Kevin D. Lo, Richard D. Waters and Nicklas Christensen
The purpose of this paper is to examine how Hofstede’s six cultural dimensions are reflected on the official corporate Facebook pages from 259 organizations on Fortune magazine’s…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how Hofstede’s six cultural dimensions are reflected on the official corporate Facebook pages from 259 organizations on Fortune magazine’s Global 500 list. This is the first attempt to create a conceptualization of Hofstede’s dimensions for organizational social media use.
Design/methodology/approach
To determine how Facebook is used by the Global 500 corporations, a content analysis was carried out based on the 2013 listing of the highest revenue corporations throughout the world. As a research method, content analysis allows researchers to examine the actual practices of communication by focusing on the information provided through textual and visual messages.
Findings
The results paint a mixed picture indicating that the global nature of these corporations is echoed in a somewhat similar overall presence on Facebook; but when the individual elements (About Us, updates, and media) are examined, statistical differences emerge in relation to the reflection of the cultural dimensions.
Originality/value
To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first work to match Facebook behaviors with Hofstede’s dimensions. This work needs to be replicated with other organizations to determine its staying power. In addition, future research might tap into agency and any consciousness on the part of social media managers in a specific direction. Depending on those findings, they might make important statements on the emergence of a global social media culture.
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In Canada, food insecurity is characterized by the consumption of low quantity or low-quality foods, worrying about food supply and/or acquiring foods in socially unacceptable…
Abstract
In Canada, food insecurity is characterized by the consumption of low quantity or low-quality foods, worrying about food supply and/or acquiring foods in socially unacceptable ways, such as begging or scavenging. As of 2012, approximately 15.2% of Ontario, Canada, children are living in food insecure households, a prevalence which has remained steady since 2005. This is particularly concerning when considering that school-aged children are a population whose growth and developing is sensitive to nutritional stress, and the experience of childhood food insecurity is highly associated with the development of adverse physical, mental and learning outcomes. This study aims at establishing the relationship between food insecurity and Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) standardized test scores in order to highlight the incompatibility of the EQAO's reliance on test outcomes in determining Ontarian school's accountability, specifically for those with a high prevalence of food insecurity.
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The purpose of this study is to explore rural children’s own perspectives on health, well-being, and nutrition to better understand how they approach, navigate, and make sense of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore rural children’s own perspectives on health, well-being, and nutrition to better understand how they approach, navigate, and make sense of these topics.
Methodology/Approach
This study uses a qualitative ethnographic research design theoretically informed by the “new” Sociology of Childhood and methodologically informed by constructivist grounded theory. This ongoing study with fifth-grade students in an elementary school in a small rural school district in central Illinois consists of ethnographic observations conducted at the school, in-depth interviews with students, and participatory tools that seek to involve students more fully in the process of data collection.
Findings
Preliminary findings of this pilot study suggest that many aspects often discussed in the context of childhood obesity, especially in rural settings, including knowledge or education about healthy eating, increasing physical activity levels, or access to healthy foods, are complex and multifaceted and do not easily lend themselves to standard interventions. Findings also indicate that children’s ideas about healthy eating deviate from their own eating practices.
Research Limitations/Implications
Conceptualized as a grounded theory study, the research is not intended to be generalizable or reproducible. Instead, the study seeks to develop hypotheses directly from the field and study participants’ views and voices. These perspectives will inform a more in-depth study of childhood obesity in rural settings planned for 2019.
Originality/Value of Paper
Findings from this pilot study will inform innovative, informed interventions that are guided by children’s own experiences and perspectives. Study findings will also be of benefit to practicing pediatricians and other child health professionals as they understand how to better think about and address challenges of health and weight management of patients and their families.
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Tom Aabo and Nicklas Bang Eriksen
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the association between CEO narcissism and corporate risk taking.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the association between CEO narcissism and corporate risk taking.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors provide a novel and unobtrusive measure of CEO narcissism based on LinkedIn profiling. The authors investigate the relationship between CEO narcissism and corporate risk taking (stock return volatility) for a sample of 475 US manufacturing firms in the period 2010-2014.
Findings
The authors find an inverse U-shape relationship between CEO narcissism and stock return volatility. The inverse U-shape relationship (the “humpback”) is caused by the paradoxical nature of the narcissistic personality in which the self-esteem is high but at the same time fragile with a combination of self-admiration and a constant need of having this positive self-view confirmed. The results are robust to alternative specifications of CEO narcissism and corporate risk taking. The results are economically meaningful. Thus, a moderate degree of CEO narcissism – as compared to a very low or a very high level of CEO narcissism – is associated with an increase in corporate risk taking of approximately 12 percent.
Originality/value
Previous literature provides multiple analyses on the association between managerial overconfidence and corporate decisions. As opposed to overconfidence, narcissism is a personality trait having both cognitive and behavioral dimensions. This paper provides a novel contribution to the growing literature on the association between managerial biases/traits and corporate decision-making.
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Siril Alm and Svein Ottar Olsen
This paper aims to enhance the understanding of the influence of increased food availability and social learning in kindergartens on children’s attitudes toward food. In addition…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to enhance the understanding of the influence of increased food availability and social learning in kindergartens on children’s attitudes toward food. In addition, it discusses questions regarding children and their parent’s attitudes and seafood consumption at home.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses a qualitative approach that includes semi-structured interviews with 24 Norwegian children aged four to six years, interviewed in pairs. They represented two public kindergartens. One group attended a seafood intervention and the other did not. The intervention comprised seafood served as lunch twice per week, in addition to various educational activities designed to increase children’s knowledge of seafood.
Findings
Children who attended the seafood intervention used more cognitive associations by describing seafood as being healthy. They also expressed more positive attitudes towards seafood compared with the other children. The findings indicate a stronger socialization effect from parents than preschool teachers.
Research limitations/implications
The children proved to have limited cognitive and communicative abilities for participation in semi-structured interviews. Future studies should consider older samples and/or methods that are more adapted to their cognitive abilities. Results cannot be generalized due to the relative small sample size and the fact that the study was performed in one culture.
Social implications
To promote a healthier diet, children’s care givers and school authorities should make seafood more available. Preschool teachers should be encouraged to eat meals with the children to function as positive role models.
Originality/value
The study addresses a currently under-researched issue concerning the influence of kindergartens on children’s food attitudes toward a specific food category.
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Louise Walker and Orla Flannery
The purpose of this paper is to explore the characteristics of office cake (OC) consumption and the associated attitudes and behaviours among UK office workers to gain insight…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the characteristics of office cake (OC) consumption and the associated attitudes and behaviours among UK office workers to gain insight into the implications for workplace health.
Design/methodology/approach
A cross-sectional online questionnaire was completed by 940 respondents. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and cross-tabulation with χ2 tests for between-group difference.
Findings
Respondents reported both positive social and negative health-related consequences of OC. OC influenced eating behaviour through increased salience and availability, and the effects of social influencing. Almost all (94.8 per cent) reported ideal OC frequency to be once/week or less. Gender and age significantly affected attitudes and behaviour.
Research limitations/implications
The questionnaire was not validated so data accuracy could have been diminished or biased. Portion size was not examined and consumption data were self-reported which could have resulted in under-reporting. Only office workers were investigated therefore results may not be applicable to other workplaces.
Practical implications
OC appears to influence both the workplace eating environment and employee eating behaviour. It could therefore affect employee health and workplace health promotion programme efficacy. However the findings suggest that nudge-based initiatives could reduce OC consumption to make workplaces healthier while retaining social benefits.
Originality/value
The present study provides the first data on OC culture and insights on how to address it sensitively. It also highlights that sweet treats used for celebration and employee recognition should be considered a relevant part of workplace food provision alongside canteens and vending.
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The undesirable effects of TV advertisements and general parenting responsibility propel mothers to monitor and control the eating habits of children through meal time actions and…
Abstract
Purpose
The undesirable effects of TV advertisements and general parenting responsibility propel mothers to monitor and control the eating habits of children through meal time actions and feeding practices. The purpose of this paper is to identify feeding practices used by Indian mothers through the Comprehensive Feeding Practices Questionnaire (CFPQ) developed by Musher-Eizenman and Holub (2007) and to investigate differences in the use of feeding practices across demographic variables.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a cross-sectional design, a structured and pre-tested questionnaire was used to collect data from 473 mothers of children aged four to 11 years from Punjab (India). Data were analysed using exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and ANOVA.
Findings
The present study confirms the validity and reliability of the nine-factor model through CFA with 28 items in the Indian context than original CFPQ. Further, significant differences exist in the responses of mothers for feeding practices followed with children across age and gender of child, mother’s education status and monthly family income.
Practical implications
Parents may understand the nature of feeding practices to mediate unhealthy food consumption habits of children. The government should formulate codes or regulations to sufficiently monitor food marketing activities directed at children. The food marketing companies should also act responsibly to protect well-being of children.
Originality/value
This piece of research is important as no such study (to the best of researchers’ knowledge) has already been conducted in India even though dietary patterns of children are transforming tremendously.
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Camila Dallazen and Giovanna Medeiros Rataichesck Fiates
– Qualitatively ascertain perceptions of parents regarding their children's influence on family food purchases. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Abstract
Purpose
Qualitatively ascertain perceptions of parents regarding their children's influence on family food purchases. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
Content analysis of the transcripts of 31 semi-structured interviews conducted with parents of students from public and private institutions in Brazil. The public school provided meals supplied by the National School Feeding Program, and discouraged the consumption of foods brought from home. The private school did not receive any governmental subsidies for school feeding, and students were responsible for bringing their own school snacks.
Findings
Parents perceived children's influence especially of energy-dense nutrient-poor food purchases. Parents from the public school students, with lower income and educational levels, showed greater concern with quality and frequency with which requested foods were made available to the child. Only the parents from the private school students mentioned perceiving peer influence over their children's requests.
Research limitations/implications
Results enabled an overview of the main factors that influence children's purchase requests as perceived by parents. School environment seemed to influence requests, reinforcing the need for strategies similar to those present in the public school to be employed in private schools, where government programs that encourage healthy eating are not in place.
Originality/value
Qualitative study conducted with parents of Brazilian school children found that those with lower income and educational level were actually more concerned about their children's eating habits and perceived less peer influence over their children's requests for foods. Initiatives in the public school environment that effectively reduced access to certain kinds of foods in favor of healthier food choices reinforced the school's role as a health promoter for students and also their families.
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Maria Kümpel Nørgaard, Karen Bruns, Pia Haudrup Christensen and Miguel Romero Mikkelsen
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to studies of family decision making during food buying. In particular a theoretical framework is proposed for structuring future…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to studies of family decision making during food buying. In particular a theoretical framework is proposed for structuring future studies of family decision making that include children's influence and participation at specific stages of the process.
Design/methodology/approach
The conceptual framework is developed on the basis of earlier theoretical work focused on family shopping as well as an ethnographic study of parents and children. The framework was refined after testing in a survey with 451 Danish families with children aged ten to 13 using questionnaires for both children and parents.
Findings
Family food decision making is often a joint activity, and children's active participation, among other things, determines the influence they gain. Parents and children do not always agree on how much influence children have in the various stages of the process, indicating the importance of listening to both parties in research into the family dynamics and processes involved in everyday food buying.
Research limitations/implications
Future research should further extend the knowledge about the areas where children have influence, about the techniques used by children to achieve influence, and more about those factors that explain when they gain influence.
Practical implications
Marketers can benefit from the findings when promoting food products to adults as well as to children. Specifically, the findings suggest that children have most influence on decisions regarding easily prepared meals.
Originality/value
This mixed‐method approach provides interesting new results, and the main findings emphasise the importance of looking at food decision making as a joint activity where children participate actively and gain influence.