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Article
Publication date: 12 October 2012

Hsiao‐Chien Tsui and Tzung‐Ming Wang

If a society does not identify with purchase of illegal goods, consumers will undertake more psychological burden when buying the goods. The purpose of this paper is to explore…

1364

Abstract

Purpose

If a society does not identify with purchase of illegal goods, consumers will undertake more psychological burden when buying the goods. The purpose of this paper is to explore the effect of social norm of anti‐piracy on social welfare.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper uses a theoretical model to consider that although consumers will select piracy goods for the concerns of net utility, due to pressure from social norms, consumers are not wiling to purchase piracy goods.

Findings

The results show that enhancement of social norm of anti‐piracy will improve overall social welfare; however, the social norm of anti‐piracy must be limited to certain scope. Extreme social norm of anti‐piracy, in comparison to the situation without social norm of anti‐piracy, will lower overall social welfare.

Originality/value

If complete laws and strict enforcement cannot curb piracy, we can boldly assume that mature and high degree of “rule of low” is the force to restrain purchase of piracy goods. The paper examines the relations between social norm of anti‐piracy and social welfare.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 39 no. 12
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 10 April 2009

Rick Wicks

This paper revisits old questions of the proper subject and bounds of economics: does economics study “provisioning”? or markets? or a method of reasoning, self‐interested…

1128

Abstract

Purpose

This paper revisits old questions of the proper subject and bounds of economics: does economics study “provisioning”? or markets? or a method of reasoning, self‐interested rational optimization?

Design/methodology/approach

A variety of scholars and others in many fields make use of a taxonomy of society consisting of three “spheres”: markets, governments, and communities. It is argued here that this tripartite taxonomy of society is fundamental and exhaustive. A variety of ways of understanding this taxonomy are explored, especially Fiske's (1991, 2004) “Relational models theory.” Then – after communities and their products, social goods, are defined more thoroughly – a visual model of interactions among the three spheres is presented.

Findings

The model is first used briefly to understand the historical development of markets. The model is then applied to understanding how economic thinking and market ideology, including the notion of social capital, can be destructive of communities and their production of social goods (and their production of social capital as well).

Research limitations/implications

It is not possible to measure these effects monetarily, so calculating precisely “how this affects results” in a standard economic model is impossible.

Practical implications

Nevertheless we could better prepare students for real‐world analysis, and better serve our clients, including the public, if – whenever relevant, such as in textbook introductions and in benefit/cost analyses – we made them aware of the limitations of economic analysis with respect to communities and social goods.

Originality/value

The three‐spheres model offered here, based on Fiske's “Relational models theory,” facilitates this awareness.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 36 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 16 January 2007

Des Gasper

The purpose of this paper is to present exploration of themes that interconnect six studies in environmentally and socially sustainable human development.

1276

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present exploration of themes that interconnect six studies in environmentally and socially sustainable human development.

Design/methodology/approach

The article presents an overview of the papers included in this special issue.

Findings

As humanity threatens to undermine its habitat, a social economics returns to core concepts and themes that became expunged from neoclassical economics: serious examination of persons, seen as more than given points of desire; a broadened perspective on types of good, including a non‐neoclassical conception of public goods as publicly deliberated priority goods that are not well managed through free markets and “common goods” as shared bases vital for everyone; study of what commodities and goods do to and for people; a central role for public reasoning about which are public priority goods, rather than using only a technical definition of a public good; an acceptance of notions of ethical responsibility and responsibilities concerning the provision and maintenance of public priority goods determined through public reasoning; and attention to institutional formats for such deliberation. Amongst the greatest of public priority “goods” are the concepts of common good and responsibility.

Research limitations/Implications

The findings reinforce the agenda of socio‐economics for central attention to the mutual conditioning of economy, society, polity, and environment, including analysis of the sociocultural formation of economic actors and of ideas of “common good”.

Originality/value

Cross‐fertilization of theorization with cases from Costa Rica, Kenya, Nepal, Thailand, Rwanda, sub‐Saharan Africa and global arenas.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 34 no. 1/2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 June 2012

Echo Huang

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of interactive and social features on users' online experiences and their purchase intention of virtual goods from a social…

18533

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of interactive and social features on users' online experiences and their purchase intention of virtual goods from a social network site.

Design/methodology/approach

A banner with a hyperlink that connected to the author's web survey was posted on the homepage of Facebook. Of the 258 responses returned, 176 were fully completed. Measurement items were adapted from previous literature. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to evaluate the research model and hypotheses testing.

Findings

The results of an empirical study supported the use of the stimuli‐organism‐response (S‐O‐R) model in a social networking site and showed how environmental features should be incorporated to enhance users' online experiences and purchase intentions. Specifically, social identity showed the strongest influence on involvement and flow. More specifically, affective involvement showed the greatest influence on purchase intention compared to flow and cognitive involvement.

Practical implications

The relative importance of both interactivity and social identity in platform features in shaping consumers' online experiences should not be ignored. The author suggests online games or apps. Additionally, platform providers should advance social identity features that show a strong positive impact on users' online experiences.

Originality/value

With the proliferation of online social gaming, there is growing evidence for virtual goods consumption; however, relatively few studies have discussed this phenomenon. This paper draws on hypotheses from environmental psychology; specifically, users' intentions to purchase are modeled on user responses to the online stimuli of a Web platform and the online experience that such an environment elicits.

Details

Internet Research, vol. 22 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1066-2243

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 August 1989

Jean K. Thisen

It is basically argued that, as the world economy progresses andthe means of transportation and communication become increasinglyavailable, the interdependence among means and…

Abstract

It is basically argued that, as the world economy progresses and the means of transportation and communication become increasingly available, the interdependence among means and ways of life also becomes inevitable and human relations tighten accordingly. However, though every individual tends to follow the patterns and directions of his (her) society′s way of living, he or she often conserves some peculiarities which can be identified with his or her personality. Individual and social behaviours are today becoming so interdependent that it is difficult to demarcate between “privacy” and “sociality”. This is particularly true in an advanced and complex society in which conflict between private and social interests is apparent. It is proposed that with effort this conflict can be removed or at least attenuated by adopting a more pragmatic approach to the humanistic economic system in which both private and social interests are allowed to be traded off without one necessarily impinging on the other.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 16 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 April 1986

Cedric Pugh

It was not until the late 1960s that housing attracted much attention from academic social scientists. Since that time the literature has expanded widely and diversified…

4918

Abstract

It was not until the late 1960s that housing attracted much attention from academic social scientists. Since that time the literature has expanded widely and diversified, establishing housing with a specialised status in economics, sociology, politics, and in related subjects. As we would expect, the new literature covers a technical, statistical, theoretical, ideological, and historical range. Housing studies have not been conceived and interpreted in a monolithic way, with generally accepted concepts and principles, or with uniformly fixed and precise methodological approaches. Instead, some studies have been derived selectively from diverse bases in conventional theories in economics or sociology, or politics. Others have their origins in less conventional social theory, including neo‐Marxist theory which has had a wider intellectual following in the modern democracies since the mid‐1970s. With all this diversity, and in a context where ideological positions compete, housing studies have consequently left in their wake some significant controversies and some gaps in evaluative perspective. In short, the new housing intellectuals have written from personal commitments to particular cognitive, theoretical, ideological, and national positions and experiences. This present piece of writing takes up the two main themes which have emerged in the recent literature. These themes are first, questions relating to building and developing housing theory, and, second, the issue of how we are to conceptualise housing and relate it to policy studies. We shall be arguing that the two themes are closely related: in order to create a useful housing theory we must have awareness and understanding of housing practice and the nature of housing.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 13 no. 4/5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Article
Publication date: 1 February 1984

Roger Mason

In recent years business organisations have recognised the great profits potential offered by the demand for status goods and have sought to encourage still higher levels of…

Abstract

In recent years business organisations have recognised the great profits potential offered by the demand for status goods and have sought to encourage still higher levels of status seeking among consumers. To this end, many products are designed and promoted either wholly or partly as status symbols, with marketing strategies geared to securing rapid rates of social obsolescence in goods and services on offer. At the same time, we still know remarkably little about conspicuous consumption itself or about buyer behaviour in the market for status goods. This article examines the special characteristics of the conspicuous consumer and explores ways in which marketing planning may be improved.

Details

Marketing Intelligence & Planning, vol. 2 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0263-4503

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1992

John Conway O'Brien

A collection of essays by a social economist seeking to balanceeconomics as a science of means with the values deemed necessary toman′s finding the good life and society enduring…

1155

Abstract

A collection of essays by a social economist seeking to balance economics as a science of means with the values deemed necessary to man′s finding the good life and society enduring as a civilized instrumentality. Looks for authority to great men of the past and to today′s moral philosopher: man is an ethical animal. The 13 essays are: 1. Evolutionary Economics: The End of It All? which challenges the view that Darwinism destroyed belief in a universe of purpose and design; 2. Schmoller′s Political Economy: Its Psychic, Moral and Legal Foundations, which centres on the belief that time‐honoured ethical values prevail in an economy formed by ties of common sentiment, ideas, customs and laws; 3. Adam Smith by Gustav von Schmoller – Schmoller rejects Smith′s natural law and sees him as simply spreading the message of Calvinism; 4. Pierre‐Joseph Proudhon, Socialist – Karl Marx, Communist: A Comparison; 5. Marxism and the Instauration of Man, which raises the question for Marx: is the flowering of the new man in Communist society the ultimate end to the dialectical movement of history?; 6. Ethical Progress and Economic Growth in Western Civilization; 7. Ethical Principles in American Society: An Appraisal; 8. The Ugent Need for a Consensus on Moral Values, which focuses on the real dangers inherent in there being no consensus on moral values; 9. Human Resources and the Good Society – man is not to be treated as an economic resource; man′s moral and material wellbeing is the goal; 10. The Social Economist on the Modern Dilemma: Ethical Dwarfs and Nuclear Giants, which argues that it is imperative to distinguish good from evil and to act accordingly: existentialism, situation ethics and evolutionary ethics savour of nihilism; 11. Ethical Principles: The Economist′s Quandary, which is the difficulty of balancing the claims of disinterested science and of the urge to better the human condition; 12. The Role of Government in the Advancement of Cultural Values, which discusses censorship and the funding of art against the background of the US Helms Amendment; 13. Man at the Crossroads draws earlier themes together; the author makes the case for rejecting determinism and the “operant conditioning” of the Skinner school in favour of the moral progress of autonomous man through adherence to traditional ethical values.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 19 no. 3/4/5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 August 1993

Vladimer Papava

As is recognized, indirect business taxes are the unearned incomeof the Government. Shows that the fifth factor of production is theeconomic ability of Government; indirect taxes…

Abstract

As is recognized, indirect business taxes are the unearned income of the Government. Shows that the fifth factor of production is the economic ability of Government; indirect taxes on business are corresponding factorial income, which is transferred into Government profit. Shows also that transfer payments create special social goods – egalitarian goods, defined as social tranquillity, reached by overcoming poverty and by income inequality reduction. Creating one of the kind of social goods, transfer payments assume a productive character. The new view on indices taxes on business and transfer payments makes it obligatory to include them in GNP and NI in a new way, which is shown in the macroeconomic indices of the USA.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 20 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 27 February 2020

Elena G. Popkova and Bruno S. Sergi

The purpose of this article is to determine the future proportion and variants of usage of human intellect and artificial intelligence (AI) in entrepreneurship of industry 4.0…

2998

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this article is to determine the future proportion and variants of usage of human intellect and artificial intelligence (AI) in entrepreneurship of industry 4.0 that fits social entrepreneurship the most. It could be convergence (simultaneous utilization during the same entrepreneurial processes with the emphasis on unique features by the terms of the competition) or divergence (usage during different business processes by the terms of labor division).

Design/methodology/approach

The authors determine the influence of usage of human capital and AI on the efficiency of social entrepreneurship. The authors identify the perspective directions of usage of AI in social entrepreneurship and evaluate the readiness and interest in the implementation of these directions of concerned parties. The authors also model the optimal proportions and the variant of usage of human intellect and AI in social entrepreneurship in the conditions of Industry 4.0 in the future (until 2030).

Findings

It is found that social entrepreneurship will use the opportunities of Industry 4.0 for optimization of its activities until 2030, but will refuse from full automatization, using human intellect and AI at the same time.

Originality/value

The most perspective directions of application of AI at social companies are a collection of social goods and services, marketing studies and promotion of social goods and services. Neither convergence nor divergence of human and artificial intellectual capital does not fully conform to the interests of concerned parties. The most preferable (optimal) variant of usage of human intellect and AI in social entrepreneurship in the Industry 4.0 is human intelligent decision support.

Details

Journal of Intellectual Capital, vol. 21 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1469-1930

Keywords

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