‘Jesus,take the wheel’: the appeal of spiritual products in satiating concerns about randomness

ABSTRACT

Why are consumers drawn to spiritual products? Leveraging theorising regarding the psychological need to perceive the world as orderly and non-random, we posit that products imbued with religious/spiritual significance help manage concerns about randomness and uncontrollability (e.g. when a product is unreliable or exposes the consumer to random uncontrollable processes). When randomness concerns were salient, religious consumers showed increased desire to attach religious significance to secular objects (e.g. having item blessed, physically attaching a religious symbol). For spiritual consumers, spiritual products (vs. non-spiritual physically equivalent products) were seen as having (i) non-material efficacy (i.e. efficacy not bound to the purely material world) and (ii) unfalsifiable efficacy (i.e. efficacy that is immune to contrary evidence). Evidence is found across a variety of religious and spiritual contexts.     

释放一线管理人员的潜力

一名零售经理负责的年营业额超过8,000万美元．一名航空公司经理管理的年客运额超过1．6亿美元．一名银行经理每年处理的客户问询超过700万条。他们并非公司总部高管．他们是一线员工幕后的但非常重要的管理者。     

让一线管理者成为真正的领导

在那些做得最好的企业里,一线管理人员将60％～70％的时间花在工作现场．其中,有许多时间用在高质量的个人辅导上。这些企业还放权给管理人员,让他们制定决策、相机行事     

Abuse and Exploitation of Doctoral Students: A Conceptual Model for Traversing a Long and Winding Road to Academia

Journal of Business Ethics - This paper develops a conceptual model of PhD supervisors’ abuse and exploitation of their students and the outcomes of that abuse. Based on the literature about...     

The transfer of training: what really matters

Although organizations invest billions of dollars in training every year, many trained competencies reportedly fail to transfer to the workplace. Researchers have long examined the ‘transfer problem’, uncovering a wealth of information regarding the transfer of training. Inconsistencies remain, however, and organizations may find it difficult to pinpoint exactly which factors are most critical. Using Baldwin and Ford's model of transfer, we identify the factors relating to trainee characteristics (cognitive ability, self‐efficacy, motivation, perceived utility of training), training design (behavioral modeling, error management, realistic training environments) and the work environment (transfer climate, support, opportunity to perform, follow‐up) that have exhibited the strongest, most consistent relationships with the transfer of training. We describe our reasoning for extracting such variables from the literature and conclude by discussing potential implications for practice and future research.     

关于投资美国不良贷款市场途径的分析

金融危机爆发以来,欧美市场（特别是房地产市场）资产泡沫破灭,资产价格大幅下跌。对银行业而言,不良贷款（NPL）规模快速膨胀。这极大地影响了银行的资产质量,