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This research presents the results of an initial investigation on “visual merchandising” and its effects on purchase behaviour and brand recognition. The context is concessionary branded female fashion offerings within a department store. The research utilises semi‐structured interviews with a small sample of female undergraduate students. The interviews incorporated the use of stimulus material – photographs taken of concessions in a department store some 150 miles away from the research location. The results suggest that the themes that linked most strongly to purchase intention were: merchandise colours, presentation style, awareness of fixtures, path finding, sensory qualities of materials and lighting. Initial findings suggest that liking of display does not totally determine purchase, but does make it four times more likely.

This study seeks to develop a clearer understanding of the motivational factors affecting Saudi female business undergraduates' choice of pursuing entrepreneurship.

The research adopts a quantitative approach to gain general understanding of the students' perceptions with regard to their motivations to pursue entrepreneurship. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire survey administered to 214 female business undergraduates at Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University (PMU) in Al-Khobar, to investigate their perceptions of entrepreneurial motivations. Descriptive statistics and factor analysis were used to identify the motivational factors. Multiple regression analysis was used to reveal relationships between the motivation factors and entrepreneurial motivation of female business undergraduates.

The study revealed four generalised entrepreneurial motivations among Saudi female business undergraduates: personal motivational factors with an emphasis on freedom and social status; business motivational factors such as financial rewards and security; social motivational factors manifested in the influence of the community, roles and family; and environmental motivations which were mainly associated to education, the market knowledge and ability to access finance.

The study was restricted to female students at PMU University. Thus, generalisation of the results could be limited. The findings of the study could be useful to relevant authorities to enhance and boost entrepreneurship for female students and hence to contribute to the national Vision 2030.

This study is among those few studies located in the MENA region that explore Saudi female university students' attitude towards entrepreneurship. It adds to the authors' understanding on the four generalised factors by highlighting the importance of the family's role and entrepreneurship education in motivating Saudi female students towards entrepreneurship engagement. It also contributes to the understanding of these motivations that could be applied in other similar contexts.

This study seeks to investigate perceptions of the role of location on the performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Tangier, as understood by local owner-managers.

To explore perceptions of the performance/location relationship for SMEs in Tangier, 20 in-depth online semi-structured interviews were conducted with selected owner-managers of SMEs. The judgement sample was selected to explore their experiences, beliefs and attitudes with respect to their performance and location.

Findings of the study revealed that “location” is a salient factor that, in the minds of respondents, materially influences the performance of SMEs in Tangier. Location was mentioned extensively in the interviews, in relation to the “free zones”. Findings showed that firms located within the free zones enjoyed favourable economic conditions, in particular those related to taxation and competition, compared to their counterparts located outside the free zones, which were excluded from these benefits. Furthermore, perceived unfair competition (financial and fiscal incentives in the free zones) damages the performance of the SMEs in Tangier. These findings suggest that the placement of the business in relation to the free zones and in respondents' perception thus became an important financial and emotionally significant perspective on equality in relation to success.

The findings of the study could encourage the government to adopt policies that will assist indigenous firms to benefit from advantages that are comparable to those that are available to those in the free zones. Greater attention to the perceptual effects of location would be advantageous. However, the exploratory nature of the study means that results cannot necessarily be generalised beyond the setting in which the data were collected. Future research should examine the impact of location for SMEs in a broader sample of countries.

This study is among those few studies located in the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region that explore the performance of SMEs from the perceptions of owner-managers themselves and not based on aggregate or economic data. It supports previous findings of several studies and contributes additional evidence that suggests the significance of levelling the playing field and its impact on SME performance in the contemporary African business context.

The purpose of this paper is to explore and analyze relationships between contextual factors, and micro-cognitive, emotional and relational factors, influencing the strategic decision-making process.

The relative roles of “rationality,” “intuition” and “political behavior” in five recent and critical strategic decisions have been explored using 16 semi-structured interviews with senior decision-makers in three Middle Eastern Arabic commercial banks.

Context specific macro-factors were found to influence the emotional state of strategists, leading them to adopt a rational approach, rather than use intuitive judgment, to making all five decisions.

The study was limited to one contextual situation and business sector in order to maintain these variables relatively constant, with proposals for extending studies to other business situations and contexts.

The paper provides evidence for the impact of micro emotional and relational factors on decision-making practice, which should lead to increased recognition for strategists, and organizations, of the importance of these influences on strategic decision practice.

A social implication is that organizations should build a level of awareness of the impact of the mood of strategists who are involved with strategic decisions, perhaps through appropriately designed social processes of organizational learning.

The paper examines the little-researched influence of the mood of strategists on the nature of decision-making process, and demonstrates the importance of including emotional factors in future studies. An explanatory framework is developed which is consistent with an interpretation that places the emotional state (mood) of “concerned attention” which existed within the senior management groups as the dominant factor driving the nature of process. A generalized research framework is proposed to aid future studies of strategic processes.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of networking on business performance by uncovering particular and significant methods of pursuing business connections, for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Tangier.

A two-stage design, which incorporated both quantitative and qualitative approaches, was employed in this study. Approaches were employed in succession with the findings from the quantitative phase informing the qualitative phase. Initially, a paper and online survey questionnaire was administered to a population of 365 industrial SMEs to gain some insights on the perceptions of owner-managers of the impact of networking on business performance. Following the quantitative phase, 15 in-depth face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted with selected owner-managers of SMEs, forming a judgmental selection, to explore their experiences, beliefs, and attitudes with respect to networking factor.

Both quantitative and qualitative phases of the study found that networking was a significant factor in influencing the success of SMEs. The concept of wasta, the Arabic word for connections, emerged from the qualitative phase. Findings show that using wasta, through politico-business networks is important since it enables access to current information that is crucial for the success of SMEs. The concept of wasta was also mentioned in relation to financial resources and suppliers. Findings revealed that strong relationships with suppliers enable firms to get financial resources in the form of trade credits. Furthermore, the relationship between wasta and human resources was also revealed. Findings showed that owner-managers use their network relations through wasta in order to recruit their staff.

The findings of this study add to the understanding of networking in Arabic countries with the importance of wasta in an economy that functions on relationships. The findings of this study could therefore be useful to international managers to assist their intercultural effectiveness by adjusting to culture-specific networking in Tangier.

This study is among those few studies located in the Middle East North Africa region that explore the performance of SMEs from the perceptions of owner-managers themselves, and not based on aggregate or economic data. It supports previous findings of several studies and contributes additional evidence that suggests the significance of wasta and its impact on SME success.

This article describes a partnership project between staff, residents and relatives at a nursing home for older people with dementia, and researchers at the University of Sheffield. The aim of the partnership is to develop care within the home and to create a positive environment for living, working and learning. The main principle guiding our work is the need to ensure that all participants: residents, relatives and staff, feel that they are valued members of the community. The project is using an action research approach and a range of methods, including: observation; interviews; questionnaires; process recording of meetings; and focus groups, to gather evidence about the research process and impact of the project. The article includes a summary of achievements to date and suggestions for future activity.

Analyses the law covering the role of the management of auction sales and the implications they bring. Explores the legal obligations of the parties to an auction sale with specific reference to the newly defined liability of the managers of the auction where articles or property are sold “without reserve”. Concludes that it is now clear that if an auctioneer refuses to sell to the highest bidder then he will incur liability to the bidder. States that this could have dire consequences. Examines existing case law and new precedent materials to draw such conclusions and provides some recommendations.

Based on an interview with a senior manager at Joshua Tetley & Son Ltd about the changing role of the business development manager. Summarizes the changes in the brewery industry following a report of the Monopolies and Mergers Commission in 1989 which reduced the number of public houses a brewery could own and aimed at introducing competitive forces into the brewery industry. Considers how Allied Breweries Ltd reacted to the report with reference to the area managers whose jobs have been repositioned as business development managers and whose objectives are to sell the brewery′s products by offering a parcel of benefits.

Gives a resume of the Benetton operation, describing how 80 per cent of Benetton retailing is franchised with the majority taking place outside Italy. Studies, in depth, the experience of one franchisee in Burnley, Lancashire, by financial analysis and a survey of customers purchasing in the store. Results show that the Benetton message is getting across to consumers; brand is associated with colour, style and fashion for which premium prices are deemed acceptable. However, while the franchiser continues to retain tight control over product range, the sales period provides the only opportunity for the franchisee to improve stock and cash control and, ultimately, to survive.

TThe purpose of this paper is to review the literature on facet theory and present an approach to map the relationship between retail branding (particularly brand recognition) and visual merchandising.

Fact theory has been used in other areas of investigation, particularly for the examination of the built environment within psychology. However, it has received little attention in either the marketing or retailing literature. This is surprising as facet theory also provides a conceptually stable and fully formed approach to: the definition of an area of interest; the statement of the proposed relationships between areas of interest; the development of a research instrument that is fully cognisant of the possible relationships; and also utilizes a form of analysis that explores the actual presence of the hypothesized relationships (smallest space analysis – SSA).

The application of facet theory and SSA were found to be particularly appropriate for an investigation of the relationship between retail branding and visual merchandising. This stems from the clear and consistent approach that is derived by using this method to structure the research.

This paper demonstrates facet theory provides a validated and robust approach to investigate a complex but managerially significant area in retailing.