Other Business Commons^™

Marketing Activity Influences On Brand Attractiveness & Loyalty, Keiondre' Mcallister

McNair Scholars Research

While selecting a specific brand could seem simple, many variables are considered. Consumers must trust that the chosen brand meets their needs by providing value. Value differs for everyone; however, four value pillars within the value creation pyramid could explain which value attracts the consumer most to a brand. These value elements will be explored to explain consumer preferences.

B Corps’ Social Media Communications During The Covid-19 Pandemic: Through The Lens Of The Triple Bottom Line, Manveer Mann, Sang-Eun Byun, Whitney Ginder

Department of Marketing Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The COVID-19 pandemic and rising demand for transparency has heightened the importance of sustainability communications on social media to generate deeper stakeholder engagement. Although B Corporations (B Corps), businesses committed to the triple bottom line (TBL), could serve as a catalyst for sustainable development, little is known about how they communicate on social media during a crisis. Therefore, we examined social media communications of B Corps to (1) identify salient topics and themes, (2) analyze how these themes align with the TBL, and (3) evaluate social media performance against industry benchmarks. We focused on the apparel, footwear, and accessories (AFA) …

The Effect Of Cross-Functional Integration On Organizational Performance: A Look At Collaboration, Coordination, And Communication, Loraine A. Jackson

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cross-functional integration (CFI) in organizations involves a sequence of integrated tasks and activities across multiple departments and units. Modern organizations are hierarchical and have separated functional departments. This may lead to limited reciprocal communication and poor coordination. Work is often divided, categorized, and poses a challenge for CFI personnel to be practical. This challenge continues as technology and organizational structures change.

This study is to investigate the effect of CFI on organization performance. The study also looked at CFI from a triadic level of analysis, a broader perspective involving several functional units and processes within the organization. Specifically, this study …

Together We Stand: The Solidarity Effect Of Personized Sellers On Essential Workers, Katina Kulow, Kara Bentley, Priyali Rajagopal

Business Faculty Articles and Research

The current research examines how products from personized sellers operate as a source of social support and solidarity for essential workers who are experiencing elevated levels of occupational stress since the advent of COVID-19. A series of experiments show that consumers who view themselves as essential workers prefer products from personized sellers (e.g., Etsy) compared to nonpersonized sellers (e.g., Amazon). These effects are driven by higher feelings of solidarity made salient by the personized seller. Our findings document a novel way by which consumers who are experiencing significantly high levels of occupational stress during the COVID-19 pandemic may seek social …

Dynamic Pricing With Fairness Concerns And A Capacity Constraint, Matthew Selove

Business Faculty Articles and Research

Although some firms use dynamic pricing to respond to demand fluctuations, other firms claim that fairness concerns prevent them from raising prices during periods when demand exceeds capacity. This paper explores conditions in which fairness concerns can or cannot cause shortages. In our model, a firm announces a price policy that states its prices during high and low demand, and customers must travel to a venue to learn the current price. We show that the interaction of fairness concerns with travel costs can cause the firm to set stable prices, which leads to shortages during high demand. However, if the …

Reflective Practice Series: Selected Instructional Models Using Synchronous Video Conferencing Software, Martin W. Sivula

MBA Faculty Conference Papers & Journal Articles

With the vast array of resources available to instructors, one would think that instruction and teaching would yield success for all learners. Now, well into the 21^st century has much changed in the classroom? Certainly, movable desks and chairs, advanced audio and visual equipment, and a plethora of all types of technologies which might be able to enhance training and education. Over the last several decades research on individualized instruction, cognitive science, educational psychology, and multimedia instruction (to name a few) have permeated the literature on instruction. With all the research and the vast array of studies on improving …

The Case For Showrooming, Cristina Nistor, Prashanth Nyer

Business Faculty Articles and Research

Showrooming has deeply affected the retail market in the past decade. As consumers became able to easily compare prices on their mobile devices, they started using retail stores to try on and experience products and then they ordered online the lower priced versions they liked best to be delivered directly to their homes. As retailers are trying to adapt to the showrooming challenges and the shift to online purchases, stores are increasingly adopting showrooming as a new selling format. We present examples of successful showrooming and develop a framework for when the new selling format can be expected to be …

Law Library Blog (May 2018): Legal Beagle's Blog Archive, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Law Library Newsletters/Blog

No abstract provided.

Glossary Of Business Evidence, Paul C. Boyd

MBA Faculty Conference Papers & Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Herding And Anchoring In Macroeconomic Forecasts: The Case Of The Pmi, John B. Broughton, Bento J. Lobo

Business Faculty Articles and Research

We test if analysts display multiple biases in forecasting the Institute for Supply Management’s (ISM) manufacturing Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI). We adopt a test that does not require knowledge of the forecaster’s prior information set and is robust to rational clustering, correlated forecast errors and outliers. We find that analysts forecast the PMI poorly and display multiple biases when forecasting. In particular, forecasters anti-herd and anti-anchor. Anti-herding supports a reputation-based notion that forecasters are rewarded not only for forecast accuracy but also for being the best forecast at a single point in time. Anti-anchoring is consistent with forecasters overreacting to …

A Strategic Marketing And Financial Analysis Of Toys R Us, Ethan S. Thomison

Lewis Honors College Capstone Collection

The following is a strategic marketing and financial analysis concerning the highly dynamic operations of Toys R Us.

Life Beyond The Like: Uses & Gratifications Of Sharing Business Facebook Page Content, Sara M. Nash

College of Journalism and Mass Communications: Theses

One of the main reasons businesses create a Facebook Page is to solidify relationships with existing customers who are Facebook users and to leverage those relationships to gain new customers. Many studies have asked Facebook users to articulate the gratifications they receive when “liking” a business Facebook Page. These studies help explain what gratifications users gain by connecting to businesses via Facebook. To expand on these findings, the current pilot study applied the uses and gratifications theory to identify Facebook users’ motivations to “share” business Facebook content within their own personal network. Understanding users’ reasons for “sharing” will help businesses …

7 Tips To Grow Your Rural Business With Purpose And Meaning, Connie I. Reimers-Hild, Alyssa Dye

Community Vitality Initiative Collections

No one can predict the future; however, rural entrepreneurs and business owners can use a future-focused leadership approach, which includes examining megatrends, to shape the future of their businesses. Megatrends are global shifts that influence society, the economy and the environment. The purpose of this article is to help rural entrepreneurs discover ways to grow their businesses with Living with Purpose and Meaning Megatrend.

Puppy Mill Brokers, The Humane Society Of The United States

PUPPY MILL REPORTS

A puppy mill “broker” is a pet dealer engaged in the business of re-selling puppies who were bred elsewhere. Unlike retail pet stores, brokers are middleman dealers who obtain puppies from breeders and puppy mills, and then transport and resell them. Brokers typically sell puppies to pet stores, but sometimes to research facilities, often travelling great distances to do so. In some cases the term is also used loosely to describe people who re-sell litters directly to the public that they themselves did not produce, for example, by posing at the original breeder and selling them through websites or classified …

Fact Sheet On Puppy Mills And Flea Markets, The Humane Society Of The United States

PUPPY MILL REPORTS

Flea Markets are meccas for problematic puppy sellers. Since the USDA is now regulating commercial breeders who sell puppies sight-unseen over the Internet, flea markets are one of the last unregulated marketplaces for questionable puppy sellers, many of them unlicensed and uninspected. As a result, there has been an increase in the number of operators selling puppies at flea markets across the country—likely in an effort to escape government regulation.

Investigation: Many Maryland Pet Stores Found In Violation Of Puppy Mill Disclosure Law, The Humane Society Of The United States

PUPPY MILL INFORMATION

An undercover investigation by The Humane Society of the United States and ReLove Animals, Inc., found most of the pet stores in Maryland that sell puppies are apparently not fully complying with a law designed to provide shoppers with information about the origin of their puppies. In September 2013, investigators visited 12 puppy-selling pet stores in Maryland. Specifically, investigators checked to see if the stores were fulfilling the requirement that they “post conspicuously on each dog's cage” the “state in which the breeder or dealer of the dog is located” and “the United States Department of Agriculture license number of …

F.A.C.E.S. (Faculty Academic Community Education Showcase): Professional Growth Experiences In A Career University, Paul J. Colbert, Ph.D.

MBA Faculty Conference Papers & Journal Articles

Institutes of higher education exist for the purpose of developing, fostering, nurturing, and stimulating the intellectual growth and development of students. The core values of a college education provide students conceptual and practical educational opportunities that focus on improving their skills and knowledge. These skills and knowledge translate into purposeful, real-life learning experiences. However, in the academic community, learning is not restricted to students. Faculty, too, must be supported and provided opportunities for personal and professional growth and development. Although professional development is not a novel concept in the education profession, schools often take up the gauntlet, but fall short …

The Hsus Investigates: Chicagoland Pet Stores, The Humane Society Of The United States

PUPPY MILL INFORMATION

Over three days (October 29-31, 2012), an HSUS investigator and a local Chicago resident visited 12 Chicagoland pet stores to find out where the cute little puppies in the windows were bred. Again and again, salespeople denied that their puppies came from puppy mills, and most did not comply with a law passed in 2010 by the State requiring pet shops to “post in a conspicuous place in writing on or near the cage of any dog or cat available for sale the information required by subsection (a) of this section.” The information required includes the price, age, health and …

Library Marketing And Graphic Design, John M. Passa

Senior Honors Projects

As the University of RI moves into the new millennium, it has created its brand, “Think Big, We Do”. This brand requires different collaborative marketing strategies for different units within the university. Academic libraries provide intellectual products, consumed by a specific audience.

Marketing academic libraries entails a market analysis of the target audience, creating a strategic plan to address the library’s marketing audience, and designing a marketing instrument. The target audience of the University Libraries was identified as college students under the age of 25 because of academic requirements, cost of textual materials, and access to electronic resources. Using library …

Hsus Investigates: New York Puppy Stores, The Humane Society Of The United States

PUPPY MILL INFORMATION

In response to concerns about the sources of puppies in New York pet stores, The HSUS’s Investigations unit conducted a hidden-camera investigation of 11 New York pet stores, visited many of their puppy suppliers, and studied interstate puppy shipping documents for more than 100 New York pet stores in all. Our investigation concluded that, regardless of what pet stores’ sales staff tell shoppers about their puppy sources, all of the stores investigated were buying from inhumane mass-breeding facilities known as puppy mills -- including some of the worst known puppy mills in Missouri and other top puppy mill states.

Developing A Culturally Responsive Classroom Collaborative Of Faculty, Students, And Institution, Paul J. Colbert

MBA Faculty Conference Papers & Journal Articles

Culture is integral to the learning process. It is the organization and way of life within the community of students and teachers and directs the way they communicate, interact, and approach teaching and learning. Although founded in particular values and principles, the academy, like most organizations, is impacted day-to-day by its culture. Yet, the traditional higher education institution has not been designed to operate within a racially or ethnically diverse student population. The social, political, economic, and cultural forces that support the institution influence the teaching and learning environments. To better address cultural diversity in the classroom, faculty must first …

The Sustainability Liability: Potential Negative Effects Of Ethicality On Product Preference, Michael G. Luchs, Rebecca W. Naylor, Julie R. Irwin, Rajagopal Raghunathan

Mason School of Business Articles

Manufacturers are increasingly producing and promoting sustainable products (i.e., products that have a positive social and/or environmental impact). However, relatively little is known about how product sustainability affects consumers' preferences. Theauthors propose that sustainability may not always be an asset, even if most consumers care about social and environmental issues. The degree to which sustainability enhances preference depends on the type of benefit consumers most value for theproduct category in question. In this research, the authors demonstrate that consumers associate higher product ethicality with gentleness-related attributes and lower product ethicality with strength-related attributes. As a consequence of these associations, the …

Petland Investigation Report, The Humane Society Of The United States

PUPPY MILL INFORMATION

America's largest chain of puppy-selling pet stores, Petland Inc., is also the nation's largest retail supporter of puppy mills. There are more than 200 Petland stores worldwide, with about 140 in the U.S. Collectively, these stores sell tens of thousands of puppies each year. On November 20, 2008 The Humane Society of the United States (The HSUS) revealed the results of a shocking eight-month investigation of Petland stores. The investigation reveals that Petland stores across the country have marketed puppy-mill puppies to unsuspecting consumers.

Entrepreneurial Orientation As A Basis For Classification Within A Service Industry: The Case Of Retail Pharmacy Industry, Thanigavelan Jambulingam, Ravi Kathuria, William R. Doucette

Business Faculty Articles and Research

To date, service classification research has primarily taken a macro view, creating service typologies or taxonomies by using dimensions such as customer contact or degree of labor intensity. Such classification schemes, though helpful in deciphering critical management issues and positioning strategies between service industries, tend to treat an entire industry, such as airlines, as a single homogenous entity. However, organizations in the same industry often use intangible resources, such as entrepreneurial orientation processes, to compete with one another. Resource-advantage theory suggests that organizations utilize intangible resources to build long-term strategies and a sustainable competitive advantage leading to superior performance. We …

Obesity, Educational Attainment, And State Economic Welfare, Martin W. Sivula Ph.D.

MBA Faculty Conference Papers & Journal Articles

For the first time in history, estimates of the overweight people in the world rival estimates of those malnourished. The World Health Organization (WHO, 2002) ranked obesity among the top 10 risks to human health worldwide. In the early 1960s, nearly half of the Americans were overweight and 13% were obese. Today some 64% of U.S. adults are overweight and 30.5% are obese. Even more alarming, twice as many U.S. children are overweight than were twenty years ago, a 66% increase. Non-communicable diseases impose a heavy economic burden on already strained health systems. Health is a key determinant of development …

Sampling Concepts, Paul Boyd, Ph.D.

MBA Faculty Conference Papers & Journal Articles

The usefulness of any research is dependent upon how well the group studied represents the group about which decisions are to be made or conclusions drawn. That is, it depends upon how well the sample reflects relevant characteristics of the population. When it is possible to study every member of that group there is no problem, for on these occasions we can easily calculate the exact attribute (parameter) of interest for our population.

For example, if we were interested in determining the average number of gallons of gasoline sold to customers at our service station yesterday, we …

Autopoint Pencils 1981, Autopoint Inc., Robert L. Bolin Depositor

Autopoint Pencils Trade Catalogs

The Autopoint Company was founded in Chicago around 1920 and grew dramatically in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. It pioneered use of Bakelite and other plastics to create mechanical pencils. It specialized in production of advertising pencils. By the 1960s, Autopoint had a sales force spread across the country, a large array of products, a factory in Chicago, and a corporate apparatus. It produced tens of thousands of pens a year.

Although Autopoint had had a number of corporate owners, it had operated as a free-standing company until the 1960s. In the late 1960s, new corporate owners dismantled the corporate …

Autopoint Imprinted Chart Availability Catalog [C.1981], Autopoint Inc., Robert L. Bolin Depositor

Autopoint Pencils Trade Catalogs

Around 1980, businessmen in Janesville, WI, bought Autopoint from Papermate and established Autopoint Janesville as a small business with a few employees and small-scale manufacturing and sales operations. In 1981, the new Autopoint company issued a new catalog to advertise itself to the world.

This catalog was apparently issued to accompany the 1981 catalog. Autopoint has sold advertising pencils for many years. One way advertisers have increased the value of their pencils by imprinting them with calendars and useful charts and tables. This catalog lists charts and tables that are available for printing on pencils.

Although it is not dated, …

Autopoint 1982, Autopoint Janesville, Robert L. Bolin Depositor

Autopoint Pencils Trade Catalogs

Around 1980, businessmen in Janesville, WI, bought Autopoint from Gillette which had been manufacturing Autopoint pencils for about 10 years. They established Autopoint Janesville as a small business with few employees and a small-scale manufacturing and sales operations. In 1981, the new Autopoint company issued a catalog to advertise itself to the world

This is the second catalog issued by the new Autopoint Janesville company. It is accompanied with a Special Order Form and a cover letter signed by David Griffiths, the president.

Interestingly, Autopoint had resumed using product names in addition to Model numbers for its pencils. The “Twin …

Autopoint 1976 Catalog, Autopoint, Inc., Robert L. Bolin Depositor

Autopoint Pencils Trade Catalogs

The Autopoint company was founded around 1920 in Chicago. The founders pioneered using molded plastic to make mechanical pencils. In the mid1920s, the Bakelite Corporation took over ownership of Autopoint. Over the next 40 years Autopoint had several different corporate owners, but it continued to operate as a stand-alone company with its own officers, employees, manufacturing plant, sales force, etc. Around 1970, the situation changed radically, Gillette bought Autopoint and integrated it with it’s Paper Mate division. Manufacture and management was transferred to Paper Mate facilities and personnel.

This is a catalog issued during the period of ownership by Gillette. …