In this paper, I demonstrate an alternative explanation to the development of the American electricity industry. I propose a social embeddedness approach (Granovetter, 1985, 1992…
Abstract
In this paper, I demonstrate an alternative explanation to the development of the American electricity industry. I propose a social embeddedness approach (Granovetter, 1985, 1992) to interpret why the American electricity industry appears the way it does today, and start by addressing the following questions: Why is the generating dynamo located in well‐connected central stations rather than in isolated stations? Why does not every manufacturing firm, hospital, school, or even household operate its own generating equipment? Why do we use incandescent lamps rather than arc lamps or gas lamps for lighting? At the end of the nineteenth century, the first era of the electricity industry, all these technical as well as organizational forms were indeed possible alternatives. The centralized systems we see today comprise integrated, urban, central station firms which produce and sell electricity to users within a monopolized territory. Yet there were visions of a more decentralized electricity industry. For instance, a geographically decentralized system might have dispersed small systems based around an isolated or neighborhood generating dynamo; or a functionally decentralized system which included firms solely generating and transmitting the power, and selling the power to locally‐owned distribution firms (McGuire, Granovetter, and Schwartz, forthcoming). Similarly, the incandescent lamp was not the only illuminating device available at that time. The arc lamp was more suitable for large‐space lighting than incandescent lamps; and the second‐generation gas lamp ‐ Welsbach mantle lamp ‐ was much cheaper than the incandescent electric light and nearly as good in quality (Passer, 1953:196–197).
Foo Nin Ho and Mark Patrick Gallagher
The purpose of this project was to explore and identify factors that influence a consumer to purchase wine during an afternoon of product sampling (wine tasting). A panel of…
Abstract
The purpose of this project was to explore and identify factors that influence a consumer to purchase wine during an afternoon of product sampling (wine tasting). A panel of consumers was recruited for an afternoon of wine tasting at vineyards in Napa, California. Several potential hedonistic, utilitarian and logistical factors (i.e. winery facilities, quality of the wine and order in which the winery was visited) were measured using a journal log that was maintained by participants following the tasting experience for a period of one‐month. The conclusions drawn from this study were that group size, confidence in one's ability to purchase wine and overall assessment of a vineyard's wine portfolio were more important than the hedonistic factors in terms of inducing a sale immediately following a taste.
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Lisa J. Aren, Susan J. Webreck and Mark Patrick
Although library costs continue to rise in respect to staff, materials, and general operating expenses, the budgets needed to maintain the expected level of services are not…
Abstract
Although library costs continue to rise in respect to staff, materials, and general operating expenses, the budgets needed to maintain the expected level of services are not keeping pace. And, in spite of a surge in interest in computing unit costs for budget justification, resource distribution, cost comparison, and forecasting, relatively few organizations have implemented full‐scale cost analyses.
Mark Patrick Baggett, Anne Bridges, Ken Wise, Sarah Tanner and Jennifer Mezick
Researchers at the University of Tennessee Libraries experimented with crowdsourcing to determine if contributions by members of the public could be utilized to add citations and…
Abstract
Purpose
Researchers at the University of Tennessee Libraries experimented with crowdsourcing to determine if contributions by members of the public could be utilized to add citations and subject tags to a new online bibliography, Database of the Smokies (DOTS: dots.lib.utk.edu). The paper aims to discuss this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
The database is built in Drupal, an open source platform that provides a crowdsourcing mechanism. The public was offered the opportunity to create accounts and add content to DOTS. After three months, the project team performed a transaction log analysis of user submissions in order to determine whether an editorial process was necessary.
Findings
This analysis revealed that 18 percent of database content was the result of crowdsourcing and that much of the content submitted by participants was either obscure or difficult to locate. The analysis also showed that while contributors added valuable citations, an editorial review process was necessary to ensure this crowdsourced content could be published in the database. In addition, contributor supplied subject tags were not of significant uniqueness or quantity to substantially influence the existing taxonomy. Finally, the publicity of the crowdsourcing feature allowed other institutions to contribute to the project and add rare material.
Originality/value
This paper offers a model for utilizing crowdsourcing to entice a sophisticated user group to help build a bibliographic database.
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A new Protection of Consumers (Trade Descriptions) law to replace existing legislation was before the House of Lords—it had a second reading and passed to the Committee stage but…
Abstract
A new Protection of Consumers (Trade Descriptions) law to replace existing legislation was before the House of Lords—it had a second reading and passed to the Committee stage but has now lapsed because of the Election —as the outcome of the Molony Committee on Consumer Protection which made its final report about three years ago. Merchandise Marks law has proved extremely valuable protection for the consumer in a wide field of misdescription and in the narrower sphere of food control a useful measure for supplementing Sect. 6, Food and Drugs Act, 1955, especially where the latter seems less suitable in application. The broad purpose of the Merchandise Marks Acts is to deal with misdescription of goods—false trade description—and as far as food is concerned, this is not always a matter of quality. On rare occasions it has been seen to work in reverse. In the curious case of Essex County Council v. Tuckwell (Butchers) Ltd., 1964, where the defendant had inadvertently supplied English instead of the New Zealand lamb ordered, generally accepted as being meat of better quality, the L.C.J. held that there was no defence against the charge of having sold meat with a false trade description.
This paper aims to analyze an important series of events in the history of marketing in socialist Europe and the internationalization of marketing thought and practice. Examining…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to analyze an important series of events in the history of marketing in socialist Europe and the internationalization of marketing thought and practice. Examining the reception of the marketing concept in communist Czechoslovakia, the study shows the effective blockage of the implementation of marketing approaches by orthodox communist authorities. The paper demonstrates the distinctiveness and importance of the Czechoslovak case and provides a basis for integrating that experience into the larger history of marketing under socialism.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on an extensive review of the most relevant Czech and Slovak primary sources including trade journals, manuals and textbooks in marketing and related fields, party and government documents and statements on commercial issues, and other important professional literature on domestic commerce.
Findings
The paper provides insights into the use of communist political power to suppress the use of marketing as contrary to the social and ideological goals of socialism. It identifies the rise of marketing approaches during a brief “marketing moment” following market-oriented economic reforms in 1965 and lasting through the “Prague Spring” of 1968. Following the restoration of orthodox communist control, new policies of “normalization” dictated the decline of marketing, which returned to its earlier status of near-invisibility. The suppression of marketing thought and practice lasted until the end of communist rule in 1989.
Originality/value
This paper analyzes an unexamined case of marketing in a socialist society and places the case in broader comparative context.
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THIS country is suffering from a serious shortage of skilled workers. This fact was brought into sharp focus when John Brown, the famous shipbuilders, announced two weeks ago that…
Abstract
THIS country is suffering from a serious shortage of skilled workers. This fact was brought into sharp focus when John Brown, the famous shipbuilders, announced two weeks ago that it had been necessary for them to decline a £5 million order because of a lack of labour in the steel and allied trades. The firm and the size of the potential order ensured national attention, but it cannot be accepted as an isolated instance. When the Ministry of Labour tells us that although 3,124 mostly skilled men entered shipbuilding and marine engineering during the last five weeks for which figures are available, but that there remained 2,860 unfilled jobs, or that 3,264 taken into metal manufacturing left 4,637 vacancies, there is need for concern and investigation.
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Satohiro Serizawa and Soichiro Sunami
The purpose of this paper is to investigate educational functions of the World Heritage Site by examining the case of cultural tourism in a Japanese Buddhist temple.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate educational functions of the World Heritage Site by examining the case of cultural tourism in a Japanese Buddhist temple.
Design/methodology/approach
Japan accepted the World Heritage Convention in 1992. “Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara” were decided to be listed on the World Cultural Heritage in 1998. It was composed of buildings, monuments and related cultural landscape, including five Buddhist temples and one Shinto shrine. Among them, the Gango-ji, focused in this paper, is one of the oldest Buddhist temples in Japan.
Findings
It has been keeping many cultural properties related to the folk religious practice and providing many activities for the local community. The material culture of folk-belief is now preserved in a building in the temple yard. And there is an exhibition room. The main hall and the exhibition room are the important facilities for social education, where the visitors can watch and touch the real materials. According to the staffs of the temple, the tourists had better stay in the main hall after 1 h study at the exhibition room.
Originality/value
Heritage is a process of the contemporary people engaging in the usage of past as resources. The buildings as the tangible heritage used by the present community are combined with the actions as the intangible heritage of the people who preserve the heritage. The temporal tourists are also permitted to enjoy the process as participants. They can learn many things through their experiences at the heritage site.