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Today's retailers face significant competition due to the proliferation of both retail formats and channels. It is crucial for retailers to understand how to develop a loyal customer base for competitive advantage. To this end, we conducted a meta-analysis of 1,908 effect sizes from 319 studies on retailer loyalty over the last 50 years, to examine the impact of cognitive, affective, and social retail experience on customer loyalty toward a retailer. Our analysis shows that affective experience became more important over time and had the highest impact on retailer loyalty, 24% more than that of social drivers and 50% more than cognitive drivers. Affective experience is particularly impactful online and for retailers of hedonic or low-involvement products. Social drivers increased significantly in impact over time too. Its effect was particularly strong on attitudinal loyalty, for studies with a higher proportion of females, and surprisingly, in utilitarian rather than hedonic retail contexts. Taken together, our findings suggest that traditional cognitive differentiators such as price and product assortment are no longer sufficient for maintaining customer loyalty to a retailer. Positive affective and/or social experience represent a more defensible path toward customer loyalty.

In this research, we find that the relative effectiveness of framing a shipping promotion as “no shipping fees” versus “free shipping” may depend on temporal proximity of the promotional offer. Our findings suggest that when the promotion is on offer in immediate future, framing it as no shipping fees is relatively more effective. In contrast, when the promotion is on offer in relatively distant future, framing is as free shipping is relatively more effective. Our findings also suggest that these differences in the relative effectiveness of the two framing types may be subject to the degree of elaboration. The differences may manifest when consumers process promotional information cursorily but may dissipate when consumers elaborate more. When primed to process information cursorily, participants in our studies (Studies 1 and 2) reported higher offer evaluations and purchase intentions when (i) an ongoing promotion was framed as no shipping fees or (ii) a promotion available in the future was framed as free shipping. These effects dissipated when either the participants were primed to elaborate more (Study 3) or when the temporal aspect was eliminated (Study 4).

While research suggests that conspicuously displaying luxury goods can help men signal desirable qualities such as high earning capacity and social status, little is known about how women evaluate and interpret luxury items given as romantic gifts by men. The current research explores this under-researched question and reveals that women do not always react favorably to luxury gifts. Instead, women are wary that accepting luxury gifts may lead to relationship power imbalance, which prompts less favorable reactions to such gifts. We also test the competing explanation of relationship commitment and find that signaling commitment does not emerge until a relationship becomes more established. Furthermore, individual differences in power distance belief (PDB) are explored to test our theoretical explanation with results indicating that women low in PDB are more likely to have concerns about power imbalance. Together, these findings highlight the unique role of luxury gifts in romantic relationships and thereby advance our understanding of when and why men's romantic luxury gifts will be appreciated by women. More generally, our findings provide nuanced insights into the power dynamics between men and women and the progression of a romantic relationship. Implications for luxury consumption and gender stereotypes are discussed.

Political polarization is a marked political division in the population, characterized by multiple manifestations. The authors argue that it can affect consumer psychology, which in turn influences marketers, policy makers, and consumer welfare. The present work introduces the construct of political polarization to the marketing literature and shows how it serves as a novel challenge for various marketing stakeholders. For consumers, the authors propose that political polarization increases the salience of political identities, alters inter- and intragroup dynamics, and amplifies cognitive biases. These effects negatively affect consumer welfare, including financial welfare, relationships, mental and physical health, and societal interests. For marketers, polarization introduces a challenge to both be more sociopolitically engaged while also navigating competing political interests. Polarization also creates new opportunities and challenges for segmentation, targeting, loyalty, and product offerings. For policy makers, political polarization creates policy gaps, impedes the implementation of policy, and obstructs governance. Building from these insights, the authors consider the drawbacks and overlooked benefits of political polarization, potential remedies, and directions for future research.

While this unprecedented time of COVID-19 has resulted in financial loss for many companies, it's also produced new leadership opportunities. Remote work, at-home schooling, and socially-distancing are a few examples of the new norm and new business possibilities. As crisis proverbially breeds innovation, new businesses have already sprung up around the world in support of growing demands. History shows this growth in entrepreneurial endeavors to be a trend during times of economic downturn. More than half of 2009 Fortune 500 list and just under half of 2008's Inc. list were created during a recession or bear market. Challenging economic times often seed the growth of entrepreneurial capitalism. One reason for this growth is that startup companies begun during times of high stress tend to be capable of operating in less favorable conditions. In times of economic upheaval, even mature businesses with longer history and deeper pockets require special leadership to 'pivot' their operational strategies to stay viable. This paper explores effective leadership theories to explain the success during uncertain times.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of the implementation of safety-oriented knowledge management (KM) processes and student diversity acceptance in schools and the interaction effect of safety-oriented KM processes and student diversity acceptance over school performance and student academic orientation. Design/methodology/approach Responses of 977 American schools available in the database of the National Center for Education Statistics were analyzed using hierarchical regression analyses. Findings Results show that implementation of safety-oriented KM processes and diversity acceptance in schools have varying effects on school performance and student academic orientation. The impact of knowledge acquisition from parents on the academic achievement of students is positive and stronger in schools that are low in student diversity acceptance than schools that are high in student diversity acceptance. Originality/value This study adds value to the KM literature by exploring how KM processes are executed in American schools to improve their performance and students’ academic orientation and how diversity among students alters the strength of the relationships.

This study focuses on a specialised vehicle routing problem (VRP) to transport matchboxes from manufacturing companies to retailers through a cross-dock (cross-docking facility) operated by a third party logistics service provider. Three processes (unloading, consolidating, and loading) are carried out at a cross-dock for completely avoiding or keeping inventory for a very short time. The specialised VRP, addressed in this paper, consists of multiple suppliers (each supplier can produce different brands of products for any number of customers) and multiple customers (each customer can receive orders from any number of suppliers). A mixed integer linear programming model has been developed to solve this kind of NP-hard problem. The objective of this model is to minimise total cost incurred in picking up and transporting the matchboxes from the manufacturers to cross-dock, consolidating matchboxes at cross-dock, and in transporting and delivering the matchboxes to the customers. This study also proposes an effective heuristic procedure to solve the same problem and compares the solution obtained using the heuristic procedure to the optimal solution obtained using the exact method. The findings show that the heuristic method, proposed by us, generates near optimum solutions using significantly less computational time than the exact method.

Mapping of spatiotemporal distribution of evapotranspiration becomes important for sustainable water management as water scarcity is nowadays a growing concern in almost all the continents. In general, researchers estimate evapotranspiration by multiplying the computed reference evapotranspiration (ETo) with the corresponding crop coefficient. Such estimation of ETo requires data related to spatiotemporal meteorological and vegetation field characteristics, and however, these data are rarely available in most developing countries such as India. Thus, researchers constantly develop various methods and evaluate the applicability of these methods to accurately capture spatiotemporal distribution. The purposes of this study are to (a) examine the applicability of Hargreaves and MODIS ETo method to map the spatiotemporal distribution over Thamirabarani basin located in Southern India and (b) evaluate the performances of Hargreaves and MODIS ETo methods and compare it to FAO 56 Penman–Monteith method. To achieve these purposes, ETo data of Hargreaves method and MODIS ETo method over Cheranmadevi meteorological observatory are extracted and performances of these methods are compared with FAO 56 Penman–Monteith method. Results show that a match exists among all the three ETo datasets, and no major deviations have been observed. However, this study suggests local calibration of Hargreaves and MODIS ETo method as considerable mismatch has been observed at ETo daily value. Overall, the conclusion of this study encourages the application of the Hargreaves method and MODIS ETo method in developing countries, where the data shortage condition prevails.

Practitioners and academicians dedicate significant attention to tackling initiatives and executing mechanisms to address society’s environmental concerns. Further, organizations and researchers recognize that there is a need to implement green supply chain management (GSCM) practices as a part of green strategy. To date, embedding a sustainability dimension into supply chain management remains a challenge for organizations given the lack of systematic knowledge of the key dimensions of GSCM practices, the factors that influence the implementation of GSCM practices, and the benefits that organizations gain through the implementation of such practices. To address this problem, this study reviews 151 research articles published between 1997 and 2021 in the GSCM literature, and offers a theoretical framework that synthesizes and integrates the knowledge acquired from the reviewed literature. This framework includes various dimensions of GSCM practices identified in the past research studies, the antecedents that influence implementation of GSCM practices, and the outcomes of implementation of such practices. Further, this study offers theoretical and practical perspectives to support future research utilizing a research model as a baseline to guide organizations in the understanding of the primary GSCM attributes, their predictors, and benefits.

Purpose The purpose of this study offers a theoretical model, hypotheses and empirical analyses of how formal and informal institutions influence the ease of market entry of startups in the context of India. Design/methodology/approach A theoretical model based upon institutional and market entry theories is presented with hypotheses. Structural equation modeling is used to test the hypotheses. Findings Results of the study suggest that college preparations and a culture of creativity and innovation are positively related to ease of market entry by Indian startups. A culture of personal success is negatively related to ease of market entry. Government assistance related to ease of market entry is not significant. Originality/value This paper offers a new perspective, linking formal and informal institutional influences to startup ease of market entry. In addition, informal institutions are viewed from the cultures of personal success and creativity/innovation within the entrepreneurial domain, which is also new to the literature. This paper offers specific insights in the context of India startups and offers some interesting findings that can contribution to the literature, policy and practice.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between total quality leadership, social capital development and organizational innovativeness in the school environment. While there are research studies focused on the impact of leadership on implementing quality management practices, innovation and organizational performance, the mediating effect of social capital development has not been explored on the influence of the school leaders. Design/methodology/approach To achieve the purpose of this study, data collected from 158 principals, who participated in the Teaching and Learning International Survey 2018, were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Findings This study found that total quality learning-oriented school leaders are supportive of developing social capital in their schools, and such social capital development is very useful to improve organizational innovativeness. Interestingly, social capital development has been found to mediate the relationship between total quality learning-oriented school leadership and organizational innovativeness. Practical implications This study submits evidence for two major activities that school leaders perform: learning- and control-oriented activities, both being important for improving and measuring quality in the educational sector. This study clearly shows that control-oriented activities lean toward negatively on social capital while learning-oriented activities strongly and positively influence social capital development. From this study, practitioners can be aware and consciously promote social capital development in schools and that social capital development mediates the influence of total quality leadership and innovation in schools. Originality/value Schools can be visualized as guarded communities for creating a secure environment for students in support of learning. This research study shows that the combined cognitive capital, structural capital and relational capital mediate the impacts of total quality leadership on innovativeness in schools. Thus, school leaders should first establish a mechanism to develop social capital among their employees to bring up innovative initiatives.

This study explores the link between cash holdings and performance outcomes in public restaurant companies in the United States, leveraging the critical role played by the industry context. We hypothesize that cash holdings have positive associations with both short-term and long-term firm performance in the restaurant industry. Our empirical analyses, based on fixed-effect regression models that control for all time-invariant variables, reveal that holding cash can improve performance in the restaurant industry, in support of our hypotheses.

The concept of a virtual team is expanding as its application is growing with multiple generations in the workforce. A virtual team is now a significant issue in the 21st century because there are currently five generations in the workforce. To lead a multigenerational virtual team, employers must understand a new generation that is entering the workplace. Although Generation Z will bring new characteristic to the workforce, leadership styles must transform to accommodate a newer generation's expectations. This study explores leadership styles to support virtual teams and a new generation. There exist only a few qualitative studies on virtual teams in today's domestic workforce. The researchers wish to gain knowledge of which leadership style works for a virtual team from the perspectives of Generation Z.

In an effort to craft recommendations to managers regarding effective confidential information policies, the present paper reviewed 88 published grievance arbitration cases involving proprietary information, trade secrets, and confidential information. Most cases dealt with the application of managerial discipline for employee violations of company polices and collective-bargaining provisions. Themes that emerged included: the importance of a Management Rights clause (as well as specific Misconduct clauses and policies), clauses that address changing business conditions (such as subcontracting and new technology), employee insubordination, theft, falsification, conflict of interest, and the need for training. Additionally, arbitrators often considered specific laws that apply in health care, cable television, and telecommunications industries. Finally, several mitigating factors were noted such as: having permission from a supervisor to access confidential information, safety, and whistleblowing concerns. By attending to factors that influence arbitrator decision making, managers and their attorneys can use these identified factors to create better policies and negotiate robust collective bargaining provisions.

Not only does the flotsam and jetsam in the world’s oceans seem to be impacting the health of the world’s oceans and seas, but it appears that the warming climate and increasing CO2 emissions are impacting the global trade lanes evidenced by a greater-than-average number of lost maritime containers due to resultant rougher seas and stronger storms. We elucidate the evolution of containerized shipping and discuss the impact lost containers have on the seas and dangers to other ocean-going vessels. We also note the reciprocal effects between climate change and lost containers. The intent of our article is to shed light on these issues and we hope it sparks future research examining causal factors and their potential solutions.