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The recent advent of the limited line discounters Aldi and Netto, coupled with the current recession, has opened up the potential for considerable change in grocery shopping behaviour patterns in the UK. Examines the attributes of grocery discounters and their already established customer base. While evidence to date indicates a polarization in shopping patterns, proposes that further market penetration for the limited line discounters will largely depend on their ability to persuade consumers from all socio‐economic groups to change their behaviour and start “two‐stop shopping”, in the sense of frequenting a multiple as well as a limited line discounter on a regular basis. Based on the findings of a small‐scale empirical study incorporating the complementary results from a survey and three focus groups, examines current attitudes towards limited line discounters among “fringe” ABC1 consumers. Assesses the current potential for two‐stop shopping based on this examination. Conclusions to date further confirm existing evidence of polarization; as yet there is little indication of growing customer loyalty for limited line discounters amongst the ABC1s.

The purpose of this paper is to assess effectiveness of management development (MD) programs in the Pakistani corporate sector and investigate relationship among various factors that affect MD practices in Pakistan.

The research employed a blend of qualitative and quantitative methodologies. D'Netto's model of “MD effectiveness” provided a framework for measuring MD effectiveness. The sample consisted of managers from 55 corporate branches of 20 banks and three telecom organizations using a “self‐reported rating” survey questionnaire and interviews, which resulted in 102 completed responses and ten in‐depth interviews.

Although Pakistani managers have a positive attitude towards MD, yet little attention has been paid to create a strong link between corporate strategy and MD. Properly planned MD programs and relevant course contents are necessary for the effectiveness of MD. D'Netto's model of “management development effectiveness” has a good fit and is applicable to the corporate sector in Pakistan.

As a qualitative study, there are limitations on account of generalization of findings. Further research is recommended.

Top management should assign higher priority to MD. MD programs should be properly planned, executed, monitored and evaluated. Utilization of newly learned skills, risk taking and new ideas should be encouraged. The reward system needs revising and a continuous learning environment ought to be established for effective MD in Pakistan.

This study, for the first time, assessed the current state of MD in Pakistan and contributes to the present stock of knowledge and understanding of the subject by contextualising the concept of “management development effectiveness” in the Pakistani corporate sector.

This paper outlines the research agenda of the food deserts in British Cities project, and reports findings from a set of qualitative focus group studies conducted following a major retail provision intervention in a low‐income, deprived area of Leeds. It explores the impacts of the transformation of physical access to full‐range retailing in the area, and assesses the views of the residents who had switched their main food source as a result of the intervention compared to those who had not. Finally, it interrogates residents’ perceptions of the impact (if any) of the intervention on their food consumption habits and their potential to eat a more healthy diet.

Rapid change in UK food retailing, in particular the entry of European discounters such as Aldi and Netto, has provoked speculation about the effect of these entrants on the major multiples. The discount sector is growing and the major multiples are trying to appear more price competitive. Reviews the emerging discount sector – its development and growth. A case study of one of the majors examines the effect of the discounters on turnover, and provides evidence that the turnover losses to the majors from discounter competition is minimal, and that the significant threat remains other multiples. The multiples still have more to fear from each other than they do from the discounters. However, the majors do now appear to be taking actions to limit the effect of the discounters. The growth of discounting and the success of the major multiple superstores seems to reflect polarizing markets. Examines future prospects for the food discounters.

This chapter investigates the political and economic contexts of the controversy about the causes of the increase of income concentration in Brazil during the 1960s. That was the most important economic debate that took place under the military dictatorship that ran the country from 1964 to 1985. The perceived sharp increase in income inequality posed a challenge to the economic legitimation of the military regime, which had by the early 1970s achieved high rates of economic growth. This chapter discusses the apparent paradox of relatively open economic debate during a period of political repression, as well as its international dimension as reflected in the role played by institutions such as the World Bank.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between diversity management (i.e. diversity-focused human resource (HR) practices related to recruitment and selection, training and development, performance appraisal and compensation) and perceived firm performance, and the mediating effect of procedural justice.

Primary data based on 400 respondents of 162 organizations operating in India were analysed using statistical tools such as factor analysis, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multiple regression analysis.

Multiple regression analysis indicated that diversity-focused HR practices had a positive association with perceived firm performance. Further, it was found that procedural justice played a partially mediating in the relationship between diversity-focused HR practices and perceived firm performance.

This paper relied on self-report surveys for data collection, and there laid a possibility of common method variance in the result findings. Hence, future studies should collect data from multiple sources by using multiple methods (e.g. interviews, surveys, peer reports, etc.).

The first implication highlights that senior management’s support is a prerequisite to execute justice-based diversity management processes, which in turn aid in harvesting the true potentials of diversity. Second, organizations should adopt an egalitarian approach while formulating and implementing diversity management initiatives to accentuate the fair and just perceptibility of procedures among employees.

This study sheds new light on the effects of diversity-focused HR practices on firm performance (perceived) in Indian context.

A number of competitive forces seem set to re‐shape the UK grocery retail market during the 1990s, such as superstore saturation, information technology, and the emergence of a dominant “Big Three” group of retailers. A factor likely to be of major significance is the entry of European retailers, such as Aldi and Netto. The UK market is particularly attractive to European limited line discounters because of its wide net margins, and because its price competitive low end is vulnerable, having been largely abondoned during the 1980s as many UK incumbents moved “up market”. These European discounters possess the specific skills and assets necessary to penetrate the UK market′s three main barriers to entry. European new entry is partly responsible for a renewal of interest in discount grocery retailing among UK incumbents, which, in combination with other competitive forces, will produce a more complex and subtle structure to the UK grocery retail market.

The paper's aim is to assess performance of firms in the UK retail sector.

Economic efficiencies of 41 retail companies working in the UK between 2000 and 2005 are examined in this study using three related methodologies: data envelopment analysis (DEA), Malmquist productivity index (MPI), a bootstrapped Tobit regression model. DEA is used to calculate technical and scale efficiencies of companies. Two outputs (turnover, profit before taxation) and three inputs (total assets, shareholders funds, and number of employees) are employed for the efficiency measurement. MPI is used to analyze the patterns of efficiency change over the six year period 2000‐2005. DEA efficiencies are then used to test important hypotheses on the impact of environmental variables, namely head office location, type of ownership, years of incorporation, legal form and retail characteristic, on the functioning of the UK retail sector using bootstrapped Tobit regression.

DEA analysis has shown that only ten retail companies are considered as efficient under CRS assumption, and 16 firms under VRS assumption in 2005. MPI results have indicated that about 50 percent of retail companies have registered progress in terms of MPI during 2000 and 2005. Twenty out of 41 retail companies have adopted advanced and efficient retailing technologies during this period. Three environmental variables, namely the type of ownership, legal form and retail characteristic, have been found to play significant roles influencing retail efficiency using bootstrapped Tobit regression.

Data availability has limited the level of analysis in some parts of this study, especially in the bootstrapped Tobit regression.

This study seems to be the first in applying productivity analysis using DEA for the UK retail sector.

Commonly, supermarkets are perceived as more sustainable than discount stores, which are accused of following an aggressive price and no-frills approach. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate whether supermarkets and discounters differ substantially in their sustainability communication.

Sustainability reports and in-store communication are two important channels for retailers’ sustainability communication. To analyze both communication channels, the authors use a multi-method approach with data triangulation, analyzing sustainability reports and store observations of eight German retailers (two supermarket chains, six discount chains).

The study reveals no major differences between supermarkets and discounters regarding the readability of sustainability reports and the number of key figures on sustainability presented. However, supermarkets perform significantly better in translating sustainability to the store level than discounters. Furthermore, the results indicate that poor quality in the readability analysis is reflected in fewer concrete data provided in the sustainability reports and poorer translation of sustainability to the retail store.

This paper presents an empirical analysis of how well German retailers communicate about sustainability on both the report and the store level for the interest of academia and retail managers. It reveals different performance qualities among retail chains and retail formats and identifies the shortcomings within current reporting legislation with a clear indication toward policy makers.