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[Display omitted] •We study retailers’ store management actions and subsequent profitability.•Net store closings (NSC) are a sufficient measure of store management actions.•Ten contingent factors help explain the complex relationship between NSC and profit.•Eight factors reflecting retailer competencies and resources are internal moderators.•Two factors reflecting the retail environment are external moderators. Retailers constantly face the decision of whether to close existing stores and/or to open new ones. Closing a store may reduce a retailer’s costs, while opening a new store may increase revenue. Thus, it is far from obvious which action yields the maximum profit. Furthermore, retailers need to align these store-by-store tactical decisions with their overall distribution strategies to achieve a superior performance. Using a sample of 157 public retailers from 1999 to 2015, this study examines how store closings and openings are associated with retailer profitability. To complement extant research, we construct a parsimonious measure that captures a retailer’s store management decision, namely, net store closings (NSC). Drawing on the contingency theory of organizations, we develop a comprehensive framework that studies the moderating roles of retailer competencies, retailer resources, and retail environment. Through panel fixed effects estimation, we identify ten contingent factors that significantly moderate the relationship between NSC and profit. Specifically, e-tail experience, total experience, receivables intensity, retailer innovativeness, industry e-tail prevalence, and industry concentration positively moderate the association between NSC and subsequent profitability, while inventory turnover, sales force intensity, capital intensity, and firm size negatively moderate this association. In addition, we explore how individual measures (i.e., store closings and store openings) are associated with retailer profitability and find consistent results. Anecdotal and statistical evidence indicates that NSC is a sufficient measure of store management actions. The study has important implications for how retailers should manage their channel distribution strategies and resource allocation decisions.

\"Top Ten Business Books For 2017\" - Forbes The fully revised and updated edition of the classic book about Nordstrom's extraordinary customer service In this new edition of the management classic, the authors explore in-depth the core values of the culture that have made Nordstrom synonymous with legendary customer service. These essential values have enabled Nordstrom to survive and adapt to dramatic market shifts regularly since 1901, and the new edition explains how the Nordstrom approach can be emulated by any organization—in any industry—in every corner of the world. This is not a book about selling shoes or clothes or cosmetics or jewelry. It is a book about how underlying values such as respect, trust, compensation and, even fun, are the building blocks of a culture where employees are empowered to consistently deliver a world-class experience to customers. Nordstrom believes that the employee experience determines the customer experience, and that when you attract and reward people who are comfortable in a service-oriented culture, then everyone succeeds—both individually and collectively. No wonder Nordstrom is one of only five companies to make Fortune 's \"Best Companies to Work For\" and \"Most Admired\" lists every year since those surveys have been taken. With new interviews from senior Nordstrom executives and family members, the book explains how to successfully respond to today's tech-savvy, time-crunched customers who demand a convenient, seamless, painless, personal experience across all channels. Nordstrom gives its frontline people all the digital tools necessary to satisfy the customer—and your organization must do the same, if it wants to adapt. The authors show what it takes to earn brand loyalty, lead through change and uncertainty, and combine extraordinary brick-and-mortar with online experiences. 'The single most important reason we try to provide great service is this: It enables us to sell more, ' says co-president Blake Nordstrom, great-grandson of the founder. 'The best way for our company to achieve results is to do what's best for the customer.' In this book, readers will find: * Suggestions for becoming the Nordstrom of your industry * The ten values that define a customer-driven culture * Lessons for providing superior service and experience across all channels

01 02 Taking into consideration the recent structural changes in Japan's consumer market, David Marutschke presents an analysis of the continuous improvement strategies of Japanese convenience store operators. This study highlights the efforts of companies operating under lean management systems to reenergize their organizations and to identify new, dynamic, firm-specific capabilities in markets which are highly competitive and in an evolutionary stage of maturity. It challenges existing views that incremental innovation is directly linked to a culture of risk avoidance and a focus on organic growth. This book suggests that the Japanese strategy for continuous improvement and lean thinking is able to overcome cultural rigidity if projects that promote change include a comprehensive organizational strategy. It suggests how companies can sustain continuous long-term improvement: an objective which western firms often fail to achieve. 31 02 A clinical study of Japanese convenience stores' lean retail system 04 02 Introduction Theory and Research Methodology Historical Overview and the CS System New Challenges in a Dynamic Environment New Developments in Recent Years Discussion of Rigidities and New Approaches Conclusion 13 02 DAVID MARUTSCHKE Associate at J.D. Power Asia Pacific in Tokyo, Japan. He graduated in International Business Administration and Japanese Studies at Tübingen University, Germany. For his PhD thesis and research he was based at the German Institute for Japanese Studies (DIJ), Tokyo, and at Kyoto University, Japan, as a JSPS scholarship holder. 02 02 This book discusses continuous improvement strategies of Japanese convenience store operators. The study highlights the efforts of companies operating under lean management systems to identify new, dynamic, firm-specific capabilities in highly competitive markets. 19 02 Comparative research in Business Administration A new look at Lean Management A study of innovation

In the 1940s, Scholander and Irving revealed fundamental physiological responses to forced diving of marine mammals and birds, setting the stage for the study of diving physiology. Since then, diving physiology research hasmoved from the laboratory to the field. Modern biologging, with the development of microprocessor technology, recorder memory capacity and battery life, has advanced and expanded investigations of the diving physiology of marine mammals and birds. This review describes a brief history of the start of field diving physiology investigations, including the invention of the time depth recorder, and then tracks the use of biologging studies in four key diving physiology topics: heart rate, blood flow, body temperature and oxygen store management. Investigations of diving heart rates in cetaceans and O2 store management in diving emperor penguins are highlighted to emphasize the value of diving physiology biologging research. The review concludes with current challenges, remaining diving physiology questions and what technologies are needed to advance the field. This article is part of the theme issue 'Measuring physiology in free-living animals (Part I)'.

Background Keeping proper storage conditions at health facilities is vital to reduce pharmaceutical wastage caused by environmental factors. The expiration of medicines at the health facilities could lead to wastage of potentially life-saving drugs and unnecessary expenditure on the disposal of those expired medicines. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess pharmaceutical stores and wastage of reproductive health medicines due to expiration in the west Wollega zone of Ethiopia. Method We conducted a facility-based cross-sectional study from 15th to 31st July 2019 using quantitative and qualitative data from West Wollega Zone of Ethiopia. Results Among 23 health facilities assessed, 17 (73.91%) (4(100%) hospitals and 13(68.42%) health centers) fulfilled desirable storage conditions. Hospitals’ stores had equipment and furniture, fulfilled desirable storage conditions, whereas, a significant number of the health centers’ stores did not comply with desirable storage conditions. Challenges of store management identified were poor store infrastructure and shortage of manpower. The total value of reproductive health medicines wasted due to expire in surveyed facilities was 357,920.52 ETB (12,323.81 US dollars) and the Percentage of Stock Wasted due to Expiration was 8.04%. Levonorgestrel 0.75 mg tablet is the highest in the percentage of stock wasted due to expiry. Factors contributing to wastage due to expiration were supply and demand imbalance. Conclusion Reproductive health medicines wasted due to expiration is high compared to the government of Ethiopia’s plan for the year 2018/19. This might imply that the monitoring of this plan is poor. Even though hospitals store management is good, there is a weakness in store management in health centers. This could be due to poor attention given to health centers. Therefore, west Wollega zonal health department should appropriately monitor the wastage of Reproductive health medicines and enforce health centers to follow appropriate storage guidelines. Hospitals and health centers should not accept medicines beyond their need to reduce expiry.

In this study, the main research purpose was to determine whether artistic components of interior design in a store lead consumers to have different perceptions of the store. There were three main research questions. The first was whether consumers perceived the artistic components in a store visually. Second, based on the first research question, this study explored whether the artistic displays at the show window, around the furniture, and around the stairs were associated with consumers’ perceptions of the store as environmental-friendly. The third research question explored how the consumers’ perceptions of artistic and environment-friendly components were associated with the conventional marketing performance of the store. The 2 Stages Probit Least Squares (2SPLS) method was utilized to answer the first and second research questions and the 2 Stage Least Squares (2SLS) method was utilized for the third research question. Findings indicated that consumers had significant emotional responses from seeing artistic components in a store. In addition, these perceived art elements were associated with marketing performances, including pro-environmental perception, store differentiation, brand image, and consumer satisfaction. The practical implications were included in the discussion.

Retail food waste represents a minor fraction of the total amount of food waste produced along the food supply chain (tenfold lower than the quantity of food disposed of by consumers at home). However, the role of retailers is crucial in shaping both the behavior of upstream food chain actors and the preferences of consumers. This paper studies the causes of food waste in retail stores and discusses potential mitigating actions based on the results of nine focus groups held in 2017 with 67 foods category managers. Participants used sticky notes to outline both the causes of in-store food waste and potential actions to address it. Sticky notes reporting 228 causes and 124 actions were collected during the study. Data were analyzed across thematic macro-categories and linked to the responsibility of supply chain actors, including managers at all store management levels. Results revealed that food category managers consider in-store operations (which include their actions and those of their subordinates) to be most responsible for retail food waste. However, when it comes to proposing actions against food waste, they believe that store managers are mainly responsible for the implementation of waste reduction actions. This study suggests that food category managers are key actors to involve in the fight against retail food waste. Greater effort should also be put towards informing and encouraging store managers to take action against food waste in supermarkets.

A decorated World War I veteran, Federal Judge Robert P. Patterson knew all too well the needs of soldiers on the battlefield. He was thus dismayed by America’s lack of military preparedness when a second great war engulfed Europe in 1939–40. With the international crisis worsening, Patterson even resumed military training—as a forty-nine-year-old private—before being named assistant secretary of war in July 1940. That appointment set the stage for Patterson’s central role in the country’s massive mobilization and supply effort, which helped the Allies win World War II. In Arming the Nation for War , a previously unpublished account long buried among the late author’s papers and originally marked confidential, Patterson describes the vast challenges the United States faced as it had to equip, in a desperately short time, a fighting force capable of confronting a formidable enemy. Brimming with data and detail, the book also abounds with deep insights into the myriad problems encountered on the domestic mobilization front—including the sometimes divergent interests of wartime planners and industrial leaders—along with the logistical difficulties of supplying far-flung theaters of war with everything from ships, planes, and tanks to food and medicine. Determined to remind his contemporaries of how narrow the Allied margin of victory was and that the war’s lessons not be forgotten, Patterson clearly intended the manuscript (which he wrote between 1945 and ’47, when he was President Truman’s secretary of war) to contribute to the postwar debates on the future of the military establishment. The fact that passage of the National Security Act of 1947, to which Patterson was a key contributor, answered many of his concerns may explain why he never published the book during his lifetime. A unique document offering an insider’s view of a watershed historical moment, Patterson’s text is complemented by editor Brian Waddell’s extensive introduction and notes. In addition, Robert M. Morgenthau, former Manhattan district attorney and a protégé of Patterson’s for four years prior to the latter’s death in a 1952 plane crash, offers a heartfelt remembrance of a man the New York Herald-Tribune called “an example of the public-spirited citizen.”

This study examines how customer lifetime value (CLV) can be computed at individual customer level in a retail setting to maximize profitability. The study finds that maximum positive impact to CLV occurs when the customer cross-purchases, shows multi-channel shopping behavior, stays longer with the firm, buys specific product categories and purchases more frequently with the firm. Interestingly, the CLV follows an inverted U relationship with increase in return of prior purchases. Other interesting findings include a surprisingly low correlation between customer loyalty and future profitability and low correlation between stores' historic revenues and future profitability. Several implications are suggested for retailers to manage and maximize customer profitability as well as store profitability. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

The article investigates the attitude of fashion industry managers towards creativity competence and its application in the fashion retail industry. The semi-structured interviews with middle managers allowed distinguishing three categories of activities. In the fashion retail industry, managers need creativity competence: performing technical assignments, working with clients, and working with staff members. For this research, middle managers were chosen because they are the mediators between the company’s general managers and the sales-men. Middle managers play an essential role in bringing organization’s culture, organizing sales-men’s work, and personal development. Therefore, creativity is crucial for managers to have in mind, as the fashion industry is fast changing and dynamic. Creativity competence is effective in a team only if there is proper communication of a manager who can assure all team members understand the organization’s primary purposes and values. The research revealed that managers apply various methods for promoting creativity that includes verbal interactions: discussions, delegating responsibility or tasks, sales promotion games, accumulation and systemization of information, sharing within social networks, provision of feedback, and encouragement of independent search for solutions. This study’s results can help develop job descriptions that would attract the right employees to fashion sales. Understanding the importance of creativity in a salesperson’s day-to-day work can help look at technical or repetitive work differently, increase sales staff’s motivation, and improve sales results.