Environmental and Societal Positioning as Sources of Competitive Advantage in an Agricultural Firm

This research seeks to ascertain whether an agricultural firm's social and environmental positioning affects consumers' perceptions of the attributes of its products. Results showed that companies that are perceived to be more socially and environmentally conscious received better ratings for their produce in terms of quality and freshness. In addition, consumers reported that they would be willing to pay more for food grown by socially and environmentally conscious firms.     

An empirical investigation and comparison of neural networks and regression for scanner data analysis

The objective of this study is to examine neural networks as an alternative to traditional statistical methods for the analysis of scanner data. The results of the study showed that neural networks can be an effective alternative to regression for modeling and predicting the effects of retailer activity on brand sales. The neural network models exhibited better performance in terms of both mean squared error and R² than the regression model.     

Will You Help Me Please? The Effects of Race,Gender and Manner of Dress on Retail Service

This research attempts to determine if a customers visible physical characteristics influence retail service delivery. The results of this study suggest that black and male customers wait significantly longer than white and female customers at retail customer service counters. In addition, females are more likely to experience a positive transaction outcome than males.