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Conducting effective program evaluations such that all stakeholders benefit can be challenging. Appreciative inquiry provides a framework for seeking out the “goodness” of a program. By identifying what is being done “right,” programs can be strengthened by keeping what is currently valued, discarding what is not valued, and creating what does not currently exist but is envisioned and desired by all stakeholders. This chapter explores the benefits of using an appreciative approach to program evaluation. It describes the process used to appraise the Technology for Education and Training graduate programs.

Buying secondhand clothing is not only interesting for consumers wanting to save money but also for sustainable clothing enthusiasts. It is now among a number of consumption practices which slow down fast fashion production while saving 10 to 20 times the energy (Fletcher, 2008, p. 100). While most of the recent scholarly work focuses on secondhand consumers (Bianchi & Birtwistle, 2010; Franklin, 2011; Norum, 2015), this paper aims to examine business activities. This perspective from economic anthropology enhances understandings of secondhand clothing, as research to-date has tended to neglect the semiotic function of clothing while underlining exchanges. To gain insight into the dynamics of the sector in Germany today, two businesses from Hamburg have been ethnographically examined by the author since 2014. This study outlines their work practices and explains the development of this high-end segment of the market from the 1970s until the digital age. For businesses, the digitalization of the trade has had massive effects on their business practice because it seems to solve inherent problems connected to the selling of pre-owned clothing. I argue that the digitalization did not only promote acceptance of buying secondhand clothing in Germany but also the emergence of new businesses models.

This study aims to investigate consumer knowledge of environmentally sustainable apparel (ESA) and examine the impact of communication on consumer knowledge of ESA.

This study employed a quantitative survey focused on Millennial and Generation Z consumers. Two communication methods, hangtags and product webpages, were involved. First, two instruments were established to measure consumers’ objective and subjective knowledge of ESA. Second, two questionnaires were developed to collect participants’ knowledge before and after reading hangtags or product webpages.

There were 385 useable responses. It was found that participants’ knowledge about waste and cotton production’s water issues was less than their knowledge of other subjects and did not increase after reading the related information on hangtags or webpages. Participants’ subjective knowledge was significantly higher than their objective knowledge after communication. The positive effects of communicating with consumers via hangtags and webpages on consumers’ subjective knowledge were confirmed. Additionally, the ESA information provided via hangtags was more effective than webpages in improving consumers’ objective knowledge.

This study makes up for the deficiency in the literature. It provides in-depth insights on consumers’ knowledge of ESA by investigating consumer knowledge before and after communication based on consumer knowledge structure. The textile and apparel industry can use this study’s findings to improve communication with consumers and aid in sustainable product distribution.

The money management behaviour of undergraduates is a noteworthy study for many stakeholders, as these students are more likely to carry forward this behaviour into later life. The literature on student money management behaviour heavily focuses on financial literacy. However, economic, social and psychological factors also affect undergraduates’ money management behaviour. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to empirically investigate how undergraduates respond to and account for these factors in their money management behaviour.

This study was carried out in Australia. This study adopted a qualitative exploratory approach. The data were collected using six focus group discussions (FGDs) held in one Australian university, in which 40 undergraduates participated.

The key themes identified from the thematic analysis include undergraduates’ understanding of money management and managing economic, social and psychological aspects relating to undergraduates’ money management behaviour. Several subthemes were identified under each theme, which specifically showed how undergraduates manage and respond to each of these factors relating to their money management behaviour.

This study was conducted with the data collected from a relatively small sample of respondents and was limited only to undergraduates. Moreover, this study was conducted in Australia, indicating that some of the results might be specific to the Australian context.

The authors have suggested promoting multiple payment methods and internet usage to undergraduates, and providing them with stress management programmes will help them maintain prudent money management behaviour.

The extant literature on undergraduates’ money management behaviour tends to focus on financial literacy. This study extends the scope of the literature beyond financial literacy and has shown how undergraduates respond to economic, social and psychological aspects relating to money management behaviour. This study has applied a qualitative exploratory approach, in contrast to quantitative methods which have generally been applied for studies relating to undergraduates’ money management behaviour.

The purpose of this study is to provide an updated view of the effects of selected socioeconomic and demographic factors on household expenditures for home furnishings among US households. Using consumer demand theory as the underlying theoretical framework, Tobit analysis was used to estimate expenditure equations for household textiles, floor coverings, and furniture using the 1995 Consumer Expenditure Survey. Although the home furnishings industry grew significantly during the 1980s and 1990s, the results of this study indicate that the socioeconomic and demographic factors underlying home furnishing expenditures have remained fairly stable. However, long‐run trends in the age distribution and ethnic composition of the US population suggest that the young adult market and Hispanic consumers are market segments that could provide greater opportunities for companies in the home furnishings industry. In addition, building on the fashion orientation that has developed in home fashions during the past 20 years may provide further opportunities. Finally, future research could benefit from the inclusion of more dwelling‐specific variables, such as the number of rooms in the household, and whether or not remodeling occurred.

Appreciative Inquiry is a constructive inquiry process that searches for everything that “gives life” to organizations, communities, and larger human systems when they are most alive, effective, creative and healthy in their interconnected ecology of relationships. To appreciate, quite simply, means to value and to recognize that which has value – it is a way of knowing and valuing the best in life. In the language of Positive Organizational Scholarship it means a research focus – a positive bias – seeking fresh understanding of dynamics described by words like excellence, thriving, abundance, resilience, or exceptional and life-giving (Cameron, Dutton & Quinn, 2003). In this context the word appreciate means to value those things of value – it is a mode of knowing often connected to the idea of esthetic appreciation in the arts. To appreciate also means to be grateful or thankful for – it is a way of being and maintaining a positive stance along the path of life’s journey. And not incidentally, to appreciate is to increase in value too. Combining the three – appreciation as a way of knowing, as a way of being and as an increase in value- suggests that Appreciative Inquiry is simultaneously a life-centric form of study and a constructive mode of practice. As a form of study, Appreciative Inquiry focuses on searching systematically for those capacities and processes that give life and strength and possibility to a living system; and as a constructive mode of practice, it aims at designing and crafting human organizations through a process in which valuing and creating are viewed as one, and where inquiry and change are powerfully related and understood as a seamless and integral whole. But the key to really understanding Appreciative Inquiry is to put the emphasis on the second word in the inseparable pair. While many are intrigued with the Appreciative Inquiry positive bias – toward the good, the better, the exceptional, and the possible – it is the power of inquiry we must learn more about and underscore. Inquiry is all about openness, curiosity, creative questioning; its spirit involves what Whitehead once called “the adventure of ideas.”