Consumer transformation through volunteer service experiences

A growing number of consumers are seeking to make a difference through experiences involving interaction and collaboration with organizations that offer charitable service opportunities. These experiences are noteworthy in not only their catalyzing influence on the organization and the beneficiary customer, but also the personal transformation in the volunteer. The authors introduce a phenomenon called transformative charity experiences (TCEs), a triadic framework highlighting an avenue of personal consumer well-being through the transformative effect of service interactions with key stakeholders. Building upon conceptual models proposed in Transformative Services Research and insights from their own embedded charity experiences, the authors introduce how service co-creation from three entities (charity, volunteer, and community) can lead to a transformative effect for the volunteer. An exploratory field study in an international setting provides insights into how the proposed framework accounts for TCEs. Implications and future directions for charitable services research are presented.     

Welfare Analysis of the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement: The Cotton Textile and Apparel Industries

This article studies the effects of the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement (US-CAFTA-DR) on the world fiber market using a partial equilibrium modeling approach. We find the effect of the agreement on the U.S. cotton yarn and Caribbean cotton apparel industries to be positive while the U.S. cotton apparel industry suffers significant losses. Cotton apparel producers in the Caribbean region gain approximately $80 million under US-CAFTA-DR while gains by the U.S. yarn industry average about $120 million over current trade arrangements. The U.S. cotton apparel industry loses about $40 million per year under US-CAFTA-DR.     

The Discovery of Opportunities: Extending the Economic Theory of the Entrepreneur

Shane (2003) [A General Theory of Entrepreneurship: The Individual-Opportunity Nexus. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar] has shown convincingly that modern theories of entrepreneurship perform reasonably well in explaining the empirical results obtained in different areas of research upon the subject. His book also shows that the cognitive aspects of entrepreneurship in general—and opportunity recognition in particular—are important areas that warrant further research. This paper argues that the concept of opportunity is closely related to the concept of a project, as an opportunity is essentially a project that would prove beneficial if it were exploited. It is suggested that modelling individual search across potential projects, and the screening of projects by the use of symptoms, holds the key to the successful modelling of entrepreneurship in terms of opportunity.      

Consumer Product Failure Causing Personal Injury Under the No-Fault Accident Compensation Scheme in New Zealand—a Let-off for Manufacturers?

This article examines how the no-fault accident compensation system in New Zealand operates to relieve manufacturers from liability to consumers for product failures which cause personal injury or death. The state-run accident compensation scheme pays compensation to persons who suffer “personal injury by accident” and bars claims for compensation from the party at fault. The advantage for consumers is that they are entitled to compensation from the accident compensation scheme as of right and do not need to make claims against manufacturers of products which cause injury or death. The article outlines some limited circumstances when consumers may claim compensation from manufacturers and identifies other avenues for holding manufacturers responsible for injury or death caused by faulty products. The paper makes three recommendations to increase manufacturer responsibility: (1) allow the regulatory body which administers the Accident Compensation system to claim compensation, by way of subrogation, from manufacturers in limited circumstances; (2) require manufacturers to pay an additional “product liability” levy to the accident compensation scheme; and (3) amend the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 to cover non-workplace accidents exposing manufacturers of unsafe products to Worksafe investigation and possible criminal liability. The article argues that imposing additional responsibility on manufacturers for product failures which cause personal injury or death is justified on the grounds of fairness. Arguments based on corrective fairness and distributive fairness can both be relevant in cases of personal injury caused to consumers by manufacturers.     

MNE performance during a crisis: An evolutionary perspective on the role of dynamic managerial capabilities and industry context

As the likelihood of worldwide crises increases due to globalization and the resulting economic contagion, understanding why some multinational enterprises (MNEs) prevail in such environments becomes ever more critical. Drawing from the concept of dynamic managerial capabilities, we posit that MNE in-crisis performance is associated with the pre-crisis development of asset management capabilities, or the capacity of managers to orchestrate assets so as to extract more value from the firm’s resource pool. Specifically, we argue that because dynamic managerial capabilities evolve as a response to a firm’s task environment, MNEs that operate in dynamic industries develop stronger asset management capabilities. However, we also posit that whether these capabilities contribute to in-crisis performance is contingent upon the munificence of the industry environment in which the capability evolves. Asset management capabilities that evolve in munificent environments would encompass a wider spectrum of routine-altering activities, and thus increase the ability of the MNE to react to more revolutionary events, such as global economic crises. Conversely, asset management capabilities that evolve in resource-scarce environments will result in more strategic lock-in due to firms' constrained ability to experiment with novel resource configurations, resulting in poorer in-crisis performance. We test our hypotheses using a sample of 854 MNEs in the context of the global financial crisis of 2008, and find support for our hypotheses. We discuss implications for the dynamic capabilities view and MNE resilience.     

Does the Starting Point Matter? The Literature‐Driven and the Phenomenon‐Driven Approaches of Using Corporate Archival Data in Academic Research

Despite recent and perhaps myopic criticisms of archival data with regard to supporting causal theoretical claims, it would be folly to disregard the exploratory and grounded theory development potential that these substantial, rich, and timely archives hold. The question then becomes one of how academics might tap into such archives. This paper considers this issue from a pragmatic perspective, drawing on the experiences of various academics with extensive experience in constructing data‐access relationships with industry. With the support of scholars who published their work using corporate archival data in leading academic journals, we suggest a phenomenon‐driven approach paralleled with the traditional literature‐driven approach in academic studies. This paper highlights best practices, pitfalls, and future opportunities, with the aim of serving as a guide for intrepid scholars interested in capitalizing on contemporary big data initiatives supported at many firms.     

A model of trust and compliance in franchise relationships

Despite the danger of franchisee non-compliance as a severe impediment to overall franchise operation and performance, there is currently minimal understanding of the key factors that lead to these behaviors. Using a foundation of relational exchange theory, we construct and test a model that demonstrates how two distinct forms of trust, based upon perceptions of franchisor integrity and franchisor competence, are critical to explaining the roles that relational conflict and satisfaction play in influencing franchisee compliance. Implications of these findings are then demonstrated to have compelling relevance to the effective management of franchise systems.