Search results

This research investigates the effect of imposing a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) on the likelihood of purchasing SSBs. We design and test an experimental framework that examines this and the effects of providing an explanation about the presence of an SSB tax and information about the negative health effects of consuming SSBs. Consistent with Elbel, Taksler, Mijanovich, Abrams, and Dixon (2013) and Taylor, Kaplan, Villas-Boas, and Jung (2019), we find that imposing a tax, in addition to increasing the conspicuousness of the tax by explaining the presence of a tax (and in some cases, the negative health effects) reduces the likelihood of purchasing an SSB anywhere from 8.39% to 18.15%. We contribute to the public health and tax policy literature by testing consumer choice in a controlled experimental setting and considering the effect of individual differences on the choice to purchase SSBs. Imposing a tax on SSBs may be an effective tool for decreasing SSB consumption that is made more effective when the tax is conspicuous.

The authors suggest strategies for addressing and combating these attempts at racelighting.

The authors of this article– five anti-racist educators working in various educational settings in SLC– employ the Critical Race Theory counter-story methodology (Delgado and Stefancic, 1993) to confront resistance to educational equity in Utah. They do so by first providing a historical context of race and education in Utah before presenting four short counterstories addressing the racelighting efforts of students, fellow educators and administrators when confronted with the complexities of racial injustice.

These counterstories are particularly important in light of the recent increase in color-evasive and whitewashed messaging used to attack CRT and to deny the existence of racism in the SLC school system in K-post-secondary education, and in the U.S. as a whole.

These stories are set in a unique environment, yet they hold national relevance. The racial and religious demographics in Utah shed light on the foundational ethos of the country – white, Christian supremacy. They reveal what is at stake in defending it and some of the key mechanisms of that defense.

Following the ‘Sarkozy’ era (2007–2012), France has engaged in ‘zero-tolerance’ policies, which have brought an increasing number of people into the criminal justice system (CJS). In an already extremely impoverished CJS, these policies have led to serious financial problems and have made an already existing prison overcrowding problem worse. Consequently, the CJS has gradually opted for a McDonald (Ritzer, 2019; Robinson, 2019) type of offender processing, whether in prosecutor-led procedures (representing roughly half of all penal procedures: Ministry of Justice, 2019) or in the sentencing phase (Danet, 2013). A similar trend has been found in probation and in prisoner release (in French: ‘sentences’ management).

The prison and probation services, which merged in 1999, have since then been in a position to benefit from the 1958 French Republic Constitution, which places the executive in a dominant position and notably allows it to draft the bills presented to a rather passive legislative power (Rousseau, 2007) and even to enjoy its own set of normative powers (‘autonomous decrees’ – Hamon & Troper, 2019). By way of law reforming (2009, 2014, and 2019 laws), the prison and probation services have thus embraced the McDonaldisation ethos. Their main obsession has been to early release as many prisoners as possible in order to free space and to accommodate more sentenced people. To do so, the prison services have created a series of so-called ‘simplified’ early release procedures, where prisoners are neither prepared for nor supported through release, where they are deprived of agency and where due process and attorney advice are removed. Behind a pretend rehabilitative discourse, the executive is only interested in efficiently flushing people out of prison; not about re-entry efficacy. As Ritzer (2019) points out, McDonaldisation often leads to counter-productive or absurd consequences. In the case of early release, the stubborn reality is that one cannot bypass actually doing the rehabilitative and re-entry work. I shall additionally argue that not everything truly qualifies as an early release measure (Ostermann, 2013). Only measures which respect prisoners’ agency prepare them for their release, which support them once they are in the community, which address their socio-psychological and criminogenic needs, and which are pronounced in the context of due process and defence rights truly qualify as such. As it is, French ‘simplified’ release procedures amount to McRe-entry and mass nothingness.

Drawing on the adapted unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2) framework in the bottom of pyramid (BoP) context, this paper examines the number of causal recipes that foster m-health adoption in a developing country (Bangladesh). This paper aims to propose an extended UTAUT2 model along with identifying the necessary and sufficient factors affecting the m-health adoption intention in the BoP market.

The research model was empirically tested, combining two approaches: structural equation modelling (SEM) and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). Data were collected from 221 housemaids and female security guards who earn around US$6 per day.

The SEM results revealed that while performance expectancy (PE), effort expectancy (EE), social influence (SI), facilitating conditions, perceived cost (PC) and technology anxiety (TA) significantly influence the behavioural intention of BoP markets, hedonic motivation is the non-significant predictor. The fsQCA revealed that the two necessary conditions, PC and SI, can be combined with TA to increase the possibility of the success of m-health adoption in the BoP market.

For practitioners concerned with fostering the m-health adoption intention in BoP markets, the present study, which points out equifinality, recommends integrating the PC and SI in several combinations with PE, EE and TA.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous studies using the UTAUT2 theory examined the m-health services in the BoP market. This study contributes empirical data to the predominantly theoretical literature by offering a deeper understanding of the inclusion of TA and PC in several combinations with other UTUAT2 factors as predictors for explaining the m-health adoption intention of BoP markets.

The recent surge in light emitting diode (LED) lighting retrofitted into schools in the UK is as a result of the UK Government’s 2050 zero carbon pledge. However, the benefits and consequences of LED retrofit projects for staff and enablers and stakeholder knowledge gaps about LED lighting retrofitting have not been fully explored. The aim of this research is to determine the amount of savings in cost, carbon reduction and kilowatt usage and to confirm if repayment from energy and cost savings derived from LED retrofit school projects funded through the SALIX funding option in the UK would be enough to service the loan. Thus, it examines monetary and non-monetary benefits, internal project stakeholder knowledge gaps and the consequences of LED retrofit for the staff and enablers of a large community college in the UK which is funded through the SALIX funding option.

The methodology relied on a hybrid research approach of a case secondary school through the review of literature, analysis of secondary data, focus group and questionnaire survey. The focus group consists of six key project stakeholders. The secondary data was sourced from the Project IGP [Individual Grade Proposal] and the Positive Energy Report from Zenergi, and the closed online questionnaire survey was used to sample 150 teaching staff and school enablers.

The findings show that stakeholders lack project knowledge, trust and expertise/project comprehension. This is in terms of baseline information, LED technology/management, payback modalities, management of risks and ethical issues around environmental impact. The forecasted SALIX savings were not achieved in real-time, partly because it does not take into consideration the increase in energy costs over the payback period. However, the LED retrofit creates efficiencies; drives down energy costs and energy usage; and drives carbon reduction, helping pupils’ learning, improving productivity and performance, and finally leading to a better lighting environment for the school community.

The study will help schools in the UK that intend to access SALIX finance for LED retrofits to understand the challenges and mitigate the risks. It will also help the government to understand the importance of adjusting the payback modalities to the base price when the retrofit was carried out for real-time savings to be made. The research would be useful in ensuring the proactive involvement of all the identified stakeholders in understanding the challenges and what the function entails.

The purpose of this study is to investigate (1) how managers respond to stock price crashes, (2) why they respond and (3) how their responses affect shareholders.

This study employs a panel regression with various firm-level controls and firm- and year-fixed effects. The sample is comprised of 101,532 firm-year observations with 11,727 unique firms from 1950 to 2019. Using mutual fund flow redemption pressure as an exogenous variable to stock price crashes, the paper provides further evidence of the causality of documented findings.

Management becomes more focused on improving transparency, raising investment efficiency, reducing agency conflicts and regaining the trust of shareholders by investing in social capital and employee welfare. These actions increase firm value. This study also suggests that management undertakes these actions out of concern for their tenure of employment.

The catalysts of stock price crashes are well documented, but much less is known about what happens following stock price crashes. This study provides more insights into the understanding of corporate crisis management practices following adverse events.

This research aims to ascertain the various operational maturity challenges faced by the online food ordering and delivery enterprises (OFODE), their nature and their interactive relationships. In particular, this paper aims to (a) identify the most relevant operational maturity challenges faced by the OFODE during the COVID-19 lockdown in Oman, (b) explore and establish any likely structural relationship among these challenges and (c) put them into logical clusters.

Experts helped to reduce the 18 initially identified maturity challenges to 13 most pressing ones. Mutual relationships, dominance of interactions and their classifications were explored using fuzzy interpretive structural modeling (FISM) and fuzzy MICMAC analysis.

The study of situation-specific operational maturity challenges convinced the authors to propose a distinct FISM model that depicts the relationship among these challenges. Keeping commissions and fees reasonable emerges as the challenge which all other challenges seemingly culminate into. One of the most important situation-specific challenges (i.e. customer confidence about infection free delivery) emerges as a linkage challenge which aggravates as well as is aggravated by certain challenges.

Besides enriching literature, the proposed model has implications for practitioners particularly when the similar lethal waves are experienced anywhere. The number of respondents, subjective approach, specific context as well as the geographical area coverage are the key limitations.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first known scientific effort which attempts to model the operational maturity challenges faced by the OFODE during COVID-19 lockdown period. The authors used the FISM modeling approach to forge these interrelated challenges into a structural model.

This article aims to consider teacher's views about intervisitations regarding its application and its usefulness as a community-enhancer. Many educators venture into the world of teaching because they love learning and value learning from their peers (rather than merely from text or administrators); however, teacher reservations or hesitations towards the practice of engaging in intervisitations do exist and can serve as an obstacle.

The findings reported in this study resulted from the analysis of two teacher's perspectives towards classroom intervisitations. The subset of data presented in this study resulted from the surveys and semi-structured interviews that were conducted. Qualitative methodology was used to address the research question as it allows for a greater exploration, description and ideally the emotions of participants/teachers. The coding process consisted of open coding, which then led to axial coding and the elevation of codes to themes.

In this study, teacher buy-in would be enhanced through the protocol feeling more personalized, less-dictated and more flexible in its execution, especially through the support of administrators and district leaders. In addition, teacher mindsets and perceptions also need some reshifting and should be part of the professional development process involving intervisitation roll-outs as any hesitations/limitations/and lack of willingness need to be honed in on and prioritized. Lastly, limiting teachers from an appropriate amount of time to complete such work may also encourage shallow collaboration among teachers instead of in-depth reflexive practice. By prioritizing intervisitations and/or inter-teacher collaboration in the building and allowing teachers to embark on professional development sessions with each other as a means of growing as a teacher and community, all will flourish.

Through examining the narratives of two educators, it was found that teacher willingness to partake in intervisitations is dependent on the school climate, particularly with regards to trust and a yearn-to-learn among inter-school peers and administrators. In addition, providing ample time and educating teachers on the benefits of such practices enhances one's wanting to independently venture into such work.