The food pyramid challenge

Pyramid Power is a 1‐hour programme designed to teach food choices, serving sizes and nutrition. Participants (19 women and 8 men) were challenged to follow the recommendation in a step‐by‐step manner. Evaluation, two months after the programme, resulted in two major areas of change. Participants improved their scoring of three food groups (bread‐cereal‐rice‐pasta, vegetable and fruit) and decreased the number of fat–sweet mentions. The programme and challenge provides a way for nutritionists to identify what participants are eating, to track progress and to identify future programme needs.     

Evaluation of commercial weight‐loss programmes in Greece

The objective was to evaluate the success of commercial weight‐loss programmes and define areas that need development in the Greek weight‐loss industry. A total of 973 people (217 men and 756 women), all customers of the same slimming company, participated in the study. Subjects were enrolled in a weight‐loss programme that lasted for a year. Body weight (BW) and height was measured at baseline and at the end of the treatment. For 470 participants, BW was also measured 1 year after the end of the programme (follow‐up). We evaluated alterations in initial and final BW, as well in body mass index (BMI) categorization. Sixty‐six women were allowed to start the programme, although underweight and 47.3% of the participants enrolled with a normal BMI. At the end of the treatment, 124 persons were underweight. Most subjects with a BMI >40 at baseline remained at the same BMI category after the implementation of the programme; however, this was a small group (n = 8). Most subjects (67.3%) remained at the same BMI category after treatment. One year after the completion of the programme, all participants presented significantly higher BW compared with that at the end of the programme. Results suggest that economic gaining is the priority for weight‐loss companies in Greece. The employed staff in its majority is neither nutritionists, nor dieticians, but employees well‐trained on marketing, who are being paid accordingly to their sales. Thus, many customers who are either underweight or of normal BW are enrolled in weight‐loss programmes for the company's financial benefit and are sold programmes with the use of appliances of questionable scientific validation.     

KPMG: Revitalising Culture through Values

The global accounting and consulting firm KPMG relies for much of its earnings on advising other companies on how to change. What happens when such anorganisation needs to change itself? A key element of KPMG's globalisation process over the last two years has been an intense programme of culture change. Unusually, no special project team or steering group was set up to work on the culture change, and no separate Board or local meetings were held. Instead, one person, Jan Thornbury, was made responsible for designing and leading the process and it was fully integrated into the existing organisational programme. In this article, she describes the thinking behind the process and how it was introduced and implemented. She also discusses the culture model and the range of techniques used, emphasising the need for change agents to be sensitive to the dynamics of the organisation and to be creative in their approach. She appeals for pragmatism in culture change, identifying practical steps in implementation – the phase which many organisations find most difficult.She concludes by assessing what has been achieved in KPMG so far and theimplications for other organisations.     

Health promoting schools: integrated practices to develop critical thinking and healthy lifestyles through farming,growing and healthy eating

This paper reports on two case study examples of schools identified from Gloucestershire primary schools as showing particularly good practice in developing the concept of a Health Promoting School. The schools were selected from research projects linked to the Growing Schools programme for promoting children's understanding of food production and consumption, and the Gloucestershire Food Strategy for promoting healthy eating patterns in school children. Examples of curriculum development and associated pedagogy, school organization for democratic involvement of all its participants, and practical changes in the provision of eating choices are presented. These illustrate how integration of critical thinking and changes to the schools' provision of choices for healthy eating patterns can influence children's understanding and behaviour towards diet and health. The key factors that influenced such changes in the schools are identified as: clear leadership with vision from the head teacher, community involvement, ownership of processes of change by all participants, critical thinking as a focus for processes of learning; integrated practice to link experience and understanding, and the school acting as a model for good practice in health and environmental matters.     

Brain activity correlates of consumer brand choice shift associated with television advertising

This study uses brain activity measures to examine the relationship between television advertising and changes in consumer brand preference. Prior to and after viewing a television programme that included grocery advertisements 198 right-handed females selected six ‘door prizes’ from six grocery categories. One of the advertisements featured a jam that was available as a door prize. Steady-state topography (SST) was used to estimate brain activity at eight scalp sites, including left and right lateral prefrontal sites previously shown to index the strength of long-term memory (LTM) encoding. Our hypothesis, that lateral prefrontal activity would be higher during branding for the 18 participants who shifted to the advertised jam compared to those consistently selecting the competitor jam, was confirmed, but only for the left hemisphere. Our findings suggest that SST activity at lateral prefrontal sites during television advertisement branding may be a useful indicator of advertising effectiveness.     

A Tale of Two Cities: Case Studies of Group Support Systems Transition

Research shows that, under certain circumstances, people using GSS can be substantially more productive than people who do not. However GSS has been slow to transition into the workplace. This paper argues that the Technology Transition Model (TTM) may be a useful way to explain this seeming paradox. The paper presents a case study of GSS transition in two organizations – one where a self-sustaining and growing community of users emerged, and one where it did not. Following TTM, it explores the frequency with which users perceived cognitive, economic, affective, political, social, and physical value from using the system. Comparison of the cases reveals differences in perceptions of value along several of these dimensions that are consistent with TTM. The findings suggest the model may be a useful way to explain the transition of collaboration technology, but more research will be required to test the model more rigorously.     

Demand Shifts and Changes in Competition: Evidence from the Movie Theatre Industry

In this paper, I empirically examine how demand shifts affect firm behaviour. In particular, I study how competitive behaviour between firms changes across different demand states. For this purpose, I use price and concentration data from the Spanish movie theatre industry in 1995 and 2000. The evidence suggests that demand shifts change the competitive nature of the industry under study, and that this change differs across different demand shifts. Firms deviate less from tacit collusive behaviour when gains of deviation are smaller.     

Credit cycle dependent spread determinants in emerging sovereign debt markets

We address credit cycle dependent sovereign credit risk determinants. In our model, the spread determinants' magnitude is conditional on an unobservable endogenous sovereign credit cycle as represented by the underlying state of a Markov regime switching process. Our explanatory variables are motivated in the tradition of structural credit risk models and include changes in asset prices, interest rates, implied market volatility, gold price changes and foreign exchange rates. We examine daily frequency variations of U.S. dollar denominated Eurobond credit spreads of four major Latin American sovereign bond issuers (Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela) with liquid bond markets during March 2000 to June 2011. We find that spread determinants are statistically significant and consistent with theory, while their magnitude remarkably varies with the state of the credit cycle. Crisis states are characterized by high spread change uncertainty and high sensitivities with respect to the spread change determinants. We further document that not only changes of local currencies, but also changes of the Euro with respect to the U.S. dollar are significant spread drivers and argue that this is consistent with the sovereigns' ability to pay.     

For your eyes only: U.S. technology companies,sovereign states,and the battle over data protection

Who owns an individual's electronic communications data, who should have access to it, and what can be done with it? The battle of privacy versus security is currently raging between U.S. technology companies and national security forces. U.S. technology companies are adopting corporate foreign policies to respond to sovereign states’ efforts to access customer data, which could change and possibly even destroy their business models. This article discusses the struggles faced by these companies and the policies influencing the possible outcome, as will be determined in the European Union within the next few years.     

Measuring Investors’ Socially Responsible Preferences in Mutual Funds

The aim of this study is to analyze investor behavior towards socially responsible mutual funds. The analysis is based on an experimental study where a sample of individuals takes investment decisions under different parameters of information about the investment alternatives and expected returns. In the experiment, each participant decides how to distribute an investment budget between two funds, returns on which are uncertain and change over time. Two treatments are conducted, each providing a different degree of information on the socially responsible (SR) character of one of the two investment alternatives. The results obtained suggest that although individuals’ criteria for investment are essentially guided by returns and diversification, participants invest significantly more in a fund when they are explicitly informed about its SR nature. In particular, participants who declare being concerned about SR actually invest significantly more in the SR alternative. Furthermore, the level of SR faithfulness among a small group of investors is such that they invest the main share of their budget in the SR fund, even when the return differential is highly unfavorable. Providing clear information about the SR characteristics of an investment is crucial to help investors express their preferences.     

Empirical investigation of channel reactions to brand introductions

We investigate how incumbent manufacturers and retailers alter their pricing behavior in response to new product introduction. In performing our analysis, we need to be cognizant of the fact that the observed price changes can be due to entry-induced changes in a) demand conditions or b) costs or, on the other hand, to the competitive behavior of c) manufacturers and/or d) the retailer. In order to separate these four changes, we posit that manufacturer and retailer pricing is an outcome of maximizing a combination of shares and profits. This enhanced objective function allows us to measure competitive conduct benchmarked as less or more competitive than under the Bertrand-Nash framework. Our empirical analysis is based on the toothpaste category for the time period January 1993–February 1995. During this period, there were three brand introductions in two rounds of entry. Using the estimates from the demand and the supply model, we compute the changes in the retail and wholesale prices that are attributable to changes in demand conditions, manufacturer and retailer competitive conduct, and cost changes. These results support our conjecture that inferring the change in conduct solely based on a change in observed prices is likely to be erroneous. For the first new brand entry, we find that the brand introduction did not significantly increase competition between manufacturers. As a result, the balance of channel power between the manufacturers and the retailers remained unaltered. Both retailer and manufacturer profit margins increased after the first entry. However, subsequent to the second entry, retailer share of channel profits increased at the expense of the manufacturers; manufacturers even saw a decline in their absolute profit margins. We believe that this research will provide insight for manufacturers and retailers regarding how the various channel participants are likely to react to new product introduction. Furthermore, policymakers interested in understanding competitive reactions to new product introduction should find this research useful.     

An evaluation of the effectiveness of televised road safety messages in Ghana

The goal was to evaluate the effectiveness of recent televised advertisements conducted by the National Road Safety Commission in Ghana. These concerned speeding and alcohol-impaired driving and were targeted towards commercial drivers. Focus group discussions were conducted with 50 commercial drivers in four cities. Discussions addressed coverage, clarity and appropriateness of messages, including suggestions for improvements. Most discussants indicated that the messages were clear and appropriate. Television reached all participants in this urban group. However, they felt that other modes of communication, such as flyers and radio, should also be used to reach drivers who did not own televisions. A particular problem was language. The advertisements had been in English and Akan (the most common vernacular language). Participants wanted the messages diversified into more of the major Ghanaian languages. Some participants were unclear on the behaviour that the advertisements were telling viewers to take. Participants advocated greater involvement by police in road safety and called for laws banning the sale of alcohol at bus stations. The advertisements reached and were understood by most of the target audience. Opportunities for strengthening the messages included using other media; increasing the number of languages; and stressing the change in behaviour being recommended. Overall road safety activities would be strengthened by increasing accompanying law enforcement activities related to speed and alcohol-impaired driving. To the authors' knowledge this is the first formal evaluation of a road safety social marketing programme in a low-income sub-Saharan African country. This evaluation will hopefully assist Ghana and other similar countries in strengthening road safety work.     

Employment policies in developing countries

The ILO World Conference on Employment was held in Geneva from June 4 to 17, 1976 and after long discussions adopted an action programme which provided for quite a number of measures designed to ensure full employment in developing countries until the year 2000. The problems posed by a policy of full employment in developing countries are indicated in the following article which demonstrates that a change in the inherited power structures is a major prerequisite for an effective policy of full employment.     

Verhandeln in der Eurogruppe unter Vorbehalt des Bundestags

Before the Federal Government is authorised to provide stability support to member states of the euro zone, it must obtain a mandate from the Bundestag. To what extent does such a parliamentary reserve restrict the scope for negotiation within the Eurogroup? Using the example of the third assistance programme for Greece, the results show that short-term amendments of the conditions, according to which loan tranches are paid out, are hardly possible. Moreover, the Eurogroup was not able to agree to any debt relief that was required by the International Monetary Fund as a prerequisite for financial participation.     

Changing laundry habits in Norway

Maintenance is often the most energy‐demanding stage during clothes' life cycle. Therefore, a shift towards more sustainable washing habits has great potential to reduce the consumption of energy, water and detergent. This paper discusses the change in laundering practices during the past 10 years in Norway and suggests strategies to help consumers change their laundry habits to more sustainable ones. Quantitative information of consumers' experiences, habits and opinions concerning clothing maintenance was collected through three surveys in Norway in 2002, 2010 and 2011. The 2010 study was supplemented with qualitative in‐depth interviews of a strategic sample of households. The average washing temperature has decreased slightly during the studied time periods. Some products' washing frequencies remained the same, whereas other products such as jeans were used a few more days before washing. The cotton programme is the most used washing programme, but short programmes are gaining popularity. The laundry sorting processes vary greatly and are influenced by several factors such as washing temperature, colours, fibre type and use area. For some consumers, the use of several different sorting categories made it more difficult to collect a sufficient amount of clothing to fill the machine. They were also afraid that overfilling the machine would result in clothes that were not clean enough or had detergent residues. Detergent dosing practices are far from optimal. In 2010, although the majority of respondents only used eye measure and did not know the water hardness of their area, they still tried to vary detergent dosage based on the amount of laundry and the level of soiling. Different design for sustainable behaviour strategies could be used within detergent dosage systems, care labelling, machine programme selection (such as suggesting lower temperature and eco‐programme), machine filling grade indicators, storage systems for slightly used clothing and textile material choice.     

Social Role Conceptions and CSR Policy Success

Businesses are eager to present themselves as honest and reliable corporate citizens who care about the overall well-being of society. This article researches whether different role conceptions of businesses regarding social issues are related to their success in dealing with social demands. Do socially active companies have a better social reputation than inactive companies? This relationship is determined by first extracting the social role conceptions of the companies from their Corporate Social Responsibility reports and then comparing this data to their social reputations. The analysis shows that there is indeed a relationship between these two variables. Companies with a broad social role conception score significantly better on their social reputations than companies with a narrow role conception. Social role conceptions therefore matter when dealing with social demands.     

Die Entwicklung der HSH Nordbank als Landesbank — einige Einschätzungen

Some of the German “Landesbanken” engaged in highly risky business with the acceptance of local politicians and then demanded bailouts during the financial crisis. The HSH Nordbank, the world’s largest provider of ship financing, based in northern Germany, lost almost 2.8 billion euros in 2008. The two German shareholders, the states of Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein, had to agree on a 13 billion euro bailout plan for the bank (3 billion euros in cash and a “risk shield” of 10 billion euros). Furthermore, the German government provided the HSH Nordbank with 17 billion euros of liquidity guarantees under the Special Financial Market Stabilisation Fund (SOFFIN). In view of this situation, the following questions should be answered: What role did the merger of the Hamburger Landesbank and Landesbank Schleswig-Holstein play in the development of the HSH Nordbank? Was there a possibility to merge the HSH Nordbank with another bank to avoid the financial difficulties? Were the extensive conditions set by the EU Commission in the state aid proceedings too restrictive? What are the actual costs of the HSH Nordbank’s bailout programme for the shareholders and their governmental budgets?     

The foreign trade of the OPEC states

The changes brought about in the OPEC states by their oil are reflected most clearly in the foreign trade¹. How did their trade develop during the present decade? What will be the outcome of the latest drastic oil price increases?     

Training and women: Some thoughts from the grassroots

Current assumptions and values with respect to management training for women are examined. A number of suggestions for change are made. The thrust of the changes will move us toward ensuring that education for women does not remain “education for frustration”, that is, education which gives women the desire for change in a world that remains the same. Many women have paid their dues, even a premium, for a chance at a top position, only to find a glass ceiling between them and their goal. The glass ceiling is not simply a barrier for an individual, based on the person's inability to handle a higher-level job. Rather, the glass ceiling applies to women as a group who are kept from advancing higher because they are women. (Morrison, White and Velsor, 1987, p. 13). Breaking the Glass Ceiling Can Women Reach the Top of America's Largest Corporations?     

BELARUS AND CHINA：FROM TRADE TO INVESTMENTS

Trade cooperation between Belarus and China： does distance matter？
The diplomatic relations between BeIarus and China have been developing stably and successfully ever since the moment of their establishing （January 1992）. The leaders of the two states have always treated these relations with great attention, responsibility, and care. The relationship has been boosted as a result of the visit of President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko to China in December 2005, during which Alexander Lukashenko and President of China Hu Jintao signed a joint declaration. In that document,