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1 – 10 of 69William F. Crittenden, Victoria L. Crittenden, Melissa Middleton Stone and Christopher J. Robertson
The research presented here contributes to our understanding of strategic planning and its relationship to performance in nonprofit organizations. Based on a sample of 303…
Abstract
The research presented here contributes to our understanding of strategic planning and its relationship to performance in nonprofit organizations. Based on a sample of 303 nonprofit organizations, the study emphasizes individual and diverse elements of the planning process. Multiple measures of performance highlight a nonprofits need to garner resource contributions from several constituencies. Using factor analysis and canonical correlation analysis, we find a positive association between scope of planning and executive satisfaction and a negative association between administrative informality and volunteer involvement. Our results suggest that two critical resource contributors, executive directors and donors, may not value formalized decision-making and planning to the extent previously assumed.
Victoria Crittenden and William F. Crittenden
The marketplace demands a technological skillset among our college graduates, and scholars acknowledge the educational underpinnings (or lack thereof) regarding technology and its…
Abstract
Purpose
The marketplace demands a technological skillset among our college graduates, and scholars acknowledge the educational underpinnings (or lack thereof) regarding technology and its place in marketing education. The current research, therefore, aims to explore how academic institutions and programs have responded to coercive, mimetic and normative isomorphic pressures in reshaping the experiences of current marketing students.
Design/methodology/approach
To understand this pressure and its implications with regards to the marketing curriculum, this research explores the integration of technology into the marketing classroom via the three forces of institutional isomorphic change: coercive forces, mimetic processes and normative pressures. The current research uses both primary and secondary data to examine how isomorphism is occurring in digital marketing education.
Findings
We find that the integration of technology into the classroom comes from the forces of institutional isomorphic change. Although these forces are pressuring business schools to include technology in their marketing curriculum, a widespread adoption of this necessary media is yet to follow.
Research limitations/implications
From a research perspective, this paper portrays the forces that are acting to disrupt teaching and learning in the current global marketplace. Previous research tends to focus on how educators can teach a particular subject area. This paper brings together forces of change as related to educators, students and managers.
Practical implications
Educators and their educational institutions have to continue to learn to teach digital marketing. Students have a role to play in that they have to be agents of change for a stronger and newer marketing curriculum. Finally, managers need to partner with educators and students to create a stronger environment for learning practical tools.
Originality/value
Weber (2013) utilized this theoretical foundation for understanding how such pressures impacted the coverage and offering of courses addressing ethical, social and sustainability issues in graduate marketing curricula. This research within the digital marketing educational arena is the first to attempt to understand technology integration into marketing education.
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James Michael Simmons Jr, Victoria L. Crittenden and Bodo B. Schlegelmilch
Widespread adoption of reporting frameworks has contributed to current global practices undertaken by firms to report social, environmental and economic impact. The Global…
Abstract
Purpose
Widespread adoption of reporting frameworks has contributed to current global practices undertaken by firms to report social, environmental and economic impact. The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the most widely used of those frameworks, has produced several generations of guidelines. Their third-generation guidelines (G3), which had the most widespread and long-term use, relied on a series of application levels to convey the quantity and quality of disclosures. The firm’s choice of application level exemplified its corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure strategy. The purpose of this study is to answer the call of scholars for a comprehensive explanation of a firm’s CSR disclosure strategy and suggested researching of the conceptual underpinnings of legitimacy, stakeholder, resource dependence and institutional theories.
Design/methodology/approach
Given this call, a comprehensive model is tested that explores relationships arising from these four major theories and the choice of GRI application levels. The model includes four constructs: non-financial corporate characteristics, firm financial performance, stakeholder involvement and environmental turbulence.
Findings
Unexpectedly, the findings do not show differences with respect to the theoretical underpinnings of CSR disclosure and the GRI disclosure levels.
Originality/value
Despite their widespread use, GRI was concerned that the G3’s application levels could be misunderstood and that the framework needed conceptual improvement. These concerns led to the elimination of application levels with the launch of GRI’s fourth-generation guidelines (G4) in 2013. The findings support the need for conceptual improvement and the discontinuation of the application level system in the G4 guidelines. They also suggest the need for additional research to examine disclosure choices over time, to make understand corporate disclosure strategies.
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Victoria Crittenden and William Crittenden
As a business executive and philanthropist, Mary Kay Ash is legendary as a glass-ceiling breaker. With the belief that Mary Kay Ash is both modern and relevant, while…
Abstract
Purpose
As a business executive and philanthropist, Mary Kay Ash is legendary as a glass-ceiling breaker. With the belief that Mary Kay Ash is both modern and relevant, while simultaneously legendary, the overall purpose of this paper is to explore the role of Mary Kay Ash as an influential entrepreneur. This research responds to the call by Cogliser and Brigham (2004) for an increased understanding of how entrepreneurial leaders influence, challenge, inspire and develop followers.
Design/methodology/approach
Following on research by Hoppe (2013), this objective was accomplished via a pentadic analysis of Mary Kay Ash’s rhetoric aimed to influence the mental mindset of readers (followers) over the course of generations. Burke’s pentad was the sense-making tool used for examining Ash’s rhetoric of influence as an entrepreneurial leader. The data used in the pentadic analysis were also analyzed via Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) and IBM Watson Emotion Analysis to see where analyses might converge or diverge.
Findings
Based on the analysis of her written work, Mary Kay Ash resided at the intersection of leadership and entrepreneurship and, in so doing, was an influencer. Her primary rhetorical approach to influencing was idealism. Interwoven in her writings, she also exhibited both pragmatism and realism. She knew that she had to start the business to have the future she desired and that she needed to train her team appropriately for success to be forthcoming. The motivation in Mary Kay Ash’s rhetoric was that of influencing people so they would be the best that they could be.
Research limitations/implications
Qualitative research brings with it an array of inevitable research problems. Pentadic analysis cannot be judged by the basic objective standards of reliability and validity because objective reality does not exist in personal interpretation. That is, one person as a critic cannot be impartial because the interpretation is only one personal way of viewing the data and another critic might view the same pentads and come up with different ratios. With this subjectivity in mind, however, the data used in the pentadic analysis were also analyzed via LIWC and IBM Watson Emotion Analysis to see where analyses might converge or diverge.
Practical implications
The findings from this research denote clearly that Mary Kay Ash was a forerunner of the modern day influencer. As a primogenitor of the influencer marketing phenomenon, Mary Kay Ash’s entrepreneurial legacy is expected to continue through generations of followers. This finding speaks to the importance of today’s entrepreneurs using the spoken and written word to influence others and create a lasting organizational legacy.
Originality/value
Countless scholars have used pentadic analysis, with a variety of artifacts, to examine the motives behind the rhetoric. However, rhetoric as a means of persuasion and influence has received little attention within the context of the written works by management gurus (Jones et al., 2009), and, aside from the exploration by Berglund and Wigren (2012), the narrative of entrepreneurial influence has not benefitted from close examination.
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Robert A. Peterson and Victoria Crittenden
Gig microentrepreneurs are individuals who have embraced short-term gigs as an entrepreneurial agency for both financial and social livelihood. Based on surveys in 2020 and 2023…
Abstract
Purpose
Gig microentrepreneurs are individuals who have embraced short-term gigs as an entrepreneurial agency for both financial and social livelihood. Based on surveys in 2020 and 2023, the research reported here presents a comprehensive, empirical portrait of two cohorts of gig microentrepreneurs. This portrait captures the similarities and differences of gig microentrepreneurs in terms of offline and online business models and the nature of gig work. Recognizing that there is not a “typical” gig microentrepreneur will help ensure that this gig business model continues to evolve without boundaries in terms of demographics, motivations and behavior and will enable marketing and entrepreneurship scholars to better assist in entrepreneurial growth and development. The purpose of this paper is to gain a better understanding of the gig microentrepreneur regardless of the nature of the gig work.
Design/methodology/approach
The research involved two separate surveys in the USA. The first survey took place in July 2020, and the second survey took place in April 2023 after major changes had taken place in the economy and in society (e.g. the COVID pandemic). Both surveys used samples generated by Dynata, an online consumer panel company with access to more than 70 million consumers worldwide who have agreed to participate as panel members.
Findings
The surveys provided answers to questions about the demographic and behavioral aspects of gig microentrepreneurs, including who they are, the number and type of gig activities in which they participate, the financial livelihood generated from gig income, the social livelihood inherent in gig work and dissatisfaction with being a microentrepreneur in the gig economy. These findings produced insights into why individuals engage in gig activities and the positive and negative impacts of that engagement. Based on the findings, nuances and trends within the gig economy and among gig microentrepreneurs are identified and discussed.
Research limitations/implications
The research limitations include lack of generalizability outside of the USA, use of panel data and survivor bias.
Practical implications
Consumers, gig microentrepreneurs, companies and government agencies can benefit from the growth in the gig economy. The vast array of gig activities in which gig microentrepreneurs engage clearly shows the need for an on-demand workforce. There are both economic and societal benefits to having a labor-force that can meet a breadth of demands with varying timeframes.
Social implications
Whether gig microentrepreneurs are engaging in gig work to augment their income because of economic insecurity or for intrinsic reasons, the motivations and behaviors of the gig microentrepreneurs are indicative of the talent and resources needed to keep the US economy moving forward positively.
Originality/value
As noted by several scholars conducting research on the gig economy, little is known about gig microentrepreneurs – who they are, what they do and why they do it. Current research on the gig economy tends to focus on online platform companies. This research offers an exploratory look at microentrepreneurs who engage in gig activities both online and offline without geographic or technological boundaries.
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William Hallock, Anne L. Roggeveen and Victoria Crittenden
This paper aims to develop a richer, more complete understanding of how firms define and consider customer engagement on social networks. The research builds from the theoretical…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to develop a richer, more complete understanding of how firms define and consider customer engagement on social networks. The research builds from the theoretical backdrop of customer engagement. The research then uses a qualitative interview approach to understand the firm perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative data were collected using in-depth interviews with employees at a variety of companies including Facebook, Google, another leading social networking site, a higher education institution and a start-up company.
Findings
Companies view engagement with social media as measureable metrics of consumer interactions with the platform. These metrics could include growth and interaction on the platform, number of users, subscribers to the site or page views. Propositions are developed around how customer engagement is defined, the breadth and depth of social media and when social media is used as a push or a pull strategy.
Research limitations/implications
Findings from this research are limited by the sample size and convenience of sampling. However, results from this grounded theory approach enabled propositions that can focus on larger datasets and testing.
Practical implications
Engagement indicates meaningful information that can propel a company’s position forward. To companies, this meaningful information is in terms of metrics that can be used as information and evidence for future decision-making.
Social implications
This research suggests that firms need to better define what engagement means and to assess the best platforms for creating an ecosystem of engagement with customers.
Originality/value
Many researchers are exploring engagement within the context of social media networks. This research, however, is one of the first to explore this from a firm level perspective.
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Victoria Crittenden, Marko Sarstedt, Claudia Astrachan, Joe Hair and Carlos Eduardo Lourenco
Victoria L. Crittenden and Kimberly Harris Bliton
Direct selling was founded on the philosophy of coaching people on how to successfully build a business from the ground up, and women comprise a large percentage of these direct…
Abstract
Direct selling was founded on the philosophy of coaching people on how to successfully build a business from the ground up, and women comprise a large percentage of these direct selling entrepreneurs. In this chapter, we highlight the empowering benefits of direct selling. First, we focus on women micro-entrepreneurs who want to build their own small businesses, but on a limited scale while maintaining flexible schedules and work-life satisfaction. These women can benefit from the direct selling opportunity in terms of capitalization, formal structures, mentoring, income, self-efficacy, social capital, and life skills. Second, we profile women entrepreneurs who are building their own product organizations and have chosen direct selling as a go-to-market strategy for access to consumers. Three consistent attributes observed across these women are authenticity, affective commitment, and passion.
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Haya Ajjan, William F. Crittenden and Amaleya Goneos-Malka
South Africa is one of the most unequal societies in the world with women substantially less likely to be economically active than men. This chapter draws from the theory of…
Abstract
South Africa is one of the most unequal societies in the world with women substantially less likely to be economically active than men. This chapter draws from the theory of planned behavior to examine the enablers and barriers to entrepreneurship in South Africa. Specifically, we examine how attitude toward entrepreneurship, subjective norms in the South African collectivist culture, and behavioral controls of resources influence women’s intentions to start a business. Based on interviews with two successful women entrepreneurs in South Africa, we highlight the key role that government, self-efficacy, and technology-based platforms can have in establishing women’s entrepreneurial intentions.
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