Perceptions of electricity-use communications: effects of information,format, and individual differences

Electricity bills could be an effective strategy for improving communications about consumers’ electricity use and promoting electricity savings. However, quantitative communications about electricity use may be difficult to understand, especially for consumers with low energy literacy. Here, we build on the health communication and graph comprehension literature to inform electricity bill design, with the goal of improving understanding, preferences for the presented communication, and intentions to save electricity. In a survey-based experiment, each participant saw a hypothetical electricity bill for a family with relatively high electricity use, covering information about (a) historical use, (b) comparisons to neighbors, and (c) historical use with appliance breakdown. Participants saw all information types in one of three formats including (a) tables, (b) bar graphs, and (c) icon graphs. We report on three main findings. First, consumers understood each type of electricity-use information the most when it was presented in a table, perhaps because tables facilitate simple point reading. Second, preferences and intentions to save electricity were the strongest for the historical use information, independent of format. Third, individuals with lower energy literacy understood all information less. We discuss implications for designing utility bills that are understandable, perceived as useful, and motivate consumers to save energy.     

On the Coherence of Post-Keynesian Economics

Recently the claim that post-Keynesianism represents a coherent alternative to orthodox/neoclassical theory has regained favour with many leading post-Keynesians. The purpose of this paper is to consider the basis for any such claim that post-Keynesianism is a coherent alternative. A variety of forms of coherence are considered in relation to post-Keynesian analyses and a number of shortcomings are identified. The broad conclusion is that post-Keynesianism has not yet decided upon its preferred conception of coherence and consequently, cannot be regarded, at present, as an alternative school of economic thought.     

Measuring Cross-Category Specials Purchasing: Theory, Empirical Results, and Implications

The typical Hi-Lo grocery retailer offers consumers thousands of price specials each week to build traffic and influence economic performance. Retailer reliance on price specials may engender heavy cross-category specials purchasing by shoppers. Retailers contend that high cross-category specials purchasing can damage profitability because many of the specials presented to consumers have reduced gross margins. The present study measures the level of cross-category specials purchasing in a Hi-Lo grocery market and develops and tests a model of the determinants of cross-category specials purchasing using shopping basket level data, information from surveys of shoppers, and retailer promotions. The results of the study show about 39% of all items purchased on a shopping trip were on special and that about 30% of consumers surveyed were highly sensitive to price specials, purchasing more specials than regular priced items on their shopping trip. The findings indicate that the consumer search behaviors, such as reading flyers, significantly affected the level of cross-category specials purchasing as did the demographic variable - household income. The study concludes with a series of practical implications for managers to help them gain profitable shopping baskets and set of implications for researchers interested in developing new insights on cross-category specials purchasing.     

Humble Leadership: Implications for Psychological Safety and Follower Engagement

Humility has emerged as a focus of leadership research in recent years, culminating with the theory of humble leadership. The current study added to the humble leadership literature by examining the relations among leader humility, psychological safety, and employee engagement. The study particularly examined the three constructs in the context of a mediational model. Data were collected from 140 workers who reported their perceptions of their immediate supervisor's humility, as well as their own psychological safety and work engagement. Results showed that the relation between humble leadership and employee engagement was fully mediated by psychological safety. Thus, by acknowledging limitations and mistakes, recognizing followers’ strengths and contributions, and modeling teachability, leaders can create an environment in which followers can act without fear of negative ramifications and can fully engage in their work.     

‘Bankruptcy tourism’ under the EC regulation on insolvency proceedings: A view from England and Wales

This article provides an account of the emergent phenomenon of ‘bankruptcy tourism’—forum shopping by debtors for favourable personal insolvency law—within the EU and with particular reference to England and Wales. After outlining the structural features of the European legal framework that make forum shopping for personal insolvency law possible, including the EC Regulation on Insolvency Proceedings and explaining why England and Wales in particular has proved to be an attractive ‘tourist’ destination, the article charts how the official receivers and the courts in England and Wales have sought to manage the influx of foreign bankruptcies in terms of legal principle and process drawing on two reported cases, Eichler and Mitterfellner. It will be seen that the institutional response in England and Wales has been twofold. First, the ‘problem’ of forum shopping debtors has been framed as a problem of policing the line between genuine and fictional relocations. Secondly, there are signs that the procedural onus on debtors to evidence their claim to English jurisdiction before a bankruptcy order is made has been increased, a move that can be interpreted as a form of institutional resistance designed to raise the barrier to entry. Having sought to illuminate the problems, costs and inconvenience associated with forum shopping from a practitioner standpoint, we explore the ‘good’ versus ‘bad’ forum shopping question and consider the scope for reform of the EC Regulation. Adopting a creditor perspective, we conclude provisionally that the Regulation could usefully be reformed to limit the scope for insolvent debtors to switch their COMI in anticipation of filing for bankruptcy. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Moral Judgment and Values in a Developed and a Developing Nation: a Comparative Analysis

This comparative field study evaluated the moral reasoning used by U.S. and Belizean business students in resolving business-related moral dilemmas. The Belizeans, citizens of a less-developed country with Western heritage and a values-based education system, revolved the dilemmas using higher stages of moral judgment than did the U.S. business students.     

Public involvement in health genomics: the reality behind the policies

Public involvement is increasingly becoming the norm as stakeholders recognize the need to inform, consult and engage the public. However, there is limited understanding about the meaning and implications of public involvement, in particular elements like the levels of public involvement, the goals of the involvement, the type of public to be involved, the methods of involving the public and the need to assess effectiveness. We conducted a systematic review of policy documents/guidelines published between 1998 and 2009, by governments, health professionals and the public regarding public involvement in the area of human genomics. Documents were identified using the HUMGEN database and organizational web sites. A total of 70 documents were retrieved addressing public involvement and human genomics. The review revealed that 22 documents mentioned the active process of partnership and collaboration, whereas 27 mentioned consultation and 29 mentioned education. The most common goals were building trust and respect, followed by education, governance and lastly, understanding risks and benefits. We found that less than a third of the documents defined who the public is, and when mechanisms for public involvement were mentioned, they were rarely placed into a context. Few documents drew attention to evaluation. It is reassuring to see that there has been an emphasis placed on public involvement in the area of health and genomics. The findings underscore the gaps existing in the actual policy documents/guidelines and the need to clarify the goals, the methods, who is the public, what mechanism are appropriate and the need for evaluation when addressing public involvement in health genomics.     

Heterogeneity in asset allocation decisions: Empirical evidence from Switzerland

We analyze the heterogeneity in asset allocation decisions of different investor groups in response to changes in the macroeconomic environment. Using a new data set that includes the monthly portfolio holdings of private, commercial, and institutional investors deposited with Swiss banks, we estimate the relationship between equity and bond holdings and common business cycle indicators. Regression analysis indicates that private investors do not systematically move from stocks into bonds by selling stocks to institutional investors and purchasing bonds from them in adverse macroeconomic states. A VAR-error correction framework including cointegration and error correction restrictions suggests that the investment behavior of commercial investors leads and private investors follow in their investment decisions only slowly over time. The asset allocation decisions of institutional investors are not affected by the actions of private and commercial investors. Our results refute a principle of “institutional irrelevance”.     

Measuring Ethnic Community Involvement: Development and Initial Testing of an Index*

This paper builds on the work of Chaganti and Greene, who distinguish between ethnic minority entrepreneurs/small business owners who are very involved with their ethnic community and those who are not. We extend their work by developing an Index of Ethnic Community Involvement based not only on personal but also business characteristics. We utilize a large sample size (698 interviews with entrepreneurs), drawn from five ethnic groups, and develop a valid and reliable (0.69) Index of Ethnic Involvement (IEI) with a strong emphasis on social capital theory. Our initial analysis shows the IEI predicts some personal and business characteristics. Future development will include building regression models to predict business outcomes. The IEI, when fully developed, promises to be useful for targeting assistance, education and training programs, and policy initiatives for entrepreneurs and small business owners according to the level of ethnic community involvement.