Mail Order Company Research Articles

Older Workers’ Informal Learning Competency

Abstract. In a co-operation between Jacobs University and a German mail-order company, we explored age differences in informal learning competency. To reconcile the needs for practically relevant results and rigorous assessment, we relied on a two-step research strategy. First, we conducted an on-line survey of informal learning competency with employees from three age groups. Second, we followed up on the underlying processes in an experimental setting. The insights into the drivers of and barriers to learning competency inform the planning of tailored ”learning to learn” workshops that can fruitfully be integrated into the company’s T & D programme to promote sustainable career-long learning.

Improving your sales with data fusion

This paper shows how a European mail order company uses data fusion in order to improve sales. To select the best data fusion algorithm, two traditional data fusion methods, that is, polytomeous logistic regression and nearest neighbour algorithms, are compared with two model-based clustering approaches. Finally, it is shown how internal and external validation criteria are used in order to evaluate the results of the data fusion algorithms.

ECJ judgment C-27/02, 20 January 2005, Engler v. Janus Versand GmbH - Entitlement of a consumer to whom misleading advertising has been sent to seek payment, in judicial

Ms. Engler received a letter personally addressed to her at her domicile from Janus Versand, a mail order company. That letter contained a payment notice whose form and content led her to believe that she had won a prize of ATS 455,000 in a cash prize draw organised by Janus Versand, and a catalogue of goods marketed by the latter with a request for a trial without obligation. Ms. Engler, as Janus Versand had requested, returned the payment notice to it, as she believed that that was sufficient in order to obtain the promised prize. Janus Versand refused to pay that sum to Ms. Engler. Ms. Engler therefore brought an action against Janus Versand before the Austrian courts. The district court dismissed her action for lack of jurisdiction, but the appeals court referred the case to the ECJ for a preliminary ruling.The ECJ held that legal proceedings by which a consumer seeks an order, under the law of the Contracting State in which he is domiciled, that a mail order company established in another Contracting State award a prize ostensibly won by him is contractual in nature for the purpose of Article 5(1) of the Brussels convention, provided that, first, that company, with the intention of inducing the consumer to enter a contract, addresses to him in person a letter of such a kind as to give the impression that a prize will be awarded to him if he returns the payment notice attached to the letter and, second, he accepts the conditions laid down by the vendor and does in fact claim payment of the prize announced. On the other hand, even though the letter also contains a catalogue advertising goods for that company and a request for a trial without obligation, the fact that the award of the prize does not depend on an order for goods and that the consumer has not, in fact, placed such an order has no bearing on that interpretation.

Barriers to accepting e‐prescribing in the USA

With the number of prescriptions rising nationally each year, it is surprising that Web-based technology is not fully embraced in the pharmacy industry as an aid to quality-assuring prescribing processes. Traditional prescription handling is done in a manual fashion with physicians hand-writing prescriptions for the patients during an office visit, giving the patient the responsibility of taking the prescription to a pharmacy or mailing the prescription to a mail order company for fulfillment. Electronic prescribing (e-prescribing) has the ability not only to streamline the prescription writing process, but also to reduce the number of errors that may be incurred with hand-written prescriptions. The purpose of this paper is to investigate these phenomena in the U.S.A. A number of hypotheses were tested using principal-components analysis (PCA) and factor analyses. As a result, a total of 55 fully employed, professional and semi-professional service management and internet users, representing a college-educated and knowledge-based sample derived from the metropolitan section of Pittsburgh, was selected. The six major constructs generated from the factor loadings in descending order of importance were: profit and risk factors, shipping and handling, saving, customer relationship management (CRM) and ethics, age, and awareness. The dependent variable chosen to be regressed against these major independent factor-based constructs was willingness to purchase prescriptions online. The overall relationship was found to be statistically significant (F = 2.971, p = 0.015) in predicting willingness to use e-prescribing options based on the various independent constructs. However, when testing the various standardized beta coefficients in the linear model, only the factor score-based construct CRM and ethics was found to significantly contribute to predicting the willingness to purchase prescriptions online (t = -3.074, p = 0.003). Although this study appears to represent the e-prescribing process in the U.S.A., the sample size and region studied are only one slice of the general population. Practical implications - Unfortunately, the adoption of e-prescribing has been difficult to attain owing to numerous barriers throughout the industry. Such acceptance barriers include lack of technology trust, associated system costs, and risk of un-securing patient health and medical information. This article documents that increasing numbers of pharmacies today are building their IT-infrastructures to accept electronic prescriptions and it may soon be the preferred method for physicians to write prescriptions. It is with great anticipation that this technology will also enhance the prescription-writing abilities of prescribing physicians globally, giving them electronic access to patient medical records and resources that will assist them in prescribing the correct drug for the patient.

Exogenous and Endogenous Antecedents of Online Shopping in a Multichannel Environment

Multichannel retailing can offer a wide range of synergies for retailers when their distribution channels accommodate consumers’ preferences and buying behaviors. Among the large number of retail types, mail-order companies are well-suited to benefit from electronic commerce. Not only can they use their infrastructure and experience with direct selling, but they also seek to use the Internet to attract new target groups in order to increase their typically small, narrow customer bases. Currently, we do not know enough about the antecedents of channel choices, especially in the mail-order sector. This article addresses this issue and draws special attention to exogenous (i.e., independent of the retailer) factors that influence online shopping behavior. These variables include perceived convenience and perceived security of online shopping in general and consumers’ attitudes toward the catalog as the existing distribution channel. One endogenous factor—attitude toward the online shop—is assumed to influence buying behavior at the online shop. In order to examine relationships between the catalog and the online shop, 2,363 consumers who were familiar with both distribution channels of a mail-order company were surveyed online. The structural equation model developed reveals that attitudes toward the printed catalog most strongly influence attitudes toward the online shop. Further, the analysis showed that antecedents of buying behavior at the online shop are moderated by gender. Shopping behaviors of men are influenced by their attitudes toward the catalog, while shopping behaviors of women are determined by their attitudes toward the online shop.

The 2003 ISMS Practice Prize Winner: Optimizing Rhenania's Direct Marketing Business Through Dynamic Multilevel Modeling (DMLM) in a Multicatalog-Brand Environment

We introduce Dynamic Multilevel Modeling (DMLM) to a multicatalog-brand environment to determine the optimal frequency, size, and customer segmentation of direct marketing activities. This optimization method leverages multicatalog-brand effects including the utilization of prior customer ordering behavior, maximization of customer value and customer share, and economies of scale and scope in printing and mailing. This enhancement of the original DMLM-approach is called Dynamic Multidimensional Marketing (DMDM). With DMLM alone, Rhenania, a German direct mail order company, turned its catalog mailing practices around and consequently rose from the number 5 to the number 2 market position. The DMLM approach was so effective that two major competitors could be bought out. Improvements provided by DMDM were threefold: more efficient resource allocation across all catalog brands, more accurate customer microsegmentation, and more effective reactivation. Presently, the company's target is to transform single-brand customer relationships into two- or three-brand relationships with higher revenue per customer. As a consequence, the Rhenania group's performance was decoupled from the overall market trend.

Case Study: Applying RFM segmentation to the SilverMinds catalogue

This paper describes how a mail order company, SilverMinds Direct, was able to improve its revenues by over 5 per cent through better segmentation of its 250,000 customer database. RFM — recency, frequency and monetary value — segmentation was used. SilverMinds' mailing strategy was already quite efficient based on recency and frequency. This was improved by the addition of RFM scores. In addition, the RFM segmentation gave a low-cost and easy-to-use framework to find previously hidden opportunities. This paper shows how a small company with limited analytical and statistical resources was able to extract greater value from its marketing database by RFM segmentation and analysis. The paper describes the methodology, rationale and results of SilverMinds' RFM segmentation project plus some of the other applications of the segmentation strategy. The project gave a return on investment (ROI) of over 20 times.

National Culture and Electronic Commerce: A Comparative Study of U.S. and German Web Sites

For nearly all companies, an Internet presence is no longer an issue, but rather a question of how the Web site can be used to add value to the company's business. What applies to one com- pany in a certain sector in one country, however, does not necessarily apply to a comparable company in the same sector in another country. National characteristics play a key role in determining human interaction of all forms—also including electronic communication. This paper takes an exploratory approach and analyzes three matched pairs of U.S. and German Web sites of companies drawn from commercial airlines, traditional mail-order companies, and package delivery services. As a result, national culture, telecommunication infrastructure, and market characteristics are identified as key drivers influencing the structure and function- ality of corporate Web sites.

IKEA CEO Anders Dahlvig on international growth and IKEA's unique corporate culture and brand identity

Executive Overview IKEA started in 1943 as a one-man mail order company in a small farming village in the southern part of Sweden called Småland. The founder, Ingvar Kamprad. only a 17- year-old boy at the time, initially arranged for the local county milk van to transport the goods to the nearby train station. Today the IKEA Group has 70,000 co-workers and a turnover of over 11 billion euros (close to $11 billion). The IKEA concept started in the 1950s with catalogue marketing combined with a showroom where customers could see and touch IKEA products. The company's three distinct features were function, quality, and low price. Problems with suppliers led the company to start purchasing from foreign producers in Eastern Europe. During the 1960s the concept was taken even further by introducing the warehouse principle. A huge store in Stockholm was opened where customers picked the products from the shelves themselves. IKEA turned a capacity problem into a new way of delivering products to customers, which is now a cornerstone in the IKEA way of doing business. The first attempt to go abroad was made in 1963 in nearby Norway, outside Oslo. IKEA took the lead in using nontraditional materials for furniture, like plastics, that made IKEA design well-known worldwide. The company also targeted younger families. It moved to the U.S. in the mid-1980s and has been targeting Eastern and Central Europe since the 1990s. Today IKEA has over 150 stores in more than 20 countries. CEO Anders Dahlvig started his career at IKEA in 1984, after an undergraduate degree in business administration at Lund University in Sweden and a master's degree in economics from the University of California. He has held various positions in Sweden and abroad including Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, and the UK. He started off as a controller and advanced to store manager, country manager, deputy retail manager for Europe and, since 1999, CEO of the IKEA Group.

Optimizing Rhenania's Mail-Order Business Through Dynamic Multilevel Modeling (DMLM)

Rhenania, a German direct mail-order company, turned its catalog mailing practices around within one year and consequently moved up in market position from number 5 to number 2. A dynamic multilevel modeling (DMLM) approach uses elasticities to determine the optimal frequency of catalog mailings, a customer-segmentation approach allows for optimization of mailings, and a recency, frequency, monetary-value (RFM) segmentation in combination with a chi-square automatic interaction detection (CHAID) algorithm determines when customers should receive a reactivation package—as opposed to a catalog—to optimize mailing efficiency further. The DMLM approach was so effective that Rhenania acquired two competitors (one a subdivision of Springer Verlag).

The Diffusion of E-commerce among SMEs: Theoretical Implications and Empirical Evidence

As a specific institution of distributive trades, e-commerce displays similarities with retail stores and mail order companies. As well as providing theoretical support for the assumption that e-commerce is a way to sell certain goods and services at prices potentially lower than those of traditional distributive channels, this paper analyses its inter-firm diffusion among a sample of firms (mostly SMEs) in Italy. The paper has three main purposes. Firstly, it challenges the view of e-commerce as a "technological revolution", by pointing out its nature as a cost-minimizing marketing channel. In particular, it shows how, under certain conditions, e-commerce is a source of transaction cost advantages analogous to those yielded by mail order business. Secondly, the paper identifies from a theoretical viewpoint the circumstances under which e-commerce sales might achieve a significant level of penetration among those SMEs that would otherwise incur high costs in organizing a proprietary distributive channel. Thirdly, it employs a unique data set of Italian manufacturing, service, and hospitality firms (nearly 90% of them with fewer than 100 employees) to estimate a diffusion model based on the logistic curve. According to the estimates, by the fourth quarter of 2003 nearly 50% of the population of firms in the geographical area surveyed will have introduced e-commerce among their marketing channels.

Return handling: an exploratory study with nine retailer warehouses

Already for a long time retailers have taken back products. In this paper we explore the factors contributing to the decision of combining vs separating inbound and outbound flows during the return handling process. We do so through a comparative analysis of the operations in nine retailer warehouses, which can be divided into three groups: food retailers, non‐food store chains and mail order companies. We identify both aggravating factors and facilitating actions for return handling. Furthermore, we bring about recommendations for practice. At the end we put forward propositions that are useful in feeding studies on return handling efficiency. In particular, we conjecture over the impact that return volume and product diversity have on the decision for combining vs separating the reverse and forward flows.

The government vs. erotica: the siege of Adam & Eve

In 1986, a small mail-order company was invaded by 37 armed law enforcement agents who instantly shut down all operations, herded the employees into a warehouse, and then systematically interrogated everyone, allowing them to leave only after subpoenas were distributed. Although this episode may sound like a police action in the former East Germany, in fact it was implemented by the U.S. Justice Department, then headed by Edwin Meese, against Adam & Eve, a North Carolina business that sells contraceptives, sex toys, and adult videos.Owner Phil Harvey's first-hand account of this David-and-Goliath battle goes to the heart of our national debate over First Amendment freedom of expression versus government attempts to limit the availability of erotic materials. Harvey not only writes a personal memoir of his harrowing struggle against the strong-arm tactics of the Justice Department; he also raises important questions about federal abuse of power, the slow erosion of First Amendment rights through government intimidation, the effects of pornography, archaic laws that attempt to regulate sexuality between consenting adults, the class-war implications of this battle, and the interplay between sex and religion. In the end the courts ruled against the Justice Department's actions, but only because Harvey chose to resist an eight-year siege by a government bent on imposing its moral agenda by force. This fascinating story is a wake-up call for all who would be complacent about First Amendment rights.

Effective Risk Relievers for Dimensional Perceived Risks on Mail-Order Purchase

This article examines the effective risk relievers for different dimensions of perceived risk on mail-order purchase of food products. The sample comprised 1,600 active and inactive mail-order specialty food shoppers in the UK. The analysis focused on the correlation coefficients between consumers' levels of perceived risk and their weight on the importance of the risk relievers. Amongst 15 risk relievers, the results implied that there are certain risk relievers attached to higher levels of importance by consumers, who perceive higher levels of risks in certain aspects of mail-order purchase. Therefore, mail-order companies should promote the effective risk relievers to reduce specific dimensions of perceived risks.

AN EVALUATION OF ORDER PICKING POLICIES FOR MAIL ORDER COMPANIES

This paper is concerned with the problem of order picking in mail order companies. Order picking is the retrieval of items from their warehouse storage locations to satisfy customer orders. Five order picking policies, strict order, batch, sequential zone, batch zone, and wave, are evaluated using labor requirements, processing time, and customer service as performance measures. A simulation model was developed to investigate these picking policies in a mail order environment. Prior research has focused on the study of individual picking policies. This study extends the prior research by evaluating multiple picking policies under varying operating conditions. The results of the study seem to indicate that (1) wave picking and batch picking perform well across the range of operating conditions considered in this study, and (2) sequential zone and batch zone picking do not perform well, especially as the order volume increases. However, the benefits and drawbacks to each picking policy must be taken into account. The key to effective implementation of an order picking system is to match the firm's business strategy, capabilities, technology, and space requirements with an order picking policy that maximizes the benefits of order picking to the firm and its customers.

Holy Martin: The Overlooked Canonization of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr., gazes serenely, almost expressionless, in a somber suit and tie before a backdrop of prison bars. Around his neck hangs a booking number, “7089.” Around his head is a brilliant golden halo. The picture is not a mug shot but an icon in the Byzantine tradition. It is, as its Greek inscription says, “Holy Martin.” St. Martin Luther King. This icon is a popular piece of merchandise for a mail-order Company in Vermont. Each January, just before King's birthday they receive a flood of Orders. This phenomenon is an enigma, the fountainhead for a flood of questions. How can a black Baptist minister become the subject of a popular icon? What in American society and culture fostered its creation? Who invokes this great civil rights leader as a saint? But the most basic question is, how can Martin Luther King be considered a saint in the first place? Was it simply because he was slain for the cause of civil rights? Others died for the cause, and there are no icons of them.

Holy Martin: The Overlooked Canonization of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr., gazes serenely, almost expressionless, in a somber suit and tie before a backdrop of prison bars. Around his neck hangs a booking number, “7089.” Around his head is a brilliant golden halo. The picture is not a mug shot but an icon in the Byzantine tradition. It is, as its Greek inscription says, “Holy Martin.” St. Martin Luther King.This icon is a popular piece of merchandise for a mail-order Company in Vermont. Each January, just before King's birthday they receive a flood of Orders. This phenomenon is an enigma, the fountainhead for a flood of questions. How can a black Baptist minister become the subject of a popular icon? What in American society and culture fostered its creation? Who invokes this great civil rights leader as a saint? But the most basic question is, how can Martin Luther King be considered a saint in the first place? Was it simply because he was slain for the cause of civil rights? Others died for the cause, and there are no icons of them.

Applying a contingency model of strategic decision making to the implementation of smoking bans: a case study.

A model of strategic decision making was applied to study the implementation of worksite smoking policy. This model assumes there is no best way of implementing smoking policies, but that 'the best way' depends on how decision making fits specific content and context factors. A case study at Wehkamp, a mail-order company, is presented to illustrate the usefulness of this model to understand how organizations implement smoking policies. Interview data were collected from representatives of Wehkamp, and pre- and post-ban survey data were collected from employees. After having failed to solve the smoking problem in a more democratic way, Wehkamp's top management choose a highly confrontational and decentralized decision-making approach to implement a complete smoking ban. This resulted in an effective smoking ban, but was to some extent at the cost of employees' satisfaction with the policy and with how the policy was implemented. The choice of implementation approach was contingent upon specific content and context factors, such as managers' perception of the problem, leadership style and legislation. More case studies from different types of companies are needed to better understand how organizational factors affect decision making about smoking bans and other health promotion innovations.

Mail Order Direct Marketing in the United States and the United Kingdom: Responses to Changing Market Conditions

Although mail order accounts for a fairly similar percent of retail sales in both the United States and United Kingdom, the evolution and development of mail order is different in each market. This poses a varied set of challenges for companies in light of the changing marketing environment of the 1990s. This study will show how the U.S. market has become highly fragmented and how mail order companies have gained competitive advantage through positioning their offerings at better quality and higher pricing points. Conversely, mail order direct marketing in the United Kingdom continues to be dominated by a small number of large companies promoting “big book” catalogues at the mass market of lower to middle socioeconomic groups. Interestingly, growth segments in the U.K. market are beginning to follow a course similar to that observed in the United States with the development of “specialogues” by well-known store retailers and U.S. entrants such as Talbot's, Land's End, and L. L. Bean.

A Conversation with James C. Worthy Effective Management Leadership in Perspective

Shortly before the untimely death of James C. (Jim) Worthy, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing him regarding effective management leadership and I am sure the reader will gain as much knowledge, and enjoy doing so, as I did during the interview. The academic and business world is richer because of his work and has lost a giant in the field. Jim had a rich and full professional career, starting with work in the National Recovery Administration in 1933; working with Sears; a Consulting firm; and sharing his expertise with students in the classroom. Author: Jim, would you please tell me what attracted you to Seam, Roebuck back in the 1930'? You had worked, for a short period of time, with Schuster's, a Milwaukee, Wisconsin, department store. Was it that experience that whetted your appetite for a position with a large retail corporation? Worthy: Well, I was attracted to Sears because it was a rapidly-growing firm that offered excellent prospects for advancement. It also enjoyed a very good reputation as a good employer. Originally only a mail order company, but under the leadership of General Robert E. Wood Sears had branched into the retail business some ten or twelve years before I started working there. Another reason for my interest in Sears was the potential to exercise my newly developed interest in management-employee relations. I knew I wanted to pursue a career in that line of work. Sears seemed to be an ideal place to start that career. Basically, I had worked in Washington, with the National Recovery Administration, prior to entering private industry. That experience played an important role in my desire to work with a personnel department in the private sector. Author: So, it was your fascination with retail store organization and management and the relationship between management and people that was the impetus that drew you to Sears. Was Sears the only large retail entity that would fit your needs? Worthy: No, but I knew there were only three firms that I could learn from: Sears, Ward's, or Penney's. However, one of my past relationships led to my working for Sears. I had kept close contact with my academic mentor, Earl Dean Howard, and was always asking his council. Indeed, it was he who arranged for me to talk with one of his friends, Boris Emmet, retail merchandising manager of Sears. Emmet then set up an interview with Clarence Caldwell, Sears corporate retail personnel director. At that time, it was difficult to obtain a job at Sears or any other retail firm due to the 1937-38 recession, but I was persistent and finally Caldwell hired me. At half the salary I was earning at Schuster's. But, I was determined to work for Sears regardless of the starting salary. It was a large company and I felt it was here that I could grow and learn. Author: While there was little written information available on Leadership at the time, did the leadership at Sears play an important role in your decision to go with Sears? Worthy: Oh, yes. General Robert E. Wood, whom I had heard of while in Washington, had lead Sears out of the Great Depression. He also was one of a few businessmen who saw the need for a working relationship between business and government. He was the epitome of my definition of leader. And his leadership is evident even today when you look at Sears' position in the industry today. He indeed was one of a handful of business leaders that embraced Franklin Roosevelt and much of the New Deal. That plus Sears' progressive personnel policies that made me think that Sears was the place I wanted to be. A decision I have never regretted I must add. Author: What was Sears like in 1938, in terms of size, organization, and operations? Worthy: The company employed about 60,000 people; had ten mail order plants; twelve or so factories; and nearly 500 retail stores, scattered all over the U.S. By the time I joined the company, basic merchandising and operating policies were more or less stable. …