Positive Social Value Research Articles

Collaboration in achieving sustainable solutions in the textile industry

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate how sustainable solutions in the textiles and clothing industry are decided through business-to-business collaboration.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative and inductive study of the Brazilian textiles and clothing industry is carried out, an industry in which sustainable denim products are increasingly being recognized as subject to competition. The paper adopts a focal net perspective to understand the collaborative arrangements through which firms combine the products they offer as a sustainable solution. Documentary data were collected and in-depth interviews conducted with the top managers of one of the world’s largest denim-manufacturing companies present in the Brazilian market, which is involved in providing sustainable solutions in cooperation with its partners.FindingsThe authors describe the factors that reflect the conditions for generating a sustainable business performance, including a corporate policy that assumes and articulates the responsibility for social interest, core-business stakeholders and regulatory requirements; a sustainable product-service system (S.PSS) based on innovative interactions between the stakeholders in the value production system; relations between stakeholders that promote business sustainability through a dependable value chain characterized by a sense of collaboration and collective actions; and a business model for sustainability that combines economic with social and ecological value creation. These factors help a business establish a more strategic position in the value network, enabling it to capture more value.Practical implicationsSustainable solutions are developed dynamically and collaboratively within an S.PPS. Managers need to focus not only on tangible products but also on intangible services designed and combined so that they are jointly capable of fulfilling customer’s needs and creating social and ecological value. Managers within the solution provider must develop business models for sustainability that are continually evolving to satisfy the interest in resource-efficiency by actors in civil society, business and government.Originality/valueThe research contributes to the existing literature by applying approaches involving corporate social responsibility (CSR) and strategic nets to the study of the implementation of an S.PSS. Sustainable initiatives and offers developed by an S.PSS are not isolated phenomena but result from collaboration in finding solutions among different actors linked in a strategic net. In this sense, companies need to adjust their business models for sustainability to generate positive economic, social and ecological value and gain credibility for their missions.

Knowledge, attitude, and practices about male infertility among men and women in slums of Chennai, Tamil Nadu: a cross-sectional study

Background: Infertility is a major public health problem that affects 15% of the global population. Fertility is the ability to conceive pregnancy and has a positive social value whereas; infertility has a negative social value in Indian culture. So, infertility is a serious problem in developing and undeveloped countries are more than of biological.Aim: To assess the knowledge, attitude, perception, and practices, and myths about male infertility in the slums of Chennai.Methods: This is a cross-sectional study carried out in the Slums of Chennai from January 2020 to March 2020. A total of 125 male and 125 female participants of the age group ≥18 years were recruited for the study by simple random sampling. Results: The study revealed that there is adequate knowledge of the common causes of infertility, but clinical knowledge is comparatively low. Both men and women shared almost equal knowledge of infertility. Conclusion: Educational programmes, regular campaigns by Accredited social health activists (ASHAs) and the involvement of community are recommended to increase knowledge about the causes of infertility as well as decrease the stigma associated with this condition.

A multiple criteria approach to map ecological-inclusive business models for sustainable development

ABSTRACT The paper presents the first attempt to apply a multiple criteria approach to map ecological-inclusive business models and to structure their main features, in terms of sustainable development. Ecological-inclusive business models are presented in this study, and 15 cases pertaining to agro-food organisations located in Sub-Saharan Africa are considered. These companies simultaneously deliver positive social and environmental value, and confirm a well-established market presence. As far as social value is concerned, the companies included in the sample use a Bottom-of-Pyramid approach, involving low-income customers and/or low-income business partners. As for environmental value, all the analysed companies implement frugal innovation or sustainable exploitation of natural resources in the afro-food sector. One of the results that has been achieved is that of disentangling the complexity behind a triple bottom-line business model through a multidimensional analysis framework that identifies the aspects that play a fundamental role in ecological-inclusive business models. An evaluation model and the application of a multiple criteria outranking method are proposed as examples of how some criteria, such as the extent of socio-environmental concerns, strategy orientation and value of partnerships can be used to compare, rank and/or select business models to facilitate decision makers. This work presents the results of an interdisciplinary study on the social entrepreneurship field of knowledge.

Retorno social de la inversión para gestionar los residuos sólidos urbanos de Metepec, México

Purpose: To determine the social return of investment of the public cleaning program in order to evaluate the extra-financial profitability of the integral management of urban solid waste in the municipality of Metepec, Estado de Mexico (State of Mexico) in the period from 2019 to 2024. Methodological design: The determination of social return on investment allows to include principles for measuring extrafinancial value according to the resources invested; especially, social and environmental value. The unit of analysis used is a municipal program that manages urban solid waste. The Social Return on Investment (SROI) involves the development of five phases: a) Identify and establish the scope of interest groups, b) mapping the results or expected changes, c) financial measurement of such changes through proxy variables, d) measurement of social impact, and e) calculation of the social return on investment. Results: The estimated social return was 1.27 which implies that the public cleaning program has a positive social value effect. Research limitations: The construction of social learning capacities for the management of urban solid waste is left aside. The holistic environmental perspective is also out of reach. Findings: It is concluded that the Metepec public cleaning program is socially, financially and environmentally sustainable.

Interdisciplinary methodologies for the fan studies bricoleur

As a relatively young field, which brings together scholars from a wide variety of different home disciplines, fan studies faces questions of disciplinary cohesion and methodological practice. Moving from a multidisciplinary space to an interdisciplinary field that creates new synergistic knowledge is facilitated by cross-discipline communication and collaboration. However, this is impeded by many barriers. Examining the history of design research provides useful parallels that may help us learn from the experiences of researchers who faced similar concerns. A bricolage approach will allow scholars in new fields of knowledge to benefit from an interdisciplinary landscape that provides methodological breadth. By using such an approach, fan studies researchers can borrow or synthesize the tools most appropriate to their research questions; for example, participatory action research is a methodology that fan studies researchers may find useful. Participatory approaches may cut through issues of fan/academic positioning and contribute to research with positive social value.

Attention and cardiac phase boost judgments of trust

Fluctuations in mental and bodily states have both been shown to be associated with negative affective experience. Here we examined how momentary fluctuations in attentional and cardiac states combine to regulate the perception of positive social value. Faces varying in trustworthiness were presented during a go/no-go letter target discrimination task synchronized with systolic or diastolic cardiac phase. Go trials lead to an attentional boosting of perceived trust on high trust and ambiguous neutral faces, suggesting attention both boosted existing and generated positive social value. Cardiac phase during face presentation interacted with attentional boosting of trust, enhancing high trust faces specifically during relaxed diastolic cardiac states. Confidence judgments revealed that attentional trust boosting, and its cardiac modulation, did not reflect altered perceptual or response fluency. These results provide evidence for how moment-to moment fluctuations in top-down mental and bottom-up bodily inputs combine to enhance a priori and generate de novo positive social value.

Patent, Screening, Innovation and Welfare

Critics claim that patent screening is ineffective, granting low-quality patents that impose unnecessary social costs. We develop an integrated framework, involving patent office examination, fees, and endogenous validity challenges in the courts, to study patent screening both theoretically and quantitatively. In our model, some inventions require the patent incentive while others do not, and asymmetric information creates a need for screening. We show that the endogeneity of challenges implies that courts, even if perfect, cannot solve the screening problem. Simulations of the model, calibrated on U.S. data, indicate that screening is highly imperfect, with about forty percent of all patents issued on inventions that do not require the patent incentive. While we find that the current patent system generates positive social value, intensifying examination would yield large welfare gains. The social value of the patent system would also be larger if complemented by antitrust limits on licensing.

De portas abertas para o consumo

O consumo de alimentos ligados à saudabilidade e sustentabilidade vem conquistando notoriedade midiática e valoração social e marcária positiva. Partindo desta constatação, propomos discutir este fenômeno alicerçando-nos nos preceitos da análise do discurso de linha francesa, com o objetivo de observar como as redes de restaurante fast-food buscam se reinventar neste novo cenário. Em particular, investigamos de que modo se dá a construção retórico-discursiva do ethos e do pathos na campanha publicitária McDonald’s Portas Abertas e quais efeitos de sentidos são aí evocados para persuadir o consumidor sobre a qualidade dos produtos da rede.

For Everyone?: Finding a Clearer Role for Heritage in Public Policy-making

ABSTRACTThe natural environment has enjoyed a recent surge in both public interest and in government policy activity in Westminster. This could in part be attributable to a ‘Blue Planet effect’, but a bigger change in how the natural world is understood in public policy terms can also be observed, moving the natural environment from a niche conservationist concern, and a perceived resource drain, to a public good which contributes positively to the economy, public health and wellbeing of the nation as a whole. This paper is interested in what this change can tell us about the importance of public interest and perceptions of public benefit for the historic environment, as another conservationist policy concern. It hypothesises that despite the growing body of evidence about the positive social and economic value of heritage and place, ‘heritage’ has an association with white, and middle and upper class interests which limits its ability to be perceived as a potential policy solution for delivering wide public benefit, rather than a drain on resource. It concludes that creating a new perspective on heritage as a genuinely shared asset will be key to taking the next step for heritage on the public policy journey.

Социальная идентичность и ценностные ориентации у приемных родителей с разным количеством детей

The article is devoted to the study of social identity and value orientation characteristics of professional adoptive parents. The results of the empirical study have demonstrated a positive correlation between the number of orphans adopted into a family, the structure of a positive social identity and value orientations of adoptive parents. The study has established that with an increase in the number of children in a family there is a tendency towards social marginality, lowered structuredness and coherence of adoptive parents’ social identity, difficulties in identifying benchmark social groups. It has been shown that in their identification process the adoptive parents with many adopted children are more likely to choose a group based on the criteria related to their profession and to a lesser extent opt for their immediate social network groups. The study has established that the hierarchy of values of adoptive parents with many adopted children significantly differs from the values profile of adoptive parents with one or two adopted children.

Si quiere que su jefe lo aprecie... Sonriale!

El bienestar parece tener numerosos efectos positivos. Establecemos aquí la hipótesis de que la manifestación del bienestar percibido en la vida de todos los días, dentro del ámbito laboral, responde a los principales criterios que definen una norma social, pudiendo atribuírsele entonces un estatus normativo. Una norma se caracteriza esencialmente: 1) por ser socialmente valorizada y 2) porque los individuos evaluados son conscientes de tal valorización. Cuatro grupos de empleados han respondido a un cuestionario de bienestar. Cada grupo fue confrontado a uno de los paradigmas habitualmente utilizados para demostrar esta valorización y toma de conciencia. Los participantes del primer grupo (30 cuadros jerárquicos) fueron confrontados al paradigma del legislador, debiendo indicar si apreciaban (o no) que un empleado adoptara los comportamientos propuestos por el cuestionario; los empleados sin responsabilidad jerárquica (3 grupos de 30 participantes) fueron confrontados al paradigma de la auto-presentación bajo consigna: 1) neutra (grupo 1), debiendo indicar con total sinceridad si ellos estaban acostumbrados (o no) a adoptar los comportamientos descriptos; 2) sobre-normativa (grupo 2), respondiendo de manera de ser, según ellos, apreciados por su superior; y contra-normativa, esto es, respondiendo de manera de ser mal vistos por su superior. Nuestra hipótesis ha resultado validada: los cuadros jerárquicos esperan de sus subordinados que manifiesten bienestar y los empleados son conscientes de esta expectativa, manifestando su bienestar tanto espontáneamente como para dar una buena imagen.

Learning from History to Increase Positive Public Reception and Social Value Alignment of Evidence-Based Science Communication.

For effective science communication, three general objectives should be taken into consideration: 1) accurate conveyance of the scientific evidence; 2) warm public reception of the communicator; and 3) alignment of the information with social values. An examination of both successful and failed science communication efforts over the course of history can reveal strategies to better meet these objectives. This article looks back at influential moments of science communication over the past two millennia in the context of the objectives and, using lessons learned from these events as a guide, introduces a five-element approach to improve the potential for attaining the objectives.

A negociação de imagens identitárias em depoimentos judiciais e no debate eleitoral

Este trabalho procura evidenciar que a negociação de faces é um processo inerente à linguagem. Nesse sentido, a noção de face, tal como proposta por Goffman, assume importância central. Definida como um valor social positivo que o sujeito reivindica para si, essa noção é fundamental para os estudos da linguagem, por afetar todos os planos de organização do discurso. Em outros termos, todos os recursos linguísticos podem funcionar como estratégias por meio das quais os interlocutores negociam faces, preservando a própria imagem ou reparando-a de ataques sofridos e preservando ou atacando a imagem do outro. É a partir dessa noção de face que propomos o estudo de dois gêneros – o depoimento e o debate eleitoral. Especificamente, estudaremos o debate eleitoral que ocorreu em 2012 entre os então candidatos à prefeitura de São Paulo, Fernando Haddad e José Serra, e dois depoimentos relacionados a uma denúncia de uma vítima contra seu ex-companheiro, depoimentos registrados nas Delegacias Especializadas no Atendimento às Mulheres. Os estudos de ambos os gêneros revelam que, em situações de comunicação caracterizadas por um grau de tensão elevado, a linguagem está longe de ser um mero instrumento de comunicação. Muito mais do que isso, a linguagem é a dimensão que permite aos interlocutores – seja uma vítima de agressão, seja um candidato a um cargo político – construírem as imagens mais adequadas aos seus propósitos comunicativos.

Rituais de interação na vida cotidiana: Goffman, leitor de Durkheim

DOI DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/2175-7984.2016v15n34p137Este artigo propõe uma exegese da filiação de Goffman à sociologia durkheimiana, relacionando duas obras: Ritual de Interação e As Formas elementares da vida religiosa. Ele acentua dois aspectos que estimamos presentes nos dois autores: os ritos e a sacralidade do indivíduo e a dimensão moral da vida em sociedade. Para Goffman, os ritos de interação são ocasiões de afirmar a ordem moral e social. Num encontro face a face, cada ator social busca fornecer dele uma imagem valorizada, a “face” ou “valor social positivo que uma pessoa reivindica efetivamente através da linha de ação que os outros supõem que ela adotou no curso do contato particular”. Em Ritual de Interação, Goffman critica sociólogos e antropólogos sociais que, tomando por objeto a significação simbólica da sociedade moderna a partir de Durkheim, não levaram em conta a noção de alma, presente nas Formas elementares da vida religiosa. Após identificar as influências intelectuais e científicas na formação do habitus e do métier sociológico de Goffman, o texto propõe-sea analisar noções como regras, alma, ritos, deferência e o porte, necessários para a compreensão da trama social na ordem da interação. Conclui-se expondo um quadro comparativo dos ritos tais como descritos por Goffman, decalcados a partir da tipologia durkheimiana. Espera-se que a leitura de Goffman à luz de Durkheim seja uma via de acesso à sociologia do primeiro, e uma forma de atualizar as contribuições do segundo na leitura da trama social da vida cotidiana.

The benefits of investing into improved carbon flux monitoring

Operationalizing a Global Carbon Observing and Analysis System (www.geocarbon.net) would provide a sound basis for monitoring actual carbon fluxes and thus getting quantities right when pricing carbon – be it in a cap-and-trade scheme or under a tax regime. However, such monitoring systems are expensive and—especially in times of economic weakness—budgets for science and environmental policy are under particular scrutiny. In this study, we attempt to demonstrate the magnitude of benefits of improved information about actual carbon fluxes. Such information enables better-informed policy-making and thus paves the way for a more secure investment environment when decarbonizing the energy sector. The numerical results provide a robust indication of a positive social value of improving carbon monitoring systems when compared to their cost, especially for the more ambitious climate policies.

Moroccan Female Rural Studentss Attitudes Towards Learning English

Investigating female rural students’ attitudes towards learning English is a substantial need to identify EFL learners’ perception of English and provide language teachers and textbook designers with research evidence. For this reason, numerous studies have been conducted to determine the correlation between learners’ background and their language learning attitudes. However, very few research studies have targeted female rural students’ language attitude to determine whether there is a correlation between their socio-economic background and language attitude. Therefore, this study was conducted on a sample of 90 female rural students of two high schools located in two small Moroccan villages to identify whether they held a positive or negative attitude towards learning English and to specify the variables that shaped their attitudes. Participants were randomly selected and filled in a five likert scale questionnaire. The significant findings of the study include the participants’ preference to study English rather than other foreign languages at high school; they displayed high motivation and frequent classroom participation in the English class, strong desire to improve their English communicative competence, negative attitude towards the culture used in the English textbook, and positive social value to a person who speaks English. Thus, this study concluded that there was no correlation between female rural students’ socio-economic background and their positive attitude to study English.

How to Motivate Fundamental Innovation: Subsidies versus Prizes and the Role of Venture Capital

In this paper, we analyze the mechanisms through which governments and non-profit agencies (principals) may incentivize the development of fundamental innovations, defined as those innovations that have positive social value net of development costs, but have negative net present values to the innovating firms due to the limited appropriability of their value by such firms. We solve for the principal’s optimal choice between subsidy schemes and incentivizing prizes under two alternative assumptions: first, where the producing firms’ innovation development costs are observable by the principal; and second, where such costs are unobservable. We then introduce venture capitalists (VCs) into the above setting and analyze how VCs may enhance the efficiency of the principal in motivating fundamental innovations. Our analysis has several implications for how to better incentivize innovation development, and in particular, for how government-funded venture capitalists may enhance innovation.

Estimating the future burden of cardiovascular disease and the value of lipid and blood pressure control therapies in China.

BackgroundLifestyle and dietary changes reflect an ongoing epidemiological transition in China, with cardiovascular disease (CVD) playing an ever-increasing role in China’s disease burden. This study assessed the burden of CVD and the potential value of lipid and blood pressure control strategies in China.MethodsWe estimated the likely burden of CVD between 2016 and 2030 and how expanded use of lipid lowering and blood pressure control medication would impact that burden in the next 15 years. Accounting for the costs of drug use, we assessed the net social value of a policy that expands the utilization of lipid and blood pressure lowering therapies in China.ResultsRises in prevalence of CVD risk and population aging would likely increase the incidence of acute myocardial infarctions (AMIs) by 75 million and strokes by 118 million, while the number of CVD deaths would rise by 39 million in total between 2016 and 2030. Universal treatment of hypertension and dyslipidemia patients with lipid and blood pressure lowering therapies could avert between 10 and 20 million AMIs, between 8 and 30 million strokes, and between 3 and 10 million CVD deaths during the 2016–2030 period, producing a positive social value net of health care costs as high as $932 billion.ConclusionsIn light of its aging population and epidemiological transition, China faces near-certain increases in CVD morbidity and mortality. Preventative measures such as effective lipid and blood pressure management may reduce CVD burden substantially and provide large social value. While the Chinese government is implementing more systematic approaches to health care delivery, prevention of CVD should be high on the agenda.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12913-016-1420-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Unconstitutional Criminalization

May criminalization constitute a violation of a constitutional right? This question has rarely been discussed directly in the legal literature. This Article offers a novel and fully developed normative framework for courts to review the constitutionality of substantive criminal law. It suggests a distinction between extra- and intra-constitutional approaches, offers a critique of existing approaches, and proposes a new intra-constitutional approach to the distinction between criminal offenses that may constitute an infringement upon constitutional rights and those that do not. The Article suggests that a constitutional right against criminalization may apply (and only apply) to activities that have substantive positive social value and do not impose any substantive social harm. The Article recommends some criteria for applying this framework.

Conformism and self-selection in social networks

I present a model of conformism in social networks that incorporates both peer effects and self-selection. I show that conformism has positive social value and that social welfare can be bounded by network polarization and connectivity measures. I apply the model to empirical data on high school students' participation in extracurricular activities. I find that the local effect of conformism (i.e. the endogenous peer effect for a fixed network structure) ranges from 7.5% to 45%, depending on the number of peers that an individual has. Simulations show that the optimal policies of an inequality-averse policymaker change depending on a school's enrollment. Small schools should encourage shy students to interact more with other students, while large schools should focus on promoting role models within the school.