Perceptions versus performance when managing extensions: new evidence about the role of fit between a parent brand and an extension

The extant literature contends that a new product extension’s success is an increasing function of the parent brand’s quality and the degree of fit between the parent brand and extension. We develop theory to explore relationships between parent quality, image fit and functional fit. Each of these components should trigger positive pre-purchase associations from the parent. However, at the point of sale, high levels of functional fit are expected to increase the probability of substitution between parent and extension. To test this and related assertions, we augment UPC scanner data with perceptual measures for 42 matched parent–extension pairs. Findings confirm that high parent quality negatively impacts an extension’s sales when functional fit is high. Equally telling, low parent quality can actually increase an extension’s sales in some cases. We use our fitted model to present counter-factual experiments to show the magnitude of these increases or decreases under combinations of our key variables and extension type, line or brand. The combinations we explore occur frequently in-market.     

Mapping and analysing virtual outcrops

Laser scanning is a very efficient way to generate realistic, high-resolution digital models of 3-D geological outcrops. This paper discusses the methodologies involved in the creation and analysis of virtual outcrops, based on laser scanner data. The visualisation of the laser scanner data as a photorealistic 3-D object is described. Geological features picked out on the virtual outcrop (e.g. fractures, faults or bedding planes) can be extrapolated outward, into space, and inward, into the subsurface, using tension surfaces.     

Community participation in outdoor recreation and the development of Millennium Greens in England

A growth in community participation (CP) in outdoor recreation provision and maintenance emerged from the post-war voluntary movement but from the 1970s, discrete initiatives were spawned in the context of management experiments, threats to urban open space from development, the enhancement of forestry recreation opportunities and European funding to remoter rural areas. A shift in the style of government from an executive to an enabling role in the 1980s and 1990s has formalized CP in public policy. This has been exploited in CP for the rights of way system and in the provision of new recreation areas: Millennium Greens. An assessment of some of the characteristics of CP in Millennium Greens is provided in relation to motivations for their development, the support of the community, the social characteristics of those affected, their spatial distribution and raised expectations where schemes have been unsuccessful. It is concluded that some executive state controls over such schemes are necessary to ensure their effective operation but this too can be enhanced by involving communities in policy formulation as well as in development and implementation. There is some evidence to suggest that governmental enabling policies benefit those who are already most enabled relative to the more marginal sectors of society and this issue merits further research.     

Analysis of Employee Performance during Cross-cultural Service Encounters at Luxury Hotels in Hawaii,London and Florida

Globalization has motivated managers and scholars in the tourism industry to focus more attention on the problems and characteristics of the cross-cultural service encounter. During these interactions, differing cultural norms and values often create misunderstanding and conflict, which can result in an unhappy customer, a frustrated service provider and lost business. Therefore, the focus of this study was to analyze the effect of intercultural sensitivity on tourism employee performance in cross-cultural service encounters in three similar, but distinct service-dependent markets: the Hawaiian Islands, Greater London (UK) and the state of Florida. The results indicate that tourism employees with high intercultural sensitivity generally scored significantly (p < 0.05) higher than employees with low intercultural sensitivity in terms of service attentiveness, revenue contribution, interpersonal skills, job satisfaction and social satisfaction as they relate to cross-cultural encounters. There was no significant difference in results for motivation to work, tenure (years at present organization) and primary rewards (compensation, recognition, etc.). Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Moral Dilemmas of Participation in Dangerous Leisure Activities

Abstract

Participation in risky leisure activities (including so‐called ‘extreme’ sports) has increased in recent years, along with a concomitant growth in the related supporting industries, and in media coverage of events and associated lifestyles. The rise in popularity of dangerous leisure pursuits has led to questions about whether these activities should be regulated, or whether legislation should be enacted to prohibit particular activities. Arguments have centred on harm to individuals, and on the potential costs to others, such as families, rescue workers, and society at large. Very little work has been done on the moral legitimacy of dangerous leisure pursuits, and this paper attempts to address this, using a multidisciplinary approach. The paper evaluates both paternalistic and libertarian approaches, and pursues solutions to the moral problem from both utilitarian (consequence‐based) and deontological (duty‐based) perspectives. It is concluded that mature, rational individuals ought to retain the right to pursue activities that have potential deleterious consequences for themselves. While recognising that individuals ought to concern themselves with the effects of their actions on others, the paper accepts arguments based on autonomy, and defends the right to engage in dangerous leisure activities.     

Demand responsive transport: towards the emergence of a new market segment

This paper focuses on recent British experience with telematics-based Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) services in rural areas. In recent years, the ability of DRT concepts to provide efficient, viable transport services has been greatly enhanced by the use of transport telematics as demonstrated in a variety of environments across Europe. The success of British local authorities in winning substantial funding under the Rural and Urban Bus Challenge programmes for the implementation of DRT has resulted in widespread interest in flexible forms of transport. It is thus timely to evaluate the impact of this substantial investment. Drawing on the experience of a number of UK schemes, the paper assesses the reasons for the new-found success of what is becoming a relatively well-accepted mode by concentrating on a variety of factors including: service characteristics (particularly route flexibility, flexibility of booking method and pre-booking regime), emerging markets and the overall contribution of DRT to increased social inclusion and intermodality. Impediments to the development of DRT services are highlighted. The paper also discusses current research into the next generation of DRT services and concludes by identifying some key issues for policy-makers concerned with the future implementation of DRT services.     

‘Never let a good crisis go to waste’: moral entrepreneurship,or the fine art of recycling evil into good

Moral entrepreneurship is the fine art of recycling evil into good by taking advantage of situations given or constructed as crises. It should be seen as the ultimate generalisation of the entrepreneurial spirit, whose peculiar excesses have always sat uneasily with homo oeconomicus as the constrained utility maximiser, an image that itself has come to be universalised. A task of this essay is to reconcile the two images in terms of what by the end I call ‘superutilitarianism’, which draws on the lore of both superheroes and utilitarianism. After briefly surveying the careers of three exemplars of the moral entrepreneur (Robert McNamara, George Soros and Jeffrey Sachs), I explore the motives of moral entrepreneurs in terms of their standing debt to society for having already caused unnecessary harm but which also now equips him with the skill set needed to do significant good. Such a mindset involves imagining oneself a vehicle of divine will, which would be a scary proposition had it not been long presumed by Christians touched by Calvin. In conclusion, I argue that moral entrepreneurship looks most palatable – and perhaps even attractive – if the world is ‘reversible’, in the sense that every crisis, however clumsily handled by the moral entrepreneur, causes people to distinguish more clearly the necessary from contingent features of their existence. This leads them to reconceptualise past damages as new opportunities to assert what really matters; hence, a ‘superutilitarian’ ethic that treats all suffering as less cost than investment in a greater sense of the good.     

Time inconsistency and delayed retirement decision: the French pension bonus

With the increase in life expectancy and demographic shocks, several public policies in the last decades aim to encourage individuals to postpone retirement. One of them, the pension bonus, gives an increased pension if individuals retire beyond their Full Retirement Age. Previous ex post analyses found that the responsiveness to this type of financial incentives, which encourage to postpone retirement, is heterogeneous among agents and that the global effect is rather limited. Deriving from previous research in Behavioural Economics, this article analyses the impact of time inconsistency in the decision to delay retirement to get the bonus. Using public national survey data, short-term and long-term impatience are measured with questions on retiring motivations. After controlling for the endogeneity of the bonus knowledge, econometric results show that time-inconsistent agents are less likely to retire with the bonus.