The face of the un‐consumer: An empirical examination of the practice of voluntary simplicity in the United States

The practice of voluntary simplicity is inextricably linked to consumer behavior and has attracted the attention of researchers in a number of disciplines, including psychology and marketing. Yet the daily practice of voluntary simplicity in the United States remains largely unexamined. The research presented here is the first to look at voluntary simplicity with the use of a nationwide sample of American consumers. A more refined application of Maslow's theory of human motivation to the understanding of this social phenomenon is proposed. The practices considered most important to this lifestyle are identified, as are key impediments to its consistent practice. Factor analysis is used to identify the underlying dimensions of U.S. voluntary simplicity: ecological and social responsibility; community; and maintaining a spiritual life. Findings indicate that people of moderate income are more likely to practice voluntary simplicity than was previously believed. This research also compares highly committed simplifiers to those who are less committed, finding that more committed practitioners are more likely to be consistent in practices requiring ongoing effort, such as composting. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE SUPPLY CHAIN: SURVEY AND EXTENSIONS

This paper investigates the capabilities of social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, Digg and others, for their current and potential impact on the supply chain. In particular, this paper examines the use of social media to capture the impact on supply‐chain events and develop a context for those events. This paper also analyses the use of social media in the supply chain to build relationships among supply‐chain participants. Further, this paper investigates the of use of user‐supplied tags as a basis of evaluating and extending an ontology for supply chains. In addition, using knowledge discovery from social media, a number of concepts related to the supply chain are examined, including supply‐chain reputation and influence within the supply chain. Prediction markets are analysed for their potential use in supply chains. Finally, this paper investigates the integration of traditional knowledge management along with knowledge generated from social media. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

BUILDING AND EVOLVING DATA WAREHOUSING AND BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE ARTEFACTS: THE CASE OF SYSCO

This paper investigates use of data warehouse and business intelligence capabilities to integrate with customers in the supply chain and improve insights into customer sales. By making internal data warehouse sales information available to customers, additional value to those customers is created, eliminating asymmetries of information in the supply chain. In addition, the evolution of data warehousing into business intelligence is investigated, expanding sales information to include marketing associate performance analysis generated for internal use. Further, a methodology that was used for building a business intelligence system is also examined. Finally, what appears to be a business‐intelligence‐driven focus on enterprise resource planning systems is analyzed. These issues are illustrated using real‐world data warehousing and business intelligence artefacts developed at SYSCO. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Does one model fit all? Exploring factors influencing the use of blogs,social networks,and wikis in the enterprise

Enterprise social media (ESM) have become increasingly widespread, but many intranet communities barely survive, miss their initially planned targets, or are even terminated. Research on technology acceptance can be a useful approach to improve adoption rates, but more empirical research needs to be conducted to examine factors driving the adoption of enterprise social media. To address this gap, we develop a model of individual ESM adoption, including technological and individual factors based on findings from collaboration and knowledge-sharing research. Because different ESM tools, such as blogs, social networks, and wikis, can be employed for fundamentally different uses, we explain differences between individual adoptions of the three technologies by identifying their uses and gratifications from the perspective of employees. The model is tested in three parallel studies, one for blogs, social networks, and wikis each, among employees of an international technology company in the pre-implementation phase. We find substantial differences between the factors influencing the intention to adopt the three applications. This provides the basis to employ the applications in a more effective way by considering organizational and employee needs.     

Explorations in intercultural work integrated learning: Educational process for a Topsy-Turvy world

This paper investigates how work integrated learning (WIL) can be re-imagined/re-enacted as collaborative playgrounds of networks. To do this we first establish the working context for these reflections by exploring fragments of biography and the immediate catalyst which was a recent seminar held over 5 days, beginning in the rural Swedish town of Ed and, for the last 2 days, at University West in Trollhättan. We then set out to explore the normative and theoretical context of our approach before finally moving to an exploration of the concept of WIL via CLA and scenarios. Our overall goal is to describe some features of an expanded concept of WIL as it relates to intercultural learning. In doing this we hope to generate processes that facilitate the kind of learning necessary if we are to enable teachers and students to build sustainable futures they can realistically aspire to.     

Poverty and unemployment: A cultural approach

For years, policymakers, business leaders, human resources professionals, and economists have attempted to explain the existence of unemployment. Unemployment inhibits the economic growth of a nation and contributes to the problem of ongoing poverty, which cannot be lessened without that growth. Understanding the causes of unemployment and developing policies and programs to decrease it are vitally important for nations around the world, but one key variable in the study of unemployment has been overlooked. That variable is culture. This article will show that culture can significantly explain cross‐national differences in unemployment rates and offers a link to understanding the global problem of poverty that plagues nations today. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Commodity prices and growth: An empirical investigation

Whereas empirical evidence on the effect of higher commodity prices on the long-run growth of commodity exporters is ambiguous, time series analyses using vector autoregressive (VAR) models have found that commodity booms raise income in the short run. In this paper we adopt panel error correction methodology to analyze global data for 1963 to 2008 to disentangle the short and long run effects of international commodity prices on output per capita. Our results show that commodity booms have unconditional positive short-term effects on output, but non-agricultural booms in countries with poor governance have adverse long-term effects which dominate the short-run gains. Our findings have important implications for non-agricultural commodity exporters with poor governance, especially in light of the recent wave of resource discoveries in low-income countries.     

Marketing strategy and the efficacy of procedural justice: The mid-level marketing manager in industrial service firms

A principal challenge confronting the senior marketing team in B2B firms is how to ensure that the marketing strategies they develop are implemented effectively. The literature indicates that mid-level marketing managers' perceptions of the procedural justice within the firm may be critical in this respect. However, there has been little empirical research on this issue. The authors develop and test a conceptual model of the key drivers and consequences of marketing managers' procedural justice perceptions. The findings show that if mid-level marketing managers trust their senior marketing colleagues and simultaneously operate within moderately organic structures, then procedural justice will thrive. A consequence of this is more effective implementation of marketing strategy which, in turn, leads to increased market performance.