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1 – 10 of 15The conceptualization of the Base of Pyramid (BOP) proposes that low-income markets can lead to profitable opportunities for businesses. The purpose of this study is to identify…
Abstract
Purpose
The conceptualization of the Base of Pyramid (BOP) proposes that low-income markets can lead to profitable opportunities for businesses. The purpose of this study is to identify key success factors of a BOP business strategy based on a case study of the discount retailer, Dollar General, in the USA.
Design/methodology/approach
The research design used in this research is an in-depth case study of Dollar General in the USA. Qualitative methods are applied in both the primary and secondary data collection and during the follow-on data analysis of Dollar General.
Findings
Dollar General’s strategic profile is achieved through the combination of the following four actions which are tailored to compete effectively at the BOP in the USA: creating the neighborhood discounter, raising aspirational appeal, reducing service and eliminating internationalization.
Research limitations/implications
The case is specific to Dollar General in a US cultural context.
Practical implications
The case of Dollar General demonstrates how a discounter retailer should not only follow a low-cost strategy to compete at the BOP. Its ability to craft a distinctive strategy is coherent with meeting the logistical, rational and emotional needs of the low-income consumer in the USA.
Social implications
Many businesses have neglected rural areas of the USA as being unprofitable. The ability for businesses such as Dollar General to serve the BOP segment can foster the socio-economic well-being of communities.
Originality/value
The overwhelming body of the BOP literature is based on emerging markets. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the few studies to investigate BOP business strategy in the USA.
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Benedetta Siboni and Paola Canestrini
This chapter contributes to the Public Value (PV) literature in relation to accounting by providing evidence on its content's operationalization through performance measurement…
Abstract
This chapter contributes to the Public Value (PV) literature in relation to accounting by providing evidence on its content's operationalization through performance measurement. In particular, it establishes the link with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which may work as guiding principles of a public organization’s action. Accordingly, organizations embedding SDGs include them in their strategic decisions and disclose them through performance measurement and narratives.
The SDGs' presence is explored in the PV of a sample of Italian health institutes through documentary analysis of their performance plans. The aim is to verify if and how SDGs are pursued and whether the COVID-19 pandemic has affected PV content.
Besides Goal No. 3 (Health), the PV content of the investigated institutes contains various SDGs. Before the pandemic, their PV was aligned with SDGs mainly related to prosperity, economic growth and social inclusion. In the following period, the number of SDGs increased, introducing planet and environmental protection dimensions. No one explicitly mentions pursuing SDGs, revealing a non-institutionalized sensitivity of managers towards SDGs. The analysis distinguishes between ‘core’ SDGs, revealed mostly by traditional performance measures disclosing the achievement of institutes' mission, and ‘complementary’ SDGs, expressed mostly through narratives. This can derive from performance measurement, which employs the language of performativity, while the contribution to society is relegated in the narratives, making them less incisive.
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Vera Pedragosa, Rui Biscaia, Michael E. Naylor, David P. Hedlund and Geoff Dickson
The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of member identity and its dimensions of power, urgency, external legitimacy, internal legitimacy and interest, on satisfaction…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of member identity and its dimensions of power, urgency, external legitimacy, internal legitimacy and interest, on satisfaction and behavioural intentions in fitness centres.
Design/methodology/approach
Two studies were designed. In Study 1, data were collected from fitness centre members (n = 225) and structural equation modelling used to examine the dimensions of fitness centre member identity and its subsequent effect on satisfaction and behavioural intentions. In Study 2, interviews exploring member identity were conducted with members (n = 9) and managers (n = 7) and a content analysis contrasted their perceptions of power, urgency, internal legitimacy, external legitimacy and interest.
Findings
The results of Study 1 support the multidimensional construct of member identity and its positive influence on both satisfaction and behavioural intentions. Satisfaction mediated the relationship between member identity and behavioural intentions. In Study 2, managers and members expressed similar perceptions of the member identity dimensions: low power; urgency is issue-dependent; external legitimacy is recognized; members are perceived as legitimate; and most members exhibit high interest in their membership.
Originality/value
This study provides a deeper understanding of how member identity contributes to long-term relationships between members and fitness centres. It extends the body of consumer behaviour literature in the context of fitness centres.
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Sharon Xin Ying Ong and Natalia Vila-Lopez
Marketing scholars have begun to look at negative emotions that young consumers could develop toward brands, such as brand hate. Brand hate has experienced exponential growth…
Abstract
Purpose
Marketing scholars have begun to look at negative emotions that young consumers could develop toward brands, such as brand hate. Brand hate has experienced exponential growth during the past decades in the cosmetic industry. In this frame, the purpose of this paper is to identify the weight of each of the five key drivers of brand hate and to analyze if these weights are the same (or not) for drugstore and luxury make-up brands regarding.
Design/methodology/approach
To carry on this paper, brand haters in the make-up industry were contacted with the help of cosmetic influencers. Participants of the online questionnaire (N = 162) were existing young makeup consumers. They were divided into drugstore and luxury makeup brand haters by classifying their identified hated brands into either group.
Findings
The authors’ results showed, first, that experiential, identity, moral, deficit-value and advertising avoidance all had a positive effect on brand hate, being identity avoidance the strongest one. Second, drugstore and luxury makeup brand haters do not differ, as far as no differences were identified in the strength of each avoidance type on brand hate.
Originality/value
There is a gap in the literature related to the absence of work investigating brand hate in the make-up industry; moreover, studies measure whether brand hate drivers are the same (or not) for luxury brands and drugstore brands that compete in the same arena. In this framework, this research will provide a specific industry context involving young consumer opinions. Research into consumer–brand relationships has been largely focused on the positive forms, while the negative forms are still a relatively newer area of academic interest. Even more, brand hate has been investigated from a multidimensional approach linking proposals from different authors has been tested.
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Phela Townsend, Douglas Kruse and Joseph Blasi
This paper offers a new perspective on the potential motivation for the adoption of employee ownership based on market power. Employee ownership may be linked to market power…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper offers a new perspective on the potential motivation for the adoption of employee ownership based on market power. Employee ownership may be linked to market power, either through contributing to firm growth that leads to market power or through industry leaders adopting employee ownership as part of rent sharing or a broader consolidation of market position. Both employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) coverage and product market concentration (PMC) have been increasing in the past two decades, providing a good opportunity to see if and how these are related.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors predict ESOP adoption and termination using multilevel regressions based on 2002–2012 firm- and industry-level data from the Census Bureau, Compustat and Form 5500 pension datasets.
Findings
The authors find that the top four firms in concentrated industries are more likely to adopt Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs), while having an ESOP does not predict entering the top four, apart from firm-level predictors. Tests indicate the first result does not reflect simple rent sharing with employees but instead appears to reflect an effort by firms to consolidate market power through the attraction and retention (or “locking in”) of industry talent. Other positive predictors of ESOPs include company size, being in a high-wage industry and having a defined benefit (DB) pension.
Research limitations/implications
To better distinguish among hypotheses, it would be helpful to have firm-level data on managerial attitudes, strategies, networks and monopsony measures. Therefore, future research using such data would be highly useful and encouraged.
Practical implications
The paper includes implications for the potential usefulness of ESOPs in attracting and retaining talent and for the design of nuanced policy to encourage more broadly based sharing of economic rewards.
Originality/value
While prior research focuses on firm-level predictors of employee ownership, this study uses market concentration and other industry-level variables to predict the use of ESOPs. This study makes a unique contribution, broadening the current thinking on firm motives and environmental conditions predictive of firm ESOP adoption.
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Fran Ackermann, Colin Eden and Peter McKiernan
Conventional wisdom says stakeholders matter to managers as they develop strategy – but do they? If so, what type of stakeholders matter and what can managers do?
Abstract
Purpose
Conventional wisdom says stakeholders matter to managers as they develop strategy – but do they? If so, what type of stakeholders matter and what can managers do?
Design/methodology/approach
An in-depth exploration of five deep case studies where senior executives embarked upon strategy development. Analysis revealed five significant factors for managing stakeholders effectively.
Findings
These findings include: determining the nature of a stakeholder, separating those who care about the strategy and its implementation from those who do not but still could impact it; addressing stakeholders at an appropriate level; considering internal as well as external stakeholders and attending to the stakeholders’ responses to proposed strategies and the consequent dynamics created.
Research limitations/implications
(1) The research was conducted with senior managers, and the authors detail the difficulties involved in doing so within the introduction and (2) The research was specific to the healthcare sector, but has relevance to all strategy makers.
Practical implications
This paper explores five factors and their implications and suggests techniques to address them that are well established and available to promote the effective strategic management of stakeholders.
Originality/value
Empirical research in strategy formation with elites is rare because it is difficult to gain access and trust. Empirical research in stakeholder studies is even rarer. By combining the two elements, the authors gather and interpret a unique dataset.
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Antigoni Papadimitriou and Sarah Maria Schiffecker
This study aimed to find possible answers to whether U.S. universities are merely looking good or doing good regarding their third mission using elements of the triple bottom line…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aimed to find possible answers to whether U.S. universities are merely looking good or doing good regarding their third mission using elements of the triple bottom line (people, planet, prosperity) and the 2030 Agenda.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative exploratory empirical study based on an in-depth analysis of publicly available documents (i.e. mission statements and strategic planning) and information from the Impact Rankings 2020 edition (webpages). The study uses a multilevel analysis to capture the parameters “looking good” and “doing good.” The sample consists of 15 U.S. universities.
Findings
The findings demonstrate that universities are looking good in terms of their effort to support their third mission. Data show that all universities covered themes related to people and prosperity in their mission statements and strategic planning. However, when the authors dived into the managerial metrics, KPIs, benchmarks and other evidence to characterize them as doing good, the authors encountered some challenges in identifying evidence. The data suggest that universities most likely participated in the Impact Ranking act as “cherry pickers” and might participate in unproblematic goals for their organization.
Originality/value
The 3Ps and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals used in this study to examine the university public mission never used in other studies. The goal in this study was not to evaluate those universities in terms of looking good and doing good but rather to contribute to the gap in the literature and provide suggestions to university C-suite.
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Fashion brands are one of the strongest means of expressing consumers identity. This study explores and empirically validates the concepts of brand love and hate for masstige…
Abstract
Purpose
Fashion brands are one of the strongest means of expressing consumers identity. This study explores and empirically validates the concepts of brand love and hate for masstige fashion brands from the purview of emerging markets. This study deciphers three components of masstige fashion brand promise through the lens of hedonic identity, uniqueness and expected social gains for the affluent middle-class consumers. The model is complemented by the impact of environmental and society’s well-being.
Design/methodology/approach
Empirical evidence was obtained through an online survey in India. Total of 222 complete responses were used to test hypotheses by fitting a model with the partial least squares algorithm.
Findings
Fashion brand love is triggered by consumers’ hedonic identity and expected social gains. Brand hate is fuelled by environmental and societal well-being concerns, expected social gains and uniqueness. Theoretical contribution is threefold: First, the relevance of social and environmental consequences reflecting consumers’ accepted responsibility for their masstige consumption is introduced. Second, the study deciphers the emotions related to masstige brand love and brand hate for emerging market’s affluent middle-class. Third, empirical results contribute to the ongoing discussion on whether brand hate and love are two distinct concepts or collapse to be two extremes of one and the same continuum.
Practical implications
Middle-class consumers in India are strict in their avoidance and rejection of the lower classes’ preferred fashion brands. Targeting must consider the social classes hierarchy. Marketing-mix design, particularly prices and distribution networks, need to enable a distinction between the social classes.
Social implications
Masstige fashion brand love and hate turn out to be two distinct constructs that co-exist rather than being two extremes of one and the same dimension.
Originality/value
Indian middle-class consumers satisfy their need of environmental and social caretaking by avoidance and brand hate but continue to choose masstige brands to demonstrate social status and are not modernizing their traditional accumulative materialism.
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Timo Meynhardt, Pepe Strathoff, Jessica Bardeli and Steven Brieger
In public management research, the focus in the public value debate has been on public administration organizations’ broader societal outcomes. Public value describes how public…
Abstract
Purpose
In public management research, the focus in the public value debate has been on public administration organizations’ broader societal outcomes. Public value describes how public administrations form a vital part of the social context in which people develop and grow. However, there has not yet been an analysis of how public administration contributes to happiness in society.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, we empirically analyze the relationship between people’s happiness and the public value of public administration. Our approach is based on a unique Swiss survey dataset comprising 870 individuals.
Findings
We find a positive relationship between public administration’s public value and happiness. We also find preliminary evidence with a moderation analysis that the relationship between a value-creating public administration sector and self-reported happiness is stronger for public administration employees.
Research limitations/implications
While correlation studies cannot claim causal explanations and common method bias may additionally limit any research in social science, we took a number of measures to mitigate related problem. We tested our model in two samples and took both several procedural techniques and a survey design minimizing common method bias.
Practical implications
The paper discusses implications for public sector performance measurement for public management and practitioners.
Social implications
This study calls for a more positive view on the multiple functions public administration performs for society. After an era of critical voices, our study helps reclaim public administration as a positive force for society at large in times of grand challenges, such as climate crisis, demographics and digitization.
Originality/value
This study has highlighted the importance between public administration’s public value and happiness in Swiss public service organizations. The study also showed that an employment in the public administration contributes to the happiness of individuals and beyond to society.
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