Fashion centres: An approach to sector intervention

The clothing and textile industry is a major employer in many areas. It consists of a large number of small firms characterised by very poor working conditions. The need to sustain employment in the industry and improve conditions has led to several local authorities adopting a sector approach to intervention. This paper looks at the development of one particular measure, the establishment of fashion centres.     

Class length and student performance: An extended study

Many accounting educators believe that the student learning of accounting is better facilitated over a longer period of time, rather than a shorter period of time. This study examined the results of student performance in two introductory accounting courses, comparing student performance results of four-week summer classes with the results of traditional 16-week courses. In this research, the same professor taught the spring and summer ACC 201 courses, and two other professors taught both the spring and summer ACC 211 courses. Also held constant were the lecture material, course assignment, and test content. The results of the study indicate that in general, students taking introductory accounting over four weeks fare about as well as students who take introductory accounting over a traditional 16-week period. These results have potential importance beyond accounting education and provide support to universities offering more block courses to better serve individual student needs.     

The Corporate Side of the Blogosphere: Examining the Variations of Design and Engagement Among Fortune 500 Blogs

Using design and communication principles, this study uses a content analysis design to evaluate all active blogs from the 2011 Fortune 500 list (n = 125). The results indicate that corporate America has only modestly incorporated the dialogic principles into their blogs. Current corporate blogs are well-designed as far as making them searchable and easy to navigate; however, the blogs are mostly being used to provide information in a one-way manner rather than creating an open dialogue with consumers. While blogging can enhance relationships with stakeholders, corporate communicators must strive to develop legitimate conversations with their blog readers.     

Evaluating Advice: Self‐Presentational Biases between High and Low Self‐Monitors

Previous research has demonstrated that high and low self‐monitors sought advice from others who shared their underlying motivational dispositions. Here, three studies extend the prior research by exploring how consumers’ underlying motives direct the type of advice offered and how it is evaluated. In Study 1, high and low self‐monitors were asked to evaluate the advice they gave others. As predicted, high self‐monitors rated their advice more favorably than did low self‐monitors. The underlying motivation that caused high self‐monitors to evaluate their advice more positively was investigated in Study 2. Results indicated that high self‐monitors rated their advice higher because it appeared to be meeting a social‐adjustive function (i.e., self‐presentational needs). In Study 3, high and low self‐monitors created an advertisement that featured their advice on dating for a fictitious online matchmaking service. As expected, advertisements created by high self‐monitors contained advice that addressed social‐adjustive needs while those created by low self‐monitors contained advice that addressed value‐expressive needs. The results of these studies suggest that underlying motivations of the individual play an active role in how advice is crafted and evaluated.     

Employee involvement and group incentives in manufacturing companies: a multi-level analysis

The effects of employee involvement and group incentives on organisational commitment and turnover intention were examined using data from a survey of over 4,000 employees in 29 manufacturing companies. Using the mediated moderation model, we investigated the moderating role of capital intensity on the relationships between employee involvement and group incentives and these outcomes, and the mediating role of organisational commitment on the effects of employee involvement and group incentives on turnover intention. The findings revealed that employee involvement is more effective in capital-intensive companies than in labour-intensive companies, but group incentives are more effective in labour-intensive companies. The moderated effects on turnover intention were mediated through organisational commitment. Implications for company policies and future research are discussed.     

Innovations in Shopper Marketing: Current Insights and Future Research Issues

Shopper marketing refers to the planning and execution of all marketing activities that influence a shopper along, and beyond, the entire path-to-purchase, from the point at which the motivation to shop first emerges through to purchase, consumption, repurchase, and recommendation. The goal of shopper marketing is to enable a win–win–win solution for the shopper–retailer–manufacturer. Shopper marketing has emerged as a key managerial practice among manufacturers and retailers, who are eagerly embracing innovations in the different aspects of shopper marketing. We review current and potential innovations in shopper marketing. We identify the managerial challenges to achieving new win–win–win solutions among shoppers, manufacturers, and retailers in shopper marketing and outline future scenarios and research issues related to these challenges.     

Representing interval orders by a single real-valued function

Let > be an interval order on a topological space X, and let $\text{x > 1 y}$ if and only if there exists x′ with $\text{x?x′>y}$. Then >1 is a preference relation with transitive indifference, which, under suitable conditions, can be represented by a utility function v of the usual sort. In that case, maximisation of v (subject to contraints) leads to a most preferred point relative to >. Following both the Debreu-Rader and the Arrow-Hahn approaches, we discuss the existence and continuity of such a function v.     

The federal reserve board MPS quarterly econometric model of the US economy

This paper describes the structure and properties of the Federal Reserve Board's (MPS) econometric model of the US economy. The theoretical underpinnings are developed using a small growth model that is a simplified version of the steady-state structure of the full model. Short-run dynamic properties, which are Keynesian, are discussed and quantified with simulation results. The largest part of the paper consists of a discussion of the theoretical basis and empirical properties of the key behavioural equations. A complete list of equations is included.