Price elasticity of water allocations demand in the Goulburn–Murray Irrigation District*

Bid prices for the demand and supply of water allocations between 2001 and 2007, and average monthly prices paid for water allocations from 1997 to 2007 in the Goulburn–Murray Irrigation District are analysed to estimate price elasticities. Based on bid prices, the price elasticity of demand for water allocations appears highly elastic, with elasticities strongly influenced by the season and drought. The price elasticity of supply for water allocations is also elastic, albeit less elastic than demand. Using actual prices paid, water demand is negatively related to price and is inelastic, and appears to be most influenced by demand the previous month, drought and seasonality factors.     

Downsizing and the fragility of corporate reputation: An analysis of the impact of contextual factors

This study extends prior research on the impact of downsizing on corporate reputation by investigating how specific aspects of downsizing measures influence this relationship. Using panel data on the S&P 100 companies for the period 1990–2000, we find that downsizing affects corporate reputation negatively and that the size of the effect depends on the content and the context of the downsizing announcement. More specifically, we find that the motive for downsizing, the time period in which it is announced as well as the extent of previous layoffs significantly influence the reputational penalties that are associated with corporate downsizing. Our results thus elucidate how contextual factors of a downsizing decision can influence the extent of the reputational damage of this measure.     

UK term structure decompositions at the zero lower bound

This paper employs a zero lower bound (ZLB) consistent shadow‐rate model to decompose UK nominal yields into expectation and term premium components. Compared to a standard affine term structure model, it performs relatively better in a ZLB setting by capturing the stylized facts of the yield curve. The ZLB model is then exploited to estimate inflation expectations and risk premiums. This entails jointly pricing and decomposing nominal and real UK yields. We find evidence that medium‐ and long‐term inflation expectations are contained within narrower bounds since the early 1990s, suggesting monetary policy credibility improved after the introduction of inflation targeting.     

The experience sampling method: examining its use and potential in tourist experience research

Though a valid and widely used approach in leisure, recreation, and psychology, the experience sampling method (ESM) is rarely used in tourism studies as a way to collect data on immediate conscious experiences during tourist events. This paper examines the use of ESM as it relates to tourist experience research. We begin by introducing ESM before exploring the application of this method to emerging smartphone technology. We then introduce a research approach, which incorporates the use of a digital ESM modified to act as a predominantly qualitative procedure, using voice recording software, to study the experience of educational tourists in Peru. The data gathered using this approach are analysed to examine the application and operational aspects of ESM. We consider the methodological implications of this research method by presenting findings on the length of qualitative discussions, reported mood, qualitative content related to ESM procedures, and post-trip recollection of ESM. The discussion that follows focuses on evidence of participant burden, reactivity, and anthropomorphism related to the use of smartphones as data collection tools. This paper concludes by outlining future research areas, with specific reference to spatial aspects, affect, and smartphone use, which expand the potential of ESM in tourist experience studies.     

Vulnerable consumer engagement: How corporate social media can facilitate the replenishment of depleted resources

Technology may facilitate health and wellbeing consumer engagement. When there is scant public health provision and socio-cultural norms marginalize consumers stigmatized from cancer, we reveal how a brand’s corporate social media campaign can support vulnerable consumers with resource constraints. Drawing from a transformative consumer research lens, we investigate five years of computer-mediated communications facilitated by the Indian brand Dabur Vatika. Through a grounded theory and an abductive reasoning approach, we unveil how vulnerable consumers directly or indirectly affected by cancer leverage brand's social media to replenish resources. First, we identify how vulnerable consumers engage to replenish depleted emotional and social support resources. We further expand consumer engagement scholarship by offering a preliminary definition of “vulnerable consumer engagement”. Second, we provide a nascent classification of vulnerable consumers in a consumer-producer role, Principal Vulnerable Consumers and Associate Vulnerable Consumers, distinguished by their proximity to the vulnerable context. Lastly, we reveal how brands may perform a transformative role, to replenish social, emotional and operant resources at the micro level through the engagement of vulnerable consumers with corporate social media. This insight is informative for policymakers, advertising practitioners and transformative consumer research academics.     

Understanding issue salience,social inequality and the (non) appointment of UK public inquiries: a new research agenda

ABSTRACT

Why are public inquiries appointed and what factors are influential? Research shows that inquiry appointment is driven by issue salience, but how this occurs is unclear. The authors suggest that issue salience is driven by: (1) victim relatability, (2) visibility of failings and (3) perceived blameworthiness. This has three significant implications. First, highly salient issues may lead to the appointment of statutory-type inquiries, which might not be the most appropriate form to effectively address the causes of inequality. Second, if wrongdoing against minorities is not sufficiently relatable (as is often the case), there may be insufficient public salience to drive demands for an inquiry. Finally, inquiries may privilege the investigation of blameworthy behaviour and thereby overlook complex systemic flaws.     

Arenas of Contestation: A Senian Social Justice Perspective on the Nature of Materiality in Impact Measurement

Journal of Business Ethics - Although the importance of measuring and reporting the social and environmental impact of organisational action is increasingly well recognised by both organisations...     

Scaling sustainability from the organizational periphery to the strategic core: Towards a practice‐based framework of what practitioners “do”

This paper explores what sustainability managers do when attempting to scale sustainability to a strategic level within their organization. Drawing on semistructured interview data with 44 sustainability managers in large, for‐profit companies, we identify three distinct scaling microstrategies that individuals use when scaling sustainability. We label these conforming, leveraging, and shaping. Our analysis also finds that sustainability managers deploy combinations of these microstrategies in three distinct approaches, which we call the assimilation approach, the mobilization approach, and the transition approach. Finally, we interrogate the degree to which employing these different approaches achieves a peripheral, intermediate, or strategic scale of sustainability within the organizations represented in the study. Our paper contributes to theory and practice at the interface of strategy and sustainability by developing a practice‐based Scaling Approach Framework, whereby an assimilation approach is associated with organizations with sustainability at a peripheral scale, a mobilization approach is associated with an intermediate scale of sustainability, and a transition approach is associated with scaling sustainability to a strategic level. From these results, we propose a Scaling Progression Model that reflects the phases that individuals progress through when scaling sustainability.     

Organizational downsizing as convergence or reorientation: Implications for human resource management

This article proposes that there are two basic approaches to organizational downsizing. Downsizing as reorientation is the proper approach when organizations undertake major downsizing programs. In this approach, many elements of the organization are questioned and changed simultaneously. The goal is a fundamentally different, not just smaller, organization. Downsizing as convergence is part of continuous improvement, and its goal is to refine and streamline all ongoing organizational processes. Each of these approaches to downsizing involves a particular pattern of downsizing tactics, implementation processes, and organizational changes. Thus, each approach to downsizing generates different implications for human resource management.