Examining the antecedents of work connectivity behavior during non-work time

In this study, we draw from human agency theory to develop the construct of work-related connectivity behavior during non-work time, and conduct a survey to investigate the organizational and individual antecedents of this behavior. Data from 139 full-time working adults in the marketing division of a media organization revealed that work connectivity behavior after-hours is significantly related to the distribution of wireless enabled devices by the organization and organizational norms about connectivity. Our results also indicate that individual characteristics exert different levels of influence depending on the functionality of the device through which connectivity behavior is enacted. Polychronicity was more strongly related to laptop connectivity behavior than to handheld connectivity behavior, whereas role integration preference is only related to handheld connectivity behavior. We also found that organization members were more likely to exhibit continued workplace connectivity behavior during generic “downtime” activities such as traveling or commuting. These results have important theoretical and practical implications.     

Just-in-time inventory systems innovation and the predictability of earnings

Firms that adopt just-in-time (JIT) inventory practices do so in order to realize cost savings and improve product quality, but an unexpected benefit to such firms could be a more predictable earnings stream. We examine the relationship between implementation of just-in-time inventory practices and the predictability of future quarterly earnings for a matched-pair sample of 82 firms, half of which have publicly announced that they have adopted JIT inventory practices. We find that one- and four-step-ahead forecasts of quarterly earnings, using either a Brown–Rozeff [Journal of Accounting Research (1979) 179–189] ARIMA or a seasonal random walk expectation model, are more accurate for the firms that have adopted JIT.     

The Demand for Private Medical Insurance in the UK: A Cohort Analysis

This paper examines the determinants of the demand for private health insurance in the United Kingdom from 1978 to 1996 using a pseudo-cohort panel. The focus is on the impact of public and private sector quality, generational change, and past purchase on demand. The results indicate that there has been generational change in buying behaviour, that the number of senior doctors employed in the public sector impacts upon demand for the private alternative, and that there is limited impact of habit in purchase. Changes to the structure of labour contracts in the NHS may affect demand for the private alternative.     

(When) Do hub airlines internalize their self-imposed congestion delays?

Specification tests using stochastic bottleneck models of airport congestion investigate whether dominant airlines internalize or ignore self-imposed delays at twenty-seven major US airports. Data on flight times determine the airport's landing and takeoff delays for every minute of operation during peak travel days. Dynamic congestion functions based on stochastic-queuing theory separately identify delays that aircraft experience directly, impose internally on their airline's other aircraft, or impose externally on other airlines. Specification tests largely reject internalization and fail to reject non-internalization by dominant airlines. Optimal pricing should value all time using non-dominant aircraft time values and treat all delays as external.     

Women's unemployment during transition Evidence from Czech and Slovak micro-data

We analyse women’s weekly probabilities of leaving unemployment in the Czech and Slovak Republics (CR and SR) in order to investigate three questions: 1) Why are unemployment rates much lower in the CR than the SR?; 2) Does the unemployment compensation scheme (UCS) substantially lengthen unemploy-mentspells?; and 3) Why are women’s unemployment rates higher than men’s? We find that differences in the behaviour of the individuals, employers and institutions in the SR and CR (as measured by differences in coefficients) play a larger role in determining the CR’s shorter female unemployment spells than do differences in measured demand and demographic variables. The UCS has only a moderate effect on duration and its impact is greater in the CR. The differences between men’s and women’s spells (in each republic) are explained more by differences in coefficients than by differences in observed characteristics. JEL classification: C41, H53, J23, J64, O15, P2.     

A Case Study of the Grey Oaks Community and Club: Creation of a High-Performance Culture Through the Innovative Use of a Data-Driven Business Plan

ABSTRACT

Grey Oaks, a premier country club and gated residential community established in Naples, Florida, developed and used a collaborative and highly feedback-driven system to build adaptive capacity and foster proactive change. Special attention has been given to the unique use and refinement of its business plan and planning process through the feedback management received from club members. This highly adaptive business plan helped Grey Oaks to endure the economic downturn that began in 2008, and the company’s ability to thrive in the midst of economic instability has demonstrated the effectiveness of the plan as a model capable of sustaining the cultural and financial health of the club and community. The Grey Oaks planning model has been an innovation in its industry, and other organizations can greatly benefit by studying the implementation and utilization of this evidence-driven model.     

Why customers won't relate: Obstacles to relationship marketing engagement

Due to the challenges associated with reaching consumers using traditional marketing approaches, firms increasingly rely on relational marketing tactics to increase customer patronage with the firm. Yet, consumers often actively avoid relational devices. Thus, firms have a heightened interest in factors that affect customer engagement in relationship marketing efforts. This research provides an empirical test of a model based on equity theory and previous findings regarding psychological engagement. The model predicts whether customers are willing to engage in different relational tactics offered by firms, measured by a formative, actionable Relationship Program Receptiveness (RPR) Index. The results indicate customer perceptions of the inconvenience and anticipated benefits, two factors controlled by the firm, affect RPR. In addition, customer factors, including general privacy concerns, involvement and shopping frequency, affect RPR. Managerially, the results suggest specific actions firms can take to increase the likelihood that consumers engage in relational marketing efforts.     

Benchmarks,characteristics and trends of U.S. graduate tax programs awarding a Master of Science in Taxation (MST) degree

Survey data gathered from graduate tax program directors at 26 universities, a response rate of about 43% of all programs contacted, is used to benchmark characteristics and trends of U.S. programs awarding a Master of Science in Taxation (MST) degree. The impetus for this paper was the absence of current literature regarding curriculum, enrollment, and delivery of graduate tax programs in the United States, and it is the first study to compile information on MST program trends.     

Retail recovery from natural disasters: New Orleans versus eight other United States disaster sites

This study seeks to determine retail recovery patterns after a natural disaster and to provide useful information for areas recovering from a major disaster. The New Orleans metropolitan area serves as the primary area studied in this research due to Hurricane Katrina's status as the most costly natural disaster in the history of the United States. Eight additional cities that were impacted by natural disaster were also investigated in order to compare and contrast the retail recovery rate ofthese cities to New Orleans across 10 retail categories. The Yellow Pages telephone book and the United States Census of Retail Trade were utilized to determine recovery rates and the existence of possible patterns of recovery in each of the 10 retail categories. The analysis also includes a provision for population shifts due to the respective disasters. The results, which demonstrate both consistencies and inconsistencies across the disaster recovery areas, are discussed and future direction for retail recovery research is advanced.     

Gendered market subjectivity: autonomy,privilege, and emotional subjectivity in normalizing post-socialist neoliberal ideology

ABSTRACT

Most prior studies of marketplace ideology foreground consumer agency as identity co-creation or opposition to ideology. In this research, I consider how the logics of the dwindling state and global neoliberalism discursively form consent in post-socialist Zagreb, Croatia. I use recollections and small group discussions to compare women’s class and generationally based experiences of the daily family meal and work, during Yugoslav exceptionalism and privatization. Changing social relations normalize the gendered subjectivity of neoliberalism in post-socialist Zagreb, characterized by autonomy, the privilege of the younger generation, and the emotional subjectivity of anxiety and loss. Linking consumer experiences to the changing role of the state and market ideologies contributes to scholarship on globalization, gender, the socio-historic patterning of consumption, and marketplace ideology, by demonstrating that changes in ideology and state disrupt and replicate privilege to create new, gendered market subjectivities and social inequalities, normalized through changing everyday social relations.