Women Managers’ Careers in China: Theorizing the Influence of Gender and Collectivism

This article is concerned with developing an understanding of the careers of women managers in China. Existing literature suggests that while women in China are comparatively well represented in management roles, they face distinctive pressures and barriers to their progress arising from entrenched patriarchal and collectivist aspects of the Chinese cultural tradition. However, little is known about how these aspects impact on women's orientations towards their careers and to what extent influential Western career theories are adequate in interpreting their experience. Drawing on interviews with 20 women managers in China, the article interprets women's orientations towards their careers in relation to their adherence to traditional gender roles and collectivist values. Using this framework, a fourfold taxonomy is developed which identifies “conformist,” “revolutionary,” “soloist,” and “dissident” orientations. The article suggests that Western career theories fail to capture the collective dimension, and thus do not account fully for the range of experience and orientations of Chinese women managers that are captured in the taxonomy. Implications, both practical and theoretical, are discussed. Recommendations are also made as to how management and career development policies might be developed in organizations in China in order to address the diverse needs and preferences of women managers. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Consumer Support Networks: assessment of need for consumer information and advice service

Research evidence suggests that UK consumers are facing significant problems with goods and services and are in need of information and advice to avoid or redress such situations. Consumers are not always aware of their rights nor where they can access consumer advice services. In 2000, the Department of Trade and Industry launched the Consumer Support Network (CSN) programme in Great Britain to improve consumer access to expert, accurate and timely advice. One challenge faced by these Networks and many other agencies is to assess the needs of consumers for consumer information and advice services. A needs assessment is required as a key element in the effective planning and development of services in each Network at a local level. The focus of the needs assessment at the local level is to encourage Networks to consider suitable solutions to meet the needs of people in their communities. This paper provides a review of the development of Consumer Support Networks in Great Britain and discusses the importance of needs assessment to service providers such as CSNs and other agencies. It reveals the complexity associated with conducting effective needs assessments including the various aspects of needs, consumer segmentation and characteristics of consumer information and advice. Further research is being carried out at Queen Margaret University College, UK, with a view to the development of a scientific model for the assessment of need for consumer information and advice services.     

Will You Help Me Please? The Effects of Race,Gender and Manner of Dress on Retail Service

This research attempts to determine if a customers visible physical characteristics influence retail service delivery. The results of this study suggest that black and male customers wait significantly longer than white and female customers at retail customer service counters. In addition, females are more likely to experience a positive transaction outcome than males.     

Doctoral Dissertations

This section of the Journal publishes summaries and abstracts of dissertations related to a broad cross-section of real estate issues. Areas of interest include government policy and planning, real estate business and industry issues, property, contract and transaction types, real estate decision-making processes, market analysis, and related methodological and theoretical issues. If you know of any real estate-related dissertation that may not appear in standard sources but think would be of interest to our readers, please contact the co-editor at the address noted above.     

Succession planning vs. agency theory: a test of Harris and Helfat's interpretation of plurality announcement market returns

In this note we respond to Harris and Helfat's (1998) reinterpretation of the results in Worrell, Nemec, and Davidson (1997) . Harris and Helfat argued that the negative stock market response associated with plurality announcements could be the result of inadequate corporate succession planning rather than with the agency cost explanation. Our results, here, show that duality and plurality announcements do not hurt shareholder wealth as long as there is an heir apparent and, therefore, are more consistent with the succession planning explanation than with agency theory. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Co-producing with consumers: how varying levels of control and co-production impact affect

As companies continue to utilize co-production (customer participation in product or service creation) strategies with consumers, academic researchers have expanded their study on issues related to co-production. However, research has been scant on the issue of control in such situations. The underlying belief in increasing customer participation and involvement is it increases customers’ perceived control, thereby enhancing their experience and outcomes; this belief creates the necessity for further examination of control in co-production environments. This study examines consumers’ affective responses to differing levels of three types of control (cognitive, behavioral, and decisional) in low and high co-production conditions. Using two experimental contexts and one survey study, the results show increasing cognitive control will increase affect when co-production is low. Behavioral control can negatively or positively influence affect depending on specific situational contexts and perceptions of customization in low co-production conditions. Lastly, decisional control is found to be an important positive contributor to affect regardless of co-production level. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Food choice and school meals: primary schoolchildren's perceptions of the healthiness of foods and the nutritional implications of food choices

Since the 1980 Education Act, school caterers have been operating within a commercial context and therefore can only provide the foods that they know that children will eat. At the same time, nutritionists have been concerned that the greater degree of choice that children now have at lunchtime is resulting in the more frequent consumption of meals of poor nutritional quality. A knowledge of children's food preferences, the factors influencing them, and their perceptions of the healthiness of foods is needed if school caterers and those involved in nutrition education are to work together to help children choose a nutritionally balanced meal. This paper reports on children's perceptions of the healthiness or otherwise of foods commonly served at school lunches and the reasons for these perceptions. Children's knowledge of the sources of nutrients, their understanding of the relationship between food and health, and how their perceptions of healthiness relate to their preferences for the foods are also explored. The nutritional implications of food choices made by primary school children on the basis of preference rather than healthiness are examined. One hundred and twenty three children aged between nine and eleven from 14 different primary schools in SouthEast England took part. Using photographs of foods commonly served at school lunches, the children were asked to rank the foods in order of preference and then according to their perceptions of the healthiness of the foods and give their reasons in each case. The rankings were analysed numerically and the Wilcoxon's pairs signed rank test was used to determine the significance of the difference. The qualitative data on the reasons given for the rankings were analysed by assigning them to categories. The children were also asked which foods they would choose for the meal that they would be most likely to eat, and which ones for the meal that they thought would be the most healthy. The nutritional value of the two sets of meals were determined and compared. A student T- test was used to determine the significance of any difference between the two sets of meals.It was found that the children had a clear perception of the healthiness or otherwise of the foods. However, understanding of the relationship between foods or nutrients and health was only occasionally evident, as was the idea of moderation or balance. Some children perceived healthiness as the absence of fat while others saw it in terms of the presence of vitamins. It was also found that there was a strongly inverse relationship between children's perceptions of the healthiness of foods and their preferences for them. It was found that while the foods chosen for the ‘healthy’ meal were chosen least frequently for the ‘preferred’ meal, there was no significant difference between the percentage of energy provided by fat in the two sets of meals. However the ‘preferred’ meals did in fact provide a significantly higher percentage of the energy as starch, as well as containing greater amounts of some micronutrients. In other respects the ‘healthy’ meals were indeed ‘healthier’, in that they provided greater amounts per megajoule of some important nutrients.It was concluded that teaching about food in primary schools needs to focus on helping children of this age make balanced food choices. It was suggested that the ‘tilted plate’ model, adapted to use foods that children frequently eat and enjoy, could be the basis of such teaching. Such a model could also be used to help caterers plan menus and as the basis of co-operation between nutrition educators and caterers.