The importance of threat,strategy, and resource appraisals for long-term proactive risk management among forest owners in Sweden

In natural hazards management, it is important to understand what motivates people to act when they or their property are threatened by natural hazards. Despite the importance of both threat and coping appraisals for responses to threats, less is known about the relations between threat and coping appraisals when risk management is long term. The present study examined appraisals of threat (cognitive and emotional), personal resources (cost and self-efficacy), and strategies (response-efficacy) as predictors of proactive management responses (past behavior and future intention) among forest owners in Sweden by means of a questionnaire (n = 1482). A path analysis revealed that threat appraisals and response-efficacy were direct predictors of past risk management behavior and the intention to respond in the future. Appraisals of resources, including cost and self-efficacy, were indirectly – via forest susceptibility and threat appraisals – related to threat responses. Although the model displayed reasonable fit for both owners more and those less involved in forestry, the cognitive appraisals variable was not a significant predictor of responses among owners less involved in forestry. In the full sample, the examined model explained approximately 50% of the variance in threat appraisals, and 28 and 17% in future intention and past behavior, respectively. Theoretical implications for how threat and coping appraisals are related during long-term risk management, and practical implications for forest risk management, are discussed.     

Community gardening and health-related benefits for a rural Victorian town

Community gardens are growing in popularity as a strategy to effectively deal with population health at a local level. There is a need to gather information about the health-related benefits of community gardens for people living in a rural locale. This paper discusses the health-related benefits of rural community gardens. We adopted a qualitative approach to examine these issues. Ten participants, eight females and two males, aged between 50 and 82, who have participated in a community garden located in South Gippsland, Victoria, for a minimum of 12 months, took part in this study. Semi-structured interviews that lasted between 30 and 60 min were conducted to explore the perspectives and lived experiences of the participants. Thematic analysis was utilised to analyse the data. We situate our discussion in this paper within the therapeutic landscape theory. Findings indicate that there is a range of health-related benefits associated with participation in rural community gardens, including physical, nutritional, social and psychological. Despite these benefits, the participants wished to see some improvements that could attract more people in rural areas to participate in community gardens. Given the paucity of research available regarding rural community gardens, future research should continue to develop an understanding of these rural sites, especially given the ever-growing popularity of community gardens Australia-wide.     

Physical activity advocacy in the UK: a multiple streams analysis of a hybrid policy issue

Physical activity is increasingly being defined as a major, complex, multi-sector issue. In order to understand more about how this expanded conception of physical activity is being factored into public policy, this article applies the multiple streams theory of policy change to examine the United Kingdom (UK) physical activity domain. Participant observation, policy analysis and media analysis are combined to examine the ways in which the political context, problem framing and policy solutions were brought together by a range of policy entrepreneurs. The study pays particular attention to how one lobby effort in the UK, the All Party Committee on Physical Activity (APCPA) attempted to elevate physical activity to a higher level of importance. The findings show how a hybrid form of organisation made up of traditional interest groups, corporations and government insiders, has successfully decreased ambiguity about physical activity and increased both official and public attention about the issue. The article suggests that while the multifarious benefits of physical activity and the diverse range of organisations involved have contributed to momentum towards policy change, these factors may also inhibit physical activity from remaining high on the policy agenda. Suggestions are offered for policy practices at a national level.     

A STOCHASTIC SETTING TO BANK FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE FOR REFINING EFFICIENCY ESTIMATES

This study contributes to develop a framework to measure the financial performance of banks in a stochastic setting. The framework comprises several steps, the first of which is the development of a financial performance measurement model to evaluate a bank's financial performance using a set of factors from the CAMEL (Capital adequacy, Assets, Management Capability, Earning and Liquidity) system. Second, the stochastic setting of the efficiency measurement is handled using the data collection budget allocation approach, whereby Monte Carlo simulations are used to analyse additional generated data and a genetic algorithm is used to refine the accuracy of the efficiency estimates. The results show that the accuracy of the model is greatly improved using the proposed approach. In contrast to the conventional deterministic model, the proposed framework is more useful to managers in determining the bank's future financial operations to improve the overall financial soundness of the bank. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Replicating,validating, and reducing the length of the consumer perceived value scale

This research reports an assessment of Sweeney and Soutar's (2001) consumer perceived value (PERVAL) scale. The PERVAL scale contains four dimensions: quality, emotional, price, and social values. The present study develops and evaluates two short forms of the original 19-item PERVAL scale based on Sweeney and Soutar's (2001) original data and three other studies in two different countries. In comparison with the full scale, the short 12-item and 8-item forms have equally good dimensional properties and equivalent predictive validity. The discussion includes implications, both for research and for retail managers.     

Managing publicly owned land in Canberra: Rural to urban change of use

All land in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) is government owned. Prior to 1989, when the ACT became self-governing, the government developed land for urban use and auctioned leases for parcels of land for specified uses. Since then, leases for raw land have been auctioned for private development, to be completed within a specified time. A case study of a development where the ACT Government aimed to increase urban densities shows that the result was a reduction in quality. In addition, the financial returns to the ACT Government were much lower than if it had undertaken the development itself.     

Performance Related Pay In Operation: A Case Study From the Electronics Industry

Stephen Procter, Louise McArdle, Michael Rowlinson, Paul Forrester and John Hassard draw on the evidence of a longitudinal case study of a large electronics company to discuss the problems arising from the introduction and operation of a performance related pay system. These included resource constraints, difficulties in criteria selection, and subjectivity. Underlying these problems was the workforce's lack of confidence in the principle as well as the appication of the system. the authors conclude that companies face great difficulty in using such systems to effect cultural change: the necessary culture may already have to exist for such pay systems to work. Stephen Procter, Paul Forrester and John Hassard, respectively, are lecturers and Professor in the School of Management and Economics at the University of Keele, Louise McArdle is in the Department of Organisation Studies at the University of Central Lancashire, and Michael Rowlinson is in the Department of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Southampton.     

Defining and Measuring Competences: An Application to Graduate Surveys

In this article, we review the competence concept and apply it to the measurement of competences in graduate surveys. The relevant literature reveals that three important perspectives on the meaning and operationalisation of competences may be distinguished: The educational perspective, the labour market perspective and the human resources perspective. The second part of the article is concerned with the measurement of competences in the context of labour market research using graduate surveys. Using the insights obtained from the literature, competences are defined and a measurement method is chosen. Empirical evidence suggests that this measurement method performs better than previously used measurement methodologies.