Search results

1 – 3 of 3
Article
Publication date: 3 January 2017

Scarlett C. Wesley, Vanessa Prier Jackson and Minyoung Lee

Soft skills which are a combination of personal qualities and interpersonal skills that help an employer perform their job are an increasingly important concern to businesses and…

3525

Abstract

Purpose

Soft skills which are a combination of personal qualities and interpersonal skills that help an employer perform their job are an increasingly important concern to businesses and academia, the purpose of this paper is to determine how students ranked the importance of soft skills and compare their rankings to retailing and tourism management faculty and businesses.

Design/methodology/approach

A cross-sectional survey of students, faculty and industry leaders was conducted using an existing survey instrument validated by Crawford et al. (2011). Faculty who were members of retailing and tourism management professional organizations were solicited to participate in the study. Retailing and tourism management students from the researchers’ university were sent a link to complete the survey. All participants were asked to rank the order of importance of the soft skills and their characteristics.

Findings

Variations in the importance of soft skills were reported between the three groups. Variations in the importance of the soft skills characteristics were also identified between the students, faculty, and industry leaders. While communication was identified as the most important soft skill by all three sample groups, experiences was the least important for students and leadership was the least important for faculty and industry leaders.

Research limitations/implications

A limitation of the study was the variation in the sample sizes between the student, faculty, and industry sample. The strength of this study lies in the ability to provide evidence for the need to compare soft skills research results for retailing and tourism management students. Soft skills are found to be important to all three groups, but differences indicate faculty and industry need to work together to clarify exactly what soft skills students need to successfully compete for employment in the retailing and tourism management field.

Originality/value

As the work world continues to change, employers seek workers who have soft skills that support their knowledge base. While technical skills are a current part of educational curricula, soft skills need to be emphasized at the university level so that students gain expertise that prepare them to be successful in this changing workplace.

Details

Employee Relations, vol. 39 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0142-5455

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 25 September 2007

Hyun Ju Kwon, Preeti Joshi and Vanessa Prier Jackson

The purpose of this paper is to identify demographic variables affecting consumers' perception of fashion web site attributes.

3187

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to identify demographic variables affecting consumers' perception of fashion web site attributes.

Design/methodology/approach

Descriptive analysis, factor analysis, Cronbach's alpha, t‐test, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and Scheffe test for post hoc tests were used for data analysis. The online and offline survey conducted in 2004 resulted in a total of 1,026 usable responses.

Findings

The paper finds that there were significant differences in the consumers' demographic variables (gender, marital status, age, education, monthly income, and occupation) on their perception of fashion web site attributes (6C: commerce, customization, contents, community, connection, and communication).

Research limitations/implications

The findings implied that the fashion e‐retailers should reformulate their current strategies by focusing on personalization to satisfy individual customer. However because the research was conducted in Korea, the findings may not be generalizable to other countries.

Originality/value

This research takes into consideration the opinion of both online and offline consumers. This study is in the forefront of examining e‐consumer behavior in the fashion industry.

Details

Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal, vol. 11 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1361-2026

Keywords

Content available
Article
Publication date: 17 July 2007

125

Abstract

Details

Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal, vol. 11 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1361-2026

Access

Year

All dates (3)

Content type

1 – 3 of 3