How CSR serves as a preventive mechanism for coping with dysfunctional customer behavior

Service Business - Based on empirical results involving 237 frontline service employees (FSEs) of a South Korean insurance company, this study reveals how FSEs’ views of their company’s...     

Preference for a career in retailing: a question of personality

Drawing on previous findings from the field of brand personality research and employer branding, this paper aims to explore the symbolic attributes of the retail industry image in South Africa and to identify those personality traits that distinguish preferred industries from the retail industry. The research provides a contemporary overview of the current image of the retail industry in South Africa from the perspective of young university students and allows retailers to strengthen their joint communication effort accordingly. Therefore, a quantitative survey study with 1426 participants from five South African universities was conducted. Participants assessed personality characteristics of the retail industry as well as their most preferred industry. The main results suggest that retail and non-retail students hold different personality perceptions of the retail industry and that prior retail involvement accounts for this difference to some extent. Moreover, the analysis shows that retailing performs significantly worse on those personality attributes that are of major importance for future job seekers. Additionally, the study identifies those attributes that exert a strong effect on students’ preferences for the retail industry. The findings provide useful communication themes for educational institutions, retail companies, and industry associations in order to foster positive personality perceptions associated with the retail industry.     

Better Living: Toward a Cultural History of a Business Slogan

This article traces the migration of the slogan "better living"from its inception in 1935 as an attempt to clean up the corporateimage of Du Pont, through its dissemination into the buildingtrades and architecture during and after World War II, and finallyinto urban planning in the postwar decades. These fields borrowedthe phrase back and forth in their promotional literature inorder to serve their own, often clashing agendas—one strandof the larger contest between the forces of free enterpriseand those of centralized planning and reform. The essay aimsto bring together aspects of business, architecture, and planningin order to explore the fertile cultural milieu these differentfields shared in the middle decades of the twentieth century.     

Sam Walton: on a wing and a prayer

Sam Walton built a network of mass-merchandise discount stores. Always keen to embrace innovation, Walton pioneered the self-service concept, was one of the first retailers to adopt network technology via satellite to link stores and championed hypermarts.     

Correction to: Nudging: a very short guide

Business Economics - The author would like to add the following acknowledgement to his article: an earlier version of this essay was originally published in the Journal of Consumer Policy, 37...     

我就是与众不同卓越公司如何迎接挑战,从产品比较中胜出

假如某企业尽其所能．试图成为同行业的佼佼者，那么，它是在自找苦吃。你若加入这一行列，就等于在步别人的后尘，而另一些低端公司以你为跟踪目标，这样的商业环境将使他们陷入误区。眼下，有一种更好的竞争途径。你用不着老想着怎样成为行业龙头，你完全可以创建自己的行业，努力做到与众不同。     

Fashion: a new paradigm of consumer behaviour

In clothing markets, ‘fashion’ has traditionally been defined as something that is accepted by a sizeable proportion of a market. This paper is based on empirical research amongst over 500 students investigating a variety of dimensions of ‘fashionability’. The findings support the ‘outer-directedness’ of ‘prevailing styles’ but also identify a potentially important set of ‘individualistic’ influences. It is suggested that this indicates the necessity for a redefinition of what is fashionable, and an explanation is offered for the apparent contradictions in current thinking about fashionability.     

Subprime Credit: The Evolution of a Market

Business Economics - About once every decade or so economists get to witness the evolution of a credit market. In the 1970s there were mutual funds, in the 1990s there were high yield bonds, and...     

HomeGrocer.com: Anatomy of a failure

This case study examines the initiation, financing, development, and failed merger of an ambitious online grocery retail venture: HomeGrocer.com. It highlights the risks and challenges associated with developing a revolutionary venture. Even though the HomeGrocer.com team did many things right developmentally, some key errors and unfortunate timing resulted in them expanding too quickly and running low on cash. It also forced them to make a tough strategic decision about whether to scale back operations and renege on their IPO commitments or merge with a well-funded competitor, Webvan. The case discusses lessons that can be learned from business failure.     

Beyond nudges: Tools of a choice architecture

The way a choice is presented influences what a decision-maker chooses. This paper outlines the tools available to choice architects, that is anyone who present people with choices. We divide these tools into two categories: those used in structuring the choice task and those used in describing the choice options. Tools for structuring the choice task address the idea of what to present to decision-makers, and tools for describing the choice options address the idea of how to present it. We discuss implementation issues in using choice architecture tools, including individual differences and errors in evaluation of choice outcomes. Finally, this paper presents a few applications that illustrate the positive effect choice architecture can have on real-world decisions.     

FOCUS: Business as a Community of Purpose

"We need to start by recognising that the company is a contributor to the moral order of society." Only then can we really and accurately identify the role of business in today's society. The author of this important study is Principal Lecturer in the Business Studies Department, Manchester Metropolitan University.     

The politicisation of whistleblowers: a case study

The focus of this article is on the political nature of whistleblowing. It argues that reprisals by management, rather than silencing the whistleblower, result in the transformation and politicisation of the individual. The process that leads to the transformation of a loyal employee into a political activist is considered through analysing the experiences of a whistleblower in the sphere of financial regulation in South Africa. The article investigates the effect of retaliation by the employer on the employee-organisational relationship. It looks in particular at the nature of the power struggle between the whistleblower and management and suggests explanations why organisations tend to respond in such a harsh fashion to whistleblowing. It concludes that the act of whistleblowing not only displays an expressive dimension, but also a political instrumental dimension that is often neglected in literature on whistleblowing.