Search results

The content of this paper is adapted from two studies of contested takeover bids. These studies, and this paper, are attempts to add to the limited research conducted in the UK into the share price performance of companies involved in mergers and acquisitions. Research directed specifically at defended takeover bids is even more limited and only one piece of research (Holl and Taffler, 1988) to date has addressed this particular topic in the UK.

Individuals with learning disabilities (LD) who offend are more likely to be dependent on alcohol than those who do not. There is strong evidence to suggest that interventions for alcohol problems can be effective; this paper aims to address this issue.

The pre and post assessment scores from an alcohol awareness group (AAG) were collected from 34 service users with LD or a dual diagnosis of LD and mental health problems. The programme was manual led and included 12 sessions. The data collected were used to evaluate the programme.

Clients' level of knowledge and self efficacy increased after programme completion. Post group, those with a lower IQ had gained a greater level of alcohol‐related knowledge compared to those with a higher IQ. Clients with a learning disability alone scored slightly higher than those with a dual diagnosis.

The AAG has been successful in increasing motivation to change drinking behaviour, knowledge of problems related to alcohol, and “safe drinking” practice. These outcomes have been achieved across a wide range of cognitive abilities suggesting that those with an IQ below 60 can also benefit from this type of intervention.

This paper aims to trace the origins, development and future of the consumption experience as a concept in marketing and consumer research.

The author relies on subjective personal introspection to describe his involvement in the introduction and elaboration of the consumption-experience concept.

The author finds that the concept of the consumption experience has extended to many areas of marketing and consumer research, with widespread applicability in the creation of brand-related promotional messages.

The consumption experience is central to our understanding of consumers and deserves full exploration in the work of consumer researchers.

Working with Professor Elizabeth Hirschman, the author played a pioneering role in understanding the consumption experience and is happy to see that their contribution has encouraged others to pursue related themes.

Entrepreneurship research has paid little attention to variance in entrepreneurial opportunities, instead choosing to treat them as homogenous. Thus, the field has failed to acknowledge that there are significant variations in means–ends conceptualizations giving rise to different types of opportunities. Further, researchers and educators have not fully considered that the type of opportunity being pursued has implications for which entrepreneurial actions are required to realize a successful outcome. We address these issues in this chapter by distinguishing means–ends combinations such that four types of opportunities – replication, reinterpretation, revelation, and revolution – are introduced. This matrix leads to propositions regarding differing actions that would be emphasized as a function of the type opportunity under consideration (e.g., legitimacy building, knowledge assimilation, market demand, and resource acquisition). The net effect is an improved understanding of how variations in means–ends conceptualizations influence how entrepreneurs interpret their particular opportunity, which in turn drives the actions they take as they attempt to turn their vision into reality. This improved understanding has important implications for entrepreneurship education and we suggests a number of possible changes to pedagogy that flow from our framework. We believe that these changes will bring added richness and value to the classroom.

Research evidence developed over more than five decades of research on human responses to disasters shows that those responses are overwhelmingly adaptive and positive. However, despite what is known, myths about disaster behavior persist. These include the assumption that the public will panic during large-scale emergencies and the idea that disasters are best managed through hierarchies of command and control. Following the tragic events of September 11, 2001, these myths are again gaining wide currency even though actual individual, group, and organizational behavior in the World Trade Center disaster directly contradict those assumptions. This is no accident. Beliefs concerning the fragility of the public in the face of emerging homeland security threats are consistent with the perspectives and objectives of organizations that seek to expand their influence in the domestic crisis management arena. These organizational actors, which include the information technology industry, the intelligence and defense establishment, and security think tanks, are generally not familiar with empirical social science research on behavior during disasters and see little value in public participation in the management of newly-recognized threats. Recycled disaster myths support a case for “expertise-based” crisis planning that excludes the public from those activities.

This essay tackles the Obama “phenomenon,” from his candidacy to his election, as a manifestation of the new “color-blind racism” that has characterized U.S. racial politics in the post-civil rights era. Rather than symbolizing the “end of race,” or indeed a “miracle,” Obama's election is a predictable result of contemporary U.S. electoral politics. In fact, Obama is a middle-of-the-road Democrat whose policies since taking office have been almost perfectly in line with his predecessors, especially in terms of his failure to improve the lot of blacks and other minorities. In this essay, I review the concept of color-blind racism and its application to the Obama phenomenon. I also revisit some of my past predictions for Obama's presidency and evaluate their accuracy halfway through his term. Finally, I offer suggestions for constructing a genuine social movement to push Obama and future politicians to provide real, progressive “change we can believe in.”

This chapter is based on a chapter I added for the third edition of my book, Racism without Racists. Louise Seamster, a wonderful graduate student at Duke, helped me update some material, locate new sources, and rework some sections, as well as abridge some of the many footnotes (interested readers can consult the chapter). I kept the first person to maintain the more direct and engaged tone of the original piece and because the ideas (the good, the bad, and the ugly ones) in the chapter are mine, and thus, I wish to remain entirely responsible for them.