Michael Pascoe, Owen Wright and Hume Winzar
The purpose of this paper is to review and extend previous work involving branding and website performance and aesthetics by applying a best-worst scaling (BWS) approach…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to review and extend previous work involving branding and website performance and aesthetics by applying a best-worst scaling (BWS) approach. Respondents were tasked with choosing the best and worst from 16-brand attribute statements representing website communications and aesthetics, a more effective understanding of consumer segmentation is revealed between the offline facility to the online retail experience.
Design/methodology/approach
A research design utilising BWS was deployed to provide an alternate perspective of consumer choice in an omni-channel retail environment.
Findings
Findings indicate a bifurcated audience with one-half reliant on communication and the other half on aesthetics is most important in the online environment when generating a positive relationship towards the retail brand.
Research limitations/implications
This study was conducted within a single retail format category (sportswear and apparel) so future studies need to estimate cross-category implications. The authors also suggest online experimental designs for consumers to compare traditional retail brand images. Finally as this study utilised Australian responses only the authors suggest cross-cultural comparisons to better understand the universal nature of website functionality and its link with traditional retail formats.
Practical implications
Retail executives will find the results from this study useful in two ways. To ensure consistency of brand image across channels managers must communicate efficiently and effectively. Brand managers must mediate between customer segments with some preferring clear concise website communications and others well established aesthetics.
Originality/value
This study adopts a BWS approach to better understand consumer choices in an online/offline branding environment.
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Alexandru Gabriel Radu, Denni Arli, Jiraporn Surachartkumtonkun, Scott Weaven and Owen Wright
The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of empathy and apology in service recovery, and more specifically, establish how these factors promote positive service outcomes…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of empathy and apology in service recovery, and more specifically, establish how these factors promote positive service outcomes, typified by reconciliation and mitigate negative occurrences, characterised by customer retaliation and avoidance.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used an online panel to collect data from 213 US residents, who were asked to recall a service failure episode they experienced within the past six months, write briefly about it and answer a questionnaire measuring constructs of interest in relation to their previous experience. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse the quantitative data.
Findings
Both service employee empathy and apology were found to have a moderating effect on the relationship between service failure severity and reconciliation, retaliation and avoidance.
Originality/value
The combination of empathy and apology as moderators into a single framework represents a unique contribution of this research. Furthermore, outcome variables of reconciliation, retaliation and avoidance are utlilized to measure relationship outcomes following service failure. This study highlights the need for managers to design hiring and training policies to promote empathy and the use of sincere apologies throughout customer interactions.
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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.
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Crystal L. Owen, Robert F. Scherer, Michael Z. Sincoff and Mark Cordano
The objective of the current study was to determine if stereotypical perceptions of women as managers existed among men and women in two different cultural settings, the U.S. and…
Abstract
The objective of the current study was to determine if stereotypical perceptions of women as managers existed among men and women in two different cultural settings, the U.S. and Chile. Using the Women as Managers Scale (WAMS), 412 participants from the U.S. and Chile responded to questions about their perceptions of women performing managerial roles and tasks. Gender and culture effects were identified at both the multivariate and univariate levels.1 The results showed that male subjects in both cultures had more stereotypical and negative perceptions of women as managers than did female subjects, and the U.S. participants (both male and female) had more positive and less stereotypical perceptions of women as managers than the Chilean participants. Implications for research and practice in cross‐cultural and international management are discussed.
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Allison Dunn, Lori L. Moore, Krista J. Bailey, Summer F. Odom and Gary A. Briers
Currently, more students receive leadership education from student affairs offerings than academic leadership courses. Using two simultaneous Delphi panels, Group A – 17 student…
Abstract
Currently, more students receive leadership education from student affairs offerings than academic leadership courses. Using two simultaneous Delphi panels, Group A – 17 student affairs managers and Group B – 20 student affairs preparatory program faculty members, this study sought to identify the characteristics of a student affairs leadership educator. While there was agreement (93.8%, n = 32) that student affairs practitioners are leadership educators, there was a disconnect between the two panels in how leadership education should be demonstrated within the context of student affairs. These findings support previous research that student affairs practitioners and preparatory program faculty disagree on the characteristics needed to be a successful student affairs practitioner and expands the impact of these findings into the area of leadership education.
The divergent interests of franchisor and franchisee give rise to significant ex-post conflict following the purchase of a franchise. Australian regulators have sought to assist…
Abstract
Purpose
The divergent interests of franchisor and franchisee give rise to significant ex-post conflict following the purchase of a franchise. Australian regulators have sought to assist transparency in franchising decision making by legislating for disclosure documents that expose key variables that theoretically determine choice on the part of prospective franchisees. The purpose of this paper is to explore the value proposition of the disclosure document and tests its normative effectiveness using a signal-theoretic perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
Potential investors were asked to consider selected attributes through a choice-based survey, consistent with consumer theory, and focussing on an attribute-based determination of value. However, complex decision making in general and choice modeling can place severe cognitive burdens on respondents and induce satisficing rather than maximizing behavioral patterns. Best-worst scaling (BWS) provided a means for potential purchasers to respond coherently.
Findings
Findings indicate limited capacity for potential investors to rationalize the simplistic choices presented, suggesting that franchise choice is determined to a large degree by non-rational factors.
Research limitations/implications
This research is embryonic (exploratory) in nature with the findings providing an imperative for further investigation into workable attributes of franchise systems. Analysis is limited to prospective franchisees’ perceptions and needs to be triangulated with franchisor and policy-makers perspectives.
Practical implications
Both franchisors and policy makers can utilize this research to improve transparency in the disclosure document. Prospective franchisees should then be able to make more effective decisions about the franchise systems of choice.
Social implications
A reduction in conflict within the franchising sector (no matter how trivial) will improve the business operations, franchisee and employee welfare throughout the sector. Progress on this topic will improve the sustainability and overall attractiveness of the sector.
Originality/value
Conjoint analysis has not been used previously in franchising research. The use of BWS on prospective franchisee perceptions is innovative providing a basis for much research to be done in this field of research.
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Although research in franchising is currently experiencing an advancement in the investigation of behavioural attributes, the motivators and perceptions of participants within…
Abstract
Purpose
Although research in franchising is currently experiencing an advancement in the investigation of behavioural attributes, the motivators and perceptions of participants within this partnership, the key variables of trust and commitment, a key to successful business relations, requires further insight. The purpose of this paper is to extend the idiosyncratic dynamics of the franchisor‐franchisee relationship and the influence of such constructs from a distance perspective. Seminal work on relationship marketing (Morgan and Hunt) forms the foundation in the development of the franchising relational dynamics model posed within this paper.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper adopts a qualitative, case‐based approach of four Australian retail franchises with holdings in New Zealand. In‐depth interviews were conducted with 20 franchisees to derive perceptions on trust and commitment currently experienced within the franchise relationship to inform the resultant findings.
Findings
Key findings suggest trust and commitment are limited or non‐existent within franchise systems if the provision of consistent, transparent communication is absent or minimal, increasing the propensity for dysfunctional agent‐based behaviour. Three major antecedents for success of a franchise system exist: goal congruence, organisational culture, and communication. Minimal levels of commitment and trust exist where distance affects the stated antecedents.
Research limitations/implications
This research is exploratory with the findings providing an imperative for further investigation in the management of human factors within franchise systems as opposed to transactional‐based foci in many current studies. Theoretical development adopting a relationship marketing focus from a distance perspective rather than the transaction‐based approach of a single country adds to existing research. This paper is limited to analysis of franchisees' perceptions. Future research should look at both franchisor and franchisee perspectives.
Originality/value
Research of perceptions of individual franchisees, trust and commitment within the franchise relationship is limited within the Asia‐Pacific region. Findings of possible dynamic differences in the franchisor/franchisee dyad provide initial evidence advancing and informing both academic and managerial practice.
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As a person, the author is a sum of her experiences. Whether those experiences are good, bad, or indifferent. The author has learned who she is, how to handle situations and the…
Abstract
As a person, the author is a sum of her experiences. Whether those experiences are good, bad, or indifferent. The author has learned who she is, how to handle situations and the value of always being honest with others and herself. The sum of these experiences has helped her to be a professional person and to navigate the higher education environment. The author is proud of her contributions to students, as an advocate, to teacher education with the students she encountered, and financially by making contributions to the Foundation. The author truly enjoyed her experiences in higher education and is thankful for the opportunity to pursue a doctorate. As a first-generation college student hailing from a town with a population of 5,900 (1972), the author had monumental experiences. She was able to accomplish her desire to travel, be an author, and work at an HBCU before retiring. It is her hope that what is read from her writing will be enlightening for the life of anyone who reads it.
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Although the Food and Drugs (Amendment) Bill was formally presented to the House of Commons and read a first time on March 1st, time for its second reading had not been found when…
Abstract
Although the Food and Drugs (Amendment) Bill was formally presented to the House of Commons and read a first time on March 1st, time for its second reading had not been found when the House adjourned for the Whitsuntide recess, in spite of the fact that Her Majesty's Government had applied the guillotine to the proceedings on the highly contentious Television Bill in the Committee stage. Moreover, the Finance Bill, though some progress has been made in dealing with amendments, will still need some days for the discussion of a large number of amendments and proposed new clauses of which notice has been given by members of different political allegiances. On May 26th the Leader of the House was asked by a Labour member whether trade interests had been pulling strings with the object of delaying the second reading of the Food and Drugs (Amendment) Bill. Mr. Crookshank, while discouraging the suggestion, did not seem ready to give any definite information with respect to the date when progress is likely to be made. Meanwhile, The Economist has published a letter from Mr. C. A. Adams, C.B.E, (whose exceptionally strong qualifications to write with authority are well known to administrators of Food and Drug law), suggesting that there is a strong case for enlarging the scope of the Amendment Bill so as to include cosmetics, as has been found desirable and practicable in Canada and in the United States. The British Food Journal is not hopeful that a Government which has scrapped the Labelling Advisory Service of the Ministry of Food will adopt Mr. Adams's excellent advice, nor that it will recognise that changes in circumstances since 1875 make it desirable now to eliminate the control of modern medicinal products—incapable of being chemically analysed—from the scope of an Act intended mainly to deal with food. But it is at least permissible to hope that legislators will not be so foolish as to agree in this session to the multiplication of small Food and Drugs Authorities, pending the long‐delayed reform in the structure of local government. On the unwisdom of this multiplication, Mr. H. E. Monk, B.Sc., F.R.I.C., public analyst for Kent and for many boroughs and urban districts in that county, is submitting some thoroughly wise comments in a paper on Food Standards which he is to present to the Institute of Weights and Measures Administration on June 23rd.
The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) of 1977 and its amendment – the Trade and Competitive Act of 1988 – are unique not only in the history of the accounting and auditing…
Abstract
The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) of 1977 and its amendment – the Trade and Competitive Act of 1988 – are unique not only in the history of the accounting and auditing profession, but also in international law. The Acts raised awareness of the need for efficient and adequate internal control systems to prevent illegal acts such as the bribery of foreign officials, political parties and governments to secure or maintain contracts overseas. Its uniqueness is also due to the fact that the USA is the first country to pioneer such a legislation that impacted foreign trade, international law and codes of ethics. The research traces the history of the FCPA before and after its enactment, the role played by the various branches of the United States Government – Congress, Department of Justice, Securities Exchange commission (SEC), Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS); the contributions made by professional associations such as the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICFA), the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), the American Bar Association (ABA); and, finally, the role played by various international organizations such as the United Nations (UN), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC). A cultural, ethical and legalistic background will give a better understanding of the FCPA as wll as the rationale for its controversy.