Reducing crimes against wildlife through promoting animal–human continuity beliefs: The role of consumers' religiosity

Wildlife crime is a worldwide issue, but marketing research has been mostly silent on the topic. In particular, research has yet to understand how a consumer's level of religiosity may help to explain views toward and participation in crimes against wildlife. Thus, through three studies, these challenges are addressed. Study 1 shows that religiosity positively influences acceptability views and participation in crimes against wildlife, and this relationship is mediated by animal–human continuity beliefs (i.e., believing animals and humans are one of the same). Study 2 primes religion to show that religiously primed consumers are more likely to view crimes against wildlife as acceptable, thereby supporting religiosity as a primary mechanism in explaining crimes against wildlife. Additionally, animal–human continuity beliefs again mediate this relationship, with religiously primed consumers reporting lower animal–human continuity beliefs. Lastly, Study 3 provides practical implications through marketing messaging aimed at reducing attitudes toward and participation in crimes against wildlife. Findings reveal that religious-based messaging is the most effective. Findings build on belief congruence theory and provide implications for marketing practice and the preservation of wildlife.     

The European Union–West Africa Economic Partnership Agreement: Small impact and new questions

Despite recent modifications, the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the European Union (EU) and West African (WA) countries is still being criticized for its potential detrimental effects on WA countries. This paper provides updated evidence on the impact of the EPA on these countries. A dynamic multi-country, multi-sector computable general equilibrium trade model with modeling of the dual–dual economy and with a consistent tariff aggregator is used to simulate a series of new scenarios that include updated information on the agreement. We also go beyond estimating macro-level economic effects to analyze the impacts on poverty. The policy simulation results show that the implementation of the EPA between the EU and WA countries would have marginal but positive impacts on Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire and negative impacts on Benin, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, and Togo. The impact on poverty indicators in Ghana and Nigeria would be marginal. From the perspective of WA countries, this study supports the view that recent EU concessions are not sufficient and that domestic fiscal reforms are needed in WA countries themselves.     

“Confucian” traits,entrepreneurial personality,and entrepreneurship in China: a regional analysis

Small Business Economics - Regional personality differences have been linked to regional entrepreneurship in Western countries. Here, we offer a first analysis of the relationship between regional...     

NSPCC: Marketing the “solution” not the “problem”

In private sector companies, marketing philosophy and their accompanying portfolio of tools and techniques have long had a strong and shaping role in the creation of a market‐led corporate strategy. This is because in most cases there is an obvious and direct link in the economic transaction which takes place, between the consumers of the product and the suppliers of the product. In such a relationship, consumer preference and consumer sovereignty are meaningful and explanatory concepts. In contrast, in the Charitable Sector, the situation arises where a consumer receives a product or service which is supplied by a charity, but paid for by a third party, which may be a private sector organisation, a public sector organisation or a private individual. This arrangement has often meant that charities have only selectively applied those marketing techniques which are primarily concerned with attracting income from funders to the organisation. Thus a marketing philosophy and all that it implies for the development of an interactive and consumer responsive marketing system, has not been significantly developed.

This paper will argue through use of the illustrative example of the NSPCC (National Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children), that charitable organisations can enjoy substantial benefits through the wider application of marketing principles to their activities.

It will show through its narrow emphasis upon its relationship with the funders, that the NSPCC has created a brand image based upon the problems encountered by the NSPCC, rather than upon the “solutions “ to those problems. This has had the further consequence that the resource allocation and resource attraction systems within the NSPCC has remained separate. A simple model is presented which facilitates examination of this relationship.

It will be suggested that this dichotomy within the NSPCC can be bridged through the Introduction of a marketing orientation which will enhance understanding of the relationship between the NSPCC and its funders, and which above all will provide the stimulus to the creation of a communication system between the funders and the children who are beneficiaries of the NSPCC activity.     

Are physicians a “delinquent community”?: Issues in professional competence,conduct, and self-regulation

This paper examines the moral responsibilities of physicians, toward themselves and their colleagues, their students and patients, and society, in terms of the nature and exercise of professional self-regulation. Some of the author's close encounters with cases involving research misconduct, behavioral impairment or deviance, and medical practice at the moral margin, are described to illustrate why, in Freidson's words, physicians are a delinquent community with respect to the ways they meet their responsibility to govern the competence and conduct of their members. Judith P. Swazey, president of The Acadia Insttute, is co-author of The Courage to Fail: A Social View of Organ Transplants and Hemodialysis and co-editor of several books on medical responsibility. The include Human Aspects of Biomedical Innovation, Social Controls and the Medical Profession and Whistleblowing in Biomedical Research: Policies and Procedures for Responding to Reports of Misconduct. Her Ph.D. in the history of science.     

Presidential Election 2022: A Euroclash Between a “Liberal” and a “Neo-Nationalist” France Is Coming

Intereconomics - The main question surrounding the re-election of Macron is the uncertain balance of France’s flexilateral policy vis-à-vis the EU in a post-Brexit and COVID-19 context:...     

“Small business enterprises and Latino entrepreneurship: An enclave or mainstream activity in South Texas?”

We surveyed 298 Latino small businesses in South Texas, a minority-majority region, in the summer of 2010. The survey focused on Latino entrepreneurship, and in this paper, we report findings associated with business start-up, immigration status of the entrepreneur, the sphere of business operations within formal or informal markets, the role of language in business operations, and the impact of the US-Mexico border in business success. We explore Latino entrepreneurship in the region as an enclave or mainstream activity developing a typology of business income chances associated with immigration documentation and business start-up rationale. Lastly, using multivariate analysis, we find gender, financial access, residence, and business language significant determinants in business orientation between necessity-driven and opportunity-driven Latino enterprises.     

‘A fraud,a drunkard,and a worthless scamp’: estate agents,regulation, and Realtors in the interwar period

The estate agency industry played a key role in the growth of the interwar property market. An important feature of the industry was the low barriers to entry, particularly in terms of regulating practitioners. Yet repeated attempts were made to introduce mandatory licensing of estate agents during this period, all of which failed. This article explores why these attempts were instigated, by whom, and why they failed. It utilises the comparison with the successful introduction of licensing for real estate brokers in the US. The article argues that the desire for a professional identity fuelled these regulatory efforts, and that industry specific endogenous tensions led to their failure. In doing so, this article informs our knowledge of both the interwar development of this key service industry, and of the concepts used to analyse regulation more generally.     

“Misfits,” “stars,” and immigrant entrepreneurship

Prior research has shown that immigrants are more likely than natives to become entrepreneurs, and that entrepreneurs are disproportionately drawn from the extremes of the ability distribution. Using a large panel of US residents with bachelors’ degrees in scientific fields, we ask whether higher rates of entrepreneurship among immigrants can be explained by their position on the ability spectrum and establish four new facts about science-based and immigrant entrepreneurship. First, in this sample, an immigrant entrepreneurship premium exists only in science-based entrepreneurship. Second, this premium persists after controlling for ability (measured by paid employment wage residuals.) Third, a U-shaped relationship between ability and entrepreneurship exists only in non-science entrepreneurship; for science entrepreneurship, the relationship is increasing. Finally, the immigrant premium in science entrepreneurship is largest among immigrants with non-US degrees and those from non-English-speaking or culturally dissimilar countries. Stated preferences for self-employment do not explain the immigrant premium. The results suggest that immigrants may on average have higher levels of unobservable skills related to entrepreneurship.     

Information seeking,external search and “shopping” behaviour: Preliminary evidence from a planned shopping centre

It has long been argued that consumers compare the wares of several retail outlets before the purchase of expensive or ego‐intensive goods. Yet the substantial literature on pre‐purchase information seeking suggests otherwise. Relatively little external search or “shopping” behaviour actually takes place. This discrepancy is attributable to the shortcomings of the pre‐purchase research tradition which relies largely upon retrospective interviewing and treats each product in isolation, despite the prevalence of multipurpose shopping expeditions. By unobtrusively observing the behaviour of shoppers in the Park Centre, Belfast, this paper demonstrates that consumers indulge in “shopping” activity, though much of this is incidental to the main purpose of the trip. Consumers appear to take the opportunity afforded by habitual or unavoidable “chore” shopping expeditions to gather, in an informal manner, information on the many and varied offerings of the marketplace.     

China 2030:Building a Modern,Harmonious,and Creative High-Income Society

On February 27,the World Ba nk released a repor t in Beijing which recommended that China needed to redefine the government's role,alter the structure of state enterprises and gradually allow market-set interest rates in order to sustain its economic growth over the next two decades.By any standard,China's economic     

Payday lending,crime, and bankruptcy: Is there a connection?

The payday lending industry has been the subject of controversy over the years. This is largely due to the high fee structure of payday loans and the view of some that the industry targets economically vulnerable groups. For these reasons, some states prohibit payday lending, while others impose regulatory restrictions on their operations. Despite the prohibitions and restrictions, the industry nonetheless serves a significant segment of the U.S. population. Our purpose is to determine whether in addition to providing loans to individuals, access to payday lenders is associated with less property crime and fewer bankruptcies. Using a unique data set obtained directly from all state regulatory authorities, we find evidence, contrary to some earlier studies, that the presence of payday lenders may help reduce property crime as well as personal bankruptcies.     

Women's bodies,menstruation and marketing “protection:” interpreting a paradox of gendered discourses in consumer practices and advertising campaigns

This essay explores the various associations, conflicts, and resolutions that converge in consumer research to produce an advertising campaign for a feminine hygiene product. Ethnographic research identified a correspondence in beliefs and values among women who discuss menstruation as a natural process of rhythms and flow in their changing bodies. Building off the work of gender discourses in advertising, this paper claims women's “natural” discourse located in research differs from “protection” discourse in advertising, which holds a binary view of menstruation and associates menstruation socially with shame and secrecy. The research reveals that while women adopt a “natural” discourse of menstruation, discourses of “protection” still dominate marketing. Paradoxically, women incorporate both discourses in assemblages of constructing “feminine identities.” This research proposes a correspondence model that regards the consumption of consumer personal-care products in terms of embodiment rather than binary categories as a way to interpret such paradoxes.     

It's the little “stings”: Racial microaggressions against Asian American customers in retail and their effects

Racial discrimination frequently occurs in the retail context. Yet, research has neglected to investigate the experiences and effects of racial microaggressions against Asian Americans in retail. To close this gap, the researchers opted for a mixed-method design combining one-on-one semi-structured interviews and online experiments. The findings in Study 1 show that Asian American customers face more racial microaggressions that are low in racial loading than are high. In Studies 2 and 3, the results indicate that participants in the high racial loading conditions feel higher degrees of anger and shame than those in the low racial loading conditions. Moreover, participants in the high racial loading conditions show lower repatronage intentions and higher word-of-mouth intentions than those in the low racial loading conditions. Also, anger has a stronger association with behavioral intentions than shame. This research adopts the attributional ambiguity theory to understand the psychological processes and effects of racial loading in microaggressions.     

Investigating the impact of social media images’ value,consumer engagement,and involvement on eWOM of a tourism destination: A transmittal mediation approach

Tourism organizations use social media to promote their destinations and attract new customers. However, there is a challenge in how tourism organizations can choose or create social media images to successfully attract consumers' attention, induce their engagement with the destination, and motivate their eWOM behavior. This study aims to identify and test the direct and indirect factors related to social media images of tourism destinations that could predict eWOM. Using the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S–O-R) as an umbrella framework, we integrated Ducoffe's model and the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), to study the role of social media destination images' features (entertainment, informativeness, irritation, credibility, personalization, and incentives) on consumer's perceived value and eWOM through consumer engagement and involvement. Using a survey research method, we collected data from 307 individuals and tested the proposed structural model using the PLS-SEM-based transmittal mediation approach. The findings supported the proposed relationships providing valuable theoretical and practical implications.     

Brand Networks as the Interplay of Identities,Selves, and Turtles: Commentary on “Interplay between intended brand identity and identities in a Nike related brand community: Co-existing synergies and tensions in a nested system”

This commentary emphasizes the networked nature of brands. Brands are identities, and identities are meanings. Meanings are always embedded in networks of association. Therefore, all understandings of brands are necessarily vast, complex, and incomplete, especially in the contemporary age of branding.     

“Surfeiting,the appetite may sicken”: entrepreneurship and happiness

Do the presence and nature of entrepreneurship impact on national happiness, and are nations with happy citizens better for entrepreneurs to start new businesses? To provide tentative answers we survey the literature on entrepreneurship and subjective well-being and use various data sources to uncover the first evidence of the relationship between entrepreneurship and happiness at the country level. We find that opportunity-motivated entrepreneurship may contribute to a nation’s happiness but only to a certain point, at which the effects of happiness begin to decline. Moreover, our results suggest that a nation’s happiness affects early-stage opportunity-driven entrepreneurial activity.