Public Policy Officials Research Articles

Reaching Parents to Prevent Adolescent Risky Behavior: Examining the Effects of Threat Portrayal and Parenting Orientation on Parental Participation Perceptions

With more than two million teens affected, adolescents are the most at-risk group for unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. Parents, who teens cite as their most influential resource for making decisions about premarital sex, receive little consideration from federal initiatives. However, promoting more active parenting to parents to reduce risky behavior among teenagers seems to be an appropriate strategy. This study examines parents’ reactions to advertisements that promote abstinence education programs. The results indicate that “warm” parents (i.e., those who indicate concern about children's interactions with the marketplace) are more likely to intend to communicate with their children about sex and have a more favorable attitude toward the ad when the advertisement is clear about the consequences of teens engaging in sex. The findings have implications for how public policy officials and agencies can influence parents as key socialization agents in efforts to prevent adolescents from engaging in risky sexual behavior.

A double‐edged sword: understanding vanity across cultures

PurposeBased on their size, disposable income, and purchasing power, generation Y (Gen Y) consumers are viewed as the Holy Grail for marketers. Conversely, some of this group's behavior disturbs public policy officials, particularly when dealing with issues such as poor financial planning, bulimia and anorexia nervosa. The key question for both marketers and policy makers is what is the best way to understand the Gen Y segment? The vanity concept is used in this study as a way to understand the Gen Y consumer segment. The purpose of this paper is to examine vanity perceptions (cross‐nationally and by gender) as well as social and business implications with vanity.Design/methodology/approachKey research expectations are proposed that are related to cross‐cultural and gender differences on vanity perceptions. A sample of approximately 125 Gen Y consumers in two eastern and two western cultures was used to find support for the research expectations. Statistical results are reported.FindingsThe results clearly show that both gender and country have an impact on vanity perceptions. Concern for both physical appearance and professional achievement are higher in eastern cultures as compared to western cultures. Both males and females are highly concerned about physical appearance and professional achievements. However, self‐assessment of physical appearance and professional achievement are significantly lower among females as compared to males.Research limitations/implicationsIn future studies it would be interesting to study differences among other countries and consumer groups.Practical implicationsThe results of this study provide evidence to marketers that vanity appeals can resonate well with Gen Y especially those in China and India. For consumer protection advocates, results offer insights about the extent to which importance of vanity is likely to increase, especially in countries that embrace globalization.Originality/valueSo far, no study has applied the vanity scale to understand the Gen Y segment, despite the financial power of this group in purchasing both desirable and undesirable products; nor has any study examined whether vanity perceptions vary cross‐nationally, especially between economically developed western cultures and developing economies with large populations representing eastern cultures.

Peering in From Corporate Political Activity

This article responds to Professor Barley's address in which he said that corporations have inordinate power relative to other groups in society because of their superior resources and relationships with political actors. The article provides data on lobbying and political campaign contributions to show that corporations are dominant in resources, although nonbusiness interest groups actively use the same political activities. Also reviewed are prior studies showing that large corporations share intimate social networks with high-ranking public policy officials, leading to many benefits, including political power. The article provides conjecture that six conditions exist often enough to check the absolute dominance of corporate interests in public policy outcomes. The article indicates that contemporary organizational researchers have largely focused on the private benefits of corporate political activities and in turn have neglected to study the public economic, social, and political effects of such activities.

Understanding Customer Switching Behavior in a Liberalizing Service Market

In recent decades, many service markets have been liberalized, which means incumbent service firms face new competitors and must address customer switching—which from a public policy perspective, is necessary to ensure that liberalization succeeds. In this article, the authors conduct an exploratory study in which they investigate determinants of customer switching in the liberalizing Dutch energy market. Their results suggest that relationship quality, switching costs, and current demand for products and services from the energy supplier (e.g., usage rate, number of contracts) represent important determinants for all customers. In a subsequent analysis that accounts for customer heterogeneity, the results indicate a large inertia segment (71%) but a relatively small (6%) disloyal segment. The authors discuss implications for both incumbent service firms (former monopolists) and public policy officials.

“I Need to Talk About It”: A Qualitative Analysis of Trauma-Exposed Women’s Reasons for Treatment Choice

A significant proportion of individuals suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder do not seek or receive effective treatment. Understanding the reasons why an individual chooses to seek treatment or prefers one treatment to another is a critical step to improve treatment seeking. To begin to understand these reasons, we conducted a qualitative analysis of the reasons women gave for choosing a cognitive-behavioral treatment, prolonged exposure (PE), or a pharmacological treatment, sertraline (SER). A community sample of women with trauma histories were asked to view standardized rationales, to choose among PE, SER, or no treatment, and to give 5 reasons for their choice. Women indicated that they were more likely to prefer the psychotherapy to the medication. Across reasons given, the most commonly cited reason for treatment preference highlighted why or how the treatment worked (e.g., I need to talk about it); and this reason emerged as the strongest predictor of preference for PE. Understanding this role of perceived treatment mechanism may aid clinicians and public health policy officials to identify and address help-seeking barriers regarding treatment.

The Morning After

A major terrorism event has several important consequences for officials involved in the investigation and prosecution of terrorist activities. Such events are likely to bring increased scrutiny by both public policy officials and the media. The article uses data from the American Terrorism Study to compare the period before and after two of the most dramatic terrorist events on U.S. soil: the Oklahoma City bombing and the 9/11 attacks. The results suggest that whether intentional or not, major terrorism events result in the government's pursuing cases that are generally less serious and less complicated, and those cases are treated much more like “traditional” crimes by the prosecution. Following the aftermath of a major event, terrorist defendants are more likely to behave like traditional offenders and are less likely to be convicted as a result of a trial than are terrorists who are indicted before major events.

Can “Low-Fat” Nutrition Labels Lead to Obesity?

In this era of increasing obesity and increasing threats of legislation and regulation of food marketing practices, regulatory agencies have pointedly asked how “low-fat” nutrition claims may influence food consumption. The authors develop and test a framework that contends that low-fat nutrition labels increase food intake by (1) increasing perceptions of the appropriate serving size and (2) decreasing consumption guilt. Three studies show that low-fat labels lead all consumers—particularly those who are overweight—to overeat snack foods. Furthermore, salient objective serving-size information (e.g., “Contains 2 Servings”) reduces overeating among guilt-prone, normal-weight consumers but not among overweight consumers. With consumer welfare and corporate profitability in mind, the authors suggest win-win packaging and labeling insights for public policy officials and food marketers.

Quality of College Life (QCL) of Students: Developing and Validating a Measure of Well-Being

This paper reports a study designed to develop and validate a measure of quality of college life (QCL) of students. Using a theoretical model based on a build-up approach to QCL, the authors provide an empirical examination of various hierarchical components and their properties. The method is executed in two stages. The first stage is used to clarify the particular elements for inclusion in the model. The second phase uses a sample of students drawn for the campuses of three major universities in the United States. These samples were used to test several hypotheses regarding the model and its components. The results generally provide support. Finally, the discussion centers on the value of the model in application by both university officials and public policy officials in the at-large community.

Technology Clusters versus Industry Clusters: Resources, Networks, and Regional Advantages

ABSTRACT The tendency of firms to cluster within a region has been observed for quite some time. However, it is only over the past two decades that business researchers have focused much attention on clusters, particularly in terms of their entrepreneurial and innovative characteristics and potential. At the same time, regional developers around the world have put much effort in promoting the formation of clusters. A gap in such efforts is an understanding of the differences among types of clusters. This article draws a distinction between two generic types of clusters: technology‐based and industry‐focused. Using the resource‐based view as the organizing framework, we argue that the two generic cluster types create very different regional resource profiles over time, accumulating resources in a different manner, cultivating different capabilities, and deriving different sources of regional advantage. As concluded in the study, these differences are likely to have implications for firms located in the regions as well as for economic developers and public policy officials charged with developing cluster strategies.

Health Halos: How Nutrition Claims Influence Food Consumption for Overweight and Normal Weight People

How do the nutrition claims on packaged goods influence how much a person eats? In an era of increasing obesity and increasing threats of legislation, regulation, and boycotts, this question is a concern both to responsible packaged goods companies and to regulatory agencies. To address this question, we develop and test a framework that shows how relative nutrition claims (such as “low-fat”) can increase food intake by increasing perceptions of appropriate serving size and decreasing anticipation of consumption guilt. Three studies show that relative nutrition claims can lead all consumers to overeat, but this becomes more exaggerated for overweight consumers than those with a normal weight. Further results show that providing objective serving size information eliminates the overeating that is encouraged by low-fat nutrition labels, but only among normal weight consumers. With consumer welfare and corporate profitability in mind, win-win labeling insights are suggested for manufacturers and public policy officials.

Complaints Lead Drug Firms To Modify Ad Guidelines

Complaints Lead Drug Firms To Modify Ad Guidelines

De-Marketing Obesity

Although catering to our biological interests, food companies have been recently accused of contributing to the growing problem of obesity. As a result, managers are torn between trying to satisfy consumers and trying to satisfy concerned public policy officials who bring threats of taxes, fines, restrictions, and legislation. Although the situation appears perplexing, there are profitable win-win solutions. This article describes two hard-wired principles that influence food acquisition and consumption, and it identifies four reversible drivers of food consumption that marketers could use to help consumers better control what and how much they eat.

De-Marketing Obesity

Although catering to our biological interests, food companies have recently been accused of also contributing to the growing problem of obesity. Marketers are in a sensitive position because they are torn between trying to satisfy consumers and trying to satisfy concerned public policy officials who bring threats of taxes, fines, restrictions, and legislation. Although the situation appears perplexing, there are reasonable "win-win" solutions. After examining three inarguable consumer demands that led us to this problem, this chapter outlines the five main drivers of food consumption. In turn, each driver is examined in terms of what marketers and motivated companies can do to reasonably counter it. When it comes to contributing most to the quality of life in the next couple generations, smart, well-intentioned marketers may be best suited to effectively help lead the movement. Obesity is a good place to start.

Tobacco outlet density and smoking prevalence: Does racial concentration matter?

The abuse of tobacco products is cause for international concern. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that tobacco use is the fourth most common risk factor for disease worldwide and the second leading cause of death in the world. Although the dangers of smoking have been well publicized in many industrial countries, current smoking patterns suggest that by the year 2025 smoking-related disease will account for approximately ten million deaths each year. The United States is one such industrial country where the detrimental effects of tobacco use have created a public health crisis, claiming the lives of over 440,000 Americans on an annual basis. Of particular concern is the growing epidemic of diseases caused by tobacco use among African Americans. But an important question eluding public policy officials is whether tobacco companies are increasing their presence in disadvantaged, racially diverse communities to increase sales of their product. Addressing this concern, this study is among the first to examine the effect of race on the geographic association between tobacco outlet density and cigarette smoking prevalence. End-of-year 2002 data were derived from licenses of 4745 tobacco-selling retail outlets operating in the State of Iowa, which is located in the midwestern part of the USA. The 2000 US census and the 2002 Iowa Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System were used to inform race and smoking prevalence variables. Results of hierarchical regression analysis indicated that the relationship between tobacco outlet density and smoking prevalence was greater in Iowa counties with a higher percentage of African Americans. Implications for tobacco-control policies and directions for future research are discussed.

Corporate Environmentalism: Antecedents and Influence of Industry Type

How does a business firm manage its relationship with the natural environment? What are the factors that influence the choice of such strategies? Does industry type matter? The authors introduce and operationalize the concept of corporate environmentalism in an effort to answer these questions. Using stakeholder theory, the authors identify four important antecedents to corporate environmentalism, namely, public concern, regulatory forces, competitive advantage, and top management commitment. The authors then use a political–economic framework to develop testable hypotheses. To test the hypotheses, the authors perform multigroup path analysis on data gathered from more than 240 firms. They find that corporate environmentalism is related to all hypothesized antecedents and that industry type moderates several of those relationships. In the high environmental impact sector, public concern has the greatest impact on corporate environmentalism, followed by regulatory forces. In the moderate environmental impact sector, competitive advantage has the greatest impact on corporate environmentalism, followed by regulatory forces. There are strong direct and mediating influences from top management commitment, which is the antecedent with the greatest impact on both industry groups. The influences of regulatory forces, public concern, and competitive advantage are all significantly mediated by top management commitment and moderated by industry type. The empirical findings and the ensuing discussion will be of interest to managers and public policy officials.

Research Workshop and Conference on Marketing, Competitive Conduct, and Antitrust Policy

GREGORY T. GUNDLACH is John W. Berry Sr. Professor of Business, Mendoza College of Business, University of Notre Dame, and Senior Research Fellow, American Antitrust Institute. The author is grateful to colleague William L. Wilkie for his valuable assistance in preparing the special section for JPP&M. This past spring, in collaboration with the American Antitrust Institute and its Business School Project and as one of the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing’s developmental initiatives, the University of Notre Dame held the Research Workshop and Conference on Marketing, Competitive Conduct, and Antitrust Policy. The objectives of the two-day program were first to provide a forum for dialogue between members of the marketing and antitrust disciplines and, second, to facilitate further integration of marketing thought into the practice of antitrust. The underlying premise was that fostering greater understanding of antitrust by marketing scholars would aid in advancing antitrust as a field of public policy. The program brought together interested members of marketing’s academic community, top antitrust scholars, and respected public policy officials and practitioners. A broad spectrum of research interests was represented, including those who study marketing strategy, competitive response/decision making, interfirm and marketing channel relationships, retailing, consumer behavior, and other topics related to competition. Various research methodologies were also represented, including mathematical modeling, survey research, experimentation, and interpretivist methods. The workshop portion of the program included presentations by leading antitrust scholars, marketing academics, policymakers, and practitioners. This concluded with an interactive brainstorming session that identified important research topics intersecting the fields of marketing and antitrust. The conference portion of the program then included invited presentations on marketing and antitrustrelated topics. Selected papers from both the workshop and conference portions of the program are assembled in this special section of the Journal through the invitation of editor, Joel Cohen, who also attended and spoke at the event. As a basis for archiving these contributions and making them readily accessible to a wider audience, authors were asked to create shorter “overview” articles. The result is a cogent collection of modern perspectives on the prospective role of marketing knowledge in antitrust policy. Antitrust Developments and the Opportunity for Marketing

Close Encounters of Two Kinds: False Alarms and Dashed Hopes

People are frequently exposed to potentially attractive events that are subsequently and unexpectedly reversed and to potentially painful events, which are also unexpectedly reversed. In the process of being returned to the initial asset position, does the sequence in which the positive and negative events occur matter? This issue of the combined effect of pleasurable and painful stimuli has received scant theoretical or empirical attention. We attempt to fill this lacuna in the literature by studying the retrospective evaluation of surprises that return individuals to their original economic state. Although such surprises do not change an individual's original economic state, we argue that the individual's psychological state changes, and the final affective state is, among other things, a function of the sequence in which the events occur. From a theoretical standpoint, several perspectives can be brought to bear on the issue. For instance, one reading of mental accounting, based on prospect theory's value function, would predict that losses should dominate gains, and therefore, regardless of sequence, people should be unhappy when exposed to two economically equivalent outcomes of different signs. Conversely, the literature on intertemporal choice would suggest that a series that ends on an up note is preferred to a series that ends on a down note, because people like to defer gratification so that they may savor positive outcomes. Similarly, people apparently have a preference for "happy endings." Finally, the extant literature on "recency effects" would predict that the last event in a series should have a disproportionate influence on overall affect. Our model relies on a shift in the reference point to explain how a surprising reversal of an event will lead to a nonzero evaluation of the sequence. We suggest that people's reference points shift immediately but imperfectly after a stimulus is presented. Intuitively, this implies that the first stimulus will shift the reference point in its direction, as a result of which the evaluation of a sequence of events in which an initial event is unexpectedly reversed will be more favorable if the first event is a loss than if it is a gain. This model captures the unanticipated nature of the second event (i.e., the surprise element) by allowing the first event to move the reference point. Consequently, by the time the next event occurs the reference point has been updated, as a result of which the zero economic outcome of the sequence yields nonzero utility. We further posit that the magnitude of the reference point shift should be affected by the time elapsed between the two stimuli. Specifically, the reference point shifts gradually with time, until it is fully updated. Consequently, the final affective state of the sequence is also a function of the temporal distance between the two events. The main predictions of the model were empirically supported first in a survey using a mall-intercept sample. Subsequently, we conducted a study of student subjects involving a coin-tossing game in which real money was at stake and in which subjects in one condition experienced the second outcome after a two-day delay. Our results from this second study supported the model's prediction regarding the impact of the elapsed time between the events. The experimental tasks involved surprising reversals of initial outcomes, thus ensuring that "savoring/dread" types of explanations (which require that subjects anticipate the second event) could not be operating. Finally, in a series of three follow-up studies, we tested the claim that the magnitude of outcomes would have an impact on observed affect, and consistent with our theory and contrary to recency predictions, we observed similar results across different magnitudes. While theoretically interesting, we should also note that our research is of potential pragmatic significance. People's reactions to a series of events is of considerable interest to marketers desirous of generating enhanced attitude, affect, purchase intention, and the like without offering economic inducements such as rebates, coupons, or other costly discounts. Additionally, public policy officials may be interested in protecting people from being manipulated into purchasing a product simply because of changes in the sequence in which a series of offers is made by the merchant.

Government and the transformation of the gaming industry

The book is divided into three parts. The first part focuses on the historical and cultural forces that have shaped the new gaming industry. The second part of the book analyzes how each segment (pari–mutuel betting, lotteries and casinos) competes in the new industry. The political and social implications of gaming are the focus of the final part, which concludes with a series of recommendations that will enable the industry, public policy officials and anti–gambling activists to construct policies that mitigate some of the problems associated with gambling.

The Effects of International Trade on Economic Growth and Meeting Basic Human Needs

This research measures the influence of international marketing, in the form of exporting and importing on economic growth and meeting basic human needs. The conceptual model examines the effects of three categories of trade (agricultural products, raw materials, and manufacturing goods) on economic growth and meeting basic human needs. The analysis uses structural equation models with time-lagged independent variables, multiple indicators of the dependent variables, and newly-developed multivariate outlier analysis techniques. This study contributes to the marketing literature by empirically evaluating macro-level effects of international marketing, i.e., exporting and importing, and by testing the predictive validity of competing theories from sociology, economics, and marketing. The findings have practical implications for public policy officials, marketing managers, and future research.

The SAFE project: community-driven partnerships in health, mental health, and education to prevent early school failure.

This article presents a case study of an innovative school-based health and mental health project that prevents early school failure in one county in Oklahoma. Success is attributed to social work development of broad-based partnerships involving families, schools, communities, and public policy officials. Citizen-driven, these partnerships have meshed previously fixed institutional boundaries in health, mental health, and education to prevent early school failure. The article describes school-family partnerships that form the core of the project's service intervention model. Statistics on service activities and outcomes are presented, along with a discussion of lessons learned for implementation of the project.