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The power and usefulness of perceived risk theory in understanding shoppers’ behaviour has been demonstrated many times over recent years in the UK by the numerous food scares. The article explores how retailers use perceived risk in their strategies and develops the links between store attributes and risk dimensions. This re‐interpretation of previous store‐image studies provides a new conceptual framework for understanding store image and deepens our knowledge of how risk and risk‐reduction are operationalised in practice. The paper also reviews some evidence on factors which affect shoppers’ risk perceptions, e.g. age, gender, group discussion, brand name and shopping channel and discusses how the risk concept can be used by food retailers as well as presenting some ideas for future research.

This study identifies those retailing strategies which have been successful in generating high profit performance in the UK. Findings are based upon information on the financial structure and marketing strategies of 88 major UK retailers. The first section identifies the key environmental developments of the later 1970s and appraises their impact on retailers. Second, the methods by which retailers have sought to adapt to these changes are outlined. Finally, a model is developed which distinguishes successful from unsuccessful retailing strategies and provides a methodology for evaluating alternative approaches to market positioning.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a robust examination of the factors that accelerate/decelerate the divestment timing of retail banners in international markets.

The sample represents 3,235 foreign market banner operations of 132 international retailers across 144 countries using an accelerated failure time (AFT) parametric survival modelling technique.

Banner divestment is accelerated by both weak financial performance and smaller size. Furthermore, there is a synergistic negative detriment to the combination of both factors on divestment. Banner divestment is decelerated by deploying the corporation’s dominant format in the home country. Moreover, inadequately performing dominant banners are allowed more time to turn around their operations than subpar non-dominant banners. Concurrently, when host country markets are growing, poorly performing dominant banners are given more time to improve performance. When home market performance weakens, smaller, poorly performing banner divestment is accelerated.

The large data set covers more than half of the world so the authors are limited to observing corporate divestments without the benefit of the managerial decision-making process. The authors only have access to divestment data in annual units, which limits the ability to provide precise timing information. Though the authors have a wide variation in country conditions, data on smaller, poorer countries and domestic competitors is limited.

Small, poorly performing retail chains in foreign markets are divested faster than their counterparts. When retailers internationalize with their dominant chains, management tends to give these banners more time to succeed than non-dominant counterparts. Evidence also suggests that managers hesitate to withdrawal from a foreign market when the dominant banner is involved, regardless of a chain’s stunted growth and subpar performance.

This study provides the first examination of factors driving the divestment times of international retail chains using rigorous empirical survival time methodologies.

Outlines preliminary results from a survey into retail security methods employed by retailers in central Dundee, and forms part of ongoing research into retail crime in this city being undertaken on a joint basis by the University of Abertay Dundee, and Tayside Police. Considers it to be the first survey of this type undertaken at such a local level in the UK. Concentrates on the types of physical and procedural security method employed, their perceived effectiveness from a managerial viewpoint, and which of the alternative security methods retail managers would utilize if they were given a free choice by their employers.

Researchers have investigated the link between business strategy and performance, the process of resource acquisition and employment, and issues associated with strategy implementation. However, empirical investigations into the moderating or mediating effects of resource deployment and implementation in the strategy‐performance relationship have been lacking. Data analyzed in the present study lends support for the notion that the appropriate strategy should be aligned with specific resource competencies if the strategy is to be successful.

Safety precautions in the use of raw materials, in manufacturing and processing, marketing and enforcement of food and drug law on purity and quality may appear nowadays to be largely a matter of routine, with manufacturers as much involved and interested in maintaining a more or less settled equilibrium as the enforcement agencies. Occasionally the peace is shattered, eg, a search and recovery operation of canned goods of doubtful bacterial purity or containing excess metal contamination, seen very much as an isolated incident; or the recent very large enforcement enterprise in the marketing of horseflesh (and other substitutions) for beef. The nationwide sale and distribution of meat on such a vast scale, only possible by reason of marketing methods — frozen blocks of boneless meat, which even after thawing out is not easily distinguishable from the genuine even in the eye of the expert; this is in effect only a fraud always around in the long ago years built up into a massive illicit trade.

Increased market segmentation is likely to be an emerging trend in management education in Australia. To date management education has been “production oriented”, concentrating on functional areas such as accounting, marketing and human resource management. The formal, institutionalised management education industry has sought to turn out functional specialists (B. Com., B. Bus. (accounting)) or generalist managers (M.B.A., B. Bus. (management)) with an underlying assumption that these graduates will function effectively in any industry.

The article aims to focus on how information technology allows firms to deliver services by means of information kiosks.

A total of 22 exploratory in‐depth interviews were conducted with key informants in the retail and other sectors, in primarily Belgium or France. Subsequently, 14 hypotheses were developed that were tested by means of two exploratory surveys, one with 84 customers and one with nine retailers.

The findings suggest that information kiosks can be implemented successfully with up to three easy‐to‐use kiosks at the entrance of the mall or inside the store and, if retailers allow, internet access to a limited number of web sites. Retailers must keep their information centrally updated and relevant, and customers are not interested in ordering all kinds of products and services.

The study is limited by the number of respondents, both customers and retailers, and the way that the sample was taken across three different locations may not be truly representative.

The managerial implications are discussed in terms of advantages and disadvantages vis‐à‐vis the customers and the retailers. What customers want from an information kiosk should be examined so that an appropriate balance is struck between being customer‐ and technology‐led. It is also possible to look at ways that allow firms to communicate with their customers using automatic speech recognition and verification by voice.

Success factors for implementation of information kiosks have not previously been identified in the literature.

Vaping has become a prominent public health problem that has impacted young adults. The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the effects of different intrinsic and extrinsic motivations on young adults’ realization of excessive vaping and their intention to quit vaping.

A survey was used to collect data from 232 young vapers (primarily Generation Z and Millennials) to test the hypothesized relationships using a covariance-based structural equation model.

The findings of this study suggest that “realization of excessive vaping” is negatively associated with “sensation seeking” and positively associated with “deal proneness,” “environmental cues” and “negative repercussion.” The “intention to quit vaping” is negatively associated with “marketing cues” and positively associated with “alternative to smoking” and “environmental cues.” Finally, the “realization of excessive vaping” is positively associated with “intention to quit vaping.”

This study takes a two-dimensional approach to understand the complex motivations behind a relatively new addictive behavior – vaping. It contributes to the literature of addictive behavior, social cognitive theory and theory of planned behavior. Further, it has important implications for public policy and the marketing of addictive products to youths.

This paper aims to examine the consistencies and discrepancies in corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting by analyzing the CSR reports of pharmaceutical companies. Despite the major role pharmaceutical companies play in the CSR field, our knowledge of the extent to which their disclosures provide comprehensive, material, credible and accurate information on their actual performances is limited because of a lack of sufficient literature on the CSR reporting practices of pharmaceutical companies.

The authors present a literature review that serves as the basis to develop the two key research questions: Do pharmaceutical companies publish comprehensive CSR reports? Are company reports that cover more material issues more comprehensive? Using the information on material CSR topics provided by the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) and CSR reporting quality scores by the CSR-Sustainability Monitor®, the authors analyzed the CSR reports of the world’s 15 leading pharmaceutical companies. A total of 11 material topics from SASB were mapped onto the corresponding contextual elements in the CSR-Sustainability Monitor. The Monitor evaluates CSR reports published by the world’s largest companies in terms of the degree of transparency and external verification of reporting.

The analyses revealed that while the pharmaceutical industry outperforms other industries in terms of the overall comprehensiveness of reporting, certain discrepancies exist among these companies in the content of their disclosures. Specifically, pharmaceutical companies beat the averages on multiple key CSR topics. However, while disclosures on mature areas such as environment and labor relations show some level of standardization, those focusing particularly on sensitive areas such as human rights and supply chain are far from being standardized. The authors also find that CSR reports that do not include all of SASB’s material topics are just as comprehensive as those that do. A detailed analysis of US and non-US companies separately further revealed that this result is valid for both groups of companies.

Considering the voluntary nature of CSR reporting, pharmaceutical companies still resort to selective disclosure techniques to highlight their achievements in areas where they feel more confident while leaving out others that can have potential negative consequences on the company. These results underscore the evolving nature of CSR reporting in the pharmaceutical industry and call for more attention and further investigation from managers and researchers alike.

The originality and value of the research show that despite its rapid growth and wide recognition by different segments of society and business as an effective and promising concept, CSR reporting has not yet reached a point where its expected benefits are realized. Focusing on the disclosure side of the story, this paper tries to identify the extent to which the pharmaceutical industry appropriately addresses increasing societal demand for enhanced transparency on its sustainable business policies and practices.