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1 – 10 of over 1000Sarah DeDonder, Casey J. Jacob, Brae V. Surgeoner, Benjamin Chapman, Randall Phebus and Douglas A. Powell
The purpose of the present study was to observe the preparation practices of both adult and young consumers using frozen, uncooked, breaded chicken products, which were previously…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the present study was to observe the preparation practices of both adult and young consumers using frozen, uncooked, breaded chicken products, which were previously involved in outbreaks linked to consumer mishandling. The study also sought to observe behaviors of adolescents as home food preparers. Finally, the study aimed to compare food handler behaviors with those prescribed on product labels.
Design/methodology/approach
The study sought, through video observation and self‐report surveys, to determine if differences exist between consumers' intent and actual behavior.
Findings
A survey study of consumer reactions to safe food‐handling labels on raw meat and poultry products suggested that instructions for safe handling found on labels had only limited influence on consumer practices. The labels studied by these researchers were found on the packaging of chicken products examined in the current study alongside step‐by‐step cooking instructions. Observational techniques, as mentioned above, provide a different perception of consumer behaviors.
Originality/value
This paper finds areas that have not been studied in previous observational research and is an excellent addition to existing literature.
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Stacey Cahill, Katija Morley and Douglas A. Powell
The project explored the ways in which the topics of organic food and agriculture are discussed in representative North American media outlets in reference to food safety…
Abstract
Purpose
The project explored the ways in which the topics of organic food and agriculture are discussed in representative North American media outlets in reference to food safety, environmental concerns, and human health.
Design/methodology/approach
Articles from five newspapers were collected and coded using the content analysis technique and analyzed for topic, tone, and theme.
Findings
For a six‐year time period, 618 articles on organic food and organic agriculture are analyzed and the prominent topics are found to be genetic engineering, pesticides, and organic farming. Articles with a neutral tone with respect to organic agriculture and food accounted for 41.4 percent of the articles, while positively toned articles garnered 36.9 percent. The themes human health, food safety, and environmental concerns were discussed with positive reference to organic food and agriculture in 81, 50, and 90 percent, respectively, of comments pulled from the articles.
Practical implications
Analysis of these articles over time, between media outlets and by topic allows for understanding of media reporting on the subject and provides insight into the way the public is influenced by news coverage of organic food and agriculture.
Originality/value
Research that analyzes media coverage for how it portrays the topic of organic food and organic agriculture with respect to health, food safety, and environmental concern, and concludes that articles about organic production in the selected time period are seldom negative.
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Thomas D. Beamish and Nicole Woolsey Biggart
Following Philip Selznick’s lead in using pragmatist social science to understand issues of public concern we conducted a study of failed innovation in the commercial construction…
Abstract
Following Philip Selznick’s lead in using pragmatist social science to understand issues of public concern we conducted a study of failed innovation in the commercial construction industry (CCI). We find that social heuristics – collectively constructed and maintained interpretive decision-making frames – significantly shape economic and non-economic decision-making practices. Social heuristics are the outcome of industry-based “institutionalization processes” and are widely held and commonly relied on in CCI to reduce uncertainty endemic to decision-making; they provide actors with both a priori and ex post facto justifications for economic decisions that appear socially rational to industry co-participants. In the CCI – a project-centered production network – social heuristics as shared institutions sustain network-based social order but in so doing discourage novel technologies and impede innovation. Social heuristics are actor-level constructs that reflect macro-level institutional arrangements and networked production relations. The concept of social heuristics offers the promise of developing a genuinely social theory of individual economic choice and action that is historically informed, contextually situated, and neither psychologically nor structurally reductionist.
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Renate E. Meyer, Martin Kornberger and and Markus A. Höllerer
In this chapter, the authors introduce Ludwik Fleck and his ideas of “thought style” and “thought collective” to suggest a re-thinking of the divide between “micro” and “macro”…
Abstract
In this chapter, the authors introduce Ludwik Fleck and his ideas of “thought style” and “thought collective” to suggest a re-thinking of the divide between “micro” and “macro” that has perhaps more inhibited than inspired organization studies in general, and institutional theory in particular. With Fleck, the authors argue that there is no such thing as thought style-neutral cognition or undirected perception: meaning, constituted through a specific thought style shared by a thought collective, permeates cognition, judgment, perception, and thought. The authors illustrate our argument with the longitudinal case study of Sydney 2030 (i.e., the strategy-making process of the City of Sydney, Australia). The case suggests that – regardless of its actual implementation – a strategy is successful to the extent to which it shapes the socio-cognitive infrastructure of a collective and enables those engaged in city-making to think and act collectively.
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Jane Bailey, Nicola Henry and Asher Flynn
While digital technologies have led to many important social and cultural advances worldwide, they also facilitate the perpetration of violence, abuse and harassment, known as…
Abstract
While digital technologies have led to many important social and cultural advances worldwide, they also facilitate the perpetration of violence, abuse and harassment, known as technology-facilitated violence and abuse (TFVA). TFVA includes a spectrum of behaviors perpetrated online, offline, and through a range of technologies, including artificial intelligence, livestreaming, GPS tracking, and social media. This chapter provides an overview of TFVA, including a brief snapshot of existing quantitative and qualitative research relating to various forms of TFVA. It then discusses the aims and contributions of this book as a whole, before outlining five overarching themes arising from the contributions. The chapter concludes by mapping out the structure of the book.
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Naomi Melville, Ruth Fairchild and Ellen W. Evans
Given the popularity of online video recipes, the purpose of this study was to explore the potential communication of food safety malpractices in YouTube video recipes.
Abstract
Purpose
Given the popularity of online video recipes, the purpose of this study was to explore the potential communication of food safety malpractices in YouTube video recipes.
Design/methodology/approach
Content analysis of purposively sampled, high-risk chicken salad video recipes (n = 38) using an observational checklist was undertaken. The checklist was based upon the requirements of the Partnership for Food Safety Education “Safe Recipe Style Guide”, which was annotated with visual and verbal communication of food safety practices being “best practice”, “inadequate” or “absent”.
Findings
None of the observed video recipes showed visual handwashing at the start of the recipe. Furthermore, there was a distinct lack of visual communication of handwashing during the video recipes.
Research limitations/implications
The lack of visual and verbal food safety communications within video recipes indicates a failure to adequately inform consumers of risks and safeguarding practices.
Originality/value
Previous research has focussed on communication of food safety practices in broadcasted television cookery programmes and published recipe books; this research extends consumer foods safety research to include resources commonly used by consumers to obtain meal inspiration. To date, this is the first study that has utilised the “Safe recipe style guide” as a tool to assess inclusion of food safety messages.
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The debate over ‘judicial activism’ has flourished in recent decades, but the term was in fact coined 70 years ago, by the historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. The legal academy has…
Abstract
The debate over ‘judicial activism’ has flourished in recent decades, but the term was in fact coined 70 years ago, by the historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. The legal academy has bemoaned the term as perpetually ill-defined, but can this be attributed to its equivocal beginnings on the pages of Fortune magazine? This chapter investigates the circumstances in which the term was produced and the early meanings given to it in scholarly work. It is argued that there was very little effort on the part of legal academics and political scientists to gather a consensus as to definition, or otherwise to treat the terminology with caution, before the term was wrested from the university cloisters and captured by the popular media in the mid-1960s.
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Using organizational theory as a lens, in this chapter, the author critiques the neoliberal rationality in which the national and international ranking systems take precedence…
Abstract
Using organizational theory as a lens, in this chapter, the author critiques the neoliberal rationality in which the national and international ranking systems take precedence over the institutional missions and visions in institutional operations. The author argues that these essentialized ranking systems overlook the necessary diversity and uniqueness of institutions in the higher education system. The author outlines the potential role of mission statements in setting the institutional priorities, and the unnecessary pressure caused neoliberalism against such priorities. The implications of such imperatives for quality in various academic practices are identified and the unfairness of coercive isomorphism in higher education is illustrated. The author then proposes a spatial approach in which universities, nationally and internationally, can appreciate diversity in identity and work together, drawing from each other’s strengths to strengthen the higher education system that will support students and promote national economies.
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Ibrahim A. Elshaer and Marcjanna M. Augustyn
The purpose of this paper is to examine direct effects of quality management on competitive advantage within the context of the resource-based view of a firm.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine direct effects of quality management on competitive advantage within the context of the resource-based view of a firm.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey data have been obtained from 288 general managers of luxury hotels in Egypt. The authors have used six dimensions and 22 indicators of quality management, two indicators of competitive advantage that manifest the hotel’s above average financial performance relative to competitors within the study sample, and a multi-group analysis in structural equation modeling (SEM).
Findings
The results indicate that quality management may be a source of competitive advantage. Top management leadership and supplier management differentiate hotels with above average financial performance from its competitors. The role of customer focus and employee management in generating competitive advantage is questionable while process management and quality data and reporting may not contribute to achieving competitive advantage.
Research limitations/implications
Only direct effects of quality management on competitive advantage are examined within the context of a luxury hotel industry in Egypt. Similar studies within other contexts and models that study indirect effects of quality management on competitive advantage with factors that might moderate these effects are needed. Future studies could compare effects of quality management on competitive advantage with effects of quality management on other business outcomes.
Practical implications
The results may inform management decision making concerning the development of capabilities that may generate competitive advantage.
Social implications
The current study contributes in providing further evidence that may contribute to enhancing the understanding and knowledge of the relationship between quality management and competitive advantage.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the debate on strategic value of quality management and resource-based sources of competitive advantage. Methodologically, this study shows an alternative approach to measuring competitive advantage and indicates that applying a multi-group analysis in SEM may contribute to producing original results.
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