The Effect of Animality in the Consumption Experience—A Potential for Disgust

ABSTRACT

This paper presents an experimental study to measure the effect of animality on consumers' disgust. In this study we have demonstrated how the negative emotion of disgust may be formed within meat consumption. While in the current literature animality is used as a broad and vaguely defined explanatory concept, we conceptualise and operationalise three components of animality; Meat Typicality, Vividness, and Personification. We show for each component that the more the meat stimuli can be animalised the more disgust they would provoke. Empirically, this study provides evidence for disgust with meat as being a phenomenon particularly concerning females and young consumers. The results also show a relatively good performance of personality measures as disgust sensitivity in the prediction of disgust with meat.     

Trading places. Case studies of the labour market experience of women in rural in-migrant households

This paper reports on some of the findings of a recent study on the employment impact of moving to a rural area. A case study approach is used to elucidate the choices/constraints/compromises encountered by women in in-migrant households to rural and semi-rural parts of the East Midlands, Great Britain. Rural labour markets are quantitatively and qualitatively different from urban labour markets and, while some of the surveyed in-migrant women managed to find jobs following their move, they often experienced downward occupational mobility; others withdrew from the labour market. A number of policy recommendations are also made to improve labour market access.     

Demographic pressure and natural resources conservation

A field survey was carried out in the villages of Nlobesse'e at the Western periphery of the Dja Biosphere Reserve, South Cameroon, to evaluate the various effects that the increase in the local populations exert on the conservation of the natural resources of the reserve. Survey results show that the population was increasing rapidly at 40.00/00 per annum, with 61.54% of the total inhabitants originating from other parts of the country. Despite the rapid population growth, the population of the Kaka and Baka ethnic groups also known as the pigmies who have been noted by ECOFAC (Ecosystème Forestière d'Afrique Centrale) for having a marked negative impact on the conservation of the natural resources (because they depend mostly on the natural resources of the reserve for their livelihood and practice very little or no agriculture) were decreasing at a rate of 6.2%. Probably they sought better hunting, gathering and collecting conditions elsewhere in the reserve. Animal proteins originating from the reserve provide most of the animal proteins consumed by the households and the entire population of Nlobesse'e demands 44.4 kg of “bush meat” per day. It was also noted that the local population practiced very little agriculture in the reserve. Hunting and fishing, activities that have been noted for having a negative influence on the conservation of biodiversity contributed 15.2% and 11.2%, respectively, of the total income of the households. Other sources of income included: wages earned from the agro-plantation that contributed 40.3%, farming 24.2%, commerce 3% and others 4.58%. Merchant middlemen also referred to as “buyam sellam” and individuals with no commercial interest were the two main relay agents responsible for transporting natural resources out of Nlobesse'e. It would have been expected that the increasing population combined to the high incidence of poverty in the region (per capita income of 225 FCFA or $0.3 per day) would have exerted a high sustainability pressure on the conservation of reserve resources. However, this was not the case because of an agro-plantation in the area that provided the local population with the necessary income to buy foodstuff and other needed resources from far away areas. To maintain this trend, it is recommended that other sources of income such as the creation of small-scale enterprises and ecotourism should be encouraged in and around biospheres reserves.     

First-price auctions where one of the bidders’ valuations is common knowledge

We analyze a private and independent valuation first-price auction under the assumption that one of the bidders’ valuations is common knowledge. We show that no pure strategy equilibrium exists and we characterize a mixed strategy equilibrium in which the bidder whose valuation is common knowledge randomizes her bid while the other bidders play pure strategies. In an example with the uniform distribution, we compare the expected profits of seller and buyers in this auction with those in a standard symmetric private valuation model.     

The impact of M&A experience on strategic HRM practices and organisational effectiveness: evidence from Greek firms

Experience with mergers and acquisitions makes companies develop practices that enable them to handle the process more effectively. This study examines the practices that successful companies, with acquisition experience, adopt when managing their personnel. We examine strategic Human Resource (HR) practices that differentiate top-performing from non-top performing companies, using the 1999 Cranet data. Increased HR involvement in strategic decisions, formalisation of HR practices, building organisational capability through training and development activities, line management devolvement and internal labour market opportunities are the main strategic HR practices adopted by successful companies.     

A Fundamental Theorem of Asset Pricing for Large Financial Markets

We formulate the notion of “asymptotic free lunch” which is closely related to the condition “free lunch” of Kreps (1981) and allows us to state and prove a fairly general version of the fundamental theorem of asset pricing in the context of a large financial market as introduced by Kabanov and Kramkov (1994). In a large financial market one considers a sequence (Sⁿ)_n=1^∞ of stochastic stock price processes based on a sequence (Ωⁿ, Fⁿ, (F_tⁿ)_t∈In, Pⁿ)_n=1^∞ of filtered probability spaces. Under the assumption that for all n∈ N there exists an equivalent sigma‐martingale measure for Sⁿ, we prove that there exists a bicontiguous sequence of equivalent sigma‐martingale measures if and only if there is no asymptotic free lunch (Theorem 1.1). Moreover we present an example showing that it is not possible to improve Theorem 1.1 by replacing “no asymptotic free lunch” by some weaker condition such as “no asymptotic free lunch with bounded” or “vanishing risk.”     

Mechanism design in an integrated approach towards revenue management: the case of Empress Cruise Lines

This paper investigates an integrated form of revenue management through the case of Empress Cruise Lines (ECL). The case highlights a multidisciplinary approach towards how demand and supply factors should be integrated in the form of four decision sets in revenue management decisions – the value set, the segmentation set, the sensitivity set and the forecasting/allocation set. Also, the use of mechanism design allows the firm to separate markets for better forecasting of revenue from each segment. The case also shows that segments could be incentivized to behave differently, and to behave in alignment with ECL's policies so that capacity could be optimally allocated and revenue maximized.     

Career plateauing: reactions and moderators among managerial and professional employees

Questionnaire data obtained from managerial and professional employees in Singapore (N = 141) were used to examine reactions to and moderators of career plateauing. Zero-order correlation coefficients revealed that the perceptual measure of career plateauing was more significantly negatively related to the work attitudes and behaviours than was job tenure. Moderated regression analyses results also revealed that, in general, the perceptual measure of career plateau explained more of the variance in the work attitudes and behaviours than did job tenure. Further, the moderated regression analyses revealed that of the three moderators (job tenure, supervisor support and job characteristics) and the six work attitudes and behaviours examined, supervisor support and job challenge significantly positively moderated only the effects of career plateauing on in-role behaviours. Limitations of the study, directions for future research and implications of the findings are discussed.