Urban agriculture,gender and empowerment: An alternative view

Studies of urban agriculture (UA) in South Africa, and more broadly in southern Africa, have drawn on quantitative research methodologies to explain the involvement in UA of people from low-income households. Such studies tend to explain UA with reference to the direct economic and monetary gains that are made through agricultural activity. In Cape Town, the contribution of UA to income generation and expenditure substitution is limited. However, UA is important to women of low-income households in ways less directly related to monetary gain. Women use UA in processes of empowerment, to establish social networks, to symbolise a sense of security and to encourage community development. Policy-makers should extend their perception of UA's benefits beyond narrow economistic notions to include these positive social effects.     

Additional Thoughts on the Measurement of Market Orientation: A Comment on Deshpande and Farley

Deshpande and Farley examinethe reliability and validity of three well-known market-orientationscales from which they derive a single market-orientation scale.We believe that their synthesized scale effectively capturesa business's customer-value orientation which is the essenceof a market orientation, and that this scale development is adefinite contribution to marketing thought and practice. However,in two other respects we disaree with them. First, we believethere is more evidence of a positive market-orientation - performancerelationship than they acknowledge. Second, we hold that bothlogic and scholarly research strongly support the idea that amarket orientation is nothing less than an organization's culture.     

PERSPECTIVE: first,fast, and on time: the path to success. or is it?

To be competitive, and become the industry leader, the firm needs to be fast, first, and on time, or so the story goes. Fast development cycle times, first to market, and schedule predictability are the three basic principles of new product development performance, but what does the evidence actually show? A review of current research, schedule performance data, and cycle time data shows that following these principles does not necessarily lead to success. Recent studies indicate that being first to market is not necessarily any better than being second, third, or even fifth. Several leading companies in the fast cycle time movement are rethinking their first-to-market strategy, and some are deliberately lengthening their cycle times. Finally, the correlation between schedule accuracy and business results is practically nonexistent in the product lines reviewed for this article. The evidence found while researching this article has led the authors to recast these three traditional principles into three new market-focused guiding principles: effective market introduction timing, first to mindshare, and managed responsiveness. To provide direction in applying these three principles, three types of market windows are defined: imposed, controllable, and emergent. How one approaches each of the three guiding principles is driven by which type of market window the organization is operating within, and other business characteristics, such as market position and the ability to differentiate.     

Problem‐Solving Orientations,Financial Self‐Efficacy,and Student‐Loan Repayment Stress

Using data acquired from a four‐time longitudinal survey, we tested a model linking two measures of self‐agency, i.e., problem‐solving orientations and financial self‐efficacy, to student‐loan repayment stress. Of those participants who responded at Wave 4 (N = 855) of a longitudinal study, 396 who had acquired student loans were included in our structural equation model's Mplus analysis. After we controlled for gender, college financial education, ethnicity, and participant annual income, we found that both financial self‐efficacy and negative problem‐solving orientation were related to perceived difficulty. More specifically, those participants with a greater financial self‐efficacy at Wave 4 perceived less difficulty in paying off their loans, while those with a more negative problem‐solving orientation perceived more difficulty in paying off their loans. We also found perceived difficulty to be directly related to the actual difficulty of repaying a loan, and this perceived difficulty was, in turn, associated with loan‐specific stress. We provide implications for financial education.     

A causal analysis of psychological climate and leader behavior relationships

Individual perceptions of the work environment, or psychological climates, have been shown to be important determinants of work attitudes such as satisfaction and job involvement. However, little is known concerning the relationships between psychological climate and other variables that may lead to or cause these perceptions. This research examined causal relationships among dimensions of psychological climate and leader behavior. Specifically, the investigation attempted to determine whether leader behavior caused psychological climate, or whether psychological climate caused leader behavior. Eithty-five foremen from a truck manufacturing facility participated in the study over a 17-month period. Results of cross-lagged panel correlations and causal path analysis indicated that psychological climate caused leader behavior. Since one individual's perceptions of his/her work environment can only indirectly be linked to another person's (in this case, the leaders) behavior, an intervening variable is required to explain these findings. This variable may be a consensual or organizational climate.     

Proactive customer orientation and its role for creating customer value in global markets

Today??s business customers expect sellers not only to respond effectively to their expressed needs but also to understand their business sufficiently well to proactively address their latent and future needs. Yet, research shows that many firms underestimate, misunderstand, or overlook these customer expectations. To draw clarity to this discrepancy, this study explores the notion of proactive customer orientation and examines the degree to which this capability offers an opportunity for competitive advantage. While research in recent years has explored the role of proactive customer orientation in new product performance, empirical investigation in this stream of market orientation literature is significantly underdeveloped. We assess the impact of the proactive customer orientation construct on value creation by taking a novel approach that examines the proactive customer orientation ?? value ?? satisfaction ?? loyalty chain using data from 800 business customers in India, Singapore, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. We find that, relative to other firm capabilities, proactive customer orientation is the most consistent driver of customer value across our multinational data set. Results also show robust effects for the interaction of proactive and responsive customer orientation to create superior value. Several moderating conditions further frame the impact of this capability: intense levels of customer value change, a global relationship scope, and a transnational relationship structure. Overall, findings significantly advance the understanding of the proactive dimension within market orientation and provide marketers with insights for voice of the customer processes.