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The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework for measuring retail productivity. It intends to identify all the constituents of retail productivity exhaustively, along with their measures and integrate them with a comprehensive model.

The paper summarizes the significant empirical works from the literature along with their study methods and identifies the gaps. The proposed methodology is a combination of various exploratory methods consisting of secondary data analysis, group interviews, depth interviews, observation and questionnaire survey.

A regression‐based conceptual model including each of the output and input variables of retail productivity. It also provides conception logic and measurement method for each of the variables. It identifies the control parameters too and proposes to handle them in the model. The empirical validation provides the significance of various input parameters.

The empirical validation is restricted to one retail format and one vertical (medium‐sized stores and apparel‐life style vertical). However, it provides significant input regarding the way to utilise retail productivity and the strategic directions to improve store level productivity.

The most significant usage of the model is the standardization of retail productivity concept as a performance measurement tool and its applicability in individual retail stores (micro level). Hence, it is possible to determine the reasons for performance of retail stores and develop appropriate as well as effective strategies. The identification and elaboration of the various parameters of retail productivity would help retailers to redefine and focus on key decision areas.

The paper presents the exhaustive framework for retail productivity with data from the Indian retail sector that is applicable at micro level. It provides direct measure of value component (services) in retail output determination.

In this chapter, the authors discuss the process of embedding experiential learning in a required ethics and diversity course (ED200). The course is a model of humanistic education in which students develop disciplinary-based methodological expertise while also drawing on cross-disciplinary, inclusive, problem-solving skills. The authors suggest that in a course that challenges students to think about their lives in community, engagement with that community plays a critical role in humanizing the learning experience. This pedagogical emphasis on experiential learning, instantiated as community engagement, unites the foci of ethics and diversity through students’ practical application of and reflection on their experiences to enhance ethical and cultural self-awareness. In the process, it also fosters a desire for participatory and justice-oriented citizenship (Westheimer & Kahne, 2004). In what follows, the authors provide a history of the development of ED200. The authors then justify the inclusion of experiential learning in the course from theoretical and practical perspectives: Why is it valuable to include experiential learning in this course and how does it advance the goal of developing critically engaged citizens through improving ethical reasoning skills and actionable understanding of diversity? Last, the authors detail positive impacts and implementation challenges and indicate next steps for continued development.

By using mall patronage behavior as its context, this study aims to develop and test a patronage model consisting of three dimensions.

Data for the study are collected through self‐administered questionnaires from residents in an MSA in the USA. Usable responses are obtained from 319 residents.

Results suggest that mall patronage behavior can be represented as a global construct with three viable components (utilitarian, hedonic and accessibility).

The study is limited to a particular sample. Replications among other samples in the study locale and elsewhere are needed to validate the current findings.

The results enable management to look at shoppers' patronage behaviors at three levels. At the individual attribute level (first level of abstraction), management may identify areas that need special attention. At the second level of abstraction (the latent construct), choice attributes can be combined into reliable and valid composite scores across dimensions and can reveal information that is not readily available by the individual attributes. At the third and highest level of abstraction, the one second‐order factor with three first‐order factors as its reflective indicators provides management with a single metric for comparing a mall with its competitors or other malls owned by the corporation.

The model tested here explicitly recognizes accessibility as a distinct patronage dimension and expands the domain of inquiry beyond the initial attribute level to the first‐order and the second‐order composite levels.

The purpose of this paper is to show the qualitative shift from a “traditional way”, to understand the conditioning factors of corporate crime to a “principled” approach.

The paper analyzes the conditioning factors elaborated by the traditional approach and the basic crime prevention strategies that followed from such an approach; also, the basic concepts of the “principled” approach are analyzed as they give a qualitatively new understanding of crime prevention strategies.

The paper finds that a qualitative shift emerged from 1990 to 2006, insofar as the basic conditioning factors have substantially been modified (the “principled approach”). The most relevant concepts for crime prevention are now national culture, transformational leadership, moral courage and organizational transparency.

The paper presents a principled approach to crime prevention strategies as adding relevant ideas and concepts to the traditional approach.

Transport mode attributes have often been neglected in the retailing and transportation literature in retail outlets choice studies. Most of the retailing and transportation literature has only adopted the traditional measures of deterrence, namely, travel time, distance and/or travel cost. Similar phenomena exist in real estate research, particularly in real estate market analysis and valuation. However, a few studies have shown that other attributes of the travel component, such as comfort, reliability of transport mode, etc., are significant in affecting shopping centres’ patronage. With the heightening of issues such as sustainable development and environmental pollution, many governments are gearing to provide greater choices and better quality public transport modes to shopping centres. Therefore, with more transport options, shoppers are likely to consider the characteristics of each transport option in greater detail in their choice of shopping centres. Therefore, in view of this widespread phenomenon, it is timely to provide greater understanding of the travel components in shopping trips. In the light of the above development, this paper aims to disaggregate the travel components in shopping centre choice. By way of principal component analysis, it presents the salient dimensions of transport attributes and shopping centre characteristics in shopping centre choice. Using the weighted factor rating, it found that, in addition to the shopping centre attributes, as well as the conventional measures of travel components, shoppers consider other travel factors in their choice of shopping centres. This in turn has implications on valuation practices.

The present competitive marketing environment demands effective role of distribution channels to create and develop a value-based infrastructure where companies can easily distribute their products into the consumers’ market. Relationship bonding between the channel partners and the company strengthens marketing efficiencies of the distribution function, which is supported by policies of the companies relating to joint business actions and value sharing. Both the tangible functional value and emotional functionalities play a vital role in the continuous success and the growth of distribution channel. The purpose of this paper is to understand the value-based distribution channel relationship for greater channel equity in fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector.

The present study used a survey design to collect data from 156 FMCG channel members selected through stratified random sampling procedure. A five-point Likert-type scale was personally administered to obtain participants’ responses. Data were analysed using the Relative to an Identified Distribution (RIDIT) approach.

The findings of the current research paper have demonstrated that in the current competitive marketing environment, only the functional values are not enough. This research paper identifies that there is a strong need of emotional touch and linkages which leads to a symbiotic channel–company relationship and commitments in FMCG industry.

The present research is an original and innovative thought process of evaluating factors influencing the value-based distribution channel relationship for greater channel equity pertaining to FMCG industry by using the RIDIT approach.

From the standpoint of the future of corporate social responsibility, students' perceptions are an important research proposition. Several studies have been conducted to examine this phenomenon, yet sector‐specific studies are rather scant. The primary purpose of this work is to examine students' perceptions regarding social responsibility in the context of the US forest products industry.

A total of 257 graduate and upper level undergraduate students from Oregon State University and University of Montana, pursuing different academic majors, were surveyed to examine the differences in their perceptions of the US forest products industry's success in fulfilling its corporate social responsibilities.

Results suggest that business and forest ecology/environmental science students were least satisfied with industry fulfilling its economic responsibilities. Regarding fulfillment of socio‐environmental responsibilities, forest ecology/environmental science students were significantly less satisfied than any other study major. Additionally, a comparison between male and female students suggested that males and females have a similar level of satisfaction regarding industry fulfilling its economic responsibilities. However, males were found to be more satisfied with industry fulfilling its socio‐environmental responsibilities than females.

Students for the study were not selected randomly and as such the results of the study can, at best, be considered indicative. Study findings have implications for academic curriculum designers as well as for industry policy makers.

This is the first attempt to examine students' perceptions about the social responsibility success of the US forest products industry.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to point out the importance of having an ethics-related course for human resource development (HRD) graduate programs; and second, to highlight HRD potential to minimize ethical misconducts through an ethical filter in organizations.

This paper is conceptual in nature. The authors used their own experiences in HRD programs, looked at HRD graduate programs’ curricula in different universities and reviewed literature on ethics and HRD to develop a conceptual model. The model is to guide future studies and identify the role of HRD practices to create an ethical climate in organizations.

In this paper, the authors illustrate the connection between HRD practices and ethical climate in organizations by providing a conceptual framework. In the concluding paragraphs, the authors provide a discussion, implications and recommendations for future studies.

The authors highlight the limited research conducted on how ethics and ethical dilemmas need to be represented in HRD practitioners’ activities and practices. Many graduate-level HRD students do not receive enough training on ethics, whereas it is their responsibility to help improve organizational ethical climate and educate and prepare human resources to minimize ethical misconducts and wrongdoings. The paper provides a framework for HRD practitioners to create a strong ethical climate in their organizations.

Service encounters are becoming increasingly virtual through the infusion of computer-mediated technologies. Virtual services separate consumers and service providers both spatially and temporally. With the advent of virtual services is the need to theoretically explain how service separability is psychologically perceived by consumers across the spectrum of computer-mediated technologies. Drawing on construal-level theory, the purpose of this paper is to conceptualize a theoretical framework depicting consumer’s construal of spatial and temporal separation across a continuum of technology-mediated service virtuality.

The authors conducted two studies: first, to investigate consumers’ levels of mental construal associated with varying degrees of service separation across a spectrum of technology-mediated services; second, to empirically examine consumer evaluations of service quality in response to varying degrees of spatial and temporal service separation. These relationships were tested across two service industries: education and tourism.

Consumers mentally construe psychological distance in response to service separation and these observations vary across the spectrum of service offerings ranging from face-to-face (no psychological distance) through to virtual (spatially and temporally separated – high psychological distance) services. Further, spatial separation negatively affects consumers’ service evaluations; such that as service separation increases, consumers’ service evaluations decrease. No such significant findings support the similar effect of temporal separation on customer service evaluations. Moreover, specific service industry-based distances exist such that consumers responded differentially for a credence (education) vs an experiential (tourism) service.

Recent studies in services marketing have challenged the inseparability assumption inherent for services. This paper builds on this knowledge and is the first to integrate literature on construal-level theory, service separability, and virtual services into a holistic conceptual framework which explains variance in consumer evaluations of separated service encounters. This is important due to the increasingly virtual nature of service provider-customer interactions across a diverse range of service industries (i.e. banking and finance, tourism, education, and health care). Service providers must be cognisant of the psychological barriers which are imposed by increased technology infusion in virtual services.