Bernard Harris, Roderick Floud and Sok Chul Hong
In The Changing Body (Cambridge University Press and NBER, 2011), we presented a series of estimates showing the number of calories available for human consumption in England and…
Abstract
In The Changing Body (Cambridge University Press and NBER, 2011), we presented a series of estimates showing the number of calories available for human consumption in England and Wales at various points in time between 1700 and 1909/1913. We now seek to correct an error in our original figures and to compare the corrected figures with those published by a range of other authors. We also include new estimates showing the calorific value of meat and grains imported from Ireland. Disagreements with other authors reflect differences over a number of issues, including the amount of land under cultivation, the extraction and wastage rates for cereals and pulses and the number of animals supplying meat and dairy products. We consider recent attempts to achieve a compromise between these estimates and challenge claims that there was a dramatic reduction in either food availability or the average height of birth cohorts in the late-eighteenth century.
Carina Mae Font and Xavier Font
This research considers new and unexplored explanations of why consumers continue to engage in environmentally damaging, fast fashion consumption. It explains why rational…
Abstract
Purpose
This research considers new and unexplored explanations of why consumers continue to engage in environmentally damaging, fast fashion consumption. It explains why rational arguments alone do not prevent fast fashion consumption or encourage consumers to move toward greater adoption of sustainable fashion consumption behaviours.
Design/methodology/approach
This research compared the effects of a “neutral” control and an “intrasexual rivalry” experimental condition on: (1) likelihood to buy, and (2) willingness to pay, of frequent female fast fashion shoppers (N = 184).
Findings
Women use fast fashion as a conspicuous signal to other women, although this is not necessarily why they waste fast fashion purchases. Mating motives appear to produce a significant increase in fast fashion buying behaviour with women feeling intrasexual pressure to engage in consumption, and utilising consumption themselves as a self-promotion strategy.
Practical implications
Retailers tackling wasteful fast fashion consumption can demonstrate that sustainable consumption provides a superior conspicuous signal to fast fashion consumption, instead of solely using rational messaging.
Originality/value
Grounded in evolutionary psychology, this study uses three theories of intrasexual rivalry, conspicuous consumption and conspicuous waste to understand how both the volume and variety of fast fashion consumed are used as conspicuous signals in a mate attraction context.
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Bruce Muirhead and Hugh Campbell
Purpose – This study compares the historical evolution of two particular models of dairy policy: supply management in Canada and deregulated cooperative monopolisation in New…
Abstract
Purpose – This study compares the historical evolution of two particular models of dairy policy: supply management in Canada and deregulated cooperative monopolisation in New Zealand.
Design/methodology/approach – Both cases draw on historical sources and other secondary data.
Findings – Despite national adherence to neoliberalism and global trade reform, both Canada and New Zealand have arguably developed dairy sectors that are operating according to unique local dynamics and with vastly different outcomes. The result is a model in Canada which is potentially more resilient to future shocks than the New Zealand model.
Originality/value – By identifying the contradictory outcomes of local dairy policy development within a neoliberalist context, the chapter is able to explore the potential resilience of each sector in a way that hasn't been achieved before.
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Bruce Campbell, Robert Kay and David Avison
Organizations are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of aligning information systems with organizational processes, goals and strategies. One way of representing and…
Abstract
Purpose
Organizations are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of aligning information systems with organizational processes, goals and strategies. One way of representing and analysing strategic alignment is through the creation of a causal‐loop diagram, a subject which this paper seeks to examine.
Design/methodology/approach
The exploratory research presented here involved six senior IS/IT managers during three two‐hour focus group sessions, which led to the development of such a diagram. The focus group sessions were recorded, transcribed and analysed using content analysis.
Findings
The diagram presents a systemic view of IS/business alignment within organizations, as seen through the lens of these practitioners. The research suggests that, although practitioners understand that a high level of connection between IS and business planning processes may be dependent on the level of integration between the IS group and other sections of the organization, they are still unable to develop the necessary relationships. It appears that the culture of many organizations is impeding the development of this integration.
Originality/value
The research method and technique allowed a systemic view of IS/business alignment within a typical organization. It highlights the inter‐relationship between the social and intellectual dimensions of alignment and shows that these should not be studied in isolation. In particular, the research highlights the inter‐relationship between the social and intellectual dimensions of alignment.
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Ira W. Lieberman, Anne Anderson, Zach Grafe, Bruce Campbell and Daniel Kopf
Within the past few years, a new phenomenon has taken place among the world's leading microfinance institutions (MFIs) – entry into new capital markets through initial public…
Abstract
Within the past few years, a new phenomenon has taken place among the world's leading microfinance institutions (MFIs) – entry into new capital markets through initial public offerings (IPOs). “Going public” launches MFIs into a new frontier, not only presenting challenges but also providing new opportunities for the institutions and the clients they serve.
ONLY as events recede can we view them in proper perspective. It is then that we discover how often initial judgments were wrong, our fears con‐founded or our hopes dispelled…
Abstract
ONLY as events recede can we view them in proper perspective. It is then that we discover how often initial judgments were wrong, our fears con‐founded or our hopes dispelled. Treaties to end wars, pacts of eternal friendship and alliance are the debris which litter our uneasy world.
Ksenia Podoynitsyna, Yuliya Snihur, Llewellyn D. W. Thomas and Denis A. Grégoire
We investigate how Salesforce’s key people used analogies and metaphors during the deployment of their (then) radical business model innovation. Our analysis shows how…
Abstract
We investigate how Salesforce’s key people used analogies and metaphors during the deployment of their (then) radical business model innovation. Our analysis shows how Salesforce’s entrepreneurial team skillfully used a mix of analogies and metaphors to communicate its innovations and differentiate the company from its competitors. We also show how business model innovators can weave together analogies and metaphors to create distinct meta-narratives that elicited strong emotions and helped construct a memorable organizational identity that galvanized stakeholders around the firm’s ecosystem appeal. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for business model and cognition research.
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Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns and Diego Foronda
Traditional visions of masculinity are inextricably linked to some tropes believed as ‘essential’ in men such as valour or strength. If a man fails in comply with these…
Abstract
Traditional visions of masculinity are inextricably linked to some tropes believed as ‘essential’ in men such as valour or strength. If a man fails in comply with these ‘essences’, then he fits into a form of deviant masculinity that transforms him into an Other.
Now, what happens with the issues of ageing in masculinity? The ageing man slowly but naturally loses all the aspects that made him ‘manly’ enough, becoming instead a double of himself. Men are doomed to fail as their bodies start to malfunction.
Two horror films highlight ageing and failed masculinity as a way to engage with these new concerns. Bubba Ho-Tep (Don Coscarelli, 2012) and Late Phases (Adrián García Bogliano, 2014) revolves around two aged heroes (Elvis Presley in the former, an ageing war veteran in the latter) who live within retirement communities. There, in the last years of their life, both men must face supernatural menaces: a walking mummy and a werewolf respectively. Facing supernatural horror, the ageing heroes must compensate their failing masculinity – a body that does not work as well as it used to do – with new forms of empathy and manliness.
Uniting film studies with investigations on masculinity and ageing, we propose to read these two films to point the ways in which both stories engage with the cultural politics of ageing masculinity.
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Being a relatively newer member to the school of Austrian economics, I have seen the world of the economics profession and its many schools of thought through many lenses. Having…
Abstract
Being a relatively newer member to the school of Austrian economics, I have seen the world of the economics profession and its many schools of thought through many lenses. Having this different perspective, I disagree with Pete Boettke on his ideas for ways to change the procedural way the Austrian school does economics. We need to be empirical about not just the economy, but of the history of economic thought. I believe the main goal should not be higher impact factors, but true progression of scientific knowledge. More focus on what we are doing, and less on counting articles.