Antecedents and Consequences of Consumers' Response to Health Information Complexity

This study develops and empirically tests a model for understanding food consumers' health information seeking behaviour. Data were collected from 504 food consumers using a nationally representative consumer panel. The obtained Lisrel results suggest that consumers' product-specific health information seeking is positively affected by general food involvement and by usability of product-specific health information. Moreover, product-specific health information seeking and product-specific health information complexity are both positively related to post-purchase health-related dissonance. This link between information complexity and post-purchase dissonance has implications for marketers of food products since our results suggest that consumers might avoid purchasing the same food item again if post-purchase dissonance is experienced.     

Changes and trends in alcohol consumption patterns in Europe

Consumer behaviourists and consumer policy-makers are interested in the degree to which global convergence is occurring for various consumer behaviour dimensions, the extent to which the consumption patterns in different parts of the world are becoming similar and the extent to which these trends may be influenced and/or influence consumer policy. With increasing internationalization and cultural cross-fertilization, the industrialized societies of the world are converging in many ways. Shifts in alcohol consumption patterns in Europe over the past 50 years represent a case in point. As traditional cultural boundaries become blurred, consumer preferences for alcoholic beverages appear to be driven less by long-standing local and regional traditions and more by growing acceptance of a wider choice. The disparity in total alcohol consumption among the 15 countries studied has also decreased. Other powerful forces are likely to accelerate the pace of convergence in the future.     

Advances in consumer education: European initiatives

The purpose of this article is to inform the reader of developments in consumer education in the European Union and to present future directions for policy and research. The article responds to a call for more consumer education and the promotion of sustainable consumption. It makes a case for the benefits of studying the dynamic multi‐country process of developing coordinated consumer education curriculum and resources involving academics, government officials and non‐governmental organizations, ultimately affecting millions of students. The review of select initiatives, questions posed and subsequent recommendations highlights the complexity of the issues surrounding economic viability and the pedagogical and social value of transnational consumer education initiatives.     

Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Governance: Role of Context in International Settings

This research aims to explore the relationship between corporate governance and CSR: What are the major factors that play a direct role in the establishment of this relationship? How does context and institutional background impact upon the relationship between CSR and Governance? Using in-depth semi-structured interviews from two types of governance systems in three countries over three years, this study has demonstrated that in practice, within different settings, CSR is being used both as a strategy as well as a reaction to different drivers. We call this adaptive governance where governance can be defined as a flexible system of action incorporating strategic and monitoring activities that determines the way a company enacts its responsibilities to its shareholders and stakeholders and which is determined at any given time by the interrelationship of institutional drivers and behavioural norms. Governance systems and their interrelationships with CSR are demonstrated as fluid according to the national and institutional context, economic situation and industry impact. In the eyes of practitioners corporate governance includes both structural and behavioural factors as well as responsibilities and actions towards shareholders and stakeholders. Contextual factors that this research highlights to be important to the incorporation of CSR into governance include the economic environment, national governance system, regulation and soft law, shareholders, national culture, behavioural norms and industry impacts. Hypotheses on the impact of institutional contexts, industry impacts and economic situations on different types of CSR actions are proposed for further research.     

Trade-offs and disappearing acts: shifting societal discourses of diversity in Canada over three decades

In the past few decades, research on minority and disadvantaged groups in the workplace has focused on the discourse of diversity management; however, most of this research has emphasized individual and organizational discourse rather than broader, societal contexts. Our critical analysis of societal/macro level discourse explores the discursive constructions of equity and diversity in Canada, and provides original findings on how these discourses have been produced in the public sphere. We apply quantitative and qualitative textual analysis to articles published from 1986 to 2014 in The Globe and Mail, a nationally distributed newspaper, and the Canadian Employment Equity Act Annual Reports from 1988 to 2013. This paper describes a range of discursive patterns including those focusing on compliance-based equity oriented toward social justice as well as voluntary ‘diversity management’ grounded in corporate self-interest. It demonstrates important trade-offs in who is protected and promoted through the contrasting discourses, and in the types of actors legitimizing these discourses. We provide detailed evidence of these patterns by applying Habermas’ Theory of Communicative Action, and conclude with a discussion of implications for practice and for theory that are suggested in our analysis.     

Encouraging sustainable entrepreneurship in climate-threatened communities: a Samoan case study

South Pacific island states are at the forefront of climatic changes that have precipitated severe environmental events. These small countries also face economic and social challenges that require entrepreneurial solutions. We develop a model of how external factors and chance events impact on sustainable opportunity recognition and exploitation in this context. We assess the efficacy of this model in an in-depth study of Women in Business Development Incorporated, a non-governmental organization that helps women and families in Samoa to establish sustainable enterprises. Our findings make a significant contribution to the emerging literature on entrepreneurship, sustainability and resilience in at-risk communities by showing how key organizational capabilities are necessary for coping with exogenous shocks in this context. The findings have important implications for research, policy and practice.     

The institutionalization of information system project management practices

Considering that current structures are the result of choices made in specific contexts in the past, we adopt a historical perspective in order to understand how some information systems (IS) project management practices evolved and became norms. Using historical methods, we analyze sources of data spanning 52 years of IS project management (1945–2007) – interviews with IS project managers and academics, IS project management textbooks, curricula, and the scientific and professional literature – to: (1) determine whether some IS project management practices may now be considered institutionalized, and (2) understand their institutionalization processes over time. Based on this analysis, three groups of IS project management practices may now be considered institutionalized: formal control, external integration, and project risk management.     

Dual sources of support for dual roles: how mentoring and work–family culture influence work–family conflict and job attitudes

This study examines the influence of mentoring support and perceptions of a supportive work–family culture on the level of work–family conflict (WFC), job satisfaction and affective commitment reported by employees in a Fortune 100 professional services organization. Main effects and interaction effects between mentoring and work–family culture were explored. Results indicate that the presence of a mentor is significantly related to affective commitment while a supportive work–family culture was associated with less WFC – both family interference with work and work interference with family – and greater job satisfaction and affective commitment. For both job satisfaction and affective commitment, there is an interaction effect that suggests a synergy between direct and contextual support. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.