Susan Lee Taylor and Robert M. Cosenza
Retailers agree that segmenting and developing an understanding of target segments are important inputs to differentiating products and enhancing shopping propensity. Most…
Abstract
Retailers agree that segmenting and developing an understanding of target segments are important inputs to differentiating products and enhancing shopping propensity. Most shopping behavior and choice profiling tends to generalize rather than develop useful segment information. Thus, most results are not useful for targeting and positioning. A survey was conducted to examine shopping choice behavior of a very important and economically viable segment of this teen market called the “later aged female teen”. It was found that a typical later aged female teen was born to shop. Making the right choice, especially for her clothing, is important both from a social affiliation and a social influence position. This group felt brand (fit, look, and style) to be the most important attribute to consider in apparel choice and later aged female teens wanted excitement in their shopping venue. Shopping was important and there were risks associated with an incorrect choice of their clothing. Finally, the desire to stay and shop at the local mall seemed to be a function of the mall composition and excitement.
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Tracy Anna Rickman and Robert M. Cosenza
The purpose of this paper is to examine the theoretical/conceptual development and application of weblog‐textmining to fashion forecasting in general and street fashion trending…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the theoretical/conceptual development and application of weblog‐textmining to fashion forecasting in general and street fashion trending in particular.
Design/methodology/approach
The current methods of forecasting cannot keep pace with the changing dynamics of the marketplace – mostly due to the rampant diffusion of data/information. The company that can tap the continual flow of data/information in the present, contrast it with a stored set of information from the past, and adjust based on repeated cycles, will have the best insight into the lingering trend, changing trend, or dynamic trend. The paper uses a simple example to explain blog trend analysis using Nielsen BuzzMetrics' BlogPulse.
Findings
The study finds that to make fashion weblog forecasting a reality, there needs to be a rich accumulation of fashion communication in structured blogs. In addition, there needs to be a classification of the various forms of industry web text, web venue. Furthermore, rich research traditions must be in place to chronicle the cultural, behavioral, linguistic, socioeconomic, and communication behaviors over time for the weblog and the fashion weblogger in particular.
Practical implications
The changing dynamics of the fashion business makes it a good example for understanding the weblog‐text mining approach developed in this paper.
Originality/value
The understanding and implementation of trend forecasting using blogs as data mining sources will add another dimension of forecasting techniques to survive the multi‐channel revolution in fashion marketing.
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Chiang-nan Chao, Robert J. Mockler and Dorothy G. Dologite
This research focuses on several important strategic concerns for multinational corporations (MNCs) which are exploring strategic alliances in the China market. The results…
Abstract
This research focuses on several important strategic concerns for multinational corporations (MNCs) which are exploring strategic alliances in the China market. The results suggest that multinational corporations need to assess and re-assess continuously the business conditions in China, in order to understand this market better and be successful in future business dealings with China, a market that still has great growth potential. The significant differences exist between Western MNCs’ executives and their Chinese counterparts. The results also suggest that MNCs should focus on joint venture partners’ marketing capabilities, and bridge the differences between the joint venture partners.
In 1899 the medical practitioners of Dublin were confronted with an outbreak of a peculiar and obscure illness, characterised by symptoms which were very unusual. For want of a…
Abstract
In 1899 the medical practitioners of Dublin were confronted with an outbreak of a peculiar and obscure illness, characterised by symptoms which were very unusual. For want of a better explanation, the disorder, which seemed to be epidemic, was explained by the simple expedient of finding a name for it. It was labelled as “beri‐beri,” a tropical disease with very much the same clinical and pathological features as those observed at Dublin. Papers were read before certain societies, and then as the cases gradually diminished in number, the subject lost interest and was dropped.
The latest information from the magazine chemist is extremely valuable. He has dealt with milk‐adulteration and how it is done. His advice, if followed, might, however, speedily…
Abstract
The latest information from the magazine chemist is extremely valuable. He has dealt with milk‐adulteration and how it is done. His advice, if followed, might, however, speedily bring the manipulating dealer before a magistrate, since the learned writer's recipe is to take a milk having a specific gravity of 1030, and skim it until the gravity is raised to 1036; then add 20 per cent. of water, so that the gravity may be reduced to 1030, and the thing is done. The advice to serve as “fresh from the cow,” preferably in a well‐battered milk‐measure, might perhaps have been added to this analytical gem.
The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to the work of sociologists who laid the foundation for queer and crip approaches to disability and to address how queer and crip…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to the work of sociologists who laid the foundation for queer and crip approaches to disability and to address how queer and crip theory has and can help to re-conceptualize our understandings of health, illness, disability, and sexuality.
Methodology/approach
This paper is an examination of historical moments and prominent literature within medical sociology and sociology of disability. Sociological and popular understandings of disability and sexuality have often mirrored each other historically. Although this literature review focuses primarily on medical sociology and disability studies literature, some works of scholars specializing in gender studies, sexuality, literature, history, and queer studies are also included
Findings
In this paper, I argue that the medicalization and pathologization of human differences specifically as it pertains to sexuality and disability within the medical sociological literature have led to constructionist, social model, and feminist critiques. It is these critiques that then laid the foundation for the development of queer and crip theoretical approaches to both disability and sexuality.
Originality/value
Crip and queer approaches to disability provide a clear call for future sociological research. Few social science scholars have applied queer and crip approaches in empirical studies on disability. The majority of work in this area is located in the humanities and concerned with literary criticism. A broader array of empirical work on the intersection of sexuality and disability from queer/crip perspectives is needed both to refine these postmodern theoretical models and to examine their implications for the complex lived experience that lies at the intersection of sexuality and disability. In queering disability and cripping sexuality and gender, we may be able not only to more fully conceptualize disability, sexuality, and gender as individual social categories, but also to more fully understand the complex intersection of these social locations.
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Stefano Malagoli, Carlo Alberto Magni and Giovanni Mastroleo
The purpose of the paper is to focus on the rating, ranking and valuing of firms.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the paper is to focus on the rating, ranking and valuing of firms.
Design/methodology/approach
Fuzzy logic and expert systems are used in order to provide a score for the firm(s) under consideration, representing the firm value‐creating power.
Findings
The fuzzy expert system introduced is capable of dealing with both quantitative and qualitative variables and integrates financial, managerial and strategic variables. A sensitivity analysis corroborates the model.
Research limitations/implications
The system is apt to rate and rank firms within a sector. Some regression analysis can lead to a determined price for the target firm.
Practical implications
The expert system may be used by rating agencies for ranking firms, and by financial analysts and potential buyers to furnish a price for acquisition.
Originality/value
The use of a fuzzy expert system for ranking firms within a sector and pricing firms is a first attempt at an alternative way of measuring performance and value.
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A pæan of joy and triumph which speaks for itself, and which is a very true indication of how the question of poisonous adulteration is viewed by certain sections of “the trade,”…
Abstract
A pæan of joy and triumph which speaks for itself, and which is a very true indication of how the question of poisonous adulteration is viewed by certain sections of “the trade,” and by certain of the smaller and irresponsible trade organs, has appeared in print. It would seem that the thanks of “the trade” are due to the defendants in the case heard at the Liverpool Police Court for having obtained an official acknowledgment that the use of salicylic acid and of other preservatives, even in large amounts, in wines and suchlike articles, is not only allowable, but is really necessary for the proper keeping of the product. It must have been a charming change in the general proceedings at the Liverpool Court to listen to a “preservatives” case conducted before a magistrate who evidently realises that manufacturers, in these days, in order to make a “decent” profit, have to use the cheapest materials they can buy, and cannot afford to pick and choose; and that they have therefore “been compelled” to put preservatives into their articles so as to prevent their going bad. He was evidently not to be misled by the usual statement that such substances should not be used because they are injurious to health— as though that could be thought to have anything to do with the much more important fact that the public “really want” to have an article supplied to them which is cheap, and yet keeps well. Besides, many doctors and professors were brought forward to prove that they had never known a case of fatal poisoning due to the use of salicylic acid as a preservative. Unfortunately, it is only the big firms that can manage to bring forward such admirable and learned witnesses, and the smaller firms have to suffer persecution by faddists and others who attempt to obtain the public notice by pretending to be solicitous about the public health. Altogether the prosecution did not have a pleasant time, for the magistrate showed his appreciation of the evidence of one of the witnesses by humorously rallying him about his experiments with kittens, as though any‐one could presume to judge from experiments on brute beasts what would be the effect on human beings—the “lords of creation.” Everyone reading the evidence will be struck by the fact that the defendant stated that he had once tried to brew without preservatives, but with the only result that the entire lot “went bad.” All manufacturers of his own type will sympathise with him, since, of course, there is no practicable way of getting over this trouble except by the use of preservatives; although the above‐mentioned faddists are so unkind as to state that if everything is clean the article will keep. But this must surely be sheer theory, for it cannot be supposed that there can be any manufacturer of this class of article who would be foolish enough to think he could run his business at a profit, and yet go to all the expense of having the returned empties washed out before refilling, and of paying the heavy price asked for the best crude materials, when he has to compete with rival firms, who can use practically anything, and yet turn out an article equal in every way from a selling point of view, and one that will keep sufficiently, by the simple (and cheap) expedient of throwing theory on one side, and by pinning their faith to a preservative which has now received the approval of a magistrate. Manufacturers who use preservatives, whether they are makers of wines or are dairymen, and all similar tradesmen, should join together to protect their interests, for, as they must all admit, “the welfare of the trade” is the chief thing they have to consider, and any other interest must come second, if it is to come in at all. Now is the time for action, for the Commission appointed to inquire into the use of preservatives in foods has not yet given its decision, and there is still time for a properly‐conducted campaign, backed up by those “influential members of the trade” of whom we hear so much, and aided by such far‐reaching and brilliant magisterial decisions, to force these opinions prominently forward, in spite of the prejudice of the public; and to insure to the trades interested the unfettered use of preservatives,—which save “the trade” hundreds of thousands of pounds every year, by enabling the manufacturers to dispense with heavily‐priced apparatus, with extra workmen and with the use of expensive materials,—and which are urgently asked for by the public,—since we all prefer to have our foods drugged than to have them pure.
Anthony Samuel, Cathy McGouran, Robert J. Thomas, Gareth Reginald and Terence White
Places have deep-seated meaning and serve to shape our social grouping and practices. Sporting stadia are a highly influential aspect of many people’s lives that drive the…
Abstract
Purpose
Places have deep-seated meaning and serve to shape our social grouping and practices. Sporting stadia are a highly influential aspect of many people’s lives that drive the inexorable journey towards team affiliation, immersive experiences, intense loyalty and the creation of an enduring, local identity. This paper aims to explore how the nature of a sporting place has been shaped to change the practice of football as a sport, as a business and as entertainment. This paper uncovers how Forest Green Rovers (FGR) differentiates itself from the historical and socio-economic roots of football and uses numerous novel sustainability initiatives to re-imagine a new type of football place, club and fandom.
Design/methodology/approach
Over a two-year period, the authors used multiple data collection methods, engaging in participant observation, interviews and focus groups, at FGR and related events. A thematic data analysis was conducted to pinpoint and extract key areas surrounding the unique structures, practices and reinforced behaviours that have developed in FGR.
Findings
The findings show that FGR’s place operates as a central location through which stakeholders, ideas, resources and practices have been disrupted and re-imagined around the principles of sustainability. This fundamental shift in FGR’s place, changing its composition, character and reach, means that FGR can be conceptualised as a novel place synonymous with new global social movements.
Originality/value
This study presents unique insights into the world’s first socially and environmentally conscious football club. This study examines the construction and operation of the place that facilitates its actions which go beyond what has been seen and maybe expected from commercial sporting institutions.