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American business enterprise is increasingly seeking export markets for products as a means of expansion, and in some instances to offset loss in domestic business due to declining markets or international competitors. This paper deals with market segmentation and its role in the successful positioning of products in foreign markets. More specifically, the focus here is how consumer political identifications and ideological values can be used as a basis for effectively segmenting markets. To U.S. firms, the potential benefit of gaining this insight is twofold. First, firms may thus have at their disposal a segmentation tool as yet unrecognized by competitors. Second, politics and political ideology have constructs which appear to be common to most election‐based governmental forms; thus the segmentation applications explored here would be transferable to foreign markets, whereas many other more conventional means of segmentation transfer poorly from the U.S. to other countries.

Experts cite the lack of a sound business plan and a diminished regard for basic marketing and management practices as major reasons for the failure rate of Web‐based retailers. The dot‐com platform alone was often viewed as a sufficient basis for business success. This article provides a guide in applying marketing management principles to Internet‐based retailers. The format for this guide uses marketing management plans, providers, access, distribution, markets, products, prices, and promotions. The practices and examples provided in this guide are useful for gaining competitive advantage in the retail, dot‐com marketplace.

The chapter will examine the emergence and influence of the restorative justice movement as a bridge between communities, civil society and the state in Ireland. The chapter will focus on the Republic of Ireland, but will also examine restorative conferencing in Northern Ireland. This will be divided into a number of sections, each reflecting the emergence of a movement dedicated to the promotion of restorative justice as a vehicle for a holistic form of community-based justice in Ireland. This chapter covers the history, scope, and philosophical-political background of the restorative justice movement, providing specific examples of the interchange between this restorative justice movement and civil society in Ireland, Northern Ireland and the United States. The wider potential of the restorative justice movement will be highlighted.

This potential is demonstrated in the restorative movement’s challenge to understandings of failed punitive approaches, and through its socially redemptive alternative which emphasises collective responsibility for crime amongst all of the community. The chapter will also examine the international background to restorative justice, and its theoretical understandings, with a focus on key theorists such as Strang and Braithwaite, amongst others. It will examine salient issues that underpin social justice and social control in Ireland, including the potential impacts of restorative justice policy and practice for the wider community and the state.

The primary goal of the Restorative Justice process is not punishment but making good the harm done by offending for the victim, the community and the offender. Offenders have to take responsibility for their actions as a precondition to addressing the harm that they have caused. Offenders become aware that a crime is committed, not against an abstraction, but against someone real, a person like themselves and against their community, who are directly and indirectly affected by what has happened. Crime and conflict affect relationships between individuals who are left outside the court system altogether by conventional justice. Proceedings and arguments of the restorative process are voluntary for all parties. People are given the opportunity to partake in mediation, or to accept reparation. The process is always confidential however; outcomes and agreements can be made public, depending on the authorisation by participants.

The British North American colonies were the first western economies to rely on legislature-issued paper monies as an important internal media of exchange. This system arose piecemeal. In the absence of banks and treasuries that exchanged paper monies at face value for specie monies on demand, colonial governments experimented with other ways to anchor their paper monies to real values in the economy. These mechanisms included tax-redemption, land-backed loans, sinking funds, interest-bearing notes, and legal tender laws. I assess and explain the structure and performance of these mechanisms. This was monetary experimentation on a grand scale.

This is a theoretical paper, which aims to consider the role of strategic human resource management (SHRM) in the development of “gross national happiness” (GNH) in Bhutan.

The paper initially examines the question of what is strategic capacity building and its importance for developing nations. It then considers the story of Bhutan where the idea of GNH forms the development philosophy and approach to attaining the long‐term visions and goals for the country. Different models and structures for SHRM in Bhutan are discussed in order to determine whether it can be applied to a nation effectively and, if so, whether it will enable the attainment of GNH and the performance desired by the government.

A link between SHRM and the achievement of Bhutan's 2020 vision is identified as, if Bhutan is to achieve its national capacity, it must identify the capabilities that it needs and then the strategies to support such developments. All four of Ulrich's HRM types will be required and this will need careful management, as there is a tendency to move towards one or other within an organization. Bhutan is going through a period of extensive change and the values will be changing. What is recognized here is that not only must the SHRM develop appropriate people management strategies, it must also acknowledge its crucial role in the recognition and maintenance of appropriate value sets.

The proposed framework is currently limited to a theoretical application for Bhutan because, it is argued, that an appropriate model of SHRM will support the desired attainments, but that to do so the specific values of Bhutan will need to be identified and integrated into policy development.

The role of SHRM in supporting or driving change is considered and a potential framework for SHRM in Bhutan is proposed. There is potential to apply these ideas more widely.

This paper identifies a role for SHRM in the attainment of GNH for Bhutan, which is important in helping Bhutan to achieve its national capability.

Policy leadership infiltrates the lives of citizens everywhere. Though this type of leadership is implicit and ubiquitous, a theoretically-based model specifically intended for policy leaders is not readily available in academic literature. This article serves to address this gap by proposing a conceptual model of the policy leadership framework. The model expounds upon previous literature and identifies 16 areas vital to the policy process. Implications of the model relate to equipping leadership educators in the classroom and in the community with enhanced policy leadership research and curriculum.

As companies extend supply chains via direct delivery to consumers, supply chain efficiency depends upon the usability of the online ordering system. The purpose of this paper is to focus on customer order cycle efficiency gains through the “learnability” of web sites.

The paper analyzes empirical data using nonlinear regression from seven firms and over 4,000 customers to examine how order time – an important performance metric – changes within an online grocery ordering environment.

The evidence supports various forms of power‐law learning for web‐based ordering (i.e. the first few orders involve substantial learning). However, significant differences exist between web sites, and a portion of the ordering time may be irreducible.

The research lends insight into how web sites influence last‐mile supply chain efficiency via differing learning rates in the order cycle. Perceptual measures were used in order to assess customer beliefs.

Online order entry serves as the starting point for many supply chain actions. Managers can use this research to benchmark their web site performance and subsequently take action to improve the efficiency and service of their supply chain.

The empirically validated model allows researchers and web‐based businesses to utilize the provided learning rate measure as an ease of use performance metric.