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Consumer policy is already being shaped by a combination of governance models. This position paper argues that complexity-oriented convergence models are a timely addition. Modern day consumer policy is characterized as interactiv...
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Consumer policy is already being shaped by a combination of governance models. This position paper argues that complexity-oriented convergence models are a timely addition. Modern day consumer policy is characterized as interactive and integrative, replete with shifting boundaries and coalitions and evolving roles for each of state, market and society. This paper focused on governance in the consumer policy arena, arguing that this process needs to acknowledge and reconcile complexity. After describing the basic tenets of complexity theory, two characteristics of contemporary tri-sector interaction (i.e., sector blurring and sector distortion) were discussed. These boundary characteristics necessitate the need for approaches that can accommodate complexity during consumer policy governance. Three examples of the latter were profiled: sector convergence, network governance and cross-sector governance. These conceptualizations accommodate the dynamics, complexity and emergence of contemporary consumer policy governance.
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Consumer typologies reveal categories of the consumer that stretch from the vulnerable to the empowered notion of the consumer citizen. At the empowered end of this spectrum, consumers in Europe have a developing, normative, organ...
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Consumer typologies reveal categories of the consumer that stretch from the vulnerable to the empowered notion of the consumer citizen. At the empowered end of this spectrum, consumers in Europe have a developing, normative, organisational structure that provides channels for the consumer voice to influence consumer policy at the European level. This is an organisational structure with mechanisms for developing an effective consumer empowerment and enforcement framework across all EU Member States. It is a framework that forms a coherent whole with the European-level consumer institutions. This paper examines the integrated nature of these institutions and their role in influencing the development of consumer policy through a multi-level platform of new governance. It discusses the normative processes that, through empowerment and engagement, are encouraging a consumer citizenship practice to exploit these channels of communication in order to influence policy development.
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This paper explores consumer advocacy as it applies to insurance regulation based on the literature and on the author's experience as a consumer representative and member of the Board of Trustees for the National Association of In...
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This paper explores consumer advocacy as it applies to insurance regulation based on the literature and on the author's experience as a consumer representative and member of the Board of Trustees for the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). The NAIC, founded in 1871, is a non-profit voluntary organization of the chief insurance regulatory officials of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. One of its key objectives is to facilitate the fair and equitable treatment of consumers. Each year 13-16 consumer representatives are selected to speak for consumers at national meetings in addition to serving as year-round resources to consumers, attorneys representing consumers, regulators, and other groups. Readers of the paper are encouraged to participate more fully in the public policy process. Although the focus of this paper is on insurance and regulation in the USA, the guiding principles apply to other nations, organizations, and consumer causes.
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Purpose This paper presents a critical discourse analysis of "choice" as it appears in UK policy documents relating to food and public health. A dominant policy approach to improving public health has been health promotion and hea...
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Purpose This paper presents a critical discourse analysis of "choice" as it appears in UK policy documents relating to food and public health. A dominant policy approach to improving public health has been health promotion and health education with the intention to change behaviour and encourage healthier eating. Given the emphasis on evidence-based policy making within the UK, the continued abstraction of choice without definition or explanation provoked us to conduct this analysis, which focuses on 1976 to the present. Design/methodology/approach The technique of discourse analysis was used to analyse selected food policy documents and to trace any shifts in the discourses of choice across policy periods and their implications in terms of governance and the individualisation of responsibility. Findings We identified five dominant repertoires of choice in UK food policy over this period: as personal responsibility, as an instrument of change, as an editing tool, as a problem and freedom of choice. Underpinning these is a continued reliance on the rational actor model, which is consonant with neoliberal governance and its constructions of populations as body of self-governing individuals. The self-regulating, self-governing individual is obliged to choose as a condition of citizenship. Research limitations/implications This analysis highlights the need for a more sophisticated approach to understanding "choice" in the context of public health and food policy in order to improve diet outcomes in the UK and perhaps elsewhere. Originality/value This is the first comprehensive analysis of the discourse of choice in UK food policy.
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A waste disposal problem of looming proportions, coupled with a lack of sufficient public engagement in the preferred alternative to disposal, which is recycling, continues to perplex English policy-makers. Based on both a literat...
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A waste disposal problem of looming proportions, coupled with a lack of sufficient public engagement in the preferred alternative to disposal, which is recycling, continues to perplex English policy-makers. Based on both a literature review across a wide range of disciplines and a national survey of consumer attitudes towards their own participation in recycling, this paper finds that past efforts at increasing recycling have been based on an implied model of consumer recycling behaviour that is not supported by what happens in practice. By disentangling thinking about recycling behaviour from academic thinking about green consumerism, the paper considers the waste and recycling problem from a different angle. It suggests that research on the personal values of people who recycle could be utilized in marketing communications that show these values being fulfilled by recycling. Focusing greater marketing attention on people who already claim to recycle, and helping them through better communication and improved practical help, could achieve much higher levels of reclaimed materials.
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Sub-Saharan Africa ranks among the top regions in terms of growth in the number of mobile phone users. The success of mobile telephony is attributed to the opening of markets for private players and lenient regulatory policy. Howe...
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Sub-Saharan Africa ranks among the top regions in terms of growth in the number of mobile phone users. The success of mobile telephony is attributed to the opening of markets for private players and lenient regulatory policy. However, markets may be increasingly saturated and new regulations introduced across Africa could also have a negative impact on future growth. Since 2006, the majority of countries in the region have introduced mandatory registration of users of prepaid SIM cards with their personal identity details. This potentially increases the costs of using mobile telephony. Herein a fixed effects model for the estimation of the impact of mandatory registration on mobile subscription penetration growth is presented, which is based upon a panel dataset of 32 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa for the years 2000 to 2010. The results show that the introduction of mandatory registration depresses growth in mobile penetration. Further, the potential impact of mandatory registration on competition and consumer privacy is critically discussed.
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The impact of poultry product recall events on consumer demand in the US was empirically tested for four major categories of poultry: broiler (young chicken), eggs, turkey and other chicken (mature or nonbroiler chicken). From 200...
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The impact of poultry product recall events on consumer demand in the US was empirically tested for four major categories of poultry: broiler (young chicken), eggs, turkey and other chicken (mature or nonbroiler chicken). From 2000 to 2004, poultry Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) recall events had a consistent positive impact on demand for turkey but no significant impact on other types of poultry products. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) - FSIS recall, as a complement to food labelling, did not undermine poultry consumption but promoted turkey demands. On the contrary, media recall undermined poultry demands. Moreover, it demonstrated that turkey consumers were a special behaviour group of poultry consumers.
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We utilize the Michigan Surveys of Consumers data to first investigate the dynamic relationship between consumers' assessment of current and future economic conditions (Index of Current Economic Conditions (ICC) and Index of Consu...
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We utilize the Michigan Surveys of Consumers data to first investigate the dynamic relationship between consumers' assessment of current and future economic conditions (Index of Current Economic Conditions (ICC) and Index of Consumer Expectations (ICE)), and then examine how these assessments are influenced by deterioration/improvement in consumers' appraisal of economic policies of the government (GP). We further assess how deterioration/improvement in ICC and ICE influences GP. For 1978-2015, our findings first indicate that ICC and ICE are cointegrated and both respond to disequilibrium to restore the long-run equilibrium relationship. Second, deterioration in GP results in deterioration in both ICC and ICE. Improvement in GP, however, results in improvement in ICE with no impact on ICC. Third, deterioration in both ICC and ICE results in deterioration in GP. Improvement in ICE results in improvement in GP, but improvement in ICC has no impact on GP. The observed asymmetries are in line with negativity bias', whereby people tend to give more weight to negative events than to positive ones.
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Drawing from the literature on the analytics of government, the paper discusses marketing as a form of government, elaborating and illustrating the many ways in which consumer choice is shaped, modified and directed in the market ...
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Drawing from the literature on the analytics of government, the paper discusses marketing as a form of government, elaborating and illustrating the many ways in which consumer choice is shaped, modified and directed in the market through practices and techniques of consumer marketing. The aim is to critically reflect upon and render problematic the individualistic ideas of the green consumer as a powerful market force and to provoke discussion on the conceptualization - and construction - of consumer subjectivity and social problems in marketing. Taking examples particularly from the fashion and clothing industry, the paper discusses the ways in which marketing activities come to shape consumer conduct by operating through the choice of individuals who freely pursue their needs and desires, and by working on the environment within which this freedom of choice is exercised. The paper contributes to the literature on green consumerism by systematically interrogating and elaborating on the modes and practices of marketing thought and expertise through which consumers and consumption are rendered intelligible and actionable in the market.
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Government involvement in the IT standards process often includes funding, regulatory, and legislative mandates; trade and procurement policies; and sometimes outright control. Examples of all these exist in various countries, jur...
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Government involvement in the IT standards process often includes funding, regulatory, and legislative mandates; trade and procurement policies; and sometimes outright control. Examples of all these exist in various countries, jurisdictions, and technical areas around the world. However, governments also play a major role as IT consumers. The specifications adopted by a government as a consumer facilitate widespread use in industry. Therefore, governments are in a unique position to participate in the standards process in a way that not only reflects a public interest role but also considers consumer concerns. Just as industry cannot operate without government as a partner in defining priorities and ensuring satisfactory results, governments cannot effectively represent their constituents by taking unilateral action in establishing standards. The government must appreciate the role it plays as an informed consumer with a potential for applying life cycle planning.
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