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Article
Publication date: 18 January 2024

Daisy Lee, Calvin Wan, Tiffany Cheng Han Leung, Sharyn Rundle-Thiele and Gabriel Li

This paper aims to illustrate the application and effectiveness of a marketing programme co-designed by supply- and demand-side stakeholders to reduce consumer food waste in…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to illustrate the application and effectiveness of a marketing programme co-designed by supply- and demand-side stakeholders to reduce consumer food waste in restaurants.

Design/methodology/approach

This stakeholder-based marketing pilot study adopted the co-create, build and engage framework for programme design and implementation. Major stakeholders, interacting at the point-of-sale, participated in a series of focus groups, interviews and co-design. The research process informed the marketing mix, which aimed to provide value for all parties. The four-week pilot programme was delivered in a non-buffet-style commercial restaurant chain for 10 months. The amount of consumer food leftovers was measured and compared with pre-programme baseline data to evaluate programme effectiveness.

Findings

The results show that the marketing mix co-designed by restaurant stakeholders and consumers effectively reduced food waste by almost half in the pilot period. The profitability of the pilot restaurant increased as food costs decreased.

Research limitations/implications

This research demonstrates how working with stakeholders from both the supply and demand sides can identify motivations and barriers. Insights gained in the research phase can inform the delivery of a marketing mix that reduces consumer food waste. This study demonstrates the marketing research, design, implementation and evaluation process for a marketing programme that reduced consumer food waste.

Practical implications

To effectively reduce consumer food waste, practitioners should not only focus on changing consumers’ behaviour. Co-designing solutions with food service stakeholders to address business and operation challenges is crucial to the attainment of a positive impact at the point-of-sale.

Originality/value

This research shows how marketing changes behaviour in individuals and business entities, contributing to positive environmental impact through waste reduction in the commercial food service sector.

Details

European Journal of Marketing, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0566

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 April 2017

Qi Zhou, Ping Jiang, Xinyu Shao, Hui Zhou and Jiexiang Hu

Uncertainty is inevitable in real-world engineering optimization. With an outer-inner optimization structure, most previous robust optimization (RO) approaches under interval…

Abstract

Purpose

Uncertainty is inevitable in real-world engineering optimization. With an outer-inner optimization structure, most previous robust optimization (RO) approaches under interval uncertainty can become computationally intractable because the inner level must perform robust evaluation for each design alternative delivered from the outer level. This paper aims to propose an on-line Kriging metamodel-assisted variable adjustment robust optimization (OLK-VARO) to ease the computational burden of previous VARO approach.

Design/methodology/approach

In OLK-VARO, Kriging metamodels are constructed for replacing robust evaluations of the design alternative delivered from the outer level, reducing the nested optimization structure of previous VARO approach into a single loop optimization structure. An on-line updating mechanism is introduced in OLK-VARO to exploit the obtained data from previous iterations.

Findings

One nonlinear numerical example and two engineering cases have been used to demonstrate the applicability and efficiency of the proposed OLK-VARO approach. Results illustrate that OLK-VARO is able to obtain comparable robust optimums as to that obtained by previous VARO, while at the same time significantly reducing computational cost.

Practical implications

The proposed approach exhibits great capability for practical engineering design optimization problems under interval uncertainty.

Originality/value

The main contribution of this paper lies in the following: an OLK-VARO approach under interval uncertainty is proposed, which can significantly ease the computational burden of previous VARO approach.

Details

Engineering Computations, vol. 34 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0264-4401

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 16 April 2018

Qi Zhou, Xinyu Shao, Ping Jiang, Tingli Xie, Jiexiang Hu, Leshi Shu, Longchao Cao and Zhongmei Gao

Engineering system design and optimization problems are usually multi-objective and constrained and have uncertainties in the inputs. These uncertainties might significantly…

Abstract

Purpose

Engineering system design and optimization problems are usually multi-objective and constrained and have uncertainties in the inputs. These uncertainties might significantly degrade the overall performance of engineering systems and change the feasibility of the obtained solutions. This paper aims to propose a multi-objective robust optimization approach based on Kriging metamodel (K-MORO) to obtain the robust Pareto set under the interval uncertainty.

Design/methodology/approach

In K-MORO, the nested optimization structure is reduced into a single loop optimization structure to ease the computational burden. Considering the interpolation uncertainty from the Kriging metamodel may affect the robustness of the Pareto optima, an objective switching and sequential updating strategy is introduced in K-MORO to determine (1) whether the robust analysis or the Kriging metamodel should be used to evaluate the robustness of design alternatives, and (2) which design alternatives are selected to improve the prediction accuracy of the Kriging metamodel during the robust optimization process.

Findings

Five numerical and engineering cases are used to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed approach. The results illustrate that K-MORO is able to obtain robust Pareto frontier, while significantly reducing computational cost.

Practical implications

The proposed approach exhibits great capability for practical engineering design optimization problems that are multi-objective and constrained and have uncertainties.

Originality/value

A K-MORO approach is proposed, which can obtain the robust Pareto set under the interval uncertainty and ease the computational burden of the robust optimization process.

Details

Engineering Computations, vol. 35 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0264-4401

Keywords

Abstract

Organizational researchers studying well-being – as well as organizations themselves – often place much of the burden on employees to manage and preserve their own well-being. Missing from this discussion is how – from a human resources management (HRM) perspective – organizations and managers can directly and positively shape the well-being of their employees. The authors use this review to paint a picture of what organizations could be like if they valued people holistically and embraced the full experience of employees’ lives to promote well-being at work. In so doing, the authors tackle five challenges that managers may have to help their employees navigate, but to date have received more limited empirical and theoretical attention from an HRM perspective: (1) recovery at work; (2) women’s health; (3) concealable stigmas; (4) caregiving; and (5) coping with socio-environmental jolts. In each section, the authors highlight how past research has treated managerial or organizational support on these topics, and pave the way for where research needs to advance from an HRM perspective. The authors conclude with ideas for tackling these issues methodologically and analytically, highlighting ways to recruit and support more vulnerable samples that are encapsulated within these topics, as well as analytic approaches to study employee experiences more holistically. In sum, this review represents a call for organizations to now – more than ever – build thriving organizations.

Details

Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80455-046-5

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 May 1988

Gitte Larsen and Lars Qvortrup

These words were written by Gabriel Naudé (1600–1657) in his Advis pour dresser une bibliothèque (How to manage a library), published in 1627. Born in Paris, he had already…

Abstract

These words were written by Gabriel Naudé (1600–1657) in his Advis pour dresser une bibliothèque (How to manage a library), published in 1627. Born in Paris, he had already published several books by his early twenties, and was employed by the President of the Paris Parliament, Henri de Mesme, to manage his private library.

Details

The Electronic Library, vol. 6 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0264-0473

Book part
Publication date: 6 September 2021

Stuti Thapa, Louis Tay and Daphne Hou

Experience sampling methods (ESM) have enabled researchers to capture intensive longitudinal data and how worker well-being changes over time. The conceptual advances in…

Abstract

Experience sampling methods (ESM) have enabled researchers to capture intensive longitudinal data and how worker well-being changes over time. The conceptual advances in understanding the variability of well-being are discussed. These emerging forms in the literature include affective inertia, affective variability, affective reactivity, and density distributions. While most ESM research has relied on the active provision of data by participants (i.e., self-reports), technological advances have enabled different forms of passive sensing that are useful for assessing and tracking well-being and its contextual factors. These include accelerometer data, location data, and physiological data. The strengths and weaknesses of passively sensed data and future ways forward are discussed, where the use of both active and passive forms of ESM data in the assessment and promotion of worker well-being is expected.

Details

Examining and Exploring the Shifting Nature of Occupational Stress and Well-Being
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80117-422-0

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 5 January 2023

George Yui-Lam Wong, Ron Chi-Wai Kwok, Shanshan Zhang, Gabriel Chun-Hei Lai, Yanyan Li and Jessica Choi-Fung Cheung

This study aims to examine the impact of information communication technology-enabled work during non-working hours (ICT-enabled WNWHs), as a source of stress, on employee…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to examine the impact of information communication technology-enabled work during non-working hours (ICT-enabled WNWHs), as a source of stress, on employee behavioral outcomes –in-role job performance, organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) that benefit organizations and OCBs that benefit individuals, through emotional responses – work exhaustion, nonwork exhaustion and organization-based self-esteem. As the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdowns demonstrated that employees frequently engage in ICT-enabled WNWHs, studying stress induced by ICT-enabled WNWHs is essential for understanding employee adaptation to the work-from-home trend that emerged from COVID-19 lockdowns.

Design/methodology/approach

A quantitative survey comprising 1,178 employees in China was conducted, and the data reliability and validity were confirmed. Partial least squares structural equation modeling analysis was employed to test the hypotheses.

Findings

The study results empirically proved that, although ICT-enabled WNWHs had significant effects on employee behavioral outcomes, the related emotional responses were the mediators of the stress transmission mechanism that directly affected employee behavioral outcomes. Notably, work exhaustion and organization-based self-esteem partially mediate the stress transmission mechanism, while nonwork exhaustion exerts a full mediating effect.

Originality/value

This study proposes the stress transmission mechanism of ICT-enabled WNWHs and delineates emotional responses regarding the work environment attributes of ICT-enabled WNWHs, an approach rarely seen in prior IS studies. To our best knowledge, this study is the first to identify and empirically demonstrate organization-based self-esteem as one among the emotional responses to ICT-enabled WNWHs. Furthermore, it expands understanding of the holistic impacts of ICT-enabled WNWHs, which is lacking in information systems (IS) literature.

Book part
Publication date: 31 December 2010

Őrn B. Bodvarsson and John G. Sessions

When immigrants experience “nationality discrimination” in the labor market, ceteris paribus their earnings are lower than native-born workers because they were born abroad. The…

Abstract

When immigrants experience “nationality discrimination” in the labor market, ceteris paribus their earnings are lower than native-born workers because they were born abroad. The challenge to testing for nationality discrimination is that the native/immigrant earnings gap will very likely also be influenced by productivity differences driven by incomplete assimilation of immigrants, as well as the possibility of racial or gender discrimination. There is relatively little empirical literature, and virtually no theoretical literature, on this type of discrimination. In this study, a model of nationality discrimination where customer prejudice and native/immigrant productivity differences jointly influence the earnings gap is presented. We derive an extension of Becker's market discrimination coefficient (MDC), applied to the case of nationality discrimination when there are productivity differences. A number of novel implications are obtained. We find, for example, that the MDC depends upon relative immigrant productivity and relative immigrant labor supply. We test the model on data for hitters and pitchers in Major League Baseball, an industry with a history of immigration, potential for customer discrimination, and clean detailed microdata on worker productivities and race. Ordinary least squares (OLS) and decomposition methods are used to estimate the extent of discrimination. We find no compelling evidence of discrimination in the hitter group, but evidence of ceteris paribus underpayment of immigrant pitchers. While our test case is for a particular industry, our theoretical model, empirical specifications, and general research design are quite generalizable to many other labor markets.

Details

Migration and Culture
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-85724-153-5

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 19 September 2022

Chunxiao Chen, Jian Zhang, Huirong Tian and Xing Bu

Entrepreneurial passion has important implications for entrepreneurial success and psychological well-being. But their connections are complicated by the fact that three…

Abstract

Purpose

Entrepreneurial passion has important implications for entrepreneurial success and psychological well-being. But their connections are complicated by the fact that three entrepreneurial passions (passion for inventing, passion for founding and passion for developing) can be combined differently according to their level and shape difference. A variable-centered approach cannot explain their relationship very well, by only focusing on the level difference and ignoring the different combination of entrepreneurial passion in subpopulations. The purpose of this study is to explore the function of entrepreneurial passion on entrepreneurial success and psychological well-being from a person-cantered approach.

Design/methodology/approach

In this study, the authors conducted latent profile analyses to identify different configurations of different entrepreneurial passions (passion for inventing, passion for founding, passion for developing) on two samples of Chinese students and entrepreneurs. Then in the sample of Chinese entrepreneurs, the authors utilized the DCON command in Mplus to provide comparisons among the profiles on entrepreneurial success and psychological well-being.

Findings

Based on identity theory, the authors found four entrepreneurial passion profiles across two samples—fully passionate, action-driven, interest-driven and dispassionate. Furthermore, the authors found that fully passionate entrepreneurs showed the highest level of entrepreneurial success, followed by action-driven, and then by interest-driven and dispassionate showed the lowest level. Action-driven entrepreneurs experienced the highest level of psychological well-being, followed by fully passionate entrepreneurs, then by interest-driven and dispassionate.

Originality/value

The results provide new insights into the nature and influence of entrepreneurial passion on entrepreneurial success and psychological well-being from a person-centered perspective.

Details

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-2554

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 December 2022

Emanuele Gabriel Margherita and Alessio Maria Braccini

The purpose of this study is to explore how Industry 4.0 (I40) technologies support workers' engagement in soft total quality management (TQM) practices for organisational…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to explore how Industry 4.0 (I40) technologies support workers' engagement in soft total quality management (TQM) practices for organisational performance.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted a multiple case study of six Italian manufacturing organisations that operate with I40 production and implement TQM practices. The authors concentrated on the relationship between I40 technologies and soft TQM aspects.

Findings

I40 technologies provide two forms of engagement with workers. Workers can act as machine supervisors and expert assembly operators. Organisations use five soft TQM practices to involve and develop workers for TQM that vary according to automation levels. The five soft TQM practices are top management design around workers, incremental trials with I40 technologies, worker empowerment, I40 sociotechnical collaboration and individual feedback systems.

Originality/value

In the literature that focusses primarily on how I40 technologies support the hard side of TQM by creating a data-driven and automated quality management system, the authors illustrate how the workforce can be engaged in I40 with five soft TQM practices to improve organisational performance. Thus, the authors complement the theory of hard and soft TQM aspects for I40 production systems.

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