Mythic Agency and Retail Conquest

This paper expands agency theory by identifying mythic agency as a lens through which retailers can view spectacular events during which consumers act heroically to achieve an important consumption goal. Partaking in a stressful and challenging retail experience invokes the stages of a quest, through which successful consumers emerge transformed and where they challenge, at least in part, the culturally prescribed role of bride. Retailers who create events that evoke and support consumers’ heroic actions can develop powerful, meaningful, and enduring relationships with their customers.     

Religiousness and Business Ethics

There is strong theoretical support for a relationship between various characteristics of religiousness and attitudes towards business ethics. This paper examines three frequently- studied dimensions of religiousness (fundamentalism, conservatism, and intrinsic religiousness) and their ability to predict students' willingness to behave unethically. Because prior research indicated a possible relationship between the religious affiliation of an institution and its members' ethical orientation, we studied students at universities with three different types of religious affiliation: evangelical, Catholic, and none.Results of the study lend support to a negative relationship between the above-mentioned dimensions of religiousness and willingness to behave unethically. In addition, students at the Evangelical university were far less willing to engage in unethical behavior than were students at either the Catholic or the unaffiliated institutions.     

The impact of proposals to develop the king's cross railway lands

If the British Rail proposal for the King's Cross Railway Lands is approved, the scheme will go ahead just as the latest round of local authority legislation begins to bite. By the time builders are on site, new laws and regulations governing the provision of housing, education, services, local authority finance and land use controls will all be in place. In this context, the King's Cross scheme will act as a great Trojan horse unleashing huge changes in a highly concentrated form on a community whose guardians have already been disarmed. This article describes some of the likely effects of this unequal contest —on the local authority involved (Section I) and on the surrounding local communities (Section II). It argues the need for other local authorities to rethink their conceptual and corporate approach to future large-scale planning applications well in advance of their arrival at the Town Hall.     

Human Resources Management Innovation

Guided by a general manager's perspective of human resources management (HRM), this paper identifies key factor affecting the introduction of HRM innovations in organizations. Because the essence of market and technological leadership is the development of the organizational capacity to carry out inventive ideas, it is critical to understand the main forces influencing HRM innovation. Following a definition of HRM innovation, six propositions are discussed using current and historical examples. Since HRM innovation also involves change in the social system of the organization, the adoption and diffusion of these innovations can be attributed not only to external environmental forces but also to social processes.     

Options in Valuing Equity Compensation Benefits

Arguments over whether to recognise or disclose equity compensation benefits (ECBs) have been so intense that the importance of the choice of measurement date has tended to be overlooked. To provide adequate coverage, an accounting standard needs not only to prescribe when ECBs are to be valued but also clearly identify from the options available how they are to be valued and what is to be included.