International franchising decision-making: An application of stakeholder theory

Stakeholder theory is used to provide a frame of reference to examine the decision-making process involved in international franchising agreements. An international hotel group was selected as a case. Previous studies focus on investigations of the franchising process after the decision to engage has been taken and contracts duly exchanged. The analysis presented here focuses on the pre-contracting level: on selection and recruitment. The findings emphasise the importance of managing business cultural incompatibility between potential partners and the franchisor and within the franchising company itself.     

International expansion of transnational advertising agencies in China: An assessment of the stages theory approach

This paper examines the expansion of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in a service industry to a country which is both developing and in transition—i.e. the advertising industry in China—to assess how useful the stages theory is in understanding internationalisation issues in today's globalised world. Three of our findings are consistent with the expectations and formal denouement of the stages approach: (a) the agencies increased their involvement in the China market over time; (b) the agencies went through organisational structure change through an incremental process; and (c) the internationalisation process was much faster for late entrants. On the other hand, some findings are not congruent with the theoretical explanations or logic of the theory. The main reason why agencies change their form of operations to a more involved mode, according to executives, was that their clients’ investment in China had increased. They argued that change in operational form is client-driven, rather than being driven by an increase in market knowledge. In sum, form must not be taken for the substance, although some aspects of the Uppsala model can explain the stages and changes of modality in MNE operations in China.     

Managing the retail format portfolio: An application of modern portfolio theory

We apply modern financial portfolio theory (MPT) to managing portfolios of retail formats. The objective of MPT is to maximize overall portfolio return for a given level of portfolio risk. We applied MPT to three prominent hotel firms to determine the ideal mix of formats in their hotel brand portfolios, using revenue per available room (RevPAR) as a proxy for return on investment. We found that all three firms could improve their returns and reduce their risk by reallocating the number of hotel rooms (i.e., scarce resources) across their different retail formats.     

Marketing information system utilization: An application of self-concept theory

The impact of marketing information systems (MIS) has not been substantial and developed systems have not been highly utilized. Borrowing the theory of self-concept from the behavioral sciences, 46 system users' self-images, ideal self-images, and the images of a significant other (one who facilitates usage of the MIS) are measured and related to the image of a heavy user of the information system. The results shed some light on the system usage problem and provide some direction for marketing the MIS to marketing managers/ system users.     

A mechanism for aggregating association network data: An application to brand concept maps

The brand concept maps (BCM) approach is a valuable tool for measuring brand images, that is, an important part of customer-based brand equity. The approach is used to identify brand association networks, which contain information on how the brand and its associations are interconnected in consumers' minds. An essential contribution of the approach is that it provides a set of rules for how to aggregate individual brand association network data into a consensus map. Although BCM's aggregation rules are relatively straightforward and easy to use, the aggregation mechanism still has methodological and practical drawbacks. In this paper, we develop a new aggregation mechanism for individual brand association network data based on a critical assessment of the original aggregation rules. The results of three empirical studies show that the new aggregation mechanism improves the functionality and the aggregation capability, the split-half reliability, and the stability of the aggregation results.     

Cultivating sustainability consciousness through mindfulness: An application of theory of mindful-consumption

Achieving sustainable development is a significant hurdle that societies around the world face in the present era. The on-going global discourse on sustainability revolves around the dual objective of developing sustainability consciousness while fostering social and economic progress. However, despite its relevance to humankind, little is known about the mechanisms and boundary conditions that explain what influences an individual's sustainability consciousness. To fill this void, we borrow from the theory of mindful-consumption and explain why and how mindfulness impacts sustainability consciousness. Besides, given that material wealth is experiencing an unprecedented boom, we examine the moderating role of materialism on the aforesaid relationship. Demographic factors such as age (Gen Y vs Gen Z) and gender (male vs female) were also employed as moderators in the study. A sample of 726 was collected through a survey instrument and analysed using SMART PLS to test the hypothesized relationships. Findings reveal that there is a significant positive relationship between mindfulness and sustainability consciousness with materialism acting as a significant moderator. The model relationships did not vary across the two generational cohorts (Gen Y and Gen Z) significantly. The results further revealed that the impact of materialism was stronger for females than males, depicting gender to be a significant moderator on the proposed relationships. The current work is among the very few studies that empirically validate the influences of mindfulness on the entire gamut of sustainability (including environmental, economic, and social aspects); and has major implications for academicians, practitioners, and policy makers passionate about sustainability.     

Growth paths and survival chances: An application of Gambler's Ruin theory

This paper links new firm survival with growth, with a focus on the patterns in firms' growth paths. We theorise a Gambler's Ruin framework by arguing that new firm performance is best modelled as a random walk process, but that survival is nonrandom and depends primarily on the stock of accumulated resources. A firm's resources are either there when the business begins or are generated by successful periods — ‘wins’. The empirical section tracks, over six years, the sales and survival/non-survival of 6247 UK start-ups which all began trading in the same quarter of 2004. We do not find strong evidence in favour of a taxonomy of growth paths, because we observe that every possible growth path seems to occur with roughly equal probability. However, we observe that growth paths influence subsequent survival. Controlling for lagged size, we observe that longer lags of growth, and even start-up size, have significant effects on survival.     

Ethical decision making in the medical profession: An application of the theory of planned behavior

The present study applied Ajzen's (1985) theory of planned behavior to the explanation of ethical decision making. Nurses in three hospitals were provided with scenarios that depicted inadequate patient care and asked if they would report health professionals responsible for the situation. Study results suggest that the theory of planned behavior can explain a significant amount of variation in the intent to report a colleague. Attitude toward performing the behavior explained a large portion of the variance; subjective norms explained a moderate amount of the variance; and, perceived behavioral control added little to the explanation of variance. Implications for research and practice are discussed. Donna M. Randall is an Associate Professor in Management and Systems at Washington State University. Her research interests include organizational commitment, media coverage of elite crime, and ethical issues in management. Her publications have appeared in such journals as Decision Sciences, Academy of Management Review, and Journal of Business Ethics. Annetta M. Gibson is a doctoral student in the Department of Accounting and Business Law at Washington State University and a CPA. Her research interests lie in the area of behavioral accounting and ethical issues in auditing, accounting, and management. She has published in the Journal of Business Ethics.     

Retail concentration: a comparison of spatial convenience in shopping strips and shopping centres

The emergence of the Internet and a more discerning consumer has created the need for traditional retail centres to provide a more convenient shopping environment. A retail centre offers convenience when it minimises the spatial, temporal and effort costs of shopping. Existing strategies for spatial convenience include limiting the size of a retail centre by controlling the entry of non-retail firms, creating a compact physical design, and creating compatible clusters of shops. The authors’ propose an alternative method; the degree of retail concentration. The purpose of this study is to determine the extent to which shopping centres (also referred to as shopping malls) and shopping strips (also referred to as the high street, downtown or city centre) provide retail concentration. From the measures taken, this study provides insight into the degree of retail concentration offered by a sample of nine shopping centres (also referred to as a shopping mall) and nine shopping strips (also referred to as the high street, downtown or city centre). The findings yielded three important insights. Firstly, across the three measures of retail concentration, the shopping centre was found to offer consumers’ greater spatial convenience. Secondly, the findings add support to the notion that the demise of the shopping strip could be linked to its inability to satisfy the needs of a convenience-oriented society. And thirdly, while the shopping strip may be at a competitive disadvantage in terms of spatial convenience, market mechanisms such as Bid Rent Theory provided a better-than-expected spatial juxta-positioning of its businesses.     

Using Lexical Semantic Analysis to Derive Online Brand Positions: An Application to Retail Marketing Research

This paper provides an innovative approach to brand tracking in the context of online retail shopping by deriving meaning from the vast amount of information stored in online search engine databases. The method draws upon research in lexical text analysis and computational linguistics to gain insights into the structural schema of online brand positions. The paper proposes a simple-to-use method that managers can utilize to assess their brand's positioning relative to that of their competitors’ in the online environment.     

零售企业竞争力评价体系构建与实证研究——以山东省零售企业为例

在对以往相关研究文献回顾的基础上,构建了零售企业竞争力综合评价指标体系,以山东省17个地级市的零售企业为研究对象,通过主成份因子分析法进行实证研究.结果表明,经营规模、效益水平、市场潜力、增长能力、财务能力是影响零售企业竞争力的主要因素,并据此对山东省各地市零售企业竞争力发展现状进行评价,提出了提升山东省零售企业竞争力的对策建议.     

零售业:如何研究客户满意度

<正>十二五规划中明确提出,将逐步转变我国经济增长方式,提高居民可支配收入,实现包容性增长。中国经济也将在未来5年内,逐步提升内需对国民经济的拉动作用,     

零售企业的竞争力分析

业态定位、经营规模、信息化物流配送系统和自有商品品牌对零售企业竞争力具有重大影响,其中经营规模居于中心地位,是影响零售企业竞争力的决定因素.对零售企业来说,通过连锁经营的形式尽快扩大企业的经营规模,实现规模经济,是提升零售企业市场竞争力最现实的选择,一方面降低单位销售成本和经营成本,提高利润率;另一方面,在利润率保持不变的情况下,企业也能够通过高周转率实现销售量的增加,提高总的收益率.     

跨国零售集团采购会:国际贸易方式的创新

随着经济全球化趋势的发展,商业企业正在进行着大规模的联营、合并,使跨国零售集团成为现在及未来最主要的流通企业组织形式。跨国零售集团通过自身庞大的销售网络,对商品全球销售起着十分重要的作用,同时对传统的国际贸易在交易流程、贸易主体关系、贸易思路、运作方式、内外贸一体化等方面进行了全面的创新,成为国际贸易一种新的贸易方式。     

有源网络图的一种操作算子及其应用

本文定义了有源网络图的一种操作算子,并用其推导了一种确定有源网络拓扑分析中完全树符号的新算法.用该算法确定完全树符号时,只需依次替代电流图树(或电压图树)中的有源边,并记录替换边与被替换边的关联状况便可求出完全树的符号.此方法系统性强,易于编程.     

零售商业的国际化及其原因分析

随着经济国际化的进展 ,零售商业的国际化亦日益普遍。零售商业国际化包括店铺选址国际化、商品供应国际化、资本国际化、信用卡国际化及非零售事业的国际化等等。零售商业的国际化受许多因素的影响 ,对这些影响因素进行系统分析 ,是研究零售商业国际化规律 ,制定零售商业国际化战略的重要前提。     

Healthy Profits: An Interdisciplinary Retail Framework that Increases the Sales of Healthy Foods

Disruptive layouts, smart carts, suggestive signage, GPS alerts, and touch-screen preordering all foreshadow an evolution in how healthy foods will be sold in grocery stores. Although seemingly unrelated, they will all influence sales by altering either how convenient, attractive, or normal (CAN) it is to purchase a healthy target food. A Retail Intervention Matrix shows how a retailer’s actions in these three areas can be redirected to target shoppers based on whether the shoppers are Health Vigilant, Health Predisposed, or Health Disinterested. For researchers, this review offers an organizing framework that integrates marketing, nutrition, psychology, public health, and behavioral economics to identify next generation research. For managers, this framework underscores how dozens of small, low cost, in-store changes are available to each that can surprisingly increase sales of entire categories of healthy food.     

Consumer technology traits in determining mobile shopping adoption: An application of the extended theory of planned behavior

An extended Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) model was examined within the context of mobile shopping with moderating effects of three consumer technology traits (i.e., technology self-efficacy, technology innovativeness, and level of experience of use). Among the beliefs of the extended TPB, perceived enjoyment was the strongest determinant creating a favorable attitude toward mobile shopping adoption. The results supported that consumers differ in levels of technology traits in mobile shopping adoption behavior. Implications are provided to assist in predicting potential mobile consumer adoption behavior and in designing favorable mobile shopping environments that can be compatible with the consumer characteristics.