Empowerment of Street Vendors: An Untapped Resource in the Informal Economy

Street vending has persisted for centuries and pervasive across the globe since it plays a remarkable role in fulfilling customer needs in the context of the informal economy. In the contemporary business context, authorities have not paid sufficient attention towards street vendors. The paper addresses the specific features of street vending in the context of Sri Lanka, various challenges faced by street vendors and possible courses of action for the empowerment of street vendors. Accordingly, location issue with lack of infrastructure, less support from the government, insecurity and unstable conditions, slow growth, lack of financing opportunities and less support from banks were identified as major challenges faced by street vendors in Sri Lanka. Proper location and infrastructure development, assurance of security including a specific insurance scheme and financial assistance are proposed to empower street vendors to enhance their performance

Influence of cognition on product component country of origin evaluation

Copyright © Emerald Group Publishing LimitedPurpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how need for cognition (NFC), a personality trait, influenced the way consumers used information about product components in forming overall evaluations of motor vehicles. Design/methodology/approach – The study used interviews from a convenience sample of 445 visitors to a motor vehicle show over a three-day period using a choice-based conjoint analysis study design. Findings – The NFC scale used in this study focused on abstract thinking. Results showed that consumers' responses to components from different countries changed their overall purchase intentions, and nationalism appeared to play a strong role in consumer attitudes to components. Consumers exhibiting high levels of NFC were more engaged in more complex assessment of the country of origin (COO) cue in their product evaluation than those who have less NFC. Practical implications – Manufacturers sourcing components from low labour cost countries need to be cautious. Even trusted brands may be sullied by components sourced from countries with negative stereotypes. Originality/value – Research on product component systems and the use of choice-based conjoint analysis in this context are novel contributions to COO research

Developing a multidimensional instrument to measure psychic distance stimuli

Douglas Dow and Amal Karunaratn

Need for cognition and product component country of origin evaluation: A conjoint study

This research draws out emerging issues affecting the business of integrating brands within television programming via interviews with key persons in the Australian industry. Themes such as relationship structures, cross-platform coordination and pricing are discussed, and the challenges of aligning objectives, defining roles, developing valuation methods and managing global strategies are identified.http://www.affiniscape.com/associations/213/files/conferences/2005%20wmc%20program.pd

Cognitive influences on product components and country of origin

Initially published as a CD-ROM. Has since been made available online.Although the country of origin literature has reported the purchasing decision making of consumers based on the origin of whole products, the notion of country of origin has become much more complex as firms source products and components from multiple locations. Car manufacturers in particular use global component sourcing to gain scale efficiencies. There is little country-of-origin (COO) research that delves into the origin of components used in the manufacture of complex products. This paper reports the initial findings of a choice-based conjoint analysis study using interviews from 445 visitors to a motor vehicle show over a three day period. The results show that some types of respondents exhibit a greater tendency to use components COO in the way they form an overall image of a motor vehicle whose components and brands originated from Australia, Japan or Germany. Furthermore, our results suggest that consumer attitudes were explained not only by individual levels of involvement but also by respondents’ need for cognition. Consumers exhibiting high levels of need for cognition were also more engaged in more complex assessment of the COO cue in their product evaluation than those who have less need for cognition. Implications for manufacturers are discussed.Amal R. Karunaratna and Pascale G. Questerhttp://smib.vuw.ac.nz:8081/WWW/ANZMAC2002/index.ht

Initiating and Maintaining Export Channel Intermediary Relationships

Firms exporting via foreign channel intermediaries, such as import agents or distributors, trade off a lack of control of the foreign channel for a low-risk market entry. Agency theory and transaction cost analysis suggest that a lack of control manifests itself in the foreign channel intermediary (FCI) having opportunities to behave in its own interests, rather than those of the exporter. Even so, management strategies that result in an alignment of the exporter's and FCI's goals are more likely to result in a perception of satisfaction in the relationship than if only one party's goals were met. Such management strategies should commence with an extensive precontractual screening step to find an intermediary whose goals are complementary to those of the exporter. After forming a trading relationship, an exporter can better coordinate the relationship by noncoercive monitoring of the exporter, and reduce the potential for opportunistic behavior and achieve a relationship that performs to the satisfaction to both parties. Greater monitoring is also likely to maintain a state of goal congruence between the parties. Conditions of environmental uncertainty may, however, create difficulties in precontractual screening by the exporter. A conceptual framework explaining the interaction between these variables has been presented, along with nine testable propositions and directions for future research.Amal R. Karunaratna and Lester W. Johnso

Developing a multidimensional instrument to measure psychic distance stimuli

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