Moderating Price Sensitivity of Low-Uncertainty Daily Eco-Friendly Products: Creating Benevolence Trust and Reducing Uncertainties

For low-uncertainty daily eco-friendly products like eco-shampoo, consumers' willingness to pay a higher price can be the biggest barrier to hinder their purchase. In this research, we propose that benevolence trust does have a significant effect in mitigating this barrier. This research also shows that benevolence trust can reduce uncertainties and feelings of anxiety and increase feelings of optimism, symbolic benefits, and perceived price value while adopting daily eco-friendly products. Above all, the research findings show that further reduction of uncertainties plays a key role in driving consumers' willingness to pay a higher price when purchasing low-uncertainty daily eco-friendly products. The findings were also supported by a practical case study.     

Disclosing elements of disclosure: a test of legitimacy theory and company ethics

This paper focuses on some of the ethical issues related to voluntary disclosure of qualitative information by Canadian public companies. Drawing on various organizational theories, we examine some of the ways that companies can symbolically manage legitimacy through disclosure. Press releases of a sample of companies that received cease‐trading orders were analysed for their use of language. We found that high‐risk companies attempted to manage legitimacy by selectively releasing information and by using ambiguous language. Moreover, some companies behaved unethically by using language that suggested a positive future despite the imminent release of a cease‐trading order. These findings have implications for organizational and accounting theorists and stakeholders in the corporate, fiduciary, and investment communities. Copyright © 2008 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Framing and Organizational Misconduct: A Symbolic Interactionist Study

This study expands theoretical understanding of organizational misconduct through qualitative analysis of widespread deceptive sales practices at a large U.S. life insurance company. Adopting a symbolic interactionist perspective, this research describes how a set of taken-for-granted interpretive frames located in the organization’s culture created a worldview through which deceptive sales practices were seen as normal, acceptable, routine operating procedure. The findings from this study extend and modify the dominant theoretical ‘pressure/opportunity’ model of organizational misconduct by proposing that the process engine driving misconduct is not amorally rational organization members, but rather is organizational members acting on socially constructed views of the organization that normalize misconduct. Tammy L. MacLean is an assistant professor of management at Suffolk University in Boston, Massachusetts. She teaches in the areas of organizational behavior and managing diversity. Her research interests include how the process of decoupling organizational policies and programs from core organizational functions affects organizational behavior. Her research has been published in academic journals such as Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Learning & Education, Journal of Management Inquiry, and Business & Society. She received a Ph.D. in Organization Studies in 2001 from Boston College.     

Americans' vacations

This paper explores the nature of Americans' vacations from the perspective of current trends in social and symbolic anthropology. Taking the viewpoint of the vacationers themselves, it suggests that there are two polar types of vacations that are recognized by Americans which are termed “Peasant for a Day” and “Queen (King) for a Day.” Each of these types inverts an aspect of American society, but depending on the class of the vacationer involved, the inversion takes on one of two forms: either dissolution or accentuation of the social hierarchy. Examples and variations of these two basic types of vacation are presented; both domestic and overseas holidays are discussed.     

Exploring the Role of Symbolic Legitimation in Voluntary Journal List Adoption

Abstract

Journal lists are common in the global accounting academy, yet the underlying ‘research quality’ construct is ill defined and the specific processes used in voluntary list adoptions have not been systematically tied to theory. This paper raises the questions: (1) What is driving voluntary journal list adoptions? and (2) Are journal list projects more closely aligned with addressing well-specified public problems or with effecting symbolic legitimation? A set of theory-based questions help structure an assessment of the process used by two American accounting/business programs with traditional teaching missions as they work toward developing an institution-specific journal list. Subject to the usual cautions about the generalizability of a case study described by an active player, the narrative suggests that symbolic legitimation issues may play a key role in journal listing and ranking processes.     

象征资本、合法性感知与新创企业绩效关系研究述评

新创企业面临着新创弱性和小企业弱性,缺乏足够的资源和能力采取实质性营销活动,因此一般以大企业为对象的营销理论很难适用。布迪厄从社会学角度提出的象征资本为研究新创企业营销绩效打开了全新视角。本文在分析象征资本和合法性感知概念的基础上,从理论和实证研究两方面总结认为象征资本能够向利益相关者特别是消费者以标签或符号的形式传达有关企业的积极信息,以获取合法性感知,从而对新创企业绩效产生积极影响,并指出了未来的研究方向。     

How Social Structures Influence the Labour Market Participation of Individuals with Mental Illness: A Bourdieusian Perspective

Adopting a Bourdieusian perspective, this paper examines the social structures that influence the labour market participation of individuals with mental illness. We draw on 257 qualitative surveys completed by individuals with diagnosed mental health conditions in Europe, North America, Oceania, Africa, and Asia. We employed thematic analysis to analyse the data. The findings reveal that the interplay of capital endowments, symbolic violence, habitus and illusio shape the labour market participation of individuals with mental illness. Capital endowments of individuals with mental illness are afforded less value in the labour market and these individuals internalize, legitimize and normalize their disadvantaged position, blaming themselves rather than questioning the social structures leading to the challenges they encounter. We highlight that social structures condition the opinion these individuals have of themselves and how this affects how they navigate the labour market. In sum, we show that Bourdieu's concepts provide a useful lens to study inequalities in the labour market, as they reveal the social structures that produce, sustain and reinforce the social order that disadvantages individuals with mental illness.     

Indigenous Cosmogony and Andean Architecture in El Alto,Bolivia

This essay applies Bourdieu's analysis of the formation of the ‘scholastic habitus’ in medieval times—elaborated in his 1967 afterword to his French translation of Erwin Panofsky's Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism—to the correspondence between indigenous mental categories and architectural innovation in the Bolivian ‘rebel city’ of El Alto. The principle of homology between mental categories and building layout (rooted in a shared habitus) can be used to interpret one of the most spectacular features of Bolivia's ‘emerging architectures’, known as chalets. The term chalet designates a hybrid structure consisting of a colorful and ornate penthouse and multi‐story dwelling erected on building rooftops. The chalets are architectural forms embedded within an economy of symbolic goods characterized by a ‘dual truth’: they are at once material and symbolic; they perform economic functions while seeking public visibility. The conspicuous lifestyle advertised by the construction of chalets can be understood by reference to the rising social power of the indigenous elites (cholos) dominating the thriving ‘ethnic economy’ of the city. The fraternities of El Alto emerge as the structural equivalent of the scholastic institution that Bourdieu associated with Gothic architecture: they are the site of production of a specific habitus, shared by native urban categories defined by similar residential locations, economic activities and forms of collective organization.     

Support for contracting-out and public-private partnership: exploring citizens’ perspectives

ABSTRACT

Many studies have evaluated the merits and challenges of contracting-out and public-private partnership (PPP). However, few studies have examined citizens’ views of these alternative service-delivery mechanisms and what factors influence their views. Using results from a citizen survey of a mid-sized US city, the present study investigates how consumerism, the citizenry framework, and symbolic institutionalism influence public support for contracting-out and PPP. Our findings show that symbolic institutionalism provides the most significant and consistent explanation of public support for the mechanisms. Implications for public management practices and future research, especially on creating and capturing value through PPP, are discussed.     

The networking practices of women managers in an emerging economy setting: negotiating institutional and social barriers

Women managers face institutional and social barriers throughout their careers. In this research, we use networking and symbolic interactionism theories to explain how they network while negotiating these impediments in an emerging economy setting. Focus‐group data revealed three themes. The women in our study, as predicted by networking theory, use networks to bolster career outcomes, although some also use non‐influential networks or network ineffectively. Next, symbolic interactionism explains how expectations of, and personal reflections on, networking lead to a lack of confidence and feelings of guilt that can be career limiting. However, when women understand that their unique networking approach can be powerful, they gain social capital that enhances their leadership. Last, patriarchal cultures of emerging economy settings support stereotypical gender roles, leaving women conflicted between competition and mutual support, thus redefining the so‐called Queen Bee phenomenon. We conclude by showing how women can use networking to enhance career and personal development.