Chethan D. Srikant and Patrick Donovan
Companies may spend capital and effort to ensure the survival within their niche but have limited capacity to expand into other niches or broaden their target segment. This paper…
Abstract
Purpose
Companies may spend capital and effort to ensure the survival within their niche but have limited capacity to expand into other niches or broaden their target segment. This paper aims to provide insights into how they can overcome this niche entrapment – companies becoming trapped in the very niche they have cultivated, the weight and inertia of their investment shackling them to its continued existence.
Design/methodology/approach
Cedar Fair’s acquisitions and its organizational structure are carefully examined to illustrate the need for considering niche entrapment as a concept. To understand the complexities that firms face in their attempts to overcome the niche entrapment, this paper analyzes Cedar Fair using the concepts of categories and inherited identities.
Findings
The following important lessons are elaborated for helping business organizations overcome niche entrapment: embrace the organizational complexity; use gateway and complementary identities; consider brand disassociation; and achieve ambidexterity through a portfolio of offering.
Originality/value
This paper deviates from the traditional treatment of niches as a focus strategy that firms can select to build competitive advantages but instead provides insights into how those very niches can become constraints. It also conceptually evaluates the attempts to overcome these constraints from an organizational perspective instead of an industry perspective. Apart from using categories in a novel way, it also introduces a new concept of inherited identities, which are the organizational identities that firms inherit as they acquire and assimilate other firms.
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This article suggests that Patrick Pearse’s thought and work was rooted in the child‐centred movement of the late nineteenth‐century, was informed by the tenets of progressivism…
Abstract
This article suggests that Patrick Pearse’s thought and work was rooted in the child‐centred movement of the late nineteenth‐century, was informed by the tenets of progressivism and predated the work of later influential educational thinkers. It is further argued that Pearse developed a unique conceptualisation of schooling as a radical form of political and cultural dissent in pre‐1916 Ireland. Aspects of Pearse’s thought that are evidently problematic are highlighted and the article suggests that discussions of his work might benefit from moving to these more substantial and germane areas.
Lianzhuang Qu and Patrick Y. K. Chau
Although considerable evidence shows that online product reviews (OPRs) can greatly affect consumers, how interface designs of OPR systems (i.e. websites where consumers read and…
Abstract
Purpose
Although considerable evidence shows that online product reviews (OPRs) can greatly affect consumers, how interface designs of OPR systems (i.e. websites where consumers read and write OPRs) impact online buying behavior has not yet been well investigated. Using research on confidence in judgment and the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) framework, this study aims to develop a model of the effects of OPR system design on consumer purchase behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
A study using a two by two by two factorial experimental design was conducted. The structural model with AMOS 23 based on 319 useable data points was tested.
Findings
Findings are very interesting. First, designs that manipulate positions of reviews impact perceived value but surprisingly have no effects on confidence in judgment. Second, designs using default display order based on helpfulness votes rather than on recency of reviews increase confidence to a higher level. Third, although unstructured organization methods are used by many major OPR systems, they are inferior in enhancing consumers’ emotional reactions to structured ones.
Research limitations/implications
This paper highlights the need for more academic research on how interface designs of online product review systems impact purchase behavior. Additionally, this study emphasizes the need for examining how confidence in judgment is impacted in the online environment.
Practical implications
For practitioners, this research provides them with design implications on how to increase consumer purchase behavior.
Originality/value
This research enhances the understanding of the effects of OPR system interface design on purchase behavior. In addition, the current paper sheds light on how confidence in judgment, given its importance in reducing online consumer’s hesitance to buy, is impacted by various interface designs of OPR systems. Furthermore, this study applies the SOR framework to the context of OPR system designs.
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There exists a rich sociological literature dealing with secularisation. Such nineteenth‐century sociologists as Weber and Durkheim and twentieth‐century sociologists as Greeley…
Abstract
There exists a rich sociological literature dealing with secularisation. Such nineteenth‐century sociologists as Weber and Durkheim and twentieth‐century sociologists as Greeley, Bellah, Berger and Wilson have contributed. Berger refers to secularisation as “the process by which sectors of society and culture are removed from the domination of religious institutions and symbols”, while Wilson defines it as “the process whereby religious thinking, practices and institutions lose social significance”. These definitions represent the thrust of academic thinking about secularisation. Generally, social scientists interpret secularisation as the decline of religiosity — a movement from faith to reason. They cite numerous indicators of the change: decline in such areas as church attendance, praying, use of religious rites and rituals, recruitment to the church bureaucracy, church construction. Often they suggest a kind of inevitability relating to urbanisation and industrialisation. The focus of the process involves man becoming less concerned with the spiritual and more concerned with the mundane. Eventually, the spiritual becomes irrelevant; the Age of Enlightenment triumphs over the Age of Faith.
Hayley E. Christian, Gavin R. McCormack, Kelly R. Evenson and Clover Maitland
This chapter aims to review evidence of the relationships between dog ownership, dog walking and overall walking and the factors associated with dog walking. It reviews the…
Abstract
This chapter aims to review evidence of the relationships between dog ownership, dog walking and overall walking and the factors associated with dog walking. It reviews the evidence using a social ecological framework. The chapter finds that dog ownership and dog walking are associated with higher levels of walking. A number of social ecological factors are associated with dog walking. Motivation and social support provided by the dog to walk and a sense of responsibility to walk the dog are associated with higher levels of dog walking. Positive social pressure from family, friends, dog owners and veterinarians is also associated with higher levels of dog walking. Built and policy environmental characteristics influence dog walking, including dog-specific factors such as access to local attractive public open space with dog-supportive features (off-leash, dog waste bags, trash cans, signage), pet-friendly destinations (cafes, transit, workplaces, accommodation) and local laws that support dog walking. Large-scale intervention studies are required to determine the effect of increased dog walking on overall walking levels. Experimental study designs, such as natural and quasi-experiments, are needed to provide stronger evidence for causal associations between the built and policy environments and dog walking. Given the potential of dog walking to increase population-levels of walking, urban, park and recreational planners need to design neighbourhood environments that are supportive of dog walking and other physical activity. Advocacy for dog walking policy-relevant initiatives are needed to support dog walking friendly environments. Health promotion practitioners should make dog walking a key strategy in social marketing campaigns.
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Åsne Stige, Efpraxia D. Zamani, Patrick Mikalef and Yuzhen Zhu
The aim of this article is to map the use of AI in the user experience (UX) design process. Disrupting the UX process by introducing novel digital tools such as artificial…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this article is to map the use of AI in the user experience (UX) design process. Disrupting the UX process by introducing novel digital tools such as artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to improve efficiency and accuracy, while creating more innovative and creative solutions. Thus, understanding how AI can be leveraged for UX has important research and practical implications.
Design/methodology/approach
This article builds on a systematic literature review approach and aims to understand how AI is used in UX design today, as well as uncover some prominent themes for future research. Through a process of selection and filtering, 46 research articles are analysed, with findings synthesized based on a user-centred design and development process.
Findings
The authors’ analysis shows how AI is leveraged in the UX design process at different key areas. Namely, these include understanding the context of use, uncovering user requirements, aiding solution design, and evaluating design, and for assisting development of solutions. The authors also highlight the ways in which AI is changing the UX design process through illustrative examples.
Originality/value
While there is increased interest in the use of AI in organizations, there is still limited work on how AI can be introduced into processes that depend heavily on human creativity and input. Thus, the authors show the ways in which AI can enhance such activities and assume tasks that have been typically performed by humans.
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Danielle Lecointre-Erickson, Bruno Daucé and Patrick Legohérel
The global aim of this paper is to provide managerial and theoretical contributions in order to guide retailers in their decision to invest in interactive storefront technology…
Abstract
Purpose
The global aim of this paper is to provide managerial and theoretical contributions in order to guide retailers in their decision to invest in interactive storefront technology and to fill in the gaps in the literature in regards to the influence and the role of exterior atmospheric variables in brick-and-mortar retail experience. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of interactive technology in window displays and its influence on consumers’ affective responses, expected shopping experience and behavioural intentions at the point of sale.
Design/methodology/approach
The design of the study is founded in the presence (=1) vs absence (=0) of interactive technology in the window display. A partial least squares–structural equation modelling (PLS–SEM) approach is used to analyse the structural model and the correlations between the variables.
Findings
This paper finds that the technology has a significant influence on arousal, and that expected shopping experience has a significant influence on patronage intentions.
Research limitations/implications
This study was conducted on French individuals in a tourist bureau setting. The study should be replicated in other retail settings in order to improve the generalisation of the findings.
Originality/value
This study is the first to experimentally test the influence of an interactive storefront display in retailing. This paper also contributes to the retailing literature on exterior atmospheric variables.
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Sima Hamadeh and Marie Marquis
The purpose of this paper is to explore the pertinence of using an integrated conceptual framework based on several theories and models to guide interviews with adults and youth…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the pertinence of using an integrated conceptual framework based on several theories and models to guide interviews with adults and youth as a prelude to school nutrition policy (SNP) deployment.
Design/methodology/approach
Appropriate socio-behavioral and communication theories and models within a social marketing approach were used to build the integrated conceptual framework of this study. The target population consists of 115 multidisciplinary key stakeholders in Lebanon. Directed and semi-structured individual interviews and focus groups were conducted by using questionnaires associated with the variables of the framework. Collected data have been submitted to a thematic qualitative analysis.
Findings
Combining theories and models increases the potential for understanding the broader determinants of SNP deployment. It is important to choose a holistic theoretical perspective: to study key stakeholders’ perceptions of the facilitators and barriers of SNP development and implementation, to emphasize the active participation of communities and to guide the work of policy and decision makers.
Practical implications
This research offers perspectives on determinants factors envisaged in the deployment of SNP that help key stakeholders in their promotion and communication practices.
Social implications
For public policy makers, this research suggests a need to address communities perceptions’ of an eventual SNP deployment.
Originality/value
The comprehensive integrated conceptual framework proposed in this study amalgamates several variables involved in the process of health promotion under various categories to facilitate SNP deployment.