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This case study aims to explore how coaching capability and leadership behaviors were developed at Ageas UK in order to improve business performance and create a cultural change at all levels of the organization.

Following its introduction in early 2010, the Full Potential Group “High performance through coaching” program continues to deliver highly‐pragmatic, experiential and business focused workshops across the Ageas UK management teams. The workshops incorporate a two‐day session together with a one‐day follow‐up six to eight weeks later.

With close to 150 of its management community having taken part in the program to date and receiving ongoing support from L&D to cascade and sustain the key principles, the return on investment at Ageas UK has been significant. Business performance gains from both a sales revenue and customer “upgrade” perspective have been considerable and managers are feeling more empowered and better able to lead, guide and support their teams.

The article shows that the key success factors for embedding coaching into Ageas' company culture and making it stick long‐term are: pro‐active support from the board and senior management teams; fully aligning the coaching program to the Ageas UK business strategy; creating a “full potential” transformational attitude and mindset of continual development and improvement; and executing a comprehensive sustainability plan.

Many less developed countries depend on a few traditional commodities for their foreign exchange earnings. These exports are subject to the vagaries of the world commodity markets which have declined in the 1980s. To bolster their dwindling foreign sales, some emerging nations have sought to foster new, non‐traditional exports. We examine the experience of Jamaica in its identification and targeting of such products for export. The actions adopted by the public sector for increasing export‐led growth and the corollary reactions of the private sector are ancillary but key considerations because these, in turn, develop general strategies for exporting non‐traditional products.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the social bottom line in subsistence markets or base of the pyramid. This examination aims to suggest that social strategies for the second bottom line should be focused at the community level in measurement, assessment and impact.

A discussion of the double bottom line is presented. Social strategies are then discussed in terms of impact assessment at the community level and an impact assessment framework is developed reflective of the subsistence marketplace perspective. Implications are discussed in terms of poverty alleviation in subsistence markets and business

This examination suggests social strategies for the second bottom line should be focused at the community level in measurement, assessment and impact. Focusing social strategies at the community level reframes the role of firms and promotes a business in service of the community approach. Assessing impact at the community level creates a long‐term sustainable focus to business in subsistence markets. This perspective is a more holistic view that incorporates the social, economic and environmental ecology of the community from a multi‐generational perspective that requires entrepreneurs to commit their life's work to developing and servicing the community they live in. Using “And beyond Africa” as a case example of the community‐level social strategy the theory and practice are integrated and the conceptual ideas can be understood as a holistic reflection of the community. Further, examining how social strategies at the community level are understood in terms of the individual and humanity level creates greater awareness of the importance of a social strategy at the community‐level. Suggesting that a social strategy focused on the community level can make the largest impact on all three levels (individual, community and humanity). By considering more than customer impact, a social strategy can look at a business's impact on the community and better understand its impact on humanity. This conclusion changes the role of the entrepreneur and business to be in the service of the community.

This paper develops a community‐level social strategy view to the double‐bottom line in subsistence markets or base of the pyramid.

The proliferation of mergers during the 70s and 80s has generated voluminous amounts of research with a primary focus on the impact to the shareholders from both the acquired and the acquiring firms. Relatively little research has been placed on the valuation process itself, especially within the international merger setting. To fill the void, this article details a valuation process based on capital budgeting. This approach is designed for use by foreign firms contemplating mergers or acquisitions across international borders. The framework may also be used to help explain the increasing numbers of non‐US acquisitions of US firms and to make inferences about divestiture and leveraged buy‐out (LBO) activity.

This study investigates how investors perceive the impact of U.S.‐based MNCs geographic and business segment diversification upon their earnings performance. Pooled cross‐sectional annual earnings response regressions for the years 1993 through 1997 are used for this investigation. Our results show that geographic segment diversification is valued by investors more than the business segment diversification especially in two cases: 1) when the business segmentation is low; and 2) when geographic segmentation is high. These results imply that business segment diversification is only valued when it takes place in international markets where it is relatively more difficult for individual investors to replicate industry diversified portfolio for themselves. Our research illuminates the contextual aspects of investors' perceptions of geographic and business segment diversification for multinational corporations by explicitly controlling for one dimension of corporate diversification while examining the earning‐returns impact of the other type of corporate diversification.

In order to portray the ethical and social responsibility implications of marketing potentially harmful products to vulnerable consumers in less developed countries, newly emerging democracies, and in newly industrializing countries, presents a descriptive model depicting relationships between the individual manager, the global company, the home market environment, the host market environment, the global business environment, and the target customer abroad. The model shows how these different influences may act on a manager to shape the ethical character of decisions affecting overseas consumers. Lays a conceptual basis for the argument presented in part two, supporting the need for moral champions. Recognizes and refutes counter‐arguments, assesses managerial implications and, in conclusion, outlines an agenda for future research.

The retail industry has experienced significant transformations driven by digitalization and the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. This chapter aims to explore the impact of digitalization on retail business models and understand consumer purchasing habits during emergencies. This chapter will examine the influence of scarcity and competitive arousal on consumer choices, the effects of stock-outs on brand and store preferences, price sensitivity, waiting times and the shift towards online shopping. Additionally, it will address concerns about social exclusion in digital channels and the potential for bridging the gap between offline and online shopping experiences.

This study contributes to the literature on sexual harassment by explicitly modeling race as a significant predictor of sexual harassment in combination with gender and occupation, rather than regarding each demographic characteristic (i.e. age, gender, race, marital status) as though experienced separately from all others. As represented in the larger literature on sexual harassment in the workplace, the female respondents in this study report more sexual harassment than men, though men do report sexual harassment. Moreover, the gender context (i.e., whether respondent’s occupation is predominantly female or male) of occupation makes a difference for both men and women. These results reveal that women are more likely to be reporting sexual harassment based upon demographic factors in the labor market and appear to be unaffected by labor force characteristics. The men, on the other hand, report more sexual harassment based upon occupational characteristics than demographic factors.

Citizens’ attitudes toward police (ATP) have declined dramatically in recent years, prompting many agencies to implement police–community relations programs designed to build back the community’s trust. Such programs are often time-intensive, requiring many hours to complete. The current study examined the impact of a brief (approximately 15 minutes) community relations intervention on citizens’ ATP and police use of force (UoF).

A sample of 104 citizens completed three UoF training exercises (i.e., the intervention) inside a video simulator at a municipal police department. Immediately before and after the intervention, citizens’ ATP and police UoF were recorded.

Despite having relatively favorable impressions of police at baseline, many attitudes grew to be more favorable following the intervention, including perceptions of job difficulty and the belief that police are treated too harshly by the media. While global impressions of the police did not change, citizens came to believe that greater UoF levels were warranted in specific types of encounters, such as when a suspect tries to strike an officer.

These findings suggest that providing citizens with an opportunity to experience UoF decision-making first-hand can positively impact certain ATP and police work. Law enforcement agencies may find that such brief, immersive interventions are useful tools for improving police–community relations.