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Open Access
Article
Publication date: 17 June 2021

Tomaž Kolar and Iztok Kolar

This paper aims to inform the promotion of sustainable modes of transport. For this purpose, it deploys a means-ends framework as a type of second-order cybernetics and uses it to…

1389

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to inform the promotion of sustainable modes of transport. For this purpose, it deploys a means-ends framework as a type of second-order cybernetics and uses it to explore cognitive transport mode choice structures.

Design/methodology/approach

The empirical study relies on a purposive sample and a qualitative research methodology known as laddering. It is aimed at the identification and comparative analysis of the cognitive means-ends structures of transport users.

Findings

The results reveal more positive and complex associations for the car than for public transport. Two main positive means-ends structures are identified for public transport, one related with the relaxation and the other with doing useful things while travelling. Dominant positive structures for the car are related with self-confidence, satisfaction and personal freedom. Negative means-ends structures in addition reveal important justifications and rationalizations for car use.

Practical implications

Based on the identified distinct means-ends elements and structures, this study holds important implications for developing a communications strategy and policy interventions seeking to promote public transport.

Originality/value

Means-ends theory is proposed as an integrative cybernetic framework for the study of stakeholders’ (customers’) mental models. The empirical study is the first to concurrently and comparatively examine positive and negative means-ends chains for the car and for the public transport modes.

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 17 October 2023

Hesil Jerda George, Sahayaselvi Susainathan and Satyanarayana Parayitam

This study aims to investigate the antecedents and consequences of green packaging behavior (GPB). A conceptual model has been developed wherein green packaging awareness (GPA…

1441

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the antecedents and consequences of green packaging behavior (GPB). A conceptual model has been developed wherein green packaging awareness (GPA) and green packaging initiatives (GPI) are precursors of GPB, and environmental concern and availability of various green packaging alternatives are moderators. The outcomes of GPB in terms of environmental and personal benefits are examined.

Design/methodology/approach

Unlike most papers focusing on green packaging from a marketing perspective, this study explores the behavior of rural households from 47 villages in southern India. A carefully crafted survey instrument was developed, and data were collected from 395 respondents. After checking the instrument’s psychometric properties, the results were analyzed using Hayes’s PROCESS macros.

Findings

The results indicate that GPA and GPI are positively associated with GPB, GPA predicts GPI, and GPI mediates the relationship between GPA and GPB. Furthermore, findings suggest that environmental concern moderates the relationship between GPI and GPB, and the three-way interaction between the availability of green packaging (second moderator), environmental concern (first moderator), and GPI influences the GPB. Moreover, the outcomes of GPB in terms of environmental and personal benefits are established.

Research limitations/implications

This research has several theoretical implications. It documents that individual awareness of green packaging is a precursor to GPB. This study focused on the rural population from a developing country (India) and hence may suffer from a lack of generalizability across developed nations. However, the results could be generalizable across other developing nations worldwide.

Practical implications

This study motivates individuals to engage in proenvironmental behavior. Moreover, it highlights the importance of GPB in deriving environmental and personal benefits. It is also equally crucial for individuals to engage in proper waste management practices so that the environment is not polluted.

Social implications

The findings from this research are helpful to society as it focuses on the proenvironmental behavior of individuals. Particularly concerning packaging, this study points out that buying products with green packaging and reusing and recycling such packages is essential to protect the environment.

Originality/value

This study fills the gaps in the literature by focusing on the GPB of the rural population. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the moderated-mediation model developed and tested in this research is the first of its kind and thus makes a significant contribution to the literature on green packaging and waste management.

Details

RAUSP Management Journal, vol. 58 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2531-0488

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 4 August 2022

Christian Matt, Mena Teebken and Beril Özcan

Studies on the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) tracing apps have mostly focused on how to optimize adoption and continuous use, but did not consider potential long-term…

Abstract

Purpose

Studies on the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) tracing apps have mostly focused on how to optimize adoption and continuous use, but did not consider potential long-term effects of their introduction. This study aims to analyse whether the characteristics of the recent introduction of tracing apps may negatively impact individuals' attitudes and intentions to adopt future tracking technology.

Design/methodology/approach

In an online experiment across three countries (Australia, Germany, UK), the authors measured how perceived benefits of COVID-19 tracing apps as well as specific government and campaign-related factors affect privacy concerns, attitude towards future tracking apps and intention to adopt. The authors manipulated the type of provider (governmental vs private) and the type of beneficiaries of the future tracking technology app (the individual alone or also the public) as determinants of adoption.

Findings

The authors find that privacy concerns towards the COVID-19 tracing apps negatively impact attitude and intention to adopt future tracking apps. Future adoption is more likely if the app is provided by the government, whereas additional benefits to the public do not positively stimulate adoption. Second, the study analyzed different factors, including perceptions on governments and the app introduction, as well as perceived benefits.

Originality/value

Taking the introduction of COVID-19 apps in different countries as a basis, the authors link both perceived benefits and contextual factors to privacy concerns, attitudes towards and intention to adopt the related technology in the future. The authors hereby clarify the responsibility of governmental actors who conduct large-scale technology introductions for the future diffusion of related technologies.

Details

Digital Transformation and Society, vol. 1 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2755-0761

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 6 May 2022

Erica van Herpen and Koen Jaegers

Bread waste is one of the largest contributors to the environmental footprint of supermarkets, mostly because of the short shelf life of fresh bread. This study examined a…

1502

Abstract

Purpose

Bread waste is one of the largest contributors to the environmental footprint of supermarkets, mostly because of the short shelf life of fresh bread. This study examined a possible solution: offering frozen bread with a considerably longer shelf life. Professional freezing of bread can preserve its quality better than freezing at home. In introducing frozen bread, supermarkets can communicate either a high construal social benefit (food waste reduction) or a low construal personal benefit (product quality).

Design/methodology/approach

An online experiment (n = 367) with a three group between subjects design was used. Dutch participants saw an offering of frozen bread accompanied by (1) a communication message about food waste, (2) a communication message about product quality, or (3) no communication message (control condition).

Findings

In line with expectations, emphasizing food waste reduction influenced general attitudes toward frozen bread and the bakery department more strongly than the benefit of higher product quality, while the opposite was true for purchase intentions.

Practical implications

Retailers who include frozen bread in their assortment have to make a trade-off between especially stimulating consumer attitudes toward the bakery department by focusing on a food waste reduction message, or especially stimulating sales by focusing on a quality message.

Originality/value

This study provides new insights into the effects of benefit communication on attitudes and purchase intentions. The results show that these effects differ for attitudes and intentions, depending on the communication message.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 124 no. 13
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 19 December 2016

Elvira Perez Vallejos, Mark John Ball, Poppy Brown, David Crepaz-Keay, Emily Haslam-Jones and Paul Crawford

The purpose of this paper is to test whether incorporating a 20-week Kundalini yoga programme into a residential home for children improves well-being outcomes.

3897

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to test whether incorporating a 20-week Kundalini yoga programme into a residential home for children improves well-being outcomes.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a mixed methods feasibility study. Feasibility was assessed through recruitment and retention rates as well as participants’ self-report perceptions on social inclusion, mental health and well-being and through semi-structured interviews on the benefits of the study. Mutual recovery entailed that children in care (CIC), youth practitioners and management participated together in the Kundalini yoga sessions.

Findings

The study initially enrolled 100 per cent of CIC and 97 per cent (29/30) of eligible staff. Attendance was low with an average rate of four sessions per participant (SD=3.7, range 0-13). All the participants reported that the study was personally meaningful and experienced both individual (e.g. feeling more relaxed) and social benefits (e.g. feeling more open and positive). Pre- and post-yoga questionnaires did not show any significant effects. Low attendance was associated with the challenges faced by the children’s workforce (e.g. high levels of stress, low status, profile and pay) and insufficient consultation and early involvement of stakeholders on the study implementation process.

Research limitations/implications

Because of the chosen research approach (i.e. feasibility study) and low attendance rate, the research results may lack generalisability. Therefore, further research with larger samples including a control or comparison group to pilot similar research questions is mandatory.

Practical implications

This study has generated a number of valuable guiding principles and recommendations that might underpin the development of any future intervention for CIC and staff working in children’s homes.

Social implications

The concept of togetherness and mutuality within residential spaces is discussed in the paper.

Originality/value

The effects of Kundalini yoga have not been reported before in any peer-review publications. This paper fulfils an identified need (i.e. poor outcomes among CIC and residential staff) and shows how movement and creative practices can support the concept of mutual recovery.

Details

Journal of Children's Services, vol. 11 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-6660

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 2 December 2016

Pierre Jinghong Liang, Madhav Rajan and Korok Ray

This paper aims to explore the design of management teams when the critical task facing individual managers is monitoring the performance of worker teams and producing performance…

1862

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to explore the design of management teams when the critical task facing individual managers is monitoring the performance of worker teams and producing performance measures under uncertain information environments.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors use a multi-agent LEN framework – linear contract, exponential utility and normal density – to model the incentive provision and organizational design.

Findings

The main lesson is that the use of performance measures under uncertainty is greatly affected by the potential for free-riding in the very monitoring activities which generate the measures to begin with. Accordingly, the value of having a management team, that is the incremental benefit of having a second manager, depends on the monitoring technology. Of particular importance are the potential free-riding in monitoring effort among multiple managers and synergies gained from having more than one manager, such as correlation among the performance measures produced or improvement due to splitting workers pool into separate groups for each manager to monitor separately.

Originality/value

The paper pushes this line of research further by explicitly modeling the endogenous process of signal generation within a rich economic environment. In this environment, number of workers being evaluated and number of managers who produce the signals are both endogenous. Furthermore, both workers and managers are subject to moral hazard problem. In particular, the managers suffer from potential free-riding problems but may benefit from synergistic forces due to team monitoring.

Details

Journal of Centrum Cathedra, vol. 9 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1851-6599

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 5 April 2023

Ritu Pareek and Tarak Nath Sahu

Taking cues from the fact that there remains a dearth in the establishment of theoretical and empirical relationship between executive compensation and corporate social…

1229

Abstract

Purpose

Taking cues from the fact that there remains a dearth in the establishment of theoretical and empirical relationship between executive compensation and corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance of the firms, this study attempts to explore the non-linear relationship between the said variables.

Design/methodology/approach

The study utilizes a strongly balanced panel data set of 179 non-financial National Stock Exchange (NSE) 500 listed firms for the study period of 2015–2020. The study further employs both static as well as Arellano-Bond dynamic panel model under generalized method of moments (GMM) framework to establish the relationship between executive compensation and CSR performance of the sampled firms.

Findings

The study acknowledges an inverted U-shaped relationship between executive compensation and environmental, social and governance (ESG) score of the firms. According to the robust estimator, an increase in the level of executive compensation is said to affect CSR performance positively until it surpasses a threshold level of 18.7 percent.

Practical implications

One of the major takeaways that the study provides for the corporate policymakers is that the level of compensation can only motivate the executives to take up socially responsible work up to a certain level surpassing which the executives becomes resistant towards any benefits provided by the CSR performance and get inclined towards economical performances of the firm. At the later stage, the economical expansionary investment benefits overweigh the personal career benefit gained by the executives from the CSR performances of the firm.

Originality/value

The nonlinearity relationship between executive compensation and CSR performance and the threshold level providing the two-fold effect of compensation on the CSR performance of the firms attempted by this study is a rare attempt in an emerging economy like India.

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 30 November 2021

Marina Brogi, Carmen Gallucci and Rosalia Santulli

The study, by focusing on a context dominated by firms with a concentrated ownership, in which type-II agency problems (principal-principal conflicts) may occur, aims to depict…

1020

Abstract

Purpose

The study, by focusing on a context dominated by firms with a concentrated ownership, in which type-II agency problems (principal-principal conflicts) may occur, aims to depict which board configurations may be effective in protecting minority shareholders by mitigating the risk of controlling shareholders' expropriation via cash holdings.

Design/methodology/approach

The research adopts a configurational approach and empirically conducts a fuzzy set/qualitative comparative analysis on a sample of 268 Italian listed companies.

Findings

The analysis depicts three combinations of board configurations and ownership structures that can be considered effective, namely Active Independent Control, Female Active Control and Double Internal Control.

Originality/value

The study revisits the topic of the risk of expropriation via cash holdings in a type-II agency problem framework and delineates the meaning of board effectiveness in a mature context ruled by family firms, like Italy. Furthermore, by drawing on a configurational approach, it overcomes the causality relationship between each board characteristic and cash holdings policies and reasons from a “bundle” perspective.

Content available
Article
Publication date: 8 August 2021

Bhagyashree Barhate and Khalil M. Dirani

This paper aims to explore the career aspirations of individuals belonging to the Gen Z cohort, i.e. born between 1995 and 2012.

17043

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to explore the career aspirations of individuals belonging to the Gen Z cohort, i.e. born between 1995 and 2012.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is a systematic review of the literature. The authors accessed four databases to collect literature for review. The databases included were Academic Search Ultimate, Business Source Ultimate, ERIC and Google Scholar. Keywords used to conduct the search process were as follows: career development, career aspiration, generation Z, Gen Z and iGen. The authors imported all articles to RefWorks, read article abstracts and decided on whether to include or exclude the article in the review.

Findings

Based on this systematic review, the authors found that intrinsic and extrinsic factors determine Gen Z's career aspirations. Further, based on past studies' predictions, the authors concluded that Gen Z has well-defined career expectations and career development plans.

Research limitations/implications

Gen Z is the newest generation to enter the workforce. With limited research on this cohort, this study synthesized the existing knowledge of Gen Z students' career aspirations and their future employers' expectations. All research around Gen Z is currently focused on students, and hence, it is challenging to predict their workplace behavior. In this work, the authors provided organizations and practitioners guidelines to be prepared with Gen Z's expectations as they enter the workplace.

Originality/value

This systematic literature review synthesizes empirical research from around the world on career aspirations related to Gen Z.

Details

European Journal of Training and Development, vol. 46 no. 1/2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2046-9012

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 28 March 2019

Mir Shahid Satar and Saqib Natasha

While the literature has described social entrepreneurs as overwhelmingly occupying a pivotal role in social entrepreneurship (S-ENT) process, there is a high inconsistency…

5868

Abstract

Purpose

While the literature has described social entrepreneurs as overwhelmingly occupying a pivotal role in social entrepreneurship (S-ENT) process, there is a high inconsistency prevailing with respect to entrepreneurial traits, attitudes and skills of social entrepreneurs. One explanation for this may be the lack of a suitable scale measuring entrepreneurship orientation of social entrepreneurial individuals. The purpose of this study is to address this gap by proposing an initial assessment tool for individual S-ENT orientation (ISEO).

Design/methodology/approach

A mixed methods research design, along with a two-stage Delphi process, helped in generating appropriate constructs for ISEO. While the items for the first dimension of scale were directly derived from the Delphi study, the items of the remaining dimensions were mainly found based on the three individual entrepreneurial orientation dimensions presented by Bolton and Lane. By means of exploratory factor analysis, the final examination of the ISEO items was undertaken through a survey of 71 social entrepreneurs across India. The process eventually resulted in reliable and valid measures for four dimensions of ISEO.

Findings

The scale-development process eventually resulted in a 13-item scale, measuring four dimensions of ISEO (social passion, innovativeness, risk-taking and pro-activeness). By developing a set of relevant ISEO indicators, the study answers the call for a scale development of ISEO in S-ENT literature.

Research limitations/implications

There is a need to further validate this instrument among other stakeholders (students) as well as in samples with different demographic characteristics across different regions of the country and the world. To further evaluate the reliability and validity properties and to confirm the newly established subscales and their relationship with the ISEO construct, there is need for conducting a confirmatory factor analysis using larger sample sizes.

Practical implications

The measurement of SEO at an individual level will assist in S-ENT education, training and development of present and prospective social entrepreneurs, as well as assist individuals who want to assess the strength of their orientation towards S-ENT. The understanding of ISEO at the individual level will be equally useful for S-ENT incubators, the government and other S-ENT stakeholders who are considering supporting S-ENT proposals.

Originality/value

The paper is the first to develop an ISEO scale which is based on empirical data in S-ENT field.

Details

Asia Pacific Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, vol. 13 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2398-7812

Keywords

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