Search results

One unique group of consumers which has recently attracted the attention of many marketing professionals is the yuppie (young urban professional) market segment. Yet little is known or understood about this segment's service needs, preferences, and behavior or about the marketing strategies necessary to attract this type of consumer to various types of services. The study described here directly investigates yuppie consumers and their preferences and habits concerning services. This article utilizes a study among yuppies concerning a particular service, as well as previous literature on the yuppie market, to provide meaningful insights as to how marketing decision makers can develop more effective marketing strategies to attract yuppie consumers to the various service offerings.

Viewing creativity through the theoretical lens of the resource‐based view, the paper attempts to answer a fundamental question: is design creativity a static or dynamic capability? If static, then firms need to acquire personnel who are already creative. If dynamic, then personnel's creative talents should be developed through training.

In an exploratory controlled experiment of 74 design engineers from ten firms, two forms of training emphasizing design creativity as static or dynamic capability were applied. Creative designs developed by the participants were judged by professionals inside each organization. Results were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

The exploratory findings support the notion that design creativity is a static capability. In tandem, support for design creativity as a dynamic capability, contingent upon personality traits is apparent. Training may help develop some people's creative skills.

Small sample size limited the ability to distinguish the significance of some effects. Further incubation time for training and an added evaluation step by the judges could have resulted in more apparent effects of training.

Finest candidates for recruitment and development may not be identified based on a limited set of characteristics. Selection should be based on a combination of criteria. To gain the most, training programs should be subject to the individuals' learning styles.

Design creativity should be considered as a static characteristic determined upon recruitment (buy), and as a dynamic one developed post hire (make). The exploratory findings suggest a combined buy and modify approach to design creativity.

The purpose of this project was to explore and identify factors that influence a consumer to purchase wine during an afternoon of product sampling (wine tasting). A panel of consumers was recruited for an afternoon of wine tasting at vineyards in Napa, California. Several potential hedonistic, utilitarian and logistical factors (i.e. winery facilities, quality of the wine and order in which the winery was visited) were measured using a journal log that was maintained by participants following the tasting experience for a period of one‐month. The conclusions drawn from this study were that group size, confidence in one's ability to purchase wine and overall assessment of a vineyard's wine portfolio were more important than the hedonistic factors in terms of inducing a sale immediately following a taste.

Historically, Panama has always been “a place of transit.” While technically the isthmus formed part of Colombia in the nineteenth century, it was linked geopolitically to the United States soon after the California gold rush, beginning in the late 1840s. The first attempt at building a canal ended in failure in 1893 when disease and poor management forced Ferdinand de Lesseps to abandon the project. The U.S. undertaking to build the canal could only begin after Panama declared itself free and broke away from Colombia in 1903, with the support of the United States.

“What went wrong?” This was the question no doubt asked by the Bush campaign and the Republican Party after the 3 November 1992 presidential election.

Whilst individuals with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) represent a relatively small proportion of patients detained in high-secure psychiatric care (HSPC), previous research suggests that such individuals present with difficulties and needs significantly different from non-ASD patient groups. However, to date, there has not been any formal examination of how individuals with an ASD are represented in records of key risk management actions (i.e. seclusions and incompatibilities with other patients). The paper aims to discuss these issues.

An observation of hospital data examining two key risk management actions for a group of individuals with an ASD is detained in one HSPC hospital. These include the number of formal incompatibilities with other patients and the number of, and hours in, seclusion. Both actions require extra staff and security provisions and can decelerate the rehabilitation and recovery process.

In addition to suggesting an overall increase in the general prevalence of ASD within the hospital compared to previous estimates, individuals with an ASD appear to have a disproportionately higher number of incompatibilities with other patients compared to those patients without an ASD and experience more and longer periods of seclusions.

Although the methodological limitations of the study are acknowledged, explanations for the findings are discussed along with future research and recommendations as to how ASD patients might be best managed in the hospital. It is argued that the findings add further support for a specialist ASD service within HSPC.