The effect of customer dress on attitudes towards selling service by sales associates

Eliminating the criticism levelled towards customer service in retail firms is a current consumer/marketing issue. Customer satisfaction encompasses factors such as sales service and first impression. Research focusing on variables pertaining to emotional labour has the potential of increasing sales productivity and consumer satisfaction. This study represents an exploratory attempt to determine if relationships exists between customer appearance and first impressions and sales service. Results of the study suggest that the potential exists for apparel to influence sales associate customer evaluations as a positive association was found between sales service and first impression.     

Consumer Preferences for Health Care Reform Options

This study uses the 1992 Health and Retirement Study to examine consumer preferences for four health care reform options: tax-financed national health insurance, personally subsidized Medicare extensions, publicly subsidized nursing home insurance, and tax credits for health insurance purchases. Males, non-Caucasians, the self-employed, those in excellent health, and those who reside in the Northeast favor national health insurance, while those with high levels of liquid and non-liquid assets tend to disfavor it. Males and those with higher expectations of living in nursing homes tend to favor personally subsidized Medicare extensions to cover nursing homes and home health care. Those with higher expectations of living in nursing homes also favor publicly subsidized nursing home insurance. Relatively little support for subsidized nursing home insurance is found among males and those with high levels of liquid and non-liquid assets. The self-employed tend to support tax credits for health insurance premiums.     

Consumer Information,Insurance, and Doctor Shopping: The Elderly Consumer's Perspective

One possible strategy to minimize costs of health care is to provide consumers with information pertaining to its relative cost. However, the effectiveness of programs to dispense information on medical services has been difficult to evaluate because very little is known about incentives for doctor shopping. The demand for medical services information (doctor shopping) among elderly consumers and the effect of health insurance purchases on shopping decisions are assessed.     

Resource use: the complexity of time and energy management in clothing maintenance

The research study examined time management and energy consumption with respect to clothing care. The investigation analysed data and information obtained in the NE-113 Family Time-Use Study collected in 1977–1978. Differences were found between urban and rural households and among different states. Occupational types of home manager, day of the week, education and age of children were variables accounting for differences in clothing care activities. The results have significance for a better understanding of how modem households meet the demands of clothing care management.     

Giving Incentives of Adult Children Who Care for Disabled Parents

Do altruism and bequest incentives motivate adult children to care for disabled parents? Using an economic framework, this study examines these caregiving incentives. Data from the 1992 Health and Retirement Study indicate that motives to increase bequests from parents and parents’ disabilities influence adult children's decisions about not working and giving time or money to disabled parents.     

The Politics of International Assessments: The IAASTD Process,Reception and Significance

This paper explores the career of the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge Science and Technology and Development (IAASTD) from its inception, the publishing of its reports, and its place in ongoing debates on global agriculture, food security, poverty reduction, social equity and sustainable development. We highlight the disputes and disruptions that characterize the IAASTD process and attempts to marginalize its findings. Following a brief review of the history of the Assessment and of the social construction of scientific knowledges, we consider five processes that expose the hierarchies and contestations that shape ongoing debates. We reveal how conflicts within IAASTD and between IAASTD and its sponsors cannot be dismissed as either technical or managerial, but instead showcase the fragility of claims that privilege productivity increases over other relations in agricultural practice. We conclude with a challenge to understanding agricultural change and its future that builds on social, ecological and political relations as constitutive rather than as exogenous to research and policy formation.     

Allocation of Labor to Informal Home Health Production: Health Care for Frail Elderly,if Time Permits

This paper examines the impact of family caregiving on the allocation of time among labor market, caregiving, and leisure activities. A reduced form regression model is the framework for analysis of these simultaneous decisions. The analysis indicates that the number of caregivers and type of responsibilities assumed are significantly related to the caregiving time allocation decision. Alternatively, leisure and employment decisions are predominantly determined by the financial status of the caregiver and health status of both the caregiver and the impaired elderly relative.     

The Purchase of Medicare Supplements: A Cost Saving Mechanism in the Purchase of Physician Services

The recent concern about Medicare's limited coverage of health care costs has led many elderly to purchase Medicare supplemental policies to reduce the risk of large financial losses if a condition of debilitating health occurs. This paper examines the extent to which the purchase of supplemental policies reduces the risk of losses when physician services are purchased.     

Effects of an Information Sharing System on Employee Creativity,Engagement, and Performance

Many service organizations rely on information sharing systems to boost employee creativity to meet customer needs. We conducted a field experiment in a retail chain, based on a registered report accepted by JAR, to test whether an information sharing system recording employees’ creative work affected the quality of creative work, job engagement, and financial performance. We found that, on average, this system did not have a significant effect on any of these outcomes. However, it significantly improved the quality of creative work in stores that had accessed the system more frequently and in stores with fewer same‐company nearby stores. It also improved creative work and job engagement in stores in divergent markets, where customers needed more customization. We found weak evidence of better financial results where salespeople had lower creative talent before the system was introduced. Our findings shed light on those conditions in which information sharing systems affect employees’ creative work.