Predictors of safety behaviour among emergency responders on the highways

Safety behaviour is one of the main determinants of job-related accidents. Few studies have focused on safety behaviour of emergency responders. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the impact of psychosocial predictors on safety behaviour, taking into consideration a sample of Italian emergency responders operating on the highways (N?=?203). Results showed that adherence to safety procedures, reporting accident risk and use of individual protection devices were predicted by risk perception and safety climate. The attitude of priorities of rescue operations vs. safety predicted reporting accident risk. The conceptual and practical implications that emerged are discussed.     

Interview with Jean‐Philippe Courtois,CEO, Microsoft EMEA

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is the worldwide leader in software, services, and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. One of the most successful corporations in the world by any standard of measurement, Microsoft EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) is highly committed to a vast and particularly varied region, with more than 12,000 employees and over 60 local offices delivering products and services in 139 countries across the region. Gabriele Suder interviewed Jean‐Philippe Courtois, CEO of Microsoft EMEA and senior vice president in the Microsoft Corporation, about the company's case at the European Commission, and about the significance of the European business environment to international operations. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Exploring the role of internationalization knowledge in fostering strategic renewal: A dynamic capabilities perspective

Internationalization knowledge (IK) is important to successfully enter and develop competitive strategies abroad. Yet, how IK is advanced and improved across the multinational enterprise (MNE), and how this contributes to the MNE’s strategic renewal is less understood. This analysis is based on an in-depth case study of Microsoft International to explore how IK is advanced, improved, and integrated across the enterprise. Our findings suggest that IK plays a critical role in fostering strategic renewal of an MNE. More specifically, sensing, seizing, and transforming capabilities jointly provide the necessary basis that enable IK to facilitate strategic renewal. We contribute to the literature by (1) explicating three categories of IK and their hierarchical relationship; (2) reveal how three distinct capabilities required by MNEs capture and integrate the three categories of IK across the enterprise; and, (3) offering that strategic renewal is triggered by routines based on the development and integration of IK.     

Short‐ and Long‐Run Policy Evaluation: Support for Grassland‐Based Milk Production in Switzerland

Following the abolition of the milk quota in 2008, farmers in Switzerland strongly increased the use of concentrate feed in milk production. Against this background, the Swiss government introduced the voluntary grassland‐based milk and meat (GMF) programme in 2014, which combines economic incentives with feeding restrictions to reduce the reliance on concentrate feed and increase the use of grass feed. We analyse the economic and ecological impacts of the GMF programme at the farm and at the sector level in the short‐ and long‐run. We use a difference‐in‐differences approach (ex‐post) and an agent‐based simulation model SWISSland (ex‐ante) to construct counterfactual states to evaluate the programme's impacts. We find that the GMF programme reduces the use of concentrate feed and increases the use of grass feed in Swiss milk production. Whereas the programme has a positive effect on economic indicators such as the farm income, we find no effect on ecological indicators such as the N surplus. Our analysis suggests that feeding restrictions on concentrate feed are not enough to achieve a reduction in the N surplus. Additional feeding restrictions on grassland are necessary. Furthermore, the GMF programme has a dampening effect on sectoral milk supply, and leads to a higher milk price.     

Eating With Your Eyes: How Packaging Visual Cues Affect Content Estimation and Self-control in Virtue and Vice Food

This research investigates the effects of visual cues depicted on food packaging on consumers’ estimates of the contained amount and consumers’ self-control intentions. Results from two experiments show that the number of product units shown on the package drives perceptions and behavioral intentions in food categories where product size tends to be quite standardized, supporting the “see more, expect more” effect reported by previous literature, but adding a “see virtue, expect more” effect triggered by product type. Instead, when product size tends to vary across manufacturers, picture size has a greater effect on consumers’ content estimations and self-control intention than the number of product units depicted, suggesting the existence of a “see small, expect more” effect according to which consumers estimate larger content when the package portrays smaller product units. Results stimulate awareness of the effects that can be conveyed by images on packaging, on content estimates and consumer self-control.     

Migration and regional convergence in the European Union

We offer an empirical, econometric analysis of the impact of migration on the EU27’s NUTS2 regions in the period 2000–2007. We find that migration had no significant impact on regional unemployment in the EU, but affected both GDP per capita and productivity. A 1 percentage point increase in immigration to immigration regions increased GDP per capita by about 0.02?% and productivity by about 0.03?% on impact and by 0.44?% for GDP per capita and 0.20?% for productivity in the long run. For emigration regions an increase in the emigration rate leads to similar reductions of GDP per capita and productivity both on impact and in the long run. Since immigration regions are often regions with above average GDP, while emigration regions in Europe practically all have below average GDP, migration does not seem to promote convergence.     

The perception of tourism in coffee-producing equatorial countries: An empirical analysis

Some scholars have emphasized the importance of food tourism in mature and certain emergent economies for growing consumption-related products (e.g., wine, beer, rice, and tea) and attempts have been made to study tourism levers and threats in developing economies. However, to the best of our knowledge, little research has been conducted on the potential development of tourism activities centered on coffee producers and their farms in equatorial countries to determine whether a coffee tourism market is developing in these locales and if this could enhance these countries’ brand perceptions. Thus, this study explores the antecedents of the perceptions, potentialities, attitudes, and behavior of tourists specifically with regard to coffee tourism and coffee cultivation visits. To achieve our goal, we employ a quantitative method involving a survey of potential tourists. Our findings indicate that while the effects of gender and age on the perceptions of coffee cultivation visits are not significant, the effects of coffee consumption and travel in coffee-producing countries are positive and significant. These findings help us draw some relevant theoretical and managerial implications.     

Human values and beliefs and concern about climate change: a Bayesian longitudinal analysis

The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of human values on beliefs and concern about climate change using a longitudinal design and Bayesian analysis. A sample of 298 undergraduate/master students filled out the same questionnaire on two occasions at an interval of 2 months. The questionnaire included measures of beliefs and concern about climate change (i.e., perceived consequences, risk perception, and skepticism) and human values (i.e., the Portrait Values Questionnaire). After controlling for gender and the respective baseline score, universalism at Time 1 was associated with higher levels of perceived consequences of climate change and lower levels of climate change skepticism. Self-direction at Time 1 predicted Time 2 climate change risk perception and perceived consequences of climate change. Hedonism at Time 1 was associated with Time 2 climate change risk perception. The other human values at Time 1 were not associated with any of the measures of beliefs and concern about climate change at Time 2. The results of this study suggest that a focus on universalism and self-direction values seems to be a more successful approach to stimulate public engagement with climate change than a focus on other human values.     

Unsafe cycling behaviours and near crashes among Italian cyclists

This study investigates the direct and indirect effect of three types of unsafe behaviours (i.e. errors, generic violations and smartphone-specific violations) on the likelihood of near crashes and actual crashes among Italian cyclists. We considered smartphone-specific violations as a different unsafe behaviour subtype that enhances the probability of committing errors, thus increasing the likelihood of being involved in near crashes. Furthermore, we hypothesized that near crashes will predict actual crashes. Results revealed that errors predicted near crashes, whereas generic and smartphone-specific violations did not. Near crashes mediated the effect of errors on crashes. Moreover, smartphone-specific violations predicted crashes throughout its consecutive effects on errors and near crashes. These findings contribute to deepen our understanding of the relationship between cyclists’ unsafe behaviours, near crashes and actual crashes. To our knowledge, the present study is the first that links errors to near crashes among cyclists.