Understanding second-hand retailing: A resource based perspective of best practices leading to business success

ABSTRACT Second-hand clothing has been traded since the Renaissance era, and widely consumed by a majority of the populace. However, very few studies concerning second-hand retailing and consumer preferences have been conducted, especially in the United States. The present study was conducted to understand second-hand retailers\u27 current marketing practices, sourcing strategies, and resources that lead to their business success. Moreover, unique features and definitions of three specialized types of second-hand retailers (e.g., vintage stores, consignment stores, and thrift stores) were discussed through a typology. Resource-based theory (RBT) (Barney, 1991) and the Four Experiential Realms (4Es) (Pine & Gilmore, 1999) were used to frame the qualitative study. Owner-managers (N=13) of three specialized types of second-hand retail stores (vintage, consignment, and charity/thrift) in the Midwestern U.S. were recruited for the study. To obtain candid responses from participants, an open-ended, semi-structured questionnaire was used. A grounded theory approach using open coding and axial coding was employed for data analysis and interpretation. Four major themes were identified from the results of this study: business background and motivations, resources generated for second-hand retail business, marketing and management plans, and definition of second-hand retailing. Concerning the theme, definition of second-hand retailers, each specialized type of second-hand retailer (e.g., vintage, consignment, and thrift stores) was defined and classified by contrasting similarities and differences among formats. Unique features of each specialized type of second-hand retailer were also discussed. Although all types of second-hand retailers are similar in the sense of dealing with used items, this study revealed that each possesses distinctive characteristics. Second-hand retailers\u27 business resources that lead to their business success were discussed within the theme, resources generated for second-hand retail business. A majority of second-hand businesses are operated by owning one or two physical stores. Critical resources possessed by thrift stores are balers, used for baling unsold clothes and sending them to trading companies. Owner-managers were very supportive to assist their neighboring communities, and made efforts to maintain network relationships with counselors and business partners. Some vintage stores often sold exclusive items through alternative retail channels, such as websites, movie productions, and social connections. Finally, diverse types of sourcing methods and suppliers for each specialized type of second-hand retailer were discussed. Second-hand retailers\u27 marketing and management plans that enhance business growth were discussed within the theme, marketing and management plans. First, a product strategy uniquely performed by second-hand retailers was agile inventory turnover and quick circulation from racks to stock. Some price strategies were practiced by second-hand retailers by providing affordable prices to approach various types of customers. Second-hand retailers specifically focused on maintaining relationships with customers and customer services, such as welcoming and greeting, finding a proper outfit for customers, and searching for items customers requested. Experiential, entertainment, esthetic, and escapist experiences were offered to customers so customers not only consume products and services, but also enjoy second-hand stores\u27 unique atmosphere. This study is a beginning point for second-hand retailing research in the U.S. By identifying information about second-hand retailing and U.S. markets, this study inspires and encourages other researchers to conduct future studies by utilizing the findings from this study. For future studies, investigating each specialized type of second-hand retailer\u27s business practices can be considered. Examining consumers\u27 viewpoints towards second-hand business are also suggested

Individualization and Argument Quality of location-based mobile messages: An Application of elaboration likelihood model

Location-based mobile messaging (LMM) is becoming the most influential marketing tool by enabling retailers to deliver tailored messages to customers at right time at right locations and influencing consumer decision-making. However, research on customization of LMM employing sound theoretical frameworks is still in its infancy, making it difficult for retailers and scholars to predict consumer reactions. The purpose of this study is to propose the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM; Petty & Cacioppo, 1986) as useful theoretical frameworks to predict the effects of LMM with varying levels of individualization and message strength on consumers\u27 attitudinal and behavioral responses.The proposed theoretical approach will provide new insights for retailers to leverage the efficiency of LMM strategies. In addition, this approach addresses the need for theoretical perspectives for researchers to draw a blueprint of consumer value perceptions toward the LMM. Finally, examining these propositions can stimulate a stream of research that addresses related issues

Brand Loyalty through Love for Brand Facebook Page: Roles of Opinion Leadership and Opinion Seeking

The purpose of this study is to investigate consumers\u27 motivations to participate in brands\u27 Facebook pages and their linkage to consumers\u27 loyalty a brand through the love for the brands\u27 Facebook pages. This study also examined the influences of consumers\u27 opinion leadership and seeking tendencies on their motivations to participate in brands\u27 Facebook page. The results of the study revealed both self-presentation and self-enhancement motivations influenced love for a brand\u27s Facebook page, which in turn led to brand loyalty. Furthermore, the influences of opinion leadership and seeking on self-presentation motivation were significant. Self-enhancement motivation was significantly influenced by opinion leadership, but not by opinion seeking. Brand managers must pay close attention to consumers who have greater tendencies to lead or seek opinions in their lives as they are more likely to love brands\u27 Facebook pages, actively generating positive word-of-mouth

Work schedule arrangements in two-adult households with children

The concept “work schedule arrangement” refers to the decision how many hours per week to work and how to allocate these hours across the days of the week. In two-adult households with children, the work schedule arrangement of parents is more complicated owing to the presence of children, which induces a series of activities that parents need to organize and coordinate. Besides considering personal preferences, parents also need to trade-off between working longer to generate more income and have better promotion opportunities, and working less hours to have enough time to organize and conduct other activities, especially children-related activities. In modeling work schedule arrangements of two-adult households with children, we first develop a random utility model to represent the work schedule decision-making process. It assumes that the utility of work arrangements is not only a function of work duration and other job characteristics, but also of the (joint) time to spend with or take care of the children. We therefore include the state of the children, which indicates the location where they are at any given moment in time (home, school/day care). Under the assumption that households maximize the utility derived from their work schedule, weekly work schedules for each spouse are generated, subject to observed daily and weekly total household and/or individual working hours. In order to evaluate the accuracy of the model, we compare the difference between the generated and observed work schedules of the households. The results show that the model accurately predicts observed work schedules in terms of start time, number of working hours and days of the week.</p

PALM for octet

'PALM' is an acronym of Pathway Language of Mapping, which is inspired by the movement of the northern lights (aurora borealis). The display dynamic patterns of brilliant lights that appear as curtains, rays, spiral, or dynamic flickers covering the entire sky. These moving visual images are resembled in the terms of sound spectra, which allow actualizing a temporal sonic world in panoramic sound landscape is heard as moving texture and timbre in twenty one groups under ten large shifts. To succeed in an approach of the listening perception, the groups of movements by frequency modulations in interlacing texture are shaped selectively through the observation of the 24-hour cycle live cam of the northern lights

Low-velocity anisotropic Dirac fermions on the side surface of topological insulators

We report anisotropic Dirac-cone surface bands on a side-surface geometry of the topological insulator Bi$_2$Se$_3$ revealed by first-principles density-functional calculations. We find that the electron velocity in the side-surface Dirac cone is anisotropically reduced from that in the (111)-surface Dirac cone, and the velocity is not in parallel with the wave vector {\bf k} except for {\bf k} in high-symmetry directions. The size of the electron spin depends on the direction of {\bf k} due to anisotropic variation of the noncollinearity of the electron state. Low-energy effective Hamiltonian is proposed for side-surface Dirac fermions, and its implications are presented including refractive transport phenomena occurring at the edges of tological insulators where different surfaces meet.Comment: 4 pages, 2 columns, 4 figure

Development of Mental Health Indicators in Korea

Objective: Promoting mental health and preventing mental health problems are important tasks for international organizations and nations. Such goals entail the establishment of active information networks and effective systems and indicators to assess the mental health of populations. This being said, there is a need in Korea develop ways to measure the state of mental health in Korea. Methods: This paper reviews the mental health indicator development policies and practices of seven organizations, countries, and regions: WHO, OECD, EU, United States, Australia, UK, and Scotland. Using Delphi method, we conducted two surveys of mental health indicators for experts in the field of mental health. The survey questionnaire included 5 domains: mental health status, mental health factor, mental health system, mental health service, and quality of mental health services. We considered 124 potential mental health indicators out of more than 600 from indicators of international organizations and foreign countries. Results: We obtained the top 30 mental health indicators from the surveys. Among them, 10 indicators belong to the mental health system. The most important five mental health indicators are suicide rate, rate of increase in mental disorder treatment, burden caused by mental disorders, adequacy of identifying problems of mental health projects and deriving solutions, and annual prevalence of mental disorders. Conclusion: Our study provides information about the process for indicator development and the use of survey results to measure the mental health status of the Korean population. The aim of mental health indicator development is to improve the mental health system by better grasping the current situation. We suggest these mental health indicators can monitor progress in efforts to implement reform policies, provide community services, and involve users, families and other stakeholders in mental health promotion, prevention, care and rehabilitation

Chiral orbital-angular-momentum in the surface states of Bi2Se3

Locking of the spin of a quasi-particle to its momentum in split bands of on the surfaces of metals and topological insulators (TIs) is understood in terms of Rashba effect where a free electron in the surface states feels an effective magnetic field. On the other hand, the orbital part of the angular momentum (OAM) is usually neglected. We performed angle resolved photoemission experiments with circularly polarized lights and first principles density functional calculation with spin-orbit coupling on a TI, Bi2Se3, to study the local OAM of the surface states. We show from the results that OAM in the surface states of Bi2Se3 is significant and locked to the electron momentum in opposite direction to the spin, forming chiral OAM states. Our finding opens a new possibility to have strong light-induced spin-polarized current in the surface states.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl

Enhanced cardiac expression of two isoforms of matrix metalloproteinase-2 in experimental diabetes mellitus.

BackgroundDiabetic cardiomyopathy (DM CMP) is defined as cardiomyocyte damage and ventricular dysfunction directly associated with diabetes independent of concomitant coronary artery disease or hypertension. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), especially MMP-2, have been reported to underlie the pathogenesis of DM CMP by increasing extracellular collagen content.PurposeWe hypothesized that two discrete MMP-2 isoforms (full length MMP-2, FL-MMP-2; N-terminal truncated MMP-2, NTT-MMP-2) are induced by high glucose stimulation in vitro and in an experimental diabetic heart model.MethodsRat cardiomyoblasts (H9C2 cells) were examined to determine whether high glucose can induce the expression of the two isoforms of MMP-2. For the in vivo study, we used the streptozotocin-induced DM mouse heart model and age-matched controls. The changes of each MMP-2 isoform expression in the diabetic mice hearts were determined using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Immunohistochemical stains were conducted to identify the location and patterns of MMP-2 isoform expression. Echocardiography was performed to compare and analyze the changes in cardiac function induced by diabetes.ResultsQuantitative RT-PCR and immunofluorescence staining showed that the two MMP-2 isoforms were strongly induced by high glucose stimulation in H9C2 cells. Although no definite histologic features of diabetic cardiomyopathy were observed in diabetic mice hearts, left ventricular systolic dysfunction was determined by echocardiography. Quantitative RT-PCR and IHC staining showed this abnormal cardiac function was accompanied with the increases in the mRNA levels of the two isoforms of MMP-2 and related to intracellular localization.ConclusionTwo isoforms of MMP-2 were induced by high glucose stimulation in vitro and in a Type 1 DM mouse heart model. Further study is required to examine the role of these isoforms in DM CMP

Effect of intracoronary adenosine on ergonovine-induced vasoconstricted coronary arteries

Background: This study aimed to evaluate the effect of adenosine on epicardial coronary artery diameterduring ergonovine provocation testing.Methods: A total of 158 patients who underwent an ergonovine provocation test with intracoronaryadenosine injection between 2011 and 2014 were selected. Patients were divided into four groups basedon the severity of percent diameter stenosis following intracoronary ergonovine administration: Group 1,induced spasm &lt; 50%; Group 2, 50–89%; Group 3, 90–99%; and Group 4, total occlusion.Results: Spasm positivity was observed in 44 (27.8%) cases in the study population (mean age, 57.4 ±± 10.7 years). Intracoronary adenosine increased the diameter of the ergonovine-induced epicardialartery by 0.51 ± 0.31 mm, 0.73 ± 0.39 mm, 0.44 ± 0.59 mm, and 0.01 ± 0.04 mm in Groups 1, 2, 3,and 4, respectively. Subsequent administration of nitroglycerin further increased vessel diameter by0.49 ± 0.28 mm, 0.93 ± 0.68 mm, 2.11 ± 1.25 mm, and 2.23 ± 0.69 mm in Groups 1, 2, 3, and 4,respectively. The ratios of adenosine-induced diameter to reference diameter were significantly lowerin patients with spasm positive results (0.68 [0.59–0.76] vs. 0.18 [0.00–0.41], p &lt; 0.001 in the studypopulation; 0.60 [0.54–0.67] vs. 0.40 [0.27–0.44], p &lt; 0.001 in Group 2) with the best cut-off value of0.505 (sensitivity 0.955, specificity 0.921).Conclusions: Intracoronary administration of adenosine dilated the ergonovine-induced vasoconstrictedepicardial coronary artery. The ratio of adenosine-induced diameter to reference diameter wassignificantly lower in patients with spasm positive results