Exploring the effectiveness of cigarette warning labels: findings from the United States and United Kingdom arms of the International Tobacco Control (ITC) Four Country Survey

• This paper explores the effectiveness of cigarette warning labels across two countries, one (the UK) with new and stricter legislation where text based labels have been made more prominent and one (the USA) with less stringent regulation, where labels are less visible. Using longitudinal data from the two countries, the research seeks to investigate the impact of the different types of warning labels on the information processing by consumers. This paper assesses the effectiveness of warning labels in terms of: consumer attention, elaboration, contemplation on quitting and behavioural compliance. This study provides a comprehensive examination of these key factors in a fixed causal sequence. Structural equation modelling was used to test this model based on longitudinal panel survey data from the International Tobacco Control (ITC) Four Country Survey. Analysis of a sample of 901 US smokers and 1459 UK smokers yielded results in full support of all hypothesised relationships in the model proposed for both countries. Findings suggest that the new European Union policy of more prominent warning labels has a direct effect on influencing behavioural compliance by smokers.

Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Breaking the frame: an analysis of strategic cognition and decision making under uncertainty

This paper reports the findings of two experimental investigations into the efficacy of a causal cognitive mapping procedure as a means for overcoming cognitive biases arising from the framing of strategic decision problems. In Study 1, final year management studies undergraduate students were presented with an elaborated strategic decision scenario, under one of four experimental conditions: positively vs. negatively framed decision scenarios, with prechoice vs. postchoice mapping task orders (i.e., participants were required to engage in cognitive mapping before or after making a decision). As predicted, participants in the postchoice mapping conditions succumbed to the framing bias whereas those in the prechoice mapping conditions did not. Study 2 replicated and extended these findings in a field setting, on a sample of senior managers, using a decision scenario that closely mirrored a strategic dilemma currently facing their organization. Taken together, the findings of these studies indicate that the framing bias is likely to be an important factor in strategic decision making, and suggest that cognitive mapping provides an effective means of limiting the damage accruing from this bias. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Towards an understanding of international city break travel

This paper explores city break tourism and, in particular, the distinctive characteristics of this form of travel. The city break is examined and compared with other types of trips. The research follows a sequential mixed methods approach involving both a visitor survey and in‐depth interviews. The findings show the international city break trip to have a number of distinctive characteristics. These are summarised into five main areas (5 Ds) — duration, distance, date flexibility, discretionary nature and destination travel party. These distinguishing features provide a useful insight into one of the most important yet least examined travel segments in tourism research. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Critical social marketing – The impact of alcohol marketing on youth drinking: Qualitative findings

• This paper presents findings from exploratory qualitative research as part of a critical social marketing study examining the impact of alcohol marketing communications on youth drinking. The findings from stakeholder interviews (regulators and marketers) suggest that some alcohol marketing might target young people, and that marketers are cognisant of growing concern at alcohol issues, including control of alcohol marketing. Focus groups with young people (aged 13–15 years) revealed a sophisticated level of awareness of, and involvement in, alcohol marketing across several channels. It was found that some marketing activities featured content that could appeal to young people and appeared to influence their, well‐developed, brand attitudes. The research demonstrates the utility of taking a critical social marketing approach when examining the impact of alcohol marketing. The implications of these findings for research, regulation and policy around alcohol marketing are also examined. The contribution that studies such as this make to the debate around marketing principles and practice, and to social marketing, is also discussed.

Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Trust in online recommendations: an evolutionary psychology perspective

Electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) is playing an increasingly important role in influencing consumer behavior, and it represents another opportunity for marketers to build support for their brands. This study explores how the gender of the reader influences how eWOM is perceived. An experiment grounded in evolutionary psychology examines how males and females differ in their perceived trust of eWOM of positive, negative, or mixed valence. The results indicate that females place greater trust than males in eWOM messages. But both genders find eWOM of mixed valence more trustworthy than entirely positive or negative eWOM. A follow-up phenomenological study of male and female consumers who had experienced eWOM shed more light on the experimental findings and offers additional support for their evolutionary basis. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed as well as recommendations for further research.     

Governance and strategy of entrepreneurial networks: an introduction

This special issue focuses on empirical and theoretical papers that help us to better understand the strategy and governance of entrepreneurial networks, such as franchise chains, alliances, and cooperative networks. The following central themes are covered: (I) Which formal governance mechanisms do entrepreneurial networks use in order to reduce transaction cost/agency cost and to increase strategic value? (II) What is the role of relational governance mechanisms (such as information exchange and social ties) for the performance outcomes in franchise chains and cooperatives? (III) Which alliance strategies do entrepreneurial firms pursue to realize a competitive advantage, and what is the impact of resources and capabilities on performance outcomes of entrepreneurial firms. To address these issues, insights from organizational economics (transaction cost theory, agency theory, signaling theory), strategic management perspectives (resource-based, knowledge-based and organizational capabilities theory), entrepreneurship theory and the relational governance view are used.     

Towards A Better Understanding of Public Service Motivation and Mission Valence in Public Agencies

Abstract

Research has not fully considered how public service motivation (PSM) and mission valence may work together to influence job satisfaction, extra-role behaviours, and turnover intentions. As a result, a causal model was developed and tested on local, state, and federal government employees in the United States. The results indicate that PSM had a direct effect on mission valence and extra-role behaviours. They also revealed that mission valence fully mediated the relationship between PSM and job satisfaction and partially mediated the relationship between PSM and extra-role behaviours. On the other hand, mission valence did not mediate the relationship between PSM and turnover intentions. These findings are thoroughly discussed in this article.     

Towards a fairer manager performance measure: a DEA application in the retail industry

Abstract

Retailers need to determine the performance of their individual stores and, beyond the stores, the managers in charge of running them. The aim of this paper is to develop performance standards that can be applied to fairly distribute rewards to managers regarding their performances by taking into account store neighbourhood characteristics. In order to propose a fairer measure of store performance, the authors introduce and explore the concepts of organizational justice and store efficiency. They use real data from a French supermarket chain and a geomarketing approach. The two-step Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model results are compared with a retailer’s ranking. The retailer tends to favour points of sale having a more important sales area, with more employees and operating in a more densely populated area with a higher buying power. The ranking stemming from the DEA model links store performance to other geo-demographic variables.     

Development and validation of a firm-level vertical and horizontal internationalization metric

The lack of valid and reliable measures of firm-level vertical and horizontal internationalization is impeding the development and testing of hypothesized relationships between these respective dimensions of internationalization and a range of important MNE characteristics, actions, and effects. Through a series of qualitative and quantitative studies using data collected from senior MNE executives (total N?=?3,146), we develop and validate a scale to measure both vertical and horizontal firm-level internationalization. Subscales for each type of internationalization prove to be unidimensional, reliable, temporally stable, and to have predictive, cross-cultural, cross-sectoral, and discriminant validity.