The effect of consumers' involvement and innovativeness on the utilization of fashion wardrobe

This study proposed wardrobe utilization as a means of explaining consumer clothing use behaviour, and aimed to explore its relationship with other antecedent variables. We posit that use innovativeness functions as an antecedent of wardrobe utilization within a model comprised of fashion‐related variables, such as fashion innovativeness and fashion involvement. An empirical study was conducted to test this relationship with 211 adult women between the ages of 20 and 40 years. In order to calculate wardrobe utilization, the number of clothing items worn by each respondent was divided by the total number of clothes that the respective respondent owns. The findings of this study revealed a measureable effect of use innovativeness on wardrobe utilization and apparel purchase behaviour. In addition, fashion innovativeness and fashion involvement was shown to affect use innovativeness; however, the two variables did not have a significant impact on influencing wardrobe utilization. These results showed that use innovativeness plays a role of the full mediator variable in the path from fashion involvement and fashion innovativeness to wardrobe utilization. These also indicated that people who are very innovative in their use of fashion are likely to broadly utilize their respective wardrobes. Finally, the impact of purchase behaviour on wardrobe utilization was dismissed, as purchase behaviour and use behaviour were found to be clearly distinguished from one another. Clothing utilization is related to the life cycle of clothes including their purchase, usage and disposal. And in better understanding clothing utilization, the needless waste of clothing would be reduced and would encourage better management of clothes after their purchase. In the context of the product life cycle, this study of clothing use behaviour can assist in building a more sustainable environment for the textile and fashion industry.     

Antecedents of Green Brand Equity: An Integrated Approach

A steady demand for green products from concerned consumers has led companies to introduce new product lines that match or exceed consumer environmental concerns. Nonetheless, not all the organizations were able to achieve significant returns on their investments in green products. These failures are generally attributed towards companies’ inability to overcome consumer scepticism towards the performance of functional and green attributes of their brands to generate a positive green image and green value in consumers mind. Therefore, the question arises that does the success in promoting green brand image and value depend on consumer existing perceptions about the brand quality and credibility? This study analyzes the influence of brand perceive quality and credibility on consumer perceptions towards a brand green image, green value and green equity. A theoretical model with hypothesized relationships is developed and tested to answer these research questions. Data have been collected from the consumers of electrical and electronic goods. The hypothesized relationships were tested with the help of structural equation modeling procedure. The results suggest that brand perceived quality and its overall credibility does have a significant influence on generating a greener image, green perceive value and green brand equity.     

Autarkic indeterminacy and trade determinacy

We extend the model of Nishimura and Shimomura (2002) to consider a two-country framework where under autarky indeterminacy arises in one country but determinacy in the other, and show that indeterminacy could be eliminated when trade takes place between the two.     

TRACTABLE ROBUST EXPECTED UTILITY AND RISK MODELS FOR PORTFOLIO OPTIMIZATION

Expected utility models in portfolio optimization are based on the assumption of complete knowledge of the distribution of random returns. In this paper, we relax this assumption to the knowledge of only the mean, covariance, and support information. No additional restrictions on the type of distribution such as normality is made. The investor’s utility is modeled as a piecewise‐linear concave function. We derive exact and approximate optimal trading strategies for a robust (maximin) expected utility model, where the investor maximizes his worst‐case expected utility over a set of ambiguous distributions. The optimal portfolios are identified using a tractable conic programming approach. Extensions of the model to capture asymmetry using partitioned statistics information and box‐type uncertainty in the mean and covariance matrix are provided. Using the optimized certainty equivalent framework, we provide connections of our results with robust or ambiguous convex risk measures, in which the investor minimizes his worst‐case risk under distributional ambiguity. New closed‐form results for the worst‐case optimized certainty equivalent risk measures and optimal portfolios are provided for two‐ and three‐piece utility functions. For more complicated utility functions, computational experiments indicate that such robust approaches can provide good trading strategies in financial markets.     

Are success and survival factors the same for social and business ventures?

Despite the growing interest in social entrepreneurship, there exist gaps in research that compares traditional business-oriented entrepreneurship with the social kind. This study attempts to fill the gap by answering the following questions: Are there significant differences between the survival chances of business and social ventures? and Do the traits of the entrepreneur and the firm play the same role as success factors for both types of venture? Hypotheses are tested using data collected from 2,179 firms. The results show that significant differences exist between social and business-oriented entrepreneurship in the form and intensity of the independent variables related to survival.     

The relationship between moral decisions and their consequences: A tradeoff analysis approach

While at one level, the literature in ethics for some issues is broad, deep, and complex, for others it appears limited and lacking in sophistication. This cross — cultural study deals not only with the moral reasoning behind moral dilemmas in business but also with the magnitudes these dilemmas in concert with their possible outcomes and consequences. While many studies discuss the effect of these outcomes, we have found none that have explicitly examined them.The methodology and analysis use a novel approach for this topic, and is a major contribution of the paper: that of tradeoff analysis. Tradeoff analysis is capable of revealing both the nature of an individual's moral reasoning as well as interactions between this and the rewards or consequences for the moral action. These interactions are illustrated with a cross — cultural pilot study conducted in Singapore and the United States, which reveal noteworthy differences in moral decision making.William R. Swinyard is a Professor of Business Management at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, USA, 84602.Thomas J. Delong is a Professor of Education at the same university.Peng Sim Cheng is a Senior Tutor at the National University of Singapore, School of Management, Singapore 0511. Correspondence should be addressed to the first author.     

The limits of institutional isomorphism in the design of e-recruitment websites: a comparative analysis of the USA and Spain

The purpose of this study is to run a comparative analysis of the recruitment websites of the largest national companies of two different countries, Spain (companies within the IBEX 35 stock market index) and the USA (companies within the Dow Jones stock market index). Using an e-recruiting taxonomy of best practices with 27 attributes, we test the extent to which the selection of specific functionalities reflects different types of isomorphic relations due to socio-economic, technological or cultural forces. Our results show that (i) there is a high level of homogeneity within the two groups as regards the selection of e-recruitment attributes included in their websites and (ii) there are significant differences between DJIA and IBEX 35 e-recruitment attributes, showing low levels of alikeness among their websites. Results are discussed in terms of the institutional forces that may drive companies toward isomorphism in the design of their e-recruitment attributes and content.