Book review

Organizational Learning and Competitive Advantage Betrand Moingeon & Amy Edmondson London, Sage Publications, ISBN 0-7619-5167-9

Strategic Manufacturing for Competitive Advantage: Transforming Operations from Shop Floor to Strategy Steve Brown London, Prentice Hall, 1996, 363 pp, ISBN 0-13-184508-X.     

Japanese women in management: Where are they?

The two economic superpowers, Japan and the United States, have different patterns of contribution by their female populations. The authors travelled to Japan to research and observe firsthand the contributions made and the roles filled by the Japanese female. A comparison of costs and benefits to each country created by the different roles of females is discussed. Questions such as the following are explored:

• Does the Japanese female contribution to child-rearing and nurturing of new coporate members outweigh her lost contribution to the workplace?
• Has the United States gained or lost ground economically due to women integrating the American workplace?
• Will Japanese women be content to be on the fringes of the economic system for another generation?
• What is the likely future scenario for the workplace for both economic superpowers?

     

How technology solutions can impact nursing retention

In the high-tech industry, technology is at the forefront of almost all innovation. In health care, things move a little slower. A look at several large, as well as small, diverse organizations provides a snapshot of technology and its effect on nursing retention. Electronic medical records/computer provider order entry, communication via technology, facility design, staffing software, and a nursing innovation center are examined.     

Social networking: applications for health care recruitment

In today's competitive landscape for health care talent, nursing executives and human resource professionals need to assess and evaluate new avenues for recruitment. The strategy of filling positions by means of print advertising is becoming outmoded quickly. As an industry, health care typically lags behind other industries when it relates to technology. This is especially true in implementing any interactive strategies to target hard-to-fill positions. Social networking sites have appeared on the Internet landscape quickly and continue to flourish. Nurse leaders need to capitalize on this phenomenon.     

Exploring the Impact of Customer Satisfaction on Food Retailers' Evolution: Managerial Lessons From Austria

Many studies have shown that customer satisfaction affects customer behavior and loyalty. There are, however, relatively few studies that examine the impact of customer satisfaction on store repatronage behavior by store-type choice. This study examines why Austrian consumers choose a certain store type (i.e., supermarket or bakery) for purchases in a particular product category (i.e., baked goods). Moreover, it assesses the impact of customer satisfaction on customer loyalty (i.e., the repatronage intention). The study found that customers valued different attributes for each store type. It also suggested that customer satisfaction and customers' intention to recommend varied by store type. Additionally, the bakery customers' tendency to spend more is positively related to their satisfaction level. Managerial implications for both types of stores are provided.     

Academic conferences: a female duo-ethnography

Literature has identified a range of conference attendance motivations, including networking, professional development, and the venue/location of the conference. However, very few studies have examined delegate behaviour from a gender perspective, and studies focusing on the lived experience of conference delegates are extremely rare. This paper is guided by hermeneutic phenomenology and uses a duo-ethnographic approach to explore experiences of female academics attending tourism, hospitality, and events conferences. Findings suggest that there are particular issues for female delegates which have not arisen in previous studies. These include not only the importance of having strong female role models and the significance of fun and friendship, but also the prominent role of emotions, carer responsibilities, safety concerns, and harassment. The notion of the academic persona also emerged as a key part of the conference experience. Areas for future research are suggested and practical implications for conference organizers are also presented.     

Marketing social missions—adopting social marketing for social entrepreneurship? A conceptual analysis and case study

• In aiming for voluntary behavioral change, social marketing may be particularly attractive for social entrepreneurs, but conversely, they may not have the resources or knowledge for conducting full-blown social marketing campaigns. In response to the growing importance and role of social entrepreneurship in tackling social problems and the lack of research concerning how social marketing may play a role in such organizations, the purpose of this paper is to develop a deeper conceptual understanding of how social marketing may be of use to social entrepreneurial organizations. The research reports on a case analysis of One Drop and its Aqua expo and the utilization of social marketing in pursuit of its goal to achieve water conservation in the Northern Hemisphere. The research shows the adoption of elements of social marketing but not a conscious adoption of social marketing as a strategy.

Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The impact of socio-economic background on satisfaction: evidence for policy-makers

Consumer satisfaction with utility services has received increased attention from firms, consumer associations, regulators and governments since the 1990s. Evidence is mounting that consumers in specific socio-economic groups express lower satisfaction levels than their peers, at least, in some utility markets. Seeing this as part of their remit to protect consumer welfare, governments and international organizations are exploring possible demand-side policy responses with the intention of ameliorating lower satisfaction levels of these groups of consumers. However, more information on the precise relationships between satisfaction and consumers’ socio-economic background is required if policy is to be proportional and effective. This paper provides new empirical knowledge on this topic by contrasting consumers’ stated and revealed preferences for five utility services (electricity, gas, fixed and cellular telephony and Internet) across twelve European countries. We find strong evidence that consumers’ socio-economic characteristics matter: consumers with lower levels of education, the elderly and those not employed exhibit particular expenditure patterns on, and lower satisfaction levels with, some utility services. However, this relationship is uneven and depends on the socio-economic category and service in question. We conclude by highlighting five findings which may be of use to policy-makers when considering whether demand-side regulatory policies are required