Statement of problemEducation reform legislation has provided the opportunity for parents, community and school staff to engage in school improvement. Teams comprised of administrators, teachers, parents, and staff (and students when age appropriate) drive the site based management shared decision making approach to restructure education. In Massachusetts and Kentucky, School Governance Councils are hallmarks of the legislation. The teams are provided various names and varying degrees of decision making power to improve education depending on legislative act (Massachusetts Education Reform Act, 1993; Kentucky Education Reform Act, 1990).Working as a team is very complex and requires training for the participants in order for the team to work well together and to thrive. Factors and variables for team building can be considered in a well thought out introductory plan supported by superintendent, school committee (school board) and administration. Understanding the importance of these variables to team function must be the consideration of school district leadership.Teams are entrusted with responsibilities for special education and education reform. The teams require evaluation from superintendents of schools and other central office administrators. These administrators must be aware of their responsibilities to the team as support, supervisors and evaluators. They must be able to recognize activities of a functioning team and must understand how to help a team that is not functioning.
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to determine if consumers in two countries (Israel and the USA), which have experienced violence in the retail environment, would perceive risk in shopping on the internet and if so, to what extent. If there were perceptions of risk for shopping online, this paper wanted to report what differences there might be between Israeli and US consumers.Design/methodology/approachSurveys were distributed to 641 US consumers and to 50 Israeli consumers with a few modifications for differences in terms. The respondents ranged in age from 14 to 86. These surveys were distributed throughout the New York City tri‐state area and in Israel in a convenience sample using a snowball approach. The surveys were collected by the researchers and returned for analysis.FindingsWomen in the USA do consider buying online when concerned with physical safety, while Israeli women were very specific in their consideration of the type of site. For them, international sites like eBay were considered to be a safer alternative when the country was on a high‐security alert. Significantly more men are concerned about the possibilities of identity theft and financial fraud online than women while women think positively about buying online when concerned about physical.Research limitations/implicationsIn future research, it would be interesting to follow this focus of social norms for a preference for group social interaction and social norms for independent or individualization and the speed with which e‐commerce is infused within the culture versus using the internet to gather information or to communicate via e‐mail or blogs.Practical implicationsConsumers seem to want to reduce their overall perceived risk and evaluate what actions will lead to a lower total perceived risk. There are good reasons for a store to have both an online presence and a storefront. Stores with a physical presence that are known to the shoppers are more likely to be considered as safe for shopping online.Originality/valueThis is one of the first papers to contrast consumers from a country which has had years of experience with violence in the retail environment with the consumer experiences and perceptions in the USA.
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