Linda K. Good

Ethnocentrism of Polish and Russian consumers: are feelings and intentions related

Investigates ethnocentric tendencies of Polish and Russian consumers and whether tendencies vary by country, demographic characteristics and store type (formerly state owned or private). Examines whether ethnocentrism affects product selection decisions. Poles are significantly more ethnocentric than Russians. Ethnocentric Poles are older, more likely to be female, less educated, and have lower incomes than less ethnocentric consumers. For Russians, the more ethnocentric consumers are less educated. Degree of ethnocentrism is not related to purchase intention for Poles but is related for Russians. Consumers who shop at formerly state‐owned stores are significantly more ethnocentric than private store shoppers for both countries.

Consumer ethnocentrism, product necessity and Polish consumers’ perceptions of quality

Poland appears to be an attractive consumer market, based on strong demand for consumer products during the past several years. However, this may not be the case for Western marketers, because of the influence of strong feelings of national pride on behavior of Polish consumers. Measures of consumer ethnocentrism may provide Western marketers with the information necessary to target consumers who do not allow nationalistic feelings to influence product quality evaluation and purchase behavior. Also, the necessity of the product to consumers may provide marketers with clues on which products will be accepted in the Polish marketplace. The purpose of this study is to learn, for various consumer products, whether Polish consumers’ perceptions of product quality differ based on consumer ethnocentric tendency, product necessity, and country of origin. A repeated measures ANOVA test provides empirical evidence that perceived quality differs by necessity, by product, by country, and consumer ethnocentrism influences quality perceptions of Polish consumers.

Assessing Hierarchical Differences in Job-Related Attitudes and Turnover among Retail Managers

A model of organizational turnover is expended from previously reported models to include an extraorganizational antecedent and comparison across two different hierarchical levels of management. Role ambiguity, role conflict, and work-family conflict were used as antecedents of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, intent to leave, and actual turnover. The basic model of turnover was supported in both levels of management. In addition, several additional relationships that have been found in previous studies were tested. Implications of these results for retail managers are discussed.

Fashion Involvement: An Instrument Validation Procedure:

The purchase of apparel items is classified as a high involvement activity. A majority of the involvement research deals with product-specific measures of involvement. Recently, a general measure of involvement, the Personal Involvement Inventory (PII), was developed to be used across a wide variety of product categories (Zaichkowsky, 1985). One objective of this study was to use the PII to determine womens fashion apparel involvement across two fashion-oriented groups. In addition, the measures convergent validity was investigated by comparing its performance with two product-specific involvement measures. The sample consisted of two groups, womens specialty store customers (n=220), aged 30-50, and female home economics students (n=103), aged 18-20. Data were collected through a questionnaire distributed to both groups. Both groups were more highly involved with apparel than the Zaichkowsky groups were with most other products, cars being the lone exception. Despite its more general form, the PII demonstrated convergent validity in that the intercorrelations between the three involvement measures were signiricant (p < .01). Results indicated that the PII is both a reliable and valid measure of the involvement construct.

Job motivators in Russian and Polish retail firms

Success of retail firms is dependent on a motivated workforce, yet little is known about what job characteristics motivate employees from former command economies. Investigates 11 valent job motivators for Russian and Polish retail sales staff and their expectations of receiving these rewards. Retail sales managers rated the importance of these motivators to their employees. Data were collected in two Russian and two Polish cities. The most important motivators to Russian and Polish sales employees are pay and friendliness of co‐workers. In most cases, managers’ perceptions of job motivators were similar to their employees. The expectation of receiving incentives were measured and results show both Russian and Polish employees had significantly lower expectations of receiving all 11 job motivators relative to the importance they attached to them.

Consumer ethnocentrism, product necessity and quality perceptions of Russian consumers

Retail buyers in Russia have indicated that some customers have expressed a desire to purchase domestically produced products over imports. Consumer ethnocentrism has been proposed as a measure to provide retail buyers with the information necessary to market to these consumers. The purpose of this research is to determine if perceived product quality of products differs based on country of origin, product necessity and consumer ethnocentric tendency. A repeated measures ANOVA test indicates that perceived quality differs by necessity, by product, by country. A consumer ethnocentrism effect on the overall model, however, was not significant. We conclude that Russian consumers do perceive differences in product quality based on country of origin and product necessity, but that consumer ethnocentrism does not have an effect on perceived product quality.

Worker Morale in Russia: An Exploratory Study

Despite unanimous agreement in the existing literature that morale influences employee performance, no well-defined measure of morale exists. Our study develops a robust measure of morale and focuses on the factors that influence morale among Russian workers. Survey data were collected from Russian employees at two different points in time, 1995 and 2002, in five Russian cities. Among the workers participating in our study, expectation of receiving a desired reward contributes to high morale, with expected monetary rewards having a larger influence than expected non-monetary rewards, but praise for a job well done and a feeling of accomplishment also contribute positively to employee morale. There is a significant correlation between positive attitudes toward work and morale, and a positive correlation between performance assessment and morale. Demographic characteristics (age and gender) have no discernable influence on morale when controls are included for work experience.

Met expectations during role transitions of retail executive trainees

Examines met expectations of retail trainees within a job context framework that consists of five job characteristics. The job characteristics of autonomy, skill variety, task significance, task identity, and feedback from others have been linked to job outcomes such as job satisfaction. Results indicated that for each job characteristic, expectations were higher initially than actually experienced one year later. Three of the five characteristics (feedback, autonomy, and skill variety) were important in predicting job satisfaction. Demographic variables of gender and work experience yielded significant differences of met expectations for two job characteristics.

Entering Eastern European markets: Lessons from Kmart

Abstract Kmart completed its purchase of 13 stores in the Czech Republic and Slovakia in May/June 1992. Using interviews conducted in June 1993 with directors of Kmart-Czech Republic and Slovakia and a vice director of its major Prague competitor, Kotva, this paper analyzes the strategies Kmart is using to position itself in Eastern Europe for both retail sales and product acquisition and distribution. Four lessons to be learned from Kmart were identified: (1) internationalize what you do well; (2) know your customers by listening to them and adapting to their needs; (3) be flexible and change if a strategy does not work; and (4) balance short-and long-term gains.

Conversion intentions of interns: what are the motivating factors?

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to investigate interns’ supervisory support expectations, psychological contract obligations, job satisfaction, perception of advancement opportunities and affective organisational commitment in an attempt to gain a better understanding of how these variables influence interns’ conversion intentions.Design/methodology/approach – This study focuses on college juniors and seniors who were enrolled in retail/service programs at one of three major US universities, and successfully completed a retail/service internship. An online survey was used to assess the influence of interns’ psychological contract expectations regarding employer obligations, supervisory support expectations, job satisfaction, perception of advancement opportunities, and affective organisational commitment on interns’ conversion intentions (intent to accept an offer for full‐time employment).Findings – Findings indicate that employers can establish a foundation for intern retention by fulfilling obli...