Application of early risk detection concepts and methods to environmental health. A German feasibility study

Early risk detection is essential for being able to address the most important environmental health risk‐topics in a persistent and prospective manner. In support of the action programme “Environment and Health” (APUG) of the German Federal Ministry of Health and Social Security (BMGS) and the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety (BMU) which recommended that a detection and evaluation system for the timely recognition of emerging risk problems be developed, a qualitative feasibility study was commissioned. The results of this study are presented here and support the development of an early risk detection system based on the insights gained from the investigation of case studies and the differentiation and presentation of a risk typology, methods, tools, and suggested organizational processes.

The study has shown that early risk detection includes the identification, characterization, evaluation and dissemination of information on possible risks as well as the circumstances of appearance and distribution. The goal is the recognition of possible risks in order for risk management to be able to introduce swift and appropriate measures. Consequently, it can also serve as an instrument towards further development of a balanced and structured implementation of the precautionary principle in the environmental health policy.     

Job quality in the customer contact centre: conceptual foundation and scale development

To develop a comprehensive framework of dimensions of job quality in a customer contact centre (CCC), this study adopts the employee's perspective and proposes 12 dimensions. Previous studies suggest conceptualizations of the dimensions of job quality, but have failed to address the specific dimensions that need to be taken into account in a CCC setting. With its multiple dimensions, the proposed job quality scale achieves high internal validity, reliability and generalizability in the CCC setting. Yet the increasing role of such centres for service delivery makes them and their employees critical to customers' quality perceptions, and the findings of this study offer managers clear guidelines adjusted to the CCC environment.     

Physicians' appraisal of mobile health monitoring

This study addresses what factors influence and moderate Japanese physicians' mobile health monitoring (MHM) adoption for diabetic patients. In light of the multilevel sequential check theory, the study tests whether novelty seeking, self-efficacy, and compatibility moderate the effects of overall quality, net benefits, and perceived value of MHM on physicians' usage intention. Self-efficacy serves as an evaluation of resources for coping with an event, while compatibility involves the judgment of an event's congruence with a motive or goal. The study results support four out of nine moderation hypotheses. Our findings clearly indicate that the impact of overall quality and net benefits on physicians' intention to use MHM would be significantly strengthened by self-efficacy and compatibility, but not by novelty seeking.     

An empirical comparison of the efficacy of covariance-based and variance-based SEM

Variance-based SEM, also known under the term partial least squares (PLS) analysis, is an approach that has gained increasing interest among marketing researchers in recent years. During the last 25 years, more than 30 articles have been published in leading marketing journals that have applied this approach instead of the more traditional alternative of covariance-based SEM (CBSEM). However, although an analysis of these previous publications shows that there seems to be at least an implicit agreement about the factors that should drive the choice between PLS analysis and CBSEM, no research has until now empirically compared the performance of these approaches given a set of different conditions. Our study addresses this open question by conducting a large-scale Monte-Carlo simulation. We show that justifying the choice of PLS due to a lack of assumptions regarding indicator distribution and measurement scale is often inappropriate, as CBSEM proves extremely robust with respect to violations of its underlying distributional assumptions. Additionally, CBSEM clearly outperforms PLS in terms of parameter consistency and is preferable in terms of parameter accuracy as long as the sample size exceeds a certain threshold (250 observations). Nevertheless, PLS analysis should be preferred when the emphasis is on prediction and theory development, as the statistical power of PLS is always larger than or equal to that of CBSEM; already, 100 observations can be sufficient to achieve acceptable levels of statistical power given a certain quality of the measurement model.     

The moderating impact of perceived globalness on consumers’ purchase intentions for copycats: The pleasure of hurting global brands

Copycats or “me‐too” brands imitate prominent features of market leaders with the intention to benefit from consumers’ positive associations of the imitated brand. However, the imitated market leader can be perceived as being local (=in‐group) or global (=out‐group). Employing social identity theory, Study 1 examined the interaction between copycat strategy and perceived globalness of the brand, showing that consumers have higher purchase intentions for global copycats versus a local counterpart. Study 2 shows that the interacting effect of copycat strategy and perceived globalness is moderated by consumer ethnocentrism. Further, authors demonstrate that a global copycat elicit greater schadenfreude (vs. local brand), which in turn increases consumers’ purchase intentions. Subsequent mediation analysis shows that ethnocentric consumers experience schadenfreude upon encountering copycats of global brands, which in turn increases purchase intention, whereas low ethnocentric consumers show higher purchase intentions for local differentiated brands because they deem a copycat strategy as unacceptable. Finally, Study 3 examines whether the results from Studies 1 and 2 continue to hold for theme copycats.     

Evaluative Conditioning of Food Technologies

Consumer attitudes play an important role in the acceptance of new technologies. The success of food innovations depends on understanding how consumers form and change attitudes toward food technologies. Earlier post hoc explanations suggest that evaluative conditioning can change consumer attitudes toward food technologies. The present study tests how evaluative conditioning can affect consumer acceptance of new food technologies. Furthermore, authors investigate whether evaluative conditioning is resistant to extinction after a two‐month period and whether the evaluative conditioning effect prevails in a product‐related context. Within an evaluative conditioning paradigm including between‐subjects control groups in addition to standard within‐subjects control conditions, participants were presented with three food technologies (conventional, enzyme, and genetic technology) paired with affectively positive, neutral, and negative pictures. Subsequent evaluative measurements revealed that evaluative conditioning can explain attitude change toward food technologies when affective pictures are used. Furthermore, results indicate that evaluative conditioning is resistant to extinction after two months and acquired evaluative conditioning effect spills over in a product‐related context.     

Who Buys Oddly Shaped Food and Why? Impacts of Food Shape Abnormality and Organic Labeling on Purchase Intentions

Even without official quality standards, food retailers generally do not offer abnormally shaped food based on the assumption that consumers reject food that deviates physically from some norm. Because this practice contributes significantly to food waste, the current study tests this assumption experimentally. A representative sample of 964 Danish consumers indicated their purchase intentions for two fruits and two vegetables with varying levels of food shape abnormality (normal, moderately abnormal, and extremely abnormal) and organic labels (organic label, no label). Food shape abnormalities influence consumers’ purchase intentions, but only if the food deviates extremely from the norm; no differences in purchase intentions emerge for moderately abnormal food. Awareness of food waste issues and proenvironmental self‐identities also drive purchase intentions, such that participants with high levels of these traits express significantly higher purchase intentions for abnormally shaped food. Thus, increasing awareness of food waste issues, particularly among those with strong proenvironmental self‐identities, might encourage more consumers to purchase abnormally shaped fruits and vegetables.     

Linear indices in nonlinear structural equation models: best fitting proper indices and other composites

Quality & Quantity - The recent advent of nonlinear structural equation models with indices poses a new challenge to the measurement of scientific constructs. We discuss, exemplify and add to a...