Functional ingredients and food choice: Results from a dual-mode study employing means-end-chain analysis and a choice experiment

In this paper we present the results of a choice experiment (CE) conducted to examine how the inclusion of a functional ingredient (to increase the quantity and effectiveness of fibre) affects consumer attitudes towards bread. An novel feature of the design of our CE was that it was informed by a means-end-chain (MEC) to reveal key attributes to be included in the CE. In addition, we included the Dutch eating behaviour questionnaire (DEBQ) to collect information on all participants underlying eating behaviours. We find that bread type is a major factor in determining choice, and that the inclusion of a functional ingredient yielded relatively small measures of value. We also find that there are differences in willingness-to-pay (WTP) between respondent segments and that segment membership is explained by the DEBQ information. Finally, we find that respondents have a stronger preference for a simple health statement compared to, or in addition to, the implied benefits that result from consuming a functional food product. These findings are important in informing both pricing and promotional messages for a functional bread product.     

Union use of social media: a study of the University and College Union on Twitter

The importance of the Internet to trade unionism has not gone unnoticed by academics, and while many have perceived the need for unions to engage in social media, there has not been any study of how unions use social media. This paper provides a systematic examination of union social media use in terms of method, scope and content. The University and College Union (UCU) Twitter account was used as a case study. Tweets (n = 1,615) were collected over a four‐month period (January 1–April 30, 2014) from the official UCU account with followers (n = 12,301) also categorised to determine who is listening. Findings are discussed with reference to earlier debates on union use of the Internet. We find that while UCU has moved with technological developments by using Twitter, the content of the union's messages remain in line with traditional union communication, and the engagement opportunities of social media are underutilised.     

Demand-side broadband policy in the context of digital transformation: An examination of SME digital advisory policies in Wales

Increasing attention has been paid to the potential for demand-side policies to stimulate use of broadband networks. Such policies form part of the increasing digitalisation of the economy and wider society. This is an area where governments are also facing challenges in their efforts to maximise the efficiency and effectiveness of their policies. The paper sheds light on the impact that the transition towards digital has had on demand-side policies supporting the adoption of broadband and digital technologies by SMEs, and draws out the implications for policy, using a case study of Wales in the UK over a ten-year period. It shows that digitalisation has seen policy mechanisms and messages evolving as policy makers have created a more integrated and multi-channel approach to the delivery of advisory support to SMEs, but that the emergence of multiple types of actors (large digital platform businesses) and ongoing digitalisation are adding complexity to policies and their interaction with other forms of public and private business support.     

Marketing communication strategies in support of product launch: An empirical study of Taiwanese high-tech firms

To understand the mechanisms that underlie marketing communication support for product launches, the authors conduct an empirical study and propose a conceptual framework that depicts the relationships between informational/transformational or elaborational/relational messages and their effectiveness. The hypothesized message-communication and message-sales effect links are moderated by three communication process characteristics: message clarity, message uniformity, and integration of the communication. On the basis of data collected from an industrial survey of 101 high-tech firms in Taiwan, the authors find that informational and relational messages offer greater support for new products. Whereas message clarity and integration of communication expectedly demonstrate positive moderating effects on message-performance links, message uniformity only affects messages-sales effect relationships. The authors explore research insights and discuss implications for both academia and practitioners from the perspectives of new product management and integrated marketing communications.     

Crisis management effectiveness indicators for US meat and poultry recalls

Policy makers within the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) complement the role of meat and poultry plant managers in food recalls. The increasing frequency and scale of recalls raise questions whether sufficient attention is placed on these events. Three measures of recall effectiveness are introduced to evaluate this public-private crisis management process. Managerial and technical variables are compared to these measures of effectiveness. Results from regression models suggest that recalls carried out by the smallest sized plants, those that took place after Pathogen Reduction/Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point implementation, and recalls involving processed products are more effective. Little evidence of differences was found in the effectiveness of the crisis management process between meat plants compared with poultry plants or for plants that are part of a larger firm. Despite USDA’s stated focus on recalls with more severe public health consequences, there is no evidence that Class I or microbiological recalls are more effectively managed.     

时滞超混沌系统的同步

时滞混沌系统是无穷维系统 ,由这样的系统产生的超混沌可具有多个正的L yapunov指数 ,因此系统可以产生复杂的时间序列。这个特征使它特别适用于保密通讯。本文正是根据时滞超混沌系统的这一特点 ,给出了一种同步时滞混沌系统的新方法。通过L yapunov稳定理论得到了系统同步时系统参数满足的条件。数值仿真表明了该方法的有效性。     

The intentional use of chapter XI: Lingering versus immediate filing

This paper focuses on the timing, i.e. delay or accelerate, of the declaration of Chapter XI prior to financial insolvency. Chapter XI can be declared by firms who believe that the firm can emerge from bankruptcy protection as a re-vitalized organization. The timing of its selection is proposed to be a function of the level of environmental adversity and organizational attributes, especially slack resources. Recent developments in the bankruptcy code and its usage by firms, suggest the increasing use of managerial prerogative in the selection of Chapter XI prior to financial insolvency. Chapter XI protection can allow firms the necessary time for effective reorganization if managerial intervention is exercised. As a result of a more precise timing of selection and a proactive reorganization, there will be a higher probability of re-emerging from bankruptcy as a revitalized organization.     

When do we really need interpersonal trust in globally dispersed new product development teams?

Interpersonal trust refers to the willingness to make oneself vulnerable to the actions of another party. Trust is generally acknowledged as fostering knowledge exchange and thus contributing to new product development (NPD) team effectiveness. However, the conditions under which NPD teams come to rely more heavily on trust to facilitate effectiveness remain unclear. With burgeoning global collaboration on new product development, we analyze how the characteristics of global NPD teams, i.e., geographic dispersion, computer‐mediated communication (e.g., e‐mail, video‐conferencing), team membership flexibility, and national diversity moderate the trust–effectiveness relationship. Our results show that trust is more important under the condition of geographic dispersion, computer‐mediated communication, and national diversity. By specifying when trust influences NPD team effectiveness in globally dispersed teams, we discuss the theoretical implications and provide recommendations for management.     

Owner-occupancy fraud and mortgage performance

We identify occupancy fraud—borrowers who misrepresent their occupancy status as owner-occupants rather than investors—in residential mortgage originations. Unlike previous work, we show that fraud was prevalent in originations not just during the housing bubble but also persists through more recent times. We also demonstrate that fraud is broad-based and appears in government-sponsored enterprise and bank portfolio loans, not just in private securitization; these fraudulent borrowers make up one third of the effective investor population. Occupancy frauds obtain credit at lower interest rates, suggesting a motivation for undertaking fraud. These fraudulent borrowers perform substantially worse than similar declared investors, defaulting at a 75% higher rate. We also provide evidence consistent with fraudulent borrowers’ defaults being more “strategic,” suggesting that this population poses a risk in the face of declining house prices.     

Trans fat in foods in Iran,South-Eastern Europe,Caucasia and Central Asia: a market basket investigation

Efforts to minimize the intake of industrial trans fat (I-TF) worldwide and thereby decrease the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) have recently been intensified by the WHO and other organizations. The purpose of this study was to estimate the amounts of I-TF in biscuits, cakes and wafers in Iran, Turkey and Greece and to examine the recent changes made to these food products in some of the countries of the former Soviet Union and the former Yugoslavia, where these food products were previously investigated for I-TF. Three large supermarkets were visited or revisited in each of the countries’ capitals from 2014 to 2019. Pre-packaged biscuits, cakes and wafers were purchased if the list of ingredients mentioned partially hydrogenated fat or a similar term, including margarine, refined fat or confectionery fat, and the product contained more than 15 g of total fat per 100 g of product. Samples of the foods were subsequently analysed for trans fat (TF).In 84 different products in Iran, TF was between 2% and 5% of total fat. In Turkey, 6 different products had TF between 2% and 5%, and in Greece, 11 products had TF between 2% and 20%. This finding is in stark contrast to the findings of 2% to 50% TF found in 50–100 products in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Georgia, Serbia, Slovenia, and Croatia in 2014–2015. In the 7 latter countries, there was a 40–80% decline in the presence of TF from 2014/2015 to 2016/2019, but the findings indicate that in 2018/2019, high amounts of TF were still present in popular foods in some of these countries.     

B2B social media semantics: Analysing multimodal online meanings in marketing conversations

There are theoretical and methodological gaps in the B2B social media marketing communications literature. As a consequence, there is a need for new approaches that provide a comprehensive understanding of how B2B online marketing posts create virtual conversations and the types of meanings these linked communication events construct and convey, particularly as these message are often distributed across multiple social media platforms. This paper presents a Social Semiotic Multimodal (SSMM) framework that attempts to address shortfalls in theory and method conceptualisation of social media communications. This framework employs multimodal extensions to systemic functional linguistics enabling it to be applying to analysing non-language as well as language constituents of social media messages. Furthermore the framework also utilises expansion theory to identify, categorise and analyse various marketing communication resources associated with marketing messages and also to reveal how conversations are chained together to form extended online marketing conversations. This semantic approach is exemplified using a Fairtrade Australia B2B case study demonstrating how marketing conversations can be mapped and analysed. The framework emphasises the importance of acknowledging the impact of all stakeholders, particularly messages that may distract or confuse the original purpose of the conversation.     

Tweeting and Retweeting for Fight for $15: Unions as Dinosaur Opinion Leaders?

Advocacy campaigns are central to unions’ efforts to impact labour rights beyond unionized workplaces. Social media and on-the-ground campaign dynamics are intimately related. Thus, if unions can become leaders on social media, they could have more impact on campaign framing and mobilizing. Drawing on primary data and applying a sequential mixed method, we analyse unions’ ability to emerge as opinion leaders in Twitter dialogues on the Fight for $15 (FF$15) campaign. We track FF$15-related activities of Twitter profiles over seven months and compare union actions to those of others along three dimensions: level of activity, prevalence of tweeting versus retweeting and endorsement within FF$15 community and in the Twitter universe. Regression results show unions prefer advancing their own ideas over supporting those of others, and their messages are more endorsed than others’ messages in the Twitter universe. In-depth interviews and a focus group reveal that while their actions are slow and conservative, unions can count on internal support and institutional reputation to gain leadership. The article concludes by noting the implications of the findings for unions’ strategies to become opinion leaders on social media.     

The cost,coverage and rollout implications of 5G infrastructure in Britain

Despite 5G still being embryonic in its development, there is already a quest for evidence to support decision-making in government and industry. Although there is still considerable technological, economic and behavioural uncertainty, exploration of how the potential rollout may take place both spatially and temporally is required for effective policy formulation. Consequently, the cost, coverage and rollout implications of 5G networks across Britain are explored by extrapolating 4G LTE and LTE-Advanced characteristics for the period 2020–2030. We focus on ubiquitous ultrafast broadband of 50 Mbps and test the impact of annual capital intensity, infrastructure sharing and reducing the end-user speed in rural areas to either 10 or 30 Mbps. For the business-as-usual scenario we find that 90% of the population is covered with 5G by 2027, but coverage is unlikely to reach the final 10% due to exponentially increasing costs. Moreover, varying annual capital intensity or deploying a shared small cell network can greatly influence the time taken to reach the 90% threshold, with these changes mostly benefiting rural areas. Importantly, simply by integrating new and existing spectrum, a network capable of achieving 10 Mbps per rural user is possible, which is comparable to the UK's current fixed broadband Universal Service Obligation. We contribute to the literature by quantifying the effectiveness of the spatial and temporal rollout of 5G under different policy options.     

Pay for Performance and Corporate Governance Reform

Directors’ pay and corporate governance continue to generate public outrage and calls for reform. Our meta‐regression analysis of all comparable UK pay‐for‐performance estimates finds little, if any, meaningful association between directors’ pay and corporate performance. However, there is evidence of the effectiveness of past “comply‐or‐explain” rules, especially the Cadbury Report. Unfortunately, the effects of past reform efforts tend to erode over time. This study also explores differences between pay–performance estimates, finding that these are largely explained by how pay and performance are measured by a given study.     

Improving the efficiency targeting of Malawi's farm input subsidy programme: Big pain,small gain?

The Farm Input Subsidy Programme (FISP) in Malawi was introduced in the 2005/2006 season against a background of bad weather affecting production and prolonged food shortages. Vouchers are distributed empowering eligible farmers to exchange them for fixed quantities of inputs at subsidized prices. Since its inception, there has been a debate at national level about whether the FISP’s potential has been fully exploited, with policy makers exploring options to improve the programme. Proposals include targeting efficient and productive farmers to maximize returns. In this paper, we evaluate the effectiveness of these proposed changes to the existing FISP design by utilizing two waves of the LSMS-ISA survey merged with climatic data. We estimate how the national demand for agricultural inputs varies according to a variation in the targeting criteria by means of a two-stage demand system. Then, we identify more efficient farmers by means of a stochastic frontier approach. We observe a mismatch between voucher recipients and efficiency, with approximately 60% of vouchers being allocated to the three bottom quintiles of efficiency. This mismatch is observed also at the spatial level with more vouchers going to districts characterized by less efficient production. While concerns on the distributional impacts of the new criteria are discussed together with some suggestions for spatially diversifying the structuring of the policy and incentivizing crop diversification, our results highlight a high substitutability of commercial with subsidized inputs by new eligible farmers. Consequently, simulating the targeting policy variation we obtain an outcome that would lead only to a limited increases in predicted food expenditure ranging from 0.27% to 0.8% and maize production from 0.2% to 1.3. Scope for analysing different adjustments in the functioning of FISP are, thus, proposed to policy makers.     

Design and application of task administration protocols for collaborative production and service systems

This research investigates the design of Task Administration Protocols (TAPs) for effective task allocation and administration in collaborative production/service systems. Customer-focused and concurrent engineering service systems process tasks more effectively as a result of the power of collaboration among multiple participants. In such environments, however, complex situations might arise that require decisions that cannot be handled by simple Coordination Protocols (CPs). To design an effective control mechanism to manage complex situations, this research identifies basic problems in collaborative task administration and proposes the design framework of protocols to solve the problems. In the framework, TAPs consist of three component-protocols: (1) Task Requirement Analysis Protocol, (2) Shared Resource Allocation Protocol, and (3) Synchronization and Time-Out Protocol. Each component protocol is activated to address priority-based allocation, resource-aware allocation, and task re-allocation at a different task administration context, ranging from task initialization, task allocation, to task monitoring, respectively. To analyze feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed design, TAPs are applied to two collaborative production/service systems. Simulations are conducted to evaluate the performance achieved by different TAPs and non-TAP CPs under various load conditions. The results show that there is a significant performance improvement by TAPs over CPs in most cases, e.g., 84% vs. 64% in terms of task completion ratio. The advantage of TAPs can be explained by their design with relatively higher level of collaborative intelligence, addressing more complex control logic than non-TAP CPs.     

New Measures of Union Organizing Effectiveness

This study compares union organizing activity and success in the United States and Canada. Based largely on certification data for the period 1976–1985, he results indicate there was a substantial decline in union organizing effectiveness in the United States and the Canadian unions were more active and successful in recruiting new members than their American counterparts. The evidence suggests that labor policy in Canada is more supportive of union organizing and the achievement of first collective agreements.     

Viewpoint: Soda taxes – Four questions economists need to address

The popularity of soda taxes as a public health policy has grown rapidly in the last few years. While the evidence that the tax works in reducing the purchases of soda is emerging, there are a number of questions that are yet to be answered before the broader effectiveness of this measure can be determined. Beyond health effects, there is more specifically a need to better understand the economic mechanisms of change, redistributive effects, as well as causal and spillover effects in food systems and economy more broadly.     

The Effectiveness of Health and Safety Committees: Results of a Survey of Public-Sector Workplaces The Effectiveness of Health and Safety Committees

This study examines the effectiveness of occupational safety and health com-mittees within the public sector of New Jersey. Survey data collected from work-site representatives were matched with state-collected reports of injury and illnesses. While there remain methodological problems with this approach, the results indicate that committee scope and training play a positive role in perceptions of committee effectiveness and that committees with more worker involvement are associated with fewer reported illnesses and injuries.