Gift giving: A community paradigm

To date, the marketing literature on gift giving has focused on two approaches or paradigms—economic and relational exchange. This study adopts a different perspective, proposing a community paradigm to provide a holistic view of gift giving. The data (based on 20 in‐depth interviews and 2 group interviews) suggest that, on the Internet, social networks of relationships cohere into gift‐giving communities that influence the purchasing of gifts. Findings about online gift giving are presented according to three community themes: (a) shared rituals and traditions, (b) shared values, and (c) shared responsibilities. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Case study: A strike in Shanghai

A sudden strike by workers in the Shanghai Petersburg Automotive Parts Company turns into a managerial nightmare following a confrontation between the strikers and the company's management team. With the chill of the global financial crisis speeding toward Asia, and animosities rising in the factory, management was in a quandary as to how to proceed in identifying the sources of the problem and finding an equitable solution for all. Once the strike ended, management had to look back and unravel how this had happened, and decide what steps to take to move forward and mollify the factory workers. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Retail Spectacles and Brand Meaning: Insights from a Brand Museum Case Study

This article explores the expansion of brand meaning within a spectacular, retail environment. Spectacular retailing environments include themed retailing, brandscapes, flagship brand stores, themed entertainment brand stores, themed flagship brand stores, and brand museums. This research uses an extended case-study method to investigate the World of Coca-Cola brand museum located in Atlanta, Georgia. A brand museum is a type of themed flagship brand store, but there are some unique aspects. One key feature of brand museums is the resemblance to traditional museums, but, in the former, the brand is positioned within historical and educational contexts. Within the brand museum context, this study explains how brand meaning can be expanded along seven dimensions: humanization, socialization, localization, globalization, contextualization, theatricization, and characterization. Retailing implications are discussed.     

Dynamic portfolio models with long-term restrictions

Summary Dynamic portfolio models have obtained a prominent place in the economic literature. As a rule, the problem of implausible long-term coefficients is ignored. In particular the long-term interest rate parameters are not in accordance with the theory of gross substitution. This shortcoming is especially serious when such a portfolio model is used as part of a larger macroeconomic model. A standard estimation-under-restriction procedure cannot be applied as these long-term coefficients are nonlinear functions of short-term interest rate coefficients and of the coefficients of the adjustment process. This paper introduces a new estimation procedure, which is used to estimate portfolio models for households and banks in The Netherlands.     

Financial Accounting Reform in Flemish Universities: An Empirical Study of the Implementation

This paper presents an overview of the current accounting reform towards accrual accounting in Flemish universities. The focus is on the concept of the reformed accounting legislation and on the empirical outcomes of implementation based on an examination of annual accounts. An important issue is the unsuccessful mixing up of the traditional budgetary accounting system with the new financial accounting system. The empirical examination reveals a lot of accounting problems in the area of the reformed regulations as well as in the accounting practices and that the comparability of the annual reporting is not guaranteed even after years of experience.     

Holidays with the Hun: The Male Tourist and His Murderous Itinerary

The in-flight magazine is one of many industrialised print media to which the traveller is exposed. In-flight magazines, however ‘ideologically innocent’ they may appear, can be very powerful in representing the norms and values to which travellers should supposedly adhere. This paper builds on arguments that there is a lack of research on representation in tourism and focuses in particular on how in-flight magazine advertising produces, mediates and reproduces discourses surrounding air travel. Using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), advertisements from a selection of Qantas and Air New Zealand in-flight magazines from 2005 were studied. The content analysis of these texts reveals that the magazine advertisements wish to speak to a certain ‘elite’ type of traveller who is mobility-rich as well as financially wealthy, with the time to pursue a raft of travel activities and the money to buy an array of expensive luxury products. Essentially, the paper argues that magazine advertisements can be a subtle (or, perhaps, not so subtle) way of ‘socially sorting’ airline travellers into those who are socially and culturally acceptable airline travellers and those who are not. The advertisements can also be seen as a means of socially sorting the airline traveller from other types of traveller and from the non-traveller. No matter which way the sorting occurs, in-flight magazine advertising appears to be a powerful medium that overwhelmingly appeals and speaks to privileged groups in society.