What goes up must come down: an evaluation of a zoo conservation-education program for balloon litter on visitor understanding,attitudes, and behaviour

Abstract

Balloons used outdoors can fly away, posing ingestion and entanglement hazards to wildlife. “When Balloons Fly” (WBF) conservation-education program seeks to educate zoo visitors about these threats and encourage the use of wildlife-friendly bubbles at outdoor events. We examined the effect of WBF on visitor knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours (intentions and actions) over 6?months (N?=?624). We compared outcomes among visitors who viewed a presentation and exhibit, to viewing the exhibit-only, and investigated the priming influence of completing a survey before entering the exhibit (pre-survey). Visitors had greater depth of understanding about the impact of balloons immediately following the visit, but post-visit message recall was low. General Linear Models revealed that over 6?months WBF significantly (p < .05) influenced positive attitudes concerning balloon use, increased likelihood to use bubbles, and reduced likelihood to use balloons. Completion of a pre-survey significantly influenced positive attitudes and reduced likelihood to use balloons. WBF is promoting conservation behaviour, with two-thirds of the follow-up sample reporting that behaviours they changed while hosting or attending an outdoor event since their visit were influenced by the zoo experience. Future work can investigate materials that might mimic a priming effect (e.g., worksheets).     

The community brand paradigm: A response to brand management's dilemma in the digital era

Abstract

The consumer adoption of digital media has warranted much attention over the last decade. However, relatively little has been written about how digital media has impacted upon brand management perspectives and practices. The digital era has resulted in changes in how consumers interact with brands and each other, and this shift in behaviour requires a reappraisal of how brands should be managed. The current relational paradigm is no longer sufficient. Therefore this conceptual paper calls for brand management to develop and embody a deeper understanding of this shift by adopting a revised paradigm. Current brand management issues not addressed by the relational paradigm are outlined, the new community paradigm follows, and examples of community paradigm practice are provided as a guide for brand management.     

A different perspective on consumer engagement: exploring the experience of using health apps to support healthier food purchasing

ABSTRACT

Healthy food purchasing behaviour may be facilitated through the use of health apps if used for the necessary time period. However, little is known on the factors that influence the user experience and facilitate or impede their continued use. The purpose of the present research is to explore the lived experience of using a health app to support healthier food purchasing behaviour. Findings identify the presence of behaviour change motivation and anticipated effort levels as drivers of app engagement. It appeared that behavioural, cognitive and emotional dimensions of engagement may influence one another, driven by contextual influences, to simultaneously contribute to the intrinsic experience of engagement. The research makes practical and theoretical contributions to the consumer engagement literature and highlights the need to focus on understanding and capturing the specific engagement context to better understand engagement.     

Stake Management in Men's Online Cosmetics Testimonials

Although the Internet has opened up new avenues for identity expression, many web‐based sources have yet to be examined. Online testimonials as a form word‐of‐mouth advertising are a relatively new development. The present study examines the construction of masculinities in men's cosmetics adverting testimonials presented on the website of a leading brand. The dataset is examined using discursive psychology and membership categorization analysis methodologies. The findings indicate that when men write facial cosmetics testimonials they still justify the use of these non‐typical masculine products even in the absence of others’ responses. The analysis highlights the continued difficulty men report in using typically feminized products, frequently accounting for their cosmetic use as a "corrective" measure rather than for beautification. The implications for the marketing of masculine products are discussed.     

A Goldsmith Exercise for Learning Money Creation

In this article, the authors outline a classroom exercise involving goldsmiths designed to improve undergraduate students’ understanding of how banks create money. This concept is important to macroeconomics and money and banking courses, yet students frequently struggle with it, largely due to the nonphysical nature of deposits and reserves. In contrast, gold-based banking systems tend to be more intuitive because of the physical nature of gold. By simulating interactions among a goldsmith, a depositor, a merchant, and a borrower in a gold-based system, students gain a deeper understanding of reserves and money creation. In particular, the exercise illuminates the intricate link between lending and the creation of new money, and highlights the importance of fractional reserve banking and reserve deposits.     

Public information arrival: Price discovery and liquidity in electronic limit order markets

How information is translated into market prices is still an open question. This paper studies the impact of newswire messages on intraday price discovery, liquidity, and trading intensity in an electronic limit order market. We take an objective ex ante measure of the tone of a message to study the impacts of positive, negative, and neutral messages on price discovery and trading activity. As expected, we find higher adverse selection costs around the arrival of newswire messages. Negative messages are associated with higher adverse selection costs than positive or neutral messages. Liquidity increases around positive and neutral messages and decreases around negative messages. Available order book depth as well as the trading intensity increases around all news. Our results suggest that market participants possess different information gathering and processing capabilities and that negative news messages are particularly informative and induce stronger market reactions.     

Keeping informed during times of economic downturn: the trusted amateur as a preferred source of financial information

Service providers need to understand financial capability from the perspective of the older client, in order to deliver services best suited for this age group. This article explores how older people perceive one dimension of their financial capability—their ability to stay financially informed. Older people were found to be accessing less traditional sources of financial information: they are either selfreliant for information, researching on the internet or using the media, or they tap into existing sources of social capital found within their social networks. Trusted public and voluntary sector service providers are preferred information resources over and above professionals in financial services. These findings suggest financial services need to build trust and/or form partnerships with other trusted voluntary or public sector services.     

Differences in GDP per head in GB counties: some suggested explanations

This paper examines the evidence concerning the convergence of gross domestic product (GDP) per head across GB counties during 1977-1995. In general, the evidence rejects the hypothesis of convergence although there is some evidence of a north-south divide with γ convergence in the north in the 1990s. Cross-section results suggest that variation in GDP per head may be related to different economic activity rates and some aspects of industrial structure.     

Employee militancy in Britain: 1985-1990

This paper profiles individual strike incidence and militancy in Britain over the period 1985–1990 using data derived from the British Social Attitudes Survey. The approach of the study is to quantify the differential probabilities of strike activity and other forms of militant behaviour of particular groups within the population. Following studies from the USA in highlighting, in particular, the role of demographic and attitudinal influences. The results indicate that demographic influences are, in general, the key correlates of strike incidence and militancy ceteris paribus.