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This study aims to understand the underlying mechanism and boundary conditions of the IKEA effect in self-expressive mass customization (MC). It examines the effect of the extent of choice in MC toolkits in terms of perceived value of self-designed products, as well as how self-expression mediates this effect and what kind of consumers are more inclined to experience such effect.

Two experiments were conducted, using online MC toolkits. In total, 393 consumers participated in the experiments. Data collected were analyzed using t-tests, analyses of variance, path analyses, bootstrap analyses and spotlight tests.

The results show that offering a greater extent of choice in MC toolkits to consumers provides a greater opportunity for self-expression, resulting in higher product valuation. Further, consumers who have high romanticism in aesthetic preference and high self-esteem are more inclined to influences associated with this effect.

This research adds to the literature on the IKEA effect in self-expressive MC by identifying a key antecedent (extent of choice), its underlying mechanism (self-expression), and two boundary conditions (aesthetic preference and self-esteem). The results of this study provide firms with a better understanding of how they can improve their self-expressive MC strategies.

The purpose of this paper is to establish the extent to which Porter’s five competitive forces (PFCF) framework, among other factors drive the choice of response strategies adopted by public universities in Kenya.

The study design was descriptive and utilized a cross-sectional survey of all the public universities in Kenya by administering a structured questionnaire to the top management team. Additional primary data were collected through observations and interviews. Secondary data were also collected in order to corroborate the data collected from the primary sources.

PFCF framework influenced the choice of response strategies adopted by the public universities “to a great extent”, the most influence being the threat from new entrants. The influence of the choice of response strategies by PFCF framework was independent of the age and category of the universities. Pressure from stakeholders, changes in government policies and regulations, reforms in higher education, unethical response strategies by some universities and university location also influenced the choice of response strategies.

The study collected data from the top management team only; however, other stakeholders could have given additional information not reported here. Further, the research only considered public universities and not all higher education institutions (HEIs) in Kenya, and was cross-sectional, hence generalization and application of the results over a long time, respectively, may be limited.

The value of this study lies in HEIs achieving a competitive advantage and shaping strategic policy direction in the face of changing environment and global commodification of higher education.

Current public universities in Kenya have adopted a business-like approach in their operations in view of changing environment and have adopted coping strategies. Therefore, understanding the factors that influence the choice of response strategies is important for improvement of quality, efficiency and effectiveness as well as in policy formulation and serve as a guide to strategic management.

This paper revisits the debate between environmental determinism and strategic choice. It compares the two theories on their philosophical underpinnings, their view of decision making, and the environment. Although we argue that the theory of strategic choice generally prevails, we recognize that there are factors that restrict the choice and discretion of managers. Here we look at three types of factors—industry related factors (extent of regulation and stage of life cycle), organization related factors (characteristics of top management and organization size), and time related factors and explain how each of these factors either inhibit or enhance managerial discretion. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Although school choice programs are expected to alter the traditional roles and responsibilities of all stakeholders involved in the education of children, empirical evidence on differences between principals in schools of choice and traditional schools is scant. Relying primarily on the theoretical frameworks posited by Kerchner and Crow, this study compares self‐reported survey data from principals of magnet schools (i.e. schools of choice) to principals of nonmagnet schools (i.e. traditional neighborhood schools) to ascertain how the principal’s role may differ in choice environments. Despite the predictions of market theorists, collectively, the findings from this study suggest that magnet schools do little, if anything, to alter the role of the principal. Specifically, no significant differences were found in the extent to which the principals of these school types served as entrepreneurial leaders, middle managers, or instructional leaders. Potential explanations for the lack of differences in role are provided.

Behavioral economics poses a challenge for the welfare evaluation of choices, particularly those that involve risk. It demands that we recognize that the descriptive account of behavior toward those choices might not be the ones we were all taught, and still teach, and that subjective risk perceptions might not accord with expert assessments of probabilities. In addition to these challenges, we are faced with the need to jettison naive notions of revealed preferences, according to which every choice by a subject expresses her objective function, as behavioral evidence forces us to confront pervasive inconsistencies and noise in a typical individual’s choice data. A principled account of errant choice must be built into models used for identification and estimation. These challenges demand close attention to the methodological claims often used to justify policy interventions. They also require, we argue, closer attention by economists to relevant contributions from cognitive science. We propose that a quantitative application of the “intentional stance” of Dennett provides a coherent, attractive and general approach to behavioral welfare economics.

Focuses on deprived neighbourhoods where instances of “food deserts” have been found and explores, through focus groups, consumer experiences of food store choices. Focusing on suburban neighbourhoods in Portsmouth, identifies significant differences in experiences of choice both between and within neighbourhoods. In some localities, the research also finds dissatisfaction with the (supposedly‐coveted) “small local store”. Shows that choice is very different from provision, and conceptualises how consumers’ circumstances, situation and individual characteristics can significantly reduce a broad theoretical provision of food stores to a limited set of perceived real choices.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate returns to search (getting a better product and/or a lower price as a result of search) when consumers use/do not use recommendation agents (RAs). Specifically, it studies the effect of RAs/no RAs on decision quality, decision confidence and decision satisfaction taking into account subjective knowledge (SK) and involvement.

This paper employed two between-subjects factorial experimental designs with subjects searching for digital cameras in a simulated online digital camera store. The experiment was conducted with graduate students in Chennai, Bengaluru and Mysore in India.

Results of two online experiments showed that when consumers used RAs, low search led to better decision quality, whereas when consumers did not use RAs, medium search led to optimum decision quality. When consumers use RAs, SK had a U-shaped influence on the decision quality indicating that decision quality was the lowest for those with medium SK. When consumers did not use RAs, the effect of SK on decision quality was an inverted U-shape, indicating optimum decision quality for medium SK consumers. When consumers did not use RAs, subjects with high involvement made better choices, whereas when consumers used RAs, low involvement subjects made better choices. However, subjects who searched more had higher decision confidence and decision satisfaction even if their choices were not better.

The effect of RA vs no RA in conjunction with relevant consumer characteristics influencing decision quality of the consumer is demonstrated in this study. The findings have important managerial, consumer and theoretical contributions to make.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how hedonic and utilitarian choice options of online travel agencies (OTAs) affect consumers’ process enjoyment and booking intentions.

The authors apply a one-factorial experimental design. The stimuli consisted of screenshots of the fictitious OTA “www.my-holiday.com”. Participants were told to imagine they were planning a city trip to San Francisco and that, during an internet search, they came across a new OTA called “www.my-holiday.com”.

The authors find that both booking intentions and process enjoyment are higher for hedonic OTAs, i.e. OTAs which offer more hedonic choice options such as entertainment and spa. The authors conclude that these toolkits strongly relate to pleasurable experiences and positive emotions. Therefore, these options drive positive affective reactions in terms of process enjoyment, which subsequently affect booking intentions. Additionally, the authors find that preference insight positively affects consumers’ booking intention as the number of choices provided by the OTA increases.

This paper contributes to tourism research on online travel shopping behavior. The authors apply knowledge from research on online customization tools to an OTA context and show that hedonic and functional choice options of OTAs significantly reflect on consumer behavior.

Entrepreneurs may wish to be selective about which relatives to include or exclude in their businesses. For example, their child might be inept but their niece might be outstanding. What aspects of kinship systems affect their ability to make these sorts of choices? What enables them to bend their ties of kinship and marriage to the interests of their business? Most broadly, what dimensions of kinship lend themselves to tactical or instrumental actions? This question is sweeping just as my meaning of “entrepreneurs” is very broad: those who take actions with the goal of growing their capital (Stewart, 1991). This capital may take the form of newly started ventures, dynastic firms, or even in precapitalist systems other social forms, for example, rural estates farmed by followers.

The purpose of this paper is to validate the number and order of leadership roles and identify the personality traits which trigger the choice of leadership roles.

A survey addressing classification and measurement questions in each of the competing values framework (CVF) quadrants was administered to a sample of managerial leaders across organizations. Multidimensional scaling representing the underlying CVF dimensions in a spatial arrangement was conducted with input derived from LISREL, which was also used to test the degree‐of‐fit between the CVF roles and quadrants as well as to examine the relationships between personality traits and leadership roles.

The results produced a remarkable synthesis of two separate fields of study within a single competing quadrants grid confirming the causal paths from traits to the compressed CVF latent variables.

This study raises important questions about the causal effects of personality traits and situational contingencies on the choice of leadership roles.

The new awareness of precursors to CVF roles calls for significantly shifting the focus of leadership training and education efforts. Leadership development strategies designed to improve current managerial strengths must also target specific weaknesses and their psychological underpinnings.

The paper demonstrates the efficacy of the CVF and at the same time draws more robust conclusions about how traits affect the choice of leadership roles, how they influence the extent of managerial effectiveness and to what extent managerial choice of roles is conscious or just a stimulus response.