Measuring Socio-Demographic Differences in Volunteers with a Value-Based Index: Illustration in a Mega Event

The phenomenon of volunteering can be analysed as a consumer experience through the concept of value as a trade-off between benefits and costs. In event volunteering, both the expected value (pre-experienced) and the perceived value (post-experienced) of volunteering can be assessed. With this purpose, an online quantitative survey is conducted with a sample of 711 volunteers in a religious mega event, with questions related to five dimensions of their experience: efficiency, social value, play, spirituality and time spent. These five scales, properly tested are used for building a multidimensional index of both the expected and perceived value of the volunteer experience. ANOVAs test show significant differences on the index in both moments upon the socio-demographic profiles: negative expectations/experience balance by age, contrasted results by sex, and more experienced volunteers being more critical with the value experienced. Implications for event managers are proposed, in line with the motivation of volunteers.     

Model-Robust Design of Conjoint Choice Experiments

Within the context of choice experimental designs, most authors have proposed designs for the multinomial logit model under the assumption that only the main effects matter. Very little attention has been paid to designs for attribute interaction models. In this article, three types of Bayesian D-optimal designs for the multinomial logit model are studied: main-effects designs, interaction-effects designs, and composite designs. Simulation studies are used to show that in situations where a researcher is not sure whether or not attribute interaction effects are present, it is best to take into account interactions in the design stage. In particular, it is shown that a composite design constructed by including an interaction-effects model and a main-effects model in the design criterion is most robust against misspecification of the underlying model when it comes to making precise predictions.     

Resilience in Business and Management Research: A Review of Influential Publications and a Research Agenda

This paper identifies the development of and gaps in knowledge in business and management research on resilience, based on a systematic review of influential publications among 339 papers, books and book chapters published between 1977 and 2014. Analyzing these records shows that resilience research has developed into five research streams, or lines of enquiry, which view resilience as (1) organizational responses to external threats, (2) organizational reliability, (3) employee strengths, (4) the adaptability of business models or (5) design principles that reduce supply chain vulnerabilities and disruptions. A review of the five streams suggests three key findings: First, resilience has been conceptualized quite differently across studies, meaning that the different research streams have developed their own definitions, theories and understandings of resilience. Second, conceptual similarities and differences among these streams have not yet been explored, nor have insights been gleaned about any possible generalizable principles for developing resilience. Third, resilience has been operationalized quite differently, with few insights into the empirics for detecting resilience to future adversity (or the absence thereof). This paper outlines emerging research trends and pathways for future research, highlighting opportunities to integrate and expand on existing knowledge, as well as avenues for further investigation of resilience in business and management studies.     

Agency Problems and Airport Security: Quantitative and Qualitative Evidence on the Impact of Security Training

We analyze the issue of agency costs in aviation security by combining results from a quantitative economic model with a qualitative study based on semi‐structured interviews. Our model extends previous principal‐agent models by combining the traditional fixed and varying monetary responses to physical and cognitive effort with nonmonetary welfare and potentially transferable value of employees' own human capital. To provide empirical evidence for the tradeoffs identified in the quantitative model, we have undertaken an extensive interview process with regulators, airport managers, security personnel, and those tasked with training security personnel from an airport operating in a relatively high‐risk state, Turkey. Our results indicate that the effectiveness of additional training depends on the mix of “transferable skills” and “emotional” buy‐in of the security agents. Principals need to identify on which side of a critical tipping point their agents are to ensure that additional training, with attached expectations of the burden of work, aligns the incentives of employees with the principals' own objectives.     

Tackling Climate Change Through Social Change: A Comparative Analysis

In recent years there has been a widespread perception of climate change as a growing threat to security, both at the individual level and at the international level. This increased attention is mainly due to scientific research, which indicates that climate change is a process already underway, with observable facts and potentially serious consequences. Moreover, according to some scholars, even the immediate implementation of stringent mitigation measures—i.e. reducing greenhouse gas emissions—would not contain the effects of climate change in coming decades, making it necessary to combine the efforts of mitigation policies targeted for the prevention of major threats. Are there any chances for climate stabilization to be sustainable with the economic growth required under a capitalist system? On the one hand, climate environmentalists raise concerns about the risks associated with global warming. On the other hand, leading economists’ main concern is to foster economic growth, thus, a trade off is advocated. In fact, policy-makers are unlikely to impose a burden on the economic growth of their own country in order to meet the targets imposed by the international climate change agreements. This work intends to identify and suggest a framework for climate policies, with the aim to maximize social consensus, through an integration of the issues raised by both disputing fields. A proposed solution is to take into consideration an additional GDP driver, the so-called human capital that would allow a social change.     

Females' Coping Styles and Control Over Poker Machine Gambling

An investigation of the relationship between impaired control over gambling, coping strategies, and demographic variables was conducted by surveying female poker machine players (N = 163) in their gaming venues. Metropolitan (n = 14) and regional (n = 6) gaming venues in Victoria, Australia participated. Control over gambling was measured using the Impaired Control Over Gambling Scale (Baron & Dickerson, 1994). Coping strategies were measured using (Folkman et al., 1986) adaptation of the Revised Ways of Coping Checklist (Vitaliano et al., 1985). MANOVA supported the hypothesis that the lower the control over gambling the greater the reliance on emotion-focused coping (blamed self, wishful thinking, avoidance) with F = 9.92, 13.35, 14.04 respectively, all significant at p < .001. MANOVA failed to supported the hypothesis that problem-focused strategies (problem focus, seek social support) would be significantly related to control over gambling with F = .82 and .21 respectively. Control over gambling was not related to age, employment, relationship status, education, ordistress from significant life events, further supporting the relationship between control and coping strategies. Ways in which coping styles might be related to pathological gambling are discussed.     

Learning through communicating with the public

Abstract

In 2012, ETH Zurich, in collaboration with Swiss Society of Engineers and Architects (SIA), organized a travelling exhibition on the theme Darum Raumplanung (Spatial Planning: Here’s Why!), which was hosted by 37 Swiss cities (with 42 stops in sum) over the last three years. Through this exhibition and its parallel events, such as grand openings, guided tours, debates, visits in schools and a website, we wanted to raise public awareness of the public’s responsibility, both individual and collective, for the living spaces and the environment. Guided tours for adults, as well as for primary and secondary school students, were conducted by undergraduate planning students and recent graduates of a master’s programme in planning. We discovered that planning students had gained considerable experience in communicating with the public through this exercise.