The paper outlines some examples of how firms are responding to the challenge of presenting regulation and compliance as positive and worthwhile business issues.
Rebecca Andrews, Fay Hadley, Manjula Waniganayake, Iain Hay, Catherine Jones and Xinyun Meg Liang
Retention of early childhood teachers in Australia is a critical issue, particularly for new teachers. The demanding nature of new teachers’ everyday work and high rates of stress…
Abstract
Purpose
Retention of early childhood teachers in Australia is a critical issue, particularly for new teachers. The demanding nature of new teachers’ everyday work and high rates of stress and burnout have resulted in teachers leaving the sector. By designing a formal mentoring project, our aim was to support teachers to stay and flourish as respected professionals. This paper presents findings from the perspective of the mentees – new teachers in their first five years of employment in the sector.
Design/methodology/approach
We designed and offered a two-phase multi-layered mentoring project to 145 new teachers (mentees) matched with 51 experienced teachers (mentors). It began with a mentor training course implemented by three experienced early childhood education academics and utilised a community of practice approach (Lave and Wenger, 1991). Data collected throughout the project included a pre- and post-survey and a needs satisfaction and frustration scale.
Findings
Analysis of survey data shows that mentee new teachers gained a better understanding of their role and built connections with peers and leaders. Survey data also demonstrates that effective mentoring can successfully contribute to addressing workforce challenges faced by early childhood teachers.
Originality/value
The project makes an original contribution through the design, implementation and evaluation of an innovative online mentoring project for teachers employed across the state of New South Wales, Australia.
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Mark Yi-Cheon Yim, Paul L. Sauer, Jerome Williams, Se-Jin Lee and Iain Macrury
Limited attention has been paid to the cultural influences on the formation of consumer attitudes toward luxury brands (LUX). The purpose of this paper is to investigate this…
Abstract
Purpose
Limited attention has been paid to the cultural influences on the formation of consumer attitudes toward luxury brands (LUX). The purpose of this paper is to investigate this relationship by developing a model that additionally employs the constructs of susceptibility to normative interpersonal influence (SNII) and brand consciousness (BCO).
Design/methodology/approach
Sample data were gathered through surveys administered to 383 college students in the UK and Taiwan. The model of cultural influences on attitudes toward luxury brands was empirically tested using multi-group structural equation modeling to evaluate its applicability across the two countries.
Findings
Results are presented in two parts: first, the exogenous construct part of the model establishing the reliability and validity of the cultural dimension constructs (horizontal individualism, vertical individualism, horizontal collectivism, and vertical collectivism) that are antecedent to consumer SNII and 2) the endogenous part of the model in which consumer SNII affects LUX through the mediating role of BCO.
Research limitations/implications
The findings in the current study are limited to a sample of college students in the UK and Taiwan, which, through representing western and Asian countries, each housing different cultures, do not span the greater number of cultures found across these countries, much less across the world. Furthermore it is assumed that there are a number of subcultures in both the UK and Taiwan that are not accounted for in this study.
Practical implications
An individual level of cultural orientation (e.g. horizontalism and verticalism) rather than traditionally adopted regionally defined or nationally based (Hofstede, 1980) cultural criteria should be investigated to identify more accurate market demand patterns in order to best target consumers in these markets (Sharma, 2010). In addition, appealing, vertical ad messages would be more effective in stimulating consumer motivations for consumption of luxury brands. Conversely, horizontal ad messages would be effective in demarketing approaches.
Originality/value
The current study is the first of its kind to explore the effect of cultural-orientation on the formation of LUX cross-nationally. As such it provides future cross-cultural researchers with valid and reliable culturally based constructs that can be used to predict consumer SNII in developing LUX. In addition, establishing the mediating role of BCO in the relationship between SNII and LUX helps marketers better understand the equity of their luxury brands, particularly in Asian countries.
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Leonardo Weiss-Cohen, Peter Ayton, Iain Clacher and Volker Thoma
Behavioral finance research has almost exclusively investigated the decision making of lay individuals, mostly ignoring more sophisticated institutional investors. The purpose of…
Abstract
Purpose
Behavioral finance research has almost exclusively investigated the decision making of lay individuals, mostly ignoring more sophisticated institutional investors. The purpose of this paper is to better understand the relatively unexplored field of investment decisions made by pension fund trustees, an important subset of institutional investors, and identify future avenues of further exploration.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper starts by setting out the landscape in which pension fund trustees operate and make their decisions, followed by a literature review of the extant behavioral finance research applicable to similar situations.
Findings
Despite receiving training and accumulating experience in financial markets, these are limited and sparse; therefore, pension fund trustees are unlikely to be immune from behavioral biases. Trustees make decisions in groups, are heavily reliant on advice and make decisions on behalf of others. Research in those areas has uncovered many inefficiencies. It is still unknown how this specific context can affect the psychological effects on their decisions.
Research limitations/implications
Given how much influence trustees’ decisions have on asset allocation and by extension in financial markets, this is a surprising state of affairs. Research in behavioral finance has had a marked influence on policy in the past and so we anticipate that exploring the decisions made within pension funds may have wide ramifications for the industry.
Originality/value
As far as the authors are aware, no behavioral research has empirically tested pension fund trustees’ decisions to investigate how the combination of group decisions, advice and surrogacy influence their decisions and, ultimately, the sustainability of our pensions.
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Alexander Paulsson and Claus Hedegaard Sørensen
The point of departure of this book is that smart mobility will only be developed in a desired direction and fulfil societal objectives if it is steered in that direction. The…
Abstract
The point of departure of this book is that smart mobility will only be developed in a desired direction and fulfil societal objectives if it is steered in that direction. The market, left to itself, will most certainly not deliver on these objectives. This message has been conveyed extensively in recent literature, but this book aims to take this discussion one step further by focussing on what governance of smart mobility looks like today and in the future. In this introductory chapter, the authors provide a framework of different understandings of policy instruments, how they are selected, developed and used. After the array of policy instruments within the transport sector has been extensively discussed, the authors turn to discussing a broader understanding of policy instruments found within political science and political sociology. In doing so, this book contributes to the critical scholarship on policy instruments, while exploring the why, the how and the what of policy instruments in relation to smart mobility. The chapter closes with a brief introduction to the structure of the book as well as a description of the content of each chapter.
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Julia Edwards, Alan McKinnon and Sharon Cullinane
This paper seeks to examine the various stages in online and conventional retail supply chains in order to assess their relative environmental impacts. With reference to boundary…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to examine the various stages in online and conventional retail supply chains in order to assess their relative environmental impacts. With reference to boundary issues, utilisation factors and carbon allocation, it seeks to highlight some of the difficulties in establishing a robust carbon auditing methodology.
Design/methodology/approach
Auditing issues are considered from the point of divergence in the respective supply chains (downstream of this point a product is destined either for conventional or online retailing channels, and will receive different treatment accordingly).
Findings
The paper explores methodological issues associated with carbon auditing conventional and online retail channels. Having highlighted the problems, it suggests resolutions to these issues.
Research limitations/implications
The paper is mostly conceptual in nature.
Practical implications
The approach outlined in this paper, once applied, allows the identification of inefficiencies in the respective retail supply chains.
Originality/value
The paper is the first to discuss carbon auditing in relation to upstream supply chain analysis for both conventional and online retail channels. Previous work has tended to focus on the last mile delivery.