Street Children and Street Life in Urban Tanzania: The Culture of Surviving and its Implications for Children’s Health

This paper presents data from an in-depth study conducted among street children in an urban setting in Tanzania. It examines the reasons ‘children of the street’ leave their homes, how they survive and meet their daily needs, what problems they encounter whilst on the streets and how they surmount them. The paper also examines the implications of street life for children’s health. The findings show that general poverty lies at the center of the increasing number of street children in Tanzania. Street life makes the children vulnerable to a variety of problems including ill health. Policies in Tanzania have so far failed to solve this problem, particularly because social policies have been dealing with symptoms rather than essential causes. The paper ends by outlining short- and long-term policy solutions and also suggests directions for future research and early intervention. — Cet article présente les données d’une étude en profondeur conduite parmi les enfants des rues dans un cadre urbain en Tanzanie. Il explore les raisons pour lesquelles ‘les enfants des rues’ partent de chez eux, comment ils survivent et surviennent à leurs besoins quotidiens, les problèmes qu’ils rencontrent dans les rues et comment ils les surmontent. Cet article examine aussi les implications de la vie dans la rue pour la santé des enfants. Les résultats montrent que la pauvreté générale est la raison centrale du nombre croissant d’enfants dans les rues en Tanzanie. La vie dans les rues rend les enfants susceptibles à de nombreux problèmes, y compris la mauvaise santé. La politique de la Tanzanie n’a pas encore réussi à résoudre ce problème, en particulier parce que la politique sociale a adressé les symptômes plutôt que les causes essentielles. Cet article propose des solutions politiques à court et à long terme et suggère également des options pour les recherches futures et pour des interventions précoces.     

Examining the Third‐Person Effect of Baseline Omission in Numerical Comparison: The Role of Consumer Persuasion Knowledge

Marketers often use numerical comparisons in promotional claims to signal superior product offerings. A potentially misleading practice involves omitting the reference point deliberately in order to make the focal claim more appealing—a persuasion tactic referred to as “baseline omission” in the present research. In two experiments, this research demonstrates that consumers tend to perceive this tactic as more effective on others than on themselves. The self‐others difference is more salient among consumers with more persuasion knowledge. Consumers’ concerns about its effectiveness on themselves, rather than on others, better predict their supportiveness to regulate the use of baseline omission.     

Less is more: A theory of minimalist luxury

We show theoretically that when high-quality, low-price counterfeits exist and are visibly indistinguishable from authentic products, the status-seeking wealthy may embrace a “less is more” purchasing strategy or what we refer to as the minimalist luxury strategy, to signal their status. These are the wealthy who have a high disutility of shopping for counterfeits. Specifically, in our model, only buyers know the authenticity of their own purchases. Because of this information asymmetry, these wealthy buyers may purposefully restrain from consuming luxury goods as a sacrifice of functional utility to stand out, a signaling strategy that the rest are not willing to mimic. Thus, “less” functional utility allows those status-seeking wealthy to enjoy “more” symbolic utility that the society bestows on their perceived status. This minimalist luxury strategy is in sharp contrast to Veblen's conspicuous consumption strategy, as well as to the maximalist luxury strategy proposed by Liu et al. We derive this minimalist luxury equilibrium, discuss how signaling in our context can differ from that of Veblen and Liu et al., and explore its managerial implications for the luxury goods industry.     

‘My Life Is Like a Novel’: Embodied Geographies of Security in Southeast Turkey

Scholarship at the development-security nexus has called for greater attention to space to better understand grounded encounters with security and insecurity. Through an examination of embodied engagements with space, this paper details the way migrant women in Southeast Turkey experience security and insecurity in their day-to-day lives in regards to gendered violence. Against the backdrop of state investment in gendered development as a mechanism of conflict mitigation, the reach and mobility of women in and across new spaces in the city has grown. At the juncture between these spaces – the classroom, courtroom, and home – lie conflicting narratives about nation, community, and family that pose implications for the physical well-being of women. To this end, interviews with migrant women and development administrators and teachers suggest that (human) security be understood as embodied and relational, experienced differentially across time and space.     

Location,Marketing, and the Financial Flexibility of Nonprofit Performing Arts Organizations in Second Tier Cities

This article examines the effect of location relative to other marketing factors on the financial flexibility of nonprofit performing arts organizations (PAOs). While product development and promotional and pricing strategies are important marketing factors, locational advantages have become an important strategic asset for the arts industry. Yet very little research has been done on the locational dimensions of this industry. Based on a survey of PAOs in six second tier U.S. statistical metropolitan areas (SMAs), that is, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, and Milwaukee, this article investigates the extent to which location and other marketing mix factors influence the financial flexibility, and thereby success of PAOs. All six SMAs have a population range of 1 million to 2.5 million. The statistical analysis suggests that location and product selection are particularly significant marketing mix factors that contribute positively to financial flexibility, and therefore organizational success of the PAOs in the cities.     

The distinct influence of power distance perception and power distance values on customer satisfaction in response to loyalty programs

In today's fiercely competitive environment, firms are increasingly relying on loyalty programs to influence customers' repeat purchase behavior. However, little is known about how customers' cultural values shape their satisfaction in response to loyalty programs. Such knowledge is important because it allows marketers to identify cultural segments that may be more or less likely to respond favorably to loyalty programs, and hence increase the effectiveness of such programs. In the current research, we propose that power distance perception — defined as the extent to which people observe power disparities in society — positively influences satisfaction of customers who hold loyalty status, but negatively influences satisfaction of customers who do not hold loyalty status with a firm. In contrast, power distance values — defined as the extent to which people endorse power disparities in society — negatively influences satisfaction of customers who hold loyalty status, but positively influences satisfaction of customers who do not hold loyalty status with a firm. A quasi-field study and several lab experiments support these propositions, shed light on the underlying mechanisms, and rule out alternative explanations. Our findings also uncover several distinct tools that marketers could use to influence non-loyalty status and loyalty status customers' satisfaction with businesses.     

How Network Strategies and Institutional Transitions Evolve in Asia

This article contributes to the literature on network strategies and institutional transitions in emerging economies in Asia by identifying a realistic, intermediate phase between the early and late phases of institutional transitions suggested by Peng (2003). Focusing on the intermediate phase, we advance two arguments based on network strength and network content. First, in terms of network strength, we leverage earlier insights that networks can be classified as strong ties and weak ties. Consequently, we suggest that as institutional transitions unfold, strong-tie-based networks, instead of being phased out, are being transformed into weak-ties-based networks. Second, from a network content standpoint, we argue that the various scale and scope of institutional transitions shape the content of different networks which focus on business-to-government (B2G) ties and business-to-business (B2B) relationships. Our propositions delineate how different transitions of political and legal institutions affect the evolution of B2G and B2B networks. Overall, we suggest that networks not only differ in strength but also in content, and that their evolution is driven by the impact of different dimensions of institutional transitions governing B2G and B2B relationships. Mike W. Peng (Ph.D., University of Washington) is a professor of global strategy at the University of Texas at Dallas, where he holds the university's first ever Provost's Distinguished Research Professorship. He was formerly an associate professor at the Fisher College of Business, The Ohio State University. He is the author of nearly 40 scholarly articles and three books, including, most recently, Global Strategy (2006). He has served on the editorial boards of AMJ, AMR, JIBS, and SMJ, and acted as a guest editor for JIBS and JMS. He is the first elected officer of the Global Strategy Interest Group at the Strategic Management Society. This is his fifth contribution to APJM. Jessie Qi Zhou is a Ph.D. candidate in international business at the Fisher College of Business, The Ohio State University. Her research interest includes strategy in emerging economies, network strategy, and organizational learning. Her main theoretical interest is institutional theory, with a focus on how institutional distance affects MNE strategies. The comparative analysis of firms' strategic choices across countries in response to different institutional environments is also of particular interest to her. Her work has been presented at the Academy of Management and Academy of International Business conferences.     

The impact of the new protectionist stance in US trade policy on selected German companies in Mexico

ABSTRACT

Previous studies on the impact of the new protectionist stance of the United States have focused mainly on the imposition of the controversial border tax. This research advances the understanding of the possible impacts of the tightening of the rules of origin and the imposition of the most-favored nation tariffs on manufacturing companies. The findings show a negative impact from the protectionist measures on businesses by increasing costs per unit and decreasing the gross margin. The results suggest that those additional costs could be passed on to the final buyers, raising the price level by more than previously assumed.