Attitudes towards computer technology: comparison of retail buyers and apparel manufacturers in the U.S.A.

Apparel retailers and manufacturers are incorporating advanced technologies such as CAD/CAM systems and electronic data interchange into their businesses. Attitudes held by key personnel toward these new technologies can enhance or hinder implementation. This study was designed to investigate and compare the attitudes of manufacturers and buyers towards computer technology. Fifteen Likert-type attitude statements were developed by the researchers. A pilot test of the instrument resulted in minor changes. A total of 105 usable questionnaires were returned: 57 from manufacturers and 48 from retail buyers. t-test results indicated that buyers' and manufacturers' attitudes differed significantly on five of the 15 attitude statements. A discriminant analysis showed that the same five statements significantly discriminated buyers from manufacturers. Manufacturers' responses were more positive than buyers' on four of these statements. Overall, the results indicated that apparel manufacturers and retail buyers held favourable attitudes towards computer technology.     

Selecting Software for Teaching International Business

Several software developers have recently introduced very powerful programs designed to assist educators, advisors and businesses to learn more about the exporting process. This paper analyzes the relative strengths and weaknesses of five such programs through the application of international marketing concepts and hypothetical case studies. The analysis herein will save potential users the time and effort needed to select the most appropriate program(s) for their teaching and learning objectives. This paper is intended to address the needs of business program educators and students. It may also be of interest to government agencies and other advisors involved in export education and administration, businesses seeking to learn more about the exporting process, and software developers producing programs designed to teach about exporting.     

Profiling prospective private-label buyers

ABSTRACT

Food retailers have had difficulties increasing their private-label sales during non-recessionary periods. Conventional research leads us to believe it would be ineffective to use traditional segmentation to target prospective private-label buyers because sociodemographics and most psychographics are not strongly linked to private-label attitudes, purchases, or willingness-to-pay. Many studies have concluded that perceived risks are associated with private-label attitudes and are limiting private-label sales. This study explores a new approach to identify potential private-label buyers. The results from an internet panel survey of 605 adults were analyzed with binary logistic regressions. Several scales, which have rarely been employed in grocery shopper studies, were used to profile those individuals who perceive more risks from buying or using private labels. The characteristics of these individuals can help retailers and private-label marketers develop appealing product offerings and target prospective private-label buyers using various marketing tactics to grow their private-label businesses.     

Segmentation of both reviewers and businesses on social media

Employing online consumer reviews, this research develops a market segmentation procedure that is feasible to businesses present on social media. Because online reviews typically encompass large numbers of both reviewers and businesses, this data structure allows for both reviewer segmentation and business segmentation. This two-side segmentation approach segments not only reviewers in the preferences expressed in their reviews, but also businesses in their business practices specified in the reviews. Whereas common existing segmentation approaches predominantly use survey and transaction data, the proposed procedure uses publicly available and detailed consumption information in such reviews. A large number of product features elicited from such reviews lead to rich and detailed profiling of both reviewer segments and business segments. Using restaurant reviews on Yelp, this research demonstrates how the proposed procedure can help businesses develop segmentation strategies on social media.     

The U.S. Multinational Advertising Agency and Public Policy

The overseas activities of U.S. multinational advertising agencies raise several important public policy issues. Host governments are likely to watch U.S. advertising agencies for unwanted signs of domination over local firms. They will also be sensitive to undesirable cultural influence along with several other real or imagined evils.

The U.S. government is unlikely to have significant interest in the specific activities of multinational advertising agencies. But. advertising agencies should be very wary of the impact of indirect regulation. Agency operation is going to be caught up in the increasing web of legislation designed for general regulation of multinational businesses.     

British privatization: Evaluating the results

The 24 studies reviewed here reveal that nine of the 13 primary objectives of the U.K.'s privatization program have substantially been achieved. Privatization has reduced the size and scope of government, reduced political interference in management decisions, freed government funds so they can be used in sectors of the economy other than state-owned businesses, created a free market economy, promoted domestic investment, benefited the economy through higher returns on capital invested in privatized businesses, generated new sources of tax revenue, broadened domestic equity ownership and promoted equity ownership among employees of privatized businesses. Most of the research reviewed concludes that privatization has reduced the government's budget deficit; provided consumers with improved service, better quality, more choices, new products and lower prices; and improved the efficiency and performance of privatized firms. Finally, most of the studies reviewed report mixed results regarding the privatization program's success at reducing government control of business.     

The relationship between purchase regularity and propensity to accelerate

Identifying random and regular-buying household segments and relating them to demographic and shopping characteristics has been the focus of many marketing studies. Missing from the marketing literature, however, is a study that relates purchase regularity to marketing mix sensitivities. Such study could provide substantive implications since it would explore a practical dimension of a segmentation scheme based on purchase regularity. In this article, we investigate the relationship between purchase regularity and propensity to accelerate through the use of a mixture Weibull model of purchase timing. Applying this perspective to purchase timing data on four product categories (ketchup, sugar, bathroom tissue, margarine), we show that in the frequently purchased categories of bathroom tissue and margarine, random buyers do not exhibit any propensity to accelerate while regular buyers do. In the occasionally purchased categories of ketchup and sugar on the other hand, random buyers exhibit at least as much propensity to accelerate their purchases as regular buyers do. Our rationale for these results is based on information-theoretic arguments suggesting that propensity to accelerate depends on the frequency at which a product category is purchased.     

Privatization in East Germany: The delivery of an economy

Soon after the re-unification of East and West Germany, the West German government chose to swiftly privatize the businesses of its former neighbor. To oversee this process, the government set up an independent agency, the Treuhandanstalt, which did its work from July 1990 to December 1994. In that time, thousands of businesses were converted to private ownership, and jobs were secured for 1.5 million employees. Von der Heyden discusses the efficacy of the project, its successes and failures, and how applicable the German model may be for other governments seeking a complete privatization of their countries' assets.     

购买水产品决策外部影响因素研究

研究城市居民购买水产品决策过程中的外部影响因素对市场经营者、消费者和政府部门都具有一定的指导意义。在对淮安市182位购买者调查的基础上,运用因子分析方法从11个可能影响购买者决策的维度中提取了4个影响因子,实证表明这4个影响因子解释了水产品购买决策外部影响因素的大部分。     

对地方政府吸引台商投资政策的新探讨——从企业集群角度分析

吸引外商投资作为解决资金瓶颈的一种有效手段,正被各地政府视作一项重要任务。作为现代企业进行投资生产最重要的特征就是企业集群,但在实际工作中,以政府主导的吸引外资行为却很少受到企业集群理论的指导,因而产生招不到“商”或即使招到“商”也留不住的现象。对于台资企业,这一现象尤为明显。根据企业集群根植性的理论对台资企业群现存问题进行深入分析,对地方政府吸引台商投资的行为提出积极的政策建议。     

Lessons from the COVID19 pandemic: The case of retail and consumer service firms

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted business operations in every industry and sector around the world. Scholars, practitioners and policymakers continue to engage in understanding the effects of lockdowns, social distancing measures and other restrictions on trade; the impact of government stimulus and support measures, and how businesses have adapted their operations. The dynamic nature of the virus, and the changing socio-political and economic landscape, provide the opportunity for empirical scholarly research examining how retail and service firms have responded to the challenges and potential opportunities presented by the pandemic, and how owner/managers have pivoted in an (often) uncertain trading environment. This paper presents the findings of an applied study involving business owners (N = 268) of SME retail and service firms in the island state of Tasmania, in Australia, during the first wave of the pandemic in 2020. Findings show: (1) despite over 65 per cent of respondents reporting a downturn in revenue during 2020, almost 80 per cent indicated they had confidence in business survival heading into 2021; (2) whilst on average, businesses did not rate the level of environmental hostility as being particularly high, there was a significant correlation between perceived environmental hostility and assessment of business performance and with the level of confidence of business survival; (3) Australian federal government support and other stimulus measures were deemed crucial for business survival during 2020 with three quarters of businesses accessing the ‘JobKeeper’ scheme, and (4) businesses adapted their operations during the pandemic in terms of new products and services, increased marketing, pivoting their use of technology and promoting ‘localness’.     

Store attributes leading customer satisfaction with unplanned purchases

Understanding which specific factors of retail stores’ offering affect unplanned buyers’ satisfaction may be of great interest to store managers as they could set ad hoc strategies to target these consumers and establish long-term, profitable relationships with them. Satisfied unplanned buyers could indeed return to the store where they purchased their unplanned item(s) and/or positively talk about it with other customers. Nevertheless, we still know very little about such factors. To close this gap, this research gathered survey data on consumers’ store satisfaction and perceptions of store attributes in Spain during two time periods: in 2008, when the crisis was barely noticed by Spanish consumers, and five years later, when consumers were experiencing this economic situation. The results obtained evidence how grocery retailers can respond to customers’ awareness of the crisis by providing some managerial recommendations for bolstering satisfaction in consumer segments with diverse levels of unplanned buying behavior.     

绿色壁垒与中国农产品出口问题

绿色贸易壁垒既是世界各国保护自然资源、改善生态环境的手段,又是一种新型的贸易保护形式。对我国农产品出口遭遇到形形色色的绿色壁垒,应辩证地看待其影响:它一方面促进了我国农业生产方式的改进,另一方面又阻碍了我国农产品的出口,降低了我国农产品的国际竞争力。企业与政府应采取各种措施,冲破绿色贸易壁垒,扩大我国农产品的出口。     

The roles of the private and public sectors in poverty reduction

There are two major actors involved in tackling the challenge of poverty: private businesses and government. Unfortunately, both actors have tended to view each other through the lens of negative stereotypes, and each actor (or its proponents) dismisses the contributions of the other player and minimises its role. Unusual compared to most past literature, Khare and Varman in their article 'Kafkaesque institutions at the base of the pyramid' in this journal in 2016 reject both the private and the public sectors. By contrast, in this article, I argue for an ideologically eclectic approach, and suggest appropriate roles for both business and government in poverty reduction. The private sector needs to focus on creating employment opportunities for the poor and the government should focus on providing basic public services to the poor.     

Purchasing veg private labels? A comparison between occasional and regular buyers

Retailers are increasingly extending their private label assortments with meat-substitute, vegetarian and vegan foods (here called veg foods) to respond to emerging consumer trends. However, no studies on consumer buying behavior with regard to veg private labels exist. Accordingly, this work analyses the impact of ethical motives (i.e., environmental, animal welfare, health, and spiritual concerns) and perceptual factors (i.e., trust, perceived quality, and perceived value) as drivers of consumers' buying intentions of regular and occasional buyers of veg private labels, identified by their purchase frequency. The multigroup structural model findings show that occasional buyers are motivated by perceived quality, environmental, and animal concerns, while regular buyers opt for veg private labels on the grounds of their trust in the retailer's own-brand and environmentally-friendly claims. The perceived value is key for both segments.     

The impact of the new protectionist stance in US trade policy on selected German companies in Mexico

ABSTRACT

Previous studies on the impact of the new protectionist stance of the United States have focused mainly on the imposition of the controversial border tax. This research advances the understanding of the possible impacts of the tightening of the rules of origin and the imposition of the most-favored nation tariffs on manufacturing companies. The findings show a negative impact from the protectionist measures on businesses by increasing costs per unit and decreasing the gross margin. The results suggest that those additional costs could be passed on to the final buyers, raising the price level by more than previously assumed.     

Measuring Unethical Consumer Behavior Across Four Countries

The huge amounts spent on store security and crime prevention worldwide, not only costs international businesses, but also amounts to a hidden tax on those law-binding consumers who bear higher prices. Most previous research has focused on shoplifting and ignored many other ways in which consumers cheat businesses. Using a hybrid of both qualitative research and survey approaches in four countries, an index of 37 activities was developed to examine consumers’ unethical activities across UK, US, France, and Austria. The findings indicate that around three quarters of consumers in all four countries can be classified as heavy offenders for these minor cheats. The paper argues that government agencies, marketers, and retailers should adopt more pro-active preventative approaches, rather than reactive loss limitation measures to combat unethical behavior.     

Local Government and Big Business in the People's Republic of China – Case Study Evidence from Shandong Province

China has implemented comprehensive industrial policies that originally had their origins in the command economy. It is argued in this case study that one characteristic of industrial policies in China involves government intervention at all levels, namely central, provincial, municipal, county, township and village. This article presents an in-depth examination of the role of provincial government in pursuing industrial polices and in constructing big businesses during the reform period. It draws the conclusion that even in the World Trade Organization (WTO) era, it is still feasible for provincial governments to manage the local economy and promote big businesses by allowing local firms to enjoy both economies of scale and subsidies.     

Retail Buying in the United Kingdom

Retail buying in the United Kingdom has undergone considerable change in the last 20 years. Faced with a lack of satisfactory published material concerning what retail buyers actually do, the author carried out a survey of buyers in multiple food and apparel retailers. This paper discusses the main changes to have taken place in retail buying in recent years, describes what buyers do, their interface with other functional departments in the business, the characteristics needed by successful buyers, and how buyers are appraised. Finally, it is concluded that the perceived status of buyers does not always reflect their impact on the marketing activity and success of their companies.