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Social media is a product that is co-created by consumers and multinational enterprises, that partially manage the customer experience and that has garnered significant attention in the field of international marketing. However, international marketing scholars have yet to address the societal costs of the use of social media, even as academics in other disciplines and business leaders are raising alarm that social media has created a digital ecosystem that may harm individuals within the global market. The objective of this research is to examine the generalizability of the relationship between the use of social media and the prevalence of depression across countries.

Employing social cohesion theory and the social network approach of the strength of ties, this work examines the relationship between the use of social media and time spent on social media at the country level and the prevalence of depression. The authors examine this issue within a 28-country, eight-year, unbalanced panel dataset, accounting for cultural, economic and structural factors.

The authors find that as more people within a country use social media, the prevalence of depression in that country increases. However, the authors also find that as the average time spent on social media in a country increases the deleterious relationship between the use of social media and the prevalence of depression diminishes.

Answering the calls in the international marketing literature for a greater understanding of the externalities (i.e. consumer well-being effects) of marketing activities of multinational companies, this study demonstrates the varying relationships of the use of and time spent on social media and the prevalence of depression at the population level, across a wide variety of countries, thus also contributing to the effort to improving generalizations from multi-country comparisons in international research.

This paper aims to explore how the Celtic Tiger economic boom and Great Recession influenced drug and alcohol use in one Irish city.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 48 people, living in Cork City, who had previously used drugs and/or alcohol problematically. All participants had engaged with services for their problematic use and had at least one year of abstinence at time of interview.

Some participants reported that their drug and/or alcohol consumption increased during the economic boom; others, who were already in (self-defined) active addiction, reported how full employment lessened some of the harms of their problematic use. For others, problematic use struck once the economy entered a downturn and, heavy drink and drug use became a means of soothing the strains of economic recession.

The paper provides two key contributions. Methodologically, it demonstrates how large-scale national quantitative data can mask local idiosyncratic tendencies, suggesting the need for mixed-method approaches for understanding drug market trends. The paper also provides insights into the impact of global and local economic conditions on drug and alcohol consumption in Ireland.

The purpose of this paper is to identify key aspects of business model development for sustainable apparel consumption, as actors show an increasing interest in product‒service systems. This purpose should be seen from a retailers’ perspective so as to develop sustainable solutions for long-term survival in the apparel industry when meeting consumer preferences for fashion as well as an increasing interest in consuming less. Further, this is from a perspective in an economy where sharing and circularity are potential drivers for changing consumer patterns.

The study is based on the apparel retailer Houdini Sportswear and its business model development from a traditional model of selling sportswear to a more future-oriented model where sustainability is more salient. The data for analysis were collected through interviews with employees within the studied company. The interviews have been guided by overarching themes covering relevant areas of interest for this study.

Overall, the paper shows how sustainability can be included in strategic development, from product idea, product development, production and sales/rental to repair, reuse and finally recycling. The paper also highlights potential obstacles in a developed business model with increased sustainability, including technological platforms, distribution networks for collecting and returning products and consumer consumption preferences. There are a few intertwined factors to be considered on different societal levels to achieve long-term success.

This study contributes an increased understanding of how more sustainable solutions can be included when developing business models. While the manufacture, distribution and consumption of clothes have an impact on the environment, some retailers and producers want to reduce this environmental impact. One alternative is to change the way clothes are consumed, to include more sharing and circularity.

Recreational drug use is widespread. It is argued that it has reached a phase of ‘normalisation’ among youth and has become a part of mainstream culture. While there is a substantive body of literature addressing substance use in club settings, the world of music festivals is underexplored. The research aims to fill this gap by analysing patterns of drug use and implementation of harm reduction measures among Polish and Hungarian women at music festivals. This explorative inquiry used an online questionnaire, which was shared via social media channels. The data collection lasted for one month during the summer of 2017.

The study found that over 95% (N=510) of women use psychoactive substances at festivals. The most popular drugs are alcohol and cannabis, and the least popular cocaine and psilocybin. The majority of women declare moderate use of alcohol and light to moderate use of cannabis. One-fifth of the respondents report a moderately heavy use of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine and 8% heavy use of amphetamine. There are numerous positive weak relationships between the intensity of use of various substances. Increased use of drugs is also related to increased frequency of combining them. Low prevalence of illicit drugs testing is observed. There seems to be a negative correlation between the intensity of substance use and the adoption of harm reduction measures. The results have high practical relevance primarily for harm reduction and medical services. Especially cases of moderately heavy and heavy use should be of interest, even more so given that combining substances seems to be prevalent. The data suggest that we can distinguish between two groups: one aware and implementing various measures of harm reduction and second not adopting any of them. There is a need for more widespread drug education and harm reduction promotion, which should be implemented in a favourable legal and policy environment.

In Egypt, the IUD is the most common contraceptive method since 1988 and has remained so despite a recent drop in its share from 59.9% in 2008 to 51.5% in 2014 in favour of hormonal methods, which increased from 19.7% for pills and 12.3% for injectables in 2008 to 27.4% and 14.5% in 2014 according to 2014 Egypt demographic and health survey (EDHS). The recent shift away from intrauterine contraceptive device (IUDs) to hormonal methods have contributed to increased discontinuation. This paper aims to answer three questions: To what extent does the method type influence the hazard of contraceptive discontinuation in Egypt? Is the interaction between method type and duration of use a predictor of the probability of discontinuation after controlling other variables? What are the other important background variables that affect the hazard of contraceptive discontinuation?

Using data from EDHS2014, separate multilevel discrete-time proportional hazard models for events of interest (abandoned use while in need, switched to another method in the month following discontinuation and method failure) were built.

Only IUD users are significantly less likely to abandon use while in need and to experience method failure and a reduced risk of switching. During the first 6–10 months of use, all types of discontinuation can be significantly reduced for all three methods. Demographic variables do not significantly affect abandonment but strongly affect switching and significantly affect failure. Socio-economic variables do not significantly affect abandonment and switching. Exposure to media has a significant effect on abandonment but not on switching. Community contraceptive prevalence rate strongly affects switching.

Results confirm that the counselling should be more intense during the first year of method use and should pay special attention to women who are 25 years old and above and those who have two or more children. Also, media campaigns are important and especially those addressing the issue of abandoning while in need.

Emergency humanitarian medical cold chains (HMCCs) depend heavily on their supporting energy services due to end-to-end temperature requirements in volatile disaster situations. Most energy sources powering emergency HMCCs are fossil-based due to well established processes, regardless of their environmental impact. In response to the recent energy crisis and climate change, a solution to tackle this issue relies on renewable energy sources (RES), whose use has increased to promote climate resilient development. Nevertheless, RESs’ capacity to replace conventional energy services in emergency HMCCs remains poorly understood. This study aims to investigate opportunities for, and barriers to, increasing the use of RESs in emergency HMCCs, thereby enhancing their environmental sustainability.

Based on a review of academic and practice literature, interviews with expert practitioners on emergency HMCCs and sustainable energy, and case study examples, this research aimed to analytically generalise the phenomenon by investigating opportunities for, and barriers to, increasing the use of RESs in emergency HMCCs. The phenomenon is illustrated in a novel framework of typical HMCC, that forms a contextual basis for future research.

A conceptual framework of typical emergency HMCC shows energy-consuming sections where RES can best be increased. This research is put forth in four propositions to manage the opportunities and barriers of the transition.

This research is, to the best of the author’s knowledge, the first attempt to operationalise sustainability by linking energy with HMCCs’ logistical activities in complex emergency settings. The cross-findings from literature, example cases and interviews together demonstrate the need to increase the use of RES in HMCCs, and how to do it.

Cannabis use continues to increase worldwide, and a number of nation states are changing their cannabis policies. Policy changes require research into key populations, namely, people who use cannabis. This study aims to examine sociodemographic differences of young Finns who reported using cannabis mainly for self-medication versus mainly recreationally, as well as their reported effects of cannabis use.

The data come from an anonymous online survey (N = 247, 70.0% males, 25.9% females, 4.1% other) that was analysed using multiple logistic regression. The authors focused on whether various demographic indicators differed between those who reportedly used cannabis mainly for recreational purposes and mainly for self-medicinal purposes. The authors also qualitatively examined the respondents’ experienced effects of cannabis, both desired and undesired.

Being older and female, living in a smaller city and earlier age of initiation of cannabis use were statistically significant in predicting the medicinal use of cannabis. The majority of recreational effects were related to themes such as relaxation and pleasure, but many participants also reported desired medical effects. Similarly, many participants reported several undesired effects.

Understanding especially young people’s motivations to use cannabis, which include using it for various medical effects, can improve the design of harm reduction and treatment programmes as well as enhance the well-being of people who use cannabis.

This study gives a nuanced account of sociodemographic factors and motivations of young people who use cannabis in Finland as well as the reported effects it has on them, which complements data from national drug surveys.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic forced nationwide lockdown in India. During the period of lockdown usage of eWallet increased by 44%. With the increased usage of digital transactions, cyber-crime attacks also increased as much as by 86%. The socio-economic environment and the peoples’ mindset in the country yet not ready for this kind of rise in digital transactions. The purpose of this study is to capture “security concern” and “comfortability” in regard to using eWallet during the COVID-19 pandemic situation. The study further investigated the influence of demographics such as gender and income on “security concern” and “comfortability” in using eWallet.

This was an empirical study. The respondents were selected using a purposive sampling method. Only those people who had been using eWallet were included in the survey. The questionnaire was circulated to 100 respondents who agreed to participate in the survey. After scrutiny total of 43 questionnaires were found to be completely filled in all aspects, and thus used for analysis. This study used an innovative multi-method approach for analysis. The hypotheses were tested using two methods: the conventional p-value method and the robust BCa bootstrap method. The effect size was also reported.

The findings suggest that female users are more concerned about eWallet security than male users. This study showed that people from the middle-income group are more concerned about the security of digital payments than the people from the lower-income group.

This study covered the influence of two demographic variables “gender” and “income” on security and comfort in using eWallets. Other demographic variables such as age, education, occupation and area of residence (rural or urban) need to be investigated with the inclusion of rural populations. From the findings of this study, this paper argues that the middle-income group in India is more risk intolerant than the lower-income group while higher and lower-income groups are indifferent. A separate detailed study is recommended for additional support. This study used an innovative multi-method approach of analysis and use of bootstrapping. This may encourage other researchers to adopt such approaches.

This study showed that irrespective of the forceful adoption; security concerns are prevailing and on the rise. This is an alarm to developers and service providers that, although the use of eWallets increased exponentially during this COVID-19 pandemic, it is a forceful adoption and not willful. They should not get deceived by rise in eWallet users and must endeavor to improve the security of eWallets otherwise, there may be a sharp decline in eWallet users once the COVID-19 pandemic is over.

This study attempted to capture the comfortability and security concerns of eWallet users during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study used an innovative multi-method approach of analysis and used bootstrapping in addition to the conventional p-value method to test the significance. This study showed that irrespective of the forceful adoption of eWallets owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, security concerns are prevailing and on the rise. The study confirms that gender has an influence on eWallet security. The findings of this study are in partial conformity with the findings of previous researchers.

Immersive virtual reality (IVR) has been frequently proposed as a promising tool for learning. However, researchers have commonly implemented a plethora of design elements in these IVR systems, which makes the specific aspects of the system that are necessary to achieve beneficial outcomes unclear. Against this background, this study aims to combine the literature on presence with learning theories to propose that the ability of IVR to present 3D objects to users improves the presence of these objects in the virtual environment compared with 2D objects, leading to increased learning performance.

To test this study’s hypotheses, the authors conducted a 2 (training condition: approach vs avoid) x 2 (object presence: high vs low) between-subjects laboratory experiment that used IVR with 83 female participants.

The results support this study’s hypotheses and show that training with high object presence leads to greater reactions to cues (chocolate cravings) and improved health behaviour (chocolate consumption).

This study shows that increased object presence leads to unique experiences for users, which help reinforce training effects. Moreover, this work sheds further light on how immersive computer technologies can affect user attitudes and behaviour. Specifically, this work contributes to IVR research by showing that learning effects can be enhanced through an increased degree of object presence.

The benefits associated with visibility in organizations depend on employees' willingness to engage with technologies that utilize visible communication and make communication visible to others. Without the participation of workers, enterprise social media have limited value. This study develops a framework to assess what deters and drives employees' use of enterprise social media.

Data were collected from 753 employees of a global company using an online survey. The response rate was 24.5%. The authors used structural equation modeling to test the hypothesized framework.

The results show that various fears by workers may deter or motivate enterprise social media use. This offers an alternative viewpoint for examining the consequences of communication visibility in organizations. Specifically, the findings demonstrate that the fear of accountability and the fear of losing uniqueness reduce enterprise social media use through increased codification efforts. The fear of missing out is directly and positively related to collecting behaviors on enterprise social media.

Expectations about participation in visible organizational communication environments are rising. However, as individuals may experience anxiety in such settings, the authors need to direct more analytical focus to the ways individuals manage communication visibility in organizing contexts and develop a deeper understanding of the consequences of fear in workplace communication.

The analysis recognizes that fear can play a key role in deterring or motivating workers' specific choices in navigating the challenges that occur when technology can make communication broadly visible. This study uses theorizing on communication visibility to bring together different fear mechanisms to predict enterprise social media use.