Green intentions under the blue flag: Exploring differences in EU consumers’ willingness to pay more for environmentally‐friendly products

Recent research on consumer social responsibility highlights the need to examine psychological drivers of environmentally‐friendly consumption choices in a global context. This article investigates consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) more for environmentally‐friendly products across 28 European Union (EU) countries, using a sample of 21,514 consumers. A multigroup structural equation modeling analysis reveals significantly different patterns and relationships, in how (a) subjective knowledge about the product's environmental impact, (b) environmental product attitudes, and (c) the perceived importance of the products’ environmental impact influence consumers’ WTP more for environmentally‐friendly products across countries. The hypothesized model predicts WTP for 20 out of 28 countries and the findings show that a “one‐size‐fits‐all” approach is inadequate in capturing the heterogeneity of EU consumers. Hosfstede's cultural dimensions of uncertainty tolerance and individualism explain differences in WTP for environmentally‐friendly products across EU countries. Business, marketing communications, and policy making implications are discussed.     

An environmental social marketing intervention among employees: assessing attitude and behaviour change

Abstract

The paper examines the impact of individual and organisational factors on two simultaneous environmental social marketing interventions (SmartPrint and heating/cooling) and types of behaviours (recycling, printing and heating/cooling), among employees of a British City Council. Using a quantitative methodology, in the form of a situated experiment, self-reported attitudes, perceptions of organisational support, self-reported behaviours and actual behaviours were measured before and after the interventions. The interventions generated significant changes in employees’ overall environmental behaviour, heating/cooling behaviour and in some perceptions of organisational support (support and incentives/rewards). Findings are used to detail recommendations for future campaigns aiming to improve organisations’ environmental performance and to drive enduring employee behavioural change.     

Dow Chemical Western Division Research pre-operational review for new projects

Previous authors have documented reviews for design projects prior to construction [1,2]. Very little has been written about research reviews and systems to adequately review new projects. Within the Dow Chemical U.S.A. Research community, a different set of procedures have been developed at each site. The process discussed in this report is the most documented review system of any site within Dow Chemcial U.S.A. Research.     

Cyprus small business ventures invigorate the economy

Cyprus has managed to advance itself and be recognized as one of the world's 32 advanced economies. By supporting local and foreign socioeconomic interests over the years, the small island‐nation today boasts rapid growth, full employment conditions, external and internal stability, strong telecommunications infrastructure, and a society well prepared to embrace the emerging knowledge economy. Recognizing its susceptibility to external economic trends as well as its attraction for various migrant groups, however, the people of Cyprus have embraced the benefits of putting their social capital to financial gain and the improvement of quality of life by supporting local business and welcoming foreign investment. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

An environmental social marketing intervention in cultural heritage tourism: a realist evaluation

ABSTRACT

Following Pawson and Tilley's principles of realist evaluation and the context–mechanism–outcome (CMO) framework, this paper conducts a process evaluation of an environmental social marketing intervention in a heritage tourism organisation. Social marketing and employee environmental interventions have received relatively scant attention in tourism. Additionally, prior literature mostly focused on the evaluation of intervention outcomes (i.e. how far the intervention produces precise targeted outcomes) and ignores the importance of process evaluation (i.e. identifying what works, for whom, under which circumstances and how, plus issues of intervention maintenance). This paper fills this literature gap using realist evaluation theory and academic perspectives, as well as via the reflections of practitioners involved in intervention design and delivery. Findings suggest that a good understanding of the tourism and organisational context (regarding the dimensions of structure, culture, agency and relations) and the use of tailored, action-focused mechanisms (for each context dimension) are critical to achieving transformational outcomes in environmental interventions in cultural heritage organisations. Based on these findings, it is concluded that the CMO is a useful framework for assessing environmental social marketing interventions in tourism (both for heritage and other tourism organisations). Implications for tourism practice and further research directions are also discussed.     

Health marketing communications: An integrated conceptual framework of key determinants of health behaviour across the stages of change

Despite the development of many health behaviour theories across various topics, the inconsistency in empirical support for their propositions and the on-going criticism about their limitations highlight the need for an adjusted and integrated approach. These theories have never been ‘abandoned’ or altered significantly to address their limitations, since their conceptualisations. The aim of this paper was to make a conceptual contribution by integrating distinct health behaviour theories (i.e. Health Belief Model, Extended Parallel Process Model, Transtheoretical Model), with a popular information-processing and attitude change theory from the marketing communications arena (namely, the Elaboration Likelihood Model). The specific objectives of this paper were: (1) to address limitations of prevailing health behaviour theories, by identifying key determinants of health behaviour across the most commonly used health behaviour theories; (2) to identify source, consumer, channel, and message characteristics, in addition to executional/situational factors and attitudinal variables, which may influence health behaviour; and lastly, (3) to explain under which conditions (i.e. stage of change) these determinants and factors are likely to impact health behaviour change and maintenance. In doing so, four assumptions and several propositions are developed. Future research directions and practical implications for creating health marketing communication messages are also discussed.     

Non-linear dynamics of hot and cold cycles in Indian IPO markets: evidence from Markov regime-switching vector autoregressive model

The study aims to examine non-linear relationship between initial public offering (IPO) volume and average monthly initial returns for ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ issuing cycles in the Indian IPO markets using a two-state Markov regime-switching vector autoregressive model. The sample considers 557 IPOs during the period 2004–2014. The study establishes the presence of hot and cold states in Indian IPO markets. It finds bidirectional causality between IPO volume and initial returns for ‘hot’ issuing periods. The empirical findings suggest that the market possesses valuable information content in terms of the past issuing activity which has the potential to increase the predictability of future market behaviour.