‘Consumers’ Evaluation of Unethical Marketing Behaviors: The Role of Customer Commitment’

While there is a significant amount of research investigating managerial ethical judgments, a limited amount examines consumer judgments of unethical corporate behavior and its impact on the marketplace. This study examines how consumers’ commitment to a company impacts not only their ethical judgment of corporate behavior but also the outcomes of that judgment. The authors test hypotheses with data from 334 consumers and find that consumers’ level of commitment attenuates the level of perceived fairness. More specifically, highly committed consumers may forgive companies for behaviors when perceived harm is low, but become progressively dissatisfied as the level of perceived harm increases. Results of the study point to the importance of considering ethical behavior from a consumer perspective. If corporate actions are perceived as unethical, the company stands to lose favor with their most committed customers. Considering that more time, effort and investment is required to gain a new customer as to retain an old, this study shows that engaging in behavior perceived as unethical by consumers risks alienating the most committed customers.     

Hierarchies, Power Inequalities, and Organizational Corruption

This article uses social dominance theory (SDT) to explore the dynamic and systemic nature of the initiation and maintenance of organizational corruption. Rooted in the definition of organizational corruption as misuse of power or position for personal or organizational gain, this work suggests that organizational corruption is driven by the individual and institutional tendency to structure societies as group-based social hierarchies. SDT describes a series of factors and processes across multiple levels of analysis that systemically contribute to the initiation and maintenance of social hierarchies and associated power inequalities, favoritism, and discrimination. I posit that the same factors and processes also contribute to individuals?? lower awareness of the misuse of power and position within the social hierarchies, leading to the initiation and maintenance of organizational corruption. Specifically, individuals high in social dominance orientation, believing that they belong to superior groups, are likely to be less aware of corruption because of their feeling of entitlement to greater power and their desire to maintain dominance even if that requires exploiting others. Members of subordinate groups are also likely to have lower awareness of corruption if they show more favoritism toward dominant group members to enhance their sense of worth and preserve social order. Institutions contribute to lower awareness of corruption by developing and enforcing structures, norms, and practices that promote informational ambiguity and maximize focus on dominance and promotion. Dynamic coordination among individuals and institutions is ensured through the processes of person-environment fit and legitimizing beliefs, ideologies, or rationalizations.     

Secondary Capital Markets, Long-Run Growth, and the Term Structure of Asset Yields

An endogenous growth model is presented in which production uses a vector of capital inputs. Technologies for creating capital of different types vary by gestation period and productivity. Ownership of gestating capital must be rolled over in secondary capital markets in which transactions are costly. We study how reductions in transactions costs affect the equilibrium growth rate, the rate of return on saving, the volume of activity in secondary capital markets, and the term structure of asset yields. We give conditions under which reductions in transactions costs result in higher or lower growth rates.     

Understanding and motivating salesperson resilience

Marketing Letters - Prior research has shown that approximately half of salespeople fail to achieve their targets each year. Not only is the role difficult but also sales jobs are often marked by...     

The trade-growth nexus in the developing countries: a quantile regression approach

This paper applies quantile regression techniques to investigate how the impact of trade openness on the growth rate of per capita income varies with the conditional distribution of growth. Using formal robustness analyses, we first identify robust variables affecting economic growth (investment, government balance, terms of trade, inflation, and population growth) which we then use as controls in the quantile regression estimations. Our findings suggest a heterogeneous trade-growth nexus: for both the short and the long run, the effect of openness on growth is higher in countries with low growth rates compared to those with high growth rates.     

A longitudinal examination of HRM in a human resources offshoring (HRO) organization operating from India

Human resources offshoring (HRO) forms a significant part of the Indian business process offshoring (BPO) market. This paper assesses HRM in the emergent HRO sector. Longitudinal case-study research enables an in-depth examination of the development of HRM practices in an HRO organization where offshored HR services are delivered from two different cities in India. The paper highlights the development of HR activities focused on extrinsic incentives, rewards and penalties to influence employee behaviour. These practices are mediated by indigenous traditions, the nature of the service offering; management style and an aspiration to ‘role model’ systematic HR practices.     

Impact of product-specific variables on consumers' post-consumption behaviour for apparel products: USA

Abstract Companies spend valuable resources developing and distributing products to please the consumer; however, products that do not match consumer performance expectations during post-purchase use often result in consumer dissatisfaction. This situation can lead to redress-seeking behaviour and negative repurchase behaviour. Understanding factors influencing consumers' post-purchase behaviour can provide retailers with information to make accurate purchasing decisions and improve interpretation of the post-return data. This study examines product-specific variables for apparel purchases and their relationship with post-consumption behaviour. Product cost and product type were found to be related to redress and repurchase behaviour among dissatisfied consumers. Implications for apparel retailers and consumer educators are discussed.