Working Hours in Supply Chain Chinese and Thai Factories: Evidence from the Fair Labor Association's ‘Soccer Project’

This article examines the determinants of working excessive hours, defined as working in excess of 60 hours per week or for more than six consecutive days, in Chinese and Thai supply chain factories. We use a matched employer–employee dataset collected from 15 Chinese and Thai footwear and sporting apparel supply chain factories, which supply international brands. Matched employer–employee data allow us to examine the effect of worker and firm characteristics on hours worked. We find that in addition to the demographic and human capital characteristics of workers, firm‐level characteristics and worker awareness of how to refuse overtime are important in explaining variation in hours worked.     

AS‐AD REVISITED: OVERSHOOTING ADJUSTMENT DYNAMICS UNDER NAÏVE EXPECTATIONS

We analyse the adjustment dynamics from a short‐term to a medium‐term equilibrium in a standard AS‐AD model à la Blanchard (2006, Macroeconomics, 4th edn, Prentice‐Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ) for an open economy with fixed and flexible exchange rates. An explicit analysis suggests the local stability of the medium‐term equilibrium. However, an overshooting adjustment dynamics is possible for the exchange rate, a result that directly relates to the famous Dornbusch (1976, Journal of Political Economy, 84, pp. 1161–1176) analysis. In contrast to the latter, in the Blanchard framework it is obtained without assuming rational expectations and without relying upon saddle‐path stability.     

Das stärkt den Rücken

YOGA bei Gesundheitsproblemen — Rückenmassagen sind wunderbar, aber zeitaufw?ndig und nicht ganz billig. Eine übung, die den ganzen Rücken massiert und leicht zu machen ist, zeigen wir hier. Dazu sind nur eine gepolsterte Unterlage und ein wenig Schwung n?tig. Je h?ufiger die übung gemacht wird, umso mehr l?sst sich der Schwung durch bewusste K?rperbewegung ersetzen. Ziel ist es, die Schaukelübung in Zeitlupe durchführen zu k?nnen. Erforderlich sind aber ein gedehnter Rücken und starke Bauchmuskeln. Email: kollak@asfh-berlin.de(Betreff: Yoga bei ...)     

Problemzonen? Nein, Danke!

Zusammenfasung  YOGA bei Gesundheitsproblemen — Yoga bietet viele übungen, die den unteren Rücken, Bauch und Oberschenkel st?rken, dabei Haltung und Aussehen verbessern und Kraft und Selbstvertrauen aufbauen. Und anstatt über Problemzonen zu lamentieren und zu (selbst)kritisch zu sein, ist es allemal besser, seine Energie ins üben zu stecken.     

Price integration in the Australian rock lobster industry: implications for management and climate change adaptation

Rock lobster fisheries are Australia's most valuable wild fisheries in terms of both value of production and value of exports. Different states harvest and export different lobster species, with most of the landings being sent to the Hong Kong market. A perception in the Australian lobster industry is that the different species are independent on the export market, such that a change in landings of one species has no impact on the price of the others. This study investigates the market integration of Australian exports to Hong Kong for the four species and different exporting states. Our results indicate all four species and producers/export states are perceived to be substitutes for one another, so that, in the long run, prices paid to operators in the industry will move together. The integrated nature of the Hong Kong export market for Australian lobster suggests that the potential impacts of alternative fisheries management and development strategies at state and species levels cannot be considered in isolation, at least from an economic perspective. In addition, impacts of external shocks affecting production in one state (e.g. climate change) can be expected to affect all Australian lobster fisheries.     

Representing the political consumer: liquid agencies in the production of consumer voice

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the consumer role in marketplace transformation by examining how political consumers become produced in food retailing. It attends to situated representational practices in a Swedish consumer cooperative that seeks to strengthen consumer voice in markets. Combining notions of political and symbolic representations, the paper demonstrates the production of spokespersons for the cooperatives’ owners who, in turn, work to engage other consumers to voice and enact concerns in the cooperative. Four stages of representational practices are identified: (s)electing, equipping, engaging, and enacting. These practices are conceptualised as part of processes of agencing and concerning: (s)electing and equipping work to arrange consumer agencies, while engaging and enacting refer to ways of concerning others that put agencies into motion. Agencies are proposed as liquid in character and the capacity of consumers to shape markets comes into effect depending upon how agencies continuously become connected to each other.     

Branding strategies,marketing communication,and perceived brand meaning: The transfer of purposive,goal-oriented brand meaning to brand extensions

This article develops and tests a conceptual model of the transfer process whereby perceived similarity organized around shared goals facilitates the transfer of knowledge and affect from a parent brand to an extension of that brand. Empirical results, based on two well-known brands and two hypothetical product extensions for each brand, demonstrate that the availability of well-formed, goal-derived categories associated with a parent brand establishes an organizing framework for consumers' assessments of similarity thatfacilitates the transfer of consumer knowledge and attitude from the parent brand to a brand extension in another product category. This facilitating effect of similarity does not occur in the absence of goal-derived categories. The results also reveal how marketing communication can be used to facilitate the transfer process by framing similarity in terms of common goals. Implications are discussed for the organization of consumer knowledge and affect across product categories and for understanding prior research findings on brand extension. Ingrid M. Martin (imartin@csulb.edu) is an associate professor of marketing at California State University at Long Beach. Her research has examined issues in the area of consumer goals as they guide structuring and processing marketing information, product choice and usage. Her research has been published in theJournal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Public Policy & Research, and five book chapters. David W. Stewart (david.stewart@marshall.usc.edu) is the Robert E. Brooker Professor of Marketing in the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. He is the immediate past editor of theJournal of Marketing. Dr. Stewart has authored or co-authored more than 200 publications and seven books. Shashi Matta (matta@marshall.usc.edu) is a doctoral candidate in marketing at the Marshal School of Business, University of Southern California. His research interests include branding, and services marketing. Shashi’s research has been published in theJournal of Consumer Research.