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1 – 10 of over 37000Jennie Devine and Leo Appleton
This research aims to investigate effective public library environmental education interventions in order to inform the development of a framework for public libraries.
Abstract
Purpose
This research aims to investigate effective public library environmental education interventions in order to inform the development of a framework for public libraries.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative research method was developed incorporating surveys and follow-up interviews with librarians working in USA public libraries, who were known to have been involved in environmental education initiatives.
Findings
The research determined which environmental education interventions were most likely to lead to action and behaviour change in public library users. The resulting discussion has allowed for the creation of a framework which establishes factors useful for successful implementation of environmental education programmes and activities. These elements include partnership, institutional commitment, inclusion and outreach and practical activities linked to a larger vision.
Research limitations/implications
The research participants were limited to those libraries in the USA which were all affiliated with the American Library Association (ALA) Resilient Communities programmes and had received grants.
Practical implications
The paper concludes with a framework for implementing environmental education programmes in public libraries. Effective interventions are also shared which provide practical ideas and strategies.
Social implications
Providing structure and considerations for establishing an environmental programme enables libraries to build on experiences of other libraries. As climate change action becomes a more pressing issue, providing these interventions supports action.
Originality/value
The paper discusses the concepts of environmental education and the role which public libraries can play in this arena, concluding that sustainable development should be treated as a new tenet of librarianship and environmental education as a new research field of library and information science.
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This paper aims to examine which role governments can play in facilitating the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)' environmental capabilities in a global marketplace. It…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine which role governments can play in facilitating the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)' environmental capabilities in a global marketplace. It also investigates whether the extent of the impact of government intervention on firm performance varies depending on country-specific policies.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors develop a series of hypotheses that are predicated on the ecological modernization theory and the institutional theory. To test those hypotheses, the authors collected cross-national data reflecting both Korean and Chinese SME practices and then used the structural equation model. In addition, the authors utilized cross-validation techniques for methodological rigor.
Findings
A series of hypotheses test results revealed that government intervention had a positive impact on the MNF's environmental innovation capabilities and technological innovation capabilities. In addition, the authors discovered that SMEs' reaction to government intervention had a mediating effect between government intervention and the SME's performance. This discovery verifies the ecological modernization and institutional theories.
Originality/value
This is one of the few studies that conducted cross-cultural analyses of two different nations with contrasting government structures (i.e. capitalistic versus socialistic).
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Abstract
Purpose
This paper examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on low-carbon consumption of dairy products through informational interventions. The empirical findings seek to enlighten developing countries' efforts in coping with climate change and potential dietary transitions.
Design/methodology/approach
A randomized controlled trial was designed to examine the effects of purpose-differentiated information interventions on individual dairy consumption. The experiment recruited and randomly assigned 1,002 college students into four groups to receive (or not) environmental or/and health information interventions.
Findings
The empirical analysis finds that health and combined information interventions have a positive impact on dairy consumption, while environmental information interventions' effect on dairy consumption is insignificant. In the context of the pandemic, health information interventions positively affected participants' perceptions and preferences for dairy products by delivering knowledge about their role in boosting immunity. However, environmental information interventions failed to do the same things as their insignificant effects on both perception and preference.
Originality/value
Macro-external shocks, such as public health events, may offset the impact of universal information interventions promoting pro-environmental behaviors. For a smooth dietary transition to achieve long-term environmental sustainability, diverse stakeholders must be included in more individualized interventions to guide daily consumption, especially in developing countries with large populations.
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Ruihua Xu, Fan Luo, Xiaofang Chen, Mingze Li and Zapan Barua
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the characteristics of environmental protection behaviours of community residents from the perspective of system dynamics.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the characteristics of environmental protection behaviours of community residents from the perspective of system dynamics.
Design/methodology/approach
Documentation method is used to collect the factors and environmental improvement intervention strategies that influence the environmental protection behaviours of community residents from the top journals. To analyse the characteristics of the environmental protection behaviours of community residents which are nonlinear and dynamic, system dynamics (SD) are drawn. The initial value for simulation is obtained from the investigation report of some communities in China by questionnaires method.
Findings
The simulation shows that a process of continuous and interactional feedback is formed among environmental improvement intervention strategies, living context, environmental behavioural intention and environmental protection behaviours. These influences affect how environmental protection behaviour is affected by frequency of community environmental publicity, frequency of community participation regulation and local government investment, all of which are significant and decrease successively. Living context and environmental behavioural intention, which are intervened by the three strategies, can promote community residents’ environmental protection behaviours and reduce the degree of environmental pollution in communities.
Practical implications
The goal of reducing the community environmental pollution may be achieved, because the community environmental management departments can use this system dynamics approach to intervene the environmental protection behaviours of community residents.
Originality/value
The nonlinear and dynamic interactions among influencing factors are illustrated for an in-depth understanding of the environmental protection behaviours of community residents in this study. In addition, the initial parameter value and correlation coefficients are obtained for simulation through the questionnaire survey given to Chinese community residents to avoid the subjectivity of system dynamics.
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Avi Kaplan, Mirit Sinai and Hanoch Flum
Identity exploration is a central mechanism for identity formation that has been found to be associated with intense engagement, positive coping, openness to change, flexible…
Abstract
Purpose
Identity exploration is a central mechanism for identity formation that has been found to be associated with intense engagement, positive coping, openness to change, flexible cognition, and meaningful learning. Moreover, identity exploration in school has been associated with adaptive motivation for learning the academic material. Particularly in the fast-changing environment of contemporary society, confidence and skills in identity exploration and self-construction seems to be increasingly important. Therefore, promoting students’ identity exploration in school within the curriculum and in relation to the academic content should be adopted as an important educational goal. The purpose of this paper is to describe a conceptual framework for interventions to promote students’ identity exploration within the curriculum. The framework involves the application of four interrelated principles: (1) promoting self-relevance; (2) triggering exploration; (3) facilitating a sense of safety; and (4) scaffolding exploratory actions.
Approach
We begin the paper with a conceptual review of identity exploration. We follow by specifying the conceptual framework for interventions. We then present a methodological-intervention approach for applying this framework and describe three such interventions in middle-school contexts, in the domains of environmental education, literature, and mathematics.
Findings
In each intervention, applying the principles contributed to students’ adaptive motivation and engagement in the academic material and also contributed to students’ identity exploration, though not among all students. The findings highlight the contextual, dynamic, and indeterminate nature of identity exploration among early adolescents in educational settings, and the utility of the conceptual framework and approach for conceptualizing and intervening to promote identity exploration among students.
Value
This paper contributes to the conceptual understanding of identity exploration in educational settings, highlights the benefits and the challenges in intervening to promote identity exploration among students, and discusses the future directions in theory, research, and practice concerned with the promotion of identity exploration in educational settings.
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This study proposes a new agenda for research and practice on pro-environmental behaviours in organisational settings by exploring the intersection between technology innovations…
Abstract
Purpose
This study proposes a new agenda for research and practice on pro-environmental behaviours in organisational settings by exploring the intersection between technology innovations and pro-environmental initiatives. The goal is to demonstrate the utility of digital technology in promoting and achieving sustainability by addressing the complexity and inconsistency in pro-environmental behaviours.
Design/methodology/approach
Using relevant literature on pro-environmental behaviours, this study explores the possibility of embedding technology innovations in pro-environmental initiatives to promote and enhance sustainability in organisational settings.
Findings
This study argues that the recent technological advancement and open innovation provide new insights into understanding and implementing pro-environmental initiatives in organisational settings. While pro-environmental behaviours studies have advanced over the past decades, this study shows that many pro-environmental activities do not require employees to change behaviour. According to this study, psychology and technology innovations offer various opportunities for businesses to effectively and pragmatically embed sustainability into their operations without necessarily changing employees' behaviour.
Research limitations/implications
This conceptual study offers opportunities to empirically explore the collaborative nexus between “psychology-based pro-environmental behaviour research and technology innovation”. Despite the plethora of studies on pro-environmental behaviours, results are mixed and inconclusive, raising questions about the dominant practice used for promoting pro-environmental initiatives and behaviours at the corporate level. This study, therefore, provides a new pathway for businesses to address their environmental aspects, demonstrating a pragmatic approach to resolving the complexity of pro-environmental behaviours.
Originality/value
This study allows social investigators, policymakers, and technology developers to re-assess, revive and further investigate how they can collaborate to address practical environmental and social issues.
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Michele Bigoni, Simone Lazzini, Zeila Occhipinti and Roberto Verona
The study investigates the use of early forms of environmental accounting in the implementation of environmental strategies in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany between the 16th and 17th…
Abstract
Purpose
The study investigates the use of early forms of environmental accounting in the implementation of environmental strategies in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany between the 16th and 17th centuries.
Design/methodology/approach
The study adopts the Foucauldian concept of raison d’État to shed light on the ways in which environmental accounting practices were used by Tuscan Grand Dukes to form a detailed knowledge of the territory to be governed and act accordingly.
Findings
Financial and non-financial information relating to environmental issues enabled the Grand Dukes to “visualise” the territory to be managed as an enclosed disciplinary space whereby the conduct of people living therein could be decisively influenced. Accounting practices as a tool for the implementation of environmental strategies did not merely aim to protect the environment but were a means to reinforce the power of the State.
Research limitations/implications
The paper can inform future works that investigate the ways in which environmental policies and accounting are used to pursue far-reaching governmental goals. It encourages scholars to examine further the origins of environmental accounting and its early forms.
Social implications
The study documents how environmental strategies and the related use of accounting can have a significant influence on how individuals are allowed to conduct themselves. It also shows that environmental accounting practices can be an important tool in a State’s machinery of power.
Originality/value
The study offers a novel perspective on the use of environmental accounting information as a tool in the exercise of State power. It explores explicitly the interrelations between accounting, sustainability and power. It also adds new evidence to historical research that has engaged with early forms of environmental accounting.
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Allison Rueff and John Logomarsino
Blue-collar manufacturing workers are more likely to have lifestyle risk factors, including a lower intake of fruit and vegetables, for the development of chronic diseases. The…
Abstract
Purpose
Blue-collar manufacturing workers are more likely to have lifestyle risk factors, including a lower intake of fruit and vegetables, for the development of chronic diseases. The purpose of this paper is to assess the effects of worksite health-promotion interventions on fruit and vegetable intake among manufacturing workers.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper reviews the evidence for the effectiveness of interventions and makes recommendations on best practices. Types of interventions and theoretical frameworks used in the workplace are reviewed, and findings are presented through research examples. Research for this paper was conducted using PubMed, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, and PsycINFO.
Findings
Positive results were found for the effectiveness of interventions to increase fruit and vegetable consumption. Multiple levels of intervention, an emphasis on employee participation in planning, higher self-efficacy, and social support were found to be effective.
Research limitations/implications
Limitations of this review included self-reported data on fruit and vegetable intake. Also, determining if one intervention was more efficacious than another was difficult when multiple interventions were used within a study. Questions have been raised regarding the long-term impact of increased fruit and vegetable intake among employees.
Practical implications
When planning programs, multiple levels of intervention will be needed to increase fruit and vegetable intake among workers. Also, employee participation should be emphasized when planning and implementing programs.
Originality/value
The use of manufacturing companies should be considered as a platform for health-promotion programs. Increasing fruit and vegetable intake has the potential to impact numerous blue-collar workers to help reduce the risk of chronic disease.
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Rawan Nimri, Anoop Patiar and Xin Jin
Research in consumer behaviour in the pro-environmental hospitality domain is limited. Furthermore, the efficiency of interventions using pictorial elements, with positive and…
Abstract
Purpose
Research in consumer behaviour in the pro-environmental hospitality domain is limited. Furthermore, the efficiency of interventions using pictorial elements, with positive and negative framing, to influence travellers' intentions (INTs) to book green accommodation remains scarcely investigated. The theory of planned behaviour (TPB) offers a platform for testing interventions that could impact consumer behaviour. This study aims to introduce a TPB pictorial intervention in green accommodation and to provide a robust assessment of the intervention targeted at the TPB's factors.
Design/methodology/approach
The data were collected from Australian travellers who were exposed to convincing messages through pictorial elements. These featured either positive or negative pro-environmental effects of hotel operations. A usable sample size of 771 respondents has been achieved. A multi-group analysis using structural equation modelling was performed to investigate the intervention effect.
Findings
The results highlighted the supremacy of positive framing to influence travellers’ INTs regarding patronage of green accommodation. A knowledge-based approach to promoting green practices might encourage travellers to book green accommodations.
Originality/value
This study advances theory building in environmental communication. Subsequently, hoteliers might enhance their marketing strategies to publicise their pro-environmental programs.
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