Search results

Defines and discusses quick response (QR), with its relationship to vendor partnering, short‐cycle manufacturing, demand‐flow manufacturing, “virtual integration”, re‐engineering, just‐in‐time and efficient consumer response as an introduction to the results of a study on which firms are implementing QR and at what stage they are regarding their implementation strategy. The results of the study show that 73 per cent of the responding retailers claimed to be implementing some phase of QR. Implementation is slow, however, with only two of 15 QR components reported to be as much as half‐implemented among the retail respondents.

Since nearly all types of consumer products end up in retail stores, the retail scene affects a wide range of businesses. However, retailers are competing in a marketplace characterized by maturity, overcapacity, intense price competition, and an essential “sameness” among stores. Retailers will need new strategies to be successful.

Examines the need for marketers of service innovations to be aware of barriers to trial and adoption. Considers the example of the introduction of interactive home video ordering services in the USA which failed in part due to inaccurate market segmentation and targeting. Introduces empirical evidence, based on Roger′s model of diffusion, that early trier segments exist for innovative services. States that the study′s findings are of relevance to other services such as cellular telephone systems and electronic funds transfer systems. Concludes that early trier segments should be targeted during initial marketing carried out by service providers, who will have studied potential markets and identified requirements of different segments.

After more than 50 years in retailing, Maurice Cauwe has secured his rightful place as one of Europe's most distinguished retailers. He has been closely involved in the development of the massive GB‐Inno‐BM empire, and it is largely due to his influence that the policy of diversification, carried out in recent years, has been successful. But this does not mean that all of the company's ideas worked! In this comprehensive and objective paper, originally delivered to the “Club des anciens juniors” in Brussels, Maurice Cauwe talks about history, contemporary ideas, and also his thoughts for the future. As he says himself, he is attempting to show once more that nothing is stable in economic terms.

Contemporary education initiatives require English language arts educators spend half their time on non-fiction and history and social studies teachers to include diverse sources. Beginning in the early grades within the aforementioned curricula, students are to scrutinize multiple texts of the same historical event, era, or figure. Whereas trade books are a logical curricular resource for English language arts and history and social studies curricula, the education mandates do not provide suggestions. Research indicates trade books are rife with historical misrepresentations, yet few empirical studies have been completed so more research is needed. Our research examined the historical representation of Eleanor Roosevelt within trade books for early and middle-grades students. Identified historical misrepresentations included minimized or omitted accounts of the societal contexts and social relationships that shaped Mrs. Roosevelt’s social conscience and civic involvement. Effective content spiraling, in which complexity and nuance increase with grade level, between early and middle-grades trade books did not appear. Pedagogical suggestions included ways to position students to identify the varying degrees of historical representation within different trade books and integrate supplementary primary sources to balance the historical gaps.

Common Core State Standards Initiative mandates increased readings of informational texts within English Language Arts starting in elementary school. Accurate, age-appropriate, and engaging content is at the center of effective social studies teaching. Textbooks and children’s literature—both literary and informational—are prominent in elementary classrooms because of the esoteric nature of primary source material. Many research projects have investigated historical accuracy and representation within textbooks, but few have done so with children’s trade books. We examined children’s trade books centered on three historical figures frequently incorporated within elementary school curricula: Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosa Parks, and Helen Keller. Findings revealed various forms of historical misrepresentation and differing levels of historicity. Reporting such lacunae is important for those involved in curricular decisions. We believe children’s books, even those with historical omissions and misrepresentations, provide an unique opportunity for students to incorporate and scrutinize diverse perspectives as they actively assemble historical understandings. All secondary narratives, even historically representative children’s books, can benefit from primary source supplementation. We guide teachers interested in employing relevant and rich primary source material.

This research paper aims to understand how givers characterise and manage their gift giving networks by drawing on attachment theory (AT). This responds to the need to illuminate the givers–receivers’ networks beyond traditional role-based taxonomies and explore their changing dynamics.

A multi-method, qualitative approach was used involving 158 gift experiences captured in online diaries and 27 follow-up interviews.

Results show that givers organise receivers into gifting networks that are grounded in a contextual understanding of their relationships. The identification of direct, surrogate and mediated bonds reflects three different dimensions that inform gift-giving networks of support, care or belongingness rooted in AT. The relative position of gift receivers in this network influences the nature of support, the type of social influences and relationship stability in the network.

This study illustrates the complexity of relationships based on the data collected over two specific periods of time; thus, there might be further types of receivers within a giver’s network that the data did not capture. This limitation was minimised by asking about other possible receivers in interviews.

The findings set a foundation for gift retailers to assist gift givers in finding gifts that match their perceived relations to the receivers by adapting communication messages and offering advice aligned with specific relationship contexts.

This study illuminates gift-giving networks by proposing a taxonomy of gifting networks underpinned by AT that can be applied to study different relationship contexts from the perspective of the giver. This conceptualisation captures different levels of emotional support, social influences and relationship stability, which have an impact on the receivers’ roles within the giver’s network. Importantly, results reveal that the gift receiver is not always the target of gift-giving. The target can be someone whom the giver wants to please or an acquaintance they share with the receiver with whom they wish to reinforce bonds.

Education initiatives have increased expectations of students’ non-fiction reading and text-based writing within history, social studies and other curricula. Teachers must locate age-appropriate curricular materials and implement discipline-specific pedagogy to guide students’ history literacy, historical thinking and historical argumentation. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Students are guided on an inquiry into an underemphasized element of a historically significant figure’s life. Eleanor Roosevelt’s labor and poverty advocacies generate comparably less attention by historians and trade book authors than her work with civil rights, human rights and international diplomacy.

Students are positioned to scrutinize primary and secondary sources using differentiated optics relevant to each source type. History literacy and historical thinking strategies ground students’ analyses. After extracting meaningful content from diverse sources, students are prompted to engage in text-based writing to articulate their newly developed understandings. Diverse elements of revision bolster students’ historical argumentation.

Close reading, critical thinking and text-based writing are joined throughout the guided inquiry.

The previously unused texts and original tasks are intended for middle school classrooms. These sources and strategies integrate different elements of history literacy, historical thinking and historical argumentation throughout the inquiry.