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In this chapter, the authors consider the progress and present state of star scholarship, while planting seeds for future inquiry where we believe fruitful opportunities await – both in furthering our understanding of stars and in more effectively situating this understanding in the talent management literature. Following a reflection on the multiple conceptualizations of stars that have been proposed and employed in star research in recent years, we suggest that the most useful conceptualization of stars is one that focuses simply on stars’ exceptional contributions to value creation – allowing the specific mechanisms of value creation to vary, as they do, across contexts. Next, the authors review recent progress in star scholarship – highlighting advances in scholarship on both the favorable and unfavorable influences of stars in organizations, as well as recent research shedding light on the professional experiences of stars as employees. The authors then turn their attention to future scholarship, specifically noting opportunities for research in two veins: how stars’ motivations, contributions, and experiences may evolve over the course of their careers and how stars and their broader work environments are best managed. Finally, we share thoughts on ways in which scholars can think about increasing the practical value of research on stars, primarily by integrating insights from research on stars with ideas rooted more squarely in the talent management literature which focuses on the deliberate identification, support, and management of individuals deemed to be equipped to create exceptional value in organizations.

This chapter proposes that efforts to improve our understanding of factors affecting migrant health and longevity in the United States must consider migrants’ labor market incorporation and the structural conditions under which they work. I use public-use death certificate data to examine whether there is a mortality penalty for foreign-born workers in the secondary sector industries of agriculture and construction. I focus on the decade of the 1990s for two contextual and empirical reasons: (1) the decade was characterized by economic restructuring, restrictive immigration policy, increased migration, and dispersion of migrants to new geographic destinations; and (2) the 1990s is an opportunistic decade because 19 states coded the industry and occupation of the decedent during this time. These numerator mortality data and Census denominator data are used to compare all-cause mortality rates between working-age (16–64 years) US-born and foreign-born agricultural and construction workers, the overall foreign-born population, and foreign-born workers in health care – an industry where the foreign-born tend to work in well-paid occupations that are well-regulated by the state. The results show a clear mortality penalty for foreign-born workers in agriculture and construction compared to the overall foreign-born population and foreign-born healthcare workers. The results also show the mortality penalty for foreign-born secondary sector workers varies by industry. These findings support the argument that bringing work into our analyses is critical to understanding the contextual and structural factors affecting migrant health and survival.

The purpose of this paper is to obtain empirical evidence on the impacts of socio-economic and demographic factors on the fertility decisions taken by a common family in developing countries like Pakistan. Also, this study contravenes the conventional orthodoxy of childbirth decisions of a family by enlarging the canvas and conjectures the fundamental nexus amongst female’s education, fertility and contraceptive use.

The study is based on micro-level data, obtained from the Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (2012-2013) which is the third survey carried out in Pakistan. Demographic and socio-economic profiles of 13,558 ever-married women, aged 15-49 years, were randomly selected from Gilgit Baltistan and the four provinces of Pakistan. Three dependent variables are used in empirical analysis i.e. current use of contraceptives, total fertility and cumulative fertility. In order to estimate the probability of contraceptive use maximum likelihood, Probit technique is employed with ordinary least squares on reduced form specifications of total fertility and cumulative fertility models.

The empirical results proved the hypotheses that educated females practice more family planning through modern contraceptives which leads to a decrease in total fertility rates. Some significant links among females’ education, contraceptive use and fertility define the quantity – quality trade-off and opportunity cost of time. Evidently, female education provides maturity and awareness of family size which is necessary to take crucial economic decisions.

The empirical evidence suggests that maximum efforts should be made toward women’s education. The current standard of education in Pakistan is not enough to overcome the long-standing problem of excessive child birth. This could be done with the help of public – private partnership as the measures taken by the government alone are insufficient. The government should initiate some adequate measures such as education and awareness about contraceptive usage at the secondary school level that could be a vivacious step to support fertility reduction.

The framework used in this study provides a broader intra-household income–expenditure approach. With a smaller family size, the household’s income would be shared among fewer individuals. It is highly probable that parents would be more attentive if they need to look after a few children. That is the best way to progress their children with limited resources.

From the socioeconomic perspectives, educated parents plan the ideal family size which allows them to spend more on their children’s upbringing.

This study captures the magnitude of fertility decisions with the relevance of the wife’s education because the present practice in Pakistan does not allow higher education for married women. This is why this study could be used as a benchmark for further study in the same area.

Change is an essential business trait. Manufacturing particularly is transforming at an unprecedented pace. Adopting effective management practices, capable of keeping pace with the changing technological environment, is particularly important to success in global markets. Manufacturers employing advanced manufacturing technology (AMT) are often more flexible than their traditional counter‐parts since AMT permits the integration of product design and production processes. Consequently, this synergistic effect facilitates achievement of world‐class manufacturing objectives. Despite obvious advantages, sparse research exists concerning achieving AMT competitive advantages. To incorporate AMT organizationally, management must be cognizant of the requirements for successful AMT implementation. Provides managerial requirements for successfully achieving AMT competitive advantages. Assuming management understands the “how” of doing things right and incorporates the necessary corporate cultural changes to embrace AMT, manufacturing strategic planning can lead the organization towards “what” are the right things to pursue. Therefore, strategic planning is given substantial consideration.

Are White and Asian job applicants advantaged in access to professional jobs relative to Black and Latinx job applicants at the initial screening stage of the hiring process? And, are the mechanisms of advantage for White applicants different than the mechanisms for Asian applicants? In this chapter, the author proposes a theoretical framework of “parallel mechanisms” of White and Asian advantage during hiring screening – that White and Asian applicants are advantaged compared to Black and Latinx applicants, but that the mechanisms of advantage subtly differ. The author focuses specifically on mechanisms related to two important factors at the hiring interface: referrals and educational attainment. The author applies the concept of parallel mechanisms to a case study of software engineering hiring at a midsized high technology firm in Silicon Valley. The author finds that at this firm, White applicants are advantaged at initial screening relative to Black and Latinx applicants due to average racial differences in applicant characteristics – namely having a referral – as well as differences in treatment by recruiters. For Asian applicants, average racial differences in possession of elite educational credentials, as well as racial differences in recruiter treatment, explain the racial disparity in callbacks. The author discusses the implications of parallel mechanisms of advantage for racial inequality in a multiracial context, and for organizational policy meant to address racial disparities during organizational hiring processes.

This paper aims to present a new framework that describes the relationship among market entry order and timing, the advantages accruing to first-movers and late-movers, entry timing premium (ETP), marketing strategy and enduring market performance of the firms. The framework, empirically tested using data from 241 business executives, expands extant research into new territory beyond first- and late-mover advantages in an attempt to reconcile a few streams of research in the area and provides an entry related, strategic assessment tool (ETP) for the managers. Contribution to marketing strategy theory and managerial implications are also presented.

Participants included informants in a firm’s strategic business unit who were the most familiar with a new product’s commercial launch, market condition at launch, competitor offerings, marketing activities and capabilities and eventual integration into or withdrawal from the product’s portfolio. Therefore, for the survey, the study targeted chief executive officers, vice presidents of marketing or sales, product or sales managers, general managers and regional managers. Both preference bias (Narus, 1984) and survivor biases among the respondents were addressed.

The research result of this study reveals two very significant aspects of marketing and marketing strategies. First, the importance of financial, pricing and cost strategies further attests to the fiercely competitive nature of the global market today and the tendency for firms to commoditize most products and services. An effective financial and pricing strategy, coupled with a higher level of ETP, is capable of leading a firm to initial market success in the product-market in which it competes. Both ETP (a positional advantage and resource of the firm) and financial and pricing strategies (a deliberate strategic decision of the management) are important to achieve this goal.

This study is limited in several ways. The effects of entry order and timing on market performance could be dependent on the types of industries and types of product categories involved. However, as the hypotheses were well supported, the “industry specific” factors would provide “fine-tuning” in the future study. Second, the nature of the product (goods or services) may also present varying effects on the relationship studied (for differences between manufacturing and service firms in pioneering advantages, see Song et al., 1999). Services’ intangible nature, difficulty in protecting property rights, high involvement of boundary-spanning employees and customers, high reliance on delivery and quality, and ease of imitation may alter the proposed relationships in the model and the moderating effects. Third, although this study used a “retrospective” protocol approach in the data collection by encouraging respondents to recall market, product and business information, this study is not longitudinal. Lack of longitudinal data in any study involving strategic planning, strategy execution and the long-term effects is no doubt a weakness. In addition, due to peculiarity and complexity with regard to regulation and other aspects in pharmaceutical and other industries, the theory might be limited to a certain extent.

In all, the integrated framework contributes to the understanding of the intricate issues surrounding first-mover advantage, late-mover advantage, entry order and timing and the role of marketing strategy. The framework provides practitioners guidance as to when to enter a product-market to gain advantageous positions and how to maintain that advantage. Firms that use a deliberate late-mover strategy could also benefit from the research finding in mapping out their strategic courses of action.

This study believes that the halo effect surrounding first-mover advantage may have obscured the visions of some researchers and managers, and the pursuit of a silver bullet has led to frenzied interests in becoming a “first-mover” or a deliberate “late-mover”. The theoretical framework, which is substantiated by empirical testing, invalidates the long-held claim that entry of a particular kind (first-movers or late-movers) yields any unique competitive advantage. It is a firms’ careful selection of marketing strategies and careful execution of the strategies through effective operational tactics that would lead to enduring competitive advantage, under an adequate level of ETP.

The present study examines the interplay between age, marital status, alpha female status and various adaptive performance dimensions among a cohort of 380 female professionals.

This study adopts a positivist approach to collect and analyse the data, utilizing appropriate statistical techniques to explore the relationships between the variables of interest.

The study elucidates the significant role of alpha female status in predicting adaptive performance. It finds that alpha females possess distinct competencies, particularly in learning and training, indicative of proactive behaviour and self-efficacy. While older participants tend to demonstrate higher performance levels, the study reveals no significant correlation between age and alpha female status, suggesting that leadership traits may develop independently of age. Furthermore, marital status exerts a modest influence on adaptive performance. The interplay of age and marital status significantly affects adaptive performance, potentially due to the Cumulative Advantage Paradigm, which is the accumulation of advantages or disadvantages throughout an individual's life course.

This study contributes to the existing literature by providing a nuanced understanding of how demographic factors converge to influence adaptive performance in professional settings. It highlights the importance of recognising and nurturing alpha females in organizations and considering the interactions between age and marital status when designing career development programmes and support systems.

It was a great pleasure to read your lucid exposition of the problem of our catalog and very profitable to reflect on your thoughtful solution. Your careful statement requires an equally careful analysis. Let me attempt one:

Although superannuation planning has been examined within the context of individual choice, life course and cumulative advantage perspectives, little research has been contained within the theories of consumer behavior. This paper, therefore, aims to examine this important issue by delving into the perceptions of retirement planning from the perspectives of both male and female consumers.

A qualitative research design was adopted to gather in‐depth information within a real‐life context in order to build theory. In total, 21 exploratory semi‐structured interviews, to assist in identifying and describing the variety of thoughts and feelings that female and male consumers hold towards financial retirement planning, were conducted.

The findings from the in‐depth interviews indicate that males and females adopt different perspectives when it comes to retirement planning. Males tend to adopt an individual choice perspective, whereby it is assumed that retirement will be another stage in life which will provide for a lifestyle conducive with their current standard of living. Women, on the other hand, adopt very much a life course perspective, which makes no assumptions or predictions about future life stages, but one that views outcomes as contingent on the circumstances of one's life.

The value of this research lies in its methodology and analysis. Perceptions of males and females in relation to retirement planning have not before been mapped and, as such, the perpetual maps developed in the paper contribute new knowledge in relation to attitudes and behavior towards retirement financial planning.

This study tests the first two tenets of the fundamental causes theory – that socioeconomic status influences a variety of risk factors for poor health and that it affects multiple health outcomes – by examining the associations between adverse socioeconomic circumstances and five measures of health.

We employ bivariate and logistic regression analyses of data from the Centers Disease Control and Prevention 2011 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS) to test the individual and cumulative associations between three measures of socioeconomic position and five measures of health risk factors and outcomes.

The analysis demonstrates support for the fundamental causes theory, indicating that measures of adverse socioeconomic conditions have independent and cumulative associations with multiple health outcomes and risk factors among U.S. adults aged 18–64.

The findings of this chapter are generalizable to adults aged 18–64 living in the United States and may not apply to individuals living outside the United States, older Americans, and children.

Adverse socioeconomic circumstances are not only associated with self-rated health but are also associated with the two leading causes of death in the United States (cancer and heart disease) and risk factors that contribute to these causes of death (smoking and high blood pressure). Improving access to socioeconomic resources is critical to reducing health disparities in leading causes of death and health risk factors in the United States.