Self-Determination Theory as a Framework for Understanding Women's Psychological Well-Being Outcomes from Leisure-Time Physical Activity

Self-determination theory (SDT) is used as a framework to understand how women's psychological well-being is influenced by participation in leisure-time physical activity and the social context in which activity occurs. Data were collected during in-depth semi-structured interviews with 20 participants and analyzed using constant comparison. Findings indicate women's well-being can be enhanced through casual participation in leisure-time physical activity if activity contexts support interaction between the elements of self-determination: competence, autonomy, and relatedness. Participant interactions during activities also play an important role in facilitating well-being outcomes. The findings qualitatively add to understanding and development of SDT as a legitimate psychological construct by explaining the key components of the theory through the participants own words and reflections.     

SYMPOSIUM ON PROJECT APPRAISAL IN LESSER DEVELOPED COUNTRIES: NUFFIELD COLLEGE RESEARCH ON PROJECT ANALYSIS IN AGRICULTURE

This paper discusses the O.E.C.D. Manual of Industrial Project Analysis for Developing Countries by Professor Mirrlees and myself, and the extension to agriculture of its guidelines for project evaluation, a subject now being explored at Nuffield College. Since the principles of cost-benefit analysis are very general, the question arises as to why it was restricted, in the O.E.C.D. Title at least, to developing countries and to industrial projects.     

Integrated measures of sales, merchandising, and distribution

Managers track marketing performance with measures of sales, distribution, and merchandising. These can be calculated at different levels of aggregation with respect to geographic areas, time periods, and products. To be most useful, performance measures should have parallel and consistent meanings across the different levels. Starting from the decomposition of sales into base and incremental volume as provided by data suppliers at the underlying level of item-store-week, we define a set of performance measures that fit together into a simple model. It is shown that these definitions permit consistent aggregation into analogous measures and models at higher levels. An example drawing on Ocean Spray Cranberries data illustrates the advantages of the measures for comparing marketing performance across levels of aggregation.     

Binary choice models for rare events data: a crop insurance fraud application

This study implements a recently proposed score test that could help guide insurance fraud researchers in deciding whether to use a logit or a probit model in predicting insurance fraud probabilities, especially when the occurrence of ones in the dependent variable is much less than zeros. The test is easily implemented in a crop insurance fraud context and seems to be a promising method that could be applicable to analysing and detecting potentially fraudulent claims in various lines of insurance.     

Sales forecast errors for new product projects

It is difficult to avoid errors in sales forecasts for new industrial products, especially when the forecasts are made at the new product screening stage. But if managers are aware that a forecast is likely to be in serious error, they can take steps to deal with the uncertainty. A research project analyzed 185 new product projects to develop four major indicators of sales forecast error. The indicators can be derived for specific firms from typical project screening questions and can be used to alert new product managers to special development problems that may be present.     

INACTIVITY AND LABOUR MARKET ATTACHMENT IN BRITAIN

This paper examines the transitions between the labour market and inactivity in Britain between 1995 and 2004. A substantial degree of behavioural heterogeneity exists between inactive individuals, and the social security system appears to influence both the timing and probability of moving between labour market states. The results presented here suggest that policy makers should not be misled by the term ‘hidden unemployment’, into thinking that substantial spare capacity exists on the periphery of the labour force. In light of recent proposals to reduce the number of Incapacity Benefit claimants, it is important to note a high degree of detachment among the long‐term sick and disabled, reinforced by duration dependence and poorer educational attainment.     

Attitudes of food entrepreneurs towards two grant schemes under the first England Rural Development Programme, 2000–2006

Grant schemes introduced under the first England Rural Development Programme (ERDP) (2000–2006) have been subjected to limited academic research and this paper aims to fill this gap by examining the attitudes of food entrepreneurs in two contiguous English regions to two key elements of the ERDP: the Processing and Marketing Grant (PMG) and the Rural Enterprise Scheme (RES). It does this through a qualitative analysis of data gathered from interviews with 20 ‘adopters’ and 20 ‘non-adopters’ of the two schemes in the South West and West Midlands regions of England. The analysis reveals that, despite the rural development rhetoric, neither the PMG nor the RES was particularly effective at funding enterprises beyond the farm gate; both schemes also appeared to attract what can be described as ‘serial adopters’ and to discriminate against those without experience of applying for government grants. Nevertheless, indirectly they did provide opportunities to safeguard and expand local and regional food production, processing and retailing in the two regions.     

From Decision Support to Decision Automation: A 2020 Vision

The authors discuss the long-run future of decision support systems in marketing. They argue that a growing proportion of marketing decisions can not only be supported but may also be automated. From a standpoint of both efficiency (e.g., management productivity) and effectiveness (e.g., resource allocation decisions), such automation is highly desirable. The authors describe how model-based automated decision-making is likely to penetrate various marketing decision-making environments and how such models can incorporate competitive dynamics. For example, the authors foresee that close to full automation can ultimately take place for many decisions about existing products in stable markets. Partial automation could characterize decision making for new products in stable markets and existing products in unstable markets.