Designing loyalty programs that matter to customers

This study explores a model proposing a customer loyalty program as an identity marketing tool that evokes customer's identity salience (one's perception that a loyalty program membership is important to his/her identity). The results of a Web-based experiment indicate that identity salience is heightened by (1) the uniqueness and exclusiveness of a loyalty program (distinctiveness), and (2) by the fit between the function of the program's rewards and the customer's identity goal (identity congruence). The heightened identity salience, in turn, positively influences the customer's attitude toward the retailer, satisfaction with the loyalty program and the perceived quality of his/her relationship with the retailer.     

Introduction: Special issue on advances in brand management

This special issue of the Journal of Business Research contains 13 articles presented at the Spring 2007 Thought Leaders International Conference on Brand Management. Following a blind reviewing process 69 papers were presented at the conference then authors were invited to revise their papers for inclusion consideration for this special issue. A further round of blind reviewing resulted in the selection of those 13 articles. This introduction presents a review of the research into brand management.     

A Report on the Impact of the Living Conditions Studies (LCS) on disability in southern Africa

ABSTRACT

The living conditions studies (LCS) on disability are a survey method that has been used in a standardised manner across eight countries in southern Africa. This paper discusses an evaluation of the LCS that were carried out between 2000 and 2015. The methodology of this evaluation was a desk top study as well as interviews with relevant stakeholders from each of the countries. Results of the desk top study show an upward trend in citations for countries which have been cited in the literature, and that the scholarly as well as the grey literature reveal a clear trend that certain countries tend to dominate in uptake coverage. Results from the interviews generally show that the surveys were accepted by all countries in a positive and favourable light. Each country, with their unique context, has their own story. Recommendations based on the evaluation are discussed.     

The character of telework and the characteristics of teleworkers

A flexible definition of teleworking suggests that it is more widespread than is generally believed. However, is telework technologically driven? This is tested with data from six countries. As the categories of the definition have distinctive social characteristics, telework seems to reflect traditional occupational practices rather than a major technological shift.     

The Navajo documents: a study of the economic representation and construction of the Navajo

In the mid 1930s, surveyors and other agents from the Bureau of Agricultural Economics and the Soil Conservation Service descended on the Navajo Reservation in the southwest USA. During their short stay, the surveyors produced detailed reports on the extent of overgrazing and soil erosion on the reservation. The reports, which contained maps, tables of numbers, accounts, and photographs claimed to depict and represent the real. As part of social survey research, popular in the UK and US from the turn of the century until World War II, the Navajo documents, as we refer to them, used a form of family budget or income and expenditure report to construct the Navajo economically. Indeed, Navajo families were referred to as consumption units or groups. The economic construction of the Navajo permitted the construction of an economic solution to the Navajo problem. In effect it was demonstrated economically, that the impact of stock reductions, thought necessary to prevent further soil erosion, could be offset by increased agriculture. In contrast to the economic claims, the stock reductions were an economic and social disaster for the Navajo. We approach the economic construction of the Navajo in and through the notion of representation. We draw upon the heightened discussion of this term in art theory in the 1970s and 1980s. We frame our analysis in terms of three relationships — namely, the relationship between representation and depiction, the relationship between representation and the copy and the relationship between representation and the real.     

Identifying peer mentors in the sales force: An exploratory investigation of willingness and ability

There has been a high level of interest in the sales management practitioner literature in mentoring, but very little is known about peer mentoring relationships between more experienced and less experienced salespeople. Sales organizations that wish to initiate or encourage peer mentoring relationships must identify those salespeople who are both able and willing to mentor less experienced salespeople. The results of an exploratory study to identify mentors in an industrial sales force are reported. The authors find that job experience, job satisfaction, a measure of interpersonal competence, and role conflict are associated with willingness to mentor; interpersonal competence and role conflict are associated with ability to mentor. Results are discussed and opportunities for future research are offered. She received her M.S. from Ohio State University and her M.B.A. from Wright State University. She has experience in personnel training with an industrial sales organization. Her research interests are in the areas of salesperson communication competence, buyer-seller interactions, and buyer-seller negotiation. Her research has been published in various conference proceedings. She received her Ph.D. from University of Tennessee. She has experience in industrial sales and sales management. Her research interests are in the area of buyer-seller interactions and managing sales relationships. Her research has been published inJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Journal of Consumer Psychology, and various conference proceedings. Wendy L. Warren is in management at Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., and has experience in new product development. She received her M.S. from Ohio State University. Her research has been published inJournal of Consumer Research.     

Panel data methods for fractional response variables with an application to test pass rates

We revisit the effects of spending on student performance using data from the state of Michigan. In addition to exploiting a dramatic change in funding in the mid-1990s and subsequent nonsmooth changes, we propose nonlinear panel data models that recognize the bounded nature of the pass rate. Importantly, we show how to estimate average partial effects, which can be compared across many different models (linear and nonlinear) under different assumptions and estimated using many different methods. We find that spending has nontrivial and statistically significant effects, although the diminishing effect is not especially pronounced.     

Book briefs

Food policy: Integrating supply, distribution and consumption, EDI series in economic development, John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 1987

Food poverty and consumption patterns in Kenya, International Labour Office, Geneva, 1986     

Familial Risk for Exceptional Longevity

One of the most glaring deficiencies in the current assessment of mortality risk is the lack of information concerning the impact of familial longevity. In this article we update estimates of sibling relative risk of living to extreme ages using data from more than 1700 sibships, and we begin to examine the trend for heritability for different birth-year cohorts. We also build a network model that can be used to compute the increased chance for exceptional longevity of a subject, conditional on his or her family history of longevity. The network includes familial longevity from three generations and can be used to understand the effects of paternal and maternal longevity on an individual's chance to live to an extreme age.     

Modern variety adoption and risk management in drought prone areas: insights from the sorghum farmers of eastern Ethiopia

Adoption rates of improved or modern varieties (MV) of sorghum in eastern Ethiopia are generally low. Although these MV may represent an effective means of coping with droughts, given their early maturing traits, landraces could prove to be more drought‐tolerant and better adapted to marginal production conditions. Whether MV adoption is a risk reducing technology is very much an empirical question which this article investigates using a unique dataset from eastern Ethiopia in a year of extreme weather conditions. Results show that risk‐factors coupled with access to markets and social capital drive farmers’ decisions to adopt MVs. On the one hand, it appears that farmers use MVs to mitigate moderate risks. On the other hand, farmers who have been most vulnerable to extreme weather events are less likely to use MVs suggesting that MV adoption does not necessarily represent an effective means of coping with drought. Finally, findings show that MV growers are more likely to be affected by sorghum failure once controlling for exogenous production factors.