MANAGING VENDOR INVENTORY IN A DUAL LEVEL DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM

Collaborative arrangements among members of the supply chain have received a great deal of interest in recent years as a means of reducing costs. One such arrangement is vendor managed inventory (VMI). VMI allows the vendor to make decisions concerning the quantity and timing of deliveries to the retailer. Such an arrangement offers the potential of a more efficient supply chain by removing the negative effects of retail ordering policies. A thorough review of the literature was conducted to identify factors likely to impact the performance of a VMI partnership. Computer simulation was used to study the effects of these factors from both the vendor's and retailer's perspectives. The results lend insight into the performance of VMI and guidance for managers as to the environments in which VMI is most effective.     

Attitudes and willingness to donate towards heritage restoration: an exploratory study about Bulgarian socialist monuments

In this exploratory study, an attempt was made to clarify the role of the visitors' perception of the socialist era in relation to their (1) perception of socialist monuments' maintenance level, (2) willingness to visit socialist monuments, (3) willingness to present socialist monuments for tourism purposes, (4) willingness to pay towards a visit to a socialist-era monument, and (5) willingness to donate towards socialist-era sites' restoration. Based on a quantitative study with 236 Bulgarians at Buzludzha peak, the findings suggest that the perception of the socialist era is relevant to the understanding of the individual's willingness to visit socialist monuments, presenting them to international and local visitors, the evaluation of their maintenance level, and the willingness to support their restoration. The findings' theoretical and practical contributions are discussed, highlighting the importance of the individuals' perception of a heritage site when revealing their attitudes towards its restoration.     

A review of the effect of cigarette advertising

Because of the inconsistency in the findings from past decades of research and the lack of consensus regarding the relationship between advertising exposure and cigarette consumption, the large body of extant research on the effectiveness of cigarette advertising has generated equivocal conclusions on this subject. Therefore, we conducted a comprehensive meta-analysis of cigarette advertising research to determine what impact, if any, cigarette advertising has on cigarette consumption. Unlike previous attempts to synthesize the cigarette advertising literature, this study examined three specific levels of the criterion (i.e., initiation, continuation, and brand behavior) rather than examining only aggregate consumption.     

Marketing's Interfunctional Interfaces: The MSI Workshop on Management of Corporate Fault Zones

This paper first introduces the purposes and processesof the Marketing Science Institute's Workshop on Interfunctional Interfaces: The Management of Corporate Fault Zones. The motivatingissues of value migration and market orientation are considerednext followed by discussion of marketing's paradigm shift. Thelast half of the paper deals with several management problemsand research issues which were identified during the workshop.Hopefully, these questions and research needs will help to acceleratedevelopment of research into these interface issues.     

The Challenge of Sustainability at the Farm Level: Presidential Address

The sustainability of farming systems is currently under debate. There is concern that technological and other changes have long-run consequences, which may compromise future levels of desired outputs from agricultural and other resources. The paper traces developments in the theory of sustainability and discusses their application at the farm level. Findings include firstly, that sustainability should be regarded as an emergent property of an agricultural system. Its operational definition at the farm level thus may not apply at other levels in the hierarchy. Secondly, whilst individual farmers may attach value to “sustainability” goods, they are unlikely to adopt socially optimal levels without regulation or incentive. Finally, since sustainability issues at the farm level are usually long-run, dynamic and have social dimensions, a central task for farm management researchers lies in investigations which allow tradeoffs between different sustainability criteria to be determined and then optimised according to society's norms.     

Exploring the national and organizational culture mix in service firms

Using representative samples of U.S. and Japanese retail service firms, this study explores whether one particular type of organizational culture is the best with respect to business outcomes (performance and customer satisfaction) or whether the optimum culture depends on the national context in which the firm is embedded. The findings suggest that there is a significant interaction effect of organizational culture with national culture on outcomes. Specifically, the relationships between the importance placed on the cultural values of stability, people orientation, and detail orientation and outcomes are significantly greater for Japanese than for U.S. service retailers. On the other hand, the relationships between the values of aggressiveness, innovation, and outcome orientation and outcomes are greater for U.S. retailers. Further, the findings show that firms whose cultures match those of their home countries exhibit lower levels of outcomes when they operate in other countries with different cultural values. Implications are given for how service retailers might be designed and managed for purposes of improving business outcomes.     

Comparing Levels of Machiavellianism of Today's College Students with College Students of the 1960s

The tactics, strategies, and behaviors thatwere suggested by Niccolo Machiavelli in The Prince (1513) have become synonymous withmanipulative and unethical behavior. AlthoughMachiavelli wrote to the politician, hiswritings have since been expanded to describebusiness leaders as well as general behavior. The research we report examined theMachiavellian tendencies of current collegestudents and compares the results to theseminal study by Christie and Geis (1970). Theresearch reported here examined thecontemporary student's propensity towardMachiavellianism distinguished by major fieldof study and by gender. The data werecollected from students at colleges located inthe Midwest and the Southwest. We reportfindings that are similar to Christie and Geisand extend the trend line suggested by theirresearch. We believe these findings provideinsight for understanding the dynamics ofcontemporary college students and suggest acontinuing societal movement towardMachiavellian behavior.