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The sexual health of the male prison population is often among the poorest in a country. This paper aims to identify the wider health impacts and social value of a sexual health self-sampling programme offered to male prisoners in an open prison setting in Wales.

This study applied a unique pilot approach of using Health Impact Assessment and Social Return on Investment Frameworks in tandem. Key stakeholder groups affected by the intervention were identified, and engaged with through workshops, interviews and questionnaires to identify and quantify the health impacts and wider outcomes. Outcomes were then valued using proxy financial values to present the overall estimated social value of the self-sampling service.

Based on a small sample, results indicate that for every £1 spent on the self-sampling service in the prison, a potential value of £4.14 was created. This resulted in a ratio of £4.14:£1. Approximately one-third of the value created (£1,517.95) was categorised as monetarily returnable, whereas the remaining value (£3,260.40) was purely illustrative social value, for example improved mental well-being.

This unique pilot study demonstrates the health impacts and wider social value of providing a self-sampling sexual health service to prisoners within an open prison setting. By innovatively testing the feasibility of using a Health Impact Assessment process alongside Social Return on Investment analyses, this paper has outlined how the frameworks can be used in synergy to illustrate not just direct return on investment but also the social value of providing such a service.

Social movements are not monolithic entities. Activists and organizations disagree about the goals of the movement and the tactics to achieve these goals, including their framing tactics. Cultural sociologists have questioned the idea that tactical choice is rationally and strategically oriented, arguing that tactics are morally and emotionally grounded in the activists' lives. We follow this insight, though suggesting that activists make constant efforts to experience their action as rational, claiming a strategic status and a sense of efficacy for their lines of action. By studying framing resonance disputes in interactions between animal rights activists and mass media in south Brazil, we found that, to make their tactics accountable and justifiable, activists mobilize different folk theories on social transformation which allow their actions to be experienced as the best means to achieve the movement's ends.

The Social Return on Investment (SROI) framework has been developed for mapping and measuring social impact. It may be used for legitimating organisations and projects. The framework is often criticised for its overemphasis of the SROI ratio, i.e. the relationship between monetised benefits and costs. This study aims to demonstrate how the SROI method legitimates organisations or projects with multiple other discursive ways besides the SROI ratio. It also discusses the status of these other ways of legitimation in relation to the quantifying and monetising core tendency of SROI.

The empirical data consist of an SROI guidebook and 12 SROI reports. Their study applies Theo van Leeuwen’s ideas for analysing the discursive legitimation of social practices. The study takes place broadly in the framework of Norman Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis, aided by qualitative content analysis.

In the analysis, the full spectrum of the van Leeuwenian legitimation means used by SROI – authorisation, rationalisation, moral evaluation and mythopoetical narration – is brought out in the data and the status and social context of the legitimation means are assessed and discussed. It is shown that there is existing potential for broader and more visible use of different legitimation means.

Based on the findings of the study, suggestions for the improvement of SROI reporting by a more balanced explicit use of the multitude of legitimation means are presented.

The study is original both in its subject (the spectrum of legitimation in SROI) and its method (qualitative discursive and contentual analysis of SROI as a legitimating discourse).

The university is changing. Its social role is growing in diversity and complexity. In a knowledge-based society, there is a huge public expectation in the results and impacts of the university’s activities. Its traditional roles – training and qualification of individuals and production of new knowledge – are no longer valid. As a result of university–industry interactions, policy-making began to give additional significance to the role of the university in regional development, mainly motivated by shining examples of success in transferring scientific knowledge to valuable innovation, many through academic entrepreneurship. This change in the role of the university is reflected not only in the mode of knowledge production, which became more transdisciplinary and applied, but also in the active engagement of different institutional spheres, the university, the firm, the government, and end-users, creating new hybrid and overlapping areas for the governance of innovative dynamics. This chapter defines and analyses the position of the university in contemporary society as a socially legitimised institution for the production of knowledge and innovation. Three different theoretical traditions – Actor–Network Theory, Stakeholder Theory and territorial innovation models – inspire the analysis of 15 in-depth interviews with key actors in their local innovation system and knowledge networks around the University of Huelva (Andalusia, Spain). The main conclusions suggest that the university today faces a huge challenge in responding to the expectations that society places on it.

This chapter analyzes the strategic responses by U.S. and European multinational enterprises (MNEs) in the oil and automobile industries to the global climate change issue. We examine and attempt to explain the differences across regions, across industries, and the changes over time. Traditional economic drivers of strategy do not provide a satisfactory account for these differences, and the chapter focuses instead on the conflicting institutional pressures on MNEs and the implications for their climate strategy. The home-country institutional context and individual corporate histories can create divergent pressures on strategy for MNEs based in different countries. At the same time, the location of MNEs in global industries and their participation in “global issues arenas” such as climate change generate institutional forces for strategic convergence. It appears that local context influenced initial corporate reactions, but that convergent pressures predominate as the issue matures.

Understanding and defining the characteristics of environmentally conscious or concerned consumers has received attention from academic researchers, commercial sector, and policy makers. The purpose of this paper is to identify distinct market segments in three countries (China, Germany, and Turkey) based on several “green” attitude and behavior variables.

A survey was administered in three countries, yielding a total of 1,415 valid survey responses.

Four clusters, ranging from the “greenest” to the “least green” segment, were identified and characterized for each country. Inter- and intra-country similarities and differences are discussed. Existence of cross-national segments was confirmed.

There is a potential gap between actual behavior and reported behavior.

The segment profiles can be valuable to firms, particularly to those competing in multinational markets. By delineating areas of similarity among international diversity, enterprises can develop effective global marketing strategies.

Understanding market segments in this respect is critical for policy makers who try to focus their policies that seek to promote green consumption.

This is the first study that uses cross-national data for segmenting the market based on “green” criteria, to the authors’ knowledge. Methodologically, the paper uses techniques and instruments that have not been used in this context before.

In order to compliment the growing use of renewable energies in the US, additional technologies must be employed on the bulk power system. This paper aims to forecast the most probable energy storage technologies.

The methodology was deployed in two steps: evaluate the potential energy storage technologies that could complement a wind turbine or photovoltaic system; and forecast which of these technologies is best poised to become a viable solution to the energy storage problem facing these renewable technologies.

Based on the publication and patent data, compressed air energy is set to be the fastest growing complimentary technology to wind energy. Two of these types of plants are currently in existence today as mentioned previously indicating the technology is commercially available. This technology has great potential; however, implementing this technology involves finding or creating underground airtight caverns in usable locations.

The number of variables have been limited due to the methodologies chosen for this analysis. The research can be expanded using other criteria such as cost, cost of capital, economies of scale, environmental concerns, social and political constraints.

This paper provides an assessment that was indicated as necessary by those who identified the need for the development of energy storage technologies for future electricity generation.

The current study aims to investigate the various consumption motives (hedonic, gain and normative) responsible for strengthening consumers' intentions toward purchase behavior for electric vehicle (EV).

A total of 411 valid survey responses were collected using a structured questionnaire. Data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling to investigate the empirical fit of the hypothesized framework.

The results of structural equation modeling revealed that all three motives were positively correlated with purchase intentions for EV. Hedonic motives were found to have the strongest influence on purchase intentions. In addition, gain and normative motives were also found to be significant predictors of EV buying behavior. Further analysis revealed a positive correlation between gain, normative and hedonic motives. Moreover, personal moral standards seem to have a significant and positive impact on the positive emotions associated with buying EV.

The results of current research can be useful for marketers while designing promotional strategies for all the high-involvement green products. Marketing professionals and policymakers can use these results to build effective marketing strategies for EVs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions resulting from personal vehicle use.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study in the South Asian region that explores consumers' motives for EV purchase behavior. Further, this is among a few studies, which have attempted to investigate the impact of hedonic, gain and normative motives on green purchase behavior in the context of high involvement green products.

The purpose of this paper is to understand consumer preferences for green vehicles with low fuel consumption and emission. It will examine six important vehicle attributes, including fuel efficiency and CO₂ emissions, and determine the impacts of increasing demand for green attributes on the domestic car industry in Sweden.

Responses to an adaptive choice-based conjoint experiment from a sample of 100 residents in Northern Sweden were analyzed using monotone regression and market simulation.

The authors found that consumer preferences were sensitive to changes in fuel efficiency and emission levels. However, engine power was the most important attribute for existing owners whereas price was the most important one for potential customers, while both market segments valued emission more than fuel efficiency. Also, the domestic producer will benefit from both an increase in market size and market share if all new vehicles have higher fuel efficiency but its market share will decrease if all new vehicles have lower CO₂ emissions.

Although promoting green vehicle purchase is beneficial for the environment, policy makers also need to balance this benefit against any potential adverse effect on the domestic industry and the economy. This study will provide evidence-based recommendations to increase the share of green cars in new vehicle purchase, and thus contribute to improving the environment. Moreover, it will also predict the changes in the market shares of different vehicles, and the potential impact on the domestic automobile manufacturing sector and the economy.

This study will contribute significantly to the understanding of consumer preferences by exploring the preferences of a sample of consumers from a country with a well-established alternative fuel and green car market but has adverse weather and driving conditions and a domestic automobile manufacturing industry. It will also examine the differences in preference between existing owners and potential green car buyers. Finally, it will simulate the effects of changing fuel efficiency and emission levels on consumer utility and preference shares to predict changes in market share of different vehicles, and thus the potential impact on the domestic automobile manufacturing sector and the economy.