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1 – 10 of 363David Conner, Emily Irwin and Maelle Simmen
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential of eco-labels to help dairy farm viability as one partial solution to a complex problem. Specifically, it aims to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential of eco-labels to help dairy farm viability as one partial solution to a complex problem. Specifically, it aims to understand which attributes are most likely to increase consumption and garner price premiums.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses key informant interviews and a convenience sample (n=203) of supermarket shoppers in Vermont. It uses Likert-type scales to measure the likelihood of increased purchase and paying price premiums based on a series attributes including animal welfare, fair labor standards, family farms and environmental stewardship. It calculates and compares mean ratings of each attribute and use an ordinal regression to measure the effect of demographic attributes on each attribute’s rating.
Findings
Interviewed stakeholders named low milk prices and evolving industry structure as harming dairy farm viability. They list supply control and improved promotion as potential solutions. Survey respondents say attributes supporting animal welfare, farm workers, family farms and healthy soil are most likely to garner increased consumption and price premiums.
Research limitations/implications
The authors use a convenience sample, so generalization to larger populations is not advisable.
Practical implications
Promotion around animal welfare, farm workers, family farms and healthy soil is most likely to be effective, based on the results of this study. The survey responses are very highly correlated, suggesting that a multi-attribute eco-label may garner the most support.
Social implications
This work can inform efforts to promote dairy farm viability, an important sector of the agricultural economy in Vermont and elsewhere in the USA.
Originality/value
This research provides the ranking of attributes which may appear on eco-labels by current consumers of dairy products in a state with an important dairy heritage and industry.
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Grant Aguirre, David M. Boje, Melissa L. Cast, Suzanne L. Conner, Catherine Helmuth, Rakesh Mittal, Rohny Saylors, Nazanin Tourani, Sebastien Vendette and Tony Qiang Yan
This intervention study outlines the continuing journey of a university towards its sustainability potentiality. We introduce the importance of sustainable development and link it…
Abstract
This intervention study outlines the continuing journey of a university towards its sustainability potentiality. We introduce the importance of sustainable development and link it to our intervention study of potentiality for sustainability from a Heideggerian phenomenological perspective. Through a case study of sustainability at New Mexico State University, we provide an insight into the development of a new dimension of university sustainability interface. This interface exists in terms of a dialogic of sustainability, as it relates to the balancing of competing needs, such as efficiency, heart, and brand identity. An important aspect of this interface is intervention, highlighting new possibilities for the top administrators regarding the university's goals and environmentalities. A qualitative and interpretive approach using ontological storytelling inquiry is employed. Data for the study were collected through in-depth interviews with university members from all hierarchical levels. This article raises interesting ontological issues for sustainability researchers, and has implications for strategy as practice.
Joseph Berger, David G. Wagner and Murray Webster
We survey and organize over fifty years of theoretical research on status and expectation state processes. After defining some key terms in this theoretical approach, we briefly…
Abstract
Purpose
We survey and organize over fifty years of theoretical research on status and expectation state processes. After defining some key terms in this theoretical approach, we briefly describe theories and branches in the program.
Methodology/Approach
We also focus on a few theories that illustrate distinct patterns of theory growth, using them to show the variety of ways in which the research program has grown.
Findings
The program structure developed from a single set of theories on development and maintenance of group inequality in the 1960s to six interrelated branches by 1988. Between 1988 and today, the overall structure has grown to total 19 different branches. We briefly describe each branch, identifying over 200 resources for the further study of these branches.
Research Implications
Although the various branches share key concepts and processes, they have been developed by different researchers, in a variety of settings from laboratories to schools to business organizations. Second, we outline some important issues for further research in some of the branches. Third, we emphasize the value of developing new research methods for testing and applying the theories.
Practical Implications
These theories have been used to explain phenomena of gender, racial, and ethnic inequality among others, and for understanding some cases of personality attributions, deviance and control processes, and application of double standards in hiring.
Social Implications
Status and expectation state processes often operate to produce invidious social inequalities. Understanding these processes can enable social scientists to devise more effective interventions to reduce these inequalities.
Originality/Value of the Chapter
Status and expectation state processes occupy a significant segment of research into group processes. This chapter provides an authoritative overview of ideas in the program, what is known, and what remains to be discovered.
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Sergey Yuzhanin and David Fisher
The theory of planned behaviour (TPB) considers the interrelationship between such concepts as beliefs, attitudes, norms, intentions and behaviour (Ajzen, 1991; Ajzen and…
Abstract
Purpose
The theory of planned behaviour (TPB) considers the interrelationship between such concepts as beliefs, attitudes, norms, intentions and behaviour (Ajzen, 1991; Ajzen and Fishbein, 1975). Based on a review of academic sources, this paper aims to analyse the efficacy of the TPB for predicting people’s intentions when choosing a travel destination.
Design/methodology/approach
Surprisingly, only 15 studies were identified that used TPB to predict the choice of travel destination, though the theory has been used in other areas of tourism analysis.
Findings
Mixed results were found in the studies. Therefore, the adequacy of the TPB for predicting travellers’ intentions of choosing a destination may be questioned. However, there is nothing in the TPB suggesting that all the constructs of the model must contribute equally, significantly and simultaneously to behavioural intentions.
Originality/value
To achieve a more comprehensive understanding of the intentions in question, the TPB model may have to be extended to suit different settings. The decision-making process of choosing a destination is a complicated one; therefore, researchers’ attention should not only consider travellers’ intentions but also the direct effect of intentions on the actual behaviour.
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Shane Blackman and Robert McPherson
This study examines the connections between subculture theory, symbolic interaction and the work of David Matza with a special focus on exploring alcohol consumption by young…
Abstract
This study examines the connections between subculture theory, symbolic interaction and the work of David Matza with a special focus on exploring alcohol consumption by young adults in the UK. We apply Matza ideas of the “techniques of neutralization,” “subterranean values,” and “drift” within an ethnographic study on alcohol to suggest that young people's “calculated hedonism” can be understood as a strategy of agency in the context of a subcultural setting. This article adds to the literature of symbolic interaction, subculture and the discipline of sociology by critically focusing on the work of David Matza from its reception in the 1960s to today as a central element of the new paradigm of cultural criminology. For us the sociological imagination is “alive and well” through Matza's advocacy of naturalism whereby he sought to integrate the work Chicago School under Park and Burgess with his assessment of the so-called Neo-Chicago School. In the literature Matza's work is often defined as symbolic interactionist we see his ambition in a wider sense of wanting sociology to recover human struggle and the active creation of meaning. Our approach is to understand the calculated hedonism of young adult use of alcohol through their humanity.
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Patricia David and Sharyn Rundle-Thiele
In response to calls for theory use and a more reflexive turn in social marketing, this paper aims to draw on previously executed studies. In line with dominant social marketing…
Abstract
Purpose
In response to calls for theory use and a more reflexive turn in social marketing, this paper aims to draw on previously executed studies. In line with dominant social marketing downstream-focussed practice, the explanatory power of a commonly used theory, namely, the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), was empirically examined across three different contexts and critically assessed to guide future research practice.
Design/methodology/approach
TPB measures were drawn from prior studies, and inconsistent item use across contexts was observed. Quantitative studies involving from 876 to 3,191 respondents underpin this study. Each study focussed on a different behaviour, namely, walking to and from school, binge drinking and packing fruits and vegetables into lunchboxes. Hierarchical multiple linear regressions were used for data analysis.
Findings
Item use was mixed, construct reliability was not consistent and consequent findings indicated that TPB explained walking to and from school and binge drinking, but it did not explain packing fruits and vegetables into lunchboxes.
Originality/value
Theory use is recommended to enhance intervention outcomes. However, theory application remains scarce in social marketing. Moreover, when theory is used, consistent measures are not used; items are removed from constructs to obtain model fit and constructs used within the theory differ. The current study draws from three studies, all of which applied TPB to explain behaviours. Mixed outcomes were observed when the same analytical process was applied using the available measures and constructs. Close investigation of the measures used across the three studies highlights one explanation for mixed findings. In the absence of consistent application of the theory, drawing definitive conclusions about a theory’s effectiveness is premature. Precise application of theoretical constructs is needed to deliver theoretically derived understanding.
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Marc T. Swogger, Kathleen M. Montry, Zach Walsh and David S. Kosson
Early clinical accounts of psychopathy suggest important relationships between alcohol use and psychopathic traits that lead to fantastic and uninviting behavior. In particular…
Abstract
Purpose
Early clinical accounts of psychopathy suggest important relationships between alcohol use and psychopathic traits that lead to fantastic and uninviting behavior. In particular, alcohol was thought to facilitate antisocial behavior, including violence, among psychopathic individuals. The purpose of this paper is to report a review of studies that concurrently examine psychopathy and alcohol in relation to violent behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors searched electronic databases (PsycInfo, PUBMED) for all published studies between January 1960 and October 2016 that included the combination of alcohol and psychopathy, antisocial personality and violence, aggression.
Findings
The evidence converges to indicate that, in college and community samples, self-reported antisocial lifestyle traits interact with alcohol use to predict violence beyond that accounted for by either construct. However, in correctional and clinical samples, there is no evidence that the use of alcohol increases violence for individuals high in clinically measured antisocial lifestyle traits.
Originality/value
This is the first review of the empirical literature on relationships among psychopathy, alcohol, and violence. The authors provide recommendations for future research designed to fill gaps in the literature and lead to a greater understanding of the interplay among these variables.
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