Development of the ‘Travelcard’ Concept in Urban Public Transport

Traditionally, urban bus operators have collected fares in cash for each trip. Some limited mechanisation has occurred in ticket issue at stations. Partly for reasons of operating convenience, there has recently been a shift to simpler fares and prepayment, notably through the introduction of ‘Travelcards', that is, tickets or passes permitting unlimited use of the network (or zones thereof) for a defined period. These cover both all-bus systems, and bus/rail networks (such as the West Midlands PTE system). They are now used in all main British conurbations, following introduction of the London Transport bus/rail Travelcard in May 1983. The Travelcard in effect redefines the ‘product’ being sold. Instead of the public transport service being perceived as a series of separate journeys, payment is made periodically for use of the network as a whole. Cost perception is thus put on a similar basis to that for the private car. The marginal money cost for each trip becomes zero. Interchange penalties associated with re-booking are eliminated. Payment may be made by cheque or credit card, rather than cash, further changing the perception of costs. Product quality is also enhanced through speeding up of services (one-person- operated buses), and enabling the user to select the quickest and/or most convenient route in a network by removing the interchange penalty.     

MNE home country cultural norms and conflict strategy fit in transnational business contract disputes

The increasing frequency and complexity of transnational business relationships has been commensurate with an increase in contractual disputes. In such situations, home country cultural norms will often influence how MNEs resolve contractual disputes in foreign markets. This begs the question: does fit between an MNE's choice of conflict strategy and its home country cultural norms affect monetary payouts (costs) in transnational business contract disputes? We apply organizational imprinting theory and the fit paradigm to a model employing data from U.S. court cases involving 316 MNEs from 47 countries. We find that choosing a conflict strategy that fits home country cultural norms will result in higher monetary payouts for MNEs. Additionally, cultural distance, but not legal distance, enhances the positive relationship between MNE conflict strategy fit and monetary payouts. Implications and future research directions are discussed.     

Towards an Understanding of the Relationship between Mood,Emotions, Service Quality and Customer Loyalty Intentions

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between mood states, emotions, perceptions of service quality and consumer loyalty in an extended service context. A quantitative research design, using multivariate statistical techniques, facilitated the data analysis. The sample consisted of 220 students from a private university in Switzerland. The results indicated that all of the variables were significantly correlated and mood state was demonstrated to influence the way judgements were formed. The contribution of mood to explaining the variance in loyalty was however minimal.     

Up in smoke: demarketing and consumer smoking cessation

The concept of demarketing refers to the use of marketing techniques to reduce or eliminate demand for a product or service. A review of the demarketing literature relating to health and specifically antismoking initiatives indicated that, while research on this topic exists, much of it is not grounded in an acceptable attitudinal or behavioural theory. After determining the importance placed by a sample of 18–24‐year olds on nine demarketing initiatives, two dimensions were identified that best explained this construct. Items within these dimensions were summed and averaged to form single variables, which were then used to form the attitudinal component of the Model of Goal Directed Behaviour. The findings showed that two of these variables – one that captured product packaging aspects and another that consisted of place and price items – significantly influenced the desire to quit and indirectly influenced the intention to quit. Anticipated positive emotions, frequency of quitting attempts and perceived control over quitting also positively influenced the desire and/or intention to quit. The article concludes with a discussion that interprets these findings from a theoretical and practical perspective and suggests directions for future research.     

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Profiling exporting and nonexporting service firms: Critical differences to decision-makers

The internationalization of services has become a critical element in the global marketplace. While the internationalization of services has increased in importance, the lack of empirically based research has been a shortcoming. This article empirically examines key characteristics (i.e., total sales, number of employees, age of firm, management's desire to export, perceived profit potential from internationalization, top management's foreign language skills, and international work experience) separating exporting from nonexporting domestic-based service firms. It provides a profile for the exporting service firm that is distinctly different than that of the nonexporting service provider. These differences suggest important policy considerations for federal and state export promotion agencies and strategy considerations for service firm owners and management. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Are we overconfident in executive overconfidence research? An examination of the convergent and content validity of extant unobtrusive measures

Building understanding of overconfident executives is central to a growing literature that spans a number of disciplines. Much of this research has utilized unobtrusive, or indirect, measures to assess executive overconfidence from secondary data sources. We analyze the convergent and content validity of seven extant unobtrusive measures of executive overconfidence. The results of our analyses indicate that these measures do not exhibit adequate convergence, suggesting that existing measures are not measuring the same construct. Further, we administer a sort task to academic colleagues to assess whether scholars believe that the seven measures are adequately assessing the intended construct. The results of our sort task indicate that scholars did not categorize any of the seven measures as sufficient for measuring overconfidence. We conclude with suggestions for future research to address the inadequate convergent and content validity found in our assessment of extant measures of executive overconfidence.     

Getting too personal: Reactance to highly personalized email solicitations

Research on the effects of personalized messages on consumers’ behavioral responses has yielded mixed findings. We explore how e-mail personalization influences click-through intentions. Our results suggest that consumers experience personalization reactance in response to highly personalized messages when the fit between the offer in the message and consumers’ personal characteristics is not explicitly justified by firms. Consequently, consumers are less willing to respond favorably to the offer. Results of two studies suggest that this effect primarily emerges for consumers who perceive the utility of the service to be relatively low. For those consumers with higher perceived utility, justification of personalization is less important because highly personalized messages are less likely to elicit reactance.     

A Proposed Infrastructural Model for the Establishment of Organizational Ethical Systems

We define ethical system infrastructure as being composed of three major factors – means, motivation, and opportunity. Means are defined as organizational rules, policies, and procedures. Motivation focuses upon the values and the interests being pursued by the position occupant and the organizational value system, while opportunity is discussed in terms of the environment in which the dilemma occurs, proposing that position in the hierarchy presents its own unique set of ethical dilemmas. Ethical breeches are discussed in terms of the interactional processes among means, motivation, and opportunity. Finally, a sequential process is suggested to use the infrastructural components to institutionalize organizational ethics training and subsequent behavior.