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This paper aims to examine consumers’ opinions and behavioral intentions toward foods labeled as containing genetically modified (GM) (transgenic) ingredients across plant and animal-based categories. In light of marketplace changes (i.e. labeling requirements), we explore behavioral measures based on labeling options.

Three studies, one online projective survey using a convenience sample of consumers and two experiments conducted with Amazon mTurk adult US participants, are included.

Consumers have negative associations with GM products vs non-GM and are more likely to purchase unlabeled GM products. GM products may offer positive economic, societal and environmental benefits. However, the need for labeling overshadows these benefits and presence of GM labeling increased avoidance. Furthermore, changes in product opinion mediate consumers’ purchase intention and willingness to pay.

GM labeling negatively influences consumers’ opinions and behavioral intentions. This is important for legislators and marketers concerned with counter-labeling effects (e.g. Non-GMO Project Verified).

Debates on efficacy of labeling, inclusion disclosure of ingredients, short-term risks and long-term implications are ongoing globally. Consumer reception and purchase intention can only be changed through governmental and corporate transparency.

Widespread misinformation about GM foods, presence in our food supply, impact on health, economy, environment and the marketplace still exists. The findings reflect consumers’ responses to changes proposed by the 2016 National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard legislation.

With the paucity of research on consumer response to the release of a GM animal product into the food supply, this work breaks new ground as the first to examine the impact of disclosure of GM animal-based food type.

The Uniting Medically Supervised Injecting Centre (MSIC) opened in Sydney, Australia, in May 2001. Homelessness among people who inject drugs (PWID) in Australia has been increasing, and establishing how supervised injecting facilities (SIFs) might best support clients into housing is an important goal. The purpose of this paper is to update knowledge regarding the accommodation status of MSIC clients, thereby supporting a better understanding of the complex needs of these clients.

Client accommodation status at MSIC registration (first visit) and in a brief survey (conducted in May 2016) were compared; unstable accommodation was defined as rough sleeping, couch surfing, hostel, boarding house or crisis accommodation. The bivariate logistic regression analysis was used to explore the association between socio-demographics and accommodation status at both time points; a paired t-test was used to compare the visit records for those who reported stable and unstable accommodation in May 2016.

Of 232 clients who were present at MSIC during the week the Brief Survey was conducted, 107 participated. Most were male (79 per cent) with a mean age of 41.4 years. A total of 64 (60 per cent) identified as living in unstable accommodation; having increased from 40 per cent at the time of registration (first visit). There were significant positive associations between unstable accommodation status and unemployment, imprisonment and history of overdose, all measured at registration. In May 2016, unstable accommodation status was significantly associated with age of first injection and with unemployment status (as measured at registration); those living in unstable accommodation in May 2016 had a lower number of visits, a lower number of referrals to health and social services and a lower number of overdoses at MSIC than those living in a stable accommodation.

The rates of unstable accommodation among MSIC clients have been increasing. These findings highlight the importance of SIFs and drug consumption rooms as venue to address the essential needs of PWID, such as housing. The window of opportunity to support PWID who experience housing instability seems to be narrower than for those who live in stable accommodation.

The authors propose the information matrix test to assess the constancy of mean and variance parameters in vector autoregressions (VAR). They additively decompose it into several orthogonal components: conditional heteroskedasticity and asymmetry of the innovations, and their unconditional skewness and kurtosis. Their Monte Carlo simulations explore both its finite size properties and its power against i.i.d. coefficients, persistent but stationary ones, and regime switching. Their procedures detect variation in the autoregressive coefficients and residual covariance matrix of a VAR for the US GDP growth rate and the statistical discrepancy, but they fail to detect any covariation between those two sets of coefficients.

This research examines the bidirectional relationship between Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) voluntary disclosure engagement and financial performance of a panel of banks extracted from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) banking industry, covering a period of 11 years (2007–2017). We find that GCC banks, and in particular Islamic banks, voluntarily disclose low level of information related to ESG activities. Using system GMM methodology, we provide evidence that ESG disclosure adversely affects bank performance, regardless of the bank performance measure used. Thus spending on ESG turns out to be costly for GCC banks, a result that is consistent with the agency problem, where managers are likely to reduce long-term expenditures related to ESG actions in order to boost short-term profits. As managers' compensations often relate to short-term financial performance, managers tend to reduce their spending on ESG activities. Furthermore, contrary to previous research, our results indicate that the relationship between ESG and financial performance is bidirectional and dynamic. We also find evidence that ESG disclosure positively affects performance only for well-diversified banks. Finally, although conventional banks disclose significantly more information related to ESG activities, we do not find any significant differences between the two types of banks in the relationship between ESG disclosure and performance. Our suggestion is that these results are consistent with what we call “clientele” and “gravitation” effects, where a customer tends to choose to deal with the bank that reflects his religious beliefs (gravitation effect) and with the bank that provides him with the best services (clientele effect) regardless of its ESG disclosure.

Business failure is often described as a Rites of Passage for entrepreneurs. But what does this actually mean? This chapter returns to the original Rites of Passage material, from cultural ethnographers in the early twentieth century. By doing so, the author re-conceptualizes contemporary business failure as the Rites of Business Failure comprising a three-stage transitional process of separation, transition, and incorporation, which has a more socialized and a better understood role in society. Taking a sensemaking perspective, the author portrays the need for greater support for entrepreneurs as they experience business failure and re-establish their life. The author proposes many of the challenges entrepreneurs face over the Rites of Business Failure can be addressed through tailor-made training programs, networks, mentors, and role models which can all be utilized to assist people after the setback of business failure. Theoretically, the chapter contributes to literature on sensemaking and business failure. Practically, it holds implications for policy makers and practicing entrepreneurs.

We provide the first comprehensive documentation of enactment by U.S. states of two types of Acts removing married women's legal impediments in the economic sphere: the Married Women's Property Acts (MWPAs) and the Earnings Acts (EAs). We identify MWPAs that granted married women the right to own and control real and personal property, and Earnings Acts that granted married women the right to own and control their market earnings. Such Acts were passed by most states between 1850 and 1920, and were critical in weakening the patriarchal common-law doctrine of coverture. Scholars studying the Acts’ causes and consequences have used different enactment dates. We describe a three-step method for determining accurate dates of passage, apply that method to the contiguous 48 states, uncover dates not listed in previous studies, and show how our dates differ from the present published lists. We also show how enactment varied across regions, and across states with different marital property regimes. We relate Act timing to social changes occurring at those times, such as women's suffrage group organizing and the passage of compulsory schooling laws. We hope that our investigation will inform future empirical study of these important legal changes.

Older women living in medically underserved areas (MUA) might have particular problems with access to health care. This is an in-depth report of the accessibility issues raised by six frail older women (age 82–93 years) during a longitudinal descriptive phenomenological study of the experience of home care. Three White women lived in the same rural MUA, and three Black women lived in the same urban MUA. The need for health service was understood subjectively and prospectively as the personal perception of a situation requiring relief or supply. Some women reported presenting needs for accessibility to providers, whereas others reported needs for their future accessibility to providers or services. Some intentions were likely linked to residence location, and residence in a rural MUA was relevant to the phenomenon of securing the help that I might need down the road. Feasibility was proposed as a new parameter of access. Research and practice implications were proposed.