Forests too thick with fuels that are too continuously spread to resist fire are common throughout the west. After a century or more of actively working to suppress fire across…
Abstract
Forests too thick with fuels that are too continuously spread to resist fire are common throughout the west. After a century or more of actively working to suppress fire across the landscape, we now recognize that fire is a part of our forests, shrublands, and range, and that it will come whether we wish it or not. At last, managers must realize forests cannot be fire-proofed (DellaSala, Williams, Williams, & Franklin, 2004). We must work with fire rather than against it.
This paper aims to draw together research which links the moral panic about the “adipose” body during the first five years of the millennium to the worsening mental health of US…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to draw together research which links the moral panic about the “adipose” body during the first five years of the millennium to the worsening mental health of US teens. Noting the way medical advocacy biased the news coverage in the quality press in the UK, the USA and Canada through its emphasis on weight gain in child and youth populations, it reviews evidence of a relationship between eating disorders, body dissatisfaction and the mental health of teens.
Design/methodology/approach
Building on research which suggests that teens ' misperception of their body can impact their mental health, the paper proposes reflexive embodiment, defined as the way an individual interprets and evaluates their own body morphology in relationship to the medical profession’s articulation of norms for weight classes, as a new construct for exploring the impact of the medical debates about obesity.
Findings
Using data sets from the US Youth Risk Behavior Survey gathered in 2001 and 2007 to compare both weight status and weight class accuracy, the study finds evidence that teens ' perceptions of their bodies have changed more than their actual weight. Noting a complex relationship between teens ' misperception of their weight status and mental health risks associated with depression and suicide, the paper explores ways that the medical stigmatization of the adipose body, and the ensuing consequences of gendered weight bias, have consequences for teen well-being.
Research limitations/implications
This case study only provides an exploratory analysis of an hypothesis suggested by the theory of reflexive embodiment.
Practical implications
Refocus health professions on the mental health of teens.
Social implications
Evidence of health implications of reflexive embodiment adds to a growing critique of medicalization of adipose body morphology.
Originality/value
The analysis of data contributes to a growing concern about medical stigmatization of “fat” bodies as unhealthy.
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The diffusion and adoption (D&A) of innovation propels today's technological landscape. Crisis situations, real or perceived, motivate communities of people to take action to…
Abstract
The diffusion and adoption (D&A) of innovation propels today's technological landscape. Crisis situations, real or perceived, motivate communities of people to take action to adopt and diffuse innovation. The D&A of innovation is an inherently human activity; yet, artificially intelligent techniques can assist humans in six different ways, especially when operating in fifth generation ecosystems that are emergent, complex, and adaptive in nature.
Humans can use artificial intelligence (AI) to match solutions to problems, design for diffusion, identify key roles in social networks, reveal unintended consequences, recommend pathways for scaling that include the effects of policy, and identify trends for fast-follower strategies. The stability of the data that artificially intelligent systems rely upon will challenge performance; nevertheless, the research in this area has positioned several promising techniques where classically narrow AI systems can assist humans. As a result, human and machine interaction can accelerate the D&A of technological innovation to respond to crisis situations.
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Jacqueline Botterill and Stephen Kline
This paper seeks to report historical research into McDonald's public communication strategies as the corporation responded to the rising tide of “political consumerism” that…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to report historical research into McDonald's public communication strategies as the corporation responded to the rising tide of “political consumerism” that accompanied its global market expansion (1960‐2005).
Design/methodology/approach
Reviewing the brand's public relations strategies, through a content analysis of news coverage, the paper analyzes the way communication strategists took account of the anxieties about youth labour practices, community relations, globalization, environment and obesity which forced the brand to acknowledge the lifestyle risks associated with children and youth.
Findings
The case study portrays McDonald's as a figurehead of US entrepreneurial multinational capitalism. It reveals how addressing public opposition through the courts can backfire on a brand strategy so keen on defending its honour. The case study also finds that listening and engaging with critics is as effective as suing them for McDonald's.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to the historical recognition of the role that corporate communications professionals play – particularly marketing and public relations specialists – in transforming corporate practices by acknowledging consumers' growing anxieties about industrialization.
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The case of corporations establishing a relationship with young people – because of the moral responsibility involved – allows us to illustrate the complexities of trying to…
Abstract
Purpose
The case of corporations establishing a relationship with young people – because of the moral responsibility involved – allows us to illustrate the complexities of trying to decide what is morally correct to collectively ensure children's well-being. This paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
Applying the “stakeholder theory” to child industries – under which term this paper includes all business activities that establish a commercial relationship involving children, either as the recipient or user of the final product or beneficiary of a specific service, or as a co-decision-maker for purchases within his/her family or social circles – reveals a series of conceptual challenges...
Findings
The limited understanding of stakeholder theory within the CSR managerial perspective leads companies to overlook some important moral issues about children's well-being, and exposes them to particularly hard criticisms of their actions and marketing policies.
Research limitations/implications
If children have been overlooked by the stakeholder theory, how may the interests of youth be represented in a stakeholder perspective?
Practical implications
To deal with some of the dilemmas entailed by considering children's representatives as legitimate spokespersons, the paper suggests drawing on the ethics of care to attempt delineating a corporate social responsibility towards young people.
Originality/value
This paper emphasises a number of issues relevant to young consumers, including the absence of children in stakeholder theory and how that absence speaks to the presumed extent and boundaries of corporate social responsibility.
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Simona de Iulio and Zouha Jarrin
Compares toy commercials in France, Germany and Italy in relation to globalisation, which is claimed to produce a uniform consumer culture. Investigates the roles performed by…
Abstract
Compares toy commercials in France, Germany and Italy in relation to globalisation, which is claimed to produce a uniform consumer culture. Investigates the roles performed by different territories (international, national, regional and local) in advertising directed at children of these different nationalities. Focuses on the apparent tendency towards universalism in the form and content of TV commercials aimed at children, based on a comparative analysis of 163 commercials for toys. Finds that the commercials in the three countries used the same types of persuasion, with toys linked to fantasy worlds, different depictions of boys and girls, and reference to a widely shared extra‐textual body of knowledge; international commercials were much more standardised than for other types of products, and images crossed national boundaries more easily than language, with various reinventions of voiceovers and other verbal messages. Concludes that transnational toy advertising cannot escape local obstacles linked to sociocultural variables.
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This paper seeks to conceptualize the field of child and teen consumption as a system of social practices at the cross roads of six strongly intermingled subsystems covering…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to conceptualize the field of child and teen consumption as a system of social practices at the cross roads of six strongly intermingled subsystems covering social, institutional, technological, narrative, economic, and political stakes. Children's and teens' consumption is shaped and transformed by a mix of managerial action, public policy, cycles of technological change, the evolution of related institutions like parenthood and schooling, changing cultural references, values, modes of socialization as well as by the actions of children and teens themselves.
Design/methodology/approach
Within such a framework, child and teen consumption appears as a complex arena of competing moral and ideological perspectives. In such a volatile context, forms of resistance to ideologies of unending consumption emerge, continuously calling into question the responsibility of business for unwanted long‐term effects.
Findings
The five papers included in this special issue shed light on the complexities of marketing to children by successively exploring the contradictions within the individual, managerial, professional, corporate, and institutional levels. As a direct consequence, the notions of “corporate social responsibility” and “corporate social responsiveness” towards childhood are also constantly evolving concepts which are quite difficult to grasp.
Originality/value
The paper attempts to design a transformative research agenda to promote socially responsible marketing practices and ethically embedded theoretical frameworks. It also stands as an invitation to deepen the indispensable dialogue – albeit often demanding for both sides – between marketing practitioners and social scientists aimed at constantly redefining the moving outline of corporate social responsibility in contemporary children‐oriented markets.
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This study seeks to show that children are not passive consumers, rather that they have a reflexive attitude towards their eating practice and the ability to override food‐use…
Abstract
Purpose
This study seeks to show that children are not passive consumers, rather that they have a reflexive attitude towards their eating practice and the ability to override food‐use rules invented by the manufacturers.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on an ethnographic survey conducted among families with children aged from six to 12, the paper will seek to show, from the child's point of view, why fun products, which at first sight are so beguiling, are not in fact much fun when used. From the observations made of the children's eating practices with regard to specific fun foods, and from interviews with the children on these, it emerges that these foods give the child little scope for deciding how to eat them.
Findings
Over the years, there has appeared on the market a range of fun food products for which clear instructions are given on how children should eat and play with them. Despite copy, produced with the young consumer in mind, and carefully defined product affordance, consumer practice is far removed from what the product designers expect. For children, however, deviating from prescribed use and re‐appropriating products with their own “art of doing” or food‐use techniques are key elements of their eating practice.
Originality/value
Most of the studies on that topic are centred on fun food manufacturers and industry. The most original aspect of this study is to focus on the children's representations, discourses and practices. Thus it provides a new aspect on fun food consumption.
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Reviews the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.
Abstract
Purpose
Reviews the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.
Design/methodology/approach
This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.
Findings
The story of McDonald's has become almost legendary, from a small, family‐owned restaurant to a multi‐billion dollar global giant with more than 30,000 restaurants. Between incorporation and the millennium, McDonald's saw profits increase in every consecutive quarter. McDonald's currently accounts for 43 per cent of total US burger sales, and earns four times that of its nearest competitor. To become such a player in global business, the marketing and PR departments must have been doing a great job, surely? Well, maybe not. McDonald's have had their ups and downs in the public eye, yet each time seems to escape unscathed. This article details exactly how McDonald's have responded during four notable PR crises.
Practical implications
Provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.
Originality/value
The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy‐to‐digest format.
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Outlines a method for using content analysis of print media toanswer questions about how to present products for effective consumeradvertising. Argues that the application of…
Abstract
Outlines a method for using content analysis of print media to answer questions about how to present products for effective consumer advertising. Argues that the application of content analysis to consumer research should become standard practice for marketers, using the perfume industry as a case example. Concludes that content analysis yields insights on how to integrate a product visually with its consumers to produce advertising that embodies relative values.