National Determinants of Family Firm Development? Family Firms in Britain, Spain, and Italy in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

We provide here a complement to recent work on family business,which has demonstrated the need to go beyond the generic definitionof the family firm to place personal capitalism in an appropriateinstitutional, historical, and cultural framework. By focusingon the nineteenth- and twentieth-century experiences in Britain,Spain, and Italy, we challenge the notion that in the nineteenthand twentieth centuries there was anything so simple as a Mediterraneanmodel for family business. Rather, we demonstrate the need toconsider family businesses in national and regional contextsif we are to understand their various capabilities and characteristics.We use similarities and differences in the experiences and responsesof families and firms in the three countries to support thisclaim.     

Mavericks and Mavens of Business History: Miriam Beard and Henrietta Larson

This is the story of two women with differing visions aboutbusiness who have largely been forgotten. Miriam Beard, themaverick daughter of Progressive reformers Charles and MaryBeard, wrote the first international cultural history of thebusinessman in 1938. Henrietta M. Larson was Harvard BusinessSchool's first lady, the first female faculty member and thefirst woman to be tenured there. The two women never met orinteracted. Yet their lives and histories were entangled whenone woman, Henrietta, wrote a critical review about the contributionsof the other. This article uses their untold story to tracethe contentious process of professionalization that sidelinedone maverick outsider and kept a maven insider on the marginsof a fledgling discipline she had helped to create. Its significanceis to make gender central to the reintegration of business andculture and of women's roles in the historiography of business.     

The face of the un‐consumer: An empirical examination of the practice of voluntary simplicity in the United States

The practice of voluntary simplicity is inextricably linked to consumer behavior and has attracted the attention of researchers in a number of disciplines, including psychology and marketing. Yet the daily practice of voluntary simplicity in the United States remains largely unexamined. The research presented here is the first to look at voluntary simplicity with the use of a nationwide sample of American consumers. A more refined application of Maslow's theory of human motivation to the understanding of this social phenomenon is proposed. The practices considered most important to this lifestyle are identified, as are key impediments to its consistent practice. Factor analysis is used to identify the underlying dimensions of U.S. voluntary simplicity: ecological and social responsibility; community; and maintaining a spiritual life. Findings indicate that people of moderate income are more likely to practice voluntary simplicity than was previously believed. This research also compares highly committed simplifiers to those who are less committed, finding that more committed practitioners are more likely to be consistent in practices requiring ongoing effort, such as composting. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Local Conditions and Debt in Collections

Using credit reporting firm records on 7 million individuals in the United States, we first demonstrate that debt in collections varies significantly across the country; specifically, the South and West regions have higher shares of individuals with debt in collections than other regions. Second, we identify local factors that are strongly related to debt in collections. Results from our regression models show that neighborhoods with higher rates of debt in collections are more likely to have (1) lower health insurance coverage; (2) lower home values and homeownership rates, (3) a higher share of delinquent and underwater mortgages, (4) lower household incomes, and (5) a higher share of African Americans and Latinos. While our analysis does not identify the causal mechanisms that determine financial distress, the analyses developed here can facilitate research on such mechanisms.     

Managers’ psychological diversity climate and fairness: The utility and importance of diversity management in the hospitality industry

ABSTRACT

Despite corporate investments in diversity management programs, there is a dearth in the literature that examines managers' attitudes toward diversity management practices. This is a glaring gap in the literature because the success of diversity management programs is highly depend on managers. A survey was distributed to hotel managers from properties in the southern United States. The results showed that psychological diversity climate predicted the perceived utility and importance of diversity management, and these relationships were mediated by the fairness of diversity management. These results suggest that psychological diversity climate has an impact on attitudes toward diversity management practices.     

Narratives of Negotiation and Transformation: Women's Experiences within a Mixed-Gendered Gym

ABSTRACT

Those within the fitness industry claim that gyms provide accessible space for women (of certain economic status) to engage in activities that will increase their health. As such, gyms are marketed as safe, inclusive, and empowering spaces. Yet when viewing gym spaces through a feminist-informed lens, it becomes clear that gyms are not always innocuous spaces. They often reflect and perpetuate gendered power relations and highly prescribed cultural expectations for femininity around women's bodies, appearances, strength, and abilities. This narrative inquiry sought to illuminate women's gendered experiences within a for-profit mixed-gendered gym space. Through the use of unstructured life story interviews, this research highlights the dominant gendered expectations that women perceived within the gym and how these expectations influence women's gym use. The narratives also exposed several ways that gyms can be changed in order to facilitate more positive gym experiences for women.     

Leisure Research and Leisure Practice: Three Perspectives on Constructing the Research?Practice Relation

The leisure research?leisure practice relation remains uncertain. Assuming leisure provides a preexisting link is not supported by research. Leisure research and leisure practice are independent professional paradigms between which a relation must be constructed. Three perspectives on constructing the research?practice relation are examined in this article: the traditional, the personal, and the critical. The benefits approach to leisure is a test case in each perspective. The traditional and personal perspectives subordinate one professional paradigm to the other or intensify their separation. The benefits approach fails to resolve these difficulties. The critical perspective emphasizes developmental activity and emancipation, facilitates research?practice interaction, and maintains the professional paradigms' integrity, and it reveals shortcomings in the benefits approach. The critical perspective enables the most dynamic research?practice relation.