Assessing the Labour Government’s new procurement approach through a Māori economic justice perspective

INTRODUCTION: Social procurement—the intentional generation of social value through an organisation’s procurement and commissioning processes—is being adopted globally and in Aotearoa New Zealand as progressive social policy. Some of the issues that lie behind calls for economic justice, such as economic opportunity, rights for vulnerable workers, and unemployment, may be addressed through social procurement. While Māori may also benefit from this, there are other factors that should be considered from a Te Tiriti perspective.METHOD: In this research brief, we outline the context behind the government’s current initiatives, drawing on policy and research literature as part of a scoping study aimed at developing a Te Tiriti approach to social procurement.CONCLUSION: We conclude by noting the opportunities for economic justice for Māori, but also some of the caveats drawn from international and Aotearoa New Zealand literature.

A scoping study of low-wage workers’ retirement in the U.S. after the Great Recession

Background Retirement comes with high risks for low-wage workers because of their cumulative disadvantages, and the Great Recession aggravated this population's working lives. However, there has been a lack of research about this vulnerable population's retirement. The purpose of this scoping study is to offer a comprehensive understanding of low-wage workers' retirement after the Great Recession. Methods Based on the rigorous method of scoping review by Arskey and O'Mally, the researcher systematically searched, selected, and synthesized literature. The articles were collected from eight databases and were published in January 2008 - February 2019. The search terms included terms related to retirement and low-wage. After systemically reviewing titles, abstracts, and full-texts from 5,268 articles, the final chart contains sample characteristics, definitions of low-wage workers, policy/programs, etc., from 23 peer-reviewed empirical studies. Results The results indicated that: 1) Most of the retirement studies covered middle-wage class workers, excluding low-wage workers because of their lack of retirement affordability; 2) There was no common definition of low-wage workers among scholars; 3) 11 studies assumed Social Security is the only retirement income for low-wage workers, and 12 studies investigated how to improve the workers' participation in other retirement programs; 4) Most studies were economic-centered; 5) Low-wage workers had different socioeconomic and labor market characteristics. Conclusion and Implications First, a consensus on the definition of low-wage is required to improve policies and programs associated with this population's retirement. Second, the life-course perspective approach from various disciplines is necessary to improve low-wage workers' retirement, considering diverse backgrounds.

The impact of emerging technology influences product placement effectiveness: a scoping study from interactive marketing perspective

PurposeInteractive marketing (IM) has influenced commercial communication, including product placement (PP), which has become an essential form of integrating brands within the mass media. Existing research on PP has exceeded traditional TV and movies, and there is a lack of reviews considering the advanced technological perspectives. This scoping study aims to investigate PP in the context of IM and explore relations between technology-related factors and the effects of placement.Design/methodology/approachThe scoping study follows a systematic approach with strictly defined inclusion and exclusion criteria, research questions and a search strategy to identify relevant studies and extract the data. A two-stage screening process on 713 publications resulted in 42 studies for the final examination.FindingsThe results complemented existing theory by identifying and synthesizing the essential technology-related factors and their (un)favorable impacts on PP effectiveness, where interactivity was examined the most frequently. The results also outlined the (un)explored concepts of PP according to media technology and related factors, and show a prevailing research interest in in-game advertising and cognitive responses. Accordingly, the study provides implications for marketers and directions for future research.Originality/valueThis review is the first to examine PP studies in the context of IM and technology-related factors influencing the effect of placement.

Decision-making in the midst of uncertainty: appraising expensive medicines in England

Decisions need to be made about which services or technologies should be prioritized for provision in the NHS in England .The analysis focuses specifically on the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), and on how they appraise expensive medicines. This analysis takes a sociological perspective on decision-making in relation to uncertainty and how uncertainties are managed, drawing on evidence from a scoping study and an ethnographic study. Uncertainties were central to these rationing decisions. Three types of layers of uncertainty -epistemic, procedural and interpersonal - were shown to be salient. Another form of uncertainty was associated with the complexity of the science and that included the level of technicality of the information provided. The analysis highlighted the salience of uncertainties associated with interpersonal relations and the relations between the committees and the drug industry, clinical and patient experts. A key element in these relationships was trust. Decision makers adopted a mixture of formal and informal, collective and individual strategies in making decisions and a need to exercise pragmatism within a more formal institutional framework. The paper concludes by considering more recent policy developments in relation to appraising expensive medicines.