An examination of the effects of rescue workers meaning transfer,attitudes and subjective norms towards being voluntarily involved in civic activities on civic engagement intention

The present investigation used the transfer‐meaning model to assess the influence of rescue workers meaning after a major catastrophic event. Specifically, we examined the influence of rescue workers meaning on subjective norms and attitudes towards being voluntarily involved in civic activities and the influence of these on online and offline civic engagement intention. 300 Mexican undergraduate and graduate students completed a battery of questionnaires assessing meaning transfer, subjective norms, attitudes and behavioural intentions towards offline and online civic engagement. Results showed a significant positive effect of rescue workers meaning on subjective norms and attitude towards being voluntarily involved in civic activities. In addition, subjective norms and attitudes were significant antecedents of offline and online civic participation intention. The theoretical and managerial implications of our results were discussed.     

Translating satisfaction determination from health care to the automotive industry

This study is based on the case of BMW, and aims to improve the determination of perceived consumer satisfaction in the automotive industry by transferring existing knowledge from the health care sector. A literature analysis of the health care sector and the automotive industry was conducted to identify the common concepts of determining satisfaction. These were the service encounter, situational factors, and sociodemographics. The practical application was tested by analyzing a contemporary survey from BMW. Based on the findings, managers responsible for customer satisfaction in after-sales services in the automotive industry could improve measurement of customer satisfaction.     

Wage Discrimination, Segregation, and Sex Differences in Wages and Productivity Within and Between Plants

We use panel data on Israeli manufacturing plants to test two explanations of lower wages and lower productivity in plants with a higher percentage of females: (1) within plants women are paid less and are less productive, consistent with no discrimination, and (2) women are segregated into lower-wage and lower-productivity plants. Although the variation in productivity across plants appears to stem from differences in productivity between men and women, the estimates suggest no within-plant wage differential between men and women.     

Gender-based Barriers to Senior Management Positions: Understanding the Scarcity of Female CEOs

Although the number of women in middle management has grown quite rapidly in the last two decades, the number of female CEOs in large corporations remains extremely low. This article examines many explanations for why women have not risen to the top, including lack of line experience, inadequate career opportunities, gender differences in linguistic styles and socialization, gender-based stereotypes, the old boy network at the top, and tokenism. Alternative explanations are also presented and analyzed, such as differences between female leadership styles and the type of leadership style expected at the top of organizations, feminist explanations for the underrepresentation of women in top management positions, and the possibility that the most talented women in business often avoid corporate life in favor of entrepreneurial careers.     

Visitor attendance motivations at consumer travel exhibitions

This study identifies the major motivations of visitors for attending consumer travel exhibitions and segments visitors based on their motivations. The findings suggest that visitors to consumer travel exhibitions have multiple motivations: acquiring purchase information, being attracted by the theme, or being encouraged to visit by media coverage. Half of the visitors perceived travel fairs to be an important distribution channel through which they could get special deals on travel to desirable destinations (or at least sourcing information on travel). It seems likely that consumer travel show attendance may be closely linked with the individual leisure desires of the visitor. The study suggests two clusters: 1) Shopper cluster whose major motivation is purchasing and 2) Total Visitors whose motivation is to undertake an ongoing information search and attend seminars to maintain their awareness of new trends with the tourism industry.     

Of Chicken Entrails,Anthropology, and a Realistic Social Science

Barbara Bergmann has advocated direct observation of market behavior by economists. There is a history of such activity in the area of labor market but that experimental work has mainly been conducted by noneconomists. We have followed the lead of these researchers and conducted audits of employment hiring behavior, testing for discrimination on the basis of gender and sex. The technique involves sending matched pairs of job applications. Discrimination was found against female, Greek, and Vietnamese applicants. The paper recommends improvements in experimental design for future audits.     

Nokia Siemens Networks: Just Doing Business – or Supporting an Oppressive Regime?

Journal of Business Ethics - This case study examines the relevance of taking social and political factors into consideration when a corporation is making a key business decision. In September...     

The Decision to Exploit an R&D Project: Divergent Thinking across Middle and Senior Managers

Research and development (R&D) generates projects, but the question often remains: which projects should be exploited? Building on the innovation, strategy, and managerial cognition literatures, we use a conjoint field experiment to collect data on 4032 decisions made by 126 R&D managers to test how project attributes, strategic context, and managers' characteristics influence innovation exploitation decisions. Using hierarchical linear modeling, we find that (1) experience impacts project exploitation decision policies of middle managers more than senior managers, (2) divergent thinking across middle and senior managers increases with experience, and (3) experienced middle managers diverge from experienced senior managers in their decisions to exploit opportunities by placing greater emphasis on strategic context (relative to competitors and fit within the portfolio) and lesser emphasis on uncertainty (technological and demand). These findings have implications for the strategy and innovation literature.