Sustainability Strategies of Barber Salons

Many barber salons and other small businesses in the United States fail to succeed beyond the first 5 years. The factors responsible for the low survival rate of salons may include the limited training and education levels mandated by state certification requirements. The purpose of this multiple case study was to identify business strategies successful barber salon owners use to overcome the business management and staffing challenges associated with a small pool of skilled barbers and the high turnover in a low wage profession. The theory of transformational leadership served as the conceptual framework. The data collection included interviews of 3 successful barber salon owners who met the study participation eligibility criteria of licensed, registered, operating a salon business in the Indiana region for more than 5 years, and over the minimum age of 25 years. The 4 themes emerging from the interview data analysis were (a) barber salon operating structures, (b) salon leadership and managerial strategies, (c) licensed barber skill enhancement, and (d) salon operating strategies effectiveness and sustainability. The data analysis also involved the triangulation of the primary research against secondary data from the Small Business Administration and barber industry reports. The expertise and knowledge shared by the interviewees could serve the quest of barber salon businesses in the Indiana region to overcome the profitability and financial sustainability challenges of this industry. The study findings may potentially contribute to positive social change by improving the economic standing and welfare of barber salon owners and professionals in the community

THE IMPORTANCE OF FAN ENGAGEMENT AND FAN MANAGEMENT IN SPORTS

This investigation explores the current state of fan management and engagement in the sports management, and its growing importance within sports clubs as a driver of revenue. Among the different aspects embedded in sports organizations’ management, “fan experience” has become one of the most relevant and innovative concepts developed. In 1980s, ticketing represented 90% of the turnover; currently, ticketing accounts for between 15% and 20% of revenue. Revenue is now largely derived from other sources of entries: e.g. broadcasting, TV rights, sponsorship and commercial deals. Fan experience, in this scenario, arises as a new lever for sports clubs for diversifying and increasing revenues (establishing a direct relationship between fan engagement and revenues). Leveraging my position as Press Officer at Juventus FC, data was collected from interviews with experts in the industry, such as Francesco Campagna (Protocol Officer President Office at UEFA) and Mike Cragg (Athletic Director at St John’s University), and a survey completed by more than 100 sports fans. The results point to a positive impact from managing fan engagement on financial outcomes for sports teams

The mediating role of entrepreneurial leadership: an investigation of the competitiveness of SMEs in the UK South-West food and drink manufacturing

ABSTRACT It has long been argued that Social Capital, a concept represented by the value embedded in the social relationships of individuals or collectives constitute strategic resources for individuals and organisations. Social networks are thus perceived by businesses, particularly small and medium enterprises, as a means to access those resources, for example gaining privileged access to strategic information that could secure financial resources. In reality, and because of the inherent characteristics of Social Capital, entrepreneurs or business owner/managers who effectively use resources available within social networks are driven by a clear and compelling vision and sustained by a set of leadership attributes which are in line with the process of recognising, evaluating and exploiting opportunities. This study reinforces the concept of Entrepreneurship as a multi-social construct. Using survey data from 359 SMEs in UK South West food and drink manufacturing, this study uses a structural equation model to evaluate the relationships of interdependence between Social Capital, Leadership and Entrepreneurship Process. The mediating role of leadership in this interaction first, explains the relationship between Social Capital and Entrepreneurship Process and second, exposes the entrepreneurial behaviour common among SW food and drink manufacturers as the underlying explanatory factor of the competitiveness. Notwithstanding the prevalence of social networks, the level of brokerage appears to be very concentrated on closed networks with providers of professional services and local associations. This inadequate level of brokerage heightens the existence of structural holes which points to a situation of ‘over-socialisation’ suggesting that social norms prescribe economic action. The lack of appropriate market knowledge among ii owners/managers of small medium enterprises in the UK South West food and drink manufacturing frustrates the formulation of a comprehensive vision, in spite of the fact that values of ‘hard work’, ‘continued improvement’ and ‘ambition are largely shared among them. The main findings contribute toward a better understanding of Social Capital as distinct from social networks and the leadership role in business competitiveness. It makes a significant contribution to the debate on the integration of individual and environmental perspectives as a direction of future research on the understanding of Entrepreneurship. The study implications address policy-makers and business managers in filling the skills and knowledge gaps which are restraining the competitiveness of SMEs in this important and strategic sectorself-sponsore

Maintaining customer relationships on Facebook : case Pihlatek Oy

This master’s thesis studies how to maintain customer relationships on Facebook in micro-enterprise business. Due to digitalization, social media has become a daily practice in people’s lives, influencing buying processes increasingly. Social media’s ubiquity has evoked companies to act on it, turning competition of customers online. To keep up in the competition, customer engagement has become essential in social media activities among businesses. For a micro-enterprise maintaining customer relationships on social media is worthwhile due to the inexpensiveness of the use of social media. The research examines what are important factors in maintaining customer relationships on Facebook. Moreover, the thesis studies what kind of content engages customers on Facebook and how an increase in the company’s activity on social media affects the existing customers. The thesis is a case study based on action research and literature published by scholars, analyzing 36 social media posts shared on Facebook in three months research period. The results of the study show that the company should focus on sharing valuable content, communicating with the customers, and rewarding them with competitions on Facebook. Also, the company should be authentic and entertaining, and reply to any comments the customers are presenting on the site. Moreover, the results indicate that content should be shared on Facebook when the customers are active on the site, targeting more on daytime. Visual content as well as competitions and offers are excellent ways to engage customers on the platform. The study also reveals that a remarkable increase in the company’s activity on social media does not affect the existing customers negatively on three months research period. Maintaining customer relationships on Facebook is valuable for a micro-enterprise when the customer base is vast, spreading into a large area. Facebook offers a great place to reach customers and engage with them at an exceptionally low cost.Tämä opinnäytetyö tutkii asiakassuhteiden ylläpitoa Facebookissa mikroyrityksen liiketoiminnassa. Digitalisaation myötä sosiaalisen median käytöstä on tullut arkipäiväistä, vaikuttaen kuluttajien ostokäyttäytymiseen yhä enemmän. Sosiaalisesta mediasta on tullut olennainen osa myös yritysten liiketoimintaa, jonka johdosta kilpailu asiakkaista on siirtynyt internetiin. Yritysten tulevaisuuden ja kilpailukyvyn kannalta asiakkaiden sitouttamisesta sosiaalisen median kanavissa on tullut tärkeää. Erityisesti pienyrityksille sosiaalisen median käyttö asiakassuhteiden ylläpidossa on todettu kannattavaksi edullisuutensa vuoksi. Tutkielma selvittää, mitkä ovat tärkeitä tekijöitä asiakassuhteiden ylläpidossa Facebookissa. Tämän lisäksi opinnäytetyö tutkii minkälaisen sisällön julkaiseminen Facebookissa sitouttaa asiakkaita ja vaikuttaako yrityksen aktiivisuuden kasvu sosiaalisessa mediassa nykyasiakkaisiin. Opinnäytetyö on tapaustutkimus pohjautuen toimintatutkimukseen sekä kirjallisuuteen. Työssä analysoidaan 36 Facebook-julkaisua kolmen kuukauden ajanjaksolla. Tutkimustulokset osoittavat, että yrityksen pitäisi keskittyä Facebookissa asiakkaille hyödyllisen sisällön jakamiseen, kommunikointiin asiakkaiden kanssa sekä heidän palkitsemiseensa kilpailuilla. Tämän lisäksi yrityksen olisi tärkeää kommentoida kaikkiin asiakkaiden viesteihin, olla aito sekä viihdyttävä. Tulokset osoittavat myös, että parhaiten asiakkaita sitouttava julkaisu on jaettu päiväsaikaan, asiakkaiden ollessa aktiivisia kanavalla. Visuaalisen sisällön lisäksi erinomainen keino asiakkaiden sitouttamisessa on kilpailujen ja tarjousten julkaiseminen. Tulokset paljastavat myös, että yrityksen aktiivisuuden merkittävällä lisäämisellä sosiaalisessa mediassa ei ole negatiivista vaikutusta nykyasiakkaiden sitoutumiseen. Asiakassuhteiden ylläpito Facebookissa on tärkeää mikroyritykselle, jonka asiakaskunta levittyy laajalle alueelle. Facebook tarjoaa pienyritykselle erinomaisen alustan olla yhteydessä asiakkaisiin ja asiakkuuksien vahvistamiseen

The Curated Chronicles of the American Family: An Ideological Analysis of the Love Taza Blog

Named one of the top ten influencers of parenting by Forbes, Naomi Davis of the family-lifestyle Blog, Love Taza has transformed her family chronicles into a successful Internet business with an extensive following ( Top Influencers of 2017: Parenting ). This thesis examines the content of Love Taza to understand what messages Naomi communicates to her readers and how her readers may be receiving those messages. Using a sample of 600 posts from 2012-2017, a quantitative analysis was conducted to determine the type of content being presented. According to the findings, the majority of the posts included sponsored content and the most common theme was marriage and family. Posts were positive in tone, and most included images of the Davis children. Comparative data was examined between sponsorship and theme, engagement, and inclusion of children’s images. Statistically significant relationships were found between sponsorship and all variables, indicating sponsorships play an integral role in content selection. Expanding on the quantitative data, Stuart Hall’s (1980) method of textual analysis was used to further analyze content. The preferred reading indicates the Davis Family is an ideal reflection of the dominant ideology. The negotiated reading agrees, but considers the influence of capitalism, manifest in the large number of sponsored posts. An oppositional reading acknowledged how corporate sponsorships perpetuate hegemony and surmises that the family portrayed on the blog is not a reflection of reality, but a curated version of the elite’s ideas of perfection. This analysis demonstrates the potential influence of the blogging medium in American society

Social Relations and Methods in Recommender Systems: A Systematic Review

With the constant growth of information, data sparsity problems, and cold start have become a complex problem in obtaining accurate recommendations. Currently, authors consider the user's historical behavior and find contextual information about the user, such as social relationships, time information, and location. In this work, a systematic review of the literature on recommender systems that use the information on social relationships between users was carried out. As the main findings, social relations were classified into three groups: trust, friend activities, and user interactions. Likewise, the collaborative filtering approach was the most used, and with the best results, considering the methods based on memory and model. The most used metrics that we found, and the recommendation methods studied in mobile applications are presented. The information provided by this study can be valuable to increase the precision of the recommendations

The OODA loop and Salafi-Jihadi inspired home-grown terrorism: a tactic of asymmetric warfare

This thesis applied John Boyd’s Observe-Orientate-Decide-Act loop as an adaptable strategic model of terrorism to case study research methodology, to test the theory that Salafi-Jihadi inspired home-grown terrorism is a tactic of asymmetric warfare. The case studies examined al Qaeda’s adaptation into a dynamic, regenerative brand and its ability to penetrate Western moral boundaries. The concept of manoeuvring exploiting Western moral boundaries while simultaneously inspiring new followers is described as moral manoeuvrability

Disruption to Destruction: Exploring the Effects of Digital Disruption on the Value Creation Processes within the Field of Fashion through the lens of Service Dominant Logic

Digital platforms have democratised the fashion industry; once notoriously shielded by gatekeepers. Today, fashion’s end consumers rely less on such gatekeepers who hold industry specific knowledge, but instead, “follow” social media influencers who have shifted control from the sender (e.g. fashion brand) to the receiver (e.g. consumer). Together with a growing dependence on other boundary breaking technologies, the relevance of traditional gatekeepers is questioned, as is the holistic process of value creation within this ecosystem. Building upon contemporary service dominant logic (SDL) literature on service ecosystems, as well as the composition of value codestruction, this thesis zooms into the empirical context of the global fashion industry. To capture the complexity of individual and group behaviours within micro, meso and macro network contexts, an ethnographic research strategy was conducted, spanning over 18 months and including participant observations and self-reflexivity, a focus group, and 17 semi-structured interviews with influential fashion intermediaries. Through thematic analysis, results were presented in a series of narrative stories, which ultimately, help shine a new light on how we view SDL in regard to operant resources, the complexities of diverse ecosystem actors, and value extraction. Our theoretical contribution is to add to SDL literature with what we call the co-abduction of value and the democratisation of primary value creation. The importance of this finding is to highlight how the micro and macro level processes of a field can lead industry actors to manipulate value creation in what was previously a highly territorial industry. Our contribution highlights the mechanisms through which value creation can be appropriated, destroyed and reconfigured

Individual innovativeness and leadership support: a study on young professionals in the retail

The overall research objective is motivated by two simultaneous developments. On the one hand, due to globalization and fast changing markets, organizations face increasing pressure to stay competitive and to survive in these fast changing environments. To innovate, organizations rely on recruiting and developing their workforce. As the individual is the source of innovation, an ever increasing emphasis is placed upon individual innovativeness and in particular in the investigation of sources of individual innovativeness. Leaders are essential in the promotion of employees´ innovativeness and leadership is proposed as one of the most influential predictors of individual innovativeness. In the view of innovation pressure and demographic changes, it is important for organizations to shed light on their young professionals, especially on their young professionals’ innovativeness, as they are the future workforce. This is especially important for leaders who aim to support the innovativeness of their young professionals. Nevertheless, the importance of young professionals’ innovativeness in the retail industry is still underestimated. Hence, organizations and especially leaders may benefit greatly from being aware of their young professionals’ innovativeness as one possibility to face the challenges of innovation pressure.:I Part I: Introduction 1 Motivation and relevance 2 Overall resource-based perspective 3 Research gaps and questions 4 Overall structure of the dissertation II Part II: Foundations 1 Structure of part II 2 Individual innovativeness 3 Leadership supporting individual innovativeness 4 Summary of part II III Part III: Empirical studies 1 & 2 1 Structure of part III 2 Overall research context 3 Overall research design 4 Study 1: Individual innovativeness of yps 5 Study 2: Leadership supporting yps’ innovativeness IV Part IV: Discussion 1 Structure of part IV 2 Discussion of study 1: Individual innovativeness of yps 3 Discussion of study 2: Leadership supporting yps’ 4 Summary of overall empirical findings V Part V: Conclusion 1 Summary of parts 2 Implications for management 3 Limitations and avenues for further research 4 Conclusion References Annexes Annex A: Related to Part II: Individual innovativeness Annex B: Related to Part II: Leadership supporting individual innovativeness Annex C: Related to Part III: Empirical study 1&