Search results

Thrift shopping (the buying of previously owned products) provides products and shopping pleasure for consumers of all economic levels, however, little is known about how information regarding thrift shopping is acquired by consumers. This research aims to investigate whether there may be a “thrift maven,” someone who could and does transmit information about the thrift market to other individuals.

A scale was developed from previous research to identify thrift mavens. Data were collected via survey to see if the scale could be used to segment the market and to assess differences in the mavens' demographics and shopping patterns.

The study found the scale valid and useful. Thrift mavens were found to have lower household incomes, but were as likely to be male as female. This finding was surprising since thrift shopping is a more difficult method of acquiring products, and males in the USA are notable for their dislike of the task of shopping. The study also found that thrift mavens both shop and purchase from thrift outlets more frequently than non‐mavens.

This was a single study in a single setting. Future research should examine whether this type of individual exists across a range of living conditions (e.g. rural, urban settings) as well as examining such areas as the type of behaviors mavens may engage in to assist fellow thrift shoppers.

The value of this paper is in identifying a segment of consumers who may be key informants for other consumers interested in thrift shopping. Thrift outlets typically have a limited promotional budget, at best, and thrift mavens would be a key resource to identify and encourage to shop at the outlet in order to pass on information.

This study aims to investigate the conditions required for encouraging employees to engage in job crafting and examine the consequences of job crafting behavior. Job crafting is employees’ proactive behaviors at work associated with modifying tasks, managing social relations and changing job cognition.

A paper-and-pencil onsite survey was conducted by targeting frontline employees working in five-star hotels located in Seoul, South Korea. Descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were used.

Perceived organizational support triggers employees’ job crafting. Task crafting leads to relational and cognitive crafting. Relational and cognitive crafting increases employees’ fit with the organization, whereas task crafting does not. Employees’ fit with the organization is positively associated with job satisfaction.

Employees’ job crafting has positive consequences for a company by enhancing employees’ fit with the organization, resulting in increased job satisfaction. Thus, organizations need to show how much the organization cares about employees’ values, so that employees can initiate job crafting by utilizing organizational support. However, generalizing the results should be done cautiously.

This study focuses on the effect of an organizational-level predictor, whereas previous job crafting literature has focused mainly on an individual level or on task-related factors. It also empirically tests the causal relationships among the three facets of job crafting and provides their distinctive influences on person-organization fit that ultimately leads to job satisfaction.

This paper aims to advance recent literature on the performativity of accounting by examining how project accounting affects a project organization’s ability to deliver a relevant project outcome, such as a product or a building, for a receiving client organization.

The paper draws on a longitudinal case study of a 41.4-billion-kroner (5.5-billion-euro) Danish project of constructing 16 new public hospitals. Its objective was to reduce the average unit costs and improve the quality of patient care. Each hospital construction was managed by a separate project organization and handed over to a separate receiving hospital organization. The project organizations applied a common approach to project accounting. The paper relies on Michel Callon’s concepts of performativity and sociotechnical agencement – approaching project accounting as an arrangement of devices.

The paper shows that the project-accounting agencement simultaneously supported and undermined the project organizations’ ability to deliver hospitals relevant to the receiving hospital organizations. The agencement performed hospital designs, disciplined project actors and guided decision-making, thus supporting the overall work of the project organizations. It also, however, compelled the project organizations to compromise on hospital designs when unexpected events occurred. These compromises led to the delivery of hospitals, which largely prevented the receiving hospital organizations from achieving the project’s objective.

This paper advances our limited understanding of the dynamic and complex relationship between project accounting and the relevance of project outcomes. It introduces the concept of a “contronymity device” to capture the way project accounting simultaneously produces two opposing consequences, both supporting and undermining the enactment of a particular reality. The paper lastly enriches our understanding of how project-accounting devices impact hospital organizations’ operating cost structures and challenge patient care capabilities.

Word‐of‐mouth (WOM) marketing has become a key focus for many organisations. However, little research has sought to identify the dimensionality of WOM. The present research project aims to describe the development of a 12‐item measure that can be used to assess WOM at an individual message level for positive and negative WOM and among givers and receivers of WOM.

The research includes four studies, a qualitative focus group phase and quantitative phases involving surveys of over 2,000 consumers representing givers and receivers of positive and negative WOM.

Three distinct dimensions emerged. Two (cognitive content and richness of content) reflect the composition of the message, while the third, termed strength of delivery, reflects the manner of delivery. The scale has strong psychometric properties and was found to be generalisable in the four contexts – sending positive/negative messages and receiving positive/negative messages.

The authors addressed consumers' WOM messages solely in a one‐to one‐context. The results cannot automatically be extended to a variety of other media, which requires future research. Further, the authors did not test the measure in a goods context.

The scale has a variety of potential applications and can serve as a framework for further empirical research in this important area.

While much previous research on WOM relates to the sending of positive WOM, this scale has applicability across four WOM contexts, positive and negative giving and positive and negative receiving.

The diagnosis of a chronic progressive condition such as multiple sclerosis (MS) can impact on many aspects of daily life. Living with, and caring for, an individual with such a condition is likely to have emotional and psychological consequences. We carried out semi‐structured interviews with nine partners and analysed the interview transcripts using grounded theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1998), the phase presented in this article formed part of a larger overall study that explored the impact of living with MS for partners and a family. Our analysis in this phase highlights two core themes centred on identity issues faced by the participants: ‘playing detective’ in order to acquire information and manage the situation; and ‘reshaping identities’ in a shifting context, which reflected the participants' difficulties in reconfiguring important identities (at work and at home). Although previous research has addressed how carers cope, there is a dearth of qualitative literature relating to whether or not partners' identities are affected by taking a central role in caring, including how previous identities are maintained and new ones acquired.

The overall goal of science is to build a valid and reliable body of knowledge about the functioning of the world and how applying that knowledge can change it. As personnel and human resources management researchers, we aim to contribute to the respective bodies of knowledge to provide both employers and employees with a workable foundation to help with those problems they are confronted with. However, what research on research has consistently demonstrated is that the scientific endeavor possesses existential issues including a substantial lack of (a) solid theory, (b) replicability, (c) reproducibility, (d) proper and generalizable samples, (e) sufficient quality control (i.e., peer review), (f) robust and trustworthy statistical results, (g) availability of research, and (h) sufficient practical implications. In this chapter, we first sing a song of sorrow regarding the current state of the social sciences in general and personnel and human resources management specifically. Then, we investigate potential grievances that might have led to it (i.e., questionable research practices, misplaced incentives), only to end with a verse of hope by outlining an avenue for betterment (i.e., open science and policy changes at multiple levels).

Managers and human resource specialists often prefer a particular approach to the delivery of training and development above all others. Frequently, this approach is advocated as a blanket solution to a firm′s managerial problems with little consideration of other approaches. The strengths and weaknesses of the various approaches to management development are evaluated and their application for developing different levels of management in small and large companies is discussed.