Mary McCarthy, Mary Brennan, Christopher Ritson and Martine de Boer
This article aims to explore the risk characteristics associated with food hazards on the island of Ireland and to assess how the public deal with perceived risks.
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to explore the risk characteristics associated with food hazards on the island of Ireland and to assess how the public deal with perceived risks.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative investigation involving 12 focus groups was conducted on the island of Ireland. Content analysis was undertaken, with the assistance of the qualitative software tool QSR N6.
Findings
Four hazard categories (lifestyle, (bio)technological, microbiological and farm orientated production) were identified and the risk characteristics and risk relieving strategies associated with these hazards were explored. The risk perceptions of respondents were consistent with those defined by the psychometric paradigm. The risk characteristics of knowledge, control, dread, harm to health, freedom of choice, ease to identify were all mentioned, but their importance differed greatly depending on the hazards. For example, in the case of lifestyle hazards, personalisation of the risk, and thus dread, occurred when the individual had a health scare, while with microbiological hazards, knowledge and familiarity resulted in increased confidence in ability to cope with the hazard in the home. The media was noted as having an influential role in individual risk assessment. Finally, changing lifestyles were seen as contributing to increasing the level of exposure to food risks among the population. Further investigation into the sources and consequences of these changing lifestyles is required to guide future food policy.
Research limitations/implications
The number of focus group conducted and the qualitative nature of the research limits the degree to which generalised conclusions can be drawn.
Originality/value
These results provide a deeper qualitative understanding of risk perception issues.
Details
Keywords
The concept of sustainability in general and food sustainability, in particular, entails many aspects and many interpretations. During a conference on food sustainability a broad…
Abstract
The concept of sustainability in general and food sustainability, in particular, entails many aspects and many interpretations. During a conference on food sustainability a broad, multidisciplinary picture was painted and many key issues were dealt with, from ecology, economy and society. In sessions on food security – the focus in developing countries – and food safety – primarily a preoccupation in developed countries – many potential trade‐offs and opportunities for regional approaches were identified. The session on governance, therefore, focused on the interaction between multi‐level actors, including national governments, international organisations such as WTO, the food industry and consumers. Finally, transparency was identified as one of the main issues underlying good governance. In order to improve the sustainability of food production, therefore, it was considered of the utmost importance that food multinationals transfer some form of democratic control over their global environmental policies, as part of an overall multi‐level (public‐private) governance ideal.
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Amal Aribi and Olivier Dupouët
This paper aims to ask the question of the contingency of a firm’s absorptive capacity upon the type of expected outcome. Thus, this paper looks at different expected outputs in…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to ask the question of the contingency of a firm’s absorptive capacity upon the type of expected outcome. Thus, this paper looks at different expected outputs in terms of more or less radical innovations and sees if there are consequences on the absorptive process underpinning cognitive structures and processes, as embodied in its organizational and social capital.
Design/methodology/approach
To do so, a qualitative study was conducted. In total, 23 persons in three French industrial firms were interviewed about their firm’s absorptive capacity. One of these firms aims at “new-to-the-firm” innovations, while the other two aim at “new-to-the-world” innovations.
Findings
Results suggest that while “new-to-the-firm” innovations tend to favor the use of social capital, “new-to-the-world” innovations tend to rely more on organizational capital. These rather counterintuitive results are interpreted by the necessity to take into account other variables than knowledge distance in the absorption of new knowledge. In particular, complexity and time-length would call for greater use of organizational capital, while speed and reactivity would instead require greater use of social capital.
Originality/value
This is to the best of the authors’ knowledge that one of the first study evidencing the contingent nature of the absorptive process. Further, results tend to show the form absorptive capacity takes depends not only on cognitive aspects but also on the particular environment the firm evolves in.
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Steven A.Y. Poelmans, Nuria Chinchilla and Pablo Cardona
Several authors have tried to explain the variation across firms in the implementation of work‐family programmes in terms of the employment strategy of these firms and…
Abstract
Several authors have tried to explain the variation across firms in the implementation of work‐family programmes in terms of the employment strategy of these firms and institutional pressures. But most of these studies have been done in the US context. This study replicates these studies in Spain, which has a very different legal, cultural, and labour market context and where the diffusion of work‐family programmes has only recently started. Using data from a sample of 131 Spanish, mostly private firms, tests five hypotheses that may explain the adoption of family‐friendly human resources management policies. Finds that even in this particular context both the employment strategy and some institutional pressures play an important role. The size of the firm, the percentage of female employees, the presence of a high‐commitment work system and the tightness of the labour market are associated with the implementation of a work/family programme. With the increasing participation of female workers and the ageing of the population expects that work/family programmes will continue to diffuse in Spain.