Values motivation and concern for appearances: the effect of personality traits on responses to corporate social responsibility

• The present research seeks to examine differences in support for corporate social responsibility based on certain personality traits. Secondary data from a nationally representative sample of 6065 respondents were examined. The results demonstrate that individuals motivated by a concern for appearances, an egoistic enhancement motivation, as well as individuals motivated by their values, make purchases in support of corporate philanthropy. However those concerned for appearances do not view CSR as a normative requirement, unlike those motivated by their values.

Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Enhancing occupational health and safety in young workers: the role of social marketing

• Young workers (age 15–24) suffer work‐related injury at a much higher rate than older workers, yet research on the role and effectiveness of social marketing to influence and improve workplace safety is limited.
• A review of the relevant literature reveals that significant gaps exist in terms of effectively using social marketing to reduce young worker injury rates.
• A comprehensive, multi‐faceted social marketing approach is required to address young worker safety.
• Directing more attention toward the practice of social marketing can enhance the effectiveness of campaigns to reduce workplace injuries.

Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Systematic review of models used in economic analyses in moderate-to-severe asthma and COPD

Background:

Respiratory diseases exert a substantial burden on society, with newer drugs increasingly adding to the burden. Economic models are often used, but seldom reviewed.

Purpose:

To summarize economic models used in economic analyses of drugs treating moderate-to-severe/very severe asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Methods:

This study searched Medline and Embase from inception to the end of February 2015 for cost-effectiveness/utility analyses that examined at least one drug against placebo, another drug, or other standard therapy in asthma or COPD. Two reviewers independently searched and extracted data with differences adjudicated via consensus discussion. Data extracted included model used and its qualities, validation methods, treatments compared, disease severity, analytic perspective, time horizon, data collection (pro- or retrospective), input rates and sources, costs and sources, planned sensitivity analyses, criteria for cost-effectiveness, reported outcomes, and sponsor.

Results:

This study analyzed 53 articles; 14 (25%) on asthma and 39 (75%) COPD. Markov models were commonly used for both asthma and COPD-related economic evaluations. Relatively few studies validated their model. For asthma-related studies, 10 examined inhaled corticosteroids and nine studied omalizumab. Placebo or standard therapy was the comparison in 11 studies and active drugs in the remainder.

Conclusions:

Few studies include validation of their models. Furthermore, controversy concerning some results was uncovered in this study, which needs to be avoided in the future.     

Flood prone risk and amenity values: a spatial hedonic analysis

This study examines the impact of flood‐hazard zone location on residential property prices. The study utilises data from over 2000 private residential property sales occurred during 2006 in North Shore City, New Zealand. A spatial autoregressive hedonic model is developed to provide efficient estimates of the marginal effect of flood prone risks on property prices. Results suggest that the sale price of a residential property within a flood prone area is lower than an equivalent property outside the flood prone area. The flood plain location discount is reduced by the release of public information regarding flood risk.     

Choice experiment adaptive design benefits: a case study*

Efficient experimental designs offer the potential to reduce required sample sizes, or to reduce confidence intervals for parameters of interest, in choice experiments. Choice experiment designs have typically addressed efficiency of utility function parameter estimates. The recently developed concept of C‐efficiency recognises the salience of willingness to pay estimates rather than utility function parameters in studies that seek to put money values on attributes. C‐efficiency design benefits have been illustrated in a theoretical context, but have not been tested in applied settings. This study reports a choice experiment field application that used initial responses to update statistical designs to maximise C‐efficiency. Consistent with theoretical predictions, the revised design delivered significant reductions in the variance of willingness to pay estimates, illustrating that C‐efficient designs can indeed decrease costs of choice experiments by reducing required sample sizes.     

Open Science and Open Innovation in a socio‐political context: knowledge production for societal impact in an age of post‐truth populism

This conceptual paper traces the origins and progress of Open Science and proposes its generative coupling to Open Innovation in the contemporary socio‐political context; where universities are re‐imaging their civic missions in the face of anti‐establishment populist politics. This setting is one of changing knowledge production regimes and institutional pressures that create contradictions identifiable through the prism of the series of scientific norms conceptualised by Robert K. Merton. This paper privileges a sociological perspective to proffer scientific knowledge production as a societally embedded process, which is well illustrated by scholarship in the Science and Technology Studies (STS) and Science in Society fields. In doing so, it identifies the co‐evolution, co‐existence and co‐production of Open Science with Open Innovation; and notes how it shares the attributes of other recent diagnoses of changing knowledge production regimes; in particular Mode 2, post‐normal science and the Quadruple Helix. It also argues that Open Science can be coupled with Open Innovation to catalyse positive societal change, but that the rise of a populist post‐truth era opposed to objectivity, expertise and technocratic political solutions gives the demand for openness and participation a different complexion. Merton's norms provide a useful lens to observe recent shifts in the delivery of science, knowledge and innovation in society towards more inclusive, ethical and sustainable outcomes; and expose the limited reflection on how the appropriation and exploitation of open scientific knowledge encounters industrial R&D and Open Innovation.     

On the uncertain future of death

Current scientific knowledge has enabled humankind to embark on a quest to abolish death. In this essay, the author reflects on our unsatisfactory thoughts on death and examines the potential of science to prolong life forever. He goes on to discuss some social and psychological implications of the quest for eternal life.     

Evaluating off‐site environmental mitigation using choice modelling*

Evaluation of off‐site mitigation entails comparison of utility changes between two sites. Choice modelling has been used to identify community willingness to trade‐off attributes for two different types of stream in New Zealand. Estimated utility functions are used to derive marginal rates of substitution and stream attribute part worths which can be used to design or evaluate both on‐site and off‐site mitigation policy. Latent class multinomial logit models identified classes of citizens who valued stream attributes quite differently. Significant differences in values for some attributes on different stream types imply heterogeneous mitigation ratios across environmental attributes.