Time, attention, authenticity and consumer benefits of the Web

This article addresses three potential consumer behavior tendencies: perceived time scarcity, competition for consumers' attention, and quest for authenticity. It also reviews prior research results on consumer benefits of the Web, which include convenience, time savings, ease of use, cost savings, and selection of items. The most prevalent consumer concerns are safety, waiting time, and loss of human interaction. This paper concludes that both time and attention are closely related to measurable attributes of interactive environments, while the ideals of authenticity may influence behavior less directly.     

Bridging the transatlantic publishing gap: How North American reviewers evaluate European idiographic research

To a large extent there exists a gap between European and American management research reflecting the differences between nomothetic and idiographic research approaches. The paper investigates the logic used by North American reviewers when evaluating European papers based on an idiographic case study approach. Our analysis enables us to uncover the criteria used by North American reviewers and to relate them to the criteria suggested for idiographic research. We also discuss the role of writing style and structure in the North American reviewers' assessment of idiographic papers. Based on our analysis we make suggestions to editors, reviewers, and authors of idiographic papers, in order to enhance the probability for publication of idiographic, qualitative and processual research and thus to bridge the transatlantic gap.     

Moving resources across permeable project boundaries in open network contexts

This paper discusses how firms develop and use resources across a permeable project boundary and conceptualizes how a project can create value for a focal parent organization. Inspired by ideas on interaction and open innovation, we suggest a framework for analyzing the flow of resources based on the two dimensions; direction, whether the resource starts inside or outside the project, and mode, whether the resources cross the boundary once (uni-directionally) or twice (bi-directionally). The dimensions lead to four situations: Inside-out, Outside-in, Boomerang and Passing on. The framework is based on a single case study of an inter-organizational research project in plant biotechnology in a Swedish context. Through these four situations, the results show that a focal parent organization can create direct, indirect, relational potential and transactional potential value. The complex pattern of value creation in an open network context, raises the challenging question of how to capture the value created.     

HRM in dynamic environments: Exploitative,exploratory, and ambidextrous HR architectures

Abstract

The current economic crisis has brought to the fore the need for firms to deal with ambiguity and complexity. Hence, firms need a specific balance between exploration and exploitation in order to keep pace with varying and changing environmental conditions. Hitherto, there is limited research that has examined the nexus of HR architectures, ambidexterity, and environmental dynamics. In this conceptual paper we ask: How do HR architectures serve as a means of balancing exploitative and exploratory learning in different dynamic environments? We explain how exploratory, exploitative, and ambidextrous HR architectures with their embedded HRM systems on the business unit level enable organizations to meet different environmental requirements. Thus, firms in which heterogeneous demands for flexibility and for innovation co-exist need to develop internally differentiated HR architectures. In particular, we elucidate how critical the organization’s ability is to connect different HRM systems to create an ambidextrous HR architecture to find an appropriate balance between exploration and exploitation.     

“This angle that we talked about”: learning how to weld in interaction

The specific focus of this article is how critical aspects of the object of learning to weld are made relevant in interaction between a vocational teacher and a student in the learning processes of welding as part of a Swedish upper-secondary technical vocational education programme. By intertwining variation theory with a conversation analytical approach, our analysis shows that the teaching focus alternates between the process as a whole and details about the welding process, and how the relation between the critical aspects are negotiated in the teaching situations. Furthermore, the teacher and the student together build up a common resource of experiences to which they can relate the parts and the whole, and the teaching becomes increasingly subject specific as the teacher and student build up more common experiences. The approach used in this article sheds light on the complexity of learning to weld, and also facilitates an understanding of welding as an object of learning as such.     

城市绿地用途管制问题与制度建设研究——以青岛市为例

针对城市绿化面临的问题及其在生态中国建设中应有的担当地位,以青岛市为例,论证了运用用途管制制度规划建设管理城市绿化的必要性、可行性以及通过立法供给落实城市绿化用途管制制度的路径,认为绿化分类是实施用途管制的基础,绿地系统规划是实施用途管制的依据,转用审批是实施用途管制的关键,绿地利用效益评估是实施用途管制的保证,执法监督是实施用途管制的保障。同时建立多重激励保障机制,形成良好的实施用途管制制度的社会氛围。     

Convenience food consumption in the Nordic countries and St. Petersburg area

Building on the theoretical framework provided by sociological research on eating practices, family meals, self‐cooked meals and time use, this study examines national differences and similarities in the use of convenience food in Northern Europe. The study draws on two quantitative sets of data, the primary data set (N = 8248) collected in 2012 in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, and the complementary data set (N = 800) collected in St. Petersburg area in 2013. In general, consumers’ attitudes towards convenience food were negative. Time saving was an important motivator for convenience consumption in all countries. The effects of other attitudes were diffuse and factors such as low cost, health effects, and taste of convenience food, affected convenience consumption differently in different countries. In the four Nordic countries women used less convenience food than men. In Finland and in Norway older respondents used convenience food less often than the young. Generally, the use of convenience food was most frequent among those living alone. The effects of education and occupation were small, implying that the phase of life is more important than social stratification in explaining convenience food consumption. In the St. Petersburg data, there were no differences related to social background.     

An experimental investigation of the effect of TV cooking show consumption on children's food choice behaviour

For several decades, television consumption has been crucial in the complex web of factors underlying the obesity epidemic. It has been suggested that if television cooking shows would endorse healthy eating styles, they may have positive effects on consumers’ eating habits. This study empirically investigated the consequences of exposing children (N = 85, aged 9–12 years) to an existing television cooking show episode endorsing the consumption of fruits and vegetables compared with exposure to a non‐food‐related science show. The measures included pre‐test and post‐test attitudes toward health/nutrition and fruits/vegetables, as well as state preferences for a list of healthy and unhealthy foods. At the end of the study, children were separately given the choice between a popular cookie and a piece of fruit as a reward; this was used as a behavioural measure. The results of a logistic regression on the behavioural choice measure showed that the mere exposure to one episode of the television cooking show significantly increased the odds that the children would choose a piece of fruit over a cookie. Repeated‐measures analyses showed that watching this single episode also decreased children's state appetite for unhealthy foods. State appetites for healthy foods and attitudes toward health/nutrition or fruits/vegetables did not change after watching the television cooking show episode. In sum, existing television cooking shows that endorse healthy eating positively influence children's food consumption in the short term and may have the potential to be used as platforms for nutrition education.