How UK universities engage with their local communities: a study of employer supported volunteering

• In 2000, the UK Prime Minister pledged that employers should be encouraged to release staff for 1 day a year to undertake volunteering activity. Many and varied programmes are being set up to assist employees to volunteer, whether during work hours or in their own time. This is called employer supported volunteering (ESV). This paper discusses the increasing use of ESV and aims to provide an understanding of the key concepts of this phenomenon. An E‐mail survey was completed of all 122 universities in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. University websites linked to volunteering for staff and students were also examined. Responses were received from 65 institutions (a response rate of 53%). This initial research reveals that university commitment to ESV varies across the sector. Many universities support staff volunteering and informally encourage links with the local community through voluntary activity but only seven institutions had developed a formal policy allowing staff time off work to volunteer. From this initial research, three best practice universities have emerged and their activities are discussed. The next stage in this project is to research the areas identified and to explore the extent of volunteering by university staff and staff attitudes to volunteering with a view to provide a full picture of ESV in the UK university sector.

Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Television Commercial Evaluation in the Context of Program Induced Mood: Congruency versus Consistency Effects

Abstract

This study examines the effect of the mood induced by television program content on subjects' evaluations of commercials. Specifically, happy or sad commercials are viewed in the context of a television program designed to induce these respective moods. The competing predictions of Mood Congruence Theory versus the Consistency Effect are examined to interpret the results. For all dependent measures considered, findings were in accordance with a Consistency Effect interpretation of the results. For two such measures (i.e., liking for the commercial and purchase intention) the Consistency Effect was statistically supported. Hence for these measures, it was found that a happy commercial viewed in the context of a happy program was evaluated more favorably than the same commercial viewed after exposure to a sad program. For the sad commercial, the reverse effects for these measures were evident as this commercial performed more favorably in the context of a sad program relative to a happy one. The dominance of a Consistency Effect interpretation of the results over that of Mood Congruence are interpreted in the context of advertising strategy.     

Contingency variables for customer share of visits to full-service restaurant

This study sought to reveal the direct effect and/or moderating effects of contingency variables in relation to customer share of visits. The hypotheses of this study were tested based on responses from 277 general U.S. full-service restaurant customers, using a series of (moderated hierarchical) regression analyses. The direct effects of social switching costs, lost benefits costs, procedural costs, and intrinsic inertia were positive whereas that of intrinsic variety-seeking was negative on customer share of visits. Consumer involvement and perceived brand heterogeneity were found to enhance the effect of brand preference on customer share of visits.     

Risky recreation: an exploration of factors influencing the likelihood of participation and the effects of experience

The purpose of this research was to systematically examine factors that may influence participation in risky recreational activities. Because more people participate in risky leisure activities, it is important to acquire a more in-depth understanding of the factors influencing their behaviours. We examine these issues in the context of a survey concerned with participation in the sport of mountain biking. Results revealed that experience influenced risk perceptions, expected affective outcomes, and the attractiveness or appeal of the activity. In addition, expected affective outcomes moderated the influence of experience on appeal. The likelihood of participation in a high-risk consumption activity was determined by affective outcome expectancies, appeal of the activity, risk perceptions, and prior experience. The results also indicated that the activity's appeal moderated the influence of perceived risk on the individual's likelihood of participation.     

2½ Proposals to Save Social Security*

This is a review article of three books that deal with the problems facing the U.S. Social Security system. One deals with the OASDI (Old-Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance) financial shortfall and proposes an alternative plan with both a tier one benefit and a tier two provision based on personal saving accounts. A second considers the social insurance system more comprehensively, arguing for a grand reform that would include new programs, particularly in the areas of child care and housing. A third largely confines itself to arguing against those who wish to change the OASDI plan because of the financial projections, although it also argues for a more comprehensive health care insurance system. The review concludes that key differences expressed in the books, particularly between the first and third, rest on different value judgments regarding intergenerational equity and the role of government.     

Children as Economic Agents

A generational perspective recognizes that children have preferences which may differ systematically from those of adults, and, furthermore, that a children's standpoint should be recognized by scholars and activists and incorporated into policy targeted at children and their families. Economics has not considered children as agents because of their lack of power relative to adults. The implications of recognizing children's agency are explored for the case of children's paid and unpaid labor force and household work.     

Women in the Labor Market (Volumes I and II), edited by Marianne A. Ferber

Abstract

European states vary in eldercare policies and in gendered norms of family care, and this study uses these variations to gain insight into the importance of macro-level factors for the work–care relationship. Using advanced panel data methods on European Community Household Panel (ECHP) data for 1994–2001, this study finds women's employment to be negatively associated with informal caregiving to the elderly across the European Union. For the countries included in the study, the effects of informal caregiving seem to be more negative in Southern Europe, less negative in Nordic countries, and in between these extremes in Central Europe. This study explains that since eldercare is a choice in countries with more formal care and less pronounced gendered care norms, the weaker impact of eldercare on women's employment in these countries has to do with the lesser degree of coercion in the caring decision.