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The aims of this study were to examine farmers' and food processors' alignment with consumers' views about plant foods and their intentions to produce plant foods.

Data on plant food beliefs were collected from mail surveys of farmers, food processing businesses and random population samples of adults in Victoria, Australia.

There were strong differences between consumers' beliefs and farmers' and food processors' perceptions of consumers' beliefs. For example, a higher proportion of farmers and processors believed that consumers would eat more plant foods if more convenience‐oriented plant‐based meals were available than consumers themselves agreed. Farmers appeared to be more aware of or aligned with consumers' beliefs than were processors. One‐ and two‐thirds of farmers and processors respectively were planning to grow or process more plant foods, which bodes well for the availability of plant and plant‐based foods.

Study limitations include the small food industry sample sizes and possible response bias, although analysis suggests the latter was low. Future research could survey a larger sample of food industry representatives, including those from other sectors (e.g. retailers).

Education of consumers and industry groups on plant foods and better lines of communication from consumer to processor to farmer, are required.

To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to examine farmers' and food processors' awareness of consumers' beliefs about plant foods. This issue is important for those involved with the production and marketing of plant foods or with food, farming and health policy.

The case was created via an interview of the protagonist.

The case describes the dilemma a young leader, Captain Bryson, faces after a few months in his new organization. Amid a routine meeting, two of CPT Bryson’s direct reports get into a verbal (and nearly physical) altercation over a relatively benign issue. CPT Bryson must decide how to handle the conflict at that moment. Further, the organization is resource constrained, so the personnel will be working in the same organization for at least the next six months. Therefore, CPT Bryson must try to diagnose the types and sources of conflict so that he can decide on how to manage the conflict in both the short and long terms.

This case is designed for use in undergraduate and graduate level courses on leadership and management. The case is useful for teaching lessons (or electives) on conflict management, developmental communication (counseling), emotional intelligence and power and influence.

Against the background that Ghanaians seldom purchase insurance policies, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the determinants of life insurance uptake among male and female household heads in Ghana.

The study employs data on 775 male and 233 female household heads from the sixth round of the Ghana Living Standards Survey. Adjusted Wald test statistics and logistic regressions are employed for the empirical estimations.

Results from the adjusted Wald test show that the sampled male household heads significantly differ from their female counterparts in terms of the selected socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. Though ill health status, higher wealth, being self-employed or in wage or salaried employment and residing in either of the three northern regions (upper east, upper west and northern regions) in Ghana broadly affect the demand for life insurance among both male and female heads, other factors are peculiar to either parties. Particularly, whereas female heads who are married and those with more dependants have a higher propensity of purchasing life insurance policies, their male counterparts with higher education are more likely to buy life insurance policies.

The paper adds to the paucity of cross-sectional studies on life insurance demand in Africa.

Based on the explored determinants, insurers could better regulate the purchase of their products by taking into consideration the gender differences to maximize their sales and enhance economic growth and development.

This paper explores the gender dynamics in the determinants of life insurance demand in a developing country, Ghana. Besides, findings from related literature are reported to be mixed. Though the current paper is not wholly nationally representative, it utilizes data from across all the ten administrative regions of Ghana. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no prior study has been conducted in this manner.

5a. Oil of cinnamon, oil of cassia, oil of cassia cinnamon, is the lead‐free volatile oil obtained from the leaves or bark of Cinnamomum cassia (L.) Blume, and contains not less than 80 per cent. by volume of cinnamic aldehyde.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of Islamic beliefs in moderating consumers’ attitudes and purchase intentions of conventional and Islamic life insurance. Second, it investigates the role of Islamic beliefs in moderating the relationship between the attitude toward conventional/Islamic life insurance and purchase intentions of these types of services.

A questionnaire was administered online in a Muslim liberal country where both types of insurance are offered. Based on a total sample of 207 responses, ANOVA tests and a structural Equation Modeling were used to test the research hypotheses.

Results show that: the higher (lower) the Islamic beliefs of individuals, the less (more) favorable their attitude will be toward conventional life insurance and the more (less) favorable their attitude will be toward Islamic life insurance; the higher (lower) the Islamic beliefs of individuals, the weaker (stronger) their purchase intentions for conventional life insurance will be and the stronger (weaker) their purchase intentions for Islamic life insurance will be; and Islamic beliefs moderate the relationships between attitudes and purchase intentions of life insurance.

Because they play a significant role in moderating consumers’ attitudes and purchase intentions of conventional and Islamic life insurance, Islamic beliefs can be used as a meaningful criterion to segment the life insurance markets in (less conservative) Muslim countries. This would help insurance companies to better target their services. In a case where two segments coexist (i.e. individuals scoring low on Islamic beliefs vs individuals scoring high on Islamic beliefs), insurers should weigh different strategic options by targeting one of the two segments or both of them. Perhaps the main issue occurs when an insurer attempts to target both segments. In this case, managers should be aware of the confusion that they might create in the mind of their clients (or potential clients). Concurrently offering two types of life insurance (conventional and Islamic) may put the insurers’ credibility at stake.

Earlier studies report that in Muslim countries, the demand for life insurance is weak or negatively correlated with religion. The majority of these studies consider religion as a macro indicator (i.e. at the country level) when explaining the demand for such services. The present study further clarifies the nature of the relationship between religion and the demand for life insurance by: examining the role of Islamic beliefs (as one of the main dimensions of Muslims’ religiosity) at the micro level (i.e. at the consumer level); and investigating the moderating role of Islamic beliefs in explaining attitudes and purchase intentions of conventional and Islamic life insurance in a less conservative Muslim country.

Life insurance is bought with a prior belief that promise stipulated in policy will be honored when due. Discernibly, this belief is backed by the confidence that financial markets and economy will demonstrate satisfactory performance. However, individuals' confidence levels may get shaken through naïve reinforcement learning if they witness negative market or economic condition. Considering this the authors investigate the relationship between investor confidence and life insurance demand.

The authors used bias corrected bootstrapped sample of OECD economies to examine the link between investor confidence and life insurance demand when two possible economic conditions were witnessed: 1) normal/economic expansion and 2) economic/debt impairment. The findings are robust to alternate estimation techniques and endogeneity.

The authors found that lower investor confidence, sovereign debt impairment and negative market condition will have negative repercussion on life insurance demand. On the other hand, investor confidence-life insurance demand nexus is merely influenced by market and economic condition.

This is a premier research explaining the nexus between investor confidence and life insurance demand in the context of life-cycle hypothesis, sovereign ratings channel and experience-confidence-belief framework. The finding will help economic policy-makers in developing pre-emptive measures to protect life insurance businesses from negative repercussions of lower confidence and negative market conditions.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the driving forces (economics and socio-demographic) that influence family Takaful demand in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, using a sample of 15 countries from the MENA.

The authors use multivariate analysis, bootstrapping and generalised method of moments techniques. They first examine a full model that combines all variables; second, a model that controls for product market factors; and finally, a model that controls for socio-demographic factors. They further separate all models into linear and log-linear demand functions.

The authors demonstrate that the relationship between the demand for family Takaful in MENA and Islamic banking deposits, education, dependency rate, female life expectancy and Muslim population is significantly positive. On the other hand, the significant factors that are inversely related to the demand for family Takaful in MENA are inflation, financial development and male life expectancy.

The crucial limitation of this study is the amount of data available in regards to the dependent variable, family Takaful contributions. Consequently, to improve the understanding in explaining the family Takaful demand in MENA, further research can take advantage of expanding the variables that were omitted in this research as a consequence of the unavailability of data. Some of the possible influential variables can include government social security expenditure, legal system and government policies, price of Takaful and level of competition within the Takaful and insurance industry.

It is obvious that there are very few studies that focus on the MENA market, and indeed, none of them gives attention to the factors that influence demand for family Takaful. While this study is expected to provide more understanding and awareness on the concept of Takaful and the factors that influence its demand, the authors hope that it would encourage more studies on various issues on the Takaful industry so as to help researchers to understand more aspects of this new emerging business.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the driving forces that influence family Takaful demand in Malaysia. The paper examines various identified and available economics and socio‐demographic variables.

Using ordinary least square (OLS) and generalised method of moments (GMM) techniques, the paper investigates the significance of the identified economic and socio‐demographic factors in determining the consumption of family Takaful. The paper first examines a full model that combines all variables; second, a model that controls for product market factors; and finally, a model that controls for socio‐demographic factors. Following Anderson and Nevin, Haberman, Lenten and Rulli and Josa the paper further separates all models into linear and log‐linear demand functions.

The paper demonstrates that income, Islamic banking development, education, dependency ratio and Muslim population factors are positively related to Takaful demand. On the other hand, inflation, real interest rate, financial development and life expectancy appear to be the significant factors that adversely influence the total family Takaful consumption.

The major limitation of this paper is the small sample size. Therefore, future studies may expand the variables omitted in this study due to unavailability of data, which may be influential in explaining the family Takaful demand in Malaysia. Possible influential variables may include government social security expenditure, price of Takaful and level of competition within the Takaful and insurance industry. Research should also be conducted on the impact of the legal system and government policies on the demand for family Takaful in the country. Finally, the study focuses solely on the determinants of demand for family Takaful. Nevertheless, the supply‐side of the equation should not be neglected and should be incorporated in future studies.

It is obvious that there are very few studies that focus on the Malaysian market and indeed, none of them gives attention to the factors that influence demand for family Takaful. In this regard, this study contributes in filling the gaps in the scope and coverage of studies in similar area. While this study is expected to provide more understanding and awareness on the concept of Takaful and the factors that influence its demand, the authors hope that it would encourage more studies on various issues on the Takaful industry so as to help researchers to understand more aspects of this new emerging business.

Phillips, J. has drawn the distinction between wrongful dismissal at common law and unfair dismissal under statute. He points out the considerable difference which exists between the position at common law and the position under statute. “The common law” he says “is concerned merely with the contractual relationship between the parties, whereas a complaint of unfair dismissal…is concerned with the statutory right of an employee not to be unfairly dismissed.” There thus exists a fundamental difference between the two concepts, both of which are in their different circumstances important. In this monograph, it is proposed to treat the common law of wrongful dismissal. Statutory unfair dismissal will be the subject of discussion in a future monograph.

To explore why women paediatricians have chosen paediatrics as their specialty when previous research has shown that this was the least favourite career option.

In this qualitative study ten semi‐structured interviews with open‐ended questions were carried out. The interviews were taped and transcribed by a professional transcriber. Two tapes could not be transcribed because of technical problems. This dissertation focuses on the responses of the eight women in relation to the research question. Interviews were carried out face‐to‐face. There were no additional questionnaires. Common themes were identified and content analysis used for data analysis.

All the women felt that they had chosen paediatrics because of the good work atmosphere, supportive colleagues and the attraction of working in a multi‐disciplinary team. All had pursued their career in a dedicated way working full‐time for most of their careers. The women paediatricians interviewed were happy with their career but they realised that they had made sacrifices in terms of family and personal commitments. The work environment has to change for everybody, not just for women, to improve quality of life. Career advice is still thought to be poor and many doctors enter a career without knowing what is expected of them. Modernising medical careers will considerably shorten medical training and the time individuals can spend in a particular specialty.

A qualitative study like this can give both male and female students an insight into what it is like to have a career in paediatrics.