An Evolutionary Process Model of Cause‐Related Marketing and Systematic Review of the Empirical Literature

Cause‐related marketing (CRM) is almost ubiquitous as brands of all price points participate in this marketing strategy in the United States and internationally, as well. The value that CRM brings to the firm, the consumer, and the nonprofit organization has made it a popular and valuable tool for marketers. Academic research on CRM has gained momentum in recent years as the strategy has matured. However, insights have occurred without a framework to provide structure and direction for this body of research. Given CRM's continued popularity, the purpose of this article is to (1) propose an evolutionary process model (EPM) of CRM to explain the iterative process (2) utilize this model as a framework for (a) organizing the systematic review of the empirical literature on CRM and (b) for identifying some gaps in the literature. Propositions based on these gaps are provided for future research.     

Innovation management in service firms: a research agenda

This article suggests an agenda for further research on innovation management in service firms. It investigates differences and similarities between issues identified by previous academic research and issues brought up by practitioners within the area of innovation management in service firms. The results show that there are some major differences; for instance, researchers stress a need for formalized processes for development work, while practitioners focus on facilitating innovation in everyday operations. The main conclusion is that in order to bridge the gap between research and practice we would encourage further research on innovation in service firms to (1) conduct micro studies of innovation work, (2) view innovation in the context of everyday operations and (3) focus on co-workers’ innovative potential.     

Interdependence between consumption in the North and sustainable communities in the South

The issues we want to address and discuss in this article are related to the interdependence between consumption in households in high‐income countries and life in the low‐income countries, seen in a sustainable perspective. In the consumer society the underlying premise is that ever‐escalating consumption is accepted, even desirable. During the past decade, an increasing critique of consumer lifestyle has come from environmentalists, who argue that the resource use to maintain a consumer lifestyle is putting too hard a burden on the ecosystems. We give examples of the abundant evidence of interdependence between North and South at global levels, such as climate change and appropriation of ecosystem capacities, and related to specific types of consumption such as clothing, flowers, food and cosmetics. We argue that the loss of feedback to individual households in the North is a serious barrier for change towards more sustainable consumption habits, and raise a question about how impacts of production and consumption can be communicated to consumers. On the basis of previous and ongoing research, we highlight some impacts of positive and negative labelling schemes as well as extended environmental information.     

A Matter of Survival - Determinants of Rational Behavior in B-to-B Markets

The paper focuses on the question of whether the frequently stated industrial/consumer dichotomy with respect to the involved degree of rationality in decision making, namely that it is high in b-to-b and low in b-to-c markets, is in fact justified. We develop a universal framework to determine which factors lead to rational behavior. The framework may be used for determining if a given decision situation should be analyzed by means of an economic or rather a behavioral approach. When adapting this framework to evaluate decisions in business markets, we identify conditions under which rational behavior is unlikely. Thus, from a purely theoretical standpoint, the proposed dichotomy seems questionable. Whether or not, however, the identified conditions promoting ‘irrationality’ in both industrial and consumer markets in fact must be determined empirically. Therefore, we also suggest an empirical test for the universal framework.     

Natural Resource Management and Economywide Policies in Costa Rica: A Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) Modeling Approach

A computable general equilibrium (CGE) model is used to tracethe effects of government policies on Costa Rican forests inthe presence of incomplete markets. The results indicate thatcorrecting the market failure would, as expected, reduce deforestation.More interestingly, in the presence of the market failure, loweringthe tax on unskilled labor reduces deforestation because peoplegain employment in other parts of the economy. Taxation of otherproduced goods changes the incentives for deforestation. Forexample, a tax on agricultural products elevates the relativeprice of capital and shifts resources away from the capital-intensiveindustrial sector toward the agricultural and forest sectors;as a result, such a tax increases deforestation.     

Fixing the Leak: Unemployment Incidence before and after a Major Reform of Unemployment Benefits in Germany

We present first empirical results on the effects of a large scale reduction in unemployment benefit entitlement lengths on unemployment inflows in Germany. We show that this highly disputed element of the Hartz‐Reforms in 2006 induced a rush of workers and firms to take advantage of the previous legislation in its last days. Furthermore, we find a considerable decline in transitions to unemployment and an increase in employment rates among older workers after the reform. Our results provide new evidence for the importance of changes in unemployment inflows for the analysis of changes in unemployment outflows.     

Protein efficiency per unit energy and per unit greenhouse gas emissions: Potential contribution of diet choices to climate change mitigation

The production, transport and processing of food products have significant environmental impacts, some of them related to climate change. This study examined the energy use and greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production and transport to a port in Sweden (wholesale point) of 84 common food items of animal and vegetable origin. Energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for food items produced in different countries and using various means of production were compared. The results confirmed that animal-based foods are associated with higher energy use and GHG emissions than plant-based foods, with the exception of vegetables produced in heated greenhouses. Analyses of the nutritional value of the foods to assess the amount of protein delivered to the wholesale point per unit energy used or GHG emitted (protein delivery efficiency) showed that the efficiency was much higher for plant-based foods than for animal-based. Remarkably, the efficiency of delivering plant-based protein increased as the amount of protein in the food increased, while the efficiency of delivering animal-based protein decreased. These results have implications for policies encouraging diets with lower environmental impacts for a growing world population.     

The role of Swedish retailers in food innovations

Innovations should create value for increasingly individualistic consumers with varying demands and for other stakeholders. Today, retailers have the power in the supply/value chain. This research investigates how Swedish food retailers view innovations, their role and that of customers and suppliers in the development process and how they see future development. The study is based on open-ended interviews. The results show that Swedish retailers regard food product innovations as something to provide to consumers rather than achieve with consumers. Retailers want more collaboration with packaging suppliers to differentiate. Retailers are successful in establishing their own brands, in becoming brands themselves and in competing with producer brands. This follows the UK model and may result in fewer alternatives in stores and fewer product – or new technology-based innovations by Swedish producers. Service innovations can still occur for retailers to retain consumer loyalty. Consumers demand more than new products; they want to be excited by the shopping experience. More innovations will require deeper insight about consumers, efforts from the value chain and from outsiders. Collaboration is needed to establish trust among supply chain actors.     

Werte und Normen als Sollensvorstellungen in der KommunikationswissenschaftValues and norms as ought-statements in communication studies

Values and norms as research topics are central theoretical and empirical constructs in communication studies and are also used to substantiate research questions or to interpret results. Despite the relevance of values and norms, a respective debate within the discipline has been neglected so far. It is a challenge to discuss the values and norms of our discipline and to initiate an exchange of the societal relevance of one’s own research. The network “Values and norms as research objects and guiding principles in communication research”, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), makes a contribution to this by systematically analyzing values and norms in communication studies and by critically reflecting them. Therefore, the paper proposes to operationalize values and norms as “ought-statements”. Ought-statements either describe a situational state that is explicitly evaluated or address a desirable state. Three elements of an ought-statement are identified, which are coded in a multistage content analysis. The operationalization of norms and values as ought-statements allows not only to examine already known values and norms, but also to assess all possible values and norms, to assess the change of values and norms more validly in long-term studies, and to assess those constructs that are labeled as norms or values by the researchers themselves.