Linghui Tang and Brian Fitzsimons
The purpose of this paper is to investigate recent labor unrest in China's automobile industry and the implications for the debate on the future of the country's labor relations…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate recent labor unrest in China's automobile industry and the implications for the debate on the future of the country's labor relations and cost competitiveness.
Design/methodology/approach
Using data between 1999 and 2007, the authors examine how differences in work organizations in China, Germany, Japan and the USA affect wages in the automobile industry.
Findings
It is found that market forces play a more prominent role in Germany and the USA than in China and Japan and the difference is attributed to cultural, economic, political, and regulatory factors in each country.
Originality/value
This paper is one of the first that uses systematic data to conduct comparative analysis of labor relations in the automobile industry.
Details
Keywords
Aner Tal, Yaniv Gvili, Moty Amar and Brian Wansink
This study aims to examine whether companies’ donations to political parties can impact product experience, specifically taste.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine whether companies’ donations to political parties can impact product experience, specifically taste.
Design/methodology/approach
Research design consists of four studies; three online, one in person. Participants were shown a cookie (Studies 1-3) or cereal (Study 4) and told that the producing company donated to either the Republican Party or the Democratic Party (Studies 1-3) or an unspecified party (Study 4).
Findings
Participants rated food products as less tasty if told they came from a company that donated to a party they object to. These effects were shown to be mediated by moral disgust (Study 3). Effects were restricted to taste and willingness to buy (Study 4), with no effects on other positive product dimensions.
Research limitations/implications
The studies provide a first piece of evidence that political donations by companies can negatively impact product experience. This can translate to purchase decisions through an emotional, rather than calculated, route.
Practical implications
Companies should be careful about making donations some of their consumers may find objectionable. This might impact both purchase and consumption decisions, as well as post-consumption word-of-mouth.
Originality/value
Companies’ political involvement can negatively impact subjective product experience, even though such information has no bearing on product quality. The current findings demonstrate that alterations in subjective product quality may underlie alterations in consumer decision-making because of ideologically tinged information, and reveals moral disgust as the mechanism underlying these effects. In this, it provides a first demonstration that even mild ideological information that is not globally bad or inherently immoral can generate moral disgust, and that such effects depend on consumers’ own attitudes.
Parnali Dhar Chowdhury and C. Emdad Haque
The purpose of this chapter is to offer reflections on conventional theories concerning causes and determinants of diseases. It also intends to examine both theoretical and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this chapter is to offer reflections on conventional theories concerning causes and determinants of diseases. It also intends to examine both theoretical and empirical bases for adopting an Integrated Social-Ecological Systems (ISES) lens as a tool for understanding complexities related to drivers, determinants and causes of diseases.
Design/methodology/approach
We assessed the theoretical underpinnings of a range of historical and contemporary lenses for viewing infectious disease drivers and the implications of their use when used to explain both personal (i.e. individual) and population health. We examined these issues within the empirical context of the City of Dhaka (Bangladesh) by adopting an ISES lens. Within this study an emphasis has been placed on illustrating how feedback loops and non-linearity functions in systems have a direct bearing upon various aspects of infectious disease occurrences.
Findings
A brief triumph over microbes during the last century stemmed in part from our improved understanding of disease causation which was built using disciplinary-specific, monocausal approaches to the study of disease emergence. Subsequently, empirical inquiries into the multi-factorial aetiology and the ‘web of causation’ of disease emergence have extended frameworks beyond simplistic, individualistic descriptions of disease causation. Nonetheless, much work is yet to be done to understand the roles of complex, intertwined, multi-level, social-ecological factors in affecting disease occurrence. We argue, a transdisciplinary-oriented, ISES lens is needed to explain the complexities of disease occurrence at various and interacting levels. More theoretical and empirical formulations, with evidence derived from various parts of the world, is also required to further the debate.
Originality/value
Our study advances the theoretical as well as empirical basis for considering an integrated human-nature systems approach to explaining disease occurrence at all levels so that factors at the individual, household/neighbourhood, local, regional and global levels are not treated in isolation.
Details
Keywords
Liam O’Callaghan, David M. Doyle, Diarmuid Griffin and Muiread Murphy
Maija Kontukoski, Harri Luomala, Bruno Mesz, Mariano Sigman, Marcos Trevisan, Minna Rotola-Pukkila and Anu Inkeri Hopia
This paper aims to extend current understanding concerning the cross-modal correspondences between sounds and tastes by introducing new research tools and experimental data to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to extend current understanding concerning the cross-modal correspondences between sounds and tastes by introducing new research tools and experimental data to study associations and their reflections between music and taste.
Design/methodology/approach
The experiment design addresses the multidisciplinary approach by using cultural, chemical and statistical analysis methods.
Findings
The paper provides further evidence that exposure to the “sweet” or “sour” musical pieces influences people’s food-related thinking processes and behaviors. It also demonstrates that sweet or sour elements in the music may reflect to actual sweetness (as measured by sugar content) and sourness (as measured by organic acid content) of foods developed in association with music carrying similar taste characteristics.
Research limitations/implications
The findings should be replicated and expanded using larger consumer samples and wider repertoires of “taste music” and dependent variables. Also, the level of experimental control should be improved; e.g., the “sweet” and “sour” music were produced using different instruments, which may have an influence to the results.
Practical implications
Ambient “taste music” that is congruent with the basic flavors of the dishes can be played in restaurants to highlight guests’ sensory experience.
Social implications
By carefully considering the symbolic meanings of the music used in different social situations, it is possible to create multimodal experiences and even subconscious expectations in people’ minds.
Originality/value
Cross-modal associations are made between the tastes and music. This can influence on perception of food and provide new ways to build multimodal gastronomic experiences.