David Bell

Bio: David Bell is an academic researcher from University of Leeds. The author has contributed to research in topics: Tourism & Queer. The author has an hindex of 52, co-authored 214 publications receiving 14873 citations. Previous affiliations of David Bell include University of California, Los Angeles & Staffordshire University.

Manufacturer-owned retail stores

Abstract: Increasingly, manufacturers sell their products in their own retail stores, and many of these stores appear to be in direct competition with independent retailers; i.e., both types of retail stores are physically co-located. We analyze one way this practice affects the retail market. We find that, when independent retailers compete against company stores (instead of just against other independent retailers), they (1) charge higher prices and (2) are more willing to engage in marketing efforts on behalf of the manufacturer’s brand. Furthermore, when company stores and independent retailers compete in the same market, the company store charges higher prices and provides more marketing effort. Anecdotal data are consistent with these model predictions.

An Explanation for Partial Forward Integration: Why Manufacturers Become Marketers

Abstract: Manufacturers are seeking new ways to exercise control over how consumers experience their brands and the division of responsibility for manufacturing and marketing activities is getting rede ned in the process. A signi cant number of manufacturers now sell their products through company-owned stores as well as through independent retailers. More interestingly, many do so in direct competition with independent retailers (i.e., the retail stores are physically co-located). We derive conditions under which this strategy is viable and argue that through forward integration and investment in brand-speci c marketing e®ort, the manufacturer can achieve a form of resale price maintenance. That is, the prices charged by independent retailers competing against an integrated retailer (who invests in marketing e®ort) are higher than the prices charged when competition is between independent retailers only. In the partially integrated channel independent retailers bene t somewhat from the provision of a public good by the manufacturer; the manufacturer bene ts from control over retail decision variables. Moreover, we nd that the independent retailers' incentives to improve brand support increases. We also examine the retailing e±ciency of the manufacturer-owned store and show conditions under which demand at the company store complements or substitutes demand at independent stores. The basic results are preserved and additional insights obtained when we extend the model to consider phenomena such as market saturation e®ects (where an increasing number of retailers compete for a xed pie) and asymmetric demand at independent and integrated stores. Our model and results also speak to the Internet environment in which \partial forward integration" is fast becoming a norm, as in this medium all stores are by de nition co-located in the same physical space. Implications for retail management are discussed.

From River Cottage to Chicken Run: Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and the class politics of ethical consumption

Abstract: Lifestyle television provides a key site through which to explore the dilemmas of ethical consumption, as the genre shifts to consider the ethics of different consumption practices and taste cultures. UK television cook Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's TV programmes offer fertile ground not only for thinking about television personalities as lifestyle experts and moral entrepreneurs, but also for thinking about how the meanings and uses of their television image are inflected by genre. In this article we explore how the shift from the lifestyled downshifting narrative of the River Cottage series to the ‘campaigning culinary documentary’ Hugh's Chicken Run exposes issues of celebrity, class and ethics. While both series are concerned with ethical consumption, they work in different ways to reveal a distinction between ‘ethical’ and ‘unethical’ consumption practices and positions – positions that are inevitably classed.

Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community

Abstract: The present historical moment may seem a particularly inopportune time to review Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam's latest exploration of civic decline in America. After all, the outpouring of volunteerism, solidarity, patriotism, and self-sacrifice displayed by Americans in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks appears to fly in the face of Putnam's central argument: that \"social capital\" -defined as \"social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise from them\" (p. 19)'has declined to dangerously low levels in America over the last three decades. However, Putnam is not fazed in the least by the recent effusion of solidarity. Quite the contrary, he sees in it the potential to \"reverse what has been a 30to 40-year steady decline in most measures of connectedness or community.\"' As an example of how the current \"war on terrorism\" could generate a durable civic renewal, Putnam points to the burst in civic practices that occurred during and after World War II, which he says \"permanently marked\" the generation that lived through it and had a \"terrific effect on American public life over the last half-century.\" 3 If Americans can follow this example and channel their current civic

Economics of Information

Abstract: The author systematically examines one of the important issues of information — establishing the market price. He introduces the concept of «search» — where a buyer wanting to get a better price, is forced to question sellers. The article deals with various aspects of finding the necessary information.

Boundary-Work and the Demarcation of Science from Non-Science: Strains and Interests in Professional Ideologies of Scientists

Abstract: The demarcation of science from other intellectual activities-long an analytic problem for philosophers and sociologists-is here examined as a practical problem for scientists. Construction of a boundary between science and varieties of non-science is useful for scientists' pursuit of professional goals: acquisition of intellectual authority and career opportunities; denial of these resources to "pseudoscientists"; and protection of the autonomy of scientific research from political interference. "Boundary-work" describes an ideological style found in scientists' attempts to create a public image for science by contrasting it favorably to non-scientific intellectual or technical activities. Alternative sets of characteristics available for ideological attribution to science reflect ambivalences or strains within the institution: science can be made to look empirical or theoretical, pure or applied. However, selection of one or another description depends on which characteristics best achieve the demarcation in a way that justifies scientists' claims to authority or resources. Thus, "science" is no single thing: its boundaries are drawn and redrawn inflexible, historically changing and sometimes ambiguous ways.