Developing parsimonious retailer equity indexes using partial least squares analysis: a method and applications

The information that a retailer’s name communicates to consumers can be a source of competitive advantage for many retailers. Indeed, retailers develop a kind of brand equity, which we refer to as “retailer equity.” To aid both practitioners and researchers, we outline a method, using partial least squares (PLS) analysis for developing parsimonious measures for retailer equity. In addition, we provide four illustrations of possible ways that the index can be used by retailers: (1) as a benchmarking tool, (2) as an indicator of the success (failure) of marketing strategies and tactics, (3) as a means to evaluate the attractiveness of market segments, and (4) as an instrument to examine the relative importance of the various components of retailer equity for specific retailers. The index also provides a means for marketing researchers to examine potential antecedents and outcomes of retailer equity.     

Incorporating satisfaction measures into a restaurant productivity index

The increasing stature of the foodservice industry in the global service economy suggests that productivity analyses—similar to those performed in non-service-based settings—would benefit multi-unit operators by maximizing their desirable operational outcomes while minimizing expenses and other detrimental conditions such as low job satisfaction. This paper suggests that such analyses might be possible through the application of a holistic productivity metric—one that includes traditional operational variables such as revenue, profit, food cost, and labor cost, and previously ignored variables such as guest and employee satisfaction as well as retention equity. Through data gathered from a single chain's 36 corporate-owned, same-brand casual-theme restaurants located in metropolitan centers across the United States, we found that factors leading to maximum outputs such as controllable profit and retention equity include employee satisfaction in addition to expected variables such as cost of goods sold and number of seats. Most notably, employee satisfaction as an input proved to be the most volatile variable in maximizing operational outputs.     

Foreign trade potential,small enterprise development and job creation in developing countries

Increasing American competitiveness in the international economy requires expanding trade with emerging markets, especially in developing countries of Asia, Latin America and Africa. Historically, as developing countries' economies have grown, the capacity for exporting and importing have both expanded. In the future, the capacity for trade in developing countries will depend increasingly on their ability to create sufficient numbers of jobs to absorb their rapidly growing labor forces.Unlike Western countries, most developing economies have a small percentage of their labor forces in large-scale manufacturing and a large share engaged in small-scale and informal sector enterprises. Small-scale enterprises have been the primary sources of labor absorption in cities in developing countries and will continue to play a crucial role in the future. Experience has shown that policies for improving the capacity of small-scale enterprises to generate jobs have had only mixed results in developing countries. The challenge facing governments and the private sector in the future include: (1) creating an economic environment conducive to small-enterprise development; (2) removing regulatory and administrative obstacles to small-enterprise expansion; (3) tailoring small-enterprise promotion programs to local conditions and needs; (4) providing capital and credit for small-business owners; (5) involving the private sector in small-enterprise development programs; and (6) providing technical assistance, training and educational programs through public-private partnerships.     

Coca‐Cola's marketing challenges in Brazil: The tubaínas war

This case presents the challenges the Coca‐Cola Company faces in Brazil. Not only is Coke up against its nemesis, Pepsi, but it must also compete with hundreds of local brands, many of which do not pay taxes. These local brands are generically called tubaínas. The case provides background information on the history of Coke in Brazil, trends in the Brazilian soft drink market, and competition by Pepsi and the many local soft drink firms. In addition, Coke's strategies for competing are outlined. The main question raised by the case is what marketing strategies can Coke adopt to better compete in Brazil. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Perverse Audit Culture and Accountability of the Modern Public University

The audit culture which has developed in public universities has led to counter‐productive outcomes. Managerial oversight of academic work has reached a critical tipping point. Extensive auditing of research output by means of performance management assessment regimes motivated by a New Public Management mentality has damaged individual scholarship and threatened academic freedom. Such assessment regimes are perverse and conducive to the development of psychotic tendencies by universities. It is important to understand the effects of a perverse audit culture when re‐thinking and reforming approaches to university performance management. We suggest ways for public universities to acknowledge the need for accountability while remaining true to core academic purposes.     

Terrorism's Role in Re-shaping Border Crossings: 11 September and the US Borders

To what extent do boundaries shape state-centred scales of discourse and action? In an attempt to answer this question, the article delves into one of the key ambiguities characterising boundaries: their being both static markers of sovereign jurisdictions and socially produced and reproduced institutions. Drawing on Foucauldian notions of ‘productive power’, and taking as a referent the Durand Line, the paper elaborates upon Robert Sack's contribution, and proposes an analytical framework that simultaneously captures, while maintaining distinct, two dimensions of territoriality: territoriality as a strategy operating in a socially emptiable space, and territoriality as it unfolds in its actuality. It argues that such framework provides insights on the multi-scalar and place-specific power relations that define the social context in which the Durand Line unfolds, offering important tools for the assessment of boundaries' role in the reproduction of society's contradictions and inequalities. The flexible territoriality of the Durand Line is defined by its simultaneous, and more or less successful, attempt at ordering space across multiple dimensions .