The purpose of this paper is to examine marketing tactics used in the clinic websites of cross-border reproductive care (CBRC) providers and analyse what ethical implications…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine marketing tactics used in the clinic websites of cross-border reproductive care (CBRC) providers and analyse what ethical implications exist when targeting the vulnerable consumer group of infertility sufferers.
Design/methodology/approach
The sampling design was to collect clinic websites from regions known to be popular destinations for CBRC, and who were marketing directly to US-based consumers through their online websites. There were three stages of data collection: organic Google search that displayed Google AdWords of clinics who advertised; organic Google search results; and searching via the WhatClinic.com database for additional private clinics with websites. The websites were then audited for their marketing tactics according to the best practice guidelines from the American Medical Association, American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, ethics committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM).
Findings
Through this analysis, it was confirmed that these clinics are attempting to establish their credibility and attract foreign consumers through their promised rates of success, years of experience and use of testimonials. In total, 32 of the 35 sites contained at least one factor considered misleading by ASRM guidelines, such as the publishing of inaccurate or non-transparent success rates, the use of sales promotions and guarantees often used in consumer products, or the use of misleading language. Out of the 24 sites that posted success rates, 17 of those rates would be considered deceptive by not clarifying the source of the numbers or by being so far from the global averages of 30 per cent.
Research limitations/implications
Marketing practitioners have a specific responsibility to recognise vulnerable market segments; therefore this initial study seeks to add to the understanding of consumer vulnerability through an intersectional view of global reproductive service consumption.
Practical implications
A global standard of marketing guidelines specific to CBRC clinics needs to be implemented across all regional/countries in order to communicate ethically, improve credibility, reputation and trust among consumer and international bodies. Counselling services need to be integrated within all assisted reproductive technology services. Service-country to home-country continued care protocols should be created for patients travelling home in order to collect data on CRBC experiences.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the CBRC literature in providing new insights into current clinic marketing trends and highlights ethical implications to industry stakeholders.
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Kishani Townshend and Nerina Caltabiano
At the nexus of mindfulness and parenting lies the fusion of two influential yet contradictory epistemologies, the Eastern contemplative practices with the Western parenting…
Abstract
At the nexus of mindfulness and parenting lies the fusion of two influential yet contradictory epistemologies, the Eastern contemplative practices with the Western parenting research. Mindful parenting is a parenting style, which has grown in popularity in recent times to support parents during pregnancy, birth and beyond. The current study is the third stage of a mixed methods study on mindful parenting. The first stage of the study design conducted a systematic review of mindful parenting. The second stage summarized the change processes identified in the systematic review. The aim of this pilot study is to clarify four clinicians’ perceptions of cognitive change processes associated with mindful parenting, particularly how theory is translated to practice. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to analyze semi-structured interviews. The six higher-order change processes were conceptualized as an anchor. Cognitive processes included intention, attention, attitude, and reflective functioning. Given its methodological limitations, the next future work needs is to survey a large sample of both clinicians and parents to verify the model. This paper makes an important contribution to the development of a more comprehensive theoretical model of mindful parenting.
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In response to budgetary concerns and feedback from users, the New York Law School's Mendik Library needed to streamline the way it reported current law journal table of contents…
Abstract
Purpose
In response to budgetary concerns and feedback from users, the New York Law School's Mendik Library needed to streamline the way it reported current law journal table of contents (TOC) information to its users. As part of this streamlining process, the librarians discovered that most of the journals they provided in paper had web pages that provided full access to all articles in their current issues. The librarians responded to this opportunity by building web pages that provided links to these journals and noted when a new issue had just appeared. The purpose of this paper is to assess the status of current awareness information in the field of legal journals and uncover the options for best using them.
Design/methodology/approach
The library worked from a list of journals that they purchased through paper subscriptions. They determined the web page location of each and then checked whether the journal provided TOC data only, full text through internet protocol recognition or open full text for at least the current issue.
Findings
More than 60 percent of the law journals that Mendik purchased had online TOC available with full, free access to the content.
Originality/value
Librarians can begin to explore replacing TOC reporting with virtual journal shelves that contain full content to the articles.
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The Blessing Cup, by Patricia Polacco, may be used to provide insight into the lives of the Jewish as they were embattled and forced to evacuate Russia. This lesson seeks to probe…
Abstract
The Blessing Cup, by Patricia Polacco, may be used to provide insight into the lives of the Jewish as they were embattled and forced to evacuate Russia. This lesson seeks to probe students’ thinking for their understanding of the difference in primary and secondary sources and how they are useful for teaching and learning about historical events, people, their cultures, and their family traditions. Students work in small groups to research Jewish culture, traditions, and religious rites as noted in the book, as well as examine how the tea set serves to teach primary sources within a text. Students identify primary sources to describe their own history.
This year’s annual bibliography includes materials reflecting various aspects of library instruction and information literacy. The academic literature continues to generate the…
Abstract
This year’s annual bibliography includes materials reflecting various aspects of library instruction and information literacy. The academic literature continues to generate the greatest number of citations in these areas, but a small increase in the special libraries area was noted for 2000. The themes of standards for information literacy and assessment were apparent in all areas of the literature.
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Anna Ljung and Cecilia Pahlberg
The purpose of this paper is to discuss how network relationships, with business as well as with non-business actors, affect each other and have an impact on strategy processes in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss how network relationships, with business as well as with non-business actors, affect each other and have an impact on strategy processes in subsidiaries in Latin America.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative approach is used in which a new strategy in a European multinational company (MNC) is studied at the subsidiary level in Brazil and Argentina. The authors discuss why the strategic processes are so different within the same MNC. During 2009-2011, 50 interviews were conducted with respondents in Latin America and at headquarters.
Findings
The results point to the importance of including relationships with both business and non-business actors to understand the subsidiary strategy processes. The authors suggest that such processes can be explained by interdependent relationships in a wider network context characterised by commitment and trust, leading to increased legitimacy among the actors involved.
Practical implications
Managers need to invest in relationships not only with business counterparts but also with non-business actors, as they are interdependent and vital for the strategy development.
Originality/value
Relationships between firms and actors such as governments and civil society are still under-researched, although they are essential, especially in emerging economies. The paper puts focus on network relationships in strategy research and contributes to the development of business network theory by extending the network to also include relationships with such non-business actors and relate it to strategy processes. There is also a contribution to research on corporate social responsibility activities with a specific focus on Latin America.
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Dinesh Kumar Anguraj, S. Balasubramaniyan, E. Saravana Kumar, J. Vakula Rani and M. Ashwin
The purpose of the research is to concentrate on the most important smart metropolitan applications which are smart living, smart security and smart maintainable. In that, Power…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the research is to concentrate on the most important smart metropolitan applications which are smart living, smart security and smart maintainable. In that, Power management and security is a most important problem in the current metropolitan situation.
Design/methodology/approach
A smart metropolitan area utilizes recent innovative technologies to improve its living, security and maintainable. The aim of this study is to recognize and resolve the difficulties in metropolitan area applications.
Findings
The main aim of this study is to reduce the metropolitan foremost energy consumption, to recharge the electric vehicles and to increase the lifetime of smart street lights.
Originality/value
The hybrid renewable energy street light applies smart resolutions to substructure and facilities in rural and metropolitan areas to create them well. This study will be applying smart metropolitan solar and wind turbine street light using renewable energy for existing areas. In future, the smart street light work will be implemented everywhere else.
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Tongsheng Wang, Anna Li, Guang Xi and Zhu Huang
The purpose of this study is to investigate the enhancement and suppression of heat transfer for hybrid nanofluids (Cu–Al2O3/water) in a square enclosure containing a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate the enhancement and suppression of heat transfer for hybrid nanofluids (Cu–Al2O3/water) in a square enclosure containing a thermal-conductive cylinder when the Lorentz force is applied to the hybrid nanofluids.
Design/methodology/approach
Since the inner conductive cylinder in present research has a complex geometry, an in-house meshless method, namely, the local radial basis function (LRBF) method, is applied to solve the 2 dimensional (2D) incompressible Navier–Stokes equation in the fluid domain and Fourier heat conduction equation in solid domain. The solid–fluid interface remains the physical continuity of temperature and heat flux. Only the Lorentz force is considered for the presence of the magnetic field. The conjugate natural convection is assumed to be steady, thus only fully developed heat exchange from the nanofluids to solid or vice versa is comprehensively investigated.
Findings
It can be concluded that Lorentz force plays a more significant role than hybrid nanofluids in enhancing/suppressing heat transfer when the orientation of magnetic field is the same to the x direction. The thermal conductivity ratio can dramatically change the isotherms and streamlines as well as the mean value of the Nusselt number, resulting in totally different heat transfer phenomena. The included angle of magnetic field also has a significant effect on the heat transfer rate when it changes from horizontal to vertical.
Research limitations/implications
The constant thermo-physical properties of incompressible fluid and the 2D steady flow are considered in this study.
Originality/value
The conjugate MHD natural convection of hybrid nanofluids is numerically investigated by an in-house meshless LRBF method. The enhancement and suppression of heat transfer under the combined influence of the volume fraction of nanoparticles, Hartmann number and the thermal conductivity ratio are comprehensively investigated.
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Katalin Illes and Howard Harris
Our focus is on the use of narrative in ethics education in organisations. The effectiveness of stories as a basis for executive education and organisational development has been…
Abstract
Our focus is on the use of narrative in ethics education in organisations. The effectiveness of stories as a basis for executive education and organisational development has been described in other chapters in this book and elsewhere. Many writers provide examples linking stories and ethics, but the examples are drawn most often from overtly ethical stories. We offer a more expansive and inclusive view, suggesting that all stories are valuable for teaching ethics. We use Booker’s (2004) finding that all stories belong to one of seven basic plots – overcoming the monster; rags to riches; the quest; voyage and return; comedy; tragedy; and rebirth – to show that no major category of narrative need be omitted from those which can provide examples or links to the development of virtue in organisations. We provide examples of how stories can be used to encourage the development of specific virtues including courage, integrity, hope, inquisitiveness, humour and prudence. Six further aspects are considered – whether only moral stories are useful, the value of complexity, the benefit of familiarity, stories of failure, the selection of appropriate stories and whether non-fiction can be included.
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Joongwon Shin, Yoohee Hwang and Anna S. Mattila
Though social trends are driving consumers toward solo consumption of various services, many are reluctant to do so. There is little guidance for service providers as to how to…
Abstract
Purpose
Though social trends are driving consumers toward solo consumption of various services, many are reluctant to do so. There is little guidance for service providers as to how to effectively induce solo consumption. This study aims to examine the joint effect of self-esteem and an incidental similarity cue (e.g. a person’s initials) on anticipated satisfaction with with a solo consumption experience to fill this gap.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used a two-factor (incidental similarity cue and self-esteem) quasi-experimental design to test the hypotheses. The respondents read a scenario depicting a solo service consumption experience and completed scales that measured perceived fit with the service context and anticipated satisfaction with the experience.
Findings
Results indicate that, in the absence of an incidental similarity cue, self-esteem has a positive effect on solo consumers’ perceived fit. In the presence of such a cue, however, self-esteem has a minimal impact on perceived fit. Furthermore, perceived fit mediates the effect of self-esteem on anticipated satisfaction when the cue is absent.
Originality/value
The authors’ findings suggest that promoting incidental similarities with consumers may not be an efficient strategy to attract solo consumers. Conversely, service providers wishing to induce solo consumption may benefit from situationally increasing self-esteem among potential solo consumers. The current research advances the authors’ understanding of the effect of an incidental similarity cue and self-esteem in the context of a growing social trend of solo consumption.