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This paper aims to explore why consumers absorb ethical habits into their daily consumption, despite having little interest or understanding of the ethics they are buying into, by looking at the motivation behind mainstream ethical consumption.

Fifty in-depth field interviews at point of purchase capture actual ethical consumption behavior, tied with a progressive-laddering interview technique yields over 400 consumption units of analysis.

Ethical attitudes, values and rational information processing have limited veracity for mainstream ethical consumption. Habit and constrained choice, as well as self-gratification, peer influence and an interpretivist understanding of what ethics are being purchased provide the primary drivers for consumption.

Use of qualitative sampling and analysis limits the generalizability of this paper. However, the quantitative representation of data demonstrates the strength with which motivations were perceived to influence consumption choice.

Ethical brands which focus on explicit altruistic ethical messaging at the expense of hedonistic messaging, or ambiguous pseudo ethics-as-quality messaging, limit their appeal to mainstream consumers. Retailers, however, benefit from the halo effect of ethical brands in store.

The paper highlights the importance of retailer engagement with ethical products as a precursor to normalizing ethical consumption, and the importance of normative messaging in changing habits.

The paper provides original robust critique of the current field of ethical consumption and an insight into new theoretical themes of urgent general interest to the field.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of the Official Scrutineer in the annual film awards ceremony of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), a role currently occupied by the audit firm Deloitte. The case of BAFTA provides an illustrative example of the increasing demand for discretionary assurance services from audit firms (Free et al., 2009), which in turn is reflective of Power's (1997) “audit society”. It showcases the power of audit as a legitimating tool. The paper seeks to understand the role of the auditor as assurance provider by drawing upon Goffman's (1959) dramaturgical framework. Viewing the auditor as “performer” and a range of interested stakeholders (BAFTA voting members, sponsors, award winners and industry commentators) as the “audience”, this theoretical lens facilitates insights into the nature of assurance provision.

The paper gathers interview data from within the case organization (BAFTA), it's Official Scrutineers (Deloitte), BAFTA voting members, sponsors, award winners and film industry commentators.

Drawing on Goffman's (1959) work on impression management to inform its theoretical argumentation, the analysis of results from 36 interviews indicates that Deloitte are highly effective in delivering a successful performance to their audience; they convey a very convincing impression of trust and assurance. The paper therefore suggests the importance of performance ritual in the auditor's role as assurance provider. Additionally, it argues that such a performance may be particularly effective, in the eyes of the audience, when played by a well known audit firm.

The paper highlights the expanding territorial scope of assurance provision by audit firms. By focusing on a glamorous media event, it also furthers an understanding of the role of accounting within the domain of popular culture.

Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker (Teknisk Bibliotek), Ingerslevs Plads 7, Aarhus, Denmark. Representative: V. NEDERGAARD PEDERSEN (Librarian).

The lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and others (LGBTQI+) movement has been the focus of companies that seek to win over consumers by supporting diversity. Any positioning, however, that is not perceived as being consistent and genuine can harm the brand's image. Through a queer theoretical perspective, the authors explore perceptions of LGBTQI+ consumers regarding brand activism.

Qualitative research was carried out that involved interviewing Brazilian consumers who are part of the LGBTQI+ community.

Aspects of the identity of these individuals draw closer to those brands that share the same values the individuals have. Brand activism is perceived positively in terms of the brand's representativeness and social impact. When activism is perceived as inauthentic, activism generates a backlash and consumers begin to boycott brands as the consumers associate positioning with woke-washing practices.

The results indicate that to adopt an activist stance with regard to the LGBTQI+ public, brands need to be consistent in the brands' communication and advertising and in brands' organizational culture and diversity. This research provides important indicators for brands that genuinely want to support the LGBTQI+ community and is the first to use queer theory to analyze brand activism.

In reference to the administration of the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts by the various local authorities in England and Wales during the year 1908 the following remarks appear in the recently issued report of the Local Government Board for that year. “Our attention has been drawn to the practice which has been adopted recently by certain local authorities of inviting applicants for the office of public analyst to state the terms upon which they are prepared to accept the appointment. We consider the offering of such appointment ‘on tender’ as open to strong objection, and we trust that the practice will be discontinued.”

Maintaining an adequate nutritional state, important at all times, is never more so than during the dark days of Winter. The body reserves are then taxed in varying degrees of severity by sudden downward plunges of the thermometer, days when there is no sight of the sun, lashing rains and cold winds, ice, frost, snow, gales and blizzards. The body processes must be maintained against these onslaughts of nature — body temperatures, resistance against infections, a state of well‐being with all systems operating and an ability to “take it”. A sufficient and well balanced diet is vital to all this, most would say, the primarily significant factor. The National Food Surveys do not demonstrate any insufficiency in the national diet in terms of energy values, intake of vitamins, minerals and nutrients, but statistics can be fallacious amd misleading. NFS statistics are no indication of quality of food, its sufficiency for physiological purposes and to meet the economic stresses of the times. The intake of staple foods — bread, milk, butter, meat, &c., — have been slowly declining for years, as their prices rise higher and higher. If the Government had foreseen the massive unemployment problem, it is doubtful if they would have crippled the highly commendable School Meals Service. To have continued this — school milk, school dinners — even with the financial help it would have required would be seen as a “Supplementary Benefit” much better than the uncontrolled cash flow of social security. Child nutrition must be suffering. Stand outside a school at lunch‐time and watch the stream of children trailing along to the “Chippie” for a handfull of chip potatoes; even making a “meal” on an ice lollie.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between egocentric social networks and mental health (MH) outcomes. The authors aim to develop a theoretical framework for understanding this association and to test whether social network factors add any further explanatory power to MH outcomes.

Data for this study were drawn from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey (n=14,756). The authors used hierarchical multiple regression technique to test this hypothesis and using the Akaike information criterion (AIC) the authors identified the best fit model.

The results of this study shows that social network measures do add considerable explanatory power to MH with social isolation (SI) having the highest influence (β=−0.198, p<0.001) followed by social connections (SCs) (β=0.141, p<0.001) and then social trust (ST) (β=0.071, p<0.001). The AIC best fit model included all the social network predictors however it excluded physical functioning which contributed very little.

This study shows that social network factors play a significant role in predicting MH outcomes. In particular, SI was a more significant predictor of MH than SC. However, ST played a relatively minor role in predicting MH scores. These findings have practical implications and applications for the design of policy initiatives aimed at improving MH outcomes.

The study focuses on primarily big U.S. firms' joint venture activities with the Soviets after the break‐up of the former Soviet Union. It examines U.S.‐Soviet joint ventures in the following sectors: oil and gas, soft drinks, consumer products, gold mining, aircraft engines, telecommunications, and software. Data were collected by mail and interviews in order to identify the obstacles in the negotiation and operational stages of the venture. Furthermore, business and governmental organisations' recommendations as to whether or not U.S. firms should engage in joint venture activities in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) were elicited.

THE scientist and philosopher will tell us that the mind of man cannot in a lifetime fully grasp and understand any one subject. Consequently it is unreasonable to expect that the librarian—who, in spite of popular belief, is but man—can have a complete understanding of every department of knowledge relative to his work. He must, in common with his fellows in other callings, content himself with a more or less general professional knowledge, and may specialize, if he be so disposed, in certain branches of that knowledge. The more restricted this particular knowledge is, the greater will be its value from a specialistic point of view.

Investigates the differences in protocols between arbitral tribunals and courts, with particular emphasis on US, Greek and English law. Gives examples of each country and its way of using the law in specific circumstances, and shows the variations therein. Sums up that arbitration is much the better way to gok as it avoids delays and expenses, plus the vexation/frustration of normal litigation. Concludes that the US and Greek constitutions and common law tradition in England appear to allow involved parties to choose their own judge, who can thus be an arbitrator. Discusses e‐commerce and speculates on this for the future.