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The purpose of this paper is to examine how consumers respond to environmental claims of three types contained in promotional messages attributed to one respected “green” brand and one mainstream leisure clothing.

A mall‐intercept questionnaire‐based survey in one city in Australia collected responses from 380 respondents, who rated environmental claims contained in promotional messages delivered via garment tags attached to T‐shirts.

Shoppers responded more positively to product‐related messages than cause‐related messages. They found environmental claims to be more credible if attributed to the green brands than to the neutral brand.

Future research might focus on the “green” market segment rather than interacting with the general population, and devise niche marketing strategies to clothes retailers. There is also room for more vivid pro‐green statements as test stimuli, perhaps generated by in‐depth qualitative research.

Though consumers are becoming increasingly green‐minded, the result is not necessarily more consumption of green products, but “better” consumption behaviour in general. Retailers should build a store image that clearly transmits their green credentials, as a proxy for the quality and nature of merchandise they carry.

Relatively little is known about green brands and environmental message appeals in clothes marketing, and no study has yet focused on Australia.

Since 2004, the British Government has delivered a national policy on social marketing that has created a new frame of reference in this field. This paper aims to study the genesis, evolution and implementation of the policy process that led to an important development in British public health.

An in-depth multifaceted single case study, mixing qualitative and quantitative data including participatory research, enabled by a cognitive approach based on elements of knowledge, ideas, representations and social beliefs in the elaboration of a public policy.

This approach to understanding the British policy on social marketing process demonstrates a useful explanatory capacity, producing a comprehensive articulation of the main cognitive, normative, and instrumental dimensions of this policy, including its significant mutations influenced by the 2008 Great Recession and subsequent political evolution.

This paper has followed the British social marketing policy’s implementation in England. In Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, this national policy had specific developments that it was not followed in our study In general, subject to complex historical, social and political conditions, this is a field that preserves its dynamism and the ability to question concepts and processes. Ever seeking new directions and solutions, it requires an ongoing research study.

Conclusions speak in favour of a prescriptive framework for a national policy on social marketing that can inform other government entities’ efforts to develop similar policies in other countries. A correct understanding of such a political process can lead to better management of its development and its consequent contribution to improving social marketing policy and interventions.

A proper conception and management of a social marketing policy can contribute to improving the well-being of citizens.

It is the first time that this specific cognitive approach has been applied so systematically to a national social marketing policy through a long-term research, providing a prescriptive framework for other’ efforts to develop similar policies.

The purpose of this paper is to examine leading from the middle, which is consistent with calls to distribute leadership, while expanding the direction of influence, from the normal top-down to include a bottom-up or lateral direction. The paper proposes that the position of the vice-principal enables the role incumbent to lead from the middle as a boundary spanner. The research question was what leadership from the middle looks like for vice-principals.

The study consisted of interviews of 28 vice-principals and 10 principals. A mixed case and theme-oriented strategy was adapted, with member checking with each vice-principal.

The findings indicate that in leading from the middle, vice-principals play boundary spanning roles of connecting, translating and brokering: (1) connecting between organisational levels, (2) translating between vision/direction and actualisation, (3) connecting between middle managers and (4) brokering and translating between the ministry and the school.

Leading from the middle is a nascent concept which is worth exploring, given the complexity of educational systems with multiple ecological levels, and the need for leadership to create coherence between the levels.

We present a critical literature review debating Brazilian research on social and environmental accounting (SEA). The aim of this study is to understand the role of politics in the construction of hegemonies in SEA research in Brazil. In particular, we examine the role of hegemony in relation to the co-option of SEA literature and sustainability in the Brazilian context by the logic of development for economic growth in emerging economies. The methodological approach adopts a post-structural perspective that reflects Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory. The study employs a hermeneutical, rhetorical approach to understand and classify 352 Brazilian research articles on SEA. We employ Brown and Fraser’s (2006) categorizations of SEA literature to help in our analysis: the business case, the stakeholder–accountability approach, and the critical case. We argue that the business case is prominent in Brazilian studies. Second-stage analysis suggests that the major themes under discussion include measurement, consulting, and descriptive approach. We argue that these themes illustrate the degree of influence of the hegemonic politics relevant to emerging economics, as these themes predominantly concern economic growth and a capitalist context. This paper discusses trends and practices in the Brazilian literature on SEA and argues that the focus means that SEA avoids critical debates of the role of capitalist logics in an emerging economy concerning sustainability. We urge the Brazilian academy to understand the implications of its reifying agenda and engage, counter-hegemonically, in a social and political agenda beyond the hegemonic support of a particular set of capitalist interests.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between school principals’ sense of efficacy and their involvement with the Arkansas Leadership Academy's (the Academy) School Support Program (SSP).

Data were collected from participating SSP principals to explore differences in mean principal self-efficacy given varied years of participation in SSP. The Principal Self-Efficacy Survey was used to measure the construct of principal self-efficacy of 27 principals participating in the Academy's SSP for low-performing schools.

The findings suggest that principals of low-performing schools that participated in the Arkansas Leadership Academy's SSP for more years have a stronger sense of leadership efficacy than principals of low-performing schools that are just beginning the SSP. Post hoc qualitative data were collected through a focus group discussion to provide insight regarding actual practices that led to increased perceived self-efficacy as a result of participating in the SSP.

This study is highly contextualized to the principals and school systems participating in the SSP, a limited population due to conditions under which schools qualify to participate in the program.

As schools continue to be identified as needing to improve based on accountability measures, external sources of leadership development for the principals leading these schools should be considered as a possible means for increasing their senses of efficacy, and indirectly supporting the potential for improved school performance.

The attributes of highly efficacious principals – self-regulating, confident, and calm in difficult situations – may be more critical to leaders engaged in systemic change in low-performing schools where the challenges may be more complex.

There could be a strong argument that the influence of an outside support program might be one strategy to consider when addressing the improvement of low-performing schools through raising leader efficacy.

Cashless payment is gradually replacing physical currency in almost every financial transaction across the world. Even though cashless payment methods have been available in Malaysia since a decade ago, their usage has remained relatively low in comparison to other countries. This study aims to analyse the elements that affect the Malaysian youth’s adoption intention and actual use of cashless payment by extending the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model with two key factors (perceived security [PS] and lifestyle compatibility [LC]).

Data were gathered online from 364 Malaysian youths and processed using partial least squares structural equation modelling.

The findings revealed that performance expectancy (PE), LC and PS had a positive and substantial effect on the intention to use cashless payment (ICP). In contrast, effort expectancy (EE) and social influence did not have any considerable influence on ICP. Furthermore, ICP had substantial mediating effects between the adoption of cashless payment (ACP) and PE, LC and PS. In the analysis of the moderating effect of age, gender, experience and voluntariness, only experience had moderating effects on the associations between PE and ICP and between FC and ACP.

This study’s findings will be highly useful for marketers and the management as they plan their promotional and marketing tactics, with a focus on the factors that inspire customers to adopt cashless payments. Besides, architects and designers can benefit from the study results while designing and updating their services by consolidating consumers’ lifestyle standards as well as enhancing security features. Finally, governments may support service providers with security building through legislative measures and policy campaigns to strengthen the trustworthiness and mass adoption of contactless payment.

This study extended the UTAUT model with two new variables, i.e. PS and LC.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an organizing lens for viewing the distinct contributions to knowledge production from those research communities addressing the impact of competitive strategy on company performance in general, and the influence of cost leadership and differentiation strategy on organizational performance in detail.

The research methodology was based on the PRISMA review, and thematic analysis based on an iterative process of open coding was analyzed and then the sample was analyzed by illustrating the research title, objectives, method, data analysis, sample size, variables and country.

The main factor that influenced the competitive strategy is strategic growth; strategic growth has a significant influence on competitive strategy. Furthermore, competitive strategy will boost firm network, performance measurement and organization behavior. In the same way, the internal goal factor will enhance organizational effectiveness. Also, a differentiation strategy will support management practice factors, strategic positions, product price, product characteristics and company performance.

This study contributes to the literature by identifying a framework of competitive strategy factors, company performance factors, cost leadership strategy factors, differentiation strategy factors and competitive strategy with global market factors. This study provides a complete picture and description of the resulting body knowledge in competitive strategy and organizational performance.

While Hong Kong has exercised laissez-faire policy with regard to popular cultural industries, such broadcasting freedom may not fully accepted in countries where state control of the media is tight. This paper aims to have a review and brief discussion on music development and the phenomenon of popular music censorship under Chinese societies including China, Hong Kong and Singapore.

After a brief discussion on the popular music scene in Hong Kong, China and Singapore, this paper reviews on the possible reasons for popular music censorship issue in the Chinese societies.

It is found that Canto-pop can be freely broadcast in Hong Kong; however, such freedom is not accepted in China and Singapore due to censorship. While China is sensitive to pro-democratic content in popular music, Singapore's language policies hinder the development of Canto-pop since the 70s.

After reviewing the reasons for music censorship, in particular Cantonese popular music in the Chinese societies, the paper gives a prediction on the future development of Canto-pop.