Nationalism,social capital and economic empowerment: SANLAM and the economic upliftment of the Afrikaner people, 1918–1960

At the beginning of the twentieth century the Cape-based Afrikaner elite used their social networks to establish an insurance company to address their business aspirations as well as wider economic empowerment needs of poor Afrikaners. This contribution explores the operating dynamics of social capital of an elite portion of society to benefit the wider Afrikaner community, thereby establishing new networks among Afrikaners. By the second half of the twentieth century the South African Life Assurance Company (Sanlam) developed from a local Cape-based enterprise to a strong diversified corporation extending social capital from the limited elite group to Afrikaners in the wider context of South Africa. The networks among Afrikaners were the key to the successful development of Sanlam and associated companies.     

数字经济下生鲜供应链创新机理与路径

立足于生鲜供应链发展实际,文章总结归纳了数字经济时代生鲜供应链的变革需求和创新机理与路径。研究表明,数字经济时代生鲜供应链创新就是以用户为中心、数字化赋能生鲜供应链实现跨职能协同的创新,目的是破解传统生鲜供应链供需信息延迟的痼疾,提升供应链效率,构建数字化、智能化、高效化和生态化系统。具体而言,顾客感知价值、数据资产价值和经营主体利润是其价值来源渠道;数字化技术是生鲜供应链创新的支撑工具;数字化技术对传统生鲜供应链赋能、数字化技术及思维与现代生鲜供应链的深层融合是生鲜供应链创新的关键路径。文章的研究结论在丰富数字经济与生鲜供应链创新融合研究理论的同时,可以指导生鲜供应链创新实践。     

面向企业营销人员的激励创新

从营销人员的工作性质、企业因素和个人因素三个方面,强调了激励营销人员的重要性和必要性,分析了目前企业营销激励中存在的问题,如薪酬设计不全面,缺乏符合不同利益需求的激励,个体目标与企业目标不一致等,提出了创新激励营销人员的具体方法,如优化薪酬设计,实施有效的培训,培养员工成就感、归属感,充分授权并指导,发挥员工的最大潜能,以达到留人、用人的目的。     

Consumer empowerment: global context,UK strategies and vulnerable consumers

Globalization has created new consumer needs and wants, and resulted in consumer confusion regarding the increasing complexity of products and services. This has stimulated global interest in educating and empowering consumers. The UK government has made a very ambitious commitment to ensure that the framework for consumer empowerment and support is at the level of the best in the world by 2008. The government, many consumer organizations and regulators believe that empowered consumers are key to the success of competitive markets. Two national strategies to co‐ordinate activities in the UK have been developed by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and the Financial Services Authority (FSA). The OFT consumer education strategy aims to deliver targeted, effective consumer education by increasing co‐ordination and making the best use of available resources. The FSA is leading a financial capability strategy designed to deliver change to improve the UK's financial capability. Both strategies share a vision of educated and confident consumers making informed choices about the products and services they buy, and both aim to empower vulnerable consumers. Given the global interest and the development of national strategies, it is useful to consider what is meant by the term consumer empowerment. Is there a shared view of consumer empowerment internationally? Does the education of consumers result in empowered consumers? To what extent do the national strategies address the empowerment of vulnerable, disadvantaged, excluded or susceptible consumers? These questions will be addressed in this article which reviews the global context for the consumer education and empowerment agenda and considers key UK developments, with particular reference to the needs of vulnerable consumers. The study found that the language of consumer empowerment is gaining prominence in policy and strategy documents at the highest levels internationally in the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development and the European Community, and nationally in the UK.     

Are privacy concerns still relevant? Revisiting consumer behaviour in omnichannel retailing

Omnichannel retailing is a new retail norm that focuses on providing a seamless interaction between retailers and consumers. Although the effect of omnichannel retailing on business is increasingly recognised, privacy concerns remain a subject of debate and a delicate issue which could potentially inhibit its growth. Grounded in the Stimulus–Organism–Response (S–O–R) model, the current study investigates consumer behaviour in omnichannel retailing and uses Psychological Reactance Theory (PRT) as the theoretical basis to examine the moderating effect of privacy concerns. A quantitative approach was adopted by means of self-administered questionnaires. 736 consumers were sampled, and the data were analysed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). The findings show that consumer perception of channel integration (CPCI), consumer empowerment (CE), and trust significantly affect patronage intention in omnichannel retailing. In addition, when privacy concerns are low, the effects of CPCI and CE on trust are found to be stronger. It underscores the need to synergize channel integration, retailer-consumer relationship empowerment and effective mitigation of privacy concerns in the omnichannel retailing context. Implications of the study are provided.     

Education and the empowerment of women in household decision‐making in Spain

It was analysed whether investment in the education of both women and men serves to empower wives resulting in more balanced household decisions being taken on matters related to consumption and financial management. They considered that household decision‐making could be made by mainly the wife, mainly the husband or the couple acting jointly. They then applied multinomial probit models to the Spanish Living Conditions Survey of 2010. Results show that, when controlling for demographic, family and labour market characteristics, the level of education of both the husband and wife has a positive effect in terms of a more egalitarian decision‐making process in relation to three areas of expenditure: daily shopping, expensive purchases of consumer durables and significant expenditure on children. However, only women's education has a positive effect on borrowing money and no effect of education is observed with regard to the use of savings. Results are less conclusive for households where decisions are taken primarily by the wife or husband, since men's education increases the role of husbands in the household making‐decision process whereas no effect of wives' education is observed.     

Individual and contextual influences on the affective commitment of retail salespeople

Abstract

Salesperson characteristics as well as managerial approaches have been found to play an important role in the development of positive attitudes by salespersons towards an organisation. This study integrates these two research areas to investigate the personal and contextual antecedents of affective organisational commitment of retail salespeople. Fit theory and the literature on person–situation interaction provide the theoretical bases for explaining how salesperson selling skills, job liking, and empowerment individually and jointly influence affective commitment. A multilevel modelling approach is used to analyse data from 105 sales managers and 419 salespeople. Findings reveal that salespersons' affective commitment is influenced by their selling skills, degree of job liking, tenure, and empowerment. The results also indicate that the impact of selling skills on affective commitment is higher when empowerment is high. Based on the study's findings, implications for managing salespeople as well as limitations and suggestions for future research are offered.     

Empowering Chinese Service Employees: A Reexamination and Extension

ABSTRACT

This article extends the knowledge in the area of empowerment of Chinese service employees by addressing the possible conceptual and methodological problems identified in Hui, Au, and Fock's (2004) study. The findings show that the lack of positive effect of discretionary empowerment on the job satisfaction and intention to comply with customer request of the Chinese subjects in Hui et al.'s (2004) Hui, M. K., Au, K. and Fock, H. 2004. Empowerment effects across cultures. Journal of International Business Studies., 35: 46–60. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] study likely resulted from their use of hotel/hospitality management students as subjects. Without the confounding effect from the shared internalized values of the subjects, discretionary empowerment can have a positive effect on the job satisfaction and job behavior (e.g., intention to comply with customer request) of Chinese service employees. Furthermore, the findings show that explicit management support can further enhance the positive effect of discretionary empowerment on the job satisfaction and job behavior of Chinese service employees. The current article also discusses the theoretical contributions, managerial implications, limitations of the study, and future research directions.     

Sustainable consumer empowerment through critical consumer education: a typology of consumer education approaches

It has always been assumed that consumer education serves the purpose of empowering people in their consumer role. This paper reviews the conventional understanding of consumer education and empowerment and then suggests an alternate approach. The argument is made for consumer education that helps people find their inner power and social potential to challenge the status quo, to change the system from a holistic perspective. Consumer empowerment of this type is totally self‐sustaining. Once learned, it cannot be unlearned. This form of sustainable consumer empowerment is the preferred direction for the future of consumer education.     

心理授权与员工创新行为的关系——心理契约新视角的中介作用

本文研究心理授权对员工创新行为的影响,并引入了员工感知到的“员工对组织的责任”这一心理契约视角为中介变量,通过对不同行业企业进行调查,共收集312份问卷,进行实证研究发现,工作意义、自我决策、自我效能感、影响力对员工创新行为有正向影响;心理契约在工作意义、自我效能感对员工创新行为的关系中起完全中介作用,在自我决策、影响力对员工创新行为的关系中不起中介作用。