How do Small and Medium Enterprises Go “Green”? A Study of Environmental Management Programs in the U.S. Wine Industry

In industries populated by small and medium enterprises, managers’ good intentions frequently incur barriers to superior environmental performance (Tilley, Bus Strategy Environ 8:238–248, 1999). During the period when the U.S. wine industry was beginning to promote voluntary adoption of sound environmental practices, we examined managers’ attitudes, norms, and perceptions of stakeholder pressures to assess their intentions to implement environmental management programs (EMP). We found that managers within the simple structures of these small and medium firms are responsive to attitudes, norms, and pressures from internal stakeholders and that voluntarily established EMP increased the success of firms’ implementation of energy conservation and recycling practices. Applications of our findings to future research on small and medium enterprises as well as direct practical applications of our results are discussed.     

Barriers and stimuli to the use of information technology in retailing

The retail marketing environment is continuously changing. Changes in retail format, retailing processes and the competitive environment continue to create problems for retail management. This article examines the barriers and stimuli to the adoption of innovation in infonnation technology. Our objective is to demonstrate how managers might anticipate the problems associated with managing significant change and develop appropriate strategies to deal with such problems. Previous research has indicated that it is important to explore the views of a range of managers in the organization. Much of the previous research has relied on a single respondent from many organizations to provide an accurate picture. This research does not follow that tradition. It uses the views of more than one hundred managers within one organization. The research explores the relative attractiveness of the innovation to individual managers, the organization's receptivity to change and the presence or absence of a 'product' champion. It ends with recommendations on ways of improving the rate of acceptance of such technologies.     

Sustainable tourist behaviour – a discussion of opportunities for change

Research shows that despite their declared positive attitudes towards sustainable tourism, only a few tourists act accordingly by buying responsible tourism products, choosing environmentally friendly transportation or behaving responsibly towards destination communities. The low support from customers is one of the main barriers for progress towards sustainable tourism. One reason can be that existing initiatives are missing customers' attention, discouraging industry and governments to continue promoting sustainable tourism. Positive attempts to encourage sustainable consumption in other sectors indicate that specific barriers may reside in the nature of tourist choices. Taking a critical look at tourism research and literature, this article examines the interplay between reasons for tourists' choice of products and services, and environmental motivations. After identifying possible gaps that may explain current failures to stimulate responsible tourist choices, the article concludes by discussing the implications for the effectiveness of informative and awareness‐raising tools aimed to facilitate the shift towards responsible tourist behaviour and actions.     

Food co‐operatives sustainably managing common pool resources as hyper‐communities as outlined by Consumer Culture Theory

This paper presents the interview results from nine managers operating in the co‐operative food sector in Ontario, Canada. The interview results are framed within the context of Consumer Culture Theory to show how co‐operatives can be considered hyper‐communities that are built around an opposition to the current economic system's management of food as a common pool resource. The co‐operative managers interviewed present a view that co‐operatives act as drivers of sustainable innovation by allowing individuals to act as a group with a common interest in sustainable practices. The co‐operative model provides these hyper‐communities with guidance to interact with the economic system through the co‐operative principles. The co‐operative principles assist co‐operative managers in establishing member control over the common pool resource. This paper supports the growing literature on the co‐operative economy and self‐governance of common pool resources for a sustainable future.     

Are consumers sensitive to large retailers' sustainable practices? A semiotic analysis in the French context

This paper seeks to discover consumer perceptions related to the adoption of sustainable transport practices by the French large retail industry. Using 20 semi-structured interviews and the semiotic square method, this research sheds light on a set of structured postures of consumers' perceptions according to a semantic axis: conjunction vs. disjunction. The recourse to a socio-semiotic reading here favours a deeper comprehension of the question of consumers' trust in large retailers. It proposes a typology of four distinct virtual strategies responding to the diverse consumer perceptions brought to light: persuasion, rejection, suspicion, and alignment. This leads to a discussion of the strategies offered by different large retailers to meet their consumers' perceptions and expectations. Lastly, the results outline the importance of deploying targeted communication and of aligning sustainable transport practices in accordance with the identified consumer postures.     

Impediments to Adoption of Green Products: An ISM Analysis

During the last decades of the twentieth century, industry and business leaders have recognized the importance of incorporating environmental sustainability in their business practices. This has resulted in emergence of new concepts such as green marketing and green consumerism. Over the years, various studies have explored the concept of green consumer behavior and have listed out factors that work as either barriers or enablers to consumer adoption of environmentally sustainable products. The present study identifies such barriers from the available body of literature and tries to construct a model using ISM (Interpretive Structural Modeling) to show how these different barriers interact and affect the consumer decision making regarding green products.     

Enhancing Brand Equity Through Sustainability: Waste Recycling

Unlike many existing research studies that explain reverse marketing from a purchasing perspective, this study recognizes it as an honest effort made by managers aiming to promote sustainability by purposefully managing waste and discusses the spillover effect of their initiatives on brand equity. It argues that efficient recycling of products through reverse marketing by a brand demonstrates its sincere intent to adopt sustainable business practices and enhances its equity in the marketplace. A business‐to‐business viewpoint has been used to combine knowledge about waste recycling and management through reverse marketing based on the unpretentious operations and management practices. The propositions reflect on the criticality of engaging business customer firms in a procedural mechanism of recycling for increase in brand equity as the success of reverse marketing. A comprehensive adoption of an initiative like waste management through reverse marketing by a brand highlights how sustainability initiatives can create value for the customers of the brand and ultimately drive brand equity. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Key drivers of services website loyalty

The ease of website comparison and strong price competition encourage users to constantly switch tourism service providers. The present work analyses how satisfaction, trust, and commitment can help to strengthen loyalty towards websites selling accommodation services. Moreover, special attention is paid here to evaluate the moderating effects of gender on the relationships between these variables. Structural equation models were used to test the hypotheses on a sample of 230 Mexican Internet users, online purchasers of tourist accommodation services. The results show significant differences between men and women's post-purchase behaviour with a higher influence in women of trust on commitment and of commitment on loyalty towards accommodation services websites. Managerial implications for accommodation websites are provided.     

Acknowledging religious diversity: Opportunities and challenges

Because federal law protects an employee's right to religious accommodation, managers cannot ignore the issue of religious diversity. The matter is far broader than simple legal compliance, though. Certainly, managers need to better understand the laws protecting employees’ rights for accommodation and prohibiting disparate treatment, religious harassment, and retaliation. However, they also need to understand the various opportunities and challenges associated with acknowledging religious diversity. Concerning opportunities, research suggests that allowing employees to express aspects of their religion can enhance their work lives and, thus, the value they place on the organization. Furthermore, respect for religious diversity can encourage a useful mindset for communicating with other stakeholders in areas from advertising to the sports interests of salespeople. Since learning more about a range of faiths can lead to greater skills in working with diverse groups, we offer information on Prothero's God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World—and Why Their Differences Matter and on different religions’ practices associated with death-related issues. In conclusion, we provide insight regarding the benefits of acknowledging religious diversity while respecting those who identify with no religion, and we do so without opening the door to proselytizing.     

Macro‐institutional conditions in Ghana and the challenges to HRM program development and implementation

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) originating from advanced economies with operations in less developed host countries need to have a good understanding of the macro‐institutional conditions of the host country. Given HRM practices are context‐specific and embedded within the institutional and cultural settings of the host country, an exploratory qualitative study approach was employed to ascertain the host country's institutional dimensions (drivers) likely to undermine HRM program implementation in large local companies and in MNEs. Data were drawn from key stakeholder participants, including HR managers from MNE subsidiaries, domestic firms, and officials from key stakeholder institutions. The evidence points to six (6) dimensions of a less‐developed host country's macro institutions that undermine firms' HRM advancement. These include the regulatory system, education and training arrangement, labor market conditions, cultural barriers, political actors' intrusion, and economic uncertainty. The implications thereof are discussed.     

Young managers' interpersonal stress and its relationship to management development practices: an exploratory study

This exploratory study investigates whether there is a relationship between young managers' interpersonal stress and various management development practices. In recent years, practitioners and researchers have focused on stress studies and related practices in the workplace. However, stress encountered by young managers has received less attention. We examine possible sources of young managers' interpersonal stress and develop a scale through exploratory factor analysis. Participants are less than 35 years old, mainly from the financial, high‐tech and service industries in Taiwan. Organizational managerial development practices are discussed to understand their relevance to young managers' interpersonal stress. The results suggest that the more opportunities young managers have to make decisions, the more their opinions will differ from those of their middle‐aged fellow managers and senior subordinates. However, organizations with formal assessment may lessen disagreements with middle‐aged fellow managers. Future studies regarding young managers' interpersonal stress can be carried out using this scale and can explore whether other, specific organizational management development practices are related to lower stress levels among young managers.     

Drivers and barriers of mobile payment adoption: Malaysian merchants' perspective

The Malaysian market consists of a large consumer-base carrying mobile phones. However, the adoption and proliferation of mobile (m-) payments remain dismal. Evidence from the literature necessitates the need for elucidating the adoption barriers and drivers from multiple perspectives. There has been much research on consumer adoption and usage of mobile payment systems, but there is a lack of research on this subject from the merchants' perspective. Taking into account the critical role merchants play in promoting a sustainable m-payment ecosystem, this work elucidates the perspective of merchants in Malaysia vis-à-vis m-payment systems. In-depth interviews with merchants from multiple retail categories were conducted to gain insight into their motivational drives, barriers, and challenges in the context of the adoption and implementation of m-payment systems in Malaysia. The results confirmed that the relative advantage of decreasing payment processing time and fees, convenience, and enhanced payment security features are some of the factors motivating merchants to adopt m-payment, while technological incompatibility, complexity, the cost of investment, and the lack of critical mass and knowledge are some of the factors discouraging merchants from doing so. Our findings further expand the limited knowledge of m-payment systems in the context of Malaysian merchants, which is valuable for industries and policymakers. The results of this study can be generalised to other m-payment systems in other countries - Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, and Android Pay, with Apple Pay, Alipay, and WeChat.     

Managerial Commitment to Sustainable Supply Chain Management Projects

Most companies are under pressure to improve the environmental sustainability of their supply chains. However, there is considerable variance in companies' ability to successfully deploy environmental management projects. One important factor, according to articles in the academic and business press, is the ability of champions of sustainable supply chain management (SCM) projects within organizations to gain the commitment of colleagues (e.g., other managers from a variety of functions) to help these projects succeed. Therefore, this paper examines variables that affect a project champion's ability to gain this commitment from colleagues. In particular, building on existing research, this research employs a video‐based experimental design to examine the effect of the influence approach that the project champion employs, the values of the person the champion is trying to influence, and the organizational climate. The results suggest that organizational climate and certain individual values directly affect commitment. There are also interactions between values and influence tactics. The research adds to the field's growing knowledge on the antecedents of sustainable SCM within companies while providing valuable guidance for environmental champions and for top managers.     

How does a local initiative contribute to social inclusion and promote sustainable food practices? Focus on the example of social cooking workshops

Initiatives from food system players closer to citizens are currently valorized to promote sustainability. Based on TCR and on the practice theories, this research aims at studying the impacts of a local initiative on two aspects: social inclusion and sustainable food practices. To do so, we chose the example of cooking classes for people in social instability. Cooking classes may contribute to fight against social exclusion through two factors: first the group dynamic and then the value‐creation for participants. Besides, cooking classes may drive towards sustainable food practices on the basis of advice about new skills. Cooking classes in three different social service structures were observed: a Social Centre; a social service structure hosting young people suffering from homophobia; and, a hosting centre for people with disabilities. To complete these observations, semi‐directive one‐hour interviews were conducted with three participants from the different groups. This information was analyzed with thematic analysis and practice theories tools. Results show that the main factor of social inclusion is the value‐creation, with two factors contributing to people's self‐esteem: (re)teach them how to cook; and offer them the opportunity to cook and eat good food. The cooking classes are efficient to promote sustainable food practices, promoting at the same time the interest in shared‐eating, shared‐cooking, and new skills. Nevertheless, it is not enough for the people to adopt new practices because of material and logistical barriers. As such, our findings are important for policy makers tasked with promoting sustainable consumption and social insertion within vulnerable population.     

The Pricing Processes of Exporters

Abstract

Within the realm of research regarding the successful implementation of exporting strategies lies the often neglected topic area of export pricing. This subject has received relatively little attention over the years for a number of reasons, including a lack of formal export pricing theory and a reluctance among international managers to discuss their pricing practices. Concurrently, what research that has been conducted on this issue has been largely undertaken from the single country perspective. Future research, both exploratory and empirical, is called for.

This study attempts to define what export pricing strategies and processes are currently being utilized by exporting firms, what influences the adoption of these strategies, and how these strategies differ across cultures. Through a series of interviews with export managers from U.S. and Mexican manufacturing firms, an exploratory case study analysis was conducted to address four major issues, namely (1) what are the export pricing processes of the firm, (2) how do stated export objectives relate to these strategies, (3) what are the perceived barriers to the successful implementation of pricing practices, and (4) how do these factors differ between Mexican and U.S. exporters.     

Current Marketing Practices and Market Orientation in the Context of an Emerging Economy: The Case of Uruguay

This research explores the link between contemporary marketing practices, market orientation (MO), and business performance in Uruguay, an emergent country that has recovered from an economic crisis. These approaches seem to be related but there is no existing evidence to confirm this impression. Lessons can be learned from understanding how effective the adoption of marketing practices is under a crisis scenario. Using data from interviews with 143 micro and small firms' managers, we identify three clusters dependant on the combination of marketing practices: a multimarketing cluster, a medium‐level relationship marketing cluster, and a transactional cluster. A model relating MO components and various performance measures is tested for the three clusters, showing that the multimarketing and transactional clusters are more effective in translating efforts and resources into business outcomes.     

From crinkly sheds to fashion parks: the role of financial investment in the transformation of retail parks

The retail park is one of the most ubiquitous and significant forms of off-centre retailing in the UK. Originally designed as low-cost accommodation for 'bulky goods', retail parks now include high-rent 'fashion parks' which are eagerly sought by institutional investors for long-term ownership. This paper explains why retail-park ownership, originating in the early 1980s in one-off schemes by locally based property developers, has become the province of major property companies, financial institutions, and asset managers. Growth in rents and capital values has been fuelled by increasing institutional investment, and by fears of a growing scarcity of high-quality developments because of town-planning restrictions. This pressure is now leading to attempts to realize the full capital value of older developments, through processes of 'active management' by the new breed of retail-park owners. In turn, this is leading to increasingly rapid changes of retail occupiers, involving in some cases the expulsion of the original 'bulky goods' retailers for whom retail parks were created. A parallel with the 'Wheel of Retailing' model of institutional change is suggested.     

A contextual perspective on consumers' perceived usefulness: The case of mobile online shopping

This research aims to study the origins of consumers' usefulness perceptions through the example of mobile online shopping adoption in Europe. The results of an empirical study, which is grounded in technology acceptance theory, reveal the pivotal role of consumers' beliefs about the quality of mobile online stores in the formation of usefulness perceptions prior to adoption. While this study identifies that consumers form their usefulness evaluations depending on the respective shopping tasks, the results of a moderation analysis yield usefulness predictors that differ in relevance across product categories and shopping touchpoints. This contextual perspective has implications for both adoption and (online) channel research. It also helps managers to identify starting points on how to promote (mobile) online shopping adoption.     

"Babies Cost Less at Tesco"

Through research undertaken in several child adoption agencies, the authors examine the ethical consequences of the use of marketing techniques in the child adoption process within England and Wales.

Increasingly child adoption organisations and social work professionals are made accountable via the language of customer service and performance measurements. The use of commercial techniques such as marketing is justified on utilitarian grounds. However, any utilisation of marketing within the child adoption process is forced to ensure that the child is not de-centred. Here, the authors argue, there are tensions between the humanitarian project that is child adoption, and the unease produced by viewing the child as human 'product'. The use of marketing in child adoption raises issues related to the objectification and commodification of the child and prospective adopters. Within child adoption it is assumed that we must engage with the child as 'face' (Bauman 1995). But will these assumptions stand the encroachment of marketing techniques into this very sensitive area?     

3M: Role model for emerging markets

This article focuses on the role of multinational companies in transferring advanced human resource management practices to post‐Communist countries. It reviews the lessons learned from the complex cultural and historical configuration of a transitional economy. The authors analyze 3M's experience in Russia and the results of interviews with the company managers. They summarize innovative solutions in hiring, training, motivating employees, and creating organizational culture, and discuss the company's position as a role model for emerging markets. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.