Understanding recreational shopping: A new approach

Abstract

In this article recreational shopping is of concern, the course of action whereby individuals experience enjoyment from shopping. The article reviews previous research in the area and suggests directions for further research. It is suggested that research in the area would benefit from drawing more upon research that focuses on the sociocultural, experiential, and symbolic aspects of consumption, such as, for instance, consumer culture theory (CCT). Thus, it is argued that recreational shopping needs to be acknowledged as a multifaceted activity that may be performed in various ways and embody different types of consumer meanings. It is also argued that there is a need to focus more on the influence of retail environments on individuals engaged in recreational shopping.     

Entrepreneurial politicians

This paper explores the entrepreneurial experience (and spirit) of politicians. To what extent have they been involved in entrepreneurial activities? Are politicians more or less entrepreneurial than their voters? Are entrepreneurship policies more or less important to politicians compared to the voters they represent? The Members of the Swedish Parliament were asked the same questions regarding their entrepreneurial activities as found in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM). The empirical results indicate that when we analyse the statistical significance of the differences and control for individual characteristics, politicians have similar experiences and ambitions to the rest of the population when it comes to entrepreneurial activities. Politicians have a high potential for becoming entrepreneurs in the future, but seem to be less optimistic about how entrepreneurs are perceived in the cultural context. In addition, there is a substantial discrepancy between how politicians and voters perceive the ease of starting and running a business. Unlike politicians, voters do not agree that it is easy to start and run a business in Sweden.     

Die Erwartungen der Wirtschaft für 2017

In 2016, Germany’s economic sectors had mixed fortunes. Gross domestic income increased by 1.8% in total. The prospects for 2017 are hardly better and subject to uncertainties. Above all the results of the US presidential election and Brexit give cause to fear protectionist tendencies, which are especially adverse for the German export-oriented industries. As a result the representatives of industry and services associations expect in 2017 rather modest growth rates.     

Weathering the storm: best practices for nonprofits in crisis

• Nonprofit organizations are as susceptible to crisis as any organization as exemplified by Livestrong's attempts to outlive Lance Armstrong's downfall and Planned Parenthood (PP) overcoming Susan G. Komen for the Cure's (SGK) policy to defund organizations under investigation. The public battles held on social media during crises such as these have forced organizations onto new battlegrounds. Supporters for each of these nonprofits proudly shared their thoughts via tweets (e.g. #IstandwithPP) and status updates, as the organizations raced to control the situation. PP had tweeted SGK's policy change creating a bevy of support while sending SGK into a reversal that is still costing racers. Surveys were distributed following Armstrong's performance-enhancing drug use confession and SGK's funding policy announcement to determine attitudes toward giving after organizational crisis. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was used to assess the strength of attitude, social norms, and perceived behavioral control on the intent to donate to these organizations. The use of TPB expands nonprofit marketing horizons by helping better understand stakeholder intentions and their causes. On the basis of the findings, best practices for nonprofits handling crisis were identified. In particular, organizations need to know their target audiences, know what will make supporters remain, look at crises as opportunities for renewal, be honest, and apologize when appropriate.

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Comparing precaution in the United States and Europe

The regulation of health and environmental risks has generated transatlantic controversy concerning precaution and the precautionary principle (PP). Conventional wisdom sees the European Union endorsing the PP and proactively regulating uncertain risks, while the United States opposes the PP and waits for evidence of harm before regulating. Without favouring either approach, this paper critically analyses the conventional depiction of transatlantic divergence. First, it reviews several different versions of the PP and their different implications. Second, it broadens the transatlantic comparison of precaution beyond the typical focus on single-risk examples, such as genetically modified foods. Through case studies, including hormones in beef and milk production and mad cow disease in beef and in blood donations, as well as reference to a wider array of risks, the paper demonstrates that relative precaution varies enormously. Sometimes the EU is more precautionary than the US (such as regarding hormones in beef), while sometimes the US is more precautionary than the EU (such as regarding mad cow disease in blood). Thus, neither the EU nor the US can claim to be categorically 'more precautionary' than the other. The real pattern is complex and risk-specific. Third, the paper seeks explanations for this complex pattern in five sets of hypotheses: optimal tailoring on the merits, political systems, risk perceptions, trade protectionism, and legal systems. None of these hypotheses fully explains the observed complex pattern of relative transatlantic precaution. The paper concludes that differences in relative precaution depend more on the context of the particular risk than on broad differences in national regulatory regimes.     

Der Einfluss risikominimierender Strategien der Parlamentarier auf die Bezüge

Erh?hungen der eigenen Bezüge durch die Parlamentarier rufen in der ?ffentlichkeit immer wieder Emp?rung hervor. Welche Rolle spielt das individuelle Risiko der Abgeordneten, nach dem Ende des Mandats von Einkommenseinbu?en und Arbeitslosigkeit betroffen zu sein? Welche Konsequenzen ergeben sich hieraus für die Zusammensetzung der Parlamente? Welche kollektiven Strategien werden verfolgt, um sich über die Bezüge gegen die bestehenden Risiken abzusichern?     

Virtuelles Wasser — Chancen und Probleme eines Wasserfußabdrucks

Der Wasserverbrauch eines Produkts, eines Landes oder eines Menschen wird neuerdings mit Fu?abdruck-Rechnungen genau erfasst. Sogenanntes virtuelles Wasser bezeichnet dabei jenes Wasser, das in einem anderen Teil der Welt genutzt wurde, um Güter zu produzieren, die hier vor Ort konsumiert werden. Der Welthandel entpuppt sich als Handel mit virtuellem Wasser. Ist diese Form des Wasserhandels problematisch und müssen virtuelle Wasserstr?me reguliert werden? Brauchen wir neben dem CO₂-Fu?abdruck nun auch einen Wasserfu?abdruck, um richtige Produktions- und Konsumentscheidungen zu treffen?     

Ratings based capital adequacy for securitizations

This paper develops a framework to measure the exposure to systematic risk for pools of asset securitizations and measures empirically whether current ratings-based rules for regulatory capital of securitizations under Basel II and Basel III reflect this exposure. The analysis is based on a comprehensive US dataset on asset securitizations for the time period between 2000 and 2008. We find that the shortfall of regulatory capital during the Global Financial Crisis is strongly related to ratings. In particular, we empirically show that insufficient capital is allocated to tranches with the highest rating. These tranches account for the greatest part of the total issuance volumes. Furthermore, this paper is the first to calibrate risk weights which account for systematic risk and provide sufficient capital buffers to cover the exposure during similar economic downturns. These policy-relevant findings suggest a re-calibration of RBA risk weights and may contribute to the current efforts by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and others to re-establish sustainable securitization markets and to improve the stability of the financial system.     

Visualizing Efficiency and Reference Relations in Data Envelopment Analysis with an Application to the Branches of a German Bank

The interest in Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) as a method for analyzing the productivity of homogeneous Decision Making Units (DMUs) has significantly increased in recent years. One of the main goals of DEA is to measure for each DMU its production efficiency relative to the other DMUs under analysis. Apart from a relative efficiency score, DEA also provides reference DMUs for inefficient DMUs. An inefficient DMU has, in general, more than one reference DMU, and an efficient DMU may be a reference unit for a large number of inefficient DMUs. These reference and efficiency relations describe a net which connects efficient and inefficient DMUs. We visualize this net by applying Sammons mapping. Such a visualization provides a very compact representation of the respective reference and efficiency relations and it helps to identify for an inefficient DMU efficient DMUs respectively DMUs with a high efficiency score which have a similar structure and can therefore be used as models. Furthermore, it can also be applied to visualize potential outliers in a very efficient way.JEL Classification: C14, C61, D24, M2     

Linking cause-related marketing to sales force responses and performance in a direct selling context

The influence of a firm’s cause-related marketing efforts on sales representative attitudes and behavioral performance is investigated. Results from a field study indicate that the influence of a representative’s construed customer attitude toward the cause campaign on selling behavioral performance is mediated through cognitive identification and selling confidence. Further, the influence of construed customer attitude toward the campaign on selling confidence is moderated by cognitive identification such that the effects are stronger for salespeople with lower levels of identification with the company. The authors discuss the implications of the research and offer directions for further research.