Seminars and events

At this seminar Gustavo Guzman, Andreas Diedrich, Simon Larsson and Magdalena Petersson McIntyre will present and discuss key insights from an anthology on the organizing properties of space recently published by Edward Elgar in the UK. The book broadly asks how space continually emerges and reemerges as people attempt to organize and reorganize their everyday activities together with objects. 
The book develops the concept of spatial agencing to make sense of these processes and to address their consequences. As space and society are the result of diverse ongoing activities that in turn enable further organizing to take place, the book concludes that one should abandon the idea of a given space that people inhabit and transform.
 The aim of the seminar is threefold: 1) to introduce the concept of spatial agencing, 2) to explore how the concept can help explain organizational phenomena related to space (this will be done by drawing on two studies presented in the book, the contemporary phenomenon of social media influencing, and the organizing efforts of Protestant missionaries during colonial times in what is today the Democratic Republic of the Congo), and 3) to present possible future avenues for research on spatial- and other forms of agencing.

What are the psychological drivers of a responsible return behavior, and what measures should e-retailers consider implementing to reduce returns? In this seminar Magnus Jansson will present joint work by Sharon Cullinane, Magnus Jansson and Mike Browne on “The psychology of returns”.
Online shopping has increased dramatically during the last 15 years and it is expected to continue to grow further in an accelerated speed. The clothing sector accounts for the largest category of products in terms of returns. The dilemma that confronts the e-retailers is that a generous return policy probably generates more sales, but it also increases returns and the costs of handling returns. Optimally E-retailers would find return policies that reduces returns but not at the expense of sales. In the present research the aim is to investigate how e-consumers values different aspects that constitute a return policy and look deeper into the psychological factors that influence e-consumers return behaviors. In this seminar the researchers will discuss two studies. The first investigates psychological determinants of a responsible return behavior. The second study is based on real customers data of sales and returns from a major e-cloth retailer and aims to characterize the frequent returners. Based on the two studies they draw some tentative conclusions on the psychological drivers of both returns and a responsible return behavior and some suggestions on measures that e-retailers should consider implementing to reduce returns.