Jenny Palm and Fredrik Backman
This paper studies a Swedish municipality that wants to go beyond its own operations, involving the local industry in saving energy to improve the environment. The paper aims to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper studies a Swedish municipality that wants to go beyond its own operations, involving the local industry in saving energy to improve the environment. The paper aims to analyse the experiences and practical implications of using policy networks for implementing energy-efficiency measures in private industrial companies.
Design/methodology/approach
The researchers closely followed a Swedish municipality and its work to engage the local industry in energy-efficiency activities. Participatory observations of meetings and workshops and semi-structured interviews with involved actors were conducted.
Findings
The study examines a Swedish municipality that has started addressing energy efficiency in local businesses by creating a network involving 60 companies. This network was tested in relation to four hypotheses on how policy networks develop. The study finds that the network has too broad a problem definition, which does not help unify the involved actors. The companies’ involvement is based on passive participation in which they are receivers of information. The network has been unable to use a social control mechanism because there have been few company-to-company meetings. In conclusion, for a network to be an efficient policy tool, its structure is as important as the ideas for action and clear goals.
Research limitations/implications
This case study of one Swedish municipality allows for analytical but not statistical generalization.
Originality/value
The paper uniquely calls for reflection on whether municipalities and local authorities have enough competence to drive industrial energy efficiency.
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The purpose of this paper is to interpret the 1850 debut American performances of Swedish concert singer Jenny Lind as an emblematic moment in the history of live music promotion.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to interpret the 1850 debut American performances of Swedish concert singer Jenny Lind as an emblematic moment in the history of live music promotion.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper studies the manner in which Lind's earliest concerts and the singer herself were marketed through analysis of contemporary newspaper and magazine reports and advertisements.
Findings
Lind's concerts were important for the way they demonstrate the complex balance of “high” and “low” cultural forces at a transitional moment in US cultural history, and for the way in which her manager, P.T. Barnum, used various mechanisms to manage the potential disorder posed by her immense audiences.
Research limitations/implications
The paper addresses only the first few concerts of Lind's nearly two‐year American tour in detail, but uses those concerts as a case study for understanding the degree to which the business of nineteenth‐century concert promotion had to balance the pursuit of profit with the demands of crowd control.
Social implications
Lind's example demonstrates how a complex range of class interests needed to be balanced in order for her to reach something approaching a “mass audience,” in modern parlance.
Originality/value
The paper provides a historical perspective on issues that continue to have relevance for the promotion of large‐scale commercial events, and addresses critical questions about the nature of the collective experience provided through live music performance.
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Véronique Goehlich, Briony Gilbertson and Kerstin Bremser
Gender diversity in higher management levels of companies is becoming an increasingly relevant topic – organizations in general are realizing the necessity of having a higher…
Abstract
Gender diversity in higher management levels of companies is becoming an increasingly relevant topic – organizations in general are realizing the necessity of having a higher proportion of women in higher level management positions. This can only be achieved through actively promoting women in business. Various HR instruments are available to support a gender diversity strategy, one of which is mentoring. This chapter ascertains in what way mentoring is a sustainable instrument for the promotion of women in business specifically in Germany, by analyzing mentoring programs in various German companies from the points of view of both mentees and mentors. With the help of an online survey among female mentors and mentees and the theory given in the literature, the organizational aspects as well as the implementation of such programs are assessed with the aim of recognizing potential areas of improvement for companies in Germany in future. Based on this analysis, it can be concluded that mentoring for women is organized quite successfully in Germany, but that nevertheless certain areas of consideration exist in view of the general organization and the communication and marketing of the program.
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Just a cursory glance at some food packages around the world, including the UK, and some of the recent recommendations about food labelling, really do make you wonder for whom the…
Abstract
Just a cursory glance at some food packages around the world, including the UK, and some of the recent recommendations about food labelling, really do make you wonder for whom the labelling is intended. I have always worked on the assumption that the nutrition information on packets was for those men and women who were interested in what their food contained. It is not intended for trained dietitians or professors of nutrition, not for enforcement authorities. Neither is it intended for idiots.
Iqbal Irfany, Peter John McMahon, Jenny-Ann Toribio, Kim-Yen Phan-Thien, Muhamad Amin Rifai, Sigit Yusdiyanto, Grant Vinning, David I. Guest, Merrilyn Walton and Nunung Nuryartono
The aim of this study was to evaluate determinants of four diversification practises by cocoa smallholders in West Sulawesi, Indonesia: (1) growing other crops, (2) keeping…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this study was to evaluate determinants of four diversification practises by cocoa smallholders in West Sulawesi, Indonesia: (1) growing other crops, (2) keeping livestock, (3) off-farm work for wages (4) off-farm self-employment, and the impact of diversification on welfare of community members.
Design/methodology/approach
Household interviews (n = 116) conducted in two subdistricts (Anreapi and Mapilli) of Polewali-Mandar District, West Sulawesi, provided quantitative data on household characteristics, crop and livestock production, income sources, expenditure and credit access. Two villages per subdistrict were included in the study, each producing cocoa as the main crop but differing in their proximity to a market town. Logistic regression was applied to identify determinants of diversification by households. Multiple linear regression (MLR) models evaluated the impact of diversification practices and other explanatory variables on two proxies of welfare (or household wealth): per capita value of durable assets (household assets other than land or livestock) and per capita expenditure for each household.
Findings
Mean per capita cocoa production in the sample was low (51 kg dry beans/annum). The mean dependency ratio (proportion of household occupants age <18 and >64) was 35%, with an average of five occupants per household. Household heads were predominantly male (95%), averaging 46 yo and 7 years of formal education. Most households (72%) depended on loans, but only 24% accessed formal loans. Significant determinants of diversification practices were access to formal credit for self-employment and subdistrict for livestock, with Mapilli subdistrict households more likely to keep livestock. Household predictors in the MLR accounted for 28% variation of the dependent, per capita value of durable goods. Off-farm self-employment and raising livestock significantly improved welfare, but growing other crops or off-farm work for wages had little effect. Other household variables demonstrated to have significant positive effects on welfare were education of the household head, proximity to a market town and land area per household.
Research limitations/implications
The study was restricted to a relatively small sample size (n = 116). Studies including panel data or larger numbers of households could enable the identification of further determinants of diversification.
Practical implications
The study demonstrates that diversification has the potential to improve rural livelihoods, but that obstacles, especially formal credit access, may deter poorer households from diversifying their income sources.
Social implications
Programs and policies that facilitate access to formal finance by smallholders could encourage diversification into small business and improve livelihoods in cocoa-dependent communities.
Originality/value
In the light of the decline in cocoa farm productivity in West Sulawesi, the study demonstrates the potential benefits, as well as limitations, of income diversification by smallholders.
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Matti Haverila, Russell Currie, Kai Christian Haverila, Caitlin McLaughlin and Jenny Carita Twyford
This study aims to examine how the theory of planned behaviour and technology acceptance theory can be used to understand the adoption of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs)…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine how the theory of planned behaviour and technology acceptance theory can be used to understand the adoption of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs). The relationships between attitudes, behavioural intentions towards using NPIs, actual use of NPIs and word-of-mouth (WOM) were examined and compared between early and late adopters.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey was conducted to test the hypotheses with partial least squares structural equation modelling (n = 278).
Findings
The results indicate that relationships between attitudes, intentions and behavioural intentions were positive and significant in the whole data set – and that there were differences between the early and late adopters. WOM had no substantial relationship with actual usage and early adopters’ behavioural intentions.
Originality/value
This research gives a better sense of how WOM impacts attitudes, behavioural intentions and actual usage among early and late adopters of NPIs and highlights the effectiveness of WOM, especially among late adopters of NPIs. Furthermore, using the TAM allows us to make specific recommendations regarding encouraging the use of NPIs. A new three-stage communications model is introduced that uses early adopters as influencers to reduce the NPI adoption time by late adopters.
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This subject has long been debated by food manufacturers, nutritionists and consumer groups. Ideally, nutrition labelling should help the consumer make an informed choice of food…
Abstract
This subject has long been debated by food manufacturers, nutritionists and consumer groups. Ideally, nutrition labelling should help the consumer make an informed choice of food. But when many people are ‘blinded by science’ the problem is to supply enough information to be meaningful, yet not too much to be confusing.