evolution strategy based on the coupling between a finite element model and a zero-order minimisation algorithm.
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Julien Calmand, Jean-François Giret and Christine Guégnard
In France, the vocationalization of higher education has resulted in an increase in the number of graduates and created new opportunities. The access of these vocational bachelor…
Abstract
Purpose
In France, the vocationalization of higher education has resulted in an increase in the number of graduates and created new opportunities. The access of these vocational bachelor graduates to the labour market raises the issue of their professional prospects amid changing economic and social circumstances. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
To provide insights into these issues, the employment situation of bachelor graduates during the first years of active working life will be compared with other tertiary graduates entering the labour market in the same years, using econometric models that estimate the effects of vocational courses “all other things being equal”, incorporating a range of individual characteristics.
Findings
Overall, vocational bachelor graduates experienced fewer difficulties in seeking to enter the labour market during difficult economic circumstances. They did not achieve upward social mobility with a lower probability of obtaining a managerial/professional occupation three years after graduation. These results confirm that diplomas continue to play a central and hierarchized role in France.
Originality/value
The originality of this paper is to highlight the labour market transition of vocational bachelor graduates during a period of economic crisis, inquiring on the social benefit of this new diploma in France: what were the impacts of the changing economic conditions and influx of vocational bachelor graduates on their labour market transition and their chances of upward social mobility?
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Tim Calkins and Julien Dangles
The senior management team at Leclerc, one of the largest retailers in France, is considering how best to maintain growth in the highly regulated French retail industry. Strict…
Abstract
The senior management team at Leclerc, one of the largest retailers in France, is considering how best to maintain growth in the highly regulated French retail industry. Strict limits on pricing and store construction will significantly limit Leclerc's flexibility; many of the traditional growth levers cannot be used. These regulations also have a major impact on competition. The executives at Leclerc must identify the optimal growth plan and then consider whether it will deliver the desired growth.
The case can be used to examine three areas: growth strategy for established businesses, non-market strategy, and marketing planning. It provides an interesting look at the French retail industry and highlights the role of government regulations in shaping the competitive playing field.
Details
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Grégoire Croidieu and Walter W. Powell
This paper seeks to understand how a new elite, known as the cork aristocracy, emerged in the Bordeaux wine field, France, between 1850 and 1929 as wine merchants replaced…
Abstract
This paper seeks to understand how a new elite, known as the cork aristocracy, emerged in the Bordeaux wine field, France, between 1850 and 1929 as wine merchants replaced aristocrats. Classic class and status perspectives, and their distinctive social closure dynamics, are mobilized to illuminate the individual and organizational transformations that affected elite wineries grouped in an emerging classification of the Bordeaux best wines. We build on a wealth of archives and historical ethnography techniques to surface complex status and organizational dynamics that reveal how financiers and industrialists intermediated this transition and how organizations are deeply interwoven into social change.
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The following list is a first attempt to catalogue and describe systematically the British Museum's extensive holdings of early opera librettos and related plays. The great…
Abstract
The following list is a first attempt to catalogue and describe systematically the British Museum's extensive holdings of early opera librettos and related plays. The great importance of these unpretentious booklets as supplementary and, more often than not, even primary sources for the history and bibliography of dramatic music, besides or instead of the scores, was already clearly recognized in the eighteenth century by Dr. Burney and other scholars. But it is only since 1914, the year in which O. G. T. Sonneck's Library of Congress Catalogue of opera librettos printed before 1800 appeared, that their documentary value could to any greater extent be put to general use in international musicological research. A similar bibliography of the British Museum librettos, while naturally duplicating many Washington entries, would produce a great number of additional tides, not a few of them otherwise unrecorded; it would provide the musical scholar with the key to a collection unequalled elsewhere in Europe, which owing to the peculiar nature of the material is not easily accessible by means of the General Catalogue.