Environmental participation in the U.S. sulfur allowance auctions

The 1990 Clean Air Act established a sulfur emissions-trading program among utilities. This was the first large scale adoption of this type of emissions-trading program and the program’s success has attracted international attention. An interesting aspect of this program is that in addition to trades among the polluting firms and brokers or investors, individuals and groups have been participants, buying allowances to retire them and reduce sulfur emissions. This provides a relatively unique way to examine the “willingness to pay” for further reductions of sulfur emissions. I examine environmental participation in the sulfur allowances market, focusing on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) allowance auctions which have been conducted annually since 1993. The existence of groups purchasing these allowances in order to retire them suggests that the overall cap on sulfur emissions may be higher than the optimal emissions level. The marginal benefits from the first ton of emissions reduction appear to be significantly larger than marginal abatement costs. Total spending to retire sulfur emissions allowances, while small in relation to the total market, is sizeable in terms of the alternate purchases these groups and individuals could have made.      

Guilt and giving: A process model of empathy and efficacy

This research develops a model of consumer response to charity appeals. Using the Extended Parallel Process Model from the fear appeal literature as a foundation, the current model proposes that empathy and self‐efficacy generate guilt and reduce maladaptive responses, which, in turn, shapes donation intention. The results demonstrate that the impact of empathy on charitable donation intention is fully mediated by guilt and maladaptive responses. The impact of self‐efficacy is partially mediated by guilt and maladaptive responses. Therefore, both empathy and self‐efficacy determine whether guilt or maladaptive responses result. This model clarifies the process through which guilt appeals operate, by identifying the roles of empathy and self‐efficacy. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Service Delivery Encounters in Business-to-Business Contexts as a Source of Innovation – A Conceptual and Explorative Study

This article offers a conceptual and empirical view on the potential for innovation impulses stemming from the supplier-customer interface as a more or less unplanned by-product of customer contact of service companies. The empirical findings support the existence of a considerable innovation potential at the supplier-customer interface. Determinants of this source of innovation are identified and suggestions are made as to how companies can tap this potential. A translation of all German literature titles is provided in parentheses     

Transitional Ethics: Responsibilities of Supervisors for Supporting Employee Development

New employees face a variety of life and career transitions in early adulthood. This paper explores these transitions that shape personal and career identity. A supervisor can play a central role in facilitating employee development during these times but may be unwilling or ill-prepared to do so. At other times he/she may provide assistance that is unwanted and inappropriate to the employee's developmental needs. The paper develops a framework for examining the supervisor's ethical responsibility to facilitate employee development and provides guidelines for managing these transitions.     

Using social marketing to enhance hotel reuse programs

Hotels are increasingly sponsoring social marketing programs to encourage voluntary reduction of towel and linen use. These programs reduce water usage thus benefiting the environment. They also reduce hotels' laundering costs. Two controlled experiments were conducted to assess behavioral intentions and attributions as a result of such programs. Results demonstrate that response is most positive when savings from the program are donated to charity. When evidence is provided suggesting that a majority of hotel guests participate (social proof), the impact of how savings are used is reduced. This is especially pronounced for those traveling on business. Fit between the charity and the reuse program is inconsequential. The authors discuss implications.     

Fueling the Credit Crisis: Who Uses Consumer Credit and What Drives Debt Burden?

Excessive household debt contributed to the worst recession in decades. Insights about borrowing and spending behavior can inform economic recovery forecasts, policy decisions, and financial education. This study identifies life cycle and credit attitude as key determinants of who uses debt. Younger households are more likely to borrow for consumption, as are those who believe that it is all right to borrow to purchase luxury goods or cover living expenses. Furthermore, households that condone borrowing for these purposes have a higher consumer debt burden. Debt capacity (or creditworthiness) and financial discipline are also significant factors in determining household debt use.     

Technology Use: Too Much of a Good Thing?

Atlantic Economic Journal - There is growing evidence of risks associated with excessive technology use, especially among teens and young adults. However, little is known about the characteristics...     

Economic and social correlates of handicraft selling in Tonga

Although tourism has stimulated employment opportunities in many Pacific island nations, some scholars argue that it has been at the expense of individual pride, cultural values and traditional occupations. Few scholars, however, have investigated whether such traditional occupations are actually available to all segments of contemporary Pacific island populations. Detailed examination of the economic options and activities of itinerant handicraft sellers in Tonga suggests that overpopulation and land shortages severely restrict participation in traditional occupations. Handicraft selling is consequently viewed by many Tongans as an immediate source of much needed cash, having low costs for the producer and providing freedom to participate in other socioeconomic and village activities.     

Context effects in the evaluation of business-to-business brand alliances

Brand alliances in the business-to-business domain are becoming increasingly popular. This study investigates the impact of context-related effects on the formation of evaluation perceptions in B2B brand alliances. Assimilation and contrast effects represent the conceptual framework. Employing an experimental design we test the influence of two contextual factors on a range of product attributes: quality perceptions of the known brand ally (valence), and amount of information provided for the brand alliance. Using data collected from a cross section sample of large B2B UK companies we report assimilation effects across different product attributes of the alliance. Positive valence of the known brand ally results in higher evaluations of the brand alliance. In terms of provision of information, we find that, (a) unlike consumer markets, in the B2B domain higher evaluations are the result of detailed information, and (b) the impact of detailed information is significant only for tangible product attributes. Further, we find that valence of the known brand ally and amount of information provided are independent factors. The results add significantly to the knowledge on context effects in B2B brand alliances and lead to a number of managerial recommendations on partner selection and marketing communication of new brand alliances.     

Conference Announcement

This paper presents a case study of a landslide that devastated a small rural community in the redwoods of northern California. This seemingly mundane event is used to explore several insights offered by recent literature on environmental risk, and illustrate the extent to which our reliance on modern, technologically complex industrial systems as the basis for risk scholarship may limit our understanding of the role of environmental risk in society. This landslide, and the political upheaval that followed it, point to the need for more rigorous sociological analysis of how hazards , rather than risks, are legitimated in political discourse through a process called 'normalization'; and of the complex of organizational structures of causation that encourage the development of risky situations, not only in modern technological systems, but in systems of society-environment interaction with a much longer history, such as the extraction and management of timber.