Systems-thinking social marketing: conceptual extensions and empirical investigations

ABSTRACT

Systems thinking dominated the 2015 World Social Marketing conference with the premise that a more holistic approach takes into account all the issues at play for effective change. Augmenting the broadening social marketing literature, we contend that systems-thinking social marketing enhances the field’s conventional behavioural change with concepts of scale, causation, and iterative co-creating change processes for complex health and environmental problems. The results of our empirical Sea for Society study, a sustainable European marine ecosystem examination of what the barriers to change are and how they are interrelated, find systems-thinking social marketing offers the potential to strategically and critically reinforce, not replace, behavioural change campaigns. With systems-thinking social marketing, a coherent theory of change becomes a possibility. Orchestrating social change may become a reality.     

From Propriety to Property,or is it the Other Way Round?

If we acknowledge that Adam Smith's two major works are related, we will be better equipped to appreciate the features of the economy we live in. The shift from a close-knit community to a more extensive range of economic relations, however, involves qualitative changes that question Vernon Smith's linear causation from propriety to property and human betterment.     

Does modern endogenous growth theory adequately represent Allyn Young?

Endogenous growth theory is now fashionable. It seeks to explainwhy per capita income growth in capital abundant countries isoften faster than in capital poor countries and defies the operationof diminishing returns. This theory, which took off with Romerand Lucas, often makes Allyn Young's concept of increasing returnsand Marshall's distinction between internal and external economiesits starting point but considers their treatment of the subjectas not sufficiently rigorous. The modern endogenous growth theoriststhen claim to explain what they had in mind with greater clarity,rigour and depth. This paper argues that this is not the caseas these theorists actually misrepresent Young in importantways.     

The Independent,Simultaneous Development of Instrumental Thought in Various Disciplines

This paper seeks to establish that contributions to regional theory advanced by Gunnar Myrdal exhibit high levels of explanatory power when clarifying challenges facing Germany's eastern region since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Myrdal's evolutionary institutionalist contribution is contrasted with the "convergence hypothesis" advanced by R. Barro and X. Sala-i-Martin. Challenged is their prediction that Germany's eastern region would experience relatively higher annual rates of per capita output growth, and that levels of per capita output would converge between the eastern and western regions over time. Myrdal's approach is argued superior as it allows for considering backwash and spread effects within a framework of circular and cumulative causation, emerging between Germany's western and eastern regions.     

探讨奥运背景下手机媒体发展的前景与策略

手机媒体是近年来讨论较多的话题,对于它的发展方向、发展终端,可谓众说纷纭。笔者预测借着2008年的奥运契机,手机媒体将会迎来新的行业高度。基于此,本文就探讨手机媒体能在2008年奥运会有所作为的原因,藉以提出促进其发展的若干对策。     

我国货币流通速度影响因素的实证分析

对于货币流通速度影响因素的研究 ,各经济学派观点各有千秋。文章在对各学派观点简要概括的基础上 ,结合我国实际情况选取若干经济指标 ,通过葛兰杰因果检验对其影响的显著性进行了实证分析。并根据实证结果 ,对影响货币流通速度的因素给予了理论解释     

Innovation,Diffusion and Cumulative Causation: Changes in the Spanish Growth Regime, 1960–2001

This article presents a model of macroeconomic growth that combines in a single formalization two complementary views on innovation and economic growth, the technology‐gap approach and the Kaldorian theory of cumulative causation. The model suggests that what matters for economic growth in the long run is the existence of a good match between the patterns of technological change, income distribution and demand growth. The model is estimated for the Spanish economy during the period 1960–2001, and the econometric results show that important changes have happened in its growth regime over time. Since the 1980s, innovation and diffusion of new technologies provide a greater stimulus to productivity growth, but the technology push on the supply‐side is not sustained by the prevailing patterns of income distribution and demand growth.     

Expertise,university infrastructure and approaches to new venture creation: assessing students who start businesses

Abstract

Within the broader literature on contextual determinants of effectual and causal cognitive logics, the paper explores the drivers of causal and effectual reasoning in student-founders of new ventures, particularly focusing on the role of university entrepreneurship-related offerings and student prior business experience. Using the Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students’ Survey (GUESSS), the study involves a sample of 2179 student entrepreneurs from 26 countries. Our findings indicate that university entrepreneurship-related offerings such as curricular programming, co-curricular activities, and financial support play a differentiating role in the proclivity towards causal or effectual approaches across the groups of experienced and inexperienced student entrepreneurs. We also provide evidence that effectuation and causation are not mutually exclusive constructs: they are intertwined and can unfold simultaneously.     

A group selection perspective on economic behavior, institutions and organizations

This article examines the role of group dynamics and interactions in explaining economic behavior and the evolution of institutions. Our starting point is the large literature on group selection in the biological, behavioral and social sciences. We present a range of interpretations of group selection, describe a complete set of group selection mechanisms, and discuss the empirical and experimental evidence for group selection. Unique features of cultural group selection are investigated, and opportunities for applying the latter to various areas of economic theory and economic policy are identified.     

效果推理和因果推理对新创企业绩效的影响——创业资源整合的中介作用

文章分析因果推理和效果推理两种决策逻辑对新创企业绩效的影响,及创业资源整合的中介作用。通过对407份新创企业问卷数据的实证研究发现,因果推理和效果推理对新创企业绩效都有正向影响,因果推理和效果推理对创业资源整合也都有正向影响,创业资源整合在因果推理和效果推理与新创企业绩效的正向关系中均具有部分正向中介作用。