Profiling people’s perceptions of retail management careers

Abstract

Educators are challenged to generate awareness of retail education programs and related career options. A corresponding issue for retailers is the recruitment and retention of career-oriented managers. The issue is complicated by negative attitudes in the general population about retail careers and a lack of awareness about retail career options. This study examines these attitudes through a questionnaire administered to a nation-wide sample of 310. A cluster analysis reveals four groups based on differences in their demographic/psychosocial characteristics and career preferences. The findings provide foci and key messages targeted to the distinct groups upon which retail managers and educators can base discrete career awareness and recruiting strategies.     

GAMING A SELECTIVE ADMISSIONS SYSTEM

A university uses both early-stage selection outcome (high-school affiliation) and late-stage admission test outcome (standardized test scores) to select students. We use this model to study policies that have been proposed to combat inefficient gaming in college admissions. Increasing university enrollment size can exacerbate gaming and worsen the selection outcome. Abolishing standardized tests for university admissions increases gaming targeting high-school admissions and worsens the selection outcome, whereas eliminating high-school ability sorting may improve the university selection outcome under some cost conditions of gaming. Committing to a lower-powered selection scheme can improve the selection outcome by reducing gaming behaviors.     

The evolution of corporate no net loss and net positive impact biodiversity commitments: Understanding appetite and addressing challenges

The World Economic Forum has identified biodiversity loss as an increasingly significant and impactful risk facing business. However, businesses themselves can negatively impact on biodiversity. Recognizing this, a number of companies have developed their own biodiversity commitments, including those to achieve a no net loss (NNL) or net positive impact (NPI) on biodiversity by balancing or outweighing any negative impacts through mitigation activities. We reviewed corporate‐level NNL and NPI commitments over the last two decades to establish the extent of their adoption, retraction, and scientific foundation. Between 2001 and 2016, 66 companies had made NNL/NPI environmental commitments. Thirty three of these 66 companies made specific biodiversity commitments. The numbers of companies making commitments increased in that period. However, some commitments were retracted, or their status became unclear, leaving only 18 companies with active NNL/NPI biodiversity commitments in 2016. Added to this, many of the commitments are lacking science‐based criteria that would allow more transparent and systematic assessment of corporate activities. Thus, although commitments are being made, they may not be delivering as intended. To secure real biodiversity gains, we recommend advancing methods to assess biodiversity risks to businesses, and using science‐based criteria to deepen corporate commitments and actions. Concerted effort from all sectors is needed to halt and reverse biodiversity loss, and the “biodiversity policy super‐year” of 2020 is the perfect moment for business to deliver through well‐framed and implemented commitments to biodiversity NPI.     

The Global and the Local; The Cultural Interfaces of Self-determination Movements

This paper uses Indian data to investigate the existence and nature of gender bias in the intra-household allocation of expenditure. An extended version of the collective household model is estimated where the welfare weights, i.e. the bargaining power of the adult decision-makers, are simultaneously determined with the household's expenditure outcomes. Significant gender bias is detected in some items, most notably in education, and it is found that the bias is considerably stronger in the more economically backward regions of the country. It is also found that the results of the test of gender bias vary sharply between households at different levels of adult literacy. This is particularly true of household spending on education. The gender bias in the case of this item is, generally, more likely to prevail in households with low levels of adult educational attainment than in more literate households. This result is of considerable policy importance given the strong role that education plays in human capital formation.     

Planning and developing tourism within a public sector quagmire: Lessons from and for small countries

This paper examined public sector tourism in Northern Ireland, a small country on the periphery of Western Europe which is notorious for being over-governed. The authors found that its complex web of public sector tourism bodies created confusion and duplication within the industry. There was a lack of coordination and clear policy guidelines and many of the organisations were suffering from ‘partnership overload’. To make matters worse for Northern Ireland its National Tourism Organisation, faced with a reduced remit and shrinking budget, was not capable of making decisions and providing the strategic leadership that is required to drive the tourism agenda forward. Northern Ireland, and indeed any small country involved in tourism, could learn valuable lessons from Northern Ireland’s Celtic neighbours, Scotland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland, countries which have taken action to remove some of their layers of administration and bureaucracy and make public sector tourism more streamlined and manageable.     

Do foreign mergers and acquisitions boost firm productivity?

This paper examines the causal relationship between foreign mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and the productivity of acquired firms using micro-data from the UK over the period 1999–2007. Our results suggest a significant heterogeneity in the total factor productivity (TFP) effects of foreign M&A at the industry level. Overall, we uncover a systematic pattern of post-acquisition TFP effects that is consistent with the most recent theoretical models of firm heterogeneity and cross-border mergers and acquisitions as mode of foreign entry. Furthermore, we find positive aggregate effects on labor productivity due to capital deepening but not due to changes in TFP.     

Sex,education, and unionism: demographic determinants of attitude toward japanese direct investment

This article reports the findings of a major survey of Ohio residents’ attitudes toward Japanese foreign direct investment in the United States. Attitudinal data were collected from 448 respondents with respect to their perceptions of Japanese investment in the United States and its effects. Crosstabulation of the data reveal the existence of significant attitudinal differences. Specifically, sex, educational level, and union membership are found to be significantly related to attitudes regarding Japanese foreign direct investment Women, individuals with lower levels of education, and union members hold more negative attitudes toward several aspects of Japanese foreign direct investment than the state's population as a whole.     

The Costs of China's State-owned Enterprises

MOCT-MOST: Economic Policy in Transitional Economies -     

Political conflict,urban structure,and the fiscal crisis1

Les gouvernements locaux ont pour rǒle d'encourager d'une part la croissance économique, d'autre part l'intégration politique. Cette double fonction devient potentiellement contradictoire dans des conditions qui sont soit celles de la croissance, ou de la récession économique. Les gouvernements locaux sont donc organisés, et pour empěcher l'émergence de conflits politiques urbains intenses, et pour assurer l'adaptation continue aux besoins changeants de la croissance économique. Plusieurs mesures structurelles des politiques étatiques vont en ce sens:

• 1 la décentralisation conditionelle de la fiscalité et des dépenses
• 2 la ségrégation structurelle de l'économique et du politique remplissant ces fonctions.

Mais ces měmes mesures ont produisent aussi, dans le měme temps, des contraintes fiscales, qui sont ainsi l'une des traductions des conflits politiques possibles. Dans cette perspective, la crise fiscale est analysée en tant que stratégie de gestion politique des fonctions contradictoires des gouvernements urbains.     

An Examination of the Relationship Between Employee Perception and Hotel Brand Equity

Brand management stresses the importance of satisfying the needs of external customers. Employee branding management shows an evolving trend as employees begin living the brand. It is, therefore, necessary that employees are convinced by the hotel brand prior to having confidence to “sell” the brand to customers. The present study aims to investigate employee perception toward hotel brand equity, particularly in the Hong Kong hotel industry. Factor analysis is used to identify four underlying factors—namely, employee commitment, employee engagement, employee identification, and service quality. The four constitute the perception of the employee on the evaluation of the brand. Correlation analysis is employed to examine relationship among the underlying factors and three dimensions of hotel brand equity—including brand image, brand awareness, and perceived quality. Moderate association is generally noted, and perceived quality has the most significant relationship with employee perception on brand equity. Managerial implications on employee branding management are introduced to hotel management. Topics for future research are also recommended.