scholarly journals Advancement of Green Public Purchasing by Category: Do Municipality Green Purchasing Policies Have Any Role in Japan?

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (21) ◽  
pp. 8979
Author(s):  
Takuro Miyamoto ◽  
Naonari Yajima ◽  
Takahiro Tsukahara ◽  
Toshi H. Arimura

The aim of this paper is to identify (1) the categories in which it is easier or more difficult for local municipalities to implement green purchasing and (2) the role and extent of green purchasing policy (GPP) in promoting green purchasing. To characterize the green purchasing potential of different categories, we examine the green purchasing rate, or the ratio of green products/services to total products/services purchased, of 21 categories of items. We employ data from a unique survey conducted by the Japanese Ministry of the Environment, which provides data on green procurement in municipalities. We observe that air conditioners suffer from low green purchasing rates, whereas most municipalities purchase green products in the paper products and stationery categories. We also examine the relationship between green purchasing rates and GPPs to identify the role and extent of GPPs. Our regression analyses reveal that the presence of a GPP is associated with higher implementation and measurement rates of green purchasing. This pattern is particularly evident for the categories in which many municipalities without GPPs purchase green products but, in most cases, do not measure their green purchasing rate.

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ying Sun ◽  
Tieshan Li ◽  
Shanyong Wang

PurposeThis research aims to conduct a comprehensive conceptual model and empirical validation of the integration of negative (ego-centric) and positive (altruistic and ego-centric) drivers of green buying based on social dilemma theory and psychological egoism theory.Design/methodology/approachData were collected using a self-administered questionnaire survey and analyzed with hierarchical regression analysis.FindingsThe results indicate that moral obligations, green self-identity, environmental concern and social pressure are positively related to green purchase intention, while perceived cost of green purchasing and price sensitivity are negatively. Meanwhile, social pressure positively moderates the relationship between price sensitivity and consumers' green purchasing intention, but negatively moderates the relationship between perceived cost of green purchasing and consumers' green purchasing intention.Originality/valueFirst, this study is a comprehensive model of the concept and empirical validation of the integration of negative (ego-centric) and positive (altruistic and ego-centric) drivers of green buying. Specially, this study emphasizes the neglected importance of positive ego-centric factors of green consumer behavior. Second, this study explicitly incorporated the moderating effect of social pressure in the context of China. Since green buying is a social dilemma, the changes in this social dilemma after being affected by social pressure under the Chinese collectivist culture are also worth noting. Third, little is known about what motivates green consumption in emerging economies, and this has been hampered by a lack of cultural knowledge, conceptual richness and behavioral research that critically analyses consumer behavior.


2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (7) ◽  
pp. 2281-2292
Author(s):  
Ying Zhao ◽  
Xinchun Wu ◽  
Hongjun Chen ◽  
Peng Sun ◽  
Ruibo Xie ◽  
...  

Purpose This exploratory study aimed to investigate the potential impact of sentence-level comprehension and sentence-level fluency on passage comprehension of deaf students in elementary school. Method A total of 159 deaf students, 65 students ( M age = 13.46 years) in Grades 3 and 4 and 94 students ( M age = 14.95 years) in Grades 5 and 6, were assessed for nonverbal intelligence, vocabulary knowledge, sentence-level comprehension, sentence-level fluency, and passage comprehension. Group differences were examined using t tests, whereas the predictive and mediating mechanisms were examined using regression modeling. Results The regression analyses showed that the effect of sentence-level comprehension on passage comprehension was not significant, whereas sentence-level fluency was an independent predictor in Grades 3–4. Sentence-level comprehension and fluency contributed significant variance to passage comprehension in Grades 5–6. Sentence-level fluency fully mediated the influence of sentence-level comprehension on passage comprehension in Grades 3–4, playing a partial mediating role in Grades 5–6. Conclusions The relative contributions of sentence-level comprehension and fluency to deaf students' passage comprehension varied, and sentence-level fluency mediated the relationship between sentence-level comprehension and passage comprehension.


2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anja Wertag ◽  
Denis Bratko

Abstract. Prosocial behavior is intended to benefit others rather than oneself and is positively linked to personality traits such as Agreeableness and Honesty-Humility, and usually negatively to the Dark Triad traits (i.e., Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy). However, a significant proportion of the research in this area is conducted solely on self-report measures of prosocial behavior. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between prosociality and the basic (i.e., HEXACO) and dark personality traits, comparing their contribution in predicting both self-reported prosociality and prosocial behavior. Results of the hierarchical regression analyses showed that the Dark Triad traits explain prosociality and prosocial behavior above and beyond the HEXACO traits, emphasizing the importance of the Dark Triad in the personality space.


2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Olayemi Bakre ◽  
Nirmala Dorasamy

Poor service delivery has always been considered a legacy of the apartheid era. However, 25 years into democracy, many local municipalities are still battling with service delivery backlogs. These backlogs are often attributed to, for example, dysfunctional ward committees, corruption amongst councillors, exclusion of community members in the planning process, failure to prioritise community needs, and institutional capacity issues. These challenges have undermined municipalities’ provision of quality service delivery and have precipitated service delivery protests. This article argues that community participation, which has been identified as a factor that can mitigate the aforementioned challenges, can be pivotal in the provision of effective and efficient services by municipalities. The relationship between community inclusion and service delivery outcomes is not simplistic, but depend upon a combination of proactive and highly skilled leaders and a cooperative and supportive populace. In this article, we identify the modes for successful participation and also the consequences of community exclusion through textual analysis of pertinent sources. We argue that such participation can only be successful and sustainable if it is reinforced by support from local government in the form of community training and capacity development workshops to exchange and instil new ideas as well as by resource allocation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (5) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Hongwu Xiao ◽  
Donghan Wang ◽  
Xiaohan Liu ◽  
Yi Liu

We applied role theory to test a theoretical model that explained how and why an implicit prototype match influences employees' proactive behavior in interpersonal contexts. After analyzing the reliability and validity of the variables, we used correlation and regression analyses to test our hypotheses with 342 participants from enterprises in China. The results show that (a) a stronger implicit prototype match increased employees' proactive behavior, (b) leader–member exchange mediated the relationship between implicit prototype match and proactive behavior, and (c) leader–member liking (employee's liking for leader and vice versa) moderated the relationship between implicit prototype match and leader–member exchange. Our findings provide theoretical support for implicit prototype theory from the implicit match perspective and have managerial implications for organizations seeking to improve employees' proactive behavior.


2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (14) ◽  
pp. 1696-1716 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ida Frugaard Stroem ◽  
Helene Flood Aakvaag ◽  
Tore Wentzel-Larsen

This study investigates the relationship between the characteristics of different types of childhood violence and adult victimization using two waves of data from a community telephone survey (T1) and a follow-up survey, including 505 cases and 506 controls, aged 17-35 years (T2). The logistic regression analyses showed that exposure to childhood abuse, regardless of type, was associated with adult victimization. Exposure to multiple types of abuse, victimization both in childhood and in young adulthood, and recency of abuse increased these odds. Our findings emphasize the importance of assessing multiple forms of violence when studying revictimization. Practitioners working with children and young adults should be attentive to the number of victimization types experienced and recent victimization to prevent further abuse.


SAGE Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 215824402110030
Author(s):  
Kai Kaspar ◽  
Lisa Anna Marie Fuchs

Stimulated by the uses-and-gratification approach, this study examined the joint relation of several consumer characteristics to news interest. In total, 1,546 German-speaking participants rated their interest in 15 major news categories and several personal characteristics, including gender, age, the Big Five personality traits, self-esteem, as well as general positive and negative affect. Regression analyses examined the amount of interindividual variance in news interest that can be explained by this set of consumer characteristics. Overall, the amount of explained variance differed remarkably across news categories, ranging from 4% for entertainment-related news to 25% for news about technology. The most powerful explaining variables were participants’ gender, age, openness to experiences, and their amount of general positive affect. The results suggest that news interest should be defined and operationalized as a concept with multiple facets covering a huge range of content. Also, the results are important for media producers and journalists with respect to the conflict between increased need gratification of consumers and information filtering via personalized news content.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 619-619
Author(s):  
Yeji Hwang ◽  
Nancy Hodgson

Abstract Anxiety and depression are one of the most distressing symptoms for the family caregivers. Little is known about the relationship between sleep impairments and anxiety/depression in this population and how objective and subjective sleep measures differ in relation to anxiety. This study was designed to examine the relationship between sleep impairments and anxiety/depression in people with dementia, using both subjective and objective sleep measures. Among the 170 study participants, 50% (n=85) reported to have anxiety/depression. In univariate logistic regression analyses on anxiety/depression, adjusting for dementia stage, people with more subjective sleep impairment had higher odds of having anxiety/depression (OR=1.111; 95% CI: 1.020-1.211, p=0.016) and people with poorer subjective sleep quality had higher odds of having anxiety/depression (OR=1.702; 95% CI: 1.046-2.769, p=0.032). Objective sleep measures from actigraphy did not show any significant relationships to anxiety/depression. The results suggest that subjective sleep measures are closely related to anxiety/depression in this population.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 163
Author(s):  
Giusi Antonia Toto ◽  
Pierpaolo Limone

In the relationship between teachers and distance learning in the context of COIVD-19, a series of unprecedented dynamics have emerged relating to a process of open-air experimentation that is going on in the world of school. The main constructs investigated in this paper concern the professional perceptions of teachers in terms of their skills and resistances towards digital technologies. To investigate this topic, a questionnaire on distance learning was administered to a sample of 658 teachers. From a methodological point of view, factor and reliability analyses and correlation and regression analyses were conducted. From the analysis of the results, it emerged that the questionnaire measures the resistance of teachers to distance learning and focuses on three main dimensions (two positive and one negative) that link teachers’ perceptions to the resistance to distance learning. In conclusion, the theme of the acceptance of technologies in the practice of teachers is still a subject full of meaning for professional perception and vision. A second issue concerns precisely the relationship between digital technologies and users, which must no longer focus only on the relationship with students but also on the perspective of the other training actors, including teachers.


SLEEP ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 44 (Supplement_2) ◽  
pp. A305-A306
Author(s):  
Jesse Moore ◽  
Ellita Williams ◽  
Collin Popp ◽  
Anthony Briggs ◽  
Judite Blanc ◽  
...  

Abstract Introduction Literature shows that exercise moderates the relationship between sleep and emotional distress (ED.) However, it is unclear whether different types of exercise, such as aerobic and strengthening, affect this relationship differently. We investigated the moderating role of two types of exercise (aerobic and strengthening) regarding the relationship between ED and sleep. Methods Our analysis was based on data from 2018 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), a nationally representative study in which 2,814 participants provided all data. Participants were asked 1) “how many days they woke up feeling rested over the past week”, 2) the Kessler 6 scale to determine ED (a score >13 indicates ED), and 3) the average frequency of strengthening or aerobic exercise per week. Logistic regression analyses were performed to determine if the reported days of waking up rested predicted level of ED. We then investigated whether strengthening or aerobic exercise differentially moderated this relationship. Covariates such as age and sex were adjusted in the logistic regression models. Logistic regression analyses were performed to determine if subjective reporting of restful sleep predicted level of ED. We investigated whether strengthening exercise or aerobic exercise differentially moderated this relationship. Covariates such as age and sex were adjusted in the logistic regression models. Results On average, participants reported 4.41 restful nights of sleep (SD =2.41), 3.43 strengthening activities (SD = 3.19,) and 8.47 aerobic activities a week (SD=5.91.) We found a significant association between days over the past week reporting waking up feeling rested and ED outcome according to K6, Χ2(1) = -741, p= <.001. The odds ratio signified a decrease of 52% in ED scores for each unit of restful sleep (OR = .48, (95% CI = .33, .65) p=<.001.) In the logistic regression model with moderation, aerobic exercise had a significant moderation effect, Χ2(1) = .03, p=.04, but strengthening exercise did not. Conclusion We found that restful sleep predicted reduction in ED scores. Aerobic exercise moderated this relationship, while strengthening exercise did not. Further research should investigate the longitudinal effects of exercise type on the relationship between restful sleep and ED. Support (if any) NIH (K07AG052685, R01MD007716, K01HL135452, R01HL152453)


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