Gift Giving: An Exploratory Behavioural Study

The purpose of this research is to contribute to the marketing literature through an exploratory review of gift giving behaviour as it pertains to cultural and other demographical variables. Following Mathur's (1996, Psychology & Marketing, 13(1), 107–123) recommendation that future research into gift giving might examine differences among different subgroups in the population, this study closely examined gender differences to identify variables that matter most for female and male gift givers/receivers. Results indicate that 80.7% of respondents had bought a gift within the previous 6 months, mostly for personal reasons (95.4%), which included occasions such as birthdays (64.9%), anniversaries (11.2%), achievement celebrations (10.3%), Father's/Mother's Day (5.0%) and Christmas (1.7%). About 50% of respondents spent between A$10 and A$30 per gift purchase. The results are discussed. Following a comprehensive review of the available literature, the authors set out to formulate a research instrument that would explore respondents' gift giving-related behaviour in terms of the occasion for gift exchange, the relationship between giver and receiver and the range of values that may come into play when engaging in gift giving transactions. Three hundred questionnaires from students at a major Western Australian university were the bases of this report. Of these, 80% reported purchasing a gift in the past 6 months mainly for a family member as a birthday gift, spending A$44 on average. The results revealed that women have a higher perception of gift giving as a valuable opportunity to state relational bonds compared with men. The results also suggested that individuals find it easier to purchase a gift for someone of their same gender, as opposed to someone of the opposite sex. Overall, students from Asia seemed to have a statistically significant difference from Australians and those born elsewhere with respect to their perception of a gift's cost-value, the reciprocity principle and re-gifting practices. This research focused on individuals who frequented a major Western Australian university, thus influencing the age range of the respondents. Future research is encouraged in order to incorporate a greater number of responses and variability in the sample that could allow for an analysis of individuals' opinions about gift giving activities as they relate to their generation. The findings suggest the need to give greater attention to cohort analysis of gift giving behaviour. Matters such as the nature of the relationship between the giver and the recipient, the occasion and the recipient's gender were of primary importance when selecting a gift. This finding may assist marketers' targeting efforts by clarifying what factors consumers tend to consider when purchasing a present. Gender implications also revealed the need to assist individuals in identifying what constitutes an “ideal” gift for a woman or a man. Finally, those residing in Australia tended to find it more difficult to purchase gifts for women than those who reside in Asian countries. This suggests the need to explore acculturation and culture shock notions when it comes to gift giving behaviour. This research incorporated in an exploratory nature those aspects that seemed of greater interest for academics and practitioners, such as gift giving occasion, behaviour, values, and demographical variables such as country of birth and country of residence.     

The Antecedents of Moral Imagination in the Workplace: A Social Cognitive Theory Perspective

As corporate scandals proliferate, organizational researchers and practitioners have made calls for research providing guidance for those wishing to influence positive moral decision-making and behavior in the workplace. This study incorporates social cognitive theory and a vignette-based cognitive measure for moral imagination to examine (a) moral attentiveness and employee creativity as important antecedents of moral imagination and (b) creativity as a moderator of the positive relationship between moral attentiveness and moral imagination. Based on the results from supervisor–subordinate dyadic data (N = 162) obtained from employed students, hypotheses were largely supported as expected. Implications are discussed.     

Promoting Products Through Volume Discount: Evidence from Malaysia

ABSTRACT

This study examines the effectiveness of the determinants that influence consumers' intention to purchase products under volume discount scheme (VDS). In addition, the moderating role of age is tested. A pilot study of 259 consumers was performed to conceptualize the underlying constructs and identify questionnaire items through employing exploratory data analysis. This was followed by a comprehensive survey of 583 Malaysian consumers. Data were analysed using partial least squares technique. The results indicate that brand image, store image, message framing, product characteristics, scheme characteristics, and subjective norms are crucial factors for the successful implementation of VDS. There is a wide gap noted between young and mature consumers in terms of the factors that influence on their purchasing behavior under VDS. The results help retailers to promote products under VDS in an effective way.     

Discharge Policy Information in the Job Offer Letter: Its Impact on Recruit Perceptions of Psychological Contract Formation and Organizational Attraction

Using a 2 × 2 design, this study incorporates psychological contract theory and the “good cause norm” to investigate discharge policy information and implied promises of job security on reactions to the job offer letter. Results indicate that while embedded implied promises significantly increase perceptions of organizational attraction relative to a control, they demonstrate no discernable effects on recruit perceptions of organizational psychological contract obligations. Furthermore, embedded at-will disclaimers, alone or in combination with implied promises, significantly reduce perceptions of organizational attractiveness and organizational psychological contract obligations. Implications are discussed.     

Exploring the ideological undercurrents of HRM: workplace values and beliefs in Ireland and New Zealand

Despite hints of more pluralist undercurrents, workplace values and beliefs have rarely been surfaced to inform our understanding of HRM. This paper examines management and employee workplace values and beliefs in the national contexts of Ireland and New Zealand. The findings indicate (a) a divergence of managerial beliefs at the level of society and at the level of their own workplace, (b) an overall pluralist orientation among employees. These findings highlight the importance of greater sensitivity to ideological orientation and more pluralist understandings of HRM.     

Firm and regional economic outcomes associated with a new,broad measure of business innovation

ABSTRACT

Most innovation-oriented studies use measures such as patent activity or research expenditures, likely ignoring the role of more home-grown upgrades or opportunity-recognizing activity common in businesses across the U.S. This study develops a broader ‘innovation index’ using a new survey of businesses that provides a wide lens for capturing innovative practices. The index is used in a series of regressions testing the relationship between innovation and both firm and regional-level economic outcomes. Results from the firm-level regressions show that the innovation index has a positive and significant relationship with wages paid to employees and product market growth. The regional analysis demonstrates that innovation is correlated with several regional economic variables, including median household income, and that spatial spillovers from innovation exist in some instances.     

Developing a scale to measure liabilities and assets of newness after start-up

New ventures can simultaneously face survival challenges and benefit from distinct advantages based on their newness. Despite the importance of these issues, extant entrepreneurship studies, with limited exception, have often employed only rudimentary measures (e.g., venture age) to investigate important issues related to organizational newness. Accordingly, we develop and refine a scale to measure critical dimensions of newness that stakeholders perceive after NV start-up. We first discuss the theoretical background and previous research related to various newness dimensions. We then introduce a new construct, organizational energy, that heretofore has received scant attention in NV research. Next, we present results from an inductive study conducted to generate various dimensions of newness as well as two empirical investigations that further refine these dimensions into a reliable scale for measuring different newness dimensions. We conclude by discussing our empirical findings, the study’s limitations, and potential future research directions.     

Investigating the determinants of banking coexceedances in Europe in the summer of 2008

We examine the nature, extent and possible causes of bank contagion in a high frequency setting. Looking at six major European banks in the summer and autumn of 2008, we model the lower coexceedances of these banks returns. We find that market microstructure, volatility (measured by range based measures) and limited general market conditions are key determinants of these coexceedances. We find some evidence that herding occurred.     

Do cost-based pricing biases persist in laboratory markets?

Past accounting experiments have demonstrated significant effects of absorption vs variable costing systems on pricing decisions, but in individual settings that suppressed market features. The main finding of the current study is that a cost-based pricing bias did not persist in laboratory product markets. Given the opportunity to learn from profit and market feedback, sellers revised their price offers toward optimum in a manner that compensated for absorption vs variable cost signals. The effects of demand conditions, as revealed through actual trades, dominated the effects of alternative costing systems.