Search results

Social enterprises are becoming more and more important for social inclusion and reduction of poverty. Many countries world-wide have accumulated valuable experience in organization of social entrepreneurship and finding innovative approaches which are also analyzed by academic researchers and discussed on international level. Aim: To identify the specific value segments among consumers of Latvian social enterprise products and services in order to provide practical recommendations for implementation of consumer-focused marketing strategies and more effective communication patterns based on an in-depth understanding of the values within the target audience. Methods: The analysis of previous conducted research and scientific publications, analysis of social enterprise consumer survey results, for survey data analysis are applied analysis of descriptive statistics indicators of central tendency or location – arithmetic mean, mode, median, indicators of variability or dispersion – range, standard deviation, standard error of mean and cluster analysis. Results – The results of this study provided detailed descriptions of the respective segments from the demographic point of view, outlined their shopping behavior, preferences for information channels, which altogether form a comprehensive set of practical recommendations for Latvian social enterprises for more effective communication with consumers as well as for public authorities looking to increase the awareness about social entrepreneurship within Latvian society. Implications: The possible applications of research results for organization of work of social enterprises including application of digital marketing. Originality of This Chapter: Since the academic research has only relatively recently started paying attention to the specific marketing aspects of social entrepreneurship, this innovative study contributes to a persistently growing and valuable body of literature which will serve as a guideline for both social enterprises as well as public authorities seeking to find more effective communication strategies.

In the coming decades, the aging of European population will continue at a rapid pace. The National Transfer Accounts (NTA) methodology breaks down the income and consumption by age to analyze the impact of population aging on economic sustainability and economy in general. This chapter uses fully comparable results of NTA for 25 European Union countries in 2010 to indicate the potential increase in dependency in the future given the current institutional setting. Next to the conventionally defined demographic dependency ratio, we add (1) the NTA dependency ratio using the age patterns of production and consumption in the market and (2) the National Time Transfer Accounts dependency ratio using age patterns of production and consumption originating from unpaid work that is mostly provided within the households. The authors show that imbalances will originate from the impact of population aging on market part of the economy. Further, some imbalances will also be coming from unpaid work but of much lesser extent.

European Union (EU) member states are dedicated to a set of sustainable development goals, among them to: (1) promote well-being for all at all the ages and (2) achieve gender equality. This chapter uses the National Transfer Accounts (NTA) methodology that enables comprehensive measurement of intergenerational transfers, both public and private, and differences in the gender equality promotion among the countries. Our analysis is based on the fully comparable NTA results for 25 EU countries from 2010. The authors perform cluster analysis based on five indicators, measuring the importance of different types of age reallocations and the differences in gender equality promotion among the EU countries. Since the economic life cycle (showing the level of dependency) and its financing strongly depend on country-specific institutional and cultural settings, the authors link their results with the typical welfare regimes’ typology. The authors end up with three different groups of countries showing a clear north–south division of countries.

Many consumer choice situations are characterized by the simultaneous demand for multiple alternatives that are imperfect substitutes for one another. A simple and parsimonious multiple discrete-continuous extreme value (MDCEV) econometric approach to handle such multiple discreteness was formulated by Bhat (2005) within the broader Kuhn–Tucker (KT) multiple discrete-continuous economic consumer demand model of Wales and Woodland (1983). In this chapter, the focus is on presenting the basic MDCEV model structure, discussing its estimation and use in prediction, formulating extensions of the basic MDCEV structure, and presenting applications of the model. The paper examines several issues associated with the MDCEV model and other extant KT multiple discrete-continuous models. Specifically, the paper discusses the utility function form that enables clarity in the role of each parameter in the utility specification, presents identification considerations associated with both the utility functional form as well as the stochastic nature of the utility specification, extends the MDCEV model to the case of price variation across goods and to general error covariance structures, discusses the relationship between earlier KT-based multiple discrete-continuous models, and illustrates the many technical nuances and identification considerations of the multiple discrete-continuous model structure. Finally, we discuss the many applications of MDCEV model and its extensions in various fields.

Luxury consumption in the Czech Republic and other post-socialist countries has a shorter history than in the developed Western countries. The historical development of these countries still reflects the differences in buying behaviour. The chapter focusses on luxury travellers' behaviour and consumption patterns in the Czech Republic. In the Czech Republic, where the concept of old luxury has prevailed, it is already possible to observe a gradual shift towards a new luxury travel model. This new luxury model is associated with a high level of comfort and privacy, exclusive location and first-class services and new elements such as travelling, authenticity and sustainability.

The chapter provides different perspectives on consumption patterns. It points to consumer behaviour in luxury travel in dependence on the selected sociodemographic variables and spatial determinants. It also reveals the luxury-driven travel motivation and preferences on a luxury holiday. The results show that Czech luxury travellers are different in comparison with the traditional European markets. The Czechs fall behind the European luxury travellers, especially regarding the financial possibilities. As far as the Czech luxury traveller profile is concerned, the category of baby boomers with tertiary education and regular income is the most dominant among Czech affluent clients. The satisfaction of the needs for relaxation and the exploration of new destinations are the primary motives for taking luxury holidays. Concerning the regional income inequality, disparities between the capital city of Prague and the rest of the country are observed.

Digital cameras and social networking have made photo-taking and photo-sharing more ubiquitous than ever before. In recent years, scholars and the popular press have raised concerns over the practice of posting photographs on social networking sites, especially when the images contain problematic or incriminating content. These concerns are often directed toward college students, who are among the most active users of social media. To that end, this chapter offers a comprehensive overview of the extent and emerging research pertaining to college students' photo-sharing habits on social networking sites. Much of our attention focuses on Facebook, which has emerged as the largest and fastest growing photo-sharing Web site in the world. While research on text-based disclosure will be addressed, a greater emphasis is placed on college students' photo-related behaviors, including uploading, viewing, tagging, and untagging photos. Further, this chapter discusses research on problematic or damaging content in college students' photos posted on Facebook, including depictions of alcohol use, drug use, and sexual promiscuity. This chapter provides a glimpse of some recent data (collected by the author) from a national sample of U.S. college students, which further shed light on their experiences and attitudes regarding their photo-related Facebook behaviors, the types of incriminating photos they report posting, and the consequences they have experienced due to visual images shared by themselves or others on Facebook. Finally, this chapter concludes with a discussion of the strategies utilized by college administrators, faculty, athletic coaches, and others within higher education to address the concerns and consequences often associated with college students and the photographs they share on Facebook and other social networking sites.

We design an experiment to investigate the influence of announced future variations in interest rates and prices on consumption decisions. In an experimental implementation of the discounted utility model, the subjects learn the entire paths of inflation and interest rates prior to deciding on a consumption path. We decompose the total change in consumption that results from changes in either interest rates or inflation rates into anticipation and impact effects. While impact effects are of similar orders of magnitude as in the model, future changes in inflation or interest rates exert substantially smaller effects on current consumption than predicted by the model.