Rachel Dodds, Michelle Novotny and Sylvie Harper
The purpose of this paper is to determine the extent of online communication by festivals regarding their sustainability practices using Cultivation Theory as the framework to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to determine the extent of online communication by festivals regarding their sustainability practices using Cultivation Theory as the framework to determine perceived value creation.
Design/methodology/approach
A mixed method approach was utilized to achieve data triangulation through a content analysis of websites, content analysis of social media sites as well as interviews.
Findings
Findings indicated that 64% of festivals did not communicate any sustainable practices through their websites and only 6% communicated via social media. The most common sustainability practices communicated were waste management and sustainable transportation, yet few festivals engaged in effective, consistent and sufficient marketing of initiatives to festivalgoers. Best practice festivals (having communicated 5.47 initiatives or more) were found to have been significantly more likely than non-best practice festivals to be music festivals and have been in operation longer. Best practice festivals were also more likely than non-best practice festivals to have sustainability engrained into their corporate philosophy via a communicated sustainable vision and mission. Interviews revealed that most festivals did not have a designated role responsible for all sustainable initiatives and the responsibility was often taken on by volunteers or festival organizers. Festival organizers that communicated sustainability initiatives efficiently, consistently, and sufficiently perceived these efforts to benefit the festivals value amongst festivalgoers and host communities. Propensity to communicate sustainability initiatives was found to have been impacted by awareness, categorization, timing, policy and funding.
Research limitations/implications
While the findings are limited to the country of Canada and the extent of communication on websites and social media platforms as well as those festivals who participated, interviews helped to overcome these limitations as they gained an understanding of what was undertaken but not necessarily communicated.
Practical implications
The findings generated from this study could be used as a guide for establishing a benchmark for festivals regarding sustainable communication as well as strategies for overall corporate responsibility. Content regarding sustainability at festivals is scarce, as is information on festival communication. As a result, this paper seeks to understand the sustainable initiatives that are being communicated by festivals.
Originality/value
This is the first time Cultivation Theory was used within a tourism context and may be a useful tool to determine value creation. Through Cultivation Theory, festival organizers believed to have the ability to impact perceived value of the festival by implementing efficient, consistent and sufficient communication of sustainability initiatives.
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Child abuse is no longer something we must talk about in cautious tones. The creation of the National Committee for Prevention of Child Abuse and the launching of a national…
Abstract
Child abuse is no longer something we must talk about in cautious tones. The creation of the National Committee for Prevention of Child Abuse and the launching of a national awareness campaign in 1984 has resulted in a welcome but typical media blitz which has raised our consciousness but given little in the way of a solution. Parents are turning to the library for materials to help them introduce the hereto‐fore unspeakable of child abuse to their children.
Kathleen Bentein, Alice Garcia, Sylvie Guerrero and Olivier Herrbach
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the consequences of experiencing social isolation in a context of dirty work. Relying on an integration of the job demands-resources…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the consequences of experiencing social isolation in a context of dirty work. Relying on an integration of the job demands-resources model (Schaufeli and Bakker, 2004) with the social identity approach (Ashforth and Kreiner, 1999), the paper posits that perceived social isolation prevents the development of defense mechanisms that could counter the occupational stigma, and thus tends to increase perceptions of stigmatization, and to decrease perceptions of the prosocial impact of their work. Through these two perceptions, perceived social isolation indirectly affects emotional exhaustion and work engagement.
Design/methodology/approach
Research hypotheses are tested among a sample of 195 workers in the commercial cleaning industry who execute physically tainted tasks.
Findings
Results support the research model. Perceived prosocial impact mediates the negative relationship between perceived social isolation and work engagement, and perceived stigmatization mediates the positive relationship between perceived social isolation and emotional exhaustion.
Research limitations/implications
This research contributes to the dirty work literature by empirically examining one of its implicit assumptions, namely, that social isolation prevents the development of coping strategies. It also contributes to the literature on well-being and work engagement by demonstrating how they are affected by the social context of work.
Originality/value
The present paper is the first to study the specific challenges of social isolation in dirty work occupations and its consequences.
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Basharat Raza, Sylvie St-Onge and Muhammad Ali
Based upon social exchange theory, this study investigates the mediating effect of consumers' trust in banking industry frontline employees on two relationships: (1) the relation…
Abstract
Purpose
Based upon social exchange theory, this study investigates the mediating effect of consumers' trust in banking industry frontline employees on two relationships: (1) the relation between consumers' perceptions of frontline employees' empathy and consumers' perceptions of frontline employees' performance, and (2) the relation between consumers' perception of frontline employees' customer orientation and consumers' perceptions of frontline employees' performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used a time-lag research design to collect data through online questionnaires distributed in two waves. The sample comprises 375 respondents having experience and interaction with banking frontline employees.
Findings
Results confirm the mediating effect of consumers' trust in the banking industry on the relationships between their perceptions of frontline employees' empathy and consumer orientation on the one hand and their perceptions of frontline employees' performance on the other hand.
Practical implications
Results may be helpful to policymakers and managers in the service industries, prompting them to adopt approaches and strategies designed to build strong relationships with consumers, thus increasing consumers' trust and frontline employees' performance.
Originality/value
This study confirms the relevance of social exchange theory in understanding the role of consumers' trust and perceptions of frontline employees' empathy and consumer orientation in understanding their perception of frontline employee performance in the banking industry.
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Jan Dutkiewicz and Linda Duxbury
The purpose of this paper is to test the validity of a set of best practice principles for managing transformational organizational change by applying them to a specific change…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to test the validity of a set of best practice principles for managing transformational organizational change by applying them to a specific change initiative in the media. It also aims to examine whether prescriptions for effective change leadership (traditionally confined to single leaders) apply to a situation and organization where there are three distinct leader roles.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper takes the form of a case study of a major change initiative undertaken at a leading Canadian newspaper.
Findings
The paper shows that multiple, relatively autonomous leaders can lead a successful and unified change given specific organizational and environmental conditions. It also concludes that the generally accepted best practice of change leadership does not necessarily apply to a newspaper environment and posits that, in certain circumstances, a major change initiative can succeed despite running counter to the prevalent prescriptions in the literature.
Research limitations/implications
The conclusions drawn may be limited to organizations in the news media or those with similar organizational structures.
Practical implications
The paper suggests shortcoming of existing normative leadership theories, seeks to explain why this is the case, and makes numerous suggestions for further study.
Originality/value
The paper challenges orthodox assumptions and theories about leader roles and necessary qualities in leaders in successful organizational change. It extends understanding of change processes in the news media, which is under‐studied. It also suggests the applicability, but also relative insufficiency, of existing change theory as pertains to the media industry.
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Keywords
New Derwent representation in North America. Effective mid July, 1981, Derwent Publications Limited will be represented in the USA and Canada by a new company:
Performance measurement and evaluation systems cannot be taken as “pure” tools because they are the product of a given society. That is why they take their meanings and their…
Abstract
Performance measurement and evaluation systems cannot be taken as “pure” tools because they are the product of a given society. That is why they take their meanings and their sense from this society. They are particularly linked with corporate governance which is also linked with the contemporary developments of capitalism seen as a political order. That is why performance measurement and evaluations sytems in today’s companies are the production of a social game which has to be understood. Key indicators like shareholder’s value and actors like auditing firms play a specific role which has to be evaluated. This paper will introduce the discussion about these systems (and moreover management tools) as the production of their society from a posture taken from Political Philosophy. They will be evaluated in relation which what is capitalism today (which has to be understood in relation with what it was yesterday). That is why notions like shareholder’s value will be linked with the increasing weight of investments funds and with the systematic search for financial surplus. It will be induced that all these “concrete” notions build a system and are reciprocally re‐enforced. A special mention will be made to auditing firms as a cartel. Corporate governance will, as well as auditing firms, be presented as the concretisation of a new social game.
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Fons Wijnhoven and Jeroen Kraaijenbrink
The purpose of this paper is to give a structured literature review, design concepts, and research propositions related to a product‐oriented design theory for information…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to give a structured literature review, design concepts, and research propositions related to a product‐oriented design theory for information services. Information services facilitate the exchange of information goods with or without transforming these goods. Exemplar information services are e‐publishing, electronic communities‐of‐practice, and management reporting. The importance of information services in the current economy merits the development of an explicit product‐ and process‐oriented design theory.
Design/methodology/approach
This article focuses on the product‐oriented design theory by applying Walls et al.'s framework. A product‐oriented design theory of information services identifies relevant descriptive and explanatory insights (i.e. content, use, value, and revenue), meta‐requirements, and meta‐designs. The paper describes design problems for information services, and gives key requirements for information services. Next, it describes the information, organizational and information technological components of an information service, and identifies at least four information service architectures. Finally, it gives research hypotheses, research ideas, and discusses practical implications.
Findings
The results form a product‐oriented design theory for information services. The paper gives a structured way for practitioners to analyze information service design challenges, and suggestions are given for requirements and design decisions on three aspects (content, use feature, and revenue).
Originality/value
Given the previously fragmented nature of the literature, this paper gives new opportunities for research and practice.
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The purpose of this paper was to examine the effects of size, strategic orientation and market orientation on innovation.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper was to examine the effects of size, strategic orientation and market orientation on innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
A mail survey was conducted on a random sample of 60 South Yorkshire non‐high‐tech small, medium‐sized manufacturing enterprises. A hypothesised model, stating company size, strategic and market orientation affect innovation was tested using multiple linear regression analysis.
Findings
The results confirm customer orientation has a positive effect on innovation at product, process and organisational level. While it was found size and strategic orientation have an effect on process innovation. Size also has an impact on strategic orientation and strategic orientation on market orientation. Overall, medium‐sized firms are prospectors and small firms, defenders. Prospectors are customer focused while defenders are competitors and environmental/technology‐led. Process innovation is important to defenders. The findings reiterate that customers are the drivers for organisational innovation; while firms' strategic orientation determines their market orientation.
Originality/value
This paper addresses a gap in the literature by that showing size, strategic orientation and market orientation are interrelated and, that customer orientation has a direct impact on innovation the most.
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Paul Samuelson was attracted to the irregular economic development pattern of some South American countries because of the links between economic performance and political…
Abstract
Paul Samuelson was attracted to the irregular economic development pattern of some South American countries because of the links between economic performance and political factors. He discussed the influence of “populist democracy” on Argentina’s relative economic stagnation, which, he argued in the 1970s and early 1980s, served as a dangerous paradigm for the American economy under stagflation. Stagflation phenomena marked the end of Samuelson’s “neoclassical synthesis.” Moreover, he applied his concept of “capitalist fascism” to deal with military dictatorships in Brazil and (especially) in Chile. The Brazilian translation of his Economics in 1973 brought about a correspondence with Brazilian economists about the “fascist” features of the regime. The main variable behind the South American economic and politically unstable processes discussed by Samuelson was economic inequality, which became also a conspicuous feature of the American economy since the adoption of market-based policies in the 1980s and after.