Women and agricultural change in Latin America: Some concepts guiding research

We are not yet in a position to draw simple conclusions from the existing research literature in answer to the question of how the lives of rural women are affected by the processes of commercialization and capitalization in agriculture. The most serious problem inhibiting generalization has been the underlying conceptual and political differences among commentators. This article will explore and illuminate these conceptual differences, discuss the basic weaknesses of the ‘impact model’ (of agricultural change on women) most commonly adopted up to now, and indicate directions taken by alternative conceptualizations that stress the interplay of relations of gender with relations of class and ethnicity.     

Consumer Socialization and the Role of Branding in Hazardous Adolescent Drinking

This study examines the relationship between alcohol marketing and consumer socialization to alcohol brands (assessed here using aided and unaided brand recognition and brand saliency), and the associated relationship between consumer socialization and hazardous alcohol consumption among a cohort of adolescents surveyed in Scotland. The research addresses gaps in the consumer socialization literature, by examining how marketing influences brand consumer socialization, and how brand consumer socialization influences subsequent hazardous consumption behavior over time, using a robust longitudinal design that assesses causal relationships while controlling for a wide range of important confounding variables. The results demonstrate the contribution of marketing to adolescents’ brand socialization to alcohol and the impact of this socialization on subsequent drinking behaviors. Implications for marketing managers, parents, policymakers, and consumer researchers are discussed, together with suggestions for future consumer research.     

Web advertising: The role of e-mail marketing

This study examines a comprehensive range of executional elements in a sample of permission-based e-mail marketing campaigns. The sample comprised almost 1000 promotional e-mails sent over an 18-month period by twenty leading U.K. e-retailers. Content analyses of the e-mail campaigns reveal that different tactics of format, address, subject lines, hyperlinks and interactivity are applied to initially attract customers' attention and then encourage further interest. Interviews with nine of the twenty marketing executives who designed the campaigns pointed to managers' reasons for use of the tactical alternatives.     

When nutritional guidelines and life collide: family fruit and vegetable socialisation practices in low socioeconomic communities

Abstract

Parents play a critical role in promoting fruit and vegetable consumption, for eating patterns established early in life tend to persist into adulthood. Despite this, the factors that facilitate or inhibit parents’ capacity to socialise fruit and vegetable consumption into their children’s daily diets remain poorly defined. Thirty-eight semi-structured interviews with residents, allied healthcare professionals, community leaders, community programme leaders and a local government leader living or working in two low socioeconomic suburbs were consequently conducted to ascertain factors exogenous and endogenous to the family unit that shaped parental food socialisation practices. Budgetary and time constraints emerged as exogenous factors that constrained fruit and vegetable socialisation. Constraining effects were also found for a range of endogenous factors, including commensal experiences, children’s food fussiness and the feeding styles employed by parents. As such, while many caregivers may wish to socialise fruit and vegetable consumption into their children’s daily diets, their capacity to do so is often inhibited by factors beyond their volitional control. Failure to take heed of these factors could therefore result in the development of social marketing campaigns that are ineffective at best or give rise to unintentionally harmful outcomes at worst.     

Developing a brand performance measure for financial services brands

With no universal approach for measuring brand performance, we show how a consumer-based brand measure was developed for corporate financial services brands. Churchill's paradigm was adopted. A literature review and 20 depth interviews with experts suggested that brand loyalty, consumer satisfaction and reputation constitute the brand performance measure. Ten financial services organisations provided access to their consumers. Following a postal survey, 600 questionnaires were analysed through principal components analysis to identify the consumer-based measure. Further testing revealed this to be a valid and reliable brand performance measure.     

The Intra‐ and Inter‐Personal Dynamics Associated with Consuming Sensitive Products: Understanding the Consumption of Erectile Function Aids Using Dimensional Qualitative Research

It is estimated that well over 300 million men will be diagnosed with erectile dysfunction by 2025. Men seeking treatment face a burgeoning array of options, some quite invasive. This study utilizes a dimensional qualitative research (DQR) approach to examine what men think, feel, and experience as they consider integrating erectile function (EF) aids into their sexual relationships. The findings suggest that the process of accepting changes in sexual functioning and consuming EF aids frequently moves beyond intrapersonal issues to encompass spouse/partner relationships. The insights gleaned from this study have implications not only for the marketing of EF aids but also for healthcare professionals assisting men in the treatment of their symptoms. Finally, the study findings expand current marketing applications of the DQR framework by demonstrating the value of second‐order modality analysis.     

An unsuitable job for a woman: a ‘native category’ approach to gender,diversity and cross-cultural management

This paper takes an ethnographic study of the recruitment of women at BMW MINI between 2003 and 2006 as the basis to explore the impact of the concepts of ‘native categories’ and ‘recontextualisation’ on diversity management and cross-cultural management. I consider how managers' and workers' subconsciously held cultural categories relating to gender and work affected efforts to increase the number of female line workers in the plant, and how these were further complicated by the recontextualisation of German native categories in a British context. In doing so, this paper will develop a better understanding of the way native categories affect management and international business, provide an addition to the literature on recontextualisation, by introducing the concept of ‘native categories’ to research exploring the effects of recontextualisation on cross-cultural knowledge transfer, international human resource management strategy and marketing, and, finally, develop some understanding of how diversity management initiatives can fail in practice.     

Social Status,Entry and Predation: The Case of British Shipping Cartels 1879–1929

The authors incorporate social status and regional affiliation—two variables of central sociological interest—into an economic analysis of entry and predation. They build on Scott Morton’s [1997] examination of entry and predation in the merchant shipping industry and examine whether the social status of an entrant owner impacts on the predation behavior of the incumbent cartels. They find that high social status entrants are significantly less likely (40%) to be preyed upon than the low social status entrants. They discuss several interpretations of this result. Subsequent analysis supports the hypothesis that cartel members use social status as an indicator of an entrant’s propensity to be a cooperative cartel participant.