Limits on the Use of Public Space and Consumer Tactics: A Study on Urban Cycling

Although public space is supposed to be democratic and accessible to all, in reality, such access is inegalitarian and exclusionary. The research aims, therefore, to understand how public space that reflects the imposition of interests of dominant ideologies affects the consumption practices of nondominant ideologies. The qualitative research data were collected in the context of urban cycling through in-depth interviews and observation and are analyzed using a hermeneutical approach. The research explains that, in order to deal with the limits of public space use, these consumers use tactics involving (1) disputes for space, (2) disorganized occupation, and (3) transgressive practices; moreover, there is an overlapping relationship between the agency of consumers and public space.     

A Minimizing Risk Strategy for Brazilian Fixed-Income Portfolios

This study presents various risk immunization strategies for fixed-income portfolios, including not only classical measures like duration, convexity, and dispersion but also modern measures such as VaR (value-at-risk) and ES (expected shortfall). Empirical tests are conducted in the Brazilian domestic and international bond market. Because it has had one of highest interest rates since the 1990s, Brazil offers an interesting case study for fixed-income studies. Our results are different for domestic and international bonds. For domestic bonds, using the highest convexity criterion to choose the best portfolio is better than using minimum dispersion, and there is a coincidence between the optimum portfolio selected by the convexity, historical VaR, and ES criteria. For international bonds, our findings indicate that the minimum dispersion strategy performs much better than the maximum convexity strategy. The overall performance of portfolios chosen by minimum VaR and ES criteria is also good, with satisfactory realized returns and squared errors.     

Short reports

In this study, we assessed the epidemiological patterns of suicide terrorism in the civilian population of Pakistan. Information about suicide terrorism-related events, deaths and injuries was extracted from the South-Asian Terrorism Portal (SATP) for the period from 2002 to October 2009. Of 198 events, civilians were involved in 194 events. Civilians accounted for 74.1% (N = 2017) of those who died and 93.8% (N = 6129) of those who were injured. In nine districts, mortality rates were more than one death per 100,000 inhabitants per year. The yearly trend showed a shift of attack targets from foreigners and sectarian targets in 2002–2005 to security forces or general public in 2006–2009. Attacks on public installations (mosques) or political gatherings resulted in a significantly greater (P ≤ 0.02) number of deaths (22 vs. 8) and injuries (59 vs. 24) per event compared with security installations. These results show that prevention might focus on political negotiation with armed groups and that appropriate measures should be taken to protect mosques and political gatherings.     

Psychosocial Influences on Children's Food Consumption

This exploratory study generated a grounded theory of factors influencing children's diets, particularly those that contribute to suboptimal eating and ultimately child obesity. The study involved 124 children (aged 6–12 years) and 39 of their parents from three separate junior schools (including a lower, middle, and higher socioeconomic school). Research methods included (i) interviews with children and parents and (ii) observations, drawings, and lunchbox audits with children. The findings suggest that children and parents prioritize psychosocial needs over physiological needs during food selection and consumption. This tendency toward psychosocial eating appears to be strongly reinforced by food advertising.     

New business models in online hotel distribution: emerging private sales versus leading IDS

This article deals with online hotel distribution. Its purpose is to investigate the private sales formula, which has recently emerged as a new business model. Two case studies are presented: Expedia, a leading internet distribution system (IDS), and Voyage Privé, a private sales Website. The study highlights the main features of the private sales formula by means of a cross-case comparison between the two travel Websites. The article ends with some final remarks on the main strengths and weaknesses of the formula as compared to the leading IDS in the online travel market.     

Querschnittstechnologie Internet – Universallösung für den Arbeitsmarkt der Zukunft?

The ongoing processes of digitalisation in economy and society have certainly important implications, not only for economic growth but also for the future labour market. But, what are the actual effects of this ?Digital Revolution“? Who will be the winners and who will be the losers? This article reviews the current empirical literature and draws relevant policy conclusions. While the growth effects will be substantial, the labour market effects of ICT and broadband technologies and their linkage with industrial production via the “internet of things” are likely to be ambivalent. The authors point to the need for political action with respect to labour market institutions that support workers in adjusting to the rapidly changing work environment in a digital world, and measures designed to reduce the skill gap between “digital natives” and “digital illiterates”. They also identify the need to help increase adoption and use intensity of the new technologies, rather than solely investing in broadband infrastructure.     

A Discovery of Early Labor Organizations and the Women who Advocated Work–Life Balance: An Ethical Perspective

The relevance of leader ethicality has motivated ethical leadership theory. In this paper, we emphasize the importance of moral identity for the concept of ethical leadership. We relate ethical leadership incorporating an internalized moral identity to productive deviant workplace behavior. Using qualitative empirical data we illustrate the relevance of critical situations, i.e., situations in which hypernorms and organizational norms diverge, for the distinction of ethical leaders with or without internalized moral identities. Our paper takes a multidisciplinary approach integrating insight from management as well as humanities and social sciences toward a comprehensive sense of ethical leadership.     

Stakeholder engagement through empowerment: The case of coffee farmers

While most studies on stakeholder engagement focus on high‐power stakeholders (typically, employees), limited attention has been devoted to the engagement of low‐power stakeholders. These have been defined as vulnerable stakeholders for their low capacity to influence corporations. Our research is framed around the engagement of low‐power stakeholders in the coffee industry who are, paradoxically, critical resource providers for the major roasters. Through the case study of Lavazza—the leading Italian roaster—we investigate empowerment actions addressed to smallholder farmers located in Brazil, India, East Africa, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. We contribute to the theoretical discussion around engagement and empowerment by developing a framework linking together areas of empowerment (defined in the literature) and specific empowerment actions (emerging from our interviews). Our insights shed light on how organizations can design empowerment strategies leading to more effective stakeholder engagement and how empowerment actions can contribute to turn low‐power stakeholders into active business partners. We demonstrate that moving from a traditional competitive view of corporate–stakeholder relationships to a stakeholder theory view based on a logic of cooperative partnerships reinforces the idea that stakeholder engagement and empowerment are both entangled with the value creation process.