Daniel Briggs, Sébastien Tutenges, Rebecca Armitage and Dimitar Panchev
This article aims to offer an ethnographic account of substances and sex and how they are interrelated in the context of one holiday destination popular among British youth…
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to offer an ethnographic account of substances and sex and how they are interrelated in the context of one holiday destination popular among British youth. Current research on British youth abroad and their use of substances is based almost exclusively on survey methods. Similarly, the same research works do not explore, in sufficient detail, sexual relations outside of those purely between British tourists.
Design/methodology/approach
The article is based on 38 focus groups, observations, and informal conversations undertaken in San Antonio, Ibiza during the summers of 2009, 2010 and 2011.
Findings
The paper complements current knowledge on sex and substances abroad by discussing the role of promotion representatives, strippers and prostitutes, and the use of drugs and alcohol, emphasising how substances feature in the promotion of sex. Bakhtin's concept of the “carnivalesque” is adopted to understand these behaviours.
Originality/value
Current research is almost exclusively based on sex between tourists; therefore, sexual encounters with other social players in holiday resorts have been largely neglected.
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Akilimali Ndatabaye Ephrem, Rebecca Namatovu and Edith Mwebaza Basalirwa
Entrepreneurship is important for economic growth, through its role in the provision of employment. In the recent past, a number of African universities have developed…
Abstract
Purpose
Entrepreneurship is important for economic growth, through its role in the provision of employment. In the recent past, a number of African universities have developed entrepreneurship education courses to facilitate the growing demand for entrepreneurs in the market. An immediate outcome anticipated from entrepreneurship education is to increase entrepreneurial intention (EI) among the participants. Unfortunately, most of the entrepreneurship education in developing economies has not been linked to an increase in the EI of students. This paper thus proposes that it is when students possess high levels of psychological capital and perceive positive social norms that entrepreneurship education will lead to positive EI. The purpose of this paper is to establish the relationship between perceived social norms (PSN), psychological capital and EI of university students.
Design/methodology/approach
Quantitative data were collected through a self-administered questionnaire on a random sample of 196 final year entrepreneurship and business management students, from three universities in Bukavu (East of DRC). Structural equation modeling was used to test the research hypotheses.
Findings
The paper provides four main findings. First, PSN and psychological capital have a positive significant effect on EI. Second, PSN contribute more to this effect than psychological capital. Third, PSN make a positive and significant effect on psychological capital. Lastly, psychological capital positively mediates the relationship between PSN and EI.
Research limitations/implications
This study could have benefited from a qualitative approach to have a more in-depth explanation of these relationships. The study is conducted amongst students who operate in a controlled environment. This may not reflect the actual behavior of entrepreneurs.
Practical implications
This work provides cues of what entrepreneurship educators should consider as they recruit and train students. Specifically, the study highlights the importance of students’ psychological capital and positive social norms in transforming entrepreneurial education into intention.
Originality/value
This study adds value to knowledge by highlighting the mediating role of psychological capital on the relationship between PSN and EI.
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Clinton Cassar and Mario Thomas Vassallo
Undeniably, plastic usage is predominant in our daily lives, featuring in an endless list of items such as bottles, disposables, packaging and fabric. At prima facie, plastic…
Abstract
Undeniably, plastic usage is predominant in our daily lives, featuring in an endless list of items such as bottles, disposables, packaging and fabric. At prima facie, plastic disposal causes irreversible damage to the natural environment, especially oceans. However, it also impacts human health and wellbeing, especially since its toxins or microplastics find themselves in the food chain. Since plastic causes a myriad of negative effects on the natural environment and human health, the urgency to ban it has been addressed by international organizations and the European Union (EU). Being the smallest member state within the EU, Malta presents an insightful case study of how different levels of governance and a plethora of state and non-state actors engage in a game-like interaction. To this effect, this chapter sheds light on the implications of plastic pollution vis-á-vis sustainability and wellbeing, addressed through multi-level governance. The research core revolves around an investigation on the institutional intricacies in addressing the wicked problem of single-use plastic by mapping out the different layers of policy-making mechanisms that are involved, ranging from local to European and international governance, and from governmental to civil society centric strategies. A positivist ontology is activated to underpin the exploratory nature of this study. Through the application of content analysis of selected documentation, the extent of coordination and synergies among the different policy actors across a multi-layered governance platform is put under scrutiny. Quantitative findings are utilized to validate or contradict the original set of hypotheses and to propose a number of policy and governance recommendations that are useful to researchers and practitioners in the fields of public policy, politics, environmental science, public health and wellbeing, as well as insurance and risk management.
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Sarah Lindop and Kevin Holland
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which UK equity prices reflect shareholder level taxation on dividends (dividend tax capitalisation). Despite an…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which UK equity prices reflect shareholder level taxation on dividends (dividend tax capitalisation). Despite an extensive theoretical and empirical literature controversy exists.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a sample of UK firm year ends from 1991 to 2007 archival accounting and share price data are used to test for the presence or otherwise of dividend tax capitalisation.
Findings
The paper finds evidence of equity values reflecting shareholder level dividend taxation. In particular, a significant reduction in the valuation of retained earnings, a measure of dividend paying potential, is observed around the July 1997 abolition of the repayment of dividend tax credits to tax exempt shareholders. This suggests a link between shareholder level taxation of dividends and firms’ cost of capital.
Research limitations/implications
The analysis focuses on share prices and is therefore subject to an underlying assumption of shareholders’ understanding tax and other potential relevant information.
Practical implications
The taxation of dividends is an important issue because of the potential for it to influence firms’ cost of capital and therefore investment decisions. Further, non-tax costs may be incurred to the extent that attempts are made to mitigate any “adverse” tax effects.
Social implications
The results indicate that taxation of dividends and share prices are associated and therefore also indirectly firms’ cost of capital. This linkage has implications for investment appraisal and the allocation of capital between competing demands.
Originality/value
In using an asset valuation approach the limitations of alternate methods of examining shareholder level taxation of dividends are avoided, e.g. analysis of dividend drop of ratios.
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Prabanga Thoradeniya, Janet Lee, Rebecca Tan and Aldónio Ferreira
Drawing upon the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), the purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of managers’ attitude and other psychological factors on sustainability…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing upon the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), the purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of managers’ attitude and other psychological factors on sustainability reporting (SR). In doing so, this paper aims to respond to calls for the use of previously untried theoretical approaches on the SR literature.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses a survey of top and middle-level managers of listed and non-listed companies in Sri Lanka. Data were analysed using a Partial Least Squares path model.
Findings
The findings indicate that managers’ attitude towards SR, belief about stakeholder pressure, and their capacity to control SR behaviour influence their intention to engage in SR and, indirectly, actual corporate SR behaviour (in the context of listed companies). However, whilst managers of non-listed companies exhibit the intention to engage in SR, the lack of a relationship between intention and behaviour suggests that companies face barriers towards SR due to lack of actual control over the SR process. Religion, in the case of non-listed companies, and education, in the case of listed companies, has some degree of influence over managers’ beliefs.
Research limitations/implications
The use of self-reported SR behaviour is a limitation but necessary to maintain anonymity of respondents. The low levels of self-reported SR correspond with past evidence on actual SR in developing countries.
Practical implications
The results show that managers’ psychological factors are important in determining SR behaviour in companies. Specifically, this highlights the possible roles that regulators, professional bodies and companies can play in improving educational and cultural influences towards improving the level of SR.
Originality/value
This is the first study to apply the TPB to understand SR behaviour by integrating psychological factors relating to managers’ belief, attitudes and perceptions.
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This paper aims to provide a selection of poetry titles from the Poets House Showcase of 2005.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to provide a selection of poetry titles from the Poets House Showcase of 2005.
Design/methodology/approach
This article gives a review of the 2005 Poetry Publication Showcase.
Findings
This review represents a wide‐ranging selection of contemporary poetry collections and anthologies.
Originality/value
This list documents the tremendous range of poetry publishing from commercial, independent and university presses as well as letterpress chapbooks, art books and CDs in 2004 and early 2005.
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Some of the most recognizable ‘evil’ fairy tale characters are the stepmothers; second-wives who enter happy households, and seek to subjugate their step-children. This character…
Abstract
Some of the most recognizable ‘evil’ fairy tale characters are the stepmothers; second-wives who enter happy households, and seek to subjugate their step-children. This character arc is due to be dismantled. Patriarchal regimes over time have constructed realities where women and power do not go together. In early-to late-modern (white, European) societies, patriarchal structures placed restrictions on the decisions women could make with their lives. This meant that women with status were left with very few options to earn an income. The aim for this analysis is to show this distortion of upper-class female reality by analysing the portrayal of the stepmother characters in four fairy-tale film narratives released since 2000, focusing on the Cinderella and Snow White narratives (two of the more widely disseminated fairy-tale stories). By illustrating how little information is given about their lives before re-marrying, this chapter will demonstrate how audiences are still ignorant to the backdrop of wealthy male superiority and the patriarchal structures that would lead to a woman remarrying for economic security, showing them in a more sympathetic light.
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When the first edition of Poems by Emily Dickinson was published in 1890, Samuel G. Ward, a writer for the Dial, commented, “I am with all the world intensely interested in Emily…
Abstract
When the first edition of Poems by Emily Dickinson was published in 1890, Samuel G. Ward, a writer for the Dial, commented, “I am with all the world intensely interested in Emily Dickinson. She may become world famous or she may never get out of New England” (Sewall 1974, 26). A century after Emily Dickinson's death, all the world is intensely interested in the full nature of her poetic genius and her commanding presence in American literature. Indeed, if fame belonged to her she could not escape it (JL 265). She was concerned about becoming “great.” Fame intrigued her, but it did not consume her. She preferred “To earn it by disdaining it—”(JP 1427). Critics say that she sensed her genius but could never have envisioned the extent to which others would recognize it. She wrote, “Fame is a bee./It has a song—/It has a sting—/Ah, too, it has a wing” (JP 1763). On 7 May 1984 the names of Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman were inscribed on stone tablets and set into the floor of the newly founded United States Poets' Corner of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, “the first poets elected to this pantheon of American writers” (New York Times 1985). Celebrations in her honor draw a distinguished assemblage of international scholars, renowned authors and poets, biographers, critics, literary historians, and admirers‐at‐large. In May 1986 devoted followers came from places as distant as Germany, Poland, Scandinavia, and Japan to Washington, DC, to participate in the Folger Shakespeare Library's conference, “Emily Dickinson, Letter to the World.”
Abi Huraira Rifas, Asmak Ab Rahman, Ahmad Hidayat Buang and Muzalwana Abdul Talib
Takaful is a social security approach that guarantees business risks in light of shari’ah, thus playing a crucial role in human life and the economy. The purpose of this study is…
Abstract
Purpose
Takaful is a social security approach that guarantees business risks in light of shari’ah, thus playing a crucial role in human life and the economy. The purpose of this study is to examine the factors that influence the behavioural intention of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) entrepreneurs to participate in takaful in Sri Lanka.
Design/methodology/approach
This study is designed quantitatively with deductive approach using the theory of planned behaviour. A total of 432 MSMEs in Sri Lanka were surveyed using convenience sampling to measure the intention to participate in takaful as a risk mitigation. The collected data were analysed through partial least square-structural equational modelling.
Findings
Attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control variables positively influenced the intention, with t-values of 3.216, 3.813 and 3.859, respectively. The influence of these variables exhibits not much difference.
Research limitations/implications
This study only focuses on MSMEs and a general takaful scheme. Future researchers may consider family takaful involvement among Sri Lankan business entrepreneurs.
Practical implications
Takaful practitioners should gain from the entrepreneurs’ intention to participate in takaful. Findings from this study could help marketing managers to revamp their strategies to further attract the entrepreneurs and make them to understand risk they are facing and, subsequently, participate in the takaful scheme.
Originality/value
This paper focuses on the context of Muslim minority among pluralism, where there is no regulation for Islamic financial products and services, and under the Islamic financial market crisis. This unleashes how business owners feel about takaful system on different dimensions.