Sarah-Louise Mitchell, Sharyn Rundle-Thiele, Zoe Lee and Fran Hyde
Sharyn Rundle-Thiele, Sarah-Louise Mitchell, Zoe Lee and Fran Hyde
Social impact research remains in its infancy. The purpose of the paper is to build on Keeling and Marshall’s (2022) “Call for impact” paper and develop a comprehensive social…
Abstract
Purpose
Social impact research remains in its infancy. The purpose of the paper is to build on Keeling and Marshall’s (2022) “Call for impact” paper and develop a comprehensive social impact pathway (SIP) framework. The aim is to encourage marketing researchers, non-profits and corporations to pursue impactful work that is valued, planned, monitored and evaluated.
Design/methodology/approach
The conceptual paper explores the complexities of estimating social impact drawing from a range of illustrative cases.
Findings
The paper identifies a lack of clarity in the understanding and application of impact and presents a pathway aimed at increasing focus on social impact across future work to deliver the net-positive changes that are needed to reverse biodiversity decline, climate change and social and health inequalities that continue to be persist and be experienced by so many planet wide.
Research limitations/implications
This paper contributes a pathway forward to encourage and support increased utilisation of the framework in future marketing research.
Practical implications
Mapping and measuring SIPs are concerted efforts directing understanding towards identifying the activities that are contributing to the delivery of outputs that can achieve intended outcomes. The measurement of impact directs investment towards activities that ensure net-positive gains are achieved.
Social implications
Ever growing social inequities, health disparities, loss of biodiversity and environmental degradation occur when practices are left unchecked. A focus on impact avoids greenwashing practices, ensuring that an understanding of what has changed because of the work is transparently reported.
Originality/value
This paper aims to encourage marketing researchers to engage in social change projects, rather than solely disseminating academic findings. Emphasising the importance of an outside-in approach, this paper highlights the necessity of showcasing accumulated outcomes to demonstrate impact.
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Zoe Lee, Sianne Gordon-Wilson, Iain Davies and Cara Pring
Communication about sustainability in fashion is complex. While fashion businesses have increasingly sought to manage their sustainability practices, their understanding of how to…
Abstract
Purpose
Communication about sustainability in fashion is complex. While fashion businesses have increasingly sought to manage their sustainability practices, their understanding of how to communicate about sustainability persuasively remains limited. The authors argue that a key problem with a firm’s efforts in communicating about sustainability is that it is a psychologically distant issue for both businesses and stakeholders. This paper aims to apply construal level theory to explore managers’ construal level in shaping communication about sustainability.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper used a two-phase qualitative methodology. Phase one involved undertaking interviews with ten managers in fashion firms to address communications about sustainability in the UK. In phase two, 16 consumers interpreted and reflected on the persuasiveness of communications about sustainability encompassing both concrete and abstract forms of messaging.
Findings
The authors identify the factors driving different approaches to communication (concrete and abstract) depending on the construal levels of managers, managers’ perceptions of the construal level of target stakeholders and the perceived authenticity of the sustainability claim. The paper highlights the conditions under which the (mis)match with the brands’ sustainable practices works in crafting communication. The authors also highlight three main communication strategies in responding to the complexity of sustainability in fashion ecosystems: amplification, quiet activist and populist coupling.
Research limitations/implications
As an in-depth qualitative study, the authors seek to expose an under-researched phenomenon, yet generalisations both within the fashion industry and beyond are limited by this focus.
Practical implications
Fashion managers need to be flexible and evaluate how their communications about sustainability affect stakeholders’ evaluations of their brands. As sustainability in fashion brands grows, concrete and specific sustainability messaging may be necessary to improve sustainable behaviours.
Originality/value
The prevailing literature encourages symbiosis between sustainability practices and communications; such relationships are rare, and studies outside the consumer perspective are also rare. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this exploratory study is the first to understand how managers’ construal level influences decisions around communications about sustainability in fashion and how these messages are perceived by consumers.
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This paper aims to address the issue of survey distortion caused by one of the most common and pervasive sources of bias, namely social desirability bias (SDB). Despite 50 years…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to address the issue of survey distortion caused by one of the most common and pervasive sources of bias, namely social desirability bias (SDB). Despite 50 years of research, there are still many unanswered questions about its conceptualisation and operationalisation. The authors argue that traditional measures of SDB are inadequate and that the context in which the research is being conducted should be reflected in the measures employed. Hence, the authors develop and validate a multi‐dimensional scale that may be used to measure the degree of SDB present in responses to giving surveys.
Design/methodology/approach
Following initial scale development procedures a convenience sample of 820 donors to a national charity was employed to refine the resultant scale items. Exploratory factor analysis and reliability tests were conducted to establish the dimensionality of the new scale and its reliability. Using a separate sample of 1,500 active donors, the scale was then subject to confirmatory procedures to test its predictive validity.
Findings
The findings support the assertion that SDB is a multi‐dimensional construct consisting of six dimensions. However, in the context of postal surveys it is found that self‐deception and the degree of intrinsic benefit accruing to a donor are the primary determinants of the level of SDB an individual will exhibit. The authors also highlight the significance of the SDB issue since in the survey reported here, 65 per cent of respondents were found to over‐report their giving.
Originality/value
This is one of the first published studies that has been able to explore the predictive validity of a SDB scale. The work has expanded our understanding of the determinants of SDB and provided an instrument that may now be employed to reduce a significant proportion of this error in giving surveys.
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This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint 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 article provides a comprehensive framework to guide marketing researchers and practitioners in pursuing impactful and measurable activities aimed at addressing global social and environmental challenges.
Originality/value
The briefing saves busy executives, strategists, 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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Craig Steel, Zoe Travers, Lynette Meredith, Deborah Lee, Michael Conti and Anne Scoging
The purpose is to report on the mental health response to the Grenfell incident within the London Fire Brigade (LFB).
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose is to report on the mental health response to the Grenfell incident within the London Fire Brigade (LFB).
Design/methodology/approach
The LFB implemented screening for the symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at 28 days, 3 months and 6 months for all personnel directly involved in the incident.
Findings
The prevalence of PTSD within frontline personnel was 13.4% at 28 days, falling to 7.6% at 6 months. The LFB's internal Counselling and Wellbeing Service offered treatment to those scoring above the cut-off for PTSD along with accepting self-referral and referrals from line managers and occupational health. There were 139 referrals within the 12-month period following the incident.
Research limitations/implications
The outcomes for those who engaged in treatment are broadly in line with other studies evaluating post-disaster interventions. Issues for consideration within national guidelines are discussed.
Practical implications
The screen and treat approach adopted by LFB was shown to be a feasible approach to use within such a scenario.
Originality/value
The current study reports on a screen and treat approach to one of the largest single incidents in the UK in recent years.
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Kerry R. McGannon, Sydney Graper and Jenny McMahon
To explore the digital landscape, narrowing to Instagram, as a cultural space to advance sociological understanding of elite athlete mother identity meanings and lives.
Abstract
Purpose
To explore the digital landscape, narrowing to Instagram, as a cultural space to advance sociological understanding of elite athlete mother identity meanings and lives.
Design/methodology/approach
Relativist narrative inquiry is outlined as a theoretical and methodological approach to expand sociological research on motherhood and sport, by exploring big and small stories on social media sites. Elite athlete mother's mediated self-portrayals on Instagram are theorized as identity stories (re)created and made possible, by cultural narrative resources.
Findings
An example of big and small story research is outlined from a larger case study of elite athlete figure skating mothers' self-portrayals on Instagram as they negotiated motherhood, and a professional sport career. Thematic narrative analysis findings include a big story plot in the post-partum period: negotiating intensive mothering and career. Two small stories that fed into fluid meanings of this big story plot are also presented: holding the baby close and working mum/new mumtrepeneur. These findings show nuanced contradictions of contemporary motherhood meanings, within sportswomen's personal and public digital stories.
Originality/value
A big and small story approach grounded in narrative inquiry holds value to learn more about the contemporary digital landscape's shaping of the meanings of sportswomen's identities and lives. Future research is recommended using this approach on additional social media platforms (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube) to expand intertextual understanding of elite athlete mother identities in socio-cultural context, tapping into these underexplored naturalistic data resources.
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Kazakhstan has taken considerable steps to improve the incoming mobility of international students; however, despite these measures, the number of international students studying…
Abstract
Purpose
Kazakhstan has taken considerable steps to improve the incoming mobility of international students; however, despite these measures, the number of international students studying in Kazakhstan is still very low. Research indicates that in order to attract and retain international students it is necessary to build a thorough understanding of their experiences in the host country. The purpose of this paper is to gain a better understanding of international students’ experiences in Kazakhstan by exploring how they exercise their human agency while adapting to the academic and socio-cultural life in Kazakhstan.
Design/methodology/approach
The author used a purposeful criterion sampling to select six international students from Afghanistan, Great Britain, Russia, South Korea, Ukraine and the USA studying at Kazakhstani universities to participate in this research. The primary data collection was semi-structured in-depth interviews. Supportive methods included a demographic questionnaire and a researcher journal.
Findings
The study revealed that the international students actively employed their human agency to negotiate their studying and to adapt to their life in Kazakhstan. They did not simply adjust to the host environment, but also learned from it and attempted to transform it according to their circumstances and goals.
Research limitations/implications
The implication is that Kazakhstani universities and any other higher education institutions that seek to increase the number of their international students should consider not only how to attract these students, but also how to adapt their institution’s practices and regulations to create an inclusive learning environment for their diverse student population. It is also very important for higher education institutions to provide international students with the necessary conditions to exercise their human agency because as it was revealed by this study, international students’ human agency is a very powerful mechanism helping them live and learn comfortably in their host country.
Originality/value
Taking into consideration the reviewed previous research, this was the first attempt to use Albert Bandura’s social cognitive theory for the purpose of building an understanding about how international students exercise their agency while adapting to the academic and socio-cultural life in the host country. The social cognitive theory allows investigating international students as active and self-sufficient agents of their own adaptation process who can and do change themselves, and have the potential to navigate and alter their host environment to achieve their own goals. This study encourages researchers and practitioners to think about international students outside the dimension of internationalization as a means of improving country’s economic capital.
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Zoë Sedlářík, Robin Bauwens and Marloes van Engen
Drawing upon self-determination theory (SDT) and the proactive motivation model, this study examined how inclusive leadership is related to organizational citizenship behavior…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing upon self-determination theory (SDT) and the proactive motivation model, this study examined how inclusive leadership is related to organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) through psychological need satisfaction (PNS).
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from a large Dutch private company in the financial sector (N = 264) and analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM).
Findings
Inclusive leadership positively influenced all three PNS dimensions (autonomy, competence and relatedness). Both autonomy and relatedness fully mediated the relationship between inclusive leadership and OCB. However, this was not the case for competence, although additional analyses revealed the serial mediation of all three PNS dimensions.
Originality/value
By highlighting the mediating role of PNS, this study contributes to the inclusive leadership literature by helping unravel the underlying process through which leaders influence team outcomes. The findings emphasize the importance of inclusive leaders in satisfying employees' individual psychological needs, so that they can redirect their attention toward prosocial behaviors.