Innovation and corporate entrepreneurship in service businesses

The strategic entrepreneurship field has established the importance of a generalized entrepreneurial behaviour across the organization. However, extant research has failed to establish how the association with innovation is different in service businesses. This is a relevant gap in the literature addressed by the paper, given the role of services in the world economy and the importance of employee–client interactions for the competitiveness of most service businesses. An empirical analysis from 127 service and non-service firms, using hierarchical multiple regression, confirms there are relevant differences, with important theoretical and managerial takeaways.     

The carnival goes on and on! Children’s perceptions of their leisure time and play in SFO 1

This paper deals with one part of a research project which aimed to identify a solid sociological base for a variety of adult education activities, through a combination of analytical and ethnographic approaches. The main focus here is on adult education as a leisure form. I propose that in considering adult education as a leisure form, account has to be taken of the relationship between leisure, paid work, the domestic work of women, and consumption in capitalist society. It is concluded that access and equal opportunities are crucial issues in considering adult education as a leisure form, but that equally important are the considerations of adult education as a preparation for leisure and leisure itself as an activity from which adults learn.     

Executive Pay and Legitimacy: Changing Discursive Battles Over the Morality of Excessive Manager Compensation

How is the (il)legitimacy of manager compensation constructed in social interaction? This study investigated discursive processes through which heavily contested executive pay schemes of the Finnish energy giant Fortum were constructed as (il)legitimate in public during 2005–2009. The critical discursive analysis of media texts identified five legitimation strategies through which politicians, journalists, and other social actors contested these schemes and, at the same time, constructed subject positions for managers, politicians, and citizens. The comparison of two debate periods surrounding the 2007–2008 financial crisis revealed significant differences in the discursive strategies and the corresponding moral struggles linked to legitimation of executive compensation. The analysis highlights a change in moral reasoning by social actors as they adapt their justifications to a changing social context. This study has important implications for our understanding of the ethical aspects and socio-political embeddedness of manager compensation. In particular, it adds to our knowledge of organizational legitimacy by showing how discursive strategies and the corresponding morality constructions used to (de)legitimate business activities can shift quickly as a result of a change in the social and political climate surrounding the legitimation struggle.     

The influence of atmospherics general interior variables on shoppers’ emotions and behavior

ABSTRACT

This study applies a systematic categorization of general interior variables (GIV) to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the shopping sensory environment. A survey-based study focusing on the impact of the shopping mall GIV on shopper behavior while considering the mediating role of shoppers’ emotional states is reported. Results indicate a direct impact of positive attitudes towards color schemes, mall lighting, scent and temperature on shopper satisfaction and/or the desire to stay at the mall. Regarding the effect of emotional states, pleasure and arousal mediate the relation between several variables and the studied outcomes. Implications for theory and retailers are discussed.     

Do consumers value price transparency?

We examine the role of price transparency in consumer preferences and demand. We assemble a detailed dataset on the driving school industry in Portugal to quantify how firms present the price of the course of instruction, and its individual components, to potential students. Our unique data allows us to estimate a structural model of school choice and measure the impact of varying levels of price information on demand. The results show that consumers are willing to pay a significant amount for price transparency, on average 11% of the service price, and that consumer demographics drive heterogeneous preferences for transparency.     

International new ventures as “small multinationals”: The importance of marketing capabilities

This paper explores how marketing capabilities contribute to the international expansion of international new ventures, and influence their choice of entry mode. The study examines how marketing capabilities help international new ventures to use entry modes involving higher resource commitment in international markets. The proposed model was tested on country-level data from Spain. The results show that marketing capabilities contribute to a firm's decision to choose entry modes involving higher resource commitment in foreign markets. The paper also includes insights on antecedents of international new ventures’ choice of entry modes in foreign markets.