Advertising and the Department of Energy's Campaign for Energy Conservation

Abstract

Motivating consumers to conserve energy has proven to be a difficult task in the United States. One tactic that has been used on a limited basis by the Department of Energy is paid advertising. This paper examines the role of conservation within the country's broader energy problems, delineates several consumer issues that affect the success of government conservation programs, discusses the controversy surrounding the use of paid advertising to promote consumer conservation efforts, and describes those DOE programs that have used paid advertising as an integral component of conservation program strategy.     

The Outlook for European Grocery Retailing: Competition and Format Development

This article analyses retail trends in the main European countries, and particularly format evolution and competition amongst retailing firms. On the basis of the existence of European retailing landscapes that are sometimes similar without ever being identical, the article analyses the impact of the main factors of change on different national markets. Whilst retail internationalisation and new entrants, commercial policy, legislative environments, technological innovations, consumers and buying behaviour will have a convergence effect on different countries' retail structures, substantial differences will still exist. European retailing in the coming years will probably be characterized by increasingly less marked differences between countries than one finds today, but market segmentation, variety and differentiation of retailing formats and brand names will be stronger within each country.     

Towards a conceptual model of country market selection: Selection processes of retailers and C&C wholesalers

Abstract

International market selection is discussed in general, particularly in respect of decisions on evaluation stages, selection criteria and evaluation methods. The present analysis focuses on the configuration of country selection models, which has received little attention in international retailing research. In order to illustrate the special features of market selection in retailing, we have used an innovative approach. Following a review of general theoretical perspectives, a case study of the Metro Group addresses the process used, inter-country selection and country-specific selection, and also shows the role of corporate principles and firms' situational factors. Based on existing literature and the case study information, we propose a strategic approach in modelling country selection processes. Three steps in the construction of a selection model are discussed and related to corporate principles and situational factors of a retail firm. The analysis is a further step towards understanding the processes of retailing internationalization.     

The impact of a gasoline crisis on retail sales

The gasoline crises of the 1970s demonstrated the need for including gasoline prices and gasoline shortages in models explaining retail sales. In this article, a model is constructed that incorporates the aforementioned variables, other variables, and a lagged sales figure as independent variable. The results indicate a high degree of explanatory power in predicting retail sales for a specialty store chain with a preponderance of their stores in large regional malls that sell a product which lends itself to unplanned purchase behaviour.     

Perceived trust in contractual channel dyads: an exploratory investigation of Finnish food retailers

Distributor firms have found long-term contracting an effective means of gaining competitive advantage. To realize these benefits, the alliance should involve trusting others. However, contracts can also be one-sided rather than reciprocal, favouring the larger business partner. Should trust develop naturally where there are formal contracts defining the terms of the relationship? And what inducements should a supplier take to gain retailers' trust? The trade-off is further complicated when the retailers operate in a small market with few suppliers and high barriers to entry. This study focuses on these questions. We use original field data from Finnish food retailers who have signed a written agreement with their focal wholesaler. We find that maintaining autonomy increases trust in the relationship. We also find that regular communication in the dyad and balance between perceived rewards and contributions are associated with higher levels of trust. In turn, intrachannel competition strongly reduces retailers' trust in the dyad.     

Personal loan users’ mental integration of payment and consumption

Buying a good on a loan entails numerous consumption and payment episodes. Loan users can either mentally integrate or separate these episodes. In order to identify the actual mental structures, we conducted 29 semi-structured interviews with current and prospective loan users. A content analysis revealed that a majority of loan users established a hedonically efficient one-way connection from the loan to the good; i.e., the good was perceived as unrelated to the loan, whereas, concurrently, payments were buffered by thoughts of the good. Furthermore, the analysis revealed that mental structures are less stable than sometimes assumed.     

Has Germany Been Europeanised or Has Europe Become (too) Germanic?

It has often been argued that European monetary unification must basically be seen as a device to Europeanise re-unified Germany. For the Germans it seemed to be the best possible way to prevent a German “Sonderweg” and end any German ambition for hegemony. For the rest of Europe, and particularly France, it seemed to be the best way to curb German monetary dominance and to secure a French imprint on EU policy-making. In this article, however, it is argued that the German impact on the economic governance regime of EMU and its fencing off the French proposal of a “gouvernement economique” is so substantial that the term “Germanic Europe” seems in fact to be appropriate. More importantly, the economic governance system of “Germanic Europe” has locked the European Union into a politics of disinflation which makes it difficult for the EU to prosper and reap the potential fruits of European integration.

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* This paper was written while the author was a guest researcher at the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI), Brussels, from March to April 2005. He is most grateful to Andrew Watt for his help and the ETUI for its support.