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The purpose of this paper is to study how representation is conceptualized in Jewish culture, and how this relates to management. More specifically, it seeks to discuss the banning of images and what can be learned from this in the field of management.

The paper explores the meaning of the prohibition of images in the sacred texts. This serves as a starting point to discuss representation of the world and different forms of thought in the management field.

A major element in the banning of images deals with the involvement of the manager in decision making. The authors argue that organisational images such as accounting numbers are oriented towards economising our attention and thereby allowing the relative absence of the decision maker. The authors suggest that the banning of images reminds us of the importance of the manager's presence and of active participation in decision making and organisational transformation.

The paper contributes to the literature on the roles of managerial representation, notably accounting figures, and supports the idea that accountability should not be limited to reporting (be it numbers or qualitative elements). This paper argues for developing the density of the account, for instance by using narratives. This research echoes recent practice turn in management, as the authors’ findings can inform management teaching by providing students with dense case‐studies of management as actually practised, analysed using sociological or psychological theories. Such dense case‐studies do not aim to give students parsimonious models for analysis, or expose them to best practices: rather they seek to help them develop practical wisdom through a better understanding of management. This paper calls then for an increased presence rather than representation in management teaching classes, which is the main limitation of e‐learning.

Rather than exploring the mechanism of accounting figures in the behaviour of organizational actors or taking a political perspective, this paper focuses on a deep representation of the organization often rooted in magical thought. Relying on the practical wisdom of the Hebraic biblical banning of images, this paper aims to deconstruct organizational thought so as to highlight its contradictions.

The present study is a “first look” at sales superstitions with the purpose of establishing its prevalence among professional salespeople and examining the subsequent effects on sales person expected confidence, motivation, sales call behavioral intentions, and anticipated performance outcomes.

Data was collected from 234 industrial (business to business) salespeople. SmartPLS path modeling was used to test a model consisting of three antecedents and three outcomes of salesperson superstitious behavior intensity.

The findings reveal that salespeople are more likely to behave superstitiously when they believe in personal good luck and experience higher levels of role ambiguity. For these salespeople, outcomes such as expected increase in confidence and motivation, positive sales behavioral intentions, and performance outcomes were anticipated as a result of their superstitions.

Social cognitive theory is used as an organizing framework to guide this review as well as to develop a model that describes the conditions that give rise to sales superstitions and its potential impact on expected sales confidence, motivation, call behavioral intentions, and anticipated performance outcomes.

Given the paucity of reports on sales superstitions, the present study extrapolates from other allied literatures to identify antecedents and consequences associated with engaging in superstitious behavior.

This paper aims to discuss the concept of fetishism as an important but understudied kind of magical relationship to objects. Fetishism in the context of contemporary consumption is conceptualized as a multilayered construct underlining the attribution of an aura and magical power to a product to achieve personal goals.

In total, 15 in-depth interviews were conducted to highlight contextual factors influencing the emergence of fetishism in contemporary consumption, to underline the instrumental and aspirational dimensions of fetishism and to provide a definition of contemporary product fetishism.

The results show that fetishism appears as fragmented and unstable magical beliefs toward products related to a need to cope with uncertain and important aspirational situations.

The paper provides a multidisciplinary approach of fetishism to provide insights regarding this phenomenon and its manifestations in the context of contemporary consumption.

The purpose of this paper is to advance the understanding of antecedents and consequences of superstitious beliefs.

From survey data drawn from 206 South Korean and 218 US respondents, structural equation modeling is used to test the posited hypotheses.

To extrinsic superstitious beliefs, both the South Korean and US models support the subjective happiness through self-esteem path and the anthropomorphism path; from these beliefs, both models support the horoscope importance path and the behavioral superstitious beliefs path. Only the US model supports the path from self-esteem to extrinsic superstitious beliefs, and only the South Korean model supports the path from intrinsic religiosity to extrinsic superstitious beliefs.

South Korean and US student data may limit generalizability. As effect sizes in this context are established, researchers have a benchmark for future quantitative superstition research.

By further understanding antecedents and consequences of superstitious beliefs, marketers are in a better position to appeal to targeted customers. Anthropomorphism and intrinsic religiosity, not fully studied by marketing scholars, show promise as segmentation variables related to consumers’ attitudes and behaviors.

To avoid unethical practice, marketers must limit themselves to innocuous superstition cues.

Leaning on experiential consumption theory and the “magical thinking” literature, this study augments the superstition literature by exploring carefully selected yet under-researched determinants and consequences of superstitious beliefs across eastern and western consumer groups.

This paper aims to investigate the significance of academic accusations of magical practice towards marketing communication, asking what might motivate such accusations and what meaning they have for marketing's relationship with persuasion.

The paper examines the ways in which four distinguished scholars (Raymond Williams, Judith Williamson, Sut Jhally, and Stephen Brown) have accused marketing of either sharing its transformative power with the social effect of magic or in some way offering a metaphorical parallel with the manner in which magic works to cast a glamour over the “reality” of the world. The paper outlines a rhetorical understanding of magic and uses it to construct a reading of these accusations which focuses around a discomfort with the pursuit of persuasion. The analysis is then extended to contemporary marketing theory, particularly the communicative aspects of service-dominant logic and the broader service perspective.

The argument is advanced that understandings of marketing as “magical” are largely dependent upon a prejudicial view of the role of persuasion and rhetorical technique in mass media marketing communication. The paper demonstrates that this view of persuasion has also become manifest in the contemporary service perspective and limits the “dialogue” approach to marketing communication.

The paper warns against the counter-productive demonisation of persuasion in contemporary marketing theory and seeks to highlight the manner in which accusations of magic have been used to deflect clear debate around the place of persuasion in marketing communication.

The purpose of this paper is to review and integrate the extensive literature base which examines judgment and decision‐making biases, to introduce this literature to the field of supply management, to create a valid, mutually exclusive, and exhaustive taxonomy of decision biases that can affect supply managers, and to provide guidance for future research and applications of this taxonomy.

The authors use a qualitative cluster analysis, combined with a Q‐sort methodology, to develop a taxonomy of decision biases.

A mutually exclusive, and exhaustive taxonomy of nine decision biases is developed through a qualitative cluster analysis. The Q‐sort methodology provides initial confirmation of the reliability and validity of the cluster analysis results. The findings, along with numerous examples provided in the text, suggest that supply management decisions are vulnerable to the described biases.

This paper provides a comprehensive review of the judgment and decision bias literature, and creates a logical and manageable taxonomy of biases which can impact supply management decision making. The introduction and organization of this vast extant literature base provides a contrasting perspective to much of the existing supply management research, which has incorporated the assumption of the rational agent, or what is known in the economics literature as homo economicus. In addition, the authors describe the use of qualitative cluster analysis and the Q‐sort methodology, techniques which have been used rarely if at all in within the field of supply chain management.

The paper is an exploratory attempt to examine the practice of management consultancy and the cultural components of rituals, symbolism and magic in Botswana. Management consultants as catalytic agents of change remain relevant in organisational life and this study aims to investigate how they are perceived and how they perform their tasks in the African context.

In‐depth unstructured interviews were conducted with seven top management consultancy firms in Botswana, who agreed to participate in the study, focusing on six key research questions.

Findings revealed that the role of cultural values, while relevant, does not affect actual consultancy practice. It also establishes that consultation process is limited to mainly big organisations and government departments. The activities of consultants may be ritualistic to the extent of repetitiveness; there are also symbolic practices, there is, however, no evidence of superstitious or magical acts.

Qualitative data generally struggles with the accusation of researchers bias, while a sample size of seven consultants, certainly limits the generalisability of the findings, how much can we possibly learn from such a small size?

The need to reposition the consultation process for long‐term survival in the non‐Western context by inculcating indigenous values and mores was discussed as well as other policy implications.

The paper demonstrates the need for a re‐conceptualisation of what should constitute an effective management consultancy practice in non‐Western settings. Since managers are not divorced from their socio‐cultural environment their mental images reflect axioms that are deeply located in the uniqueness of their cultural settings.

Purpose – We examine the meanings of objects that have indexical (or direct first-hand) connections to celebrities. In so doing, we distinguish between the meanings of proximal indexicality versus contagious indexicality. We reveal how these disparate meanings are linked to how consumers use a celebrity object, either by displaying the object or by using the object as the celebrity had originally used the object.

Methodology – Our informants were consumers participating in sales of celebrity-owned items. Data include videotaped depth interviews, photographs of auction participants and celebrity objects, field notes, and auction catalogue descriptions.

Findings – Some consumers were fans who desired to be close to the celebrity, while others participating in celebrity-object auctions desired to become a celebrity themselves. Those that desired to be close to the celebrity (fans) were attracted to the proximal indexical meaning of the object, in which an indexical link conveyed a perceived closeness between the perceiver and the signified (e.g., consumer and celebrity) through the indexically linked object. Those that desired to become a celebrity themselves were attracted to the contagious indexical meaning of the object which facilitates a perceived contamination of the perceiver (e.g., consumer) by the essence of the signified (e.g., celebrity) through the indexically linked object.

Contributions – We contribute to the Peircian semiotic framework as used in consumer research by differentiating between the meanings of proximal indexicality and contagious indexicality. We show these meanings are linked to consumers’ display use versus the original use of the celebrity-owned object.

This study aims to extend the previous research on contagion and proposes an integrative paradigm in which consumer goals and contagion recipient factors are identified as the key variables leading to the emergence of the contagion phenomenon. When a consumer has an active goal, a product touched by goal-congruent sources leads to positive product evaluation and enhances consumer performance when the product is used.

This research conducted five experimental studies in online and offline retail settings to examine the effect of contagion on evaluations of contagion objects and performance in goal-related tasks.

Across five studies, the authors demonstrated that the activation of a goal leads to contagion-based product evaluation and performance enhancement effects. The authors theorized and showed that the contagion-based process triggered during goal pursuit led to a more favorable evaluation of contagion products (Studies 1, 2 and 3). The authors also showed that enhanced consumers’ commitment toward a goal, which in turn led to enhanced performance in a real task that contributed to achieving one’s goal (Study 4). These effects emerged only when the object was physically touched by a goal-congruent contagion source and were more pronounced for the consumers who experience a high (vs low) degree of goal discrepancy (Study 5).

The current research examined the contagion phenomenon in a few predetermined goal domains (e.g. health improvement goals, career success goals, marriage success goals). Although the authors found consistent effects across different types of goals, future research can examine a more comprehensive set of consumer goals and improve the limitation of the current research to generalize the goal-based contagion phenomenon to various consumer goals.

This study suggests that it is important for retailers, in particular sellers and buyers in the secondhand markets, to understand consumer goals and prepare an appropriate contagion environment for favorable evaluation of their offerings. One possible implication is that sellers may be best served as priming certain goals. The findings also indicate that secondhand sellers may be well served to emphasize seller characteristics in certain instances and de-emphasize them in others to maximize sales.

This research proposes a new variable, namely, goal activation, and presents an integrative contagion paradigm that not only helps explain previous research findings but also offers a new perspective on the contagion phenomenon.