Abstract

New government targets show an increasing need to reduce waste in the domestic environment. These efforts however, are often met with resistance from consumers when attempting to increase voluntary participation levels and for this reason, understanding behaviours behind why certain individuals may be more inclined to participate, is often the basis of much user waste profiling.

With food waste often the focus of many academic studies, design, product innovation and technology has recently drawn its own attention in the media, creating markets for obsolescent products and subsequently increasing volumes of electrical waste without well-established facilitation for its disposal. Many different factors have been shown to shape the behaviours of consumers when disposing of items reaching their end of life and general findings indicate trends surrounding demographics; age, education, and income as indicators of willingness to participate in various recycling schemes.

With large scale production adopted in both the food and design industries, there is often speculation over whether psychological influences such as 'the social norm' may influence consumer lifestyle leading to conditioning of 'increased wastefulness'.

Through analysis of consumer buying and disposal habits and household waste behaviours, this research aims to investigate whether through lifestyles and generation norms, there is suggestion that increased awareness of obsolescence towards electrical products has become a factor in increasing food waste behaviours. Where many studies exist to analyse behaviours by product group, this research aims to look at the bigger picture in order to identify whether these product group behaviours can be linked by common factors.

Where many studies have previously publicized complications associated with unnatural participant behaviour in ethnographical studies, this paper will assess through a combination of ethnographical research, questionnaires, and user interview, whether there is a correlation between behaviours in one product group and those in another

The study concludes that although trends show younger people for whom obsolescence of products always has been the norm tended to be more wasteful concerning food, there is not enough separating evidence to determine whether obsolescence of products and their disposal has affected food behaviours or whether these behaviours exhibited are only as an indication of age, lack of knowledge, and experience.

Abstract

As an important communication vehicle in the area of public relations, Corporate Press Releases (CPRs) contribute to establishing favorable corporate images and maintaining good relations between corporations and stakeholders. Through Corporate Press Releases, companies usually report on the corporate news while attempting to develop positive reputations which may be reflected by the generic intertextuality in those releases, where genres of both news reports and advertisements are embedded.

In order to find out whether there exists such generic intertextuality in CPRs, the authors of this paper conducted a qualitative research. The authors collected 50 pieces of CPRs from the official websites of 42 Fortune 500 companies as research data for the current study. Firstly, to find generic intertexuality between different genres, the authors adopt Swales' move analysis to identify the move structure of CPRs and then compare it with those of news reports and advertisements respectively. It turns out that there is a high level of similarity between the move structure of CPRs and that of news reports and also between those of CPRs and advertisements. As a result, the generic intertextuality of CPRs is exposed. This paper also indicates that social transformations, such as commercialization and rise in technology have impact on CPRs, which lead to the emergence of generic intertextuality.

Abstract

Total Quality Management (TQM), has been accepted globally as a management philosophy and practice to improve quality. However, only limited empirical studies have been carried out in manufacturing Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in the Gulf countries. The primary concern for the manufacturing SMEs in the Middle East who want to compete in the global market is that many competitors have been involved in quality improvement programs for decades which initially give them a competitive edge. This research is designed to identify the current level of TQM implementation in manufacturing SMEs in the Gulf States and investigate the TQM and Continuous Improvement (CI) parameters that affect the performance of the companies, and to identify the barriers that stop them from implementing TQM in their company. The main objectives are to determine the influencing factors and response to TQM implementation within manufacturing SMEs through empirical analysis and propose a TQM model that is more suitable for Arab SMEs to improve the quality management.

Abstract

Goods and Services Tax (GST) is considered to be a major and important indirect tax reform in India. It has affected almost all the sectors of the economy. It has also affected the economic growth. Consumers are not exception to the impact of GST. Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industry has witnessed a price rise in certain goods. Purchase decision of consumers play an important role in determining the volume of business by FMCG companies. This is the reason companies undertake various marketing programs and activities to influence consumers towards purchasing their products. This study focuses on factors influencing the purchase decisions of young adults after GST implementation as this major tax reform has affected each and every citizen of the country. For this purpose, 100 respondents are surveyed and collected data are analyzed through SPSS 21 version software. The study identifies and groups the variables into two major factors, namely consumer oriented and seller oriented factors. Finally, this study provides a meaningful conclusion and provides a scope for further research in this area.

Abstract

Since the government of Olusegun Obasanjo revitalised the Code of Conduct Bureau immediately he assumed office in 1999, to checkmate activities of corrupt public officers who falsely declare their assets, the Bureau has been finding it difficult to effectively carry out this onerous task single-handedly without the assistance of some other government agencies: State Security Service (SSS), National Intelligence Agency (NIA), the Nigerian Police, and or financial institutions like commercial banks, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Federal Ministry of Finance (FMF), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), etc. This paper through use of analytical approach or method is aimed at finding ways that the Nigerian banks and the agents of the Bureau (or government investigators) can effectively collaborate to unravel the efforts of corrupt officers who defraud the government as well as under-declare their assets. Findings showed that if bank management can effectively install an error-proof control system, and they are ready to collaborate with the Bureau, they can always foil efforts to falsely declare public officers' assets lodged with the banks. Besides, it was ascertained from the study that mandatory disclosure of a customer's financial standing and or other assets by the banks are well covered by the law in four special areas: compulsion by law, legislative requirement, duty to the public, and for the interest of the bank itself.