Characteristics of research on green marketing

This paper aims to describe and analyze the main characteristics of articles on green marketing published in the most relevant journals within the period 1993–2003, in order to determine the evolution of this current issue of research over recent years and improve our understanding of this subject. We built up a database with 112 articles on green marketing and we have explored the topic, the methodology and the techniques of analysis, as well as other relevant aspects of the research. In order to complete this analysis, we made a review of articles published in two journals specializing in environmental management: BSE and CSREM. In this way, this paper offers practical help to those who are beginning research on this topic because the results will help us to determine what still needs to be investigated in this topic and hence propose a research agenda for the coming years. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Spam and Beyond: An Information-Economic Analysis of Unwanted Commercial Messages

The phenomenon of unwanted commercial messages (UCM), including e-mail spam and emerging forms that target other Internet communications facilities, is analyzed from an information-economics perspective. UCM traffic pays off for its senders when it is noticed and consumed by Internet users; the industry is, therefore, dependent on a common-pool resource that is accessed through an information asset. An analytical model of the industry is derived and solved computationally, and two dimensions of information quality held by the senders of UCM traffic are manipulated in the model. It is shown that such manipulations can moderate over time both the number of UCM campaigns undertaken and the amount of Internet bandwidth consumed by UCM. Manipulations of the information-quality dimensions affected by e-mail filtering reduce the amount of traffic that penetrates an Internet user's attention space but increase the amount of Internet bandwidth consumed. This is consistent with data reported by e-mail security providers as filters have been deployed. It is also shown that both public and private entities have adopted policies and practices with unintentional informational side effects. These effects may have led to more rather than less, spam e-mail traffic. It is concluded that the lessons learned from the case of e-mail spam can be applied to the development of policies and practices for mitigating newer, emerging forms of UCM, including versions targeting instant-messaging systems and Web logs.     

Consumers’ Behaviors and Attitudes toward Doggy Bags: Identifying Barriers and Benefits to Promoting Behavior Change

ABSTRACT

This study identifies barriers and benefits of consumers’ current doggy bag behaviors and provides the information required to run an effective community-based social marketing campaign encouraging consumers to take their uneaten restaurant and café food home. This is done by applying a two-stage methodology, including quantitatively analyzing existing survey data and qualitatively investigating focus group discussion. Multiple barriers to widespread doggy bag participation were common and varied for different individuals and included both convenience and social stigma-related factors. The rational appeal of “saving money” was found to be the most effective motivator for encouraging doggy bag usage, especially for women, young people, students/unemployed, and low-income earners. Social marketing strategies and behavior change tools can be developed to remove the barriers and enhance the benefits of using doggy bags, such as developing positive social norms around using doggy bags and highlighting the financial incentive of using them. This research contributes to a limited but growing literature on out-of-home food waste and provides practicable insights for both public policy and for the food service sector for future initiatives aiming to reduce food waste.     

Content Analysis of the ‘Clean Your Plate Campaign’ on Sina Weibo

ABSTRACT

At the beginning of 2013, a Beijing non-profit group launched a ‘Clean Your Plate Campaign’ on Sina Weibo, a Chinese Twitter-like microblogging site, with aims to reduce food waste. This paper examines social media users’ reactions during two periods of the first three years of the campaign. Upon examination of topic content, supporting participation was the most popular topic in January 2013 and showcasing individual achievement was the most frequently discussed topic in March 2016, with socialising as the common purpose for posting in both months. Users mentioning the campaign most in January 2013 belonged to private organisations, with posts from ordinary people becoming more predominant by March 2016. This study sheds light on the use of social media to raise public awareness regarding food waste in China. The findings will help campaigns aiming to promote food waste reductions or other social movements that use social media as a platform for citizen involvement.     

Entrepreneurship as the structuration of individual and opportunity: A response using a critical realist perspective : Comment on Sarason,Dean and Dillard

Sarason et al. [Sarason, Y., Dean, T., Dillard, J.F., 2006. Entrepreneurship as the nexus of individual and opportunity: a structuration view. J. Bus. Venturing, 21, 286-305] build upon Shane and Venkataraman’s [Shane, S., Venkataraman, S., 2000. The promise of entrepreneurship as a field of research. Acad. Manage. Rev., 25, 217–226] framework of the interrelationship between opportunity and the entrepreneur, by proposing Giddens’ structuration theory as the ‘lens through which to view the entrepreneurial process’ (2006: 286). In this comment we make four points. Although we agree that the nexus of entrepreneur and opportunity is one that requires understanding within the context of social structure and the individual agency. Our view of structure differs substantially from Giddens and by implication Sarason et al. (2006). We discuss the implications. Second, since strata in social reality have different ontologies we propose it follows that they are viewed as a dualism. Third, agents have causal power, and ultimate concerns which they try to fallibly to put into practice. We propose entrepreneurship as the study of the interplay between the structures of a society and the agents within it, the implications of fallibility is made explicit. Finally, we take issue with Sarason et al.’s argument for an interpretist epistemology.     

Long-term debt and overinvestment agency problem

We investigate the role of long-term debt in influencing overinvestments by analyzing the pattern of abnormal investments around a new debt offering by unlevered firms. Before being levered when the disciplining role of debt is missing, firms retain excessive amounts of cash. The introduction of debt leads to a dramatic decline in cash ratios and the relation is stronger for firms classified as having poor investment opportunities. For the sub-sample of firms that overinvest in real assets, issuing debt leads to a reduction in abnormal capital expenditures. The decline in overinvestments is explained by debt service obligations that reduce discretionary funds under managerial control. Further, the reduction in overinvestments has a positive impact on equity value. These conclusions hold in other settings where there is a dramatic change in firms’ capital structures providing strong support for the hypothesis that debt reduces overinvestments.     

Performing identity and culture in Indigenous tourism – a study of Indigenous communities in Québec,Canada

The aim of this paper is to analyze the ways in which Indigenous tourism affects representations of identity and culture, and how tourism practices are described, negotiated and related to development in Indigenous communities. This aim is met through a study, including interviews and observations in Québec, Canada, where Indigenous tourism has received increased attention and economic importance in recent years. Tourism is put forward as positive for economic as well as social and cultural development, through alternative income opportunities and the revalorization of traditions and cultural practices. Individuals from four different ethnic nations were involved in the study: Innu (formerly known as Montagnais), Cree (Eeyou), Wôbanaki (Abénakis) and Hurons (Wendat). From the interviews conducted for this study, we find that Indigenous tourism influences the ways in which individuals see themselves, and how they perceive their identity and culture. Through the production of Indigenous tourism products, the notion of authenticity is challenged, and performed in ways that benefit contemporary life within the communities. But these performances may also reproduce or challenge traditional Indigenous identities, and fuel tensions and conflicts between different groups within the communities.