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1 – 10 of 16Mario Ortez, Nicole Olynk Widmar, Mindy Lyn Mallory, Christopher Allen Wolf and Courtney Bir
This article quantifies public sentiment for dairy products using online media and investigates potential relationships between online media, both volume and sentiment, and future…
Abstract
Purpose
This article quantifies public sentiment for dairy products using online media and investigates potential relationships between online media, both volume and sentiment, and future prices of Class III milk.
Design/methodology/approach
Netbase, an online media listening platform, was used to quantify US generated online media sentiment and number of mentions regarding dairy products. Granger-causality tests and Impulse Response Functions (IRFs) were used to study relationships between online media derived data and dairy futures prices.
Findings
Milk and cheese have more mentions in online media than yogurt and ice cream. Online media net sentiment around milk was the lowest of the dairy products studied. Granger-causality tests showed that Class III milk price Granger-causes net sentiment of dairy as a whole and of fluid milk. Price additionally Granger-causes mentions of milk, ice cream and yogurt. Notably, milk and ice cream mentions Granger-cause the Class III milk price. IRF's reveals that increases in mentions have a positive, albeit small, effect on the Class III milk price that is statistically significant for ice cream, but not for milk. IRF's directionality of the relationship from price to online media derived data was mixed.
Originality/value
This is the first time that relationships between online media -volume and sentiment- and futures prices of an agricultural commodity are researched. Exploration of futures markets alongside online media advances the use of online media to glean insights in financial, along with food and agricultural markets.
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Patrick McNamee, Dolores O’Reilly and Brendan McFerran
Often businesses fail, or fail to reach their true potential, for strategic rather than operational reasons. This type of failure may be caused because the key decision makers in…
Abstract
Often businesses fail, or fail to reach their true potential, for strategic rather than operational reasons. This type of failure may be caused because the key decision makers in such firms are not well informed about the strategic landscape in which their firm operates. A military analogy is used to show that successful military campaigns are often predicated upon having accurate maps. Similarly, competitive strategies followed by firms are likely to be more successful if key decision makers possess accurate strategic maps which display the location of their own and rival firms. In other words, those firms which have detailed knowledge of their strategic landscapes are likely to enjoy significant competitive advantage, while firms which are in ignorance of their strategic landscape are less likely to be able to navigate a route that will confer sustained competitive advantage. A firm’s strategic landscape is analysed in terms of: the firm’s true competitive position, the industry conditions under which the firm and its competitors operate and the core strategies that firms in the industry are following. This paper analyses an approach to strategic mapping developed by a major new independent strategic database called CAM (Competitive Analysis Model). This database has been built to aid small firms improve their results through generating accurate strategic maps. These maps enable client firms to assess their strategic locations and performances longitudinally, sectorally and cross‐sectionally. Finally, CAM clients appear to have outperformed similarly structured non‐CAM firms.
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The purpose of this paper is to explore the information behaviour of early career academics (ECAs) within humanities and social sciences (HSS) disciplines who are starting their…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the information behaviour of early career academics (ECAs) within humanities and social sciences (HSS) disciplines who are starting their first continuing academic position. The proposed grounded theory of Systemic Managerial Constraints (SMC) is introduced as a way to understand the influence of neoliberal universities on the information behaviour of ECAs.
Design/methodology/approach
This qualitative research used constructivist grounded theory methodology. Participants were 20 Australian and Canadian ECAs from HSS. Their information practices and information behaviour were examined for a period of five to seven months using two interviews and multiple “check-ins”. Data were analysed through two rounds of coding, where codes were iteratively compared and contrasted.
Findings
SMC emerged from the analysis and is proposed as a grounded theory to help better understand the context of higher education and its influence on ECAs’ information behaviour. SMC presents university managerialism, resulting from neoliberalism, as pervasive and constraining both the work ECAs do and how they perform that work. SMC helps to explain ECAs’ uncertainty and precarity in higher education and changing information needs as a result of altered work role, which, in turn, leads ECAs to seek and share information with their colleagues and use information to wield their personal agency to respond to SMC.
Originality/value
The findings from this paper provide a lens through which to view universities as information environments and the influence these environments can have on ECAs’ information practices and information behaviour.
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This paper examines promotional practices Netflix employs via Twitter and its automated recommendation system in order to deepen our understanding of how streaming services…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper examines promotional practices Netflix employs via Twitter and its automated recommendation system in order to deepen our understanding of how streaming services contribute to sociotechnical inequities under capitalism.
Design/methodology/approach
Tweets from two Netflix Twitter accounts as well as material features of Netflix's recommendation system were qualitatively analyzed using inductive analysis and the constant comparative method in order to explore dimensions of Netflix's promotional practices.
Findings
Twitter accounts and the recommendation system profit off people's labor to promote content, and such labor allows Netflix to create and refine classification practices wherein both people and content are categorized in inequitable ways. Labor and classification feed into Netflix's production of culture via appropriation on Twitter and algorithmic decision-making within both the recommendation system and broader AI-driven production practices.
Social implications
Assemblages that include algorithmic recommendation systems are imbued with structural inequities and therefore unable to be fixed by merely diversifying cultural industries or retooling algorithms on streaming platforms. It is necessary to understand systemic injustices within these systems so that we may imagine and enact just alternatives.
Originality/value
Findings demonstrate that via surveillance tactics that exploit people's labor for promotional gains, enforce normative classification schemes, and culminate in normative cultural productions, Netflix engenders practices that regulate bodies and culture in ways that exemplify interconnections between people, machines, and social institutions. These interconnections further reflect and result in material inequities that crystalize within sociotechnical processes.
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Danielle Way and Yuvay Jeanine Meyers
The consumer culture for expectant parents has changed considerably over the past few decades. Culturally, society places a great deal of emphasis and attention on traditional…
Abstract
Purpose
The consumer culture for expectant parents has changed considerably over the past few decades. Culturally, society places a great deal of emphasis and attention on traditional families and often neglects to recognize non‐traditional families. Although previous consumer literature examines purchase intentions in preparation for parenthood through the traditional biological lens, there have yet to be studies that observe this phenomenon in the context of adoption. This study aims to provide an understanding of the consumer uncertainty and risk that affect purchase intention in this family dynamic.
Design/methodology/approach
This study focuses on the psychological dimensions of risk to examine consumer uncertainty as it relates to purchase decisions during the expectant stage of adoption. A literature review was conducted in order to provide a foundation for the study. After finding gaps in the current literature, a mixed approach qualitative study was conducted. Through extensive interviews and focus groups, data were gathered directly from families that meet the scenario requirement and then the findings were analyzed in the phenomenological custom of theme clustering.
Findings
The research showed that adoptive parents as consumers largely associate the uncertainty and risk involved with making purchases for a new child with their lack of reference groups. There is a clear pattern of discontent, on the part of adoptive parents, with the lack of interest in their life changing situation (adoption) paid by family, friends, and marketers. Themes that emerged through the research showed that adoptive families desire to be reflected more in the media and further, to be acknowledged as expectant parents in order to bolster confidence in their purchase decisions.
Originality/value
This research provides marketers with a unique perspective as it relates to adoptive parents as consumers. Through the findings of this study, companies can learn some of the key themes to address if they would like to target this segment of affluent parents. By understanding the uncertainty and risk these consumers feel regarding purchase intentions, these fears can be alleviated by companies hoping to engage this audience.
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– This paper aims to offer both a practical and reflective stance on a longitudinal multi-method interpretive consumer research project carried out with tween girls.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to offer both a practical and reflective stance on a longitudinal multi-method interpretive consumer research project carried out with tween girls.
Design/methodology/approach
This multi-layered approach to data collection, involving qualitative diaries, accompanied shopping trips, e-collages and in-depth interviews, addresses the need, as articulated by Morrow and Richards (1996, p. 96) to “move away from the narrow focus of socialization and child development” toward a research approach that prioritizes children’s own experiences of their lives as children, thereby reconsidering the richness of children’s voices.
Findings
In line with those whose work seeks to privilege children’s knowledge of the world they inhabit while also emphasizing the need, as in the case of adult “doing” to place that existence within its broader social context (Russell and Tyler, 2005, p. 227), diaries, in-depth interviews, shopping trips, e-collages and researcher diaries were used to access the world of these social neophytes as they mediate their social worlds through the ever pervasive prism of consumer culture. The light and shade of their worlds cannot be captured by adult-oriented perspectives on research which assume that young consumers are incompetent, worthy of debate merely to ascertain levelness of agency or of interest merely to quantify degrees of participation in and comprehension of the semiotic markers of our consumer society.
Research limitations/implications
Only female consumers were involved in this study which underlines the need to engage with both genders when it comes to researching young consumers.
Practical implications
This paper offers a tangible contribution to the movement of research toward understanding young consumers’ worlds through engagement with multi-layered discourses and representations.
Originality/value
This multi-layered, multi-method research project acknowledges the enthralling complexity of these young consumers’ social worlds, giving a richness and immediacy to their accounts of the compelling intimacy between young adolescent identity and the marketplace.
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Gunjan Sharma, Naval Bajpai, Kushagra Kulshreshtha, Vikas Tripathi and Prince Dubey
The online shopping behavior is the outcome of the variety of attribution from product/ service offering to internet experience. The present study attempts to develop a complete…
Abstract
Purpose
The online shopping behavior is the outcome of the variety of attribution from product/ service offering to internet experience. The present study attempts to develop a complete product/service offering by exploring and examining the different combinations of online shopping attributes to provide the customized experience. Therefore, this study aims to fill the gap of customer desired experience and present scenario in online shopping behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
The exploration of attributes pertaining to online shopping behavior was done by seeking theoretical support from different technology adoption theories/models and the Delphi technique, exercised with active participants of online and offline shopping. The theoretical and experience shared attributes were devised and social desirability scale (SDS) was used for eliminating the social desirability bias. Further, the questionnaire was administered online and offline during mall intercept. The Conjoint analysis was used to investigate the relative importance and utilities of the attributes and its levels individually and compositely at different levels.
Findings
In the context, brand loyalty, online reputation management and Web interactivity were found most relavant followed by e-WOM, perceived risk and price. The specific levels of attributes such as taking consumer advice, search engine optimization (SEO), perception-based interactivity, consumer message boards, product risk and discount pricing were the crucial in motivating the customers for online shopping. This research affords the avenue for the marketers to motivate and delight consumers to retribalize by the way of “e-tribalizing.”
Research limitations/implications
The current study was conducted in confined geographical locations and limited in sample size; thus, the issue of generalization may prevail, but forthcoming researchers may exercise the techniques with better probabilistic sampling technique. The mass customization of the website features by comparing attribute orientation of customers around websites was recommended with the third-party certification to reduce the consumers’ perceived risk during online shopping. Finally, the different levels, such as Facebook fan page in ORM and Everyday Low Price (EDLP) in pricing may be considered for the future research work.
Originality/value
The research studies on online shopping behavior with Web interactivity, e-WOM, perceived risk, brand loyalty, ORM and price using a decompositional technique are scant. This study persuades the customers to go for online shopping by putting them in the almost real-time purchasing scenario. The study confirmed the need of people to retribalize through e-tribalization by the way of customization for the masses in the context of online shopping.
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The purpose of this paper is to identify and explore how different stakeholders represent communist and revolution heritage for tourism, with a case-study on Bucharest, the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify and explore how different stakeholders represent communist and revolution heritage for tourism, with a case-study on Bucharest, the capital city of Romania. The research attempts to identify gaps and tensions between representation makers on communist heritage tourism.
Design/methodology/approach
The research employs a range of qualitative methods in order to explore communist heritage tourism representation from different perspectives: content analysis of secondary data in the form of government, industry and media destination promotional material; interviews with a range of representation producers (government, industry and media); focus groups with potential tourists; and content analysis of user generated content under the form of blogs by actual visitors to Bucharest.
Findings
Findings reveal that there are gaps between the “official” or government representations of communism and revolution heritage and “unofficial” or industry, media and tourists’ representations. The research confirms and builds on Light’s (2000a, b) views that communist heritage is perceived as “problematic” by government officials and that attempts have been made to reinterpret it in a different light. The process of representation is made difficult by recent trends such as the increase in popularity of communism heritage tourism in countries such as Germany or Hungary. The potential of communist and revolution heritage to generate tourism is increasingly being acknowledged. However, reconciliation with “an unwanted” past is made difficult because of the legacy of communism and the difficulties of transition, EU-integration, economic crisis or countless political and social crisis and challenges. The “official” and “unofficial” representations successfully coexist and form part of the communism and revolution heritage product.
Research limitations/implications
The research attempts to look at the representation of communism heritage from different angles, however, it does not exhaust the number of views and perspectives that exist on the topic. The research only records the British and Romanian perspectives on the topic. The topic is still in its infancy and more research is needed on communism heritage tourism and representation.
Originality/value
The research identifies and explores gaps, agreements and disagreements over the representation of communist and revolution heritage in Bucharest, Romania.
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Alberto Ferraris, Filippo Monge and Jens Mueller
In several studies, it has been found that organizational performance is affected by ambidextrous IT capabilities. Nevertheless, business processes are essential to the value…
Abstract
Purpose
In several studies, it has been found that organizational performance is affected by ambidextrous IT capabilities. Nevertheless, business processes are essential to the value generation conversion of IT investment into performance. In the literature, this focus on the impact of IT capabilities at the business process level is still under investigated. So, the purpose of this paper is to test the effects of explorative and exploitative business process IT capabilities on business process performances (BPP) and the positive moderator role of business process management (BPM) capabilities.
Design/methodology/approach
This analysis has been done through a quantitative study in the Italian hotel industry. An OLS regression analysis has been carried out on a sample of 404 firms.
Findings
The study identifies distinct effects related to exploration and exploitation and finds a moderating effect of BPM capabilities, explaining their positive impact on BPP.
Originality/value
The main purpose of the paper is to contribute to the area of business process management by demonstrating the importance of both explorative and exploitative IT capabilities for a business process as well as the managerial capabilities at the process level. Furthermore, this focus at the process level allows us to add original insights into research on ambidexterity by expanding existing works.
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