Consumer and managerial goals in assortment choice and design

In many domains, consumers must deal with an increasing number of choices—spanning where, when, what, and how many items to buy; how many and which options to consider; and how best to weigh the pros and cons of these options. This paper considers how consumer and managerial goals and the ensuing tradeoffs affect the optimal design of assortments in order to help enhance our understanding of assortment choice, identify issues that merit particular attention, review some of the recent research in pertinent areas, and suggest directions for future research.     

Using role play to integrate ethics into the business curriculum a financial management example

Calls for increasing integration of ethical considerations into business education are well documented. Business graduates are perceived to be ethically naive at best, and at worst, constrained in their moral development by the lack of ethical content in their courses. The pedagogic concern is to find effective methods of incorporating ethics into the fabric of business education. The purpose of this paper is to suggest and illustrate role play as an appropriate method for integrating ethical concerns.Dr. Kate Brown is a senior lecturer in the Department of Finance and Quantitative Analysis at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. She teaches financial management and a course in entrepreneurship and venture capital. Her research interests include corporate finance, regulatory economics, and issues in the teaching of finance.     

Option introduction and insider trading in the NASDAQ/NMS equity market

This paper investigates and supports the hypothesis that insiders have an incentive to shift their informed trading activities when options initially are listed for a firm. Firm size is found to be related to the level of insider trading activity. There is a significant decrease in insider equity-market volume for the smallest third of firms, a significant increase in insider-equity market volume for the middle third of firms, and a significant decrease in insider equity-market volume for the largest third of firms. This supports the hypothesis of a difference in the degree of impact on equity volume upon option introduction based upon firm size. This research provides additional evidence of informed trading activities when option introduction, insider trading, and firm size are considered simultaneously.     

Board composition,share ownership,and ‘underpricing’ of U.K. IPO firms

Using a sample of 251 IPOs in the United Kingdom, this paper examines interlinks between executive and nonexecutive characteristics, share ownership, and short‐term performance measured in terms of share offer ‘underpricing.’ It argues that executives' power and previous experience directly affect ex ante choice of nonexecutive directors and their ownership interests in the firm. These endogenously developed governance factors may be used by IPO teams strategically to reduce the extent of underpricing. However, there is a selective response of investors to different board characteristics and share ownership structure. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Avoiding the ‘SoHo Effect’ in Baltimore: Neighborhood Revitalization and Arts and Entertainment Districts

This article investigates how state‐sponsored ‘arts and cultural districts' and ‘creative placemaking' revitalization strategies affect urban neighborhoods, using the Station North Arts & Entertainment (A&E) District in Baltimore, Maryland (USA) as a case study. Through ethnographic participatory methods and 39 qualitative interviews, we studied the activities and attitudes of various stakeholders within Station North. Since its designation as an arts and entertainment district in 2002, a number of public–private partnerships have helped increase home values in Station North, suggesting that the ‘branding' of Station North has been successful. While the institutions involved in the district, including community development corporations and local universities, are careful to insist that they do not want to displace low‐income residents, many interviewees expressed concerns that these institutions exert influence outweighing that of longtime residents. While a certain level of gentrification has occurred with the arrival of new residents, we argue that the people who are most likely to be displaced from the arts and entertainment district in the future are, paradoxically, artists, especially those who wish to buy homes and settle in the district. After discussing the case of Station North, we consider broader implications of the use of arts for urban revitalization.     

“My God is Not Your God”: Applying Relationship Management Theory to Managing Ethnoreligious Crises in Sub-Saharan Africa

Historically, the world’s geopolitical landscape has been replete with conflicts, from those of Ancient Mesopotamia to those in today’s Middle East and Africa. As in other world regions, parts of sub-Saharan Africa have, for decades, been trapped in a vicious cycle of conflicts and violence—in ethnopolitical and ethnoreligious contexts, even as foreign direct investment on the continent has increased 50% since 2005 and as the gross national product has increased significantly in countries such as Angola, Botswana, Kenya, Nigeria, and Rwanda, all of which are attracting international investors. This article examines the nation-building role of public relations by applying the general theory of relationship management, which is based on Grunig-Hunt two-way symmetrical model of public relations, to Sudan and Nigeria as a two-nation case study. It offers theory-informed guidelines that African states can use in managing conflicts and in developing communication strategies that engage stakeholders of disparate theological leanings at the individual level. The goal is to use communication strategies that emphasize mutually respectful Muslim-Christian dialogue on intractable, sensitive issues that have morphed into a bane of the economically burgeoning sub-Saharan African region, particularly.     

SMEs and the Potential for A Collaborative Path to Environmental Responsibility

Globally, the potential for small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) to collectively impact negatively on the environment is great. Therefore, the adoption, and maintenance, of environmentally responsible practices by this group of firms is especially critical. Studies of environmental practices successfully implemented by small firms have revealed that relationships with other firms, or other organizations, can contribute to greater awareness of the benefits of such activities and, therefore, enhance the possibility of environmental engagement. Collaborative relationships may provide opportunities for SMEs to overcome some of the barriers to implementing environmental initiatives associated with their size, and/or associated characteristics. This paper focuses on attitudes of SME owner‐managers to a variety of environmental issues (including regulation and voluntary standards), and to collaborating with other firms (in either a formal or informal sense). The data this paper draws upon are from two waves of an ongoing longitudinal survey of New Zealand SMEs. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment