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The purpose of this paper is to focus on the potential role and use of online social media to influence sport participation in youth aged 12 to 17 years by responding to two specific research questions: what is the nature of the online “marketplace” among youth?; and what is the nature of adolescent sport behavior as revealed through activities on online social media?

The paper outlines and then implements the research methodology of netnography to achieve its purpose. Netnography involves a researcher joining an online forum, e‐tribe or other open‐source social media to observe and record the discussions for analysis.

The overarching finding is that online discourse related to sport participation among youth is very limited. When discussion does take place, five themes emerge: benefits, advice‐seeking, finding common interests, learning new sports, and challenges.

This research provides impetus for future work in the content area and in the use of the netnography method. It is limited by the lack of online content on the topic area by the target group.

The paper's results provide important understanding, direction and guidance to sport administrators working for government, sport organizations and organizations who market their products and services to youth through sport.

This paper is original in two respects: the use of netnography as the research method in this context, and the focus on social media and sport participation in youth.

The purpose of this study was to ascertain the existence and strength of the relationship between proactive environmental policies and brand equity for the winery. Results of this study suggest that consumer perceptions about product quality, consumer trust, consumer perceptions about pricing, and positive expectations for the consequences of the winery's actions undertaking the pro‐environmental policies, all have strong, positive relationships with the winery's brand equity. Trust in the winery and brand equity for the winery increased significantly when the winery in this study adopted proactive environmental business policies.

The purpose of this paper is to suggest that translating a design theory (DT) into practice (e.g. creating an instance design artifact (IDA)) is hardly straight-forward and requires substantial creativity. Specifically the authors suggest that adopting a DT embodies a creativity passdown effect in which the creative thinking of a team of design theorist(s) inherent in DT invokes a creative mind of a team of artifact instance designer(s) in creating an IDA. In this study, the authors empirically investigate the creativity passdown effect through an action case in which a DT (DT nexus) was applied in creating an IDA (multi-outsourcing decision-making tool).

The case methodology applied here is described as an action case. An action case is a hybrid research approach that combines action research and interpretive case approaches. It combines intervention and interpretation in order to achieve both change and understanding. It is a form of soft field experiment with less emphasis on iteration and learning and more on trial and making. The approach is holistic in philosophy, and prediction is not emphasized. The intervention in the case was that of an instance designer team introducing a previously published DT as a basis for creating an IDA.

The experience in the action case suggests that using a DT in creating an IDA may encourage design thinking, and in certain way increase its power and practical relevance by fostering the creative mind of instance designers. Indeed, DTs provide a scientific basis for dealing with an instance problem, and this evokes the creativity mind of instance designers. Without such a scientific basis, it is a lot more challenging for instance artifact designers to deal with instance problems.

This study contributes to the literature concerning design science research, as it challenges the notion that adopting scientific design knowledge limits creativity inherent in creating IDA by illustrating creative elements involved in adopting DT as a basis for creating IDAs.

This study offers implications to practice, as it provides new insights regarding how DT can be used in instance design activities.

A report of this research previously appeared as a conference paper. However, the attached journal version has been completely rewritten to additionally contribute to the literature concerning design science research beyond the conference version. More specifically, in this version, the authors conceptualize adopting a DT to build an IDA as a theoretical basis, and the authors challenge the notion that adopting scientific design knowledge limits creativity inherent in creating IDA by illustrating creative elements involved in executing DT as a basis for creating IDAs.

This study investigate the impact of social activism on financial system stability.

Financial stability was analysed from two complementary perspectives: bank-led financial stability and financial system stability driven by sector-wide credit supply. Social activism was analysed from three perspectives: gender equality advocacy, environmental sustainability advocacy and social protection advocacy.

The findings reveal that gender equality and environmental sustainability advocacy have significant positive effects for financial stability, whereas social protection advocacy has a significant negative effect for financial stability. In addition, social activism has negative effects for financial stability in the post-2008 financial crisis era. Finally, there are differential effects for country-groups, for instance, social activism strongly improves bank-led financial stability in African countries and for BLEND countries (countries that are eligible for International Development Association (IDA) borrowing based on per capita income levels and are also creditworthy for some borrowing from the International Bank of Restructuring and Development). The findings are relevant for the on-going debate about whether social inclusivity and activism has any economic value for the stability of businesses and the financial system. The findings have implications.

The implication for policy-making is that the pressure on, or commitment of, financial institutions to be socially inclusive in all social matters such as gender equality, environmental sustainability and social protection does not guarantee stability in the financial system – whether bank-led financial stability or sector-wide financial stability. Therefore, regulators should ensure that financial institutions exercise careful discretion when adjusting their risk models to include all “social risk” factors amidst the recent pressure on corporations to be socially inclusive.

Another implication for business practice is that business leaders in financial institutions should identify the optimal level of social inclusivity that improves the stability of their corporations, because it would seem counterproductive if business leaders adopt full-scale social inclusion (or considerations) that subsequently make their corporations financially unstable which could lead to loss of shareholders wealth.

This study is the first attempt to investigate the impact of social activism on financial stability to determine whether greater social activism promotes stability or instability in the financial system.

Automated vehicles are likely to have significant impacts on the transport system such as increased road capacity, more productive/enjoyable time spent travelling in a car, and increased vehicle kilometres travelled. However, there is a great risk that automated driving may negatively impact the environment if adequate policies are not put in place. This chapter examines the effects of driverless vehicles and the types of policies required to attain sustainable implementation of the technology. To understand the effects on a systemic level, and to understand the needs and impacts of policies, the dynamics must be understood. Therefore, a causal loop diagram (CLD) is developed and analysed. One important insight is that the effects of driverless vehicles are mainly on the vehicular level (e.g., the reduced number of accidents per vehicle). These effects can be cancelled out on a systemic level (e.g., due to increased vehicle-kilometre travelled (VKT) that increases total number of accidents). The marginal costs of road transport are central to both freight and passenger transport. Automation will reduce marginal costs and shift the equilibrium in the transport system towards a state with higher VKT. This will lead to greater energy consumption and higher emissions. To attain sustainability goals, there might be a need to balance this reduction of marginal costs by using policy instruments. In the work, CLDs is experienced to be a useful tool to support the collaboration between experts from different fields in the dialogue about policies.

Purpose: The present study investigates how the performance of Greek bank branching varies when the external environment causes dramatic changes that are reflected in recession and capital control effects.

Design/Methodology: A unique dataset of accounting Profit and Loss statements of retail branches of a systemic Greek commercial bank, closely supervised by the European Central Bank (ECB), is utilized. A profit bootstrap Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model is selected to measure the bank branch efficiency. The derived efficiency estimates are analyzed through a second-stage panel data regression analysis against a set of efficiency drivers related to branch profitability, diversification of income, branch size, and branch activity.

Findings: The results indicate that recession negatively affects branch efficiency in the short and long run. The occurrence of recession significantly intensifies the efficiency premium of branch profitability, reduces the efficiency premium of diversification of income (i.e., a negative efficiency effect is recorded during the early recession period), while mitigating the generally negative efficiency effect of branch size. The analysis of efficiency effects from the deep recession period that encompasses capital controls reveals the importance of diversification of income for the improvement of profit efficiency at bank branch level.

Originality/Value: This is the first branch banking study that explores branch efficiency alteration and the dynamic of branch efficiency drivers when the economy suddenly enters recession and afterwards when conditions are becoming extremely difficult and consequently capital controls are imposed on the economy.

Roots of global Terrorism are in ‘failed’ states carved out of multiracial empires after World Wars I and II in name of ‘national self‐determination’. Both sides in the Cold War competed to exploit the process of disintegration with armed and covert interventions. In effect, they were colluding at the expense of the ‘liberated’ peoples. The ‘Vietnam Trauma’ prevented effective action against the resulting terrorist buildup and blowback until 9/11. As those vultures come home to roost, the war broadens to en vision overdue but coercive reforms to the postwar system of nation states, first in the Middle East. Mirages of Vietnam blur the vision; can the sole Superpower finish the job before fiscal and/or imperial overstretch implode it?

Argues that the similarities between US treasury securities (treasuries) and FDIC‐insured large retail certificates of deposit (CDs) should make their prices similar in an efficient market. Considers deposit pricing and substitutability between treasuries and CDs, citing previous research; and presents a study comparing their yields for three maturities using 1986‐1995 data. Presents the results and analyses further to explore the links between changes in treasury yields and lagged changes in CD yields; and upward CD yield stickiness. Finds that CD and treasury yield spreads changed from small and positive to large and negative over the period with little effect on deposit balances; and concludes that those investors who remained interested in insured balances during the early 1990s were either insensitive to interest rates or had high switching costs. Suggests that banks have used this unwillingness to migrate to non‐insured funds to decrease CD rates relative to treasuries for higher profits and asks how long this market segment will continue to accept inferior yields.