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Recent research has shown that home‐based businesses (HBBs) are increasing, and that a significant number of women are seeking such self‐employment. Summarizes the results of a recent large‐scale survey examining various aspects of HBB operation in Australia. Finds that there are significant gender differences associated with HBB operation, including reasons for HBB start‐up, life stage and age of operator, business assistance, and the perceived negative factors associated with HBB operation. Also notes that some training issues differ significantly with respect to the propensity to undertake training and the type of training preferred and finds that the majority of female operators are operating their HBB with children at home. Calls for more research into the implications of HBB operators working at home with their children.

This paper addresses the effects of a set of variables on sales performance of home‐based business in Dubai. The variables includes owner’s gender, private sources of funds, external sources of funds, usage of technology, business expenses, number of weekly hours an owner works, outsourcing or sub‐contracting, age of business, and number of the family members assisting the owner in running the business. The results showed significant positive effects for the average weekly hours an owner devotes to the business and mild effects for the use of technology. However, the remaining variables did not show any significant relationship with homebased business performance. Of particular importance is the lack of significant effects for gender. This indicates that business performance is not tied up to gender. Both men and women could do equally well in the field of home‐based business.

The role of women in Europe Volume 97, Number 2 of European Business Review includes an article with this title by Marilyn M. Helms and Cynthia J. Guffey. They argue that with major events including the European Economic Community, German unification and the fall of the former Soviet Union, there is an increased reality of a large united Europe. With these societal and political changes comes change in the role of women. As the number of women entering the labour market increased, the effect of job equality must be investigated. Examines the role of women in the European workforce. Discusses areas such as promotion, mentoring, education, compensation and reform recommendations. Shows that four key economic, demographic, and organisational trends are creating positive effects for women in the European labour force.

Competition is one of the least used social marketing principles. Yet, an assessment of direct competition is one of the key factors defining social marketing from other behavioural change approaches. This paper aims to synthesise literature from evidence reviews assessing the extent that competitive analysis has been undertaken. This paper contributes a new competitive analysis method that can be incorporated within the seven-step co-design process delivering an alternative tool that social marketers can consider. Competition assessment enables social marketers to identify cooperators, share resources and ultimately enhance social marketing programme success.

A synthesis on competition assessments reported in 30 evidence review studies is provided. This paper offers a new competition analysis method that can be applied to undertake competitive assessments demonstrating likes, dislikes and other ideas, which can be gathered during the sensitisation phase of co-design.

Out of the 1,795 papers suitable for title/abstract screening, 30 evidence reviews assessing extent of competition use or extracting detail on competition from selected studies in the review were included in this umbrella review. Heterogeneity was evident, with reviews concluding between 0% and 100% competition use. Social marketers generally lack resources and can benefit from an easy way of defining and examining competition and this can be done by considering only direct competition.

This rapid review synthesises the author’s views and is limited to studies identified within the 30 evidence reviews considered. Future research directions are outlined.

Competitive assessments are akin to standing on the shoulders of giants. Competitive assessments allow you to identify what individuals like and do not likev and potential cooperators that can be partnered with to reduce noise, which can better support people to make choices that achieve intended programme outcomes and deliver benefits to individuals.

Increased utilisation of the competition criteria will help to avoid costly failures ensuring that social marketers have improved odds of programme success. Through identifying programmes that are currently available, which people like, social marketers can establish partnerships to share resources driving more effort to delivering outcomes.

This paper offers a new competition assessment method for resource constrained social marketers that can be incorporated into the Trischler et al. (2019) seven-step co-design process. Increased application of competition will enhance social marketing effectiveness.

This paper aims to investigate whether application of a community-based social marketing (CBSM) principle, namely, increasing the visibility of a target behaviour in the community, can change social norms surrounding the behaviour.

A repeated measures quasi-experimental design was used to evaluate the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation’s Walk to School 2013 programme. The target population for the survey were caregivers of primary school children aged between 5-12 years old. The final sample size across the three online surveys administered was 102 respondents.

The results suggest that the programme increased caregivers’ perceptions that children in their community walked to and from school and that walking to and from school is socially acceptable.

The study contributes to addressing the recent call for research examining the relationship between CBSM principles and programme outcomes. Further, the results provide insight for enhancing the social norms approach, which has traditionally relied on changing social norms exclusively through media campaigns.

The purpose of this study is to respond to calls to increase levels of theory application and extend understanding beyond individuals ensuring social and structural environmental considerations are taken into account. Social cognitive theory (SCT) was applied across two settings to examine its potential to explain breakfast eating frequency.

A cross-sectional survey was conducted in two institutional feeding populations [military (n = 314) and mining (n = 235)]. Participants reported key SCT constructs including breakfast eating behaviour (self-efficacy, skills, practice), cognitive aspects (knowledge, attitude, expectations) and their perceptions regarding environmental constructs (access, social norms, influence). These were measured and analysed through SPSS and structural equation modelling (SEM).

Results indicated that 71% males and 90% females in the military do not eat breakfast at work, and in the mining, 23% males and 24% of females do not eat breakfast at work. Furthermore, SEM modelling found only a satisfactory fit for SCT as operationalised in this study. Within the models, behavioural aspects of self-efficacy, skills and practice were significant influences on breakfast eating. Cognitive influences and perceptions of environmental influences exerted little to no effect on breakfast eating. Study results indicate that SCT, as measured in this study using a selection of environment, cognitive and behavioural constructs, does not offer sufficient explanatory potential to explain breakfast eating behaviour.

The value of this paper is to deliver a complete application of Social Cognitive Theory, ensuring multiple constructs are measured to examine the explanatory behaviour of breakfast eating frequency in workplace institutional settings.

This paper aims to describe the Social Branding framework, which uses lifestyle branding to change behaviour within psychographically-defined target audiences. Syke, a Social Branding programme to reduce cigarette use within the higher-risk alternative teen peer crowd in Virginia, USA, is presented as a case study with evaluation results.

Social Branding first creates an authentic lifestyle brand that appeals to a psychographically-defined audience. Once sociocultural authority is built, the lifestyle brand introduces tailored behavioural messaging using targeted messaging channels, relying on experiential marketing events and in-group influencers to align the desired behaviour with the audience’s social identity and values. The evaluation consisted of annual cross-sectional surveying (2011–2014; n = 2,266) on brand recall, liking, message comprehension and current smoking. Among those with recall, the prevalence of liking/comprehension categories (disliked and did not understand; liked or understood; liked and understood) and of smoking within categories was compared across years using chi-square tests. Multivariate logistic regression explored liking/comprehension as a predictor of smoking.

Recall, liking and comprehension were significantly higher in 2014 than in 2011, as was the proportion who both liked and understood Syke. Those who liked and understood Syke had half the odds of current smoking compared to those who disliked and did not understand it.

Syke reached, was liked by and was understood by the target audience. The Social Branding framework effectively appeals to and reaches higher-risk audiences, with learnings applicable to other behaviours and populations.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the position of creativity within Australian public relations courses and explore how academics embed what is often identified by industry as a core skill for future and current practitioners.

The study consists of semi-structured interviews with 15 public relations academics to examine their views on the value and delivery of creativity in the public relations curriculum.

The findings of this exploratory study indicate creativity is addressed implicitly by educators who rely on personal and internalised knowledge rather than the application of a specific theory or body of knowledge pertaining to creativity. In addition, it identifies a series of challenges educators face including students' lack of confidence when required to be creative and a lack of clarity on how to successfully evaluate creativity in assessment tasks.

Creativity has been identified as a vital future workplace skill and highlighted as an important capability in global best practice frameworks for public relations professionals. However, the successes and barriers experienced by educators who are responsible for building and evaluating students’ creative abilities have yet to be specifically explored. In response, this study considers educators' perceptions of their practice with regard to this prominent professional attribute and applies this knowledge to argue for theory-led pedagogies, particularly the use of models that emphasise the social nature of creativity, to demystify creativity and enhance students' work readiness as future practitioners.

Recognising current, significant rates of youth sexual violence and abuse (YSVA) and the need for more comprehensive prevention approaches to combat this social issue, new approaches are required to ensure that agency is given to the people who are most affected and who know their lives the best. This paper aims to report a youth-led (Young Voices United [YVU] Committee) participatory design approach aimed at delivering the highest level of engagement to understand what people agree is needed to reduce YSVA in their own communities.

The seven-step co-design (Trischler et al., 2019) process was implemented following ethical clearance. Over five months, 13 group co-design sessions involving 102 young people aged 12–25 years, 17 parents/caregivers (including young mums) and 9 teacher/guidance officers were conducted. Purposive sampling was undertaken to ensure that young people who had previously experienced YSVA or were most at risk of experiencing YSVA were overrepresented. Convenience sampling was used to gain wider community involvement in co-design. Four sessions were facilitated by YVU members, who were aged between 12 and 25 years, and more than 66 people helped the design team. Inductive thematic analysis identified emergent themes across completed co-design sessions.

New ideas and solutions to prevent YSVA can be identified by young people who have previously experienced violence, carers, other young people and community members. A core finding in this study is the need for positive relationship role models and an enhanced understanding of consent. Education and training, a community promotional campaign, sector involvement, capacity-building and consideration of the unique needs of different target audiences were key ideas emerging from youth-led co-design. The YVU Committee provided recommendations for resource prioritisation.

This youth-led co-design process empowered the community. Project stakeholders have since formed partnerships won funding and used that funding to co-design and trial a new programme aiming to provide a safe haven for young people at risk of YSVA. The pilot programme delivers a safe and supportive environment for young people delivered at a time when it is needed most. Other geographical areas are now seeking to replicate the programme. The co-design processes and tools detailed in this study can be adapted to the design of programmes for those already engaged with the youth justice system and should be considered as part of a public health approach to effectively prevent and respond to YSVA and other youth crimes.

This paper advances understanding, providing a practical approach that ensures youth views are given weight [audience and influence described in Lundy’s (2007) participatory framework]. This paper explains how the YVU Committee, established at the commencement of the project, oversaw the community co-design effort, which followed Trischler et al.’s (2019) seven-step co-design process. Ideas were generated, and consensus views were consolidated, delivering the highest level of engagement according to Willmott et al.’s (2022) methodology, agent of change, training and engagement taxonomy. The participatory design method led to high levels of community engagement, and the success of the project is attributed to the establishment of the YVU Committee and stakeholder support.

This paper aimed to examine the role of social factors and individual factors on alcohol drinking in a licensed premise.

An unobtrusive covert systematic observational study of 632 licensed premise patrons was conducted during May 2015.

Convergence between genders was observed with females drinking as much and as long as males; 57.9 per cent of patrons drank two and more servings, exceeding daily recommended amounts. Social factors such as group size are more influential on drinking than individual factors such as gender and smoking status. Serving practices such as straws and buying drinks in rounds influence the quantity of alcohol consumed.

The study focussed on one licensed premise. Replication of the method outlined in the current study in different licensed venues, states and countries will permit the role of policy, drinking environments and drinking cultures to be understood.

Drinking patterns of both genders are converging. Thus, intervention efforts should target both genders.

This paper contributes a structured observation protocol that extends our understanding of alcohol drinking beyond quantity by incorporating observation of duration of consumption for each serve, permitting identification of social and environmental factors that can be used to lower licensed premise alcohol drinking.