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A meta-evaluation is an assessment of evaluation practices. Meta-evaluations include assessments of validity and usefulness of two or more studies that focus on the same issues. Every performance audit is grounded explicitly or implicitly in one or more theories of program evaluation. A deep understanding of alternative theories of program evaluation is helpful to gain clarity about sound auditing practices. We present a review of several theories of program evaluation.

This study includes a meta-evaluation of seven government audits on the efficiency and effectiveness of tourism departments and programs. The seven tourism-marketing performance audits are program evaluations for: Missouri, North Carolina, Tennessee, Minnesota, Australia, and two for Hawaii. The majority of these audits are negative performance assessments. Similarly, although these audits are more useful than none at all, the central conclusion of the meta-evaluation is that most of these audit reports are inadequate assessments. These audits are too limited in the issues examined; not sufficiently grounded in relevant evaluation theory and practice; and fail to include recommendations, that if implemented, would result in substantial increases in performance.

Describes how one university school applied the principles and practices of marketing to short course activities between 1975 and 1979. Reveals that the application afforded good commercial success.

Introduction Operations research, i.e. the application of scientific methodology to operational problems in the search for improved understanding and control, can be said to have started with the application of mathematical tools to military problems of supply bombing and strategy, during the Second World War. Post‐war these tools were applied to business problems, particularly production scheduling, inventory control and physical distribution because of the acute shortages of goods and the numerical aspects of these problems.

After comprehensive review of discourse surrounding school-banking programmes and marketing to children, the authors develop evidence-based guidelines for such programmes. Guidance for organisations is provided to ensure they understand these products' impact on children and other vulnerable consumers.

A comprehensive, systematised review of literature related to school-banking programmes was undertaken during 2019, 22 Boolean searches were collated, appraised using a five-step quality appraisal framework and analysed against selection criteria. To accommodate literature across disciplines, quality appraisal combined two existing hierarchies of evidence and peer-review status.

Searches returned over 375,000 articles; 149 were relevant and met quality thresholds. Evidence supports the role of financial education in producing positive financial outcomes. However, education should involve communities and families to enhance consumer socialisation and limit negative consequences. From this, guidelines are presented accounting for students' and parents' ability to understand marketing messages and the impact of in-school marketing on students – including on longer-term perceptions, attitudes and behaviours.

Guidelines are to assist financial institutions, policymakers and schools balance the benefits of financial literacy and education with potentially negative consequences of school-banking programmes. Classifying programmes as marketing rather than CSR also benefits organisations contributing corporate resources and voluntarily engaging practices underpinned by commitment to community well-being.

Avoiding moral panic, the authors instead outline evidence-based guidelines on school-banking programmes. The quality appraisal process used in this review offers a new approach to synthesising inter-disciplinary evidence.

This paper presents a methodological analysis of the co-creation and evaluation of “Biobot Academy” social marketing program to promote socio-emotional skills and prosocial behaviour in children, using a Living Lab method. This paper aims to identify how using a Living Lab method can enhance the co-creation and evaluation of a gamified social marketing program with users and stakeholders. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to apply and further develop a Living Lab framework to guide social marketing program design.

Using a case study method, the Living Lab process was applied during the development of the gamified social marketing program for promoting socio-emotional skills and prosocial behaviour in children. In total, 28 online and in-person sessions over a two-year period led to program co-creation. Guided by a mixed method approach, testing was conducted in a non-randomised waitlist control trial, while qualitative data from in-game data capture, classroom observations and recordings were collected.

The application of the Living Lab method warranted improvements, specifically to the front-end and back-end steps of the existing process. While the non-randomised trial indicated effectiveness of the social marketing program across all outcome measures (self-awareness, empathy and prosocial behaviour intentions) compared to control, qualitative findings showed program improvements were needed on three specific aspects, namely, interactivity, user experience and comprehension.

This study provides methodological guidance for the application of the Living Lab method in other social marketing settings to help co-create innovative social marketing solutions with diverse stakeholder groups.

Food waste is a systemic problem, with waste occurring at all stages in the supply chain and consumption process. There is a need to unpack which strategies, approaches and tools can be applied to reduce the amount of food wasted. Understanding the extent of social marketing principles used offers insights into the additional means that can be applied to increase voluntary behavioral change.

Following preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses guidelines, a systematic quantitative literature review was undertaken focused on outcome evaluation studies conducted since 2000. Six databases were examined, and cross rating was used to identify previous programs tackling food waste behavior at a household level. A total of 23 programs were analyzed against 8 social marketing components.

Overall, only 2 out of 23 food waste programs self-identified as social marketing programs. A lack of application of social marketing elements was observed across all studies, indicating a tendency to implement non-voluntary change approaches. The most commonly targeted behaviors were source-separation. Personal interaction involved the distribution of information in person (typically through door knocking). Personal interaction strategies were identified as the most effective program techniques. Program effectiveness was greater when the social marketing components of behavioral change, theory and marketing mix were used, indicating the potential for voluntary approaches to be applied more in the future.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the current study was the first systematic literature review to examine the extent of social marketing application in food waste programs reported in peer-reviewed academic literature using eight components of social marketing. The study revealed behavioral change was more likely when more social marketing components were used. Future research is recommended to consider the application of full range of social marketing elements to extend beyond involuntary approaches, which can be subjected to criticism from community.

This paper aims to report a research approach that explores how to use evaluations of previous social marketing efforts to assess and guide a new shelterbelt program called Working Tree. By targeting farmers, this new program aims to gain benefits from enhancing and expanding on-farm tree shelterbelts on the Canadian prairies.

This paper uses a novel method that relies on secondary data from six completed social marketing cases as data for a comparative analysis with the new program. A conceptual framework is proposed and applied. This framework incorporates process and outcome indicators of evaluation, key dimensions of the rational choice theory and proven practices from experience.

Analysis suggests key parameters of the Working Tree program to be appropriate, with some modifications. However, limitations in the data also point to avenues for future research to deepen the authors’ understanding of assessing a new social marketing program in the prelaunch phase. More research is needed on what works, where and why.

The seven indices are a modest set for comparatives and are not exhaustive. Six selected cases are small samples that are unable to fully reflect the environmental nature of the new program; yet, they contained critical data for the comparative analysis. Financial data are not in constant dollars, which would be needed when further analysis is undertaken.

This paper illustrates the importance of the evaluation stage of the social marketing process. It demonstrates the practicality of being able to effectively draw upon previous evaluations to inform new program investors and social marketers at the prelaunch stage.

The conceptual framework and method present a novel approach to use evaluation data to guide new program funding and initiatives. It is offered with the hope that others might draw upon the ideas presented here and advance them.

The purpose of this paper is to outline the contribution of marketing to program evaluation in the school sector. Schools are increasingly the target of government-funded environmental education initiatives and this paper aims to illustrate, through a sector-wide program case study, how marketing metrics can improve overall program evaluation. Existing school-based program evaluations are often not accompanied by rigorous evaluation of their impact beyond educational outcomes. Evaluation focuses instead on improving satisfaction of those already participating, rather than looking at the wider issues of program adoption and engagement levels across the sector. This paper also aims to look at how traditional marketing's evaluation metrics can address this gap.

A case study is used involving a sector-wide recycling program whose objective is to reduce waste across all schools across a State in Australia. The program, administered by a government agency, had only been evaluated within an educational outcome context. Using existing data on the program from across the school sector, marketing metrics are calculated to provide new insight into the program's wider impact.

This research illustrates the relevance of marketing metrics to educational sector activities. It illustrates how to embed metrics into the program and identifies insights they can offer as a supplement to existing educational outcome measures. Such measures are highly useful to funding bodies deciding on a program's development and continuation.

Marketing provides empirically-based program metrics that are easy and cost-effective to obtain, objective in their measure, and provide feedback loops to participants. Having impacts more clearly measured allows for effective program administration within the childhood education sector. This paper delivers practical guidelines for program administrators.

The paper brings marketing into an environmental education context, illustrating its contribution for better measurement of behaviour change. It gives marketing practitioners and academic researchers a framework within which they can use already available program data to better gauge the uptake and impact of their efforts.

The concern in this article is that there is low interest in adult education and training (AET) programmes of the unemployed adults in developing countries. The purpose of the article is to determine the effects of social marketing efforts in motivating adult learners to acquire marketable skills for poverty reduction.

The study used the qualitative (semi-structured interviews) method for data collection from 12 adult learners and five managers of AET centres of South Africa. The qualitative method in the form of semi-structured interviews helped the researcher to present the data from the perspective of the centre managers and adult learners on how the AET centres used social marketing efforts in motivating to acquire and utilise skills in entrepreneurial ventures.

The findings reveal that the effects of social marketing efforts consisted of persuading adult learners to enrol for skills training programmes, to attract their engagement to acquire marketable skills and to form business groups or co-operatives as a means of transition from skills acquisition to entrepreneurial ventures. As elements of social marketing effort in the skills training delivery, the AET centres used teaching and learning approaches and motivated the adult learners to acquire skills.

From the social marketing perspective, the practical implication of the findings for the policy consists of demonstrating the importance of social marketing efforts in skills training programmes to reduce poverty amongst poor and unemployed adults. The findings demonstrate the need for coordinated campaign activities at AET centre regional levels to motivate the engagement of the unemployed adults; hence, they will become aware of the benefits of the skills training programmes to improve their lives.

The lack of motivation is still the main barrier for participation in adult skills programmes, although there is significant progress made in many countries. In addition, social marketing efforts point to a need to promote, encourage and recognise participation from private sector for joint stakeholder cooperation.

This article is unique because it provides empirical findings on how to mitigate the barriers blocking adult participation in skills training programmes by using the social marketing efforts in motivating them to acquire marketable skills. The article contributes to the body of knowledge by determining the effects of the social marketing efforts in motivating adult learners to acquire marketable skills for poverty reduction. The efforts entail developing and implementing campaigns to motivate adult learners in their communities and stakeholder cooperation.

This paper reports findings from a qualitative study that analyzed use of traditional and targeted sponsorship approaches by eight companies involved in the 1998-99 Canadian Hockey Association women's corporate support program. The study found the sponsors used methods from direct and relationship marketing to support corporate goals of sales, advertising, community-involvement and brand image and awareness. Several factors are discussed that would improve the sponsorships' effectiveness in the women's market.