Cosmetics makers have always sold ‘hope in a jar’! Understanding the cosmetics purchase intention in the Chinese mobile commerce environment

Using the S-O-R model, we investigate the impact of situational factors (interpersonal influence, visual appeal, and portability) on hedonic and utilitarian web browsing and expand the theory by exploring the moderating roles of scarcity and serendipity. Data were collected from 988 participants via an online survey. Structural equation modeling was performed using AMOS 23. The results show that the situational factors positively influence hedonic and utilitarian web browsing. Scarcity and serendipity have a significant moderating role in the relationship between hedonic web browsing, utilitarian web browsing, and cosmetics m-commerce purchase intention. This study hopes to provide a deeper understanding of consumer behavior and attitudes in the cosmetics market in the m-commerce context.     

Fail better! Samuel Beckett's secrets of business and branding success

Samuel Beckett, the peerless Irish playwright, is widely regarded as the epitome of art for art's sake aestheticism. He hated salesmanship of any kind, famously describing it as “mercantile gehenna.” Yet, despite his anti-business reputation, Samuel Beckett is a perfect role model for our paradoxical times. His “fail better” philosophy is very much in keeping with today's creativity-driven, hyper-competitive, warp-speed world of fads, fashions, and here-today-gone-tomorrow consumer crazes. This article argues that, in a world where every organization is customer oriented and every executive is au fait with best textbook practice, Beckett's idiosyncratic esthetic encapsulates several salient secrets of business and branding success.     

Leader development in work and volunteer contexts: Expected practice and unexpected opportunities

Our knowledge and practice of leader development is grounded mostly in leadership at work, with little focus on the common experience of leading both work and in a volunteer context. To better understand how leaders develop as a result of leading not only in work but also in volunteer roles, we interviewed 40 leaders and sought to understand their motivation to lead in multiple domains, their process of development, and their outcomes of development. Our findings show that leading in multiple domains – at work and in volunteering contexts – plays an important role in leader development. Specifically, leaders develop through both expected practices (such as learning and developing new skills) and through unexpected opportunities that represent new opportunities to lead, exposure to new people and ideas, and new perspectives. Further, as a result of leading in both work and volunteering contexts, leaders reported developing a more integrated sense of themselves as “whole persons” as they engaged in both expected and unexpected development. We discuss ways in which a volunteering-based approach to leader development may open other important avenues for leader development beyond intentional, workplace-based approaches.     

基于Serendipity“动力-类型”的技术创新失败挽救机制研究

基于Serendipity类型和动力提出技术创新失败挽救机制的16个理论假设，并通过生物制药产业案例进行实证检验。结果表明，技术创新失败挽救有观察者主导的Walpolian型和观察者主导的Merton型两个主流机制，以及理论主导的Merton型、网络主导的Merton型、网络主导的Bushian型和理论主导的Walpolian型4个非主流机制。从挽救动力、类型、动力和类型结合以及挽救机制联合作用等方面对技术创新失败挽救机制进行讨论，最后提出研究结论、理论贡献和未来展望。