Access to justice for consumers: A perspective from common law countries

The paper examines techniques suggested in recent times by the “access to justice” movement for overcoming the inadequacy of traditional means of consumer protection, which are very dependent upon the individual consumer's initiative and financial resources. The jurisdictions discussed are the United States, Britain, Australia, and Canada. The author first examinesclass actions. They have found recognition only in the United States, and even there, courts have begun to follow a more restrictive line. There is little reason to believe that the introduction of the institute into other jurisdictions — as recommended in Australia — will have great impact upon the consumer's position.Small claims courts have become popular, both in the United States and the other countries discussed, due to the cumbersome and expensive procedures in ordinary courts. The main deficiency of small claims courts lies in the fact that they may be used by enterprises for cheap debt collection. The procedure of awarding monetarycompensation to consumers who have experienced loss as a result of an offence — instituted by law reform in certain places — has a very limited scope. Finally, the author discussesactions by consumer organizations and agencies. They are not very frequent in common law countries, and if consumer organizations do no get public funding, such a system will hardly turn out to be adequate. In his conclusion, the author is rather skeptical of the role of the courts in the improvement of consumer protection: They have too little input from consumer quarters and they are limited to a case-by-case reasoning. Courts have only a supplementary role to play in consumer protection.     

Collisions: Negotiating tensions in a shared marketplace

Nonprofit organizations (NPOs) operate within marketing systems comprising broader networks of individuals, groups, and/or entities linked through shared participation in economic exchanges. These systems include diverse constituents with varied goals and orientations. Inherently, tensions arise as NPOs, for‐profit firms, and other social actors pursue differing agendas, often competing for finite resources. In this paper, we report the results of an ethnographic study, which examines one community's efforts to alleviate these tensions as they occur in a downtown business district. The area is noted for its economic vitality and diversity, but struggles to accommodate the needs of the homeless population and the social service agencies who maintain a presence there. Relationships between multiple constituencies erode as the business community seeks to displace both the social service agencies and the individuals they serve. The community in this study moved through thematic stages of problem solving associated with contentious social issues. They sought to use a bridging organization by forming a local homeless task force. An apparent breakdown occurred when the task force was unable to articulate integrative values and a vision for the community as a whole. The study illustrates the importance of establishing a set of shared values and vision and emphasizes the importance of the establishment of bridging organizations with power and authority to negotiate and implement changes. It challenges the utilization of sociospatial and relational mechanisms, which are designed to physically shift the homeless from the area.     

Does a Student’s Personality Influence Global Attentiveness and Internationalism in an International Business Course?

Learning outcomes for international business (IB) courses are designed to do more than simply impart IB knowledge. However, past studies have had mixed results on the impact of learning in IB courses. This study examines whether a student’s personality may affect learning outcomes. The results suggest that after completing an IB course, students become more interested in keeping up with important international issues (i.e., global attentiveness) and also benefit from a stronger global outlook (i.e., internationalism). The Big Five personality trait, openness to experience, partially affected these learning outcomes. Students in our study with a high degree of openness to experience were the most global attentive before and after taking the IB course. However, openness to experience levels did not significantly influence levels of internationalism. Implications of this study and suggestions for future research are also discussed.