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Traceability is an increasingly important tool for reducing food safety risks and managing supply logistics. Given the costs of implementing and maintaining traceability systems, it is crucial to understand consumer willingness to pay (WTP) for traceable products.

The authors conducted a scoping review to collate the existing literature on consumer WTP for traceability in food products to determine the nature of the evidence base and to identify research gaps.

A total of 77 articles were included in the review. The number of studies published per year generally increased over the review period, and China and the United States were the most common countries in which studies were conducted (43.6 and 14.1% of total studies, respectively). All but one of the studies investigated at least one factor that might influence consumer WTP for traceability, the most common of which was socio-demographic characteristics (72.7%). Three-quarters of studies used hypothetical methods to elicit WTP values (75.3%), whereas one-quarter used non-hypothetical methods (24.7%). Most studies included some measure of preference heterogeneity (83.1%).

There is some potential for systematic bias in the evidence due to the predominance of studies from only a few countries and the possible presence of hypothetical bias. These potential biases could be corrected through future research.

To the authors’ knowledge, no previous study systematically and comprehensively identifies and summarizes the evidence base on consumer WTP for traceable food products.

Drawing on upper echelons theory, the purpose of this paper is to examine whether CEOs place their distinctive marks on the design of planning, control and evaluation systems (i.e. management control systems (MCS)) in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The authors use survey data from 189 Belgian SMEs and perform regression analyses to investigate the relation between the CEO demographics tenure, education and experience and various aspects of MCS design, controlling for the classical contingent variables.

CEO tenure and education are related to evaluation system design, but there is no link between CEO demographics and planning and control system design. The lack of managerial discretion concerning planning and control systems could be explained by their more external and observable character, giving rise to pressures to comply with institutional norms (“good practices”). The presence of discretion concerning the design of evaluation systems could be due to their internal character.

Since evaluation systems are an important determinant of work-related attitudes and can lead to dysfunctional behavior, it is important for company owners and board members to consider the demographics of present or new CEOs, and to understand the associated inclinations reflected in evaluation systems.

The authors apply a more comprehensive approach than (the few) existing SME studies by relating a larger number of CEO demographics to a more comprehensive set of MCS elements, controlling for a larger group of contingent variables. Moreover, the authors fill gaps in the upper echelons and MCS literature.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a theoretical framework for the assessment of subjective value of public goods. Public goods are not traded, so they do not have market prices, even if they may be of great importance for the well-being of citizens (e.g. green spaces, urban air). A procedure used to estimate the economic value of a public good is the contingent evaluation method: people are asked to state how much they are willing to pay to preserve or restore a public good. Many studies report that the subjective evaluation of public goods is affected by factors that, according to standard economics, should be irrelevant, such as the manipulation of frame and prime. On the other hand, factors that should be relevant, such as the magnitude of the expected benefit, are neglected. It appears that the evaluation of a public good cannot be reduced to a mere cost–benefit tradeoff evaluation. On the contrary, it seems that the subjective value of a public good is constructed. The authors argue that to accurately predict and describe how people valuate public goods, it is fundamental to study how people construct the associated mental representation.

This paper takes into account the cognitive and emotional aspects of the evaluation of public goods.

Subjective valuation of public goods is affected by irrelevant factors and is not affected by relevant factors.

This paper provides an accurate description and prediction of how people evaluate public goods.

The social implications of this paper include a better evaluation of public policies.

This paper is an original psychological perspective on the evaluation of public goods.

Much programme and policy evaluation yields to the pressure to report on the productivity of programmes and is perforce compliant with the conditions of contract. Too often the view of these evaluations is limited to a literal reading of the analytical challenge. If we are evaluating X we look critically at X1, X2 and X3. There might be cause for embracing adjoining data sources such as W1 and Y1. This ignores frequent realities that an evaluation specification is only an approximate starting point for an unpredictable journey into comprehensive understanding; that the specification represents only that which is wanted by the sponsor, and not all that may be needed; and that the contractual specification too often insists on privileging the questions and concerns of a few. Case study evaluation proves an alternative that allows for the less-than-literal in the form of analysis of contingencies – how people, phenomena and events may be related in dynamic ways, how context and action have only a blurred dividing line and how what defines the case as a case may only emerge late in the study.

This paper aims to outline the development of research into the value of libraries over the past decade.

Recent studies using contingent valuation for the British Library, South Carolina Public Libraries, Florida Public Libraries and St Louis Public Libraries are summarised both in terms of methodology and findings. Studies into two national bibliographic services (Canada and New Zealand) are reviewed to demonstrate the application of value studies to specific services.

There are many questions that have yet to be answered through using this methodology. At the most basic level it is not yet clear whether any particular numerical result represents the best return on investment for an individual library. The lack of comparative of studies means that the appropriate level of return on investment than that which the taxpayer or investor should expect, has yet to be established.

There is a need for further research to identify the relative position in which libraries in the major sectors should expect to be found. More significantly, there is a need to consider how a value identified for current use of a service should be balanced against future use, and to establish how these two analyses might be combined.

Shows consistent use of contingent valuation and return on investment for libraries in public and national library sectors. Each study took considerable resources and man‐hours to establish a community/user based economic result.

The economic valuation of the ecosystem services (ES) provided by nature-based solutions in cities is not an easy task. In fact, various environmental goods and services do not have a market price that allows to quantify their value. This leads to an underestimation of the value of nature in cities. As a result, their critical contributions are not considered in public, corporate, and individual decision-making. The logic behind ecosystem valuation is to unveil the complexities of socioecological relationships, to make explicit how human decisions would affect ES values, and to express these value changes in units. This will allow considering the benefits provided by ES in public decision-making processes. The contribution aims to identify and analyze the most used methodologies adopted at the urban level for the valuation of ES. In total, six methodologies have been analyzed for the valuation of the provisioning, regulating, cultural, and supporting services. Finally, an interpretation framework has been defined to summarize the main findings.

This paper aims to examine to what extent congruity between ethical attributes (i.e. product attributes with positive implications for the environment, human rights, social issues and animal welfare) and brand concept (i.e. the unique meaning associated with a brand in consumers’ minds) influences consumers’ evaluations of brands offering ethical attributes.

Four studies involving North American consumers empirically tested the moderation effect of brand concept on consumer evaluations of ethical attributes and the mediating role of perceived congruity.

This research finds an interactive effect of ethical attribute type and brand concept on brand evaluations, such that congruent ethical attribute–brand concept pairings (i.e. a utilitarian [symbolic] ethical attribute offered by a brand with a utilitarian [symbolic] brand concept) result in more favorable brand evaluations (Studies 1, 2, 3 and 4). Consumers’ perceptions of congruity between ethical attributes and brand concepts mediate this interactive effect (Studies 2 and 3). Moreover, a positive congruity effect of ethical attributes and brand concepts emerges at higher levels of conspicuous brand consumption (Study 4).

It is important to acknowledge that the current research did not specifically consider the case of utilitarian and symbolic ethical attribute offerings by luxury brands. This is a question that is left to future investigations.

For marketing managers, findings indicate that brands gain from ethical attribute introductions only when these attributes are congruent with the brand concept. In addition, brands benefit to a greater extent from offering congruent ethical attributes when brand consumption is conspicuous.

The findings of this research contribute to the literature on the effect of ethical attributes on consumers’ responses to brands and highlight the importance of brands’ choice of ethical attributes.

The purpose of this research is to develop a Social Information System research model that uses the core constructs intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and amotivation to explain social networking adoption among tweens, teens and young adults.

In developing the research model, we triangulated theories to examine the different orientations of motivation. The data collection process included a stratified sample size of 270 respondents. Following data collection we analyzed the results using structural equation modeling in the Partial Least Square software package.

The constructs amotivation, intrinsic and extrinsic motivations were all statistically significant in explaining continuance intention to use social networking services (SNS).

Researchers and practitioners have intimated that although there has been a rise in the number of persons accessing and becoming members of SNS, several subscribers who join subsequently leave after a minimal period. The practical implication of this study lies in providing a preliminary understanding of what determines or inhibits continuance intention of SNS membership.

Despite efforts, research in IS and technology acceptance literature regarding SNS diffusion is limited in scope. The theoretical implication of this study lies in the model that has been developed and validated to provide a more effective tool for the scholarly evaluation of SNS adoption. Existing adoption models are insufficient to explain voluntary technology usage of this nature.