Journal of Business and Retail Management Research

International trade had over recent years become more efficient and importers have looked for ways to keep costs down while maintaining quality. The European Union provides incentives to importers to trade internationally with lesser developed countries by reducing the entrance tariff to the EU. It provides a preferential trade agreement in the form of generalised system of preferences. However, there are many imports into the EU that qualify for the preference but importers are not registering these goods for preference so that there is under-utilization of the preferences available. While there are many studies of the generalised system of preference and the benefits that the preference provides to the exporter, along with its effects on the exporter’s economy, there are few studies of the effect on importers and how they apply the preferences. This paper explores the issues that importers face when wanting to import from Lesser Developed economies. It establishes why importers are not using preferences to the full potential. Senior management in ten European Companies were interviewed to understand the problems they face when importing from non-EU countries.

This field-based case which focuses upon Krissy, a new Assistant Store Manager at Links of London. She applied to work for the firm because she had read on their website how supportive and developmental they were yet her work experiences there were to the contrary. This paradox comes to light when she was with told by a new corporate leaderwho sought to change the company image with a last minute product repositioning. This request occurred while both her manager and regional manager were unavailable. In spite of her new job withnew job responsibilities and an“emotional” manager, she made a key unilateral decision to leave the store window displays empty overnight. This leads to a demonstrative confrontation with her manager the next day. This case was written to be employed in an introductory retail management or service marketing course although it could also be employed in an introductory management, human relations, or human resource management course.

Compulsive buying behavior is an emerging phenomenon nowadays, that has gained greater attention since the late 1980s (Magee, 1994), reflecting negative behaviours of consumers (Hafez et al., 2013). This research aims to discuss compulsive buying behaviour of Egyptian consumers, taking the “Big Five” personality dimensions as the independent variable that impacts this behaviour, and therefore discussing this topic in the context of developing countries, unlike previous researches. Although many theories exist about the measurement of personality traits, the most famous and widely used approach in the recent years is the “Big Five” model (Quintelier, 2014; Tommasel et. al, 2015), namely; openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (Leung and Bozionelos, 2004; Lin, 2010; Tommasel et al., 2015). Quantitative research design is used, utilizing a structured questionnaire. Results are gathered from 400 respondents and are later analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences Version 20 (SPSS 20). Few tests are done, namely; reliability analysis, factor analysis, descriptive analysis, stepwise regression analysis, and ANOVA test. The findings of the analysis and tests resulted in a new model, consisting of four new personality dimensions that affect compulsive buying behaviour, namely; anxiety, openness, self-control, and self-confidence. It is recommended to use the resulted model in future research, testing the effect o

Since late 2013, the demand for gold ornaments in Thailand has been increasing after the global economic crisis had less impact on gold prices. The purpose of this study was to investigate factors influencing customer’s purchasing intention of gold ornaments. Data collected from 370 respondents in Bangkok and vicinity areas was analyzed by factor analysis and multiple regression. The results revealed that there are two major factors that are significantly related with customers’ intention to purchase gold ornaments; these factors are buyer preference and expected future value. These results can help gold retailers to develop appropriate marketing strategies and enhance business success in changing environments.