Experimenting with Supply Chain Learning (SCL): Supplier Diversity and Ethnic Minority Businesses

This paper reports on an innovative UK-based ‘Supply Chain Learning’ (SCL) initiative to encourage the corporate sector to consider supplier diversity in respect of ethnic minority businesses. This follows academic and policy interest in programmes to empower ethnic minority enterprises to achieve breakout to mainstream markets and business growth. The first phase of the initiative, entitled Supplier Development East Midlands (SDEM) is examined. By adopting an inter-organisational action learning approach, some of the key attributes of the programme are delineated, focusing on the recurrent action-reflection cycle taking place in a learning group comprising SDEM, LPOs (Large Purchasing Organisations) and small EMSs (Ethnic Minority Suppliers).     

Researching the Drivers of Socially Responsible Purchasing: A Cross-National Study of Supplier Diversity Initiatives

What drives organisations to engage in socially responsible purchasing initiatives? To investigate this important question, this article uses a case-study approach to examine the context within which supplier diversity programmes have emerged in both the U.S. and U.K. The analysis identifies legislative and policy developments, economic imperatives, stakeholder pressures and ethical influences as forces shaping organisational responses. It reveals important contextual differences between U.K. and U.S. experience and offers an empirical and theoretical explanation of corporate behaviour.     

Confidence interval for the total advertising impact and its mean duration under Koyck models

The estimates of total advertising impact and of its mean duration in distributed lag models are important in budgeting and planning decisions. The typical approach to assessing the short and long term impact of advertising is to perform a sequential test, one on the short term coefficient and one on the lag parameter. However, estimate of the effect of advertising on sales involves the ratio of estimated regression parameters. The estimates of these parameters are known to be correlated. Generation of confidence intervals on such key estimates is possible, using information that is typically discarded. This paper develops and illustrates a method for developing these confidence intervals which specifically accounts for the correlation between the standard regression estimates. Examples are used to illustrate that the conclusion from standard sequential testing procedures can be erroneous. An empirical application then demonstrates the application of the suggested procedure. Finally, we provide insights on the length of this interval as the sample size and other characteristics are varied.     

Modelling the predictors of young consumers' sustainable consumption intention

Sustainable consumption refers to consumers' socially and environmentally responsible consumption practices. The present study is the first to investigate possible individual, behavioural, and situational factors that predict sustainable consumption intention among young consumers in India. A survey was carried out on 325 young consumers. Structural equation modelling was applied to check the extent to which the considered variables predicted sustainable consumption. The results determined drive for environmental responsibility, subjective norm, and attitude towards sustainable consumption as key predictors of consumers' sustainable consumption intention. The paper offers a better understanding of the main predictors of consumers' sustainable consumption intention. Such understanding may enable managers to design effective marketing strategies to encourage sustainable consumption intention and behaviour.     

Does Investing in Technology Affect Exports? Evidence from Indian Firms

The authors use firm-level data from Indian manufacturing industries to explore the determinants of exports, focusing on the role played by technology. The empirical analysis, which distinguishes between a firm's decision to export and the volume of its exports conditional on its having decided to export, reveals that investments in technology via R&D and technology transfer agreements can facilitate the entry of Indian firms into export markets. However, their influence on the volume of exports is fairly limited. Factors with a more broad-based influence on both export participation and volumes include labor intensity and, especially, firm size.     

Drivers of sustainable new technology diffusion in national markets: The case of electric vehicles

This study investigates the factors that impact the diffusion of sustainable new technologies (SNTs) in nations. The article focuses on four country-level variables—development status, focus on sustainability, innovation focus, and type of government—and their relationship with SNT diffusion. In addition to using regression to assess the independent variables' sufficiency, necessary condition analysis is used to analyze the necessity of the variables for SNT diffusion. Data consisted of a 10-year panel data set containing sales of electric vehicles from 2008 to 2017 across 89 countries. Results suggest a significant correlation between the development status of a country and diffusion levels of SNT. Similar results were found for focus on sustainability and innovation focus variables. Finally, relatively established SNT diffusion is affected by government type. Development status, focus on sustainability, and innovation focus were necessary for the diffusion of SNT in a country. In contrast, the absence of dictatorial regimes was also found to be necessary.