The institutional ideas virus: the case of Johan Åkerman

Swedish economists have received impulses from historical or institutuionalist sources on many occasions. A couple of these economists, Gunnar Myrdal and Johan Åkerman, received obvious impulses from American institutionalism. This article deals with the case of Åkerman. To attempt a wall-to-wall chart of institutional influences on an economist is hardly possible. But what is possible is to examine occasions when he was exposed to powerful ‘jolts’, viz in conjunction with studies at an American university. Johan åkerman studied at Harvard in Cambridge in 1919–20. he evetually became – alongside Myrdal – the leading institutional economist.     

Coddling Our Kids: Can Parenting Style Affect Attitudes Toward Advergames?

This study examined parents’ understanding of and experience with child-targeted advergames through exploratory interviews and quantitative pretests of an advergaming definition. Exploratory findings revealed that parents tended to overgeneralize when identifying advergames. Through the use of an online survey, this study also examined how parental socialization styles affect parents’ attitudes toward advergames. As predicted, results indicate that authoritarian and authoritative parents hold more negative perceptions toward advergames compared to indulgent parents, while all parenting styles exhibited negative leanings toward advergaming as a practice. These findings indicate the efficacy of parental socialization theory in explaining parents’ perceptions and attitudes toward this new form of advertising—advergames. We discuss important implications for regulators, practitioners, and parents.     

Market information: Selling intensity and the dynamics of international economic integration

Summary We may assume the more a firm has traded previously with a particular party, or a particular country, the lower the costs of market information will be. When a firm starts to trade with a new country, we may further assume that the greater the cultural distance is between this country and its own country, the larger the information costs will be.A statistical study of the Swedish imports of selected consumers goods after the establishment of EFTA indicates that these assumptions hold true for non-selling intensive commodities, but not for selling intensive commodities.The research on which this paper is based is a part of a more general study of how various knowledge factors influence international business decisions, which will be published in a forthcoming bookHow Foreign is Foreign Trade? A first draft of the paper was written during a stay at the International Institute of Management in Berlin, and I am grateful for the aid which I recieved from the Institute's staff during its preparation. I am also most grateful Michal Groniewitz at the Institute of Business Studies in Uppsala whose time-consuming and tedious task it has been to prepare the tables on Swedish imports, on which the statistical part of the study has been based.     

Deception in Computer-Mediated Communication

An integrated model of interpersonal deception, focusing on the particular characteristics and impacts of computer-mediated modalities, is derived and presented. Although there is a wealth of research investigating both mediated communication and deception, there has been relatively little empirical work at the intersection. Our purpose is to provide a model that spans these areas, to summarize relevant literature, and to advance a set of empirically testable propositions to guide future work.     

Understanding communal and individual customer experiences in group-oriented event tourism: an activity theory perspective

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study, grounded in activity theory, is to empirically investigate the communal and individual mechanisms that simultaneously shape the customer experience in group-oriented event tourism. Based on a survey of 389 respondents with group travel experience to major events, the results confirm the research model, suggesting that the customer-experience construct constitutes a multidimensional structure comprising second-order components reflecting individual and communal experiences, with each containing first-order constructs. The results further confirm that the customer-experience construct predicts post-consumption evaluations of perceived value and satisfaction. Limitations of the study are outlined, and implications for research and managerial practice for the creation of customer experiences that are valuable and satisfying for group-travel consumers to events are discussed.     

Lessons Learned from Ethics in the Classroom: Exploring Student Growth in Flexibility, Complexity and Comprehension

This study shows the link between teaching ethics in a college setting and the evolution of student thinking about ethical dilemmas. At the beginning of the semester, students have a rigid "black and white" conception of ethics. By the end of the semester, they are thinking more flexibly about the responsibilities of leaders in corporate ethical dilemmas, and they are able to appreciate complex situations that influence ethical behavior. The study shows that education in ethics produces more "enlightened" consumers of ethics information who are able to make sound determinations about responsibility in ethical dilemmas.     

The marketing of hamburger buns

It is apparent that the return percentages have been drastically reduced by using only the primary variable of temperature. The actual return percentage would have been even higher except that some route men ran out of hamburger buns and therefore had no returns. This did not show up in the aggregate figures because these were more than balanced by a surplus returned by the majority of route men.     

Examining differences in consumer reactions to partitioned prices with a variable number of price components

Partitioned pricing is a tactic in which a seller presents multiple prices for a single product or service instead of one, all-inclusive price. This research investigates effects of partitioned prices containing a variable number of price components, under varying levels of seller trustworthiness, and with or without the presentation of the total price. The results indicate that partitioning into a large number of price components, relative to a small number of price components, negatively affects perceived fairness and purchase intentions for less trustworthy, but not more trustworthy, sellers when the total price is not presented. However, partitioning into a large number of price components positively affects fairness and purchase intentions, regardless of seller trustworthiness, when the total price is presented. The research also examines effects of partitioning on price estimation and recall.     

Meeting consumer needs — the basis for successful marketing of nutrition in foodservice

In this paper the need to base the design and marketing of nutrition in the hospitality industry upon consumer segmentation of the market is discussed. Characteristics of existing programs are summarized as are the factors contributing to their success or failure. An understanding of how to market nutrition programs successfully in the hospitality industry is essential, as nearly all hotel chains and many independent and chain restaurants have developed nutrition promotions or will be implementing nutrition programs in the next two years.