Women in Management in Thailand: Advancement and Prospects

Thailand has experienced rapid economic growth over the past two decades. Economic expansion has contributed to an increase in demand for managers and professionals. Changes in legislation to promote gender equality in employment and educational opportunities for women have been implemented. These changes have contributed to Thai women's improved status. The aim of the paper is to assess this progress of women in management in Thailand. There is some evidence suggesting that social class, in addition to education, may play an important role in explaining Thai women's advancement to managerial positions. The contribution examines the changes in legislation and the influence of cultural values, education, and gender on women's access to managerial positions. It identifies the barriers to women's progress and pays attention to social class as another key determinant of women's advancement in management.     

Gender equality's impact on female directors’ efficacy: A multi-country study

This paper studies the role of gender equality in female directors’ efficacy and its subsequent effects on firms. Female directors in more gender equal societies should possess greater skills and exert more influence due to better access to educational/professional opportunities and more amicable boardroom dynamics. Therefore, we hypothesize that gender equality serves as an important moderator in the relation between female board representation and firm outcomes. Using a multi-national panel comprising 1986 public firms from 24 countries or areas spanning from 2007 to 2016, we obtain results that firms with higher female board representation exhibit higher overall performance, less earnings management, and less excessive risk taking, in which all three relations are stronger in countries with greater gender equality. Taken together, our paper implies that the impact of female directors on firm outcomes depends on a country's overall level of gender equality.     

What Shapes Assessment of Ability to Pay for Children's College Education?

Many parents have concerns about the cost of their child's college and lack information about preparing for those expenses. Parents' assessment of ability to pay for college are likely to influence their investments in a child's education, and may in turn affect the child's educational commitment and attainment. These potential outcomes lead us to investigate what accounts for parents' assessment. We use logistic regression to analyze data collected from mothers with newborn children (N = 2,566). The findings demonstrate that the mother's assessment of ability to pay for the child's education are significantly associated with material hardship experiences, financial management skills, educational expectations, and her education level. We discuss research and policy implications of promoting positive financial assessment for college early.     

Strategic social marketing to foster gender equality in Indonesia

ABSTRACT

Gender equality is still facing many challenges in Indonesia; this also includes a prominent problem of gender-based violence. Social marketing approach has been used to promote gender-equality programmes tackling gender-based violence. MenCare+ is one of the examples of programmes in Indonesia that engage men with multicomponent, strategic, involves campaigns, education, training and policy advocacy with a number of objectives including improving access to services, increasing sexual and reproductive rights, and fostering gender equality. Some achievement has been made such as MoU with local government to promote male involvement in the use of contraception. However, gender-equality movement is still needed in order to change the mind set and paradigm towards gender equality, and social marketing can become a powerful tool to do it.

Abbreviations: MoU: memorandum of understanding; NGO: non-government organization     

Gender differences in perceived workplace harassment and gender egalitarianism: A comparative cross-national analysis

Using 2015 International Social Survey Program (ISSP) data on 38,179 individuals from 36 countries in 9 relatively homogeneous global regions, we analyze the gender differences and the gender gap in perceived workplace harassment (PWH) with particular attention to gender equality's and gender egalitarianism's roles in molding these differences. We find that despite large regional differences, women in most countries are more likely than men to perceive workplace harassment, although this likelihood is higher in countries that score favorably on our gender equality measures. Hence, political empowerment and better economic opportunities alter women's perceptions of workplace harassment, increasing the probability of their experiencing it. Our results also underscore the important roles of values and gender egalitarian practices. Whereas enhanced gender egalitarianism values increase women's perceptions of workplace harassment, concrete practices tend to reduce them. Especially for management, this result highlights the importance of actually implementing gender equality policies at a corporate level, because a discrepancy between corporate values and practices on this issue will only accentuate the perception of harassment.     

Bildungsinvestitionen – wirksames Heilmittel gegen soziale Ungleich heit?

Despite the educational expansion since the 1960s and the rise of the average education level, there has been no significant decrease in education inequality or in its persistence across generations during the past decades in Germany. This depressing realisation is not held by all authors; some others identify positive developments in education. The explanation for underinvestment in people is that these investments generate only long-run returns. In order to reduce social inequalities, further investments in education are necessary. These investments should be target oriented and focus on reducing inequalities in the use of early education and care institutions, as well as on increasing the quality of these institutions. Individuals with lower education levels should be especially targeted to participate in further training, because higher formal qualifications will both insulate them from labour market risks and generate a more favourable social environment for their children. Furthermore, there should be more investments into education at the regional level. Large imbalances in regional participation in further education and training highlight the lack of local universities to act as a local push factor. Fast internet access in rural areas and “freeing” time resources through sabbaticals could improve participation in lifelong learning.     

Avoiding Over-Reliance on a Single Large Customer: The Impact of Technical Capability,Product Development and Alternative Key Customers

ABSTRACT

This study examines three investments that component suppliers can make to circumvent their large customers' ability to achieve significant power advantages. A large scale survey of component suppliers was conducted approximately 12 to 24 months after Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) began flexing their increased purchasing power to demand price reductions and costly design services. The results show that suppliers' technical capability, suppliers' efforts to develop segment-focused products, and supplier investments to build relationships with alternative key customers lessened their large customers'power advantage. The urgency of balancing relationships with large OEMs is illustrated with the finding that customers'power advantage has a strong negative influence on the suppliers'forecast ofc their own performance. In contrast, no relationship between forecasted performance and the level of interdependence between large OEMs and their suppliers was found. The rapid increase of customer power across a broad range of industries has placed many companies in situations similar to the component suppliers investigated in this study. Thus, the outcomes of these suppliers'investments should be of interest to a large audience of managers. The theory used to frame and examine this important managerial situation provides a vantage point that complements the work done by other researchers.     

Gender Differences in Online Customer Satisfaction: The Asymmetric and Nonlinear Effect

ABSTRACT

The article aims to determine the extent of gender-related differences in user satisfaction with websites with a focus on the asymmetric and nonlinear effects of customer satisfaction. An experiment was conducted with 15 men and 15 women who undertook a typical task (scenario) on 44 websites. Overall, 1,320 evaluations of website quality attributes were obtained and analyzed. The results reveal that men and women differ in their website quality assessment. Marketing professionals should consider their target audience's gender when designing a quality website, or even devise ways of approaching both gender groups through distinct means.     

Class talk: habitus and class in parental narratives of school choice

This article explores how social class is linguistically negotiated and contested in parental narratives of school choice in the British education marketplace. Our study reveals prevalent yet obscured vestiges of ‘class talk’, and in doing so, unmasks ‘micro-political’ acts of status claiming. Using interactional narrative interviewing with 30 parents, we explore how inter- and intra-class differences are emotionally expressed, thus exposing the embodied dispositions of parents’ habitus and its’ subtle influence on school choice. The parental narratives also unveil a moral and political tension between the neoliberal ideal of entrepreneurial self-advancement and an egalitarian sentiment for social equality. Our study therefore challenges the neoliberal educational policy of market choice in closing the attainment gap.     

Liberty,equality and consumerism in state education: exploring liberal angst under New Labour

This paper aims to explore aspects of consumerism in state secondary education in England, the dilemmas posed by the educational market‐place for a category we describe as the ‘resourced liberal egalitarians’ and the resolution of these dilemmas offered by the actions of prominent Labour Party parents‐as‐consumers. Having outlined the individual and societal significance of education, the ideological and ‘economic’ dimensions of educational consumption are explored in order to locate the category ‘resourced liberal egalitarians’. This group's dilemmas are then explained in the context of the strengthening of the market principle and the polarizing of the market‐place within education. These together increase the stakes of protecting their own children's interests while simultaneously exacerbating the inegalitarian character of the education system, a situation which they find distasteful. The final section looks at how the actions of prominent Labour Party figures address this angst through their own actions as parent‐consumers of state education.     

Hong Kong parents' perceptions of the transference of food preparation skills

Food preparation skills among young adults are associated with healthy food choices, better diets and a greater likelihood of an independent, healthy adult life. This study conducted in Hong Kong aimed to investigate parents' perceptions of cooking skills; to explore the transference of cooking skills in the home setting; to identify parents' expectations regarding the transference of cooking skills; and to inform the development of educational initiatives for developing healthy eating habits. A questionnaire survey was conducted to collect information of the subjects' cooking experience, attitudes about cooking skills, cooking habits at home, family meal habits, transference of cooking culture in the family and the factors influencing the choice of ingredients and cooking. It was administered to 1009 Hong Kong parents (of students aged between 11 and 18, studying in 15 secondary schools). The collected data were analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (version 12.0, SPSS, Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) and cross‐tabulation analyses were used to compare the responses of the parents by gender, employment status and income. The results show that parents valued cooking as important life skills for both boys and girls. Parents generally perceived their cooking skills either good (41.9%) or mediocre (54.5%), yet children are rarely taught these skills in the home. Family meals prepared primarily with fresh ingredients are still an important part of the daily routine, and mothers are dominating the roles in food choice decision, cooking and buying the ingredients for family meals. Mothers and schools are expected to be the major channel to teach children cooking skills. Findings suggest that parents are well‐disposed towards providing food and nutrition education at home, but need more support (50% reported that home should be a primary support for learning cooking skills; 36% indicated that the school should have a responsibility to teach children to cook starting in elementary school). Schools may do well to collaborate with families in food literacy education initiatives. Developing individuals' cooking skills paves the way for long‐term health benefits and the well‐being of the local population.     

School Choice Attributes

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the attributes which parents use in determining the type of school they wish their child to attend. To this end, a sample consisting of 304 parents were asked to rate eleven educational attributes and respond to several openended questions. Statistically significant differences were found which would allow private schools to employ specific marketing strategies toencourage higher enrollment levels.     

EDITORIAL

ABSTRACT

The presence of Chinese companies in international markets has increased, and one of their main challenges is to overcome the negative image that Chinese products have in many countries. This study aims to shed light on how sociopsychological determinants affect the perceived attractiveness of Chinese products in Germany, using a sociopsychological approach based on social identity theory and social learning theory. The results indicate that the individual's age, level of education, occupational status, and international experience have significant effects on the perceived attractiveness of Chinese products, whereas the individual's international experience in China does not show such effects. Significant differences between different product categories are revealed.     

公共投资规模、居民支付意愿与住宅价格走势——基于中国30省市截面数据的实证检验

在构建公共物品供给与住宅意愿支付价格关系模型的基础上,利用面板数据检验公共资本量对住宅的溢价效应。实证结果表明公共物品供给对住宅的溢价值有很大不同:生态环境投资对住宅的溢价值最高,其次是公共交通投资;教育投资,尤其是高等教育投资的溢价值较高,而以燃气普及率为代表的城市基础设施投资对住宅也有显著的影响。这说明我国城市居民住宅区位需求已经向多元化和生态化方向发展,交通易达性是居民住宅选择的重要组成部分,高等教育环境普遍为城市居民所关注,扩大基础设施投资规模是提高住宅价值的重要手段之一,重新设计房地产税种和税率是我国房地产税制改革的必然选择。     

Eating out,nutrition, education and the consumer: a case study from Alabama

Increasingly, there is agreement that the hospitality industry, particularly the restaurant sector, can significantly impact people's eating behaviour. This impact includes the nutritional intake of meals many restaurants sell that may lead to problems such as the growing obesity epidemic. This preliminary study investigates consumers' attitudes towards their eating out experience as it relates to their reasons for eating out and the importance that nutrition may place in their experience when eating out. Findings suggest differences in consumer attitudes towards these issues based on their gender, educational achievement level and type of restaurant they frequent. Nutritional awareness and education strategies do not appear to be reaching groups that are more exposed and/or more prone to unhealthier food consumption. Overall, consumers do not seem interested in education or involvement in healthier consumption.     

Investigating Graduate Business Students' Perceptions of the Educational Value Provided by an International Travel Course Experience

Abstract

Researchers agree that students' critical thinking and decision making skills are enhanced through exposure to new cultures and global markets. Thus, one way of bringing about improvement in these areas is through international travel courses. The purpose of this study is threefold. One, to describe the process involved in the creation of a required for-credit international travel course; two, present the findings of a research study designed to investigate graduate business students' perceptions of the educational value provided by an international travel course; and three, describe the ongoing process of closing the assessment loop as it relates to the internationalization of MBA and MACC curricula. The results of this study are encouraging. In general, students perceived that the international travel course added value to their educational experience and enhanced their relationships with other students. Items receiving weaker support were concerned with “thinking skills”, such as multi-disciplinary integration and improved decision-making. These results have important implications for future improvements to the international travel course.     

Are parents gender neutral when financing their children's consumption?

Children are consumers from early on, but they are dependent on financial support from their parents for many years. Based on a survey among 1173 Norwegian children aged 8–24 years, we examine how children's consumption is financed and how their main financial sources change during childhood, distinguishing between pocket money and odd jobs on the one hand and gainful employment and study loans on the other. Our analysis demonstrates how parental monetary support decreases as years go by and is replaced by gainful employment and study loans. We ask whether parents are gender neutral in supporting their children's consumption or not. This is done by comparing the distribution of pocket money among girls and boys, as well as the amount of money given to the respective genders for special consumer goods. Girls and boys have divergent preferences and often exhibit different spending patterns. The analysis of the six selected fields of consumption showed significant gender differences in four of them. By comparing what children choose to pay for with their own money with what they influence their parents to pay for, we find that parents' financial support tend to have a moderating effect on their children's own gender‐biased preferences.     

Effects of shopping centre re-investments and improvements on sales and visit growth

PurposeEstablished shopping centres have in recent years experienced increasing competition due to a steady increase in newer and bigger centres as well as online shopping. How could existing centres compete on such terms?Design/methodology/approachThis analysis is based on interviews with 96 shopping centre managers in charge of malls that existed in 2008 and 2014, about their improvements during a three-year period and the effects on sales and number of visitors from one year before and one year after that period. The investments and improvements are structured and analysed mainly along seven common categories of shopping centre attributes recognised as determinants of customer satisfaction and/or patronage behaviour in existing research.FindingsThe results show significant positive relationships between shopping centres' improvements and the growth in sales as well as visit rates. The effects are, however, more significant for sales than visit growth. The forms of investment that yielded the greatest positive effect are improvements in physical dimensions such as access, atmosphere the retail mix. Increased investments in less physical dimensions such as promotions, entertainment, refreshments and service had little or no effect.Originality/valuePresent studies on centre renovations and improvements are merely case studies or studies of single cases, but this study deals with larger number of cases and long-term effects. In contrast to previous research on shopping centres and the role of satisfaction and patronage, with recommend balance between physical and non-physical aspects, this study highlights the importance of physical capital dimensions.