Modelling the Performance of Irish Credit Unions, 2002 to 2010

This study undertakes a modeling based performance assessment of all Irish credit unions between 2002 and 2010, a particularly turbulent period in their history. The analysis explicitly addresses the current challenges faced by credit unions in that the modeling approach used rewards credit unions for reducing undesirable outputs (impaired loans and investments) as well as for increasing desirable outputs (loans, earning assets and members’ funds) and decreasing inputs (labour expenditure, capital expenditure and fund expenses). The main findings are: credit unions are subject to increasing returns to scale; technical regression occurred in the years after 2007; there is significant scope for an improvement in efficiency through expansion of desirable outputs and contraction of undesirable outputs and inputs; and that larger credit unions, that are better capitalised and pay a higher dividend to members are more efficient than their smaller, less capitalised, and lower dividend paying counterparts.     

It's Closing Time: Territorial Behaviors from Customers in Response to Front Line Employees

Retailers can benefit from an increased understanding of how human territoriality affects their relationships with customers. In the context of closing time, we show that issuance of boundary markers, or closing time cues, before the closing time boundary can result in perceptions of territory intrusion and territorial responses from customers. In study 1, we identify six types of cues used by employees to signal to customers the closing time boundary is approaching: productive, personal, audio–visual, withdrawal, hostility, and blocking cues. Three additional studies show these cues affect customers’ perceptions of intrusion pressure and their subsequent territorial responses, including: retaliation, abandonment and accession (studies 2–4) and negative word of mouth and temporary abandonment (study 4). Additionally, identification with the store can heighten or dampen the effects of customers’ perceptions of encroachment on their territorial responses (studies 3 and 4), depending on the retail context.     

Why customers won't relate: Obstacles to relationship marketing engagement

Due to the challenges associated with reaching consumers using traditional marketing approaches, firms increasingly rely on relational marketing tactics to increase customer patronage with the firm. Yet, consumers often actively avoid relational devices. Thus, firms have a heightened interest in factors that affect customer engagement in relationship marketing efforts. This research provides an empirical test of a model based on equity theory and previous findings regarding psychological engagement. The model predicts whether customers are willing to engage in different relational tactics offered by firms, measured by a formative, actionable Relationship Program Receptiveness (RPR) Index. The results indicate customer perceptions of the inconvenience and anticipated benefits, two factors controlled by the firm, affect RPR. In addition, customer factors, including general privacy concerns, involvement and shopping frequency, affect RPR. Managerially, the results suggest specific actions firms can take to increase the likelihood that consumers engage in relational marketing efforts.     

The impact of housing rehabilitation on local neighborhoods: the case of small community development organizations

Across the nation, nonprofit organizations located in poor and declining neighborhoods are promoting homeownership in the hopes that their efforts will stave off decline and contribute to neighborhood stability. A common homeownership strategy among nonprofits is to acquire boarded-up or deteriorated homes at a low price, rehabilitate them, and then sell them at an affordable price. As these programs continue, nonprofit organizations want to show quantitatively that neighborhood revitalization works—that the funds devoted to an area stabilize neighborhoods or, even more, that they initiate a surge of continued upward progress. But, unlike their larger counterparts, smaller community development organizations are usually at a disadvantage in undertaking such an evaluation. This study will help illustrate what might be done. It focuses on the case of St. Joseph's Carpenter Society (SJCS) in Camden, New Jersey and assesses the quantitative impact that SJCS has on its target neighborhoods. A three-tiered approach is adopted that ranges from a target and comparison area analysis, to regression analysis of SJCS's impact on local housing prices, and finally to an examination of the relative market performance of SJCS's houses. All told, the analysis suggests that SJCS's rehabilitation and homeownership education activities appear to have a positive influence on the neighborhoods in its target area.     

An Experiential Approach for Teaching Business Ethics

Despite the recognition in the business literature of the need to include ethics in all business courses, ethics is still given at best a perfunctory treatment by many instructors. This paper presents two pedagogical methodologies that the authors have used with success for teaching ethics to undergraduate business students. The approaches described in this paper are founded on the belief that in order to raise students' consciousness about ethical issues, students must be challenged to experience conscious ethical conflicts and to incorporate their own values into solving ethical problems. The power of working through ethical conflicts lies in its ability to force such a confrontation and, through it, to achieve enhanced self understanding.     

Subprime lending over time: the role of race

In light of the increased scrutiny of the subprime market nationally and the concerns raised that low- and moderate-income and minority homeowners are targeted for high-cost loans, this paper examines the extent to which subprime lending occurs in selected states and the role that race plays in obtaining prime versus subprime loans. It focuses on explaining the gap in subprime rates between African–Americans and whites and estimating its change over time (1999 to 2006) for the study states. We use a unique data set comprised of data from several data sources, including loan-level information, which allows for better controls over factors correlated with race so that better inferences can be drawn. Also, an estimating procedure is employed that fine-tunes the influence of race in the allocation of mortgage capital between the prime and subprime markets. After taking into accounts various controls, the results suggest the possibility of bias in mortgage lending for the prioed studied.     

Creative Strategies in Social Media Marketing: An Exploratory Study of Branded Social Content and Consumer Engagement

This study employed a content analysis of the creative strategies present in the social media content shared by a sample of top brands. The results reveal which social media channels are being used, which creative strategies/appeals are being used, and how these channels and strategies relate to consumer engagement in branded social media. Past research has suggested that brands should focus on maintaining a social presence across social channels with content that is fresh and frequent and includes incentives for consumer participation (Ling et al., 2004). This study confirmed the importance of frequent updates and incentives for participation. In addition, several creative strategies were associated with customer engagement, specifically experiential, image, and exclusivity messages. Despite the value of these creative approaches, most branded social content can be categorized as functional.     

Efficiency in the provision of university teaching and research: An empirical analysis of UK universities

A flexible three-output, two-input cost function model is used to examine the cost efficiency of UK universities as producers of teaching and research ‘outputs’. Unlike previous studies, a comprehensive peer review of research quality is incorporated. Overall, product-specific and input-specific economies of scale, global and product-specific economies of scope, marginal costs and cost complementarities are estimated. Overall and product-specific scale results indicate considerable increasing returns, while the scope results generally suggest neither economies nor diseconomies. Sensitivity analysis is used to simulate the impact of current government policy, regarding the expansion of undergraduate teaching output, on these results.     

Innovation and Interdependencies in the New Zealand Custom Boat‐building Industry

Custom boat building in New Zealand is a globally competing industry comprising a densely interconnected community of small and medium‐sized enterprises. Innovation in product and production processes is an essential feature in the industry's success. This article investigates innovation and interdependencies in the New Zealand boat‐building industry and explores the notion that it is an example of an innovative regional milieu. The study includes a benchmark survey of the industry completed in 1998, which evaluates the sources of information and innovation, as well as a series of intensive interviews with leading firms to ascertain the characteristics of innovation. The peculiar cultural and social factors of New Zealand – and especially of Auckland, where the industry is spatially clustered – are found to have been significant in the growth of the industry. Furthermore, the contemporary prominence of sports and recreational boating has facilitated the industry's recent growth and exporting. En Nouvelle‐Zélande, la construction navale sur commande est un secteur compétitif au plan mondial, qui intègre une communauté de petites et moyennes entreprises au maillage relationnel très serré. L'innovation des produits et des procédés de fabrication est une caractéristique essentielle de sa réussite. L'article étudie l'innovation et les interdépendances au sein de la construction navale néo‐zélandaise, en envisageant l'idée qu'elle constitue un exemple de milieu régional novateur. Le travail s'appuie sur une étude des performances du secteur réalisée en 1998, laquelle évalue les sources d'informations et d'innovation, ainsi que sur une série d'entretiens intensifs avec les entreprises de premier plan afin d'établir les caractéristiques de l'innovation. Il apparaît que les facteurs culturels et sociaux particuliers à la Nouvelle‐Zélande, notamment à Auckland où l'activité est regroupée géographiquement, ont joué un rôle significatif dans l'expansion de cette industrie. Par ailleurs, l'importance que prend actuellement la navigation sportive et de loisir a facilité sa croissance récente et ses exportations.