Unemployment and Crime: Is There a Connection?

A panel of Swedish counties over the years 1988–1999 is used to study the effects of unemployment on property crime rates. The period under study is characterized by turbulence in the labor market—the variation in unemployment rates was unprecedented in the latter part of the century. Hence, the data provide a unique opportunity to examine unemployment effects. According to the theory of economics of crime, increased unemployment rates lead to higher property crime rates. A fixed‐effects model is estimated to investigate this hypothesis. The model includes time‐ and county‐specific effects and a number of economic and socio‐demographic variables to control for unobservables and covariates. The results show that unemployment had a positive and significant effect on some property crimes (burglary, car theft and bike theft).     

What motivates consumers to participate in boycotts: Lessons from the ongoing Canadian seafood boycott

Despite the tremendous growth in consumer boycotts, marketing has paid relatively little attention to consumer boycott motivations. Addressing this deficiency, this study uses netnography to investigate boycott motivations and perceived boycott participation costs by analyzing consumer comments submitted to an online boycott petition. The results show that boycott pledgees explicitly express their desire for the target to abolish its egregious behavior, their anger about the behavior in question, and their desire for punitive actions. Signatories also pledge participation for moral reasons and identify with the cause reflected by the boycott. Boycott motivations also include the belief that consumers have the power to impact the boycott target's bottom line and/or behavior as well as the belief that the boycott will succeed in forcing the target to cease its egregious behavior. Signatories, however, rarely refer to the costs of boycott participation.     

Community-Value-Marketing — Was Unternehmen von NPO lernen können

Zusammenfassung  Welche Marketingstrategien setzen Non-Profit-Organisationen ein, um ihre Ziele zu erreichen? Bei einer Analyse zeigt sich, dass es hier Wege gibt, die sich auch von profitorientierten Unternehmen umsetzen lassen. Beispielsweise die Marketingstrategie, nicht nur Kunden, sondern auch die sie umgebenden Nicht-Kunden anzusprechen, um auf diese Weise einen erweiterten Kundennutzen zu stiften. Ein zweiter Aspekt ist die Erkenntnis, dass sich Werte am besten über eigenes Erleben vermitteln lassen. Das Beispiel der Hepatha-Stiftung soll dies verdeutlichen. Dipl.-Kulturw., MSc, Karin Kreutzer Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin am Center for Social Enterprise der Universit?t St. Gallen und Leiterin des Coaching-Programms an derselben Universit?t PD Dr. Urs J?ger Managing Director des Center for Social Enterprise der Universit?t St. Gallen und Privatdozent an derselben Universit?t     

Categorizing cognitive responses: An empirical investigation of the cognitive intent congruency between independent raters and original subject raters

Cognitive response coding is relevant for researchers who collect cognitive responses from individuals in the form of answers to open-ended questions or as thoughts produced while exposed to advertising messages. Coding of these cognitive responses is normally completed by a panel of two to four independent judges. This article is the first to empirically investigate cognitive intent congruence aspects underlining the data generated through cognitive response coding. The results show that there are definite gaps in the congruence of cognitive intent between the cognitive coding results that respondents, serving as cognitive response coders of their own thoughts, can provide and those cognitive response patterns provided by independent raters. The current study’s results raise a “yellow” caution flag regarding external independent raters’ ability to produce valid cognitive intent coding patterns that cannot be ignored by future researchers. The authors offer interpretation, implications, limitations, and directions for future research. Karin Braunsberger (braunsbe@stpt.usf.edu) (Ph.D., University of Texas at Arlington) is an associate professor of marketing in the College of Business Administration at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg. Her research interests are in the areas of research methods, consumer thought processes, and services marketing. Her research has been published in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science (JAMS), theJournal of Business Research, theJournal of Services Marketing, and others. She serves as a member of the editorial review board forJAMS. R. Brian Buckler (bucklerrb@mail.avila.edu) (Ph.D., University of Texas at Arlington) is an associate professor of marketing at Avila University (since 1996). He teaches both undergraduate and MBA Marketing courses. He is serving a second term as president of the American Marketing Association—Kansas City, Regional Chapter and has also served as director and vice president of Membership. His teaching and research interests include marketing strategy, marketing research, and consumer behavior. David J. Ortinau (dortinau@coba.usf.edu) (Ph.D., Louisiana State University) is a professor of marketing in the College of Business Administration at the University of South Florida, Tampa. His research interests are in the areas of consumer satisfaction and value evaluations/models; services marketing and service quality within selected market segments; research methodologies/scale measurement development; marketing education issues; attitudinal, motivation, and value issues within the consumer behavior framework; and marketing interactive technologies. His scholarly contributions have been published in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science (JAMS), theJournal of Retailing, theJournal of Business Research (JBR), theJournal of Health Care Marketing, theJournal of Services Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Education, and others. He is coauthor (with Joseph F. Hair Jr. and Robert P. Bush) ofMarketing Research: Within a Changing Information Environment (3d ed.). He serves as an editorial board member forJAMS andJBR, as well as an ad hoc reviewer for several other journal outlets. His teaching interests focus on marketing research methods and scale measurement, consumer/social behavior, and services marketing.