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The purpose of this paper is to provide an in‐depth understanding of the lived experience of sex discrimination from the perspective of women in the Wal‐Mart case and unravels the daily mechanisms through which sex discrimination takes place.

One hundred and ten in‐depth statements from women who are current and former employees of Wal‐Mart, describing in detail their work experience, were employed as the main source of data. We have carried out a detailed content analysis of these in‐depth interviews identifying the mechanisms of sex discrimination.

Findings identify the specific mechanisms through which sex discrimination takes place. In the context of the current sex discrimination case, the paper provides a rich body of evidence in unraveling the everyday mechanisms of sex discrimination. It observes that instead of individual events, at important thresholds, sex discrimination is a result of small, everyday acts and gendered assumptions, which often appear supportive and harmless.

The richness of the data provides the unique, empirical opportunity to observe the process in detail, but this paper focuses exclusively on the process, and the end‐results remain outside the scope of the paper.

The paper provides a very useful source of information and practical advice for women in the labor force in identifying the supportive, nice and harmless mechanisms and everyday experience of sex discrimination.

This paper exclusively focuses on the process and identifies the mechanisms of sex discrimination using a rich source of qualitative data. It offers empirical evidence in identifying the daily assumptions and everyday mechanisms of sex discrimination. Sex discrimination in the everyday lives are carried out in disguise of harmless, nice and often supportive behavior; therefore this paper offers explanations as to why many women stay in these exploitative jobs as long as they do.

The purpose of this paper is to describe a qualitative study of small retailers, designed to uncover perceptions of resources which may be utilized to create competitive advantages and improve performance. The resource‐based view (RBV) of the firm has focused on large firms, and this study extends RBV to the small firm.

Using focus groups of small retailers within four communities in the USA, open‐ended questioning and discussions were utilized to help elicit responses about owner's resources.

The concepts of community brand identity, local social capital and environmental hostility (though not part of the original discussion guide), emerged as important constructs. Both community brand identity and social capital were articulated by focus group participants as resources which helped them to be successful. Brand identity was seen as important regardless of environment, while social capital emerged as a resource used more in hostile environments.

Brand identity and social capital are non‐economic resources which may help small retailers to compete in increasingly competitive environments. The RBV holds that to provide a competitive advantage, a firm's resources must be valuable, rare, imperfectly mobile and non‐substitutable. This qualitative study supports the conceptualization of brand identity and social capital as such resources.

Small business owners need to recognize the value of non‐monetary resources. Once these are recognized they can then be leveraged by the business owner to improve performance.

Few studies exist which apply the RBV to small firms. Only recently have scholars begun to operationalize constructs of the RBV. Researchers have not investigated social capital or brand identity as mitigators of environmental hostility. This study addresses each of these issues.

The purpose of this paper is to measure consumer‐based brand equity in the supermarket industry and to identify the strategy drivers associated with levels of brand equity for consumers' typically patronized supermarkets.

A nine state survey of consumers was conducted to provide brand equity ratings of 22 national, regional, and specialty supermarket brands.

Factor analysis yields two brand equity outcome dimensions and eight brand equity drivers. A large proportion of consumers clearly have strong feelings about the supermarkets they patronize, and that effort expended in keeping customers, service level, and product quality and assortment appear to be basic requirements for achieving high levels of consumer‐based brand equity. The top supermarket brands typically score highly on at least one other key driver of equity. Supermarket brands that use formal loyalty programs to drive patronage in general have lower levels of customer‐based brand equity.

Selection of designated supermarkets was limited by spatial distribution in the geographic area. The sample is more affluent and educated than the general US population.

As retailers search for ways to compete more effectively for consumer dollars and loyalty, they need to explore in more detail the customer‐based brand equity and the drivers of customer equity associated with their retail brands.

This paper is the first to link consumer‐based brand equity and the supermarket branding efforts that drive it for specific retail brands. In an industry with numerous choices in nearly all market areas and low switching costs, successful branding can translate into emotional commitment, shopping loyalty, and even person‐to‐person promotion of the brand to others.

In recent years, many retail industries have come to be dominated by a few extremely large competitors. For example, Wal‐Mart, Kmart, and Target prevail in the discount competitive set. Such customers are referred to as key accounts and are “treated differently” by selling firms. The accounts are given special treatment to keep them happy. The current research explores the issue of whether the extra services and commitment to key accounts are warranted. Based upon a survey of buyers within the personal products industry, the answer appears to be affirmative. Buyers for key accounts indicated significantly higher levels of customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in relation to distribution service than did the buyer respondents at all other accounts. The key account respondents apparently both recognize and value the extra efforts expended to service their accounts.

Automatic replenishment systems that restock inventory based on actual demand triggers rather than relying on long‐range forecasts and layers of safety stock have been implemented in a great number of firms in recent years. Now these same firms are taking supply chain cooperation to another level through involvement in collaborative planning/forecasting/replenishment (CPFR). The results of a recent survey assessing current levels of involvement in cross‐organizational collaboration among firms utilizing automatic inventory replenishment are presented. The results provide strong support for positive associations between high levels of CPFR and implementation of operating process change and information system capabilities. Results supported only a very weak association between CPFR and effectiveness in achieving operational performance goals.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effect of the bodying agents (erythritol, sorbitol, xylitol and polydextrose) and their mixtures on the preparation of mixed Brazilian Cerrado fruit preserves (marolo, soursop and sweet passion fruit).

The simplex mixture design was used for product optimization and the preserves evaluated by physical, physicochemical and sensory properties. The research data were analyzed using regression equations on SAS University and exploratory analysis by principal component analysis and parallel factors techniques on Sensomaker software.

The results show that erythritol and polydextrose bodying agents should not be used as pure components because they provoked changes in the properties of the final product and negatively influenced the sensory attributes. While the high concentrations of xylitol and sorbitol provided better sensorial acceptance, being considered, therefore, good substitutes for sucrose.

This research has shown it is feasible to use bodying agents in the preparation of mixed Brazilian Cerrado fruit preserves without added sugar.

The development of mixed preserves could increase population access to the Brazilian Cerrado fruits. In addition, sugar-free preserves are a viable alternative for adding value to the product and satisfy all the consumers.

The combination of properties of two or more fruits and use of bodying agents can improve sensory, physical and physicochemical characteristics of the final product. However, there are technological challenges to evaluate in the preparation of mixed Brazilian Cerrado fruit preserves without added sugar.

The article provides and interview with Dr Richard Pech.

Richard Pech answers questions about business growth, downscoping, downsizing, core competencies, and growth strategies.

Richard Pech provides views on a variety of issues connected to business growth.

Provides an insightful interview with Dr Richard Pech.

This paper explores the antecedents and consequences of consumers’ need for self-image congruence on their retail patronage of department (high-end) and discount (low-end) stores to purchase name-brand products in two product categories, apparel and home décor. It also compared online to offline shopping and considered two mediator variables, frugality and materialism.

The paper analyzed the hypothesized relationships using structural equation modeling (SEM) and MANOVA. Study 1 suggested the model using secondary data, and Study 2 measured and confirmed the relationships using scenario-based online survey data. An MANOVA test was used to compare the shopping behavior of consumers with high and low need for self-image congruence.

A strong causal link was found between concern with appearance and need for self-image congruence, and a positive relationship between need for self-image congruence and high- and low-end retail store patronage offline and online. While the group with high (vs low) need for self-image congruence was more likely to patronize department stores, unexpectedly, both the high and low self-image congruence groups were equally likely to shop at discount stores.

The findings suggest that marketing messages focusing on concern for appearance may succeed by tapping into consumers’ need for self-image congruence with brand product/retail store images. Results also showed that consumers with high self-image congruence often patronize discount retail stores, suggesting marketing opportunities for low-end retailers.

Because consumers with high need for self-image congruence patronize both department and discount stores, it is suggested that self-image congruity may be multi-dimensional. The current study is also the first to examine structural relationships to test patronage behavior between department and discount stores offline and online.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a theoretical model which investigates antecedents, consequences, and contingency factors of retailer own‐brand product advantage. The paper develops propositions and managerial implications.

It summarizes an empirical work related to the key constructs of the theoretical model and identifies gaps in the literature. The paper provides definitions of each antecedent and outcome of retailer own product advantage and discusses managerial implications of the proposed framework.

Retailers who have higher degree of customer participation, innovation, and brand orientations are likely to have a stronger own‐brand product advantage. In turn, those retailers are more likely to have loyal customers and superior own‐brand financial performance. These relationships will be influenced by retailer image, market power, number of national brands and category size, technology complexity, and competitive intensity.

Understanding the key outcomes of own‐brand product advantage will facilitate management's evaluation of current retail product development strategies. If outcomes of the current own‐brand strategy are not satisfactory, an assessment of customer participation, innovation, and brand orientation effectiveness may be warranted.

The authors are the first to define a retailer premium own‐brand. Based on the theory of resource‐based view, it is proposed a new theoretical framework that pinpoints three business orientations as antecedents of and customer loyalty and brand performance as consequences of retailer own‐brand product advantage. The framework also suggests some contingency factors at retailer, category, and market levels.

One of the key components to fraud prevention is strong internal controls. However, the greatest threat to an organization's information security is the manipulation of employees who are too often the victims of ploys and techniques used by slick con men known as social engineers. The purpose of this paper is to help prevent future incidents by increasing the awareness of social engineering attacks.

A review of the more common social engineering techniques is provided. Emphasis is placed on the fact that it is very easy for someone to become a victim of a social engineer.

While many organizations recognize the importance and value of having strong internal controls, many fail to recognize the dangers associated with social engineering attacks.

Individuals and organizations remain vulnerable to social engineering attacks. The focus on internal controls is simply not enough and is not likely to prevent these attacks. Raising awareness is a good first step to addressing this significant and potentially dangerous problem.

This paper provides a concise summary of the most common social engineering techniques. It provides additional evidence that individuals need to better understand their susceptibility to becoming a victim of a social engineer as victims may expose their organizations to very significant harm.