Search results

As consumers interact with various small businesses, they develop a mental image, called a prototype, to represent what small businesses are as a generalized, conceptual category. However, prior research has said little about what this small business prototype entails. Thus, the aim of this study is to explore consumers’ perceptions of the prototypical small business by identifying common attributes among small businesses that differentiate them from large businesses.

This study undertakes a thorough review of the relevant consumer research literature for the attributes that consumers use to evaluate small businesses. Then, using a contemporary parallel analysis approach, it conducts an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) on a sample of 266 university students who were asked to evaluate how common those attributes are of small businesses. A second comparative EFA for large businesses is also conducted.

The EFA reveals two dimensions on which consumers evaluate small businesses: a sincere–authentic dimension and a disruptive–innovative dimension. Specifically, consumers view the prototypical small business to be relatively high on sincere–authentic and moderate on disruptive–innovative dimensions.

Through a comprehensive literature review and exploratory analysis, this study provides a novel understanding of consumers’ conceptualizations of small businesses. In studying the mental image consumers associate with the prototypical small business, this research fills a significant gap in the existing literature and provides important insights for practitioners and researchers alike.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to generate insight into the experiences of Syrian academics in exile in Turkey; and second, to explore approaches to collaboration and community building among academics in exile and with counterparts in the international academic community.

The study employs a hybrid visual-autobiographical narrative methodology, embedded within a large group process (LGP) design.

Findings are presented in two phases: the first phase presents a thematic analysis of narrative data, revealing the common and divergent experiences of 12 exiled academics. The second phase presents a reflective evaluation of undertaking the LGP and its implications for community building and sustaining Syrian academia in exile.

While this is a qualitative study with a small participant group, and therefore does not provide a basis for statistical generalisation, it offers rich insight into Syrian academics’ lived experiences of exile, and into strategies implemented to support the Syrian academic community in exile.

The study has practical implications for academic development in the contexts of conflict and exile; community building among dispersed academic communities; educational interventions by international NGOs and the international academic community; and group process design.

The study makes an original contribution to the limited literature on post-2011 Syrian higher education by giving voice to a community of exiled academics, and by critically evaluating a strategic initiative for supporting and sustaining Syrian academia. This represents significant, transferable insight for comparable contexts.

Describes the cross‐cultural training content of a management development programme in a multinational. Concentrates on a series of half‐day intercultural workshops held for each of the company’s five Peer Groups which were preceded by a questionnaire to all participants. The workshop was first run for Peer Group chairmen. The first session examines why acculturation training is vital for business. The participants examine cross‐cultural issues involved in building and sustaining multinational teams and the problems of participating in multicultural meetings. Group members then consider the required characteristics of an effective member of an international Peer Group and finally evaluate the areas discussed and the techniques for developing cultural synergy.

Data from sophisticated portable heart‐rate monitors and “work diaries” were used to relate in Mintzberg's “nature of managerial work” to physiological stress in a small sample of working principals. Subjects were categorised by years of experience, Type A and Type B personality, and were “shadowed” for three complete work days in their schools doing regular activities to learn what management functions were stressful. Principals were found to be working under extreme stress (a few at catastrophically high levels), for long hours, and that certain managerial activities were more physiologically stressful than others. Implications for training, deployment and the use of bio‐feedback techniques are discussed.