James Sullivan. Jeans: A Cultural History of an American Icon

How is it that jeans evolved from durable work clothes intoa global symbol of America? James Sullivan's new work surveysthe history of denim wear, showing how "... a pair of blue jeansembodies two centuries     

CONSUMER SPENDING ON DESIGNER JEANS: A CLASSICAL CONDITIONING MODEL

The classical conditioning theory of learning was used to predict consumer spending on designer jeans. Subjects viewed and responded to eight slides of designer and non-designer jeans. In addition the presence or absence of designer labelled hangtags was varied so that half of the subjects were exposed to the hangtags and half of them were not exposed to the hangtags. Thus the design of the experiment was a mixed model two by two analysis of variance. It was predicted and found that subjects were likely to say they would spend more for the designer jeans than the non-designer jeans. Manipulation checks revealed that the subjects were not estimating or trying to guess the retail value of the jeans. It was also predicted and found that subjects were more likely to select designer jeans as gifts than non-designer jeans. Finally there was a designer jeans by hangtag interaction. People were more apt to select designer jeans as gifts than non-designer jeans, but only in the absence of the hangtags. When the hangtags were present the effect was negated. Classical conditioning theory is used to explain the results and to offer avenues for further research.     

牛仔裤名镇发展困局

<正>原材料上涨、资金乏力、不断上涨的人力成本、缺乏品牌知名度、环境污染……这一切都让这个专业镇步履蹒跚。阿发和小高半蹲在地上,旁边还蹲着一个新来的打版师和拿样品的人,面前的地上摆了8个皮质的标牌,所有人都在等着阿发的意见。     

Walk Through Unusual Five Years—— An Exhibitor＇s Canton Fair Course

When the 103rd Canton Fair is approaching, an old friend of Canton Fair, Li Ying from Jiangsu prov-ince recollected his past five years＇ experiences to the grand trade meeting. Each year is special, with some unforgettable memories colored by the year.     

Does price reflect emotional,structural or performance quality?

Three denim jeans products from the same manufacturer with differentiated pricing and labels (antiqued, sandblasted, and stonewashed) were used to determine the relationship between price and quality. Both qualitative and quantitative procedures were used to analyse the garments. All three jeans were made of twill weave with 3 × 1 repeat. Both structural and performance characteristics were compared using standardized tests. Analysis of variance was used to compare the selected structural and performance characteristics among the three jeans products. Tukey’s HSD tests were used for post hoc multiple comparisons for three jeans. The findings revealed that despite the fact that all three jeans products were from the same store, and that the fabrics used the same weave, degree and direction of twist, the jeans differed significantly for several structural and performance characteristics. Several possibilities for future research were explored.     

Reducing laundering frequency to prolong the life of denim jeans

The use and disposal phase in a garment's life cycle is highly dependent on the choices made by the consumer. Maintenance procedures such as laundering and drying require energy and water use. Garment disposal increases waste in landfill sites, unless incinerated, which can take a toll on the environment through greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, encouraging consumers to launder less frequently and finding ways to extend the useful life of clothing are two ways of increasing sustainability within the clothing industry. Denim jeans are one of the most popular items of clothing worldwide. Changing habits such as reducing the frequency with which a person washes their denim jeans could have a positive impact on the environment through less water and energy use. However, environmental knowledge about what is detrimental to the environment may not necessarily lead to pro‐environmental behaviour. In denim jeans fibre loss results in thinning and loss in colour due to use. Laundering in particular can degrade clothing due to the abrasive forces applied to the surface of wet fibres. Therefore, this study highlights the effect that frequent laundering can have on the degradation of jeans with the aim to provide additional motivation to encourage change in consumers’ laundering habits. Consumers wore jeans for the equivalent of 60 days and either washed their jeans after approximately 2 days of wear or after approximately every 20 days of wear. The findings confirmed that frequent laundering reduced mass, increased colour loss, and reduced tensile strength in the warp direction of the fabric. Although washing is a major contributor to the degradation of jeans, the process of wearing denim jeans also naturally degrades the denim as the thigh region of the jeans showed greater colour loss and reduction in tensile strength than the shin region, which is typically less prone to abrasion through wear. The findings from this study provide compelling evidence to encourage consumers to reconsider their laundering habits in terms of wash frequency as both a means to behave in a more environmentally sustainable way, and to preserve their favourite garments.     

Labels and hangtags: tool for consumer empowerment and education

Advertisers use social marketing to inform and convince consumers of the available products. The most casual apparel like jeans also comes in several brands ranging from designer names with status appeal to economical choices. Labels and hangtags serve as the first connection between the consumers and the apparel product. They address both intrinsic and extrinsic traits. Consumers use labels for social identification, information acquisition and care instructions. The threefold purpose of the reported study was (1) to determine the compliance of the information on the labels of men's jeans with the federal requirements of permanent care labelling; (2) to examine the content and significance of information on the hangtags; and (3) to determine if the weight/unit of the men's jeans varied across various brands used for the study. A content analysis of the information on the labels and hangtags of 26 men's jeans was conducted. The information was tabulated and examined for compliance with federal regulations as well as additional information provided to convince the consumer of the products’ authenticity and performance for the intended use. The findings revealed that labels and hangtags had useful information for persuading the consumer of the longevity of the company and authenticity of the product. The analysed jeans varied for price, style, and weight to meet the satisfaction of a broad spectrum of consumers who could be price conscious, status‐driven, and/or just information‐seekers. The results support the role of social marketing in reaching a variety of consumers by offering choices. This work can be further extended to determine the impact of labels and hangtags on decision‐making across various consumer markets for jeans as well as other apparel categories.     

A study on the attributes involved in the hedonic pricing of Brazilian clothing

The objective of this study is to identify the weighted importance of intrinsic and extrinsic attributes. Intrinsic attributes are defined as the specific features of products. Extrinsic attributes refer to other characteristics that are also important for price composition, such as brand, store layout and services, and purchasing experiences. In a survey with 1,923 collected responses, it was possible to identify and quantify intrinsic and extrinsic influencing factors beyond price strategy in the Brazilian fashion market for blue jeans. The statistical analysis was based on the hedonic price method. The idea of expressing the price based on a series of intrinsic and extrinsic variables avoids the problem of using the regression technique. In this research, multiple linear regression and quantile regression were applied. The results show that extrinsic attributes have greater influence than intrinsic features on explaining the final market prices using log-linear and quantile regression statistical methods.     

Institutional Normativity and the Evolution of Morals: A Behavioural Approach to Ethics

This article explores the normative nature of institutions. The starting point of my investigation is Kahneman, Knetsch and Thaler’s notion of the reference transaction from which I derive a recursive relationship between normative judgements and social practices (i.e. regular, routinised actions in a social group), an implication of which I call the “self-justification of practices”. Drawing on John Dewey, I demonstrate how prevailing practices influence normative standards and thus how institutions become normative entities. I then show how, despite the conservative bias of normative standards, institutional change comes about. Finally, I enquire into the possibility of normative critique of prevailing practices and institutions.     

Sociomateriality: Theories,methodology, and practice

This article aims to present the theoretical trends that constitute the notion of sociomateriality in the field of organizational studies and to describe a methodological framework for conducting empirical research in this field. It is a contribution for those interested in understanding and using the sociomateriality approach theoretically and methodologically. The main conclusion is that sociomateriality is a valuable alternative not only for comprehending how the entanglement of human and non-human actors may produce organizations, their practices, and changes, but also for (re)thinking organizational phenomena both ontologically and methodologically.     

Laundry routine and resource consumption in Australia

Inconspicuous consumption, the habitual use of resources in daily routines, poses a challenge to sustainable consumption. For example, laundry is often the most environmentally demanding stage of clothing's life cycle, consuming significant quantities of water, energy and chemicals. Laundry thus provides a prime example of inconspicuous consumption, from which to consider sustainability transitions. However, because of the mundane nature of washing clothes, it is sometimes over looked in sustainable fashion literature. This paper presents the results of surveying 263 Australians about their jeans, laundry habits and resource consumption, to build a picture of the expectations and actions surrounding the performance of cleanliness in everyday life. These surveys are triangulated against in‐depth interviews with people who had not washed their jeans for three months revealing qualitative insights into influences of laundry practice. This paper documents how and why people perform laundry. An interesting finding is that people can not wash and still be socially acceptable, suggesting that cleanliness is a cultural construct, the pursuit of which increases the use of water, energy and chemicals, in conflict with sustainable consumption goals.     

Consumer spending on designer jeans: an operant conditioning interpretation

The explanation of consumer spending on designer jeans in terms of classical conditioning is re-examined in the light of an operant conditioning model. A plea is made for the rigorous use of behavioural explanations in consumer research.     

Dynamic ambidexterity: How innovators manage exploration and exploitation

Firms must excel at both exploration and exploitation to ensure long-term survival and prosperity. However, firms often have difficulties in doing so because they have to accommodate the contradictory logics of exploration and exploitation. This article examines the logics of exploration and exploitation, evaluates the difficulties of accommodating both logics, and identifies dynamic ambidexterity as a new way to overcome these difficulties. To achieve dynamic ambidexterity, firms need to support structural ambidexterity at the corporate level, contextual ambidexterity at the business-unit level, and sequential ambidexterity at the project level. I believe that the notion of dynamic ambidexterity and its managerial practices can help firms manage exploration and exploitation and ensure long-term survival and prosperity.     

Export Barrier Perceptions in Tanzania: The Influence of Social Networks

In this article, the author empirically examines export barriers Tanzanian firms encounter in attempting to initiate and/or expand export activities and the strategies they use for overcoming these barriers. Based on a social network perspective, the research hypothesizes that firms exploiting diverse networks should normally encounter fewer export barriers. Using a survey dataset collected from 122 manufacturing firms, the findings support the notion that networking reduces export barriers. More specifically, exploiting a large number of strong ties relative to weak ties, and a large number of institutional ties relative to business ties, can substantially enhance firms’ capabilities of overcoming barriers to exporting. In light of these findings, implications for policy, research, and practices are discussed.     

Anomie and the Marketing Function: The Role of Control Mechanisms

The authors use the theoretical notion of anomie to examine the impact of top management’s control mechanisms on the environment of the marketing function. Based on a literature review and in-depth field interviews with marketing managers in diverse industries, a conceptual model is proposed that incorporates the two managerial control mechanisms, viz. output and process control, and relates their distinctive influence to anomie in the marketing function. Three contingency variables, i.e., resource scarcity, power, and ethics codification, are proposed to moderate the relationship between control mechanisms and anomie. The authors also argue for the link between anomic environments and the propensity of unethical marketing practices to occur. Theoretical and managerial implications of the proposed conceptual model are discussed. An erratum to this article can be found at     

Changing laundry habits in Norway

Maintenance is often the most energy‐demanding stage during clothes' life cycle. Therefore, a shift towards more sustainable washing habits has great potential to reduce the consumption of energy, water and detergent. This paper discusses the change in laundering practices during the past 10 years in Norway and suggests strategies to help consumers change their laundry habits to more sustainable ones. Quantitative information of consumers' experiences, habits and opinions concerning clothing maintenance was collected through three surveys in Norway in 2002, 2010 and 2011. The 2010 study was supplemented with qualitative in‐depth interviews of a strategic sample of households. The average washing temperature has decreased slightly during the studied time periods. Some products' washing frequencies remained the same, whereas other products such as jeans were used a few more days before washing. The cotton programme is the most used washing programme, but short programmes are gaining popularity. The laundry sorting processes vary greatly and are influenced by several factors such as washing temperature, colours, fibre type and use area. For some consumers, the use of several different sorting categories made it more difficult to collect a sufficient amount of clothing to fill the machine. They were also afraid that overfilling the machine would result in clothes that were not clean enough or had detergent residues. Detergent dosing practices are far from optimal. In 2010, although the majority of respondents only used eye measure and did not know the water hardness of their area, they still tried to vary detergent dosage based on the amount of laundry and the level of soiling. Different design for sustainable behaviour strategies could be used within detergent dosage systems, care labelling, machine programme selection (such as suggesting lower temperature and eco‐programme), machine filling grade indicators, storage systems for slightly used clothing and textile material choice.     

The importance of understanding the shape of diverse ethnic female consumers for developing jeans sizing systems

This study has been conducted to investigate the fit issues related to the current apparel pants and jeans sizing system for diverse consumers, identifying body shape differences among ethnic groups. A total of 1335 women in a certain size range (Misses figure type sizes 2–20) were selected in the study. A Misses figure type size category is commonly used for adult women of average proportion and height. First, the body dimension differences among ethnic groups were examined with a single factor analysis of variance. Second, the fit of pants and jeans for the diverse consumers within the same size category was examined with the current standard sizing system, ASTM D5585 for adult female Misses figure type sizes 2–20. Three cases were programmed within a database: When each consumer selects a size for a pair of jeans based on (1) waist size; (2) hip size; and (3) waist height (usually pants length). And last, the results were analysed with fit comparison plots. Current jean consumers are racially diversified in the US and globally as well. This study revealed that ethnic groups had different fit problems and significant body shape differences. Even within the same figure type size category, a variety of body dimensions existed in each ethnic group. According to the fit problem assessment in this study, consumers within the same body figure type size category could not find the right fit of the pants and jeans within the current sizing system. Half of the female consumers could not find a garment to fit based on waist height (pants length) because the current sizing systems overlooked the effect of diverse consumers. This study will be useful for standardizing organizations to modify current sizing systems for diverse ethnic consumer groups as a demographic factor so that apparel companies could provide better quality of fit for their consumers in the global and local market.     

How are marketing strategies of genetic material used as a mechanism for biopolitical governmentality?

The article critically examines the marketing strategy employed by Israeli sperm banks as sites for biopolitical governmentality of sperm consumers. The dataset comprise multiple sources which converge to provide evidence for the transfusion of militaristic Zionist ideology into sperm. The biopolitics of sperm marketing involves the naturalization of militaristic Zionism as a dogmatic basis for a “dividing practice” for the inclusion and exclusion of particular types of personified gametes in the symbolically constructed collective gene pool. The image of the military man is the idealized type of hegemonic masculinity in the Israeli nation-in-arms. The warrior-donor is both the supplier of the product and the core product itself, and his semen constitutes the materialistic carrier of his spiritual essence. Using Foucault's notion of biopolitical governmentality suggests why militaristic Zionism discourse has such potency in sperm marketing, and raises questions about contemporary “technologies of the self” as consumerist practices.     

Dirt of whitewashing: re-conceptualising debtors’ obligations in Chinese business by transplanting bankruptcy law to early British Hong Kong (1860s–1880s)

This article, drawing on a wide range of archived materials, and using one of the earliest sets of English business law imported to Hong Kong – the Bankruptcy Ordinance of 1864 – as a case study, argues that the transplantation of the English bankruptcy regime into early colonial Hong Kong was contrary to the business interests of both the European and Chinese communities and wrongfully displaced the traditional Chinese business norms and practices that had contributed to the health of the colonial economy prior to the regime's introduction. This article constitutes one of the first empirical studies to place English business law and its widely acknowledged contribution to the economy of early colonial Hong Kong under scrutiny. From the perspective of the relationship between English law and former British colonies’ development of business modernity, the findings presented herein contradict the readily accepted notion that English business law provided a solid legal infrastructure upon which colonial Hong Kong's prosperity and economic growth were built and call for more nuanced studies of the positive role of Chinese legal traditions in Hong Kong's development of business modernity in its early colonial period.     

Corporations and NGOs: When Accountability Leads to Co-optation

Interactions between corporations and nonprofits are on the rise, frequently driven by a corporate interest in establishing credentials for corporate social responsibility (CSR). In this article, we show how increasing demands for accountability directed at both businesses and NGOs can have the unintended effect of compromising the autonomy of nonprofits and fostering their co-optation. Greater scrutiny of NGO spending driven by self-appointed watchdogs of the nonprofit sector and a prevalence of strategic notions of CSR advanced by corporate actors weaken the ability of civil society actors to change the business practices of their partners in the commercial sector. To counter this trend, we argue that corporations should embrace a political notion of CSR and should actively encourage NGOs to strengthen “downward accountability” mechanisms, even if this creates more tensions in corporate–NGO partnerships. Rather than seeing NGOs as tools in a competition for a comparative advantage in the market place, corporations should actively support NGO independence and critical capacity.