An Evaluation Instrument for Collaborative Processes: Application to Organizational Policy-Making

Decision-making in organizations is guided by policies. Organizational policy-making is a complex process in which several parties are involved, with multiple backgrounds, incompatible interests, and diverging areas of interest, yet they all have to be brought together to produce an acceptable policy result. Therefore, we propose to use techniques from collaboration engineering (CE) in this context. There is hardly any experience with CE in the field of organizational policy-making. In order to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of CE in organizational policy-making, it is important to have a systematic evaluation instrument. We distinguish between general and domain-specific indicators. Moreover, we consider measurement means and operationalization tools, such that organizational policy-making stakeholders can apply our instrument in their own organization.     

Cyber dudes and cyber babes: Gender differences and internet financial services

Previous research contended that men and women have different information processing tendencies, and suggested that they react differently to certain features of written communication created by financial services direct marketers. Women respond well to bright colours, photographs and images and men respond well to bold headlines, bullet points and graphs. Responses can also vary according to the amount of perceived risk involved in the transaction. This exploratory study attempted to contextualise some of these issues in terms of gender and explored how men and women used the internet, their responses to certain types of website and whether there were gender implications for web page design.     

Exploring (non‐)meat eating and “translated cuisines” out of home: Evidence from three English cities

Meat production and consumption are major contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions and other aspects of environmental degradation. It is the aim of this paper to explore red meat in the configuration of main meals eaten out in England across types and styles of cuisine, and to consider the implications for transition towards less resource intensive ways of eating in the future. We show that the odds ratio of eating a dish without red meat is significantly lower in North American/European and Near/Middle Eastern cuisines compared with East Asian (with no difference between South and East Asian), that women are more likely than men to eat fish and poultry (with no gender differences in vegetarian dishes), that Prestonians are the least likely to select a vegetarian dish, compared with people in London and Bristol, and that the odds of a vegetarian dish compared with red meat is higher amongst managerial workers compared with the routine manual workers (with no other statistically significant class differences). We suggest the term “translated cuisine” to refer cuisines that travel and become incorporated into the palate of the new food culture, and discuss how this could play a role in transitions towards less meat‐centred patterns of food consumption in the future.     

Setting its own standards and meeting those standards: voluntarism versus regulation in environmental reporting

It is often asserted that a voluntary approach to environmental issues is preferable to regulation. Supporters of voluntary environmental reporting claim that businesses will produce reports that meet the requirements of their stakeholders without the need for government intervention. This argument is currently being deployed in the UK to oppose the setting of mandatory reporting requirements. This present paper considers the use of ‘stakeholder theory’ in support of the voluntary approach and evaluates the claim that businesses will choose to make adequate environmental disclosures. Alternatives to a voluntary regime are discussed.© 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Industrial railway heritage trains: the evolution of a heritage tourism genre and its attributes

Heritage tourism forms a specific genre within the wider field of tourism; however, this genre itself encompasses a wide range of different types of heritage attractions, of which industrial attractions, military attractions, stately homes and attractions associated with historic people are all examples. This paper discusses the evolution of industrial railway heritage attractions from their original railway operations to visitor attractions; second, it examines the key attributes defining successful industrial railway heritage attractions; and third, it compares and contrasts these attributes for three industrial railway heritage attractions, spanning three separate locations and two countries (Australia and Malaysia). The findings from the study identify and support ranges of success factors and suggest a framework for examining the genre of industrial railway heritage attractions and their attributes. This framework can direct future studies that investigate the nature of industrial railway heritage trains, and contribute to enriching understanding and knowledge of this genre of attractions.     

The role of entrepreneurial risk in financial portfolio allocation

Small Business Economics - Entrepreneurs or small business owners are confronted by a number of risks in their business activities. Previous literature suggests that entrepreneurs balance...     

ἐμπάθɛια (Empatheia) and Caritas: The Role of Religion in Fair Trade Consumption

There is much still to learn about the nature of fair trade consumers. In light of the Pope’s encyclical Caritas in Veritate, this article sought to advance the current understanding by investigating the role of religion in fair trade consumption. In this study, fair trade consumers and non-consumers across many religions as well as the non-religious described their consumption of fair trade products as well as the use of their religious beliefs in their purchase behavior. It appears that the non-religious are slightly more inclined toward buying fair trade products. Of the religious observers studied, Buddhists have a greater propensity to buy fair trade. The relationship between religion and fair trade consumption is complex in that religious affiliation – group membership – alone is not enough to encourage members to buy fair trade; rather, it is the use of religious beliefs as a criterion in consumption behavior that linked religion to fair trade consumption.