Product quality or market regulation? Explaining the slow growth of Europe's wine cooperatives, 1880–1980

Wine cooperatives were relatively scarce in Europe before the Second World War, but by the 1980s accounted for more than half of all wines made in France, Italy, and Spain, the three major producer countries. Unlike Danish dairy cooperatives, whose success before the First World War was linked to their ability to improve product quality and compete in high‐value niche markets, wine cooperatives are often associated with the production of large volumes of low‐quality products. This article argues that the initial slow diffusion of wine cooperatives was caused by the difficulties of improving quality due to environmental conditions in European vineyards (‘terroir’) and measurement problems, rather than institutional shortcomings. Cooperatives only became widespread when the state found them a useful instrument to regulate markets, especially after 1950. The problems associated with poor wine quality were never resolved, and cooperatives have become increasingly uncompetitive in the market place, especially following the major decline in per capita consumption and shift towards premium wines from the 1980s.     

Effect of technological and digital learning resources on students' soft skills within remote learning: The mediating role of perceived efficacy

The study analyses the effects of the technological and digital learning resources (DLRs) on the development of students' soft skills (SSk) in remote learning, mediated by the perceived efficacy of students in this modality of education. The study employed a survey research method, and the data were collected through a self-administered questionnaire. Participants included 637 students experiencing remote learning during the second COVID-19 lockdown in the north of Portugal (between 1 and 15 March 2021). The structural equation modelling analysis technique tested the hypothesized model. The study showed that technological and DLRs were strongly interconnected. The results supported our hypotheses, evidencing that, in remote learning, the adequacy of DLRs had a direct effect on the development of SSk, presenting the efficacy perceived by the students as a mediator of this relationship. The study demonstrated that, with the experience of remote learning, students perceived the development of their SSk, which is consistent with the literature review we carried out. Implications of these findings are discussed, considering the literature on technology-mediated learning and the development of human resources SSk in the context of the digital transition.     

Management of sustainable fashion retail based on reuse– A struggle with multiple logics

ABSTRACT

In scholarly conversations, reuse is one of the common suggested strategies to render fashion retail sustainable. Previous research has stressed the complexity of fashion reuse and the importance of a well-organized system. The complexity stems from processes that involve many actors as well as products hard to evaluate. Consequently, it is challenging to organize reuse-based fashion retail, and studies are needed to further develop knowledge regarding how to manage such systems. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to highlight the complexity in the management of such an initiative, by identifying and explaining obstacles as well as implications. With institutional logics as a framework, three local logics (shopping mall, reuse, and work integration) are used to analyze the management of a reuse-based mall. Despite the mall’s success in getting sufficient donations and creating publicity, it has struggled to establish itself as viable reuse-based fashion retail. The findings illustrate the complexity created by the interplay of different logics and how the complexity influences both the daily and strategic management of the mall. Further, the outcome of this interplay depends largely on which rationality is enacted by involved actors. The study also extends literature on institutional logics, showing that differences in individual actors’ attention, knowledge, skills, coordination, and material conditions influence how logics are enacted and managed. We suggest that there are inherent managerial contradictions in the sustainable practices in fashion retail. Thus, in scholarly conversations, it is important to discuss what different divergent sustainability dimensions imply when seeking solutions for sustainable retail. In practice, there is a need to acknowledge and balance the presence of multiple logics, making it crucial to have competence in all logics. Also, managers of reuse-based fashion retail must consciously and continuously scrutinize their own strategies and actions to avoid an imbalance between the logics.     

Talent management: context matters

Abstract

There is little doubt that the attraction, development, and retention of talent are nowadays one of the most critical challenges faced by companies worldwide. Despite the increasing scholarly attention during the last years many questions remain, particularly, those related to how (and why) talent management (TM) is conceived, implemented and developed within organizations, not to mention about its outcomes or effectiveness. We argue that organizational context has been underappreciated in TM research, which is an omission since context affects the occurrence, meaning and implementation of TM. Therefore, we edited a special issue which seeks to contribute to advance our knowledge of how contextual factors affect the conceptualization, implementation and effectiveness of TM. In this opening article, we offer a brief overview of how context is integrated in previous TM research. We then introduce the four articles in this special issue and their contributions which addresses gap in TM research and, finally, we offer some suggestions on how to improve contextualized TM research.     

Environmental strategies in spanish hotels: contextual factors and performance

This article is a study of the environmental strategies adopted in the service industry and their impact on a firm's performance. More specifically, we define the environmental strategies of 268 Spanish hotels, based on their environmental protection activities and the use of these as an argument for competition. They have been categorised into four groups. We observed the difference between each of these environmental strategies as regards certain contextual variables and performance. Our findings suggest that firms in the groups with more developed environmental strategies are associated with a higher level of environmental performance but not necessarily with economic performance.     

Consumer participation in sustainable technology development

The article discussed consumer participation in the assessment and development of sustainable innovations, i.e. new technologies and services that have the potential to radically reduce natural resource use. Needs and contexts for consumer involvement were identified, and three case studies that each adopted a different approach to consumer participation were presented. The discussion included lessons learned from these case studies, and it identified priorities for future research and development.     

The Performative Nature of Consumer Research: Consumers’ Environmental Awareness as an Example

This article considers the way “green consumers” are constructed – or performed – in studies on consumer environmentalism aiming to inform policy makers. The focus is on concrete data gathering operations, which are exemplified by four brief examples from the author’s own research experience. The conclusion is that consumer research is a creative process, in which consumers are made to interact with different contexts, thus eliciting different outcomes. These conclusions give rise to two suggestions. More attention should be paid to context in research, which is already occurring. More fundamentally, researchers should recognize their active, performative role when interacting with consumers as research subjects, on the one hand, and with policy-makers and other social actors as research utilizers, on the other.     

Meanings of the home in popular song lyrics: A feminist critique examining rock and country music

The paper examines the meanings of home as portrayed in the lyrics of popular country and rock songs. These two genres were selected because they loosely represent two American subcultural traditions. The home was chosen because of the central role that it plays in most people's lives and because it is commonly mentioned in the lyrics of popular songs. Because the main role of women in American society is integrally associated with their position and activities in the home, it is hard to separate the two. The authors use an interpretive approach and a feminist perspective to analyze the treatment of women's roles in the home in popular music lyrics. They conclude that, while some representations of women are being questioned by both the performers and the lyric writers, the popular music industry, with its many gatekeepers, continues to promote predominantly stereotypical and traditional images of women.     

A comparison of parents' and children's knowledge of brands and advertising slogans in the United States: implications for consumer socialization

Research in the area of consumer socialization suggests that parents act in an agent–learner relationship with their preadolescent children and have the greatest influence on their young children's purchase behaviour. The present study examines this assumption in light of changes in family roles and composition, media exposure and marketing efforts aimed at children. A cognitive recognition test of advertising slogans drawn from recent television commercials is used to determine knowledge levels of a sample of preadolescent children and their parents. Results suggest that children, beginning at age nine, have as much knowledge of advertising slogans as do their parents, even in product categories targeted at adults.